Job 4:14

Next, in words of great solemnity and lofty poetic beauty, Eliphaz describes his vision of the greatness and holiness of God. In the silent hours of the night, an apparition had come before him, making him tremble with a dread he could not name. While seeing nothing, he had felt the whisper of "a still small voice," and it made his hair stand up.

In the days of the patriarchs, we may say that there was no revelation of God except what was given to the individual. God made His mind known this way to Noah, to Abraham, and even to those who were largely ignorant of Him, such as Abimelech and Laban. A dream or vision was often used, but it was a divine revelation. Eliphaz refers to such a communication, in beautiful language, but not as definitely as Elihu does here.

Eliphaz describes in vivid language a night vision he had experienced in quiet secrecy, and it had a deep effect on him. He was evidently in a deep sleep when a fit of fear and trembling seized him (v.14). A spirit passed before his face, making his hair stand up. A form was present, but its appearance could not be made out. No doubt God intended by this to awaken the serious attention of Eliphaz, and He succeeded.

And God has often used visions of the night. It is true that we have something far better. We have the vision of the day. We have the great vision of Christ manifested in flesh. We have the vision of God showing Himself, and God speaking and acting for us in this world of sin and death... "dread came upon me, and trembling" — clearly he did not have enough of grace; grace does not make people fear in this way. It is judgment that does so, and that is what these good men were full of; they were full of the spirit of judgment.

From verse 12 onward, the position Eliphaz takes comes more clearly to light. He begins to tell of a rather terrifying experience of his own. He saw some spirit apparition, and received a word of warning about man's frailty and impurity in the presence of his Maker. What he heard is perfectly true. No mortal man can be more pure or more just than God. In both he falls infinitely short of God's glory.

This is all quite true, and in other connections most fitting; but, as already said, it misses the mark, because it does not meet Job's need. Truly, in God's sight, all are as an unclean thing. But does that set aside the fact that there is such a thing as righteousness in the children of God? If all are unclean in God's sight, then Eliphaz must take his place beside Job — something he is by no means ready to do — and every explanation of suffering fails.

They cried out in fear, for they thought they saw a ghost. The appearance of their Master filled them with more alarm than the fury of the storm seems to have done. That fear — the fear of the unknown — took hold of them, the fear Eliphaz spoke of when he said, "dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake."