Job 5:1

Eliphaz suggests to Job that he call out to creatures for help, even to holy ones — holy men or angels — and see if anyone will answer him (v.1). He is implying that Job is not seeking God in his affliction. In contrast, Eliphaz claims, "As for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause" (v.8).

He holds to the sure righteousness of God's way: God could never forsake the innocent, any more than He would spare the guilty… He insists on the folly of turning to creature help. All things are in the hand of Him who suddenly deals with the foolish man who thought himself secure. Last of all, he calls on Job to repent: if he would only humble himself before God, this trial would not only be turned away, but would leave him more blessed than ever.

He tells Job it will be no use to cry for aid to the "saints," the holy ones. His only help is in God. If he complains against Him, he will only lay himself open to divine anger… He is describing the result of his experience and observations: that in the end, even in this life, suffering is the portion of the sinner. It hardly needs saying how incomplete and unsatisfactory this is.

For instance, Job 5:1 reads: "Call now if there be any that will answer you, and turn to some of the saints."… It is easy to see how renderings like this make texts of Scripture appear to support the doctrines of saint-worship, the worship of Mary, and the honouring of images.

Next he gives Job some of his experience, which is very true indeed. But the insinuation is wrong. He reasons from experience that suffering is the lot of the wicked, and therefore Job must belong to that class.

Verse 3 begins, "I have seen …," and if we turn to Job 15, his second speech, again we find him saying, "That which I have seen I will declare" (verse 17). So whether his argument holds depends mainly on his own powers of observation. He trusted those powers for his opinion about the meaning of the disasters that had fallen on Job.

"I have seen the foolish taking root; but suddenly I cursed his habitation." Ah, there it is! No prayer for him — cursing his home! No pity for him! That was just the spirit produced by this readiness to judge, and to base the judgment on how things look… Sometimes a good man is in a position where appearances are very much against him. There we have to take great care. So judging by appearance is very dangerous ground. That is exactly where these friends were.

The One who takes up the part of Daysman or Mediator must Himself be God to fully represent God, and must be Man to rightly represent man. The Man Christ Jesus is He. Being Man, we have no need of further men to come in as subsidiary mediators between Him and ourselves.