Thursday - Job 15 - The Plight of Evil Men

T

here is some merit in what Eliphaz said to Job in his second rant. When he spoke of the general immorality and debauchery of humanity, he said things that we have to agree with (Job 15:14-16).  The problem with Eliphaz’s discourse is that he applied his hamartiology wrongly. He did what a few modern didacts do sometimes. He extended the true doctrine of the total depravity of mankind even to the actions of God's redeemed children. We must remember that once we are brought by God's grace to a position of faith and sanctification, we can and do please the Father; He does receive pleasure from our existence. In fact, His agenda is to bring us to a place of perfection. Both Old and New Testament saints received good grades on their report cards because of their faith. Job was born a sinner just like the rest of us... and he was still a fallen creature, but as we have already seen several times, Job's suffering was not a result of any sin that he was guilty of, it was a result of his devotion to God. Yet Eliphaz insisted on calling Job to an altar of repentance. Sometimes such invitations are simply not appropriate.

Another error that Eliphaz made was that he missed the timing of the sure curse on unrepentant sinners. In Job 15:20-35 Eliphaz insisted that sinful men suffer for their sin in this life. Well, truly there are many men whose sins begin to bring consequences very quickly and they earn for themselves an early grave. However, there are others who seemingly escape from all penalties in this life and only face justice after their departure from this life. Jesus, Solomon, David and Asaph all spoke of the common temporal prosperity of evil men (Luke 16:19, 22, 23 & 25, Ecclesiastes 8:14, Psalm 37:35 &73:3). In other words, they directly contradicted Eliphaz’s concept. I think I'll stick with those men and reject Eliphaz’s overly simplistic ideas. He may have had experience and gray hair, but his evaluation was erroneous.