Vicious!

That’s how I would characterize the speech (his second in the Book) of Eliphaz, hurling insult after insult toward Job, the Lord’s servant. (I really can’t decide which of “the three” are most cruel to Job, this man or Bildad or Zophar. But I think my vote is on Eliphaz, so far.)

In Job chapter 15 … listen as I give you one phrase or clause after another, heaped upon the suffering Job … all because of a theology (which is true 90% of the time) falsely applied to Job, he being one of the Bible’s first “innocent” sufferers.

Eliphaz to Job:

You “utter vain (empty) knowledge.”

Your words are like the … “east wind!”

“Unprofitable talk.”

Job, “thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity.”

“Thine own mouth condemneth thee.”  (It’s not ME, said Eliphaz in verse 6, who is accusing you of wrong!) By the way, Eliphaz just lied. He denounces Job for chapters!

“Thine own lips testify against thee.”

Then listen to Eliphaz’s pride: “What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us? With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.” Verses 9-10 of Job chapter 15.

Job, there is some sin at which “thy eyes wink.” You’re playing with some kind of iniquity, excusing or encouraging it, incognito.

“The wicked man (like you, Job), “travaileth with pain all his days.”

When he is in prosperity, “the destroyer shall come upon him.” (A direct slam at Job!)

“Trouble and anguish” have attacked you, and are winning the war, as two “kings to the battle.”

Job (verse 25), you are “against God, against the Almighty.”

Furthermore, your heritage is gone forever, his (10 dead) children being in view. The wicked man (like Job, or so believes Eliphaz) … “his branch shall not be green.”  His “offspring.”

No grapes from your vines, Job. And no olives from your trees! “He (the wicked) shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.” Even the produce from his farm will wither and die!

Job, you are among “the congregation of hypocrites.” Verse 34

You’ve even been dishonest with you money! You have lived in “tabernacles of bribery.”

You’re a man of “mischief, vanity and deceit.” Taken from the last verse of the chapter. Maybe Eliphaz will “shut up” for a few minutes now.

Wow!

And poor Job has to listen to all this.

No wonder he defended his integrity so much!

But I can think of another great Man Who was falsely accused like this, and worse!

Another Innocent Sufferer!

Yes, Jesus.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Job has become exasperated with his 3 “interlocutors.” (Defined as: “a person who takes part in a conversation.”) Each of them (Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar) has now had a “turn” at counseling Job, or accusing him!

Here’s part of what Job says (particularly) to Zophar, but in reality to them all. “Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value. O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.” Job 13:3-5

Job is about “through” talking to them, that harsh trio of “judges!” He wants, rather, to talk to God (the Almighty) instead! “Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.” The verb “desire” means “to take pleasure in, to delight in,” spelled “chaphetzs” in Hebrew. (Implying the three “friends” are unreasonable!)

Then, bluntly, Job to them: “But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.”

The word “forger” means “to sew up, to glue, to stick!” And “lies” is the common Hebrew noun for “deception, falsehood.” Then “physicians” (in Hebrew “rapha”) means “one who cures, healer.” And really, “no value” means “good for nothing!

Wow!

Next, in so many words, Job yells “SHUT UP!” The King James Version: “O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.” Almost: “The quieter you are, even completely silent … the more wisdom you radiate!” As if Job had just read Proverbs 17:28. “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”

I suppose one can hurt so much, suffer so long … that he might lose his tact!

So … Job is human after all!

I almost have a smile on my face … saying “Way to go, Job!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Once in 2nd Samuel 24 King David was offered 3 kinds of punishment for a sin he had committed. And David chose the one he felt was most directly from God’s Hand. His decision: “David said unto Gad (the Prophet), I am in a great strait: LET US FALL NOW INTO THE HAND OF THE LORD; FOR HIS MERCIES ARE GREAT: and let me not fall into the hand of man.”

That’s exactly what Job just said in today’s Lesson! “Surely I would speak to the ALMIGHTY, and I desire to reason with GOD. But (because) ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.”

The Bible, what an amazing book!

 

 

It’s a name, Zophar.

One of Job’s “friends.”

And apparently he is “angry” at Job, though he had come to town to “comfort” him!

Job’s “outburst” back in chapter 3 had been the catalyst to unleash the wrath of all 3 of his visitors. (Chapter 3 is where Job “cursed” the day of his birth and the night of his conception.)

Zophar speaks less than any of Job’s “accusers,” for that’s exactly what he and Eliphaz and Bildad have become. And Zophar drops out of the 3 cycles of speeches (against Job) early, he pontificating only twice! Each of the other two, three times, three tirades!

But today (from Job chapter 11) I want us to notice one thing Zophar said. These words must have “cut” Job to the very core of his being!

But, wait a minute … can mere words “hurt” that deeply? Listen to Proverbs 18:8 … “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” Then maybe Proverbs 26:22 … “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” The very same words, TWICE, in a single Book of the Bible!

YES, words can hurt!

But Zophar did not care.

Now let me share with you exact Zophar’s statement, boldly hurled directly in Job’s face. “Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.” Job 11:6

Wow!

“Job, you should be suffering TWICE as much as you are.”

“You should have lost even more than you did!”

That’s cruel!

I think these 3 friends get progressively WORSE, more and more SEVERE in their verbal attacks. Though in the end they lose their argument! God defends His Servant Job!

“Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.”

The noun “iniquity” Zophar employed is “avon” (pronounced “aw-vone”) and means something “bent, twisted, perverted, depraved.” That’s how sin looks in God’s Eyes, true. But Zophar misapplied it to Job, as the source of the Patriarch’s trials. IT WAS NOT! Job was enduring all his burdens because his faith was being proved by God … to the Devil nonetheless! And via Scripture (Job’s Book being in print now) … to you and me and the whole world!

And the verb “exacteth” one time (in the King James Version) means “to deprive.” Zophar thinks Job should have been “deprived” of even more than he was! And 4 times (“nashah” in Hebrew) is translated “to forget!” As if Zophar felt God should have “forsaken” Job long, long ago!

I wonder how Job is going to respond to this barb?

And that my friends we will learn tomorrow, the Lord willing.

I know how Jesus responded to such taunts. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7

Wow!

Jesus … “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” 1st Peter 2:24

Hint: Job does well, but not sinlessly well. Not like Jesus!

Hallelujah, what a Lord we serve!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

I really do not want to present Job in any kind of “bad light.” Enough people (commentators, professors, preachers, teachers) do that constantly. But I still want to be faithful in my portrayal of that little “hero,” in our Lessons here on the Website.

Here’s (the discussion being limited to Job chapters 9-10, just his response to Bildad’s barbs) how Job “feels” God is treating him. (Apparently Job never knows, in all 42 chapters, about the battle between God and Satan, that contest over “real faith” that was being waged.)

Job believes of God … “He breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.” Job 9:17, God has sent a violent storm against Job! (Think of Jonah.) Furthermore, God has “stabbed” Job again and again, wound after wound!” And Job has done nothing (major) wrong, he is suffering innocently!

Job 9:18 continues: “He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.” God had taken Job’s breath away! And fed him a life of constant bitterness! Provocation, literally!

Job 9:31 adds more: “Yet shalt thou (Lord) plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.” God keeps stomping Job into the ground! And the man has lost so much weight … or his sores are running so copiously and constantly … that his clothes are of no value whatsoever. They either do not fit or stink terribly, one or the other.

Also in Job chapter 10 (still his “come-back” to Bildad) our Patriarch laments: “Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.” Verse 8, Job clearly believes in Creation. But God is destroying that which He so grandly made, killing Job day by day! The immediately following verse presents the same truth, in parallel fashion. It’s self-explanatory. “Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?” God reversing the creation process, on Job! Or so the man senses. What else could he have thought?

Finally, Job 10:17. “Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.” Looks like Job believes the 3 “friends” (here “witnesses” who attacked Job viciously) are sent of God! But God later in the book rebukes them strongly. Also Job thinks God is getting hotter and hotter at him, in anger, every day! The army (“hosts”) of heaven are attacking Job, “war” having been declared against him! “Changes” may again refer to his constantly having to switch clothing, due to the oozing “boils” all over his body, corruption and infection everywhere.

Then, exasperated, near the end of his speech Job cries to God: “Let me alone!” Here’s the whole verse: “Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little.” Job 10:20

That’s why I labeled today’s Lesson, “a hurting man.”

YET … I MUST EMPHASIZE … THROUGH ALL THIS AGONY JOB NEVER ONCE “CURSES” GOD. Like the Satan said he would do back in both chapters 1 and 2. Job stayed True to His God.

He still believed in God.

Readers here today … this is FAITH in its purest form.

BELIEVING … IN THE FACE OF ALL KINDS OF OPPOSITION!

Like Hebrews 11:33-34 illustrated: “Christians who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”

Wow!

Job thinks God has turned against him … yet in reality God is thrilled with His persevering saint!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Job asked it from the depths of his heart. “How should man be just with God?” Job 9:2

All Job’s acquaintances (Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar) have accused Job of being “not right” with God.

Of having blatant sin in his life.

Of experiencing such trauma (tragedy after tragedy) solely because of hypocrisy, unconfessed iniquity in his life. Apparently “tons” of it!

Later, Job (with a glimmer of hope) proclaims: “Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.” Job 13:8, in the Patriarch’s reply to Zophar.

“Justified,” in Hebrew “tzsadaq,” means “right” with God, “straight” (not crooked) in the Lord’s Eyes. “Cleared” of charges of any wrong!

It’s interesting that the man who suffered so much (the Old Testament’s supreme “sufferer”) asks this question repeatedly, inquiring about being “justified.”

BUT I HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER TO JOB’S BURNING QUESTION!

“How should man be just with God?”

In the New Testament, the answer.

To be “justified,” one must know Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” Romans 3:24-25

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith.” Romans 3:28

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Romans 5:9

“Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1st Corinthians 6:11

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.” Galatians 2:16

“That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:7

Anyone can now know the answer to Job’s penetrating question!

Anyone who trusts, believes the Bible.

But notice something.

Every verse I’ve used (New Testament) is from the pen of the Apostle Paul!

He is the man whom the Holy Spirit used to answer … “How should man be just with God?”

And who is Paul?

Get this!

He is the greatest human “sufferer” in the New Testament! (Outside of Jesus …Who is Very God of Very God! God the Son, God come to earth! Not merely a human!)

Wow!

The … Old Testament prototype of suffering (Job) … asks about being “justified.”

Then the … New Testament prototype of suffering (Paul) … answers the question (multiple times) about being “justified!”

Maybe “hurting” brings us closer to God, to wanting to be “right” with him!

And guess what … the answer to the dilemma of justification (How can man be right, straight in God’s Eyes?) is found in … The Innocent Sufferer named Jesus!

In His Death on Calvary!

In His shed Blood!

In His vicarious Death!

Maybe “suffering” (after all) has a ministry, particularly in the area of teaching us our need for being in harmony with Almighty God!

Job (as he suffered) asked the question.

Paul (as he suffered) ventured the answer.

JESUS (as he suffered) made it possible … RIGHT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD!

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Maybe suffering “sensitizes” us to the great issues of life. Psalm 119:71, its writer, certainly agrees. Here he is admitting to God: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”

Wow!