So far Job had two rounds of sparing with his
three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. As their theme, they began by debating on the
nature of God in the first round. Then in the second round they discussed about
the destiny of wicked man. Up till now, Job’s three friends spoke only in
veiled terms by hinting about Job’s sin. Now in their third round of debates they
went straight for Job’s jugular. They blatantly and brutally charged him with
sin directly.
Just like the
previous two rounds Eliphaz spoke first. He insisted that God was not the cause
of Job’s suffering. He felt that man’s sin is not a loss to God, neither would man’s
righteousness be a gain to Him. Hence, he concluded that to search for the cause
of his suffering, man must trace it in himself. In verses 1-4, it seems unimaginable
to Eliphaz to think that God would punish a man when he is good. Therefore, the
suffering of Job must be surely because of his own sin. So, in verses 6-10, he then directly accused Job with being
inhumane, for being greedy and abused his power. He even accused him of
injustice and being oppressive toward the poor.
In verses 12-20,
the questions Eliphaz asked, accused Job of thinking that God was too far away
to take notice of what he had done. He felt that it was foolhardy of Job to think
that he could hide these sins from God. In verses 21-30, he then sanctimoniously
exhorted Job to be reconciled with God. He even insisted that God would bless
Job again if he would place his trust in God again. What we see here is like a good
sermon preached to the wrong audience. Eliphaz’s words were loaded with noble content
but applied to the wrong person and situation. He had a standard that even he
himself would be hard put to measure up. Therefore, let us live out the truth and
apply the principle to our life first, before we attempt to share it with
others.
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