Eliphaz Speaks. Job 4

 

Job 4 -Eliphaz Speaks

 

Satan has stripped Job of everything. He has nothing left to lean on, no place to turn. Even God seems very far removed from him at this time.

Eliphaz says to Job, “Do you mind if I say something?” Then he adds, “regardless of whether or not you mind my saying something, I am going to say it.” “In the old days when you were in prosperity and plenty and in good health, you were a tower of strength to everybody else. You could advise them.” The advice you gave to others, can’t you follow it yourself?” He goes on to say this would not have happened to you if there hadn’t been something wrong in your life that you was keeping a secret.” This insinuation is wrong and is not true of Job. God gave us that scene in heaven so that we might know Job and understand his character. Eliphaz is speaking from a very high pulpit and is looking down at Job. He is saying that Job is reaping what he sowed. The man is wrong. God disciplines his children, but He never destroys them.

Eliphaz said that he had a vision, and it took place at night, in the dark. Then he asks, “Shall a mortal man be more just than God?” Of course not, we know that. “How much more foolish are we who live in houses of clay?” We live in houses of clay. In 2 Cor. 5 Paul called our bodies a tent, a feeble, frail tent which the wind will blow over. We live in houses of clay, and before long our houses fall in on us. Eliphaz is stating truths that are not helpful to Job.  He reminds me of someone who likes to hear his own voice.

Eliphaz further states that no one who had lived in the past was able to help and asks Job which saint is he going to turn to? He goes on to say that he has seen the foolish and the wicked prosper but finally they are brought down.

 

King David was troubled by the prosperity of the wicked. He stated, “I have seen the wicked in power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not. Psalm 37:35-35.

Eliphaz was classifying Job as one of the foolish one who took root and was flourishing before he was brought down.

 

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J. Vernon McGee Commentary and New King James Bible.