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Reading Job 15-17 where Job and his friends dig in their heels and get more tense with each other, continuing Job's misery. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Sometimes we can come into deep doctrines and puff ourselves up as a result, but we need to be using this truth to build up others, as Job's friends should have, when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.
Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of Job, up to chapter 15 this week, and this begins a portion of Job that's referred to as the second cycle. Each of the characters in the story, Job and his three friends, they are going to harden on their positions.
They're really going to dig in their heels against each other here. Remember where we started in this story, with Job, an upright man, did everything righteous before the Lord, and yet God allowed Satan to torment him.
Job had everything taken from him. He lost his property, his servants, his own children, eventually his health. And Job was visited by his friends, and they did real well with him at first. They just mourned along with him.
But then when Job started to lament, his friends tried giving him advice, and that's when they turned into miserable wretches. Because they basically said to Job, hey, the reason why this stuff's happened to you is because you deserve it.
You've done something evil. Your kids, they're dead because they did something evil. And Job has said to his friends what we looked at last week, is that I didn't do this to myself. The Lord has done it to me.
And yet he says in verse 13, though he slay me, I'm sorry, chapter 13, verse 15, though he slay me, I will hope in him. And so Job finished up that monologue and what we get to hear in chapter 15 is a response from Eliphaz.
And the jabs are going to get a little sharper at one another as things get a little bit more tense. So Job 15, starting in verse 1, then Eliphaz the termite answered and said, it's the temanite, not the termite, but anyway, should a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind?
See, that's a poke at Job. He's saying that the words that he's expressing is nothing but nothing but windiness. You're just talking. It doesn't mean anything. 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. And this is, you know, a wonderful friend to be doing this, right? Job, you've lost everything. You feel miserable. Well, I'm just going to make fun of you.
Basically, the words that you say convey that you have no fear of God. That's what Eliphaz is saying to Job because you won't admit that you've done something evil, and that's the reason why all of this has come upon you.
Verse 7, are you the first man who was born or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the counsel 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? Job has said to his friends that he is a wise man, and so Eliphaz is poking back and saying, well, what is it that you know that we don't know? And the irony about these questions that he's asking Job, though he's being rhetorical, when he says, are you the first man who was ever born or were you brought forth before the hills?
When God responds to Job, he's going to say something similar, but of course his words have significantly more weight to them. Eliphaz actually doesn't fear God, but when God talks to Job, he's going to say, where were you when the foundations of the world were laid?
Tell me if you know. Do you have knowledge that's greater than mine? And in the case of God, the answer to those questions is no. Nobody existed before God. No one has knowledge that's greater than his.
In the case of Eliphaz, the answer to these questions is yes. Job is smarter than Eliphaz. He is a wiser man. People have sought out his counsel, so there are things that he knows that Eliphaz does not, even though Eliphaz is trying to fight back against Job, saying, hey, I'm just as smart as you are.
He says in verse 10, 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 who is born of 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. That's pretty similar to something that we considered yesterday in the book of Isaiah. When Isaiah conveyed that there is no one righteous before God and even our best deeds are as a polluted garment.
Eliphaz said, what is man that he can be pure? Or who is born of woman that he can be righteous? David said in Psalm 51 that in iniquity, my mother conceived me. So we're all born in sinfulness. But Eliphaz is not understanding this as a matter of right doctrine.
He's saying these things as a matter to try to show up Job. That's the reason why he's saying it. Not because he truly understands that men are evil, but because he's trying to say that Job is evil. Eliphaz is saying this of Job, but he doesn't realize it of himself.
And unfortunately, there are people who love the doctrines of grace, otherwise known as TULIP, the five points of Calvinism. There are people who love these doctrines, the first of which is total depravity.
That mankind is totally depraved and there is nothing that we can do on our own to reach out to God. For as it says in Romans 3, no one seeks for God. The Lord intervenes in our destructive path and turns us from the direction that we were headed back to himself.
And it is the Lord's work that does this. The Bible says that repentance is the work of God. 2 Timothy 2 .25, God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. It is God who gives the person a repentant heart.
That they may turn from their depravity and worship God and receive his righteousness through the gift of his son, Jesus Christ, who was given up for our sins. But all of this, the work of salvation is entirely the work of God, from beginning to end, from election before the foundation of the world to glorification when we finally meet with him in glory.
Unfortunately, there are those who, though they know these doctrines and cherish these doctrines, they don't self-apply these doctrines. They will see it in other people. Well, the reason why the world is evil is because we're totally depraved.
The reason why you don't understand or you don't believe is because you're totally depraved. But they don't humble themselves and realize that they are unworthy of the grace of God. And they don't see the sinfulness that had separated them from God until God had intervened in their lives to bring them into his presence.
And so we must not be proud or haughty whenever we learn such advanced doctrines as the doctrines of grace. Do not think so highly of yourself or thump your chest because you understand how these doctrines can be gleaned from scripture, how the scriptures testify of them.
But rather we must be patient with one another. For Romans 15, 1 and 2 says that we who are mature have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves, but for the benefit of our neighbor to build him up, that we are building up the body of Christ together, knit together in love, as talked about in Ephesians 4, holding fast to the head who is Christ.
So you came into the knowledge that you have by the grace of God and we must, my brothers and sisters, have grace when it comes to sharing these doctrines with others. Eliphaz does not have this grace with Job.
First of all, he doesn't know more than Job anyway, but secondly, what he thinks he does know, he is using to put Job down rather than help build him up, which is what a good friend would be doing if that is what Eliphaz had in his heart, to encourage Job rather than to tear him down.
So we go on into verse 17. I will show you. Yeah, see the arrogance here? Eliphaz says, 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. And Eliphaz is trying to say, this is describing Job. He is experiencing this writhing pain because he's wicked and he won't confess his wickedness before God.
Verse 21. 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. Now, one of the things that Eliphaz is conveying here is that the wicked knows that his time is short because of the pain that he's writhing in and his end of days is coming soon.
But what is it that it says in Romans chapter one about those who are so depraved of heart? It says they suppress the truth with unrighteousness. So they don't actually know the wrath of God that has been revealed from heaven against all the unrighteousness of men as it says in Romans 1 .18.
It's clearly displayed for them truth and consequences. If you do something wrong, there are consequences for those actions. We see that in general revelation. So it's right there in front of them, but they don't believe it or refuse to acknowledge it because their heart is hardened, because they've suppressed the truth with unrighteousness.
So Eliphaz is speaking contrary to that biblical understanding here when he's saying that the wicked know their end of days is coming. Well, no, they don't. They think they're sitting fat and happy. They're doing just fine.
So he goes on to say in verse 25, because he has stretched out his hand against God, because the wicked has stretched out his hand against God and defied 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 and 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. In a roundabout way, Eliphaz has just called Job a deceitful man.
That's what he's just said to his friend. What a great friend. So chapter 16 now is Job's response and it will continue through chapters 16 and 17. 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? Pretty similar start to the way that Eliphaz began. Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge?
And Job replied, Shall windy words have an end? You're the one that keeps droning on about this nonsense that has no basis in fact. Verse 4, 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? This is Job furthering the point that if I do what it is that you're telling me to do, it's not going to make me feel any less miserable than I feel right now.
Surely now God has worn me out. He has made desolate all my company. That's describing his friends. 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. Boy, that's a sharp point right there. Because he's saying that the ungodly and the wicked are those friends that are standing among him.
I was at ease, and he broke me apart. He seized me by the neck and dashed me into 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.
What was the seat of the emotions in this part of the world at this time? It was the kidneys. See, in our world, it's the heart. That's the seat of the emotions. But here in this time period, it was the kidneys.
And so this is the equivalent of Job saying that God has broken my heart. He's ripped me open. He spilled my blood on the ground. He goes on to say, verse 14, 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. So God, or Job, is asking God to plead his case before God. Isn't that fascinating? For that's exactly what Jesus Christ does for us.
He clothes us in his righteousness and pleads our case before God. As it says in 1 John 2, that we have an advocate before the Father, and that is Jesus Christ. And Jesus being our advocate means that he speaks favorably of us before the Father.
What a beautiful picture that is. Loved by our Father in heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ. Job chapter 17 now. Verse 1. My spirit is broken. My days are extinct. The graveyard is ready for me. Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.
Lay down a pledge for me with you. Who is there who will put up security for me? Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property, the eyes of his children will fail.
And what Job is saying here unto the Lord is that the reason why they don't understand is because you have closed their hearts to understanding. So Job is consistent in his theology here. Remember that he said that I'm not the one who has done this to myself.
The Lord is the one who has done it. And he said to his friends, if you don't see that God is sovereign and that there is nothing that happens outside of his will, then there are beasts of the field that know more than you do.
So here in this case, he's saying the reason why my friends are so hard-hearted against me is because God has closed their hearts to understanding. This was part of the curse. It's part of what we read in Isaiah yesterday too, that God is dark in the understanding of men, that they cannot seek for him or find him because our sinfulness has led to this curse.
So Job goes on, verse 6, he has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit. My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow. He's saying that death is close for him, and he feels like he's going to pass away at any moment.
This is similar to something Jesus said going into the Garden of Gethsemane, when he said that my heart is very sorrowful, even unto death. That's like what Job has said here. My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.
The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless. Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger. But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.
My days are past. My plans are broken off, the desires of my heart. They make night into day. The light, they say, is near to the darkness. If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I hope for the grave as my house, if I make my bed in darkness, if I say to the pit, You are my father, and to the worm, my mother or my sister, then where is my hope?
Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust? And that's where we will conclude for this week and pick up next week with Bildad's response to Job in chapter 18.
Let us finish with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for considering our need. We were sinners against you, and the grave was our lot. Worse than that, eternal destruction separated from God forever.
And yet you sent your Son, Jesus, to die for our sins, that we would not perish, but that we would have everlasting life. Jesus became a man and experienced things as we experienced in human flesh. He became like his brothers in every way, as it says in the book of Hebrews, so that for us he might become a perfect high priest, our representative before the Father.
And so we know that we have someone who can sympathize with us in our weaknesses. Let us not ever withhold the grievances or the vexations of our heart from you, for you are the one who can deliver us from this and have promised that you will.
Through Jesus Christ, we have peace with God and forgiveness of our sins. Lead us today in righteousness for your name's sake, and it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .tt .com.