What would you say to a fellow Christian afflicted with a very painful disease who had just lost his family and all his possessions in a great natural catastrophe like an earthquake or a flood? How would you reply if he said with great bitterness, “I wish I was dead?” Two things would be necessary: that you speak truth and show compassion. In his response to Job’s trouble, Eliphaz managed the first and failed in the second.
Eliphaz began by pointing out that Job had failed to take his own advice (4:3–5). He had often in the past advised and encouraged those in trouble, but now that trouble has come on him he has succumbed to discouragement and alarm.
He also urged Job to put his trust in the goodness of God to those who fear him and walk in integrity (4:6–11). It is not the righteous who perish, but those who plow iniquity. The lions (a figure for the wicked) perish for lack of prey and their young are scattered. It may seem at first that Eliphaz was accusing Job of sin, but he began the paragraph with a question that acknowledged his righteousness: “Is not your reverence (fear of God) your confidence?” He did not mean to say that the righteous never suffer, but rather that in their suffering they should have confidence that the Lord will deliver them. Only the wicked perish under the wrath of God.
The difficulties of interpreting Eliphaz’s speech begin with verse 12. The circumstances in which he received the revelation were certainly eery and unusual (4:12–16). The only somewhat comparable revelation was the calling of Samuel from the grave (1 Sam 28), but I think we must conclude that it was indeed a revelation from God. Eliphaz spoke truth in what follows.
The second and perhaps greater difficulty lies in understanding the point of the revelation. The ESV translates verse 17 as, “Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” The NASB is similar. However, the other translations are more accurate. The NKJV, for example, translates, “Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?” This is important because the point that Eliphaz is making from here on is that Job should seek his vindication and help from the Lord, not from men or angels. Men and angels cannot be expected to render righteous judgment, or to help Job with the great spiritual conflict that is going on in his soul.
The argument proceeds step by step.
In 4:17–21 Eliphaz compares men and angels. Men are much lesser beings than angels. They are mortal, live in houses of clay (their bodies), have their foundation (or origin) in the dust, and are so frail that they can be crused like a moth. Their excellence goes away and they die without wisdom. Though angels are greater beings, God put no trust in them and charged them with error. That’s probably a reference to the fall of Satan and those who followed him. So God is greater than angels in righteousness and power, and angels are greater than men. Men have some excellency and perhaps a little wisdom, but they do not last; they perish with him.
5:1–7 takes the next step. Job should expect no help from men or angels. “Call out now; Is there anyone who will answer you? And to chich of the holy ones (angels) will you turn?” Eliphaz was not saying that God would not help Job, though that’s how we may read it at first glance. He was telling Job, “Don’t look to men or even to angels for your help.” He even implies that Job’s friends also would be unable to help. Job must not seek vindication or deliverance from them.
Why? Because “wrath (provocation) kills a foolish man, and envy (jealousy) slays a simple one.” The man who dares to take God’s place is a fool, and God’s wrath and jealousy will be aroused against him. Such a fool may flourish for a little while, but even I (Eliphaz) can curse him and cause him harm. How much more God himself? “His sons are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate (the place of judgment), and there is no deliverer.” The hungry rob him of his crops, and if necessary will break through the thorn hedges around his fields to get to them. He’s not able to defend himself against disaster. Man is born to trouble as inevitably as the sparks fly upward. How much help can such a creature give? Do not cry out to men. Do not cry out to us.
Instead, seek God (5:8–16) and commit your cause to him. He, who does innumerable wonders and brings rain on the earth, is powerful enough to give you the help you need. Furthermore, he sets the lowly on high and lifts the mourning to safety (v.11), saves the needy and gives hope to the poor (vv. 15–16). He also catches the wise in their own craftiness so that they grope in darkness at noon time (vv. 12–14).
Eliphaz was telling Job, “Take your complaint to God. If you are indeed righteous, he will deliver you.”
The final piece of advice that Eliphaz gave (5:17–26) was, “Do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.” There is blessing in that chastening. God bruises, but he also binds up. He wounds, but his hands also make whole. That’s a profound truth. If you humble yourself under his heavy hand, he will deliver you from every trouble.
That is all good theology and good advice. Any sufferer would do well to take it to heart. So what’s the problem?
The problem is that, though Eliphaz did not accuse Job of sin or even imply that he had sinned, he showed no compassion for him in the understandable extremity of his grief and despair. He did not weep with one who wept. When he said, “Who ever perished being innocent (4:7)?” Job might well have asked, “Does he think that I, on the verge of perishing, am not innocent?” His examples of things that happen to the fool (5:3–6) touch too closely on Job’s own circumstances; Job’s children had been crushed and his crops and herds stolen. Again, Job might well ask, “Does he think that I am a fool? Is he telling me that I am under the judgment of God?” The words of verse 21, “You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue” look to us ironic in light of the scourgings that Job’s friends were about to give him, and to tell a man who has just expressed a passionate desire to die, that he will live to a ripe old age (5:26), is insensitive. To encourage a man who had lost everything that he will visit his dwelling and find nothing amiss, and that his descendants will be many (5:24–25) is rubbing salt in already painful wounds.
In fact, Eliphaz leaves open the possibility that Job had sinned. He was not willing to defend Job’s integrity, though he had known Job long enough to be called friend and to see his exemplary righteousness. This lack of compassion touched Job on the raw, so that he cried out, “Oh, that my grief were fully weighed (6:2)!” and ”To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook (vv. 14–15).”
May God grant to us both truth and love when it falls on us to comfort the suffering.