IV. ELIPHAZ IMPLYING THAT JOB
SHOULD FOLLOW HIM TO SEEK AFTER GOD
AND COMMIT HIS CAUSE TO GOD
Eliphaz implied that Job should follow him to seek after God and commit his cause to God that he might prosper by the benefit of God’s good doings (vv. 8-16). Eliphaz said, "As for me, I would seek after God,/And I would commit my cause to God,/Who does great things that cannot be searched, /Wonderful deeds that cannot be numbered" (vv. 8-9). This kind of speaking did not afford any kind of supply to Job in his suffering. Job was in one realm, and Eliphaz was in another realm. Thus, Eliphaz’s words were words of waste and vanity.
V. ELIPHAZ CONSIDERING
THAT JOB WAS BEING CHASTENED BY GOD
Eliphaz considered that Job was being chastened by God. He admonished him not to reject God the Almighty’s chastening, so that Job might be blessed by God in His ways (vv. 17-27). Eliphaz said to Job, "Behold, blessed is the man whom God corrects;/Therefore do not reject the chastening of the Almighty./For He wounds, but He binds up;/He strikes, but His hands heal" (vv. 17-18).
Eliphaz’s diagnosis of Job’s situation was altogether wrong; he was a useless physician. Later, Job said to his three friends, "Physicians of no value are you all" (13:4b). As such a physician, Eliphaz was unable to diagnose Job’s condition.
I am happy that we are now studying the book of Job. However, I am somewhat concerned that we may come to this book merely to gain more knowledge. We may condemn the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but we may add to the growth of the tree of knowledge by picking up mere knowledge from our study of Job.
We need to see that the entire Bible is a book on God’s eternal economy. In His economy God’s intention is to dispense Himself into us to be our life and our nature that we may be the same as He is in life and nature in order to express Him. What, then, about the stripping and the consuming? God’s stripping and God’s consuming are to tear us down. We are fallen and natural men. As such men, we need to be torn down. God must tear us down. Then God can have a base, a way, to build us up again.
Many Christians think that fallen man needs help so that he can be made whole. However, in His economy God’s intention is not to make fallen man whole. Rather, God’s intention is to tear us down and rebuild us with Himself as our life and our nature that we may be persons who are absolutely one with Him.
The book of Job shows us that God, through Satan as an ugly tool, was tearing Job down by two ways: stripping and consuming. God’s stripping and consuming were exercised over Job to tear Job down that God might have a base and a way to rebuild him with God Himself that he might become a God-man. This is what we should receive in our study of Job.
(Life-Study of Job, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
