The outspoken way in which Job had told his friends, that the
comfort they had offered was untrue and valueless, rather naturally
moved Eliphaz to begin his third speech on a still more bitter note.
Job certainly had been defending his own character, but did he confer
any profit or benefit on the Almighty by the righteousness and
perfection that he claimed? And would God enter into judgment with him
as though he were His equal? There could be but one answer to these
questions, and it would be salutary for Job to realize what it was. As
our Lord told His disciples, the confession of us all has to be, "We
are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do"
(Luke 17:10).
But, having uttered these wise words, Eliphaz plunged into a series
of accusations against Job, which in the light of the testimony God
bore to him at the outset of the story, must have been utterly
unfounded. These accusations fill verses 5-9 and reading them we can
see what provoked Job to sing his own praises, as he does in Job 29.
Eliphaz did not deal in vague insinuations but affirmed Job's
wrong-doing in regard to the needy, the naked, the weary, the hungry,
the widow and the fatherless. In Job 29, Job rebuts these things and is
equally explicit in declaring how well he had acted to these very
people.
In verse 13 Eliphaz supposes the evil had been mainly in secret and
that Job assumed that God did not know of his wickedness-another false
assumption. In verses 15-18 we have a reference to the flood. Job had
just spoken of wicked men, who said unto God, "Depart from us," and
here Eliphaz asks if he had really taken to heart this very thing, as
displayed in the antediluvian world. What men did after the flood, as
they lapsed into idolatry, was just what had been done before the
flood. Eliphaz is quite right in saying that the root of all their
appalling wickedness was departure from God, and shutting Him out of
their lives and even out of their thoughts.
At this point we may well pause and consider our own age. Job's
assertion in the previous chapter was that when, as often, God
prospered wicked men, they desired God to depart from them for they had
no desire for His ways. Now Eliphaz has stated that of old wicked men
dismissed God from their thoughts and lives and were cut down by the
flood. Job's point was that God often prospered the wicked and their
judgment only came at the end, whereas Eliphaz insisted that God did
intervene in judgment, as the flood had borne witness. Both it seems
were right, and in our own day we can see the direful results of men
dismissing God from their thoughts and lives. If God be thus turned
out, every kind of evil comes in.
How true therefore is the exhortation of Eliphaz in verse 21. The
knowledge of God does indeed lead to both peace and good as the
ultimate result, but at first it leads to deep unrest and trouble, as
Job had to find. Before he reached the good, recorded at the end of the
book, he had to experience the anguish of self-judgment-see, Job 40: 4;
Job 42: 6.
Underlying this verse however, and the succeeding verses too, is the
old assumption that Job did not know God, that he was astray from Him
and needed to come back and put away his iniquity, which was bringing
all this chastisement upon him, and he closed with a glowing
description of all the advantage that would come to Job if he did so A
clearer translation of the last verse is, "He shall deliver him that is
not guiltless," and in his closing words Eliphaz seems to state that if
only Job had clean hands he would deliver other people as well as
himself.
Job's next speech occupies chapters 23 and 24, and is remarkable in
that he makes no direct reference to what Eliphaz had just been
advancing.
Job 23 has the nature of a lament with a great deal
of pathos in it. Here he was full of bitter complaint, yet feeling that
the weight of the stroke laid on him was beyond any groan that he
uttered. The stroke came from God, vet he did not know where He was nor
how he might find Him. If only he could find Him and order his cause
before Him, he felt sure relief would come, and he would be
delivered-verse 7 has been translated, "There would an upright man
reason with Him; and I should be delivered for ever from my Judge."
Thus once more did Job assume his own uprightness, and his complaint
was that he was troubled by the Almighty, whom he could not reach and
into whose presence he could not come.
Nevertheless he still had confidence, as verse 10 shows, that all
the path of sorrow he was treading was known to God, that in it he was
being tested, and that as the result he would come forth as gold at the
end That indeed was the end finally reached but, we suspect, not in the
way Job expected. As yet, filled with confidence in his own
righteousness, he expected to be approved of God. He did come forth as
gold, but as the fruit of his abasement in self-judgment before God,
and then he was lifted up and abundantly blessed.
Verse 12 is striking and frequently quoted. But the words
translated, "my necessary food," are literally, "my appointed portion,"
as the margin shows. The New Translation renders them, "the purpose of
my own heart." Reading it thus, we may well challenge our own hearts as
to whether we are prepared to set aside our own purposes in subjection
to the words of God.
The first verse of
Job 24 propounds a question, the exact force of
which is not easily discerned. But it does appear that in the rest of
the chapter Job is recounting the evils that were filling the earth in
his day, which were going on unjudged until the grave closed the
history of the wicked, as giving point and force to the question he
asked. This being so, the latter part of verse 1 would mean, "Why do
the God-fearing not see days of judgment falling from God on the heads
of the godless?" A very pertinent question, approximating to that
raised in Psalm 73. At the end of the chapter Job, as well as the
Psalmist, sees judgment ultimately coming upon them. But seeing it does
not so come now, Job challenged all comers to confute him and prove him
a liar.
For the third time Bildad now spoke, as recorded in
Job 25. As with
Eliphaz so with him, each speech was shorter than the preceding one,
showing that their powers of compassion, as also of argument, were
running short. Moreover there appears to be little of reference to
Job's statements in what he said. His description of the greatness and
glory of God is fine and almost poetical, and what he says of the sin
and uncleanness and insignificance of man, who is like a worm before
his Creator, is equally true. But he could only reiterate the question
Job asked in Job 9, "How then can man be just with God," without making
any attempt to answer it, or express a desire for a mediator, as Job
had done. To Bildad it was an unanswerable question, and perhaps he
thought it gave some kind of excuse for the sin, with which he and his
friends had been accusing unhappy Job.
This moved Job to open his mouth for the ninth time, in a speech
longer than all the rest. As their arguments for the prosecution were
failing, his for the defence increased. Bildad's brief words had been
of a gentler kind, but before Job showed that he too can speak in
glowing terms of the greatness of God, he indulged in the sarcasms that
fill verses 2 and 3 of
Job 26. To us it seems quite obvious that the
speeches of the friends had not been helpful nor saving nor wise, but
Job being human, he did not miss the opportunity to hurl these taunts
at them. Other translations render the opening words of verse 3, "To
whom," rather than, "For whom." That would mean that Job wished them to
remember that though their words had been addressed to him, they had
really been speaking in the presence of God, and speaking moreover not
in the right spirit.
His description of God's creatorial power is striking. Verse 7 in
particular shows how these early saints, living in the fear of God, as
far as He was then revealed, had a true and simple knowledge of created
things, far removed from the fantastic ideas entertained, even by the
learned, when their minds had been darkened by lapsing into idolatry.
He knew that God had wrought by His Spirit in garnishing the
heavens, which is what learned unbelievers would hardly admit today;
and at the same time he was conscious that what was known in his day
was only a part of His ways, and his comment was, "What a whisper of a
word do we hear of Him!" (New Trans.). Let this pathetic cry of Job
sink into all our hearts. He had but a "whisper of a word" as to God.
Israel knew something of "the thunder of His power," when at Sinai
through Moses the law was given. We have the high privilege of knowing
and enjoying the "grace and truth" that came by Jesus Christ, and
further of walking in "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4: 6). We may well bless God, who
has brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
What a striking witness we have in this book-one of the oldest in
the world-to facts which stand out plainly in the New Testament. Here
are patriarchal saints, living only a few centuries after the flood,
with a knowledge of God according to the primeval revelation of
Himself. Men did not develop out of heathenism into the knowledge of
God, but the reverse. As Romans 1 says "When they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God;" and again, "As they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over . . . " However stubborn Job
was in his self-righteousness, and his friends were in their thoughts,
they did not exclude God from their knowledge. He was very present in
their thoughts.
The opening words of
Job 27 indicate that at this
point Job paused, expecting Zophar to speak; and apparently he paused
again at the end of Job 28. But no reply was forthcoming. This was not
surprising, for the man who bases his position on intuition has a very
restricted field of argument. The man who argues from his own
observation may have had a wide field of vision and therefore a lot to
put forward. So too, the man who delves into past history and argues
from tradition. But the man who only urges what he thinks, the ideas
that he has intuitively formed, may urge them with great force in his
opinionated self-conceit; but if his thoughts be rebutted, there is not
much else he can say.
So Job resumed his discourse, striking a very solemn note, as taking
an oath before God. In affirming his own integrity and truth he charged
his friends with being the ones who spoke falsehood and deceit, while
he held fast his righteousness with the utmost resolution. This
"righteousness," as Job 29 will show us, was concerned with his outward
conduct, for as yet the searching light of God had not entered his
soul. He had been charged with being a deceiver and a hypocrite. He
knew he was not this, and he was not going to plead guilty to it for a
moment. We too know that he was not, but outward correctness does not
in itself count for righteousness in the presence of God. Job's own
words here prove it, for the way he complains of God in verse 2 shows
that his heart was not right in His sight.
In the rest of the chapter we find Job enlarging upon the way God
deals in judgment with the hypocrite. He had just been virtually
charging his friends with being hypocrites in their accusations against
him, so it would appear that his words were a warning to them that such
might be their fate, something akin to what had happened to him.
He followed this -
Job 28 - with the remarkable
words about man's search after wisdom. In his days mining was
practised: it may have been then a new pursuit, whether for iron or
copper, for gold or silver or gems. They dig down, they divert the
subterranean stream, they make paths untrodden by the strongest of
beasts or the most keen-sighted of birds. But in all this searching
they never find wisdom. This is the question he raised in verse 12, and
he affirmed very rightly that it could not be found in these human
activities. Men may discover much, and since Job's day they have
discovered an immense deal more, but wisdom eludes them. If Job could
have been given a glimpse of man's activities and discoveries in our
atomic age, he would say the same, only with emphasis a huudred-fold
greater.
So, "Where shall wisdom be found?" (verse 12). Job begins to answer
this in verse 23. God, who understands it, knows its way, and has
declared it to man, as verse 28 declares. "The fear of the Lord, that
is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. "In all the
statements made during this prolonged discussion no truer nor wiser
thing had been said. In Proverbs 9: 10, we find Solomon making a
similar statement, and it is corroborated in the history of the early
church, as we see in Acts 9: 31.
As the fear of God departs from the heart of man, so his own
selfwill increases, which produces endless folly. In the present age
the knowledge and cleverness of man has risen to heights undreamed of a
century ago, and his destructive folly threatens to descend to
undreamed of depths. Psalm 36: 1, quoted in Romans 3: 18, exposes the
root of it all.
As Job continued his parable, in
Job 29, he sighed for a return to
the days of his prosperity and, remembering the accusations of Eliphaz,
which we had in Job 22, he began to utter his own praise. What light
and luxury were his! What deference and even reverence was paid to him!
And then he declared his acts of benevolence and righteousness and
judgment, which he felt had entitled him to very preferential treatment
in blessing from the hand of God.
Job 29 has thus become one of the great "I"
chapters of the Bible. Ecclesiastes 2 is Solomon's "I" chapter: that
personal pronoun occurs 16 times in the first 9 verses: true chapter of
the self-gratified "I." Job 29 is the chapter of the self-satisfied "I"
Romans 7 is of course the chapter of the self-condemned "I" And to be
self-condemned is far better than to be self-gratified or
self-satisfied. Best of all is to be self-eclipsed, as we find Paul to
be in Philippians 3, where he mentions "I" a good many times.
But our chapter records how Job was permitted to let himself go, and
sing his own praise, and thus reveal to us the self-righteousness and
self-conceit, which had lain deep down within him, hidden from all eyes
but God's. To bring this to light, and to bring Job himself to judge
it, and to judge himself in the presence of God, was the object God had
in permitting Satan to bring these extreme testings upon him.
For the moment however Job was full of the great and excellent
things he had done, and of the commanding position amongst his fellows
which had been his as the result. This did but make more vivid the
contrast of his present condition, and to this he returned in the
sorrowful lament recorded in
Job 30. He had now
become the derision of the basest of men, and even of the youngest
among them. They could make up songs about his misery. and even spit in
his face- a cruel insult indeed. In verse 20 however he turned to God
and made bitter complaint to Him, and even against Him. He felt that He
had opposed him and cast him down and disregarded his prayers and
entreaties, and so had "become cruel" to him. Poor Job! Without any
question men had become cruel to him, and he now felt that God had
become cruel also. In the closing verses of this chapter he described
the extreme state of bodily weakness and misery and corruption into
which he had been brought. God had given Satan permission to do his
worst, short of taking his life. With malign skill Satan reduced his
body to such a state of loathsome disease as, we suppose, no man has
suffered before or since; for in every other case the victim would have
died before such a mass of bodily trouble could develop. Let us not
judge Job harshly. In such a fearful plight as his we should probably
have said far worse things than he.
Having uttered these sorrowful complaints, Job closed his lengthy speech, as we see in
Job 31,
by a series of asseverations almost amounting to oaths. His friends had
accused him of definite sins and wrong-doing. As to these things his
conscience was clear, though, as we have seen, he admitted he was not
pure in the sight of God. So he strongly affirmed that he had not
committed the kinds of evil that were alleged or insinuated.
This chapter bears witness to the fact that before the law was given
a high standard of morality was still found among God-fearing men. A
standard moreover which had regard not only to the outward act but also
to the inward motive that prompts the act: see, as instances of this,
he spoke of what he thought, or did not think, in verse 1; of his heart
walking after his eyes, in verse 7; and again, his heart being secretly
enticed, in verse 27; and of hiding his iniquity, and covering his
sins, like Adam, in verse 33. This may remind us of the Sermon on the
Mount; particularly if we compare his words in verse 30, realizing that
merely wishing a curse to his enemy would be a sin, with our Lord's
words in Matthew 5: 24
Again, he knew that deceit and false witness was wrong; see, verse
5: that adultery was wrong; see, verse 9: that idolatry was wrong; see,
verses 26-28; since the worship of sun and moon was the most primitive
form that idolatry took. So also he knew that he was not to covet what
his neighbour possessed, for in contrast he should be a giver to his
necessities, as we see in verses 13-22.
So most evidently the standard of conduct that Job had before him
was a very high one, and he felt he had rigidly observed it. He knew
too that there would be a day when God would rise up and visit and he
asked, "What shall I answer Him?" (verse 14). Reviewing all these
things, Job felt he could call down a curse upon himself, if he had not
observed them: that on his land thistles might "grow instead of wheat,
and cockle [tares] instead of barley." With this Job also lapsed into
silence.
The end that the Lord reached with Job is made all the more striking
by the fact that in me main these assertions of his were correct. At
the outset Jehovah bore witness that he was perfect and upright, and
when finally He intervened He did not utter words of contradiction. It
is just this which imparts such tremendous force to the utter abasement
and self-condemnation that sprang from Job's lips, before he was
blessed at the end of the story.