The precedent from which Eliphaz argues is that ( Job 4:7–21)
The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers 51
There is a passion of pessimism at the heart of human life and there is no "plaster" for it; you cannot say, "Cheer up, look on the bright side"; there is no bright side to look on. There is only one cure and that is God Himself, and God comes to a man in the form of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ's Redemption the way is opened back to yesterday, out of the blunders and blackness and baffling into
a perfect simplicity of relationship to God. Jesus Christ undertakes to enable a man to withstand every one of the charges made by Satan. Satan's aim is to make a man believe that God is cruel and that things are all wrong; but when a man strikes deepest in agony and turns deliberately to the God manifested in Jesus Christ, he will find Him to be the answer to all his problems.
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the lIght that FaIled
Job 4–5
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not
warning or any explanation. It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God "elbow room"; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. Job's suffering is not according to precedent; the thing that has struck Job had struck none of those whom he had instructed and comforted. It is a good thing to be careful in our judgement of other men. A man may utter apparently blasphemous things against God and we say, "How appalling"; but if we look further we find that the man is in pain, he is maddened and hurt by something. The mood he is talking in is a passing one and out of his suffering will come a totally different relationship to things. Remember, that in the end God said that the friends had not spoken the truth about Him, whilst Job had.
breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most
lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life is but a means unto an end—that end, Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God.
Philip James Bailey8
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence.
1. The Premise of Precedent ( Job 4:1–6) Eliphaz is the first of the friends to emerge from their dumbfounded silence, and he starts out with the premise that God will never act any differently from the way He has always acted, and that man must not expect He will. The opening verses are a stately introduction to his theme—
We are in danger of doing the same thing as Eliphaz; we say that a man is not right with God unless he acts on the line of the precedent we have established. We must drop our measuring-rods for God and for our fellow men. All we can know about God is that His character is what Jesus Christ has manifested; and all we know about our fellow men presents an enigma which precludes the possibility of the final judgement being with us.
Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled. ( Job 4:3–5)
2. The Presentation of Preconception ( Job 4:7–21) Eliphaz goes on to reason on a preconception, viz. that God blesses the good man, but does not bless the bad man.
The precedent from which Eliphaz argues is that although Job has instructed many and been an upholder of the weak, now that he himself is going through such terrific suffering he must be wrong somewhere. Eliphaz reasons on the ground that Job is experiencing the same kind of trouble as those whom he had previously comforted. This is not true. Job is suffering because God and Satan have made a battleground of his soul, without giving him any
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off ? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. ( Job 4:7–8)
8. Philip James Bailey (1816–1902), English poet, author of "Festus," 1839.