Job 15:34

From verse 17 to the end of the chapter we find a vivid description of how God judges the wicked in His government of this world. He assured Job that he had really seen God act this way. He was declaring what he had watched with his own eyes. And as he closed, he did not fail to aim more indirect charges at Job, speaking of men who were "deceived," of "hypocrites," of "tents of bribery," and of "deceit."

Eliphaz had already implied that Job was a hypocrite. Now he suggests that Job might be guilty of bribery too. Either way, all that the wicked conceive is trouble, and it ends in emptiness. This is what he thought Job's end would be!

This is how terribly Eliphaz describes the hollow prosperity, the real misery, and the certain destruction of the godless. Since God was not feared, emptiness is the mark stamped on everything. A man's life does not consist in how much he owns, and those who set their minds on their possessions must learn how empty they are in the day of trial. They may show promise like the palm, the vine, or the olive; but it all comes to nothing. Barrenness will be the portion of him and his family, and judgment consumes the tents of those greedy for dishonest gain.

Their error was not at all unusual, especially among the righteous, who know God but have never been thoroughly broken down about themselves. You still find such people among His own on the earth. But here is where they went wrong: they assumed that the way the world looks now is a full expression of God's judgment on men's ways.

Job knew that "The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure" (Job 12:6), though Eliphaz thought that for the wicked man "in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him" (Job 15:21). What Eliphaz thought was sometimes right. It was not always right, as the writer of Psalm 73 knew, and as we can see from what is all around us.

This is still a painful temptation from Satan. When the soul is passing through darkness, it often seems unable to pray — so different from before. "There now," says Satan, "isn't that proof that you are nothing but a wicked person? You must be a hypocrite." "For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery." "The wicked man writhes in pain all his days." "Dear me," says the believer, "that is just how it is with me. I do not enjoy prayer as I once did. I am filled with pain."

Eliphaz probably thought that Job's claimed fear of God was pure hypocrisy, and that Job therefore deserved the strongest rebuke. Eliphaz was just the man to give that rebuke, for he was sure he was speaking for God. What a sad delusion he was living under! We must watch ourselves closely here. We must not jump to conclusions about another believer's spiritual state, or about anything in their life that looks questionable to us. "Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:7).