Punch to the Gut 2 – Job 15&16

Are you getting tired of Job yet? Of the book or the man, that is? Maybe you need to quit studying right now, because this is only round two of a three round match.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good? But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God. For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you.

“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!

“I will show you; hear me, and what I have seen I will declare (what wise men have told, without hiding it from their fathers, to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them). The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. Dreadful sounds are in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand; distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle. Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty, running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield; because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist and has lived in desolate cities, in houses that none should inhabit, which were ready to become heaps of ruins; he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth; he will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart. Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment. It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit.”

Then Job answered and said:

“I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.   Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face. He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

“O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return. (Job 15&16, ESV)

Eliphaz believes that Job is only saying what he is saying to justify his sin.  He believes Job is in danger of destroying a reverence for God and so his own words condemn him. Eliphaz nonetheless is determined to try to refute Job, accusing him of contradicting the wisdom of the aged and throwing off the comfort God is offering through his words (some comfort!).

He revisits the same argument he used before, that no one, not even an angel, can claim purity before God, which is entirely self-contradictory (why isn’t Eliphaz suffering then?). Eliphaz describes all the horrible things that are going to happen to Job because he has been godless.

Job rebukes his friends as miserable comforters who have banded together against him instead of giving solace, as he would have done if he was in their position.

This is further evidence of how much God is against him.  Job is wracked with pain and there is no comfort.  God has shown hatred for Job by stripping away his company and giving his adversary reason to come against him.

Job was at ease and then God attacked him.  Now he is full of weeping and mourning even though he is innocent. He calls on the earth to carry on his case and feels confident that there is a witness on his behalf in heaven so he can argue his case with God before he soon dies.

Discussion Questions

1. What did God use to bring you to the point you knew you needed Jesus?
2. What is Eliphaz using to try to bring Job to repentance?
3. What is wrong with Eliphaz’s approach?
4. Is Job doing away with the fear of God? Is he challenging God’s fairness and wisdom?
5. What is the best way you can help someone who is suffering?
6. Who do you know right now that is suffering and what could you do to help them?