Usually, folks, who wish to be the movers and shakers of society, want to establish a foundation for their point-of-view. They begin by saying something everyone, even their opponents, might agree to. They wish to appear wise or to be establishing a good thing that would benefit all. Therefore, they avoid beginning with controversy, because that would separate many desired supporters. Elihu is no different. He begins by saying, “Hearken to me, O you men of understanding; far be it from God to act wickedly, or the Almighty to commit iniquity” (Job 34:10). Who among the righteous would disagree with that? Read the rest of this entry »
In chapter 32 of Job, a new player is introduced into the discussion. His name is Elihu, but who is he, really? He continues to speak for six chapters (32 to 37). His is the longest, uninterrupted discourse of the Book of Job. We know very little about him, only that he is the son of Barachel, the Buzite, who was of the family of Ram (Job 32:2). But, how does this identify him? It puts Elihu as a descendant of Nahor, Abraham’s brother (cp. Genesis 22:20-21),[1] which would probably make him a contemporary of Abraham and Isaac and perhaps Jacob. This conclusion gains some support in the fact that the text shows Job was allied with the Sabeans and the Chaldeans in the East, vis-à-vis of Mesopotamia, which would put the alliance prior to the Sabeans migrating to Africa (cp. Isaiah 43:3; cp. Genesis 11:9). Thus, the timeline agrees with Elihu living near the time of Abraham. Read the rest of this entry »
Over a decade ago, I involved myself in the discussion boards on the web. My choice was either Belief Net and Belief Corner (neither are in use today). There I would be found discussing and debating my faith with unbelievers (those of different faiths) and atheists and agnostics. Interestingly, I found that, no matter what their faith or position on the existence of God, they helped me to take my faith more seriously than I would have, if left to myself to grow in Christ. Their contentious words caused me to dig deeper for answers and the proof of what I trusted to be true. To my great surprise, therefore, I am as much indebted to them for my growth in Christ, as I am to any Christian preacher, before whom I sat in order to understand the truth of what I had come to believe. Read the rest of this entry »
What Job does in Job 27:7-10 is curse those who set themselves against him, saying let them be as the wicked. In other words, let them inherit the reward of the wicked. Let them be as the unrighteous (Job 27:7), and Job includes himself in this curse. In other words, in the context of his oath to the Lord (Job 27:1-6), he would be his own enemy and the enemy of God, if he lied and played the hypocrite, because a just God would never justify the claims of a hypocrite who pretends to be righteous. So, if Job claims he hadn’t lied and calls upon God to witness to the truth of that statement, if he had spoken insincerely, he would be placing himself under the very curse he utters against those who oppose him in maintaining his integrity. Therefore, “Let my enemy be as the wicked…” is to say, if I have lied and done wickedly, by calling upon the Lord to witness to my integrity I have become my own enemy (Job 27:7). Read the rest of this entry »
The word of God begins with, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void…” (Genesis 1:1-2). In other words, the earth was in chaos, with no form or order to it. This is repeated by the prophet at the prospect of the land of Judah and Jerusalem (with its Temple) being destroyed: “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void…” (Jeremiah 4:23). Jeremiah viewed the thing the Lord would bring to pass as utter chaos. Similarly, Job looked for the Lord in the thing that occurred to him. His family was destroyed; his wealth was gone; his health was depleted, and he was at death’s door. Why? Eliphaz had told Job, “Acquaint yourself with the Lord…” (Job 22:21), but where is God that I may present myself to him and be reconciled? If I go forward, he isn’t there, or backward, he isn’t perceived (Job 23:8). If I go to the left or to the right I cannot see or understand the work that he does (Job 23:9). Nothing makes sense. It is all “without form and void,” vis-à-vis utter chaos! The Lord had not treated Job according to his works. Job wasn’t wicked, as the friends contended, so why had the Lord singled him out in order to pour out his wrath upon him? Read the rest of this entry »
Bad theology is the source of much trouble, because it causes folks to be overly judgmental toward their neighbors. By ‘neighbors,’ I mean other folks, who should be treated according to the golden rule: do onto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31). Moreover, this is based upon the second greatest commandment: love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:38-40). So, the scriptures speak of folks in general, not just the person who lives next door or on the same street as we do. In the context of Job’s debate with the friends, it was bad theology for the friends to accuse Job of wrongdoing, simply because the Lord had brought such disastrous events down upon him. Other than the fact that the friends believed and taught that the wicked are punished by God in their lifetimes, and that they presumed the calamities brought down upon Job was according to the Lord’s wrathful judgment, they had no proof that he had committed any evil acts against his neighbors. Think about that. They judged Job not according to his deeds, per se, but according to what they believed was so, apart from any act they were able to prove Job had done! Their theology condemned Job! Therefore, Job was wicked—case closed. Read the rest of this entry »
Now that all three friends have spoken, Job feels free to really lay it on the line, holding nothing back. Nevertheless, he knows how to reply with class, while Zophar on his best day couldn’t rise above being crass. The problem seems to be that Job was willing to step out of the safety of the crowd and be counted, whether right or wrong. Nevertheless, his friends hunkered down with one another, losing their individuality for the sake of the safety of the crowd. For them one’s own conscience had no meaning. A similar modern proverb might be: The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it! While on its face, the proverb is true, it usually means what one heard about the Bible, that one believes, and the accepted interpretation settles it. So, I have to ask, where is wisdom or self-governance in that proverb? The presumed wisdom of someone else doesn’t make one wise, simply because he agrees with what is said. It is the responsibility of the one who would be wise to investigate what he hears, carefully consider how he understands that to mean, and decide for himself what has value. Simply adhering to the common opinion adds nothing to one’s wisdom, to say nothing of one’s righteous character. Read the rest of this entry »
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Job began his reply to Bildad by saying, “he knows it is so of a truth” (Job 9:1-2), but what does he know of a truth? Well, although Bildad wasn’t looking for an answer per se, Job replied to Bildad’s rhetorical question: “Does God pervert judgment? or does the Almighty pervert justice?” (Job 8:3). In other words, Bildad expected Job to agree with him on this point. However, Job specifically mentioned that he agreed with Bildad’s implication that God doesn’t pervert judgment or justice, in order that he might add a rhetorical question of his own: “…how should mankind be just with God?” (Job 9:2). Job’s point was that his friends were missing the obvious. Read the rest of this entry »
Bildad tells Job to investigate the testimony of the former age (Job 8:8), but what age is he referring to? He mentions the fact that their own lives in the present were but shadows of the lives of folks who lived in the former age (Job 8:9). If we allow that Job is a contemporary of Abraham, then Job might have expected to live, perhaps, to about one-hundred and seventy-five years (Genesis 25:7) or a reasonable facsimile. Moreover, at the age of one-hundred, Abraham didn’t expect to be able to sire a child, and at age ninety, Sarah’s womb was effectively dead (Genesis 17:17). Therefore, unless the Lord performed a miracle for Job, as he had done with Abraham, the fact that he sired seven additional children by his wife sometime after his present trial (cp. Job 42:13) shows his wife had to be less than ninety and probably less than eighty when the first of the second set of seven children was born. Read the rest of this entry »
Job tells his friends that he is willing to change his mind, if he has misunderstood his predicament, or if he has misunderstood Eliphaz’s argument (Job 6:24). However, Eliphaz and his friends need to show just cause for their opinions, not merely say Job is wrong, and not merely say they hold the correct point of view. This is largely the fault of many, today, who approach the truth. They assume their understanding about a matter is correct, so they argue according to the presumed correctness of that worldview. Nevertheless, if their worldview doesn’t work, if it is wrong, their conclusion about the matter under discussion will inevitably be wrong, as well. Yet, it is very difficult to bring these same folks to understand that they, like Job’s friends, are in error.[1]Read the rest of this entry »
We need to keep in mind that the events of the Book of Job took place before the word of God was written down. In fact, if Job was a contemporary of Abraham, as seems to be the case, Job was written down before any of the books of the Law were written. While some household records of Genesis were written and handed down from generation to generation, these were yet to be codified by the man of God, and the bulk of Genesis, recording the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were yet to be written. If this is true, from where did man get his knowledge of God? Read the rest of this entry »
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I cannot help but think Eliphaz is summing up his argument in the same manner that Joshua summed up his final address to Israel. They begin in the same manner, emphasizing what they would do, and both tell their listeners to choose the Lord (Job 5:8; cp. Joshua 24:15). So, once again Eliphaz is offering good advice (cp. 2Samuel 24:14; 1Peter 4:19), but he presumes Job has sinned, and the reason for his suffering is due to a lack of repentance on his part. While it is good advice, when the police officer stops you and commands that you comply with the traffic laws, why would he do such a thing, if you hadn’t transgressed any of them? Keep in mind that we have the Lord’s own testimony that Job was upright in all his ways, feared God and there was none like him in the earth (Job 1:8) and his suffering had nothing to do with bad behavior (Job 2:3). Even the truth, when used out of context, misrepresents God. So, as for Eliphaz’s “I would seek God…” is he really seeking or does he believe he already knows what God would do? Is he seeking or pontificating over what he believes is so? Read the rest of this entry »
Eliphaz seems to have been a gentle critic of Job’s expression of grief in chapter three. It also seems Eliphaz was a true friend who wanted the best for Job. His own insights into the goodness of God is unparalleled in scripture, and some of what he says here is even quoted or alluded to in the New Covenant text. This may be surprising to some, because the mention of Job’s friends has often been done by modern religious folks to refer to the unjust criticism they’ve received from others. As for myself, I was pleasantly surprised to unfold this man’s worldview of God. It is much like that, which I hold. Nevertheless, there is a difference, because, as I mentioned in previous studies, the reader of this book, from the very beginning, is given information, concerning which these four men are ignorant. Therefore, however well-intentioned Eliphaz was, and whatever truth he possessed about the goodness of God, it was misapplied with respect to Job’s trial. Thus, we must keep this in mind, not only while reading and interpreting Eliphaz’s remarks, but also in the manner in which we, ourselves, use and interpret the truth we have been given, as that pertains to our attitudes toward others. Read the rest of this entry »
In the days prior to when the word of God was written down, how was truth communicated or revealed to mankind? If we allow for the Book of Job to be written prior to the Prophets, prior to the history of Israel (Joshua, Samuel, Kings etc.), even prior to the books of Moses (Torah), if Job was written before all these books, how would God’s truth have been revealed? Is it possible for the mind of man to envision what God is like or must God reveal himself to mankind, if accurate understanding is desired? If knowing and understanding truth wasn’t possible, why would the Lord judge man for his ignorance? Read the rest of this entry »
God is good! That’s true, and it will always be true. God is good in the storm, and he is good also when the clouds dissipate to let the sun shine through once more. God is good in birth and in death and during all the moments in between. “Whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap!” (Galatians 6:7). This is a truism, and truisms are generally, but not always, true. For example, there is such a thing as forgiveness. Is God unrighteous, because he forgives and doesn’t’ treat us as we deserve? “God so loved the world that he gave…” (John 3:16). Did Jesus deserve the death he endured? Was the crucifixion his just due for what he sowed in his life? Truth will always be truth, but truisms are not always true! Read the rest of this entry »
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