SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 10/26/2011 9:44:53 AM
Today’s Spiritual Diary will be a
bit different because there is something that needs to be written about before
we procede with the next chapter of Job, and that is to understand a bit more
about the three men who came to visit Job after all of the things that happened
to him. I mentioned yesterday that this
was the way that I wanted to do this, and the reason is that Dr. Wiersbe took
the time to give an account of these men in his commentary on Job, and also
because it seems that this is a logical step in order to understand the book of
Job. I am going to do something the
perhaps I have never done before when writing a Spiritual Diary, and that is
copy what Dr. Wiersbe said in a section, that is all of it, however I believe
that this is the best way to cover this important subject.
“You will be spending a good deal of
time with Job’s three friends, so you had better get acquainted with them.
“All three of the men were old (Job
32:6), older than Job (15:10), but we assume that Eliphaz was the oldest. He
is named first (2:11), he spoke first, and the Lord seems to have accepted him
as the elder member of the trio (42:7).
He was associated with Teman, a place known for its wisdom
(Jeremiah49:7). Eliphaz based his
speeches on two things: his own
observation of life (‘I have seen’—Job 4:8; 5:3, 27 NASB), and a frightening
personal experience he had one night (4:12-21).
Eliphaz put great faith in tradition (15:18-19), and the God he
worshiped was an inflexible Lawgiver.
‘Who ever perished being innocent?’
he asked (4:7); and a host of martyrs could have answered, ‘We
have!’ (And what about our Lord Jesus
Christ?) Eliphaz had rigid theology that
left little room for the grace of God.
“Bildad
must have been the second oldest of the three since he is named second and
spoke after Eliphaz. In a word, Bildad
was a legalist. His life—text was, ‘Behold, God was not cast
away a perfect man, neither will He help the evildoers’ (8:20). He could quote ancient proverbs, and like
Eliphaz, he had great respect for tradition.
For some reason, Bildad was sure that Job’s children died because they
also were sinners (v.4). The man seemed
to have no feeling for his hurting friend.
“Zophar was the youngest of the three and surely the
most dogmatic. He speaks like a
schoolmaster addressing a group of ignorant freshmen. ‘Know this!’
is his unfeeling approach (11:6; 20:4).
He is merciless and tells Job that God was giving him far less than he
deserved for his sins! (11:6) His key
text is, ‘Knowest thou not this of old…that the triumphing of wicked is short,
and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment’
(20:4-5) Interestingly enough,
Zophar speaks to Job only twice. Either
he decided he was unable to answer Job’s arguments or felt that it was a waste
of time trying to help Job.
“All three men said some good and
true things, as well as some foolish things; but they were of no help to Job
because their viewpoint was too narrow.
Their theology was not vital and vibrant but dead and rigid, and the God
they tried to deferent was small enough to be understood and explained. These men perfectly illustrate Dorothy Sayers’
statement ‘There’s nothing you can’t prove if your outlook is only sufficiently limited.’
“Why would three men speak to their
friends as these men spoke to Job? Why
were they so angry? There is a hint of
and answer in Job’s words, ‘Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see
something dreadful and are afraid’ (6:21, NIV).
The three men were afraid that the
same calamities would come to them! Therefore, they had to defend their basic
premise that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. As long as they were ‘righteous,’ nothing
evil could happen to them in this life.
“Fear and anger often go together. By maintaining his integrity and refusing to
say he had sinned, Job undermined the theology of his friends and robbed them
of their peace and confidence; and this made them angry. God used Job to destroy their shallow
theology and challenge them to go deeper into the heart and mind of God. Alas, they preferred the superficial and safe
to the profound and mysterious.
“Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have
many disciples today. Whenever you meet
a person who feels compelled to explain everything, who has a pat answer for
every question and a fixed formula for solving every problem, you are back at
the ash heap with Job’s three friends.
When that happens, remember the words of Swiss psychologist Paul
Tournier: ‘We are nearly always longing
for an easy religion, easy to understand and easy to follow; a religion with no
mystery, no insoluble problems, no snags; a religion that would allow us to
escape from our miserable human condition; a religion in which contact with God
spares us all strife, and uncertainty, all suffering and all doubts; in short,
a religion without the Cross.’
“We wonder how Job’s three friends
would have explained the Cross to the two Emmaus disciples! (Luke 24:13ff). Let’s listen in on the first round of
speeches.”
10/26/2011
10:23:04 AM
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