Job 4:1

Here the great debate begins, built on Job's outburst. He was now completely overcome by the calamity God had allowed to fall on him. As a godly man, Job knew very well that God could have prevented it, unless He had a purpose in it. Of that purpose Job knew nothing. But it is worth noticing this before I say more: Satan completely disappears. He had been utterly defeated.

They began to think — and thinking is a dangerous thing. In God's presence we judge self and hear Him. These thoughts of ours, how often they mislead us! What we need is to pray and listen, so that we may receive His word from God. Ah, that is another thing, and exactly what is needed! Their ear was not open... The three friends first kept this dead and distressing silence toward Job. He soon learned, in bitterness, what came out of that silence. Though he began, they followed; but it was their own thoughts and not the mind of God.

They came from districts noted for men of wisdom: "Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished?" (Jer. 49:7)... Some have defined the name Eliphaz as "God is strength," and others as "God is fine gold." Both meanings point at least to the greatness and supremacy of God. His country, Teman, means "the south," the country lying under the sun, open to the light. But we have learned that while the south country is open to the light, it is apt to be dry and arid, as Arabia indeed was. It needs, as Achsah said, "springs of water." Light without life can never help.

What he says is perfectly true. Job had comforted others in times of distress, and he should have borne up under his own trials. And yet would we not expect some words of sympathy from a friend — a "brother born for adversity"? Would not grace always teach us to "weep with those who weep"? The blessed Man of Sorrows did not scold sufferers like this. Human sorrow moved Him to compassion, even to tears. It is this harshness which shows a wrong principle in Eliphaz, one that comes out more clearly as he goes on.

The silence of a week being broken, Eliphaz was moved to speak. His earliest words, at the beginning of Job 4, have a gentle and considerate spirit. He acknowledged that Job had been a helper and support to others.

Eliphaz argued from personal experience. He said, "I have seen that those who plough iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same" (Job 4:8). Bildad is the voice of tradition and the authority of the past... Zophar showed law and religiousness.

His motto was, "As I have seen." Now, what we have seen may be true enough, as far as we are concerned. But it is a total mistake to build a general rule on one person's experience. And thousands of people make that mistake. What, for instance, had the experience of Eliphaz to do with Job?

He and his companions did not understand God, nor His dealings in discipline with a righteous man... So they condemned Job as an evildoer. They took what God had brought on him as the proof. God's wrath was kindled against them, for they had not spoken correctly of Him.