Job chapter 15 reminds me how often we make assumptions about people based on outward appearances. I recently commented to a man I have not seen in over a year, “You’ve lost weight, you look great”. And he replied weakly, “I’ve been very sick”. Awkward. Job’s friend Eliphaz was furious that Job continued to claim that he has no hidden sin. Eliphaz insisted Job was sick because God was judging the sin in his life. From his perspective, the illness is proof of his claim. Eliphaz listened to Job complaining to God in the previous chapters and was outraged, calling out Job for his, “useless words, with speeches that have no value“. He says of Job, “you even undermine piety” by claiming innocence while, “Your own mouth condemns you“. Remember Job had asked God to “stop frightening me with your terrors” (13:21). To Eliphaz that was an admission of guilt because in his mind God punishes the guilty. But he asked a question that should make us think. “What do you know that we do not know?” I believe anyone that has experienced mourning and loss, suffering or chronic pain… understands there is more to life than just acquiring more stuff. Job has a perspective his friend does not. When we experience difficulties, it enables us to minister to others more effectively, “that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (1 Corinthians 1:4).
Eliphaz does not display an ounce of compassion toward his pitiful friend. For the rest of the chapter Eliphaz tries to convince Job that his claim of innocence is destroying him. From his sad perspective, God is enjoying the process. First he asks Job a series of questions, “Do you listen in on God’s council?“. Then he lobs in a few judgmental grenades. “Why has your heart carried you away… vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water… He wanders about food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand… Distress and anguish fill him with terror… because he shakes his fist at God… against the Almighty“. Jesus had a word for the spiritually proud with a powerful reminder that we can also err in what we DO NOT do. “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me” (Matthew 25:45). Who are “the least of these” in your life?
The chapter ends with what might be a self-indictment of Eliphaz and any of us that put all out trust in our financial nest-egg. People that are “fat and happy” perhaps believe their wealth will allow them to “defiantly charging against Him with a thick, strong shield“. Eliphaz explains, “Though his face is covered with fat and his waist bulges with flesh… his wealth will not endure“. Many people today do not see their need to depend on God for their daily bread. He warns, “Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless“. It is interesting that he is scolding Job, but does not apply it to himself. Eliphaz condemns his friend, “For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes“. In Matthew 7:3, Jesus points out the hypocrisy this way, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” 1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart“. God desires that your life would be full to overflowing! And what does God require? Only that you ask Him to be the Lord of your whole life.