Beloved, I am pleased to share with you today the above theme from Job 5:1 and following. Indeed, themain theme that the three friends will develop in various ways in their speeches is the following: God is just. He would not have hit Job so hard if he had not deserved it. All his trials are a punishment, a judgment. Let him confess his sins and he will be restored! But we know from the beginning of the account that Job was not guilty of any particular fault. Jehovah himself said to Satan, “You incited me against him to swallow him without cause (Jb 2:3). It was therefore wrong to consider his event as a discipline. But, with the exception of this word, v. 17 and 18 are an admirable summary of its entire history. Let’s bring them closer to Pr 3:11-12, quoted in Heb 12:4-7: “My son, do not despise the instruction of the Lord, and do not dislike his rebuke. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves.” Jehovah had something to take up and straighten in his servant: it was a spirit of his own righteousness. He had made the wound, but he was also going to heal it for Job’s happiness.
The one the Lord loves! What an extraordinary consolation! The storm that Satan unleashes is ultimately for the believer a proof of divine love. Then Job deplores and curses the day of his birth; he does not curse God; nothing like that addresses his mind. However, he expresses in an inappropriate way his horror of the day in which his birth was announced. The whole scene of that day appears to him as shrouded in darkness. Everything that had to do with his entry into this world was horrible in his eyes. He cries out bitterly: “Perish the day I am born, and the night that says: A man has been conceived! On that day, let it be darkness.” And again: “That night, let the darkness take hold of it.” Then: “Behold, let that night be sterile; let the cries of joy not enter it.” He asks why he was born to be destined for such misery, why he was not left instead, he cries out ironically, “with the kings and advisors of the earth who build solitudes for themselves.” Is this what the glory of this world leads to? To ruins that kings raise for themselves? The same is true for “princes who have gold, who have filled their houses with silver.” But gold and silver cannot deliver man from pain and death. So this was the life and work in which the kings of Egypt sought fame: the construction of their tombs! But job’s lot seemed even more gloomy. Why hadn’t he been slept in a desolate place like that, or why was he born?
If it were true that, because all are sinners before God, affliction and pain are punishments for sin and a man is happy to receive this divine correction, why is Eliphaz himself not lying like Job on a pile of ashes, tormented by the torment of sickness? A prosperous good Orthodox, he believes himself to be a prophet, but he is not one. If he were tested like Job, he would also be unreasonable and passionate, as savage in his declamation against life, as hungry for death. For thecreed that collapses at any moment is not a creed for a rational being. Infidelity today is largely the consequence of contradictory legal notions about God, notions of atonement, of the meaning of suffering, of the future life, which are incoherent, childish, without any practical weight. For peoplethink they have a solid understanding of the truth; but when circumstances arise that disagree with their preconceived ideas, they turn away from religion, or their religion makes them look the worst facts of life. This is the result of insufficient reflection. For researchmust go further, must return with new zeal to the study of Scripture and the life of Christ. God’s revelation in providence and Christianity is one. It has a deep coherence, the cachet and the evidence of its truth. The rigidity of natural law makes sense to us in our study of the spiritual life.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
God returns happiness to those who speak to Him:
Dishonor, the wicked will know the
Jb 27:23 One beats hands at his fall, and he is whistled at his departure. Pr 12:8 A man is esteemed because of his intelligence, and he who has a perverse heart is the object of contempt. Isa 66:24 And when we go out, we will see the corpses of the men who rebelled against me; For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished; And they will be for all flesh an object of horror. Dn 12:2 Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake up, some for eternal life, and others for opprobrium, for eternal shame.
- Insecurity of villains, general references
Ps 73:18 Yes, you place them on slippery paths, you bring them down and put them in ruins. Jer 23:12 Therefore their path will be slippery and dark, They will be pushed and they will fall; For I will bring misfortune upon them, the year in which I will chastise them, says the Lord. Ez 13:10-11 These things will happen because they lead my people astray, saying: Peace! when there is no peace. And my people build a wall, and they cover it with plaster. 11 Tell those who cover it with plaster that it will collapse; Heavy rain will occur; And you, hailstones, you will fall, and the storm will break out. Mt 7:26-27 But whoever hears these words that I say, and does not put them into practice, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, the torrents came, the winds blew and beat this house: it fell, and its ruin was great.
- Disappointment in the life of the sinner
Dt 28:39 Thou shalt plant vines and cultivate them; and thou shalt not drink wine and thou shalt not harvest, for the worms shall eat it. Jb 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will be consumed; For them point of refuge; Death is their hope! Isa 17:11 When you planted them, you surrounded them with a hedge, and soon you made them come in bloom. But the harvest has fled, at the moment of enjoyment: And the pain is without remedy. Jer 14:19 Have you rejected Judah, and has your soul taken Zion as a horror? Why do you hit us without there being healing for us? We hoped for peace, and nothing happy happens, A time of healing, and here is terror!
- Spiritual light, general references
Jg 5:31 Thus perish all your enemies, O Lord! Those who love it are like the sun, when it appears in its strength. The country was at rest for forty years. Isaiah 60:3 Nations walk in your light, and kings in the clarity of your rays. Mt 5:14 You are the light of the world. A city located on a mountain cannot be hidden; Acts 13:47 For so the Lord commanded us: I have established you to be the light of the nations, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
From all of the above, we note that in the second part of his talk, Eliphaz strives to bring back to Job a necessary moral lesson by detailing a vision he once had and the oracle that accompanied him. The account of the apparition is written in majestic and impressive language. That frightening feeling of fear that sometimes mixes with our dreams in the middle of the night, the feeling of a presence that cannot be realized, something horrible that blows on the face and makes the flesh crawl, an imaginary voice solemnly falling on the ear, – all are described vividly. In the memory of Eliphaz, the circumstances of the vision are very clear, and the most beautiful poetic skill is used to give the whole solemn dream full justice and effect. On makes us feel how extraordinary the vision seemed to Eliphaz, and, at the same time, how much he lacks the gift of seer. For what is this apparition? Nothing but a vague creation of the mind. And what is the message? No new revelation, no discovery of an inspired soul. After all, only a completely familiar fact to pious thinking. The oracle of the dream is usually supposed to continue until the end of the chapter. But the question of man’s righteousness and purity alongside God seems to be the whole issue, and the rest is Eliphaz’s comment or meditation on it, his “thoughts from the visions of the night.” As for the oracle itself: while words can certainly be translated in such a way as to imply a direct comparison between the justice of man and the justice of God, this is not required by the purpose of the author, as someone has shown. In the form of a question, it is impressively announced that with or next to the High God, no weak man is righteous, no strong man is pure; and this is enough, for Eliphaz’s purpose is to show that troubles can come precisely on Job, as on others, because all of them are by nature imperfect. There is no doubt that the oracle could transcend the scope of the argument. Yet the question was not raised by Job’s critique of providence, whether he considers himself more just than God; and apart from that, any comparison seems useless, encountering no mood of human revolt that Eliphaz has ever heard of. The oracle is therefore practically of the nature of a truism and, as such, agrees with the dreamlike vision and the impalpable ghost, a dark presentation by the mind to itself of what a visitor from the upper world could be. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom as I walk in your ways.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “Job’s first answer to Eliphaz.” (Job 6)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.