Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;
Eliphaz has just told Job about a frightening experience of his own, and here he reports the warning he heard. The warning measures every creature against God, and it starts not with man but with God's servants in heaven. The question is whether such a sweeping truth was the right word for a suffering man. Older translations say "folly" where the ESV says "error." The writers quoted here follow that older wording.
Truth of the warning
Commentators agree that what Eliphaz heard was true. The problem lies elsewhere.
F. B. HoleFrom verse 12 onwards, we see more clearly where Eliphaz stands. He starts to tell a frightening experience of his own. He saw some kind of spirit, and he heard a warning about man's weakness and impurity before his Maker. What he heard is completely true. No mortal man can be more pure or just than God. In both he falls infinitely short of God's glory.
Which angels are meant
Writers read the second line differently. One takes it of the angels who fell:
James BoydPsalm 102 puts it beyond question that the elect angels obey the will of God in all they do. They have no will contrary to the will of God. I take it that the angels He charged with folly (Job 4:18) were fallen angels.
Another reads it more widely. Everything the creature has had to do with is defiled, though not guilty:
Why God puts no trust in a creature
God does not lean on His servants. The reason lies in what a creature is: something that has to be held up.
James BoydNo creature can keep himself in blessing by his own obedience. God's power must keep every creature He sets in blessing with Himself. All who have stood on the ground of their own responsibility have fallen. There are fallen angels as well as fallen men, and there are elect angels as well as elect men. It is impossible to imagine a creature that supports itself.
From angels down to man
The comparison begins in heaven and then drops to man. If heaven's own beings are unclean beside God, mortal man has far less to say for himself.
Samuel Ridout"Shall mortal man be more just than God?" — or "just before God," in His presence. Compared with His holiness, even the heavenly beings are unclean. The seraphim cover their faces as they proclaim Him. How much less can mortal man boast of himself, since his mortality is a witness of his sin. His breath is in his nostrils. His life is over in a day, like a story that is told — like the short-lived moth.
True doctrine aimed at the wrong man
Here is the flaw. Eliphaz used a truth that levels everyone to single out one sufferer.
Samuel RidoutThis is all quite true, and in another setting it would be fitting. But, as already said, it misses the mark, because it does not meet Job's need. In God's sight all are indeed an unclean thing. Yet does that cancel the righteousness that really exists in the children of God? If all are unclean in God's sight, then Eliphaz must take his place beside Job. He is not at all ready to do that, and so his whole explanation of suffering fails.
The vision had a first hearer, and Eliphaz forgot who that was:
Leslie M. GrantHow true and applicable are such words to all of mankind, but Eliphaz was applying it only to Job, not to himself, because Eliphaz did not consider himself "crushed before a moth" and "broken in pieces." … But a vision or dream is intended to apply directly to the one who has it, and Eliphaz missed that one important fact. Similarly, we may hear good ministry which we think to be more applicable to others than to ourselves.
Where the verse finally points
If God can charge even heaven's servants, then stability must come from above the creature.
The Christian's FriendFailure clung to everyone until the Son came. Angels served man, but even angels He could charge with "folly." (Job 4:18.) … But now the Son has come, and entry, stability, and rest for eternity are ours — I mean, they belong to all believers — in association with Christ in heavenly blessing. … He is greater than the angels, for He is the Son.
Summary
- Charge. The warning starts at the top. God places no trust even in His heavenly servants, so the standard is not human at all.
- Creature. Nothing created stands on its own. God's power holds up every being He keeps in blessing, angels included.
- Descent. The argument then drops from angels to man. If heaven's own beings are unclean beside God, mortal man has nothing to boast of.
- Misfire. The doctrine was true and the aim was wrong. It levels Eliphaz as surely as Job, and he would not stand beside him.
- Son. No servant and no angel could give stability. The Son can. He is greater than the angels, and in Him believers have entry, stability, and rest.