Job 15:12–13

Eliphaz considered that Job's heart was carrying him away and he was turning his spirit against God (vv.12-13). Why? Because Job set his spirit against what his friends were saying, and Eliphaz thought they were speaking for God. He could sharply rebuke Job for ever letting such words come out of his mouth. But Eliphaz did not stop to consider that he needed to restrain such words as came from his own mouth.

What does Eliphaz mean by asking, "Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?" (v.11). No doubt he meant that he and his friends had brought the consolations of God to Job, and Job did not appreciate such help. Of course Job did not think their words were gentle. He did not think they were showing him "the comforts of God." No wonder Job said in chapter 16:2, "miserable comforters are you all!"

Why, he asks, do Job's eyes flash the rebellion of his wayward heart, instead of bowing to the charges of the friends? He counts this as turning away from God. It is a charge of heresy against a man who will not bow to his questioners, and such charges are common enough.

Job had indeed opened himself to the charge of casting off fear. His wild words were the opposite of prayer or devotion. His own words, says Eliphaz, confirm what the friends suspect and charge him with: wickedness and godlessness. But when he accuses Job of craftiness, he charges what is untrue. The poor sufferer had poured out his misery with no thought of what it would cost him. Whatever he is, Job is no hypocrite.

The second round of debate now opens with the appeal of Eliphaz. He shows more openly the growing sense in his soul that Job must lack integrity. As before, there is weighty truth in what he presses, and he presses it with great force. But applying it to the sufferer had no ground, and so it was unjust in the highest degree.

Here was where they went astray; they assumed that the present state of the world is an adequate expression of His judgment of men's ways. This assumption runs through the speeches of all three friends. At first they express it fairly calmly. In time it ripens into severity, as Job's passionate outburst resents what they point to more and more as the hidden explanation of the facts.

The friends spoke much of God, but they looked on Him only as a judge. This was a great defect, and the correction is the moral of the whole book. Some make the one question before God now to be whether He marks out what we deserve in this present life. They completely miss the truth. God has taken advantage of the evil that is here to show the grace that is in Himself, above the evil.

Job is no wiser than others. So why does he refuse the "consolations of God" that these friends were offering him? It certainly takes a stretch of imagination to call their galling words — like vinegar on soda — by such a tender name. … Why, he asks, do Job's eyes flash the rebellion of his wayward heart, instead of bowing to the charges of the friends? He counts this as turning away from God. That is a charge of heresy against a man who will not bow to his questioners, and such charges are common enough.

"You cast off fear and hold back prayer before God." Now he did nothing of the kind. Job always clung to God, always looked up to God; but he said, "I cannot find Him. He has shut me out, keeping me taken up with this agony I am passing through, so that I cannot get at Him. I know that if I could only get there, I would find goodness and mercy." It was no doubt very inconsistent; but that is always the case with poor man when he is not in the presence of God.

There cannot be a more instructive lesson for us on the danger of judging by appearances. … A surface survey is never the way to reach a righteous judgment, as the Lord Himself warned in His day. … Appearances were against Job. "Your own mouth condemns you," says Eliphaz, pointing to words of Job's that were improper beyond question.

Further questions follow in verses 11-16. His statements about the holiness of God are quite right. Satan's presence has defiled the lower heavens, and they are indeed "not clean in His sight." What he says about the filthiness of man is just as true. But he then concluded that Job must be guilty of secret evils, which he ignored instead of admitting. That conclusion was wide of the mark.

Their error was not a rare one. You find it among righteous people who know God, yet have never been fully broken down about themselves. … Here is where they went astray. They assumed that the present state of the world fully shows God's judgment on men's ways. This assumption runs through the speeches of the three friends. At first they said it calmly enough, but in time it hardened into severity.

The heart rebels more against God than against man. Even Job complained of God more than of the Sabeans and the rest. It is because God touches the conscience. It is a sad thing when His voice is not heard in chastening.