Job 15:6

He tells Job that his own iniquity leads him to speak as he does and that Job chose cunningly devised words to cover up his sin (v.5). Clearly Eliphaz was condemning Job in the strongest terms, yet he claims he is not the one condemning him: Job's own words are. He never tells Job which words condemned him. He simply used one sweeping accusation to cancel everything Job had said. Of course this was grossly unfair, but he smugly insists, "Your own lips testify against you" (v.6).

No lesson could teach us more than this one about the danger of judging by appearances. It is beyond question a main point in this wonderful book. A quick look at the surface is never the way to form a right judgment; the Lord Himself warned of that in His day. If it was wrong in them then, it deserves far more blame in us. Here we have a whole book given to guarding us from that trap... Appearances were against Job. "Your own mouth condemns you," says Eliphaz, referring to his undoubtedly improper expressions.

As before, there is weighty truth in what he says, and he presses it with great force. But he aims it at a suffering man with no grounds at all, and so it is as unjust as it could possibly be.

Job's wild language really did leave him open to the charge of throwing off fear, since such talk is the opposite of prayer or devotion. His own words, says Eliphaz, confirm what the friends suspect and charge: wickedness and godlessness. But when he accuses Job of craftiness, the charge is untrue. The poor sufferer had poured out his misery with no thought for the consequences. Whatever he is, Job is no hypocrite.

In his view, godliness paid. It brought God's favour, and that favour showed itself in earthly prosperity. If it did not, what was the practical gain of godliness? So, he thought, Job's terrible sufferings could have only one explanation — however strongly Job kept insisting that he was upright.

Job 15 holds the second speech of Eliphaz, and we can hear a harsher tone in it. The friends had come to comfort, but their efforts soon turned into argument. Their tempers rose and bitterness spoiled their spirits, as each man argued to prove his own point of view. How often, over the centuries, has this tragedy ended in quarrels and division, and spoiled the witness of God-fearing people, right down to our own day.

God was showing the danger of misjudgment, a danger even for holy men of God... We lose the whole profit of the book if we treat them as nothing but self-righteous men in the bad sense of the word.