Job 15:15–16

Eliphaz continues, "If God puts no trust in His holy ones (evidently angels), and the heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!" (vv.15-16). From God's viewpoint this is true too. But would Eliphaz have liked it if Job called him "abominable and filthy"? So Eliphaz was trying to use a general truth to convict Job of worse guilt than was really true of Job.

qadosh, 'consecrated, set apart, holy.' Deut. 33:3; Job 15:15; Ps. 89:5, 7; Dan. 7:18-27.

The heavens are not guilty, but they are defiled. That is why Christ has gone up "far above all heavens." Everything the creature has had dealings with is defiled. If we think of God as dwelling, in a sense, in His creation, He sees the whole of it defiled. Not where He is in His own being and nature, in unapproachable light. But where He is in connection with His creatures, there is defilement.

The lower heavens, defiled by Satan's presence, are indeed "not pure in His sight."

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.

Eliphaz repeats what he said in his first speech about the holiness of God (Job 4:17-19). If the very heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less is mortal, sinful man! But is not Eliphaz one of these, as well as the poor sufferer? Why then apply it to Job, as though it proved him a sinner above all others? This, surely, is more like crafty speech than all the heated words of Job. Let Eliphaz take his place beside Job and confess that he too is "abominable and filthy." The poor sufferer might have responded to that.

So the heavenly things here are spoken of as purchased, purified, reconciled, redeemed. In whose eyes were they impure? In the eyes of the One to whom alone all true sacrifice was ever offered. It was the nature of God that required atonement, His holiness that needed satisfaction in it. In a deeper sense than Eliphaz probably knew, it could be said, "the heavens are not pure in His sight" (Job 15:15).

Heaven itself must be purified by blood. Creation was God's first work, and the sinner's work did not pollute it only in part. The taint of sin reached heaven as well as earth... The heavens now are clean, through Jesus' blood; although they were not always so.

But God is holy. Now holiness has to do with nature. God has a nature that cannot tolerate sin. Sinful flesh cannot stand in His presence. "The heavens are not pure in His sight" (Job 15:15). That which marks sinful man cannot stand before Him.

What he says about the holiness of God is quite right. The lower heavens, defiled by the presence of Satan, really are "not clean in His sight." What he says about the filthiness of man is equally true. But he then concludes that Job must be guilty of secret evils that he had ignored instead of admitting — and that conclusion was wide of the mark.

From God's viewpoint this is true. But would Eliphaz have appreciated it if Job had called him "abominable and filthy"? So Eliphaz was trying to use a general truth to convict Job of worse guilt than was actually true of Job.

If the very heavens are unclean in His sight, how much less is mortal sinful man! But is not Eliphaz one of these, as well as the poor sufferer? Why then apply it to Job as though it proved him a sinner above all others? This is surely more like crafty speech than all the hot words of Job. Let Eliphaz take his place beside Job and confess that he too is "abominable and filthy." The poor sufferer might have responded to that.

Truth held in the abstract is of no use to the saints of God. Things that are true, but misunderstood and misapplied, may do more harm than many a thing that is false. Misapplied truth gives an error the apparent authority of God, and that error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth. People despise a foolish saying, or one clearly false; but no believer can slight the truth of God. So when someone uses the truth of God wrongly — when he applies it to crush a person who is an object of intense interest to God at that moment — how foreign and offensive to His mind!

Bildad seems to be repeating the words of Eliphaz (Job 4:18; Job 15:15-16), but his closing words go far beyond his own thoughts and suspicions. We will rest in what he says, rather than in what he thinks of his poor, suffering friend. We will not charge him with weakness or copying. Instead we will humble our own spirits under the quiet light of those heavens, which show us our nothingness and turn us to Him who is our "Strength and our Redeemer."

The Lord said of Job that he had no equal on earth, not even his three friends, and that he was perfect and upright. Then disaster burst on him and overwhelmed his body and his circumstances. He did not know God's love and unsearchable wisdom, so he spoke rash words. Yet even then he knew enough of himself to say, "If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands ever so clean, yet You will plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes will abhor me." He did not know the utter vileness of his nature. That is learned only in the presence of God, whose divine light lays the heart bare. When brought to that light, he says, "Behold, I am vile."