It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:
Eliphaz has been telling Job about something that came to him in the night. Here he reaches the heart of it: a shape he could not name, a hush, then a voice — and the question of whose message it was, and who it was for.
The form that could not be named
One writer reads the scene as God gaining a man's full attention.
Leslie M. GrantEliphaz describes in the most graphic language a night vision he had experienced in quiet secrecy, one that had a deep effect on him… A form was present, but he could not make out its appearance. No doubt God intended by this to awaken the serious attention of Eliphaz, and He succeeded.
The voice and its message
The silence breaks into words, and the message speaks to man's standing before God.
William KellyNext Eliphaz sets out a message of the night, in mysterious and awe-filled style. It impressed on his own soul how foolish it is when man finds fault with God's dealings and so claims to be more just than God. Man is of the earth, sinful and weak.
True words, wrong target
One writer weighs the whole speech and finds the fault not in its words but in what Eliphaz assumes.
William KellyEvery word may be true in itself; it is all said with the greatest dignity and force. Yet he applies it wrongly, and he sees only one side. As a whole, then, it is wrong. Eliphaz assumes that God is displaying His government right now. He thinks God measures out prosperity or trouble to each person exactly as they deserve. This is false ground. It ruins the application, especially to someone like Job, whom God gave up to Satan's attacks and tried to the end.
In his later speeches Eliphaz keeps appealing to the same authority: what he himself has seen.
F. B. HoleIt is clear that his argument rests mainly for its force on his own powers of observation. He trusted those powers for his opinion about the meaning of the disasters that had fallen on Job.
A message aimed first at the man who received it
One writer asks who the message was really for.
Leslie M. GrantHow true and how fitting such words are for all mankind! But Eliphaz was applying them only to Job, not to himself. He did not consider himself "crushed before a moth" and "broken in pieces." This had happened to Job, so Eliphaz took his vision as applying directly to Job. But a vision or dream is meant to apply directly to the one who has it, and Eliphaz missed that one important fact. In the same way, we may hear good ministry that we think fits others better than ourselves… If Eliphaz had learned the lesson God intended, he would not have spoken to Job the way he did.
Trembling in the dark, and the better light
Eliphaz's own reaction to the vision was fear. One writer takes that fear as a clue to his state, and points to a far clearer vision we have now.
William KellyAnd now he brings in a vision of the night. He was very serious. 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 made known in flesh. We have the vision of God showing Himself, and God speaking and acting for us in this world of sin and death… "Fear came upon me, and trembling" — he clearly did not have enough grace. Grace does not make people afraid in this way. It is judgment that does so, and this is what these good men are full of; they were full of the spirit of judgment.
How much weight the vision carries
Commentators weigh the vision differently. One takes such night messages as real dealings of God with a person:
Samuel RidoutIn the days of the patriarchs, we may say there was no revelation of God except what was given to the individual… A dream or vision was often used, but it was a divine revelation. Eliphaz refers to such a communication, in beautiful language, though not as clearly as Elihu, a later speaker in this book, does here.
Another points out that not everything Eliphaz said carries the same weight:
Frederick W GrantYet Eliphaz for all that could say many a true thing — truth he had doubtless learned from God, and could speak as from Him; and one such saying the Holy Spirit certifies for us through the mouth of Paul. That could not certify the things the same Eliphaz said which were not right.
Summary
- Vision. A form stood before Eliphaz that he could not make out. God used the strangeness to seize his attention, not to satisfy his curiosity.
- Voice. After the silence came the message: no one can claim to be more just than God. Finding fault with His dealings is folly.
- Truth. Every word of it may be true on its own. The error lay underneath: Eliphaz assumed that present blessing and present trouble measure a person exactly.
- Target. A vision is meant first for the one who receives it. Eliphaz aimed it at the sufferer opposite him, and so learned nothing from it himself.
- Light. His night vision produced trembling, not grace. The fuller vision came later, in Christ made known in flesh.