Encounters With Eliphaz
In the last chapter of the book of Job, God
chides Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends because, “you have not spoken the
truth about me, as my servant Job has.” You may recall that the friends
insisted that Job’s suffering was a result of his own sin. Job maintained
throughout that he had lived righteously, and the judgment he was receiving
from God was undeserved. As
I have written previously, God corrected Job by asserting His sovereign
right to do with His creation as He wished, without regard to their comfort. After
Job’s friends finish their misguided advice, God expresses His anger at them
for not speaking the truth.
God’s reprimand clearly confirms the message of the book by
establishing Job’s innocence and God’s right as sovereign. What strikes me with
His word to Eliphaz and company is that He expected them to know His truth. We
don’t know for sure, but most Bible scholars think Job lived around the time of
Abraham – during the patriarchal age – before any written scripture we know of.
This is not the only instance of God expecting men to know His will. Cain was
chided for not knowing how to properly approach God; then he killed his brother
in a rage. Enoch obviously did what God wanted and was rewarded with a free
trip to Heaven without dying first. Noah listened to God and built the ark
according to God’s design. Abraham took off for parts unknown on the word of a
God he obviously trusted.
Then we come to Job. God affirmed Job’s opinion and condemned
the friends for expressing false opinions. Jesus had similar encounters with
the religious leaders of His day; they should have recognized who He was, but
they did not because as Jesus
said, “You search the scriptures because you think that you have eternal
life in them, and it is these that testify about me. And you are not willing to
come to me so that you may have life.” As is usually the case, ignorance is no
excuse. Even though they had no written Scriptures we know of, Job’s friends
were chastened by God for not speaking truthfully.
One has to wonder what God must be thinking about His people
today. We have His Word in almost every known language, and many homes in this
country have several copies, yet there is an alarming lack of Bible knowledge
even among Christians. (See Merely
Christian) Even worse, we have some people claiming to follow the Bible,
but like the Jews of Jesus’ day, make their converts, “twice
as much the son of hell as you are.” You don’t have to go to some crazy
cult to find teachers
who twist the Scripture to fit their own ideas of who God is and what He wants.
Churches that used to be bastions of biblical integrity are now condoning all
manner of unbiblical practices.
The worst part of all this is that when someone stands up
for traditional biblical interpretation, he is likely to be mocked as a
simpleton or shouted down as a politically incorrect hater. We shouldn’t be
surprised. Jesus was mocked and killed as were many of the prophets before Him,
and many of His true followers were martyred by the very church that should
have welcomed them. When Martin Luther tried to correct the Roman church after
he discovered the true meaning of salvation by grace through faith, he ran afoul
of the leadership. When he was called to testify before church leaders, a
friend warned him of the potential danger. Luther responded, “This is no time
to think of safety. I must take care that the gospel is not brought into
contempt by our fear to confess and seal our teaching with our blood.”
The true gospel is being brought into contempt these days. No
one in this country has been asked to seal their teaching with their blood yet,
but preachers have been jailed for sharing a traditional interpretation of the
biblical position on homosexuality. Parents can be brought up on charges for using
corporal punishment in a biblically sound manner. Merchants
can be fined for standing on principle and refusing to support causes they
find unbiblical. Teens
can get birth control or gender
altering drugs without parental approval. Elementary schools are
indoctrinating students with the tenets of critical
race theory that clearly trample the rights of Christian parents to educate
their children as they see fit.
I would dearly love to hear God thunder the way He did to
Eliphaz. I sometimes feel like the
Psalmist who complains, “Why do the wicked prosper?” I long for the
retribution promised the unrighteous: “Let them be shamed and abashed
altogether who seek to take away my life. Let them be repulsed and humiliated who desire
my harm.” We need to take Paul’s advice and put
on the full armor of God. There’s an Eliphaz around every corner these
days, and it may be up to us to put him in his place. Pray you are prepared.
Related posts: Paging
Phineas Eleazer; Make Me Be
Good; The
Importance of Being Right; Not
Our Fathers’ God; I
Don’t Believe in God
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