Eliphaz to Job - Practice What You Preached

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Well, our text this afternoon is chapter 4 of Job and verses 1 through 6.

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I'll read the whole chapter, chapter 4, but we'll just preach on 1 through 6, just by way of introduction.

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This is Elipaz's reply, and he's the first to reply to Job's complaint, which we looked at in chapter 3.

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You remember there that Job bemoaned the day of his birth. He said, let the day perish on which

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I was born, and the night that said, a man is conceived. And he went on to say, as long as that day cannot be retroactively made not to have ever been, then he would have died before his first breath.

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When he says, why did I not die at birth, come out of the womb, and expire? And barring that, he goes on to say, why do

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I have to live this life in a condition that I now am in? When he says, why is life given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who longed for death, but it comes not, and did for it more than for hidden treasures?

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And this is really going to set the tone to the replies from these three friends, these three counselors who came,

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Elipaz, Bildad, and Zopar. I might have gotten the order of them wrong, but it's the three friends. And this sets the tone for really all that follows.

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As we look at Elipaz's reply, this first reply, he being the elder statesman of the four, really, but especially of the three,

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I want us to think, and this is before I even read the scripture to you, I want us to think of certain advantages that we have over everyone in this setting, which means

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Job and the three counselors. First, we know the beginning of the story.

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And knowing that, we cannot unknow it. It's there. We know how it started.

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God challenged the accuser. He challenged Satan, the devil, that serpent of old.

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And note that it's God who set the terms. It was Satan who, I believe, reluctantly complied.

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I don't think Satan even wanted to be there in that assembly of the sons of God, as it were, because it was

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God who called them. And I think if Satan could have excused himself or recused himself, he would have, but God's power, his call is not to be resisted by any.

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It's God who set the terms there. And the Lord said, essentially, that his power at work in Job, that the transformation he had worked in Job or anyone else in any time or any place, for that matter, that that transformation would bring him through whatever the world could throw at him.

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That being represented, of course, by Satan. So we know what

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Job and company do not. We know the how and the why of Job's suffering. The second thing we know is the end of the story.

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We know that God's wrath is stirred up against Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zopar. And each of them are going to say things, this is really important, that are factually true.

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They're going to pull facts that they know about God out of Scripture, as it were, but the

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Scriptures weren't written yet at their time. And yet they know a lot of things about God, and they're going to pull them out.

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And we know that what they said is going to stir up God's wrath, especially against Eliphaz.

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At the end of this history, this is what God says. My anger burns against you, speaking to Eliphaz, you, singular,

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Eliphaz, you who set the tone. My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant has.

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Now, this phrase, I know it's kind of a long introduction, bear with me. This phrase, my anger burns, is only found three times in the

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Old Testament. Consider these, Hosea 8, verse 5,

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I have spurned your calf, O Samaria, now stop for a moment. Speaking of the golden calves, when

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Jeroboam became king, when the kingdom split and ten tribes followed him north, he didn't want them going south to worship, so he set up a golden calf, a la

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Exodus, that golden calf, one in the south, one in the north, that here are your gods,

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O Israel. Worship here, don't go down to Judah, worship here. God says, I have spurned your calf,

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O Samaria, my anger burns against them. In Zechariah 10, verse 3, my anger is hot, that's the same

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Hebrew phrase behind that, my anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders, for the

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Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah. And then in Job 42, verse 7, my anger burns against you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant

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Job has. So we know the beginning of the story, we know the end of the story, and we cannot un -know these as we go through it.

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And third, we have the complete canon of scripture to guide us through understanding and applying

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Job to ourselves. I was at the fire conference about a month ago, and I heard

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Derek Thomas preach there, and he preached on John Calvin's and Joseph Carroll's expositions on Job.

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Of all things, I was very glad to hear that, and I was glad to hear that my take on Job is within the bounds of these great men.

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But I do need to, what's a softer word than warn? Well, I'm gonna warn you anyway. I need to warn you though, that my take is a bit different than those great men's.

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Within the pale, I'm not super innovative, but my take on this is a bit different. My emphasis is different.

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I differ because I don't think Job is so much about suffering and how to endure it, though that is in there, but that's not the main point.

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Job's life is a shining example of how the Christian perseveres because God perseveres in the

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Christian. That was the challenge God made to Satan. Basically, if I could put it in my own words,

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I think I did this in the second sermon in this short series, Job will persevere because I have transformed

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Job by my spirit. Job will persevere because I am in Job. Job will persevere, not because of Job, but because of me.

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That was the challenge, and I think this is really the emphasis. The Christian perseveres in life because God perseveres in the

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Christian, for it is God who works in you to will and to do for his good pleasure.

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So that said, one of the main lessons we will take from this book, and we'll read in just a short moment, but one of the main lessons we take from this book is a warning, and it's a warning to us.

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It's a warning about false comfort. It's a warning about the damage so easily done to brethren in tight straits when defenses are down and wounds are easily and deeply inflicted.

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Remember, God at the end says, my anger burns at what you said to Elipaz and those two men.

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The sword of the spirit, which of course is the word of God, is a sharp two -edged sword and it digs deep.

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It does a good work, but a sword, a literal sword, tears a body apart. The sword of the spirit does a more precise work of dividing joints and marrow, the work of a scalpel.

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Elipaz, Bildad, and Zopar wield more of a cudgel against Job. So I find in Job a warning about the harm we can do when we swing that divine weapon carelessly, haphazardly, with no regard for the effect we're having on the one we purport to help.

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As it was with Elipaz and company, against whom God the Lord burned with anger because of what they said to poor

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Job about Almighty God, it was that weapon, that good weapon, that good grace of God that he gives us in his word, sort of haphazardly swung against Job.

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As we assess these three men's speeches, we're going to take full advantage of our presentation. I'm not going to pretend that we don't know these things.

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We know that the king of the universe burned with anger at what we're about to read and preach, chapter four of Job, verses one through six of my textbook.

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Let's read the entire chapter, if you would please stand now, we will read. Then Elipaz the

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Temanite answered and said, if one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking?

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Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.

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But now it has come to you, and you are impatient. It touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

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Remember, who that was innocent ever perished, or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

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By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.

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The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. Now word was brought to me stealthily, my ear received the whisper of it, amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men.

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Dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all of my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face, the hair of my flesh stood up.

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It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes, there was silence, then

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I heard a voice. Can mortal man be made right before God? Can a man be pure before his

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Maker? Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error.

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How much more are those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth?

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Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces. They perish forever without anyone regarding it.

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Is not their tent cord plucked up within them? Do they not die, and that without wisdom?

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God bless the reading of his word, and now his proclamation. Please be seated. So verses one through six,

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Job, it's time to practice what you preached. Elipaz here, he begins with a seemingly polite request to answer

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Job's complaint. It's like, Job, may I enter into this now? May I speak a word to you now?

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Verse two, if one ventures a word, will you be impatient? That could be rendered something like, you are weary with grief.

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Can you bear it if I speak a word to you? Now some, if not most commentators, think this is a polite request, that Elipaz is being considerate of Job's state of mind.

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I mean, after all, in the last two to three weeks, whatever it was, a short time ago, he lost his wealth. He lost his family.

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His children are gone. His prestige is gone. Now his health is gone. And he had no idea why any of this happened.

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And why this happened, I mean, that's the question that Elipaz and Bildad and Zopar are, for the rest of their discourse, is going to labor to answer, whether or not

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Job is ready to hear. Are they asking the right question? Are they even asking the right question here?

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I mean, asking the right question is the first step in finding a right solution. Engineers and scientists, a lot of technical people here, you know this.

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You have to ask the right question to get to the solution. If you ask the wrong question, you're going the wrong direction.

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I mean, imagine your car won't start. And you begin to diagnose it by saying, what is the inflation in my tires?

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So your engine won't start, but you go and check your tire inflation. Now, it could very well be that some air has to be let out of one tire, and air has to be put in another to get them all at 32 psi, right?

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And you could do that, and they could be perfectly even. But you've asked the wrong question in terms of accomplishing, getting your car to start.

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The question that this triumvirate of counselors conspired to foist upon poor

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Job is this. Job, your suffering is clearly from God, and God is just, as they will go and say over and over again in the discourses that follow.

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He is just, therefore, what you are now living is deserved. Therefore, we're here to force out of you the sin that you committed that brought

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God's wrath down upon your head. What sin did you commit against God? Because unless there's a finite sin that we can correlate to this particular condition that you're in, then you are not confessing what you need to confess.

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And this is all because God is just. You gotta remember the end of the story, the

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God they purport to represent burning with anger, what these three will say. And for that reason alone, because God's anger burns against them in that special way that is only listed three times in scripture,

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I don't take Elipaz as being polite at all. I don't want to throw Elipaz under the bus.

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I really want to eviscerate him. I take God at his word that he was burning with anger what he said about God.

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So I don't take him as being polite and respectful and concerned for his friend. And there's a deep theological problem in the premise that these men have.

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That if Job deserved his suffering, think about this. If Job deserved his suffering, if you deserve the hard times that you've gone through, whatever they may be in your life, if it's deserved, we have a problem.

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Because if it was deserved, if Job did something wrong and God smited him from heaven because of what he did wrong to infuriate

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God, if that be the case, that means that prior to all these misfortunes,

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Job deserved his wealth, his works, God, and what he had.

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Now, why would that anger the Lord, this premise that these three men have? Why would that anger

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God? Well, Paul tells us, if it is of works, meaning God's grace, speaking more specifically of salvation, but I would expand that to any manifestation of God's grace in our lives.

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If it is of works, it is no longer of grace. If it is of works, it's owed to you.

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In this very book, who was given to me first that I should repay him? Who do

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I owe anything to, says the Lord God. So there's a problem with this premise about suffering in a finite, equative, algebraic sense being deserved.

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If Job deserved anything, that God was bound by an outside law, works equal just rewards, negative and positive.

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That's if he deserved anything. The whole premise that Job sinned and so deserved his suffering is actually a denial of God's grace.

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It's a denial of God's grace. And such as that, such an idea as that does put

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God in our debt, which is absurd. God, if I do this good work, you owe me something. And God, if I see this person over here do a bad work, you owe him something and I better see it.

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That's a little on the cynical side, but only a little bit. Who has first given me that I should repay him for good or for ill?

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Now, if the rendering I suggest is correct, then what El Paz means is something like, even though you are weary with grief and with shock and with mourning, you must not add to that sin, that sin we're trying to help you uncover, that sin we're going to get you to confess, that sin that equals the suffering that God has brought to you.

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Do not add to that sin, the sin of impatience, the sin of not listening to us.

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And he goes on, El Paz goes on to say, yet who can speak, keep from speaking? We use words to communicate to each other, especially words of comfort.

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We're to comfort each other and we use our language for that, words, we speak. El Paz has something to say that he just can't keep within himself.

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He sounds almost like Paul when Paul wrote, for necessity is laid on me, woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.

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It's that kind of burning desire to burst forth with these words that are within. Of course, the difference would be that Paul's words, being words of the gospel of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, being words that edified and built up the church, being words that today still in the living word of God do build us up and do edify us still.

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Paul's words would please God. El Paz's did not. Remember how we know that El Paz's words do not please

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God. He burned with anger as he did the calves in Israel, as he did the false shepherds in Judah.

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He burned with anger. So in verses three and four, El Paz is going to remind

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Job of how much he had helped others. Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.

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Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you made firm the feeble knees.

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People in Job's fear, people came and contact him, were blessed by a man who cared for them, and not just in word, but in deed.

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The good he knew to do, he did. Here's a man whose head had not grown with his bank account.

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He says, you've instructed many. Instruct means correction that results in education. Job helped people learn from their mistakes.

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His words were like new knees that could once again bear their own load, and walk upright and keep straight.

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The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses this word for instruct, says for this word do instruct, nuthateo.

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Many of you are familiar with that. The today's Association of Certified Biblical Counselors was once called

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NANC, National Association of Nuthetic Counselors, from nuthateo. That comes from Romans 15, 4, where Paul says,

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I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct, to nuthateo one another.

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The same word. So if you had a problem that needed a real solution, Job was the man.

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He didn't throw money at the problem. He instructed. He didn't give the hungry man a fish. He taught the hungry man how to fish for himself.

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So Job, in a sense, he exemplified what Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 6. Job would bear one another people's burdens until they were able to bear their own burdens.

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Eliphaz's next statement, verse 5, I think of as kind of a meal. And it's a meal so common that it makes a

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Big Mac seem rare. It's kind of a sandwich that we serve up constantly and have many of us been served many, many times.

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And we have an unending supply of ingredients for this sandwich, sort of like the widow's oil that didn't run dry.

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It's one we've served up and one we've been served up. And I speak, of course, of the butt sandwich, the

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B -U -T, the butt sandwich. But now it has come upon you and you are impatient. It touches you and you are dismayed.

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Now, this is a sandwich. It's not as good as a hamburger. It's not as good as a hamburger saturated in juices and brimming over with melted cheese and graced with grilled onion and slathered on both sides with garlic butter or anything like that.

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And for me, covered with Tabasco. A butt sandwich is a lot easier to make than all that.

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And if we admit it, most of us have a lot of practice with doing this. See, the problem is that on one slice, we give sort of a compliment.

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And you've all received these. You're doing a good job. You can just tell by the tone of voice and by the body language of the person and by the sort of smile on their face what's coming.

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The second half then neutralizes that first half. To oversimplify a bit, slice one says, hey, you did well at that.

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You've shown how grand you are. Slice two says, but here's where you messed up. And the problem is that slice two was the point.

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That's what we wanted to get to. So slice one is something that we only put in there perfunctorily in order that we can get to the real point that we have.

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But you messed up. That's what they really want to say and too often what we really want to say.

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So this glorious burger that I tried to describe a second ago, it's not a burger at all. It's a soy product.

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It's a plant -based imitation. Joseph Carroll, the 17th century scholar known for his exhibition of Job, we've actually got his practical observations on Job up in the attic up here.

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We boxed up a long time ago. It's, I think it's 50 volumes and they're big volumes.

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I tried to read it once and they're teeny little print. So how practical that is, I'll leave to you to decide.

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But he was known for this, his exposition of Job. And what he said here was interesting. To commend a man with a butt is a wound instead of a commendation.

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To commend a man with a butt is a wound instead of a commendation. So we today speak of the butt sandwich.

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What was that? 500 years ago, Joseph Carroll really said much the same thing. And I think

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Jesus' words apply here. And I think many of you see where I'm going.

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As we look at Job's counselors from God's viewpoint, from the burning with anger of God, that we are really getting a lesson here in ourselves and the counsel we give others and the comfort we purport to bring to others.

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Jesus said here, let your yes be yes and your no, no. Anything more than this is from the evil one. So what's yes, yes?

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What's no, no? Brother, you have a moat in your eye. I have a log in my eye and I've worked on it.

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I want to help you with your moat. Yes, yes. No means no.

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It's not the butt sandwich that the Christian should be bringing. If we have something to say, we need to say it plainly, graciously, edifyingly, to build up and not to tear down as the

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Apostle Paul and other apostles say so many times. Yes means yes. No means no.

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Say what you mean. It's not plain speech when we strain to find anything to fill that first half.

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You've done well, such and such, only so we can get to the butt. And we've all had that.

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Many you've had. I had that in my secular career before I became a pastor here many years ago where it's kind of Friday, getting close to quitting time.

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We usually walk out. Hey, good job there. But we got to talk on Monday. Oh, thanks.

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I'll have a great weekend. Matthew Henry speculates here that if Elipaz had had one half of Job's afflictions himself, he would not have been so trifling about it.

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So Matthew Henry, the great Puritan, says that he's being trifling about Job's suffering.

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And I think that ties in well with God's anger burning. And so with typical Puritan pastoral concern,

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Matthew Henry wrote this. Men in deep distress must have grains of allowance and a favorable construction put on what they say.

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When we make the worst of every word, we do not as we would be done by. Can I say it one more time?

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Men in deep distress must have grains of allowance and a favorable construction put on what they say.

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When we make the worst of every word, we do not as we would be done by.

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What might Elipaz have done? What might he have done here? Remember what he did, stirred up the special manifestation of God's wrath.

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Book of Hebrews, it says, therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

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Job's friends are not that help. They want Job to pull himself up by his bootstraps.

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You helped others, now help yourself. You preach God to them, preach God to yourself.

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Preach that gospel to yourself, Job, because you've used it on others. You've helped others.

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You know what you're about here. And it's sort of like saying, what are you doing mired in grief?

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Job, you've got the experience. You're the experienced one. You've done this.

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You know how to come out of it because you've helped other people come out of it. Pull yourself up by them bootstraps,

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Job. But see, the Christian, our boots have no straps.

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God gives us each other to see each other through the hard eddies and currents of life. Remember 2

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Corinthians 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the

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Father of mercies and God of all comfort. See, the Holy Spirit himself is even called the

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Comforter who comforts us in all our affliction. It is

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God who brings us comfort. This comfort that we bring to others, especially brothers and sisters within the church, is purported to be, it better be.

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Scripture says it must be, otherwise it's useless. It's the comfort of God. It's the comfort of God himself.

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And there's a purpose to it. So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

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Excuse me. The butt sandwich is no comfort at all. Let's move to the last verse.

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Is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope? The sense of this here is still this idea of Job, you need to do as you have done for others.

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You need to practice what you preached. Implied in that, if I'm right about that, is it's hypocritical of you,

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Job, not to. So you've sinned and brought this terrible circumstance upon yourself and you're not confessing the sin.

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So you sinned to bring the circumstance. You're sinning by not confessing the sin. And now you're gonna sin fear of God that you yourself preached.

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You claim to fear God, but now you're just complaining about what the God you claim to love has done.

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It's like, dude, you teach others how great he is. Didn't you? Or don't you? When you were swimming in money and basking in the warm glow of prestige, were you not the greatest man in the

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East? He was. Then you preach a good sermon. How about now, Job? Excuse me.

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How our flesh loves to see the high and mighty brought down to our own level. And how do they become so high and mighty?

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I believe it's just covetousness. We'd like to be in their position, but we can't get there. So we demonize them.

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We raise them up higher than is right. So when we can rejoice when they fall, we rejoice all the more because great is the fall of that house.

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The more we covet, the higher we raise them in our own eyes falsely. And then that great house falls and we just have glee all the while saying, oh, this is so hard.

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Let me comfort you, friend, from a heart that really is glad to have seen it finally.

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I think that's what's happening with these three friends, that the greatest man in the East has fallen. And saying, do what you did for others,

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Job. Pick yourself up. Preach to yourself what you preached to others.

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It's come upon you. What are you going to do now, Job? I think Elipaz plays the part here of the beasts of Psalm 22.

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I told you, I don't want to throw Elipaz onto the bus. I'm willing to eviscerate him.

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Many bulls have encompassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.

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This, of course, prophesied the tongues that wagged at Jesus when he hung on the cross. And this is at least one reason,

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I believe, why a special wrath came down upon Elipaz and company. Because Job's story should have made them look forward to Christ.

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Now, they might not have known the name. I'm certain that they didn't. Yet all scripture, Jesus himself said, is about him.

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So what happened to Job should make us look forward to a savior, even for the contemporaries.

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Look forward to an answer to this. All scripture points us to Jesus.

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But there are some scriptures, as here, I believe, that shine more clearly on others to that special place that Christ has in God's eye.

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And so there's that special wrath, that three times used wrath against these friends. So simply to close this, and just so you know,

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I plan, as I'm invited and able to come to this pulpit, that chapter four will be three sermons.

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But just for today, just these six verses, the book of Job teaches us many valuable lessons.

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It teaches about God's sovereignty, clearly. It teaches us about God's power, many times. It teaches his goodness, his justice, his mercy, and so much more about God.

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It teaches us about suffering. It teaches us about suffering and how little we really understand it.

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And importantly, we learn this. When we bring God's comfort to each other, as we speak the truths of God, healing truths, truths forever cast in the heavens, truths that will never fail, when we engage in this as we are meant to, as we must do according to Galatians 6, 1 through 5, according to Romans 12, 9 to 15, and many more, when we do this good and holy work, we speak for God and we speak about God.

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When you rejoice with a brother blessed by Christ with good fortune, you rejoice as did he who upon good news rejoiced in the spirit, which is

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Jesus, God in the flesh. When you weep with someone crushed by misfortune, you weep as he whom you represent,

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Jesus, you weep as he wept at Lazarus' tomb.

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Rebuke when needed, yes, but that can wait for the tears to end.

32:16

That can wait for the shock to wear off. That can wait for the spirit to be steady. Elipaz and his friends need to learn,

32:28

I don't know if they did or not, that truths of God can misspeak about God when they're misapplied.

32:36

And so I simply close with what the psalmist says, may the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in his sight, our