job 15 and 16

Read Job 15 and 16 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions for each man’s speech are like the divisions in the Psalms that we studied in 2014. There is an understood {s} division at the end of each numbered line, with an {n} marking where a new line begins within a numbered line.

Job 15:1-16:22 {s} Division at the end of each numbered line; with these {n} divisions within lines:
Job 16:4a, I also could speak as you do, {n}
Job 16:4b, If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could heap up words against you, {n}
Job 16:12a, I was at ease, but He has shattered me; He also has taken me by my neck, and dashed me to pieces; {n}
Job 16:13a, His archers surround me. He pierces my heart and does not pity; {n}

The outline of Eliphaz’s speech:

Job 15:1-6, Eliphaz accuses Job of abandoning fear of God, and of sinning with his mouth;
Job 15:7-13, Eliphaz puffs up his own wisdom and accuses Job of turning from God;
Job 15:14-16, Man cannot be pure, and God does not put His trust in him;
Job 15:17-19, Eliphaz will declare the wisdom of the ages;
Job 15:20-35, The destruction of the wicked.

That man cannot be pure, is about the only wise thing Eliphaz says in this speech. This is what we have to be on guard against, in analyzing the value of the counsel told to us by others: there might be a nugget of truth buried in the whole; if so, that does not mean the whole is true, or the whole must be accepted. It is okay, and prudent, to dig out the nugget of truth to keep, and reject the rest that is not true. Now how does someone know what is true and what is not? The only way, is by knowing God’s Word inside and outside, backwards and forwards. The whole of it, from Genesis to Revelation. It is the plumb line against which all other wisdom must be measured.

Besides the fact that Eliphaz is wrong about the wicked – yes, their end is destruction, but until that end, they most often live in prosperity and comfort all their days – Eliphaz levels several accusations against Job, that turn out not to be true. In fact, the Scripture highlights the point that Job did not sin with his mouth when his calamity came upon him (Job 1:22, 2:10). If we go back to the first two chapters of Job, and review the discussion between the Lord God and Satan, we find that it is God who defends Job, and Satan who accuses him. Eliphaz is coming into agreement with the accuser of the brethren, the adversary:

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.” Rev 12:10

How many times, when others are going through trials, do we fall into the trap that Eliphaz fell into, and echo the words of the enemy? How many times do we bring accusations against our brothers also? Beloved, this ought not to be so. If we open our mouth concerning our brothers at all, oughtn’t it to be in intercession for them, as our Master the Lord Jesus Christ does (Heb 7:25)? May it never be so among us from this day forward, that we are found agreeing with the enemy of God and man!