Job  

Chapter  15  

"Eliphaz's second address, on Job's reasoning [1-16]."

"Eliphaz's understanding of God's dealings [17-35]."  

This chapter starts the second round of debates between Job and his three friends.  Remember from the beginning that Job has asked that he be granted two things, the first is that when you have a question to ask me, first identify what my sin was.  Then state why God is punishing me for that sin, and if can't do that don't talk to me.  So now we will see if Job gained any ground by the statements of Eliphaz the second time around.  Lets see exactly what kind of friend Job has in Eliphaz.  We will see that Eliphaz was very vicious with Job, because all three of these so-called friends are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Job is being punished by God for his sins.   

Job  15:1   "Than answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,"

Job  15:2   "Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?"

Eliphaz is asking if a man speak knowledge from his belly; calling Job a bag of wind. 

Job  15:3   "Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?"

This really made Job's day sitting here and listening to this so-called friend calling him a bag of wind that uttereth unprofitable talk.  Eliphaz is telling Job that no matter what he says it can be of no good.  Job has asked these men, if I have sinned, where have I sinned and they in turn are calling him a bag of wind.  If you have these three as friends, who needs enemies?

Job  15:4   "Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God."

This has been mixed up by the translators from the Hebrew text.  What it is saying is; "you cast off the fear of God and restrained anything that is truly devotional before God.  In other words, he is calling Job a blasphemer before God. 

Job  15:5   "For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty."

When you open your mouth, you utter nothing by your sins.  He is calling Job a liar.

Job  15:6   "Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee."

Eliphaz is telling Job that it is not I that condemns you, but you by your own lips.  Stop and think for a moment; Job has never stated any thing about his sins, but only asked these friends to state if they could see any sin in him.  If they could, Job wanted them to state it, of just keep quiet.  Eliphaz is skirting the subject, and making blind accusations and judgments against Job, without stating one sin.  The point that we can learn from this is, when you ask someone for help, you may get nothing but empty words of judgment tossed back at you.  Don't turn to man for instruction on the things that really matter, but turn to God's Word.  The wisdom of man can be very shallow, and even turn on you in ignorance.   

Job  15:7   "Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?"

This is quite a slap to Job, Eliphaz is asking Job; are you the smartest thing that ever came along, do you have the wisdom of the old man that made the hills [God]? 

Job  15:8   "Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?"

Do you really consider that you have the secrets of God and all wisdom within you?

Job  15:9   "What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?"

We can relate this even to our living today.  Have you ever tried to relate the truths of God's Word to a friend that has his or her spiritual eyes closed.  They think you are off in some fairy-tale land when you try to explain the truths hidden in the Scriptures that you know for a fact.  Though your spiritual eyes are open, their eyes are not, and anything you say floats right over their heads.  This is what is happening here, Job knows he is in right standing before God, and righteous in all his life. what Job is trying to tell these three is completely outside their ability to understand because their spiritual eyes and ears are closed to the truth.   

Job  15:10   "With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than they father."

Eliphaz is telling Job that he has people much older and wiser in his camp than you, and even your father.  They have far more experience than you can ever hope to have.  Remember Eliphaz is not from Israel, but a "Temanite", an Arab of today. 

Job  15:11   "Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?"

Are there any secret things that God has whispered in your ear that is kept of every one else?  Do you think that God's Word is so small that you can blaspheme it?  However Job was not guilty of that sort of thing.   

Job  15:12   "Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,"

This was a term for Job's day that meant that you were full of pride. 

Job  15:13   "That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?"

Eliphaz is bearing down on Job, and stating that Job has angered God. 

Job  15:14   "What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"

What is any man, that he can be as innocent as you say you are, Job?  This is the same kind of accusation that people say today of God's elect.  You can hear your own family members ridicule you for claiming to be one of God's elect, and having the righteousness of Christ in you.  They simply do not understand how you can claim a title of an elect of God, for their spiritual eyes are closed.  Your words become nothing but foolishness to them. 

Job  15:15   "Behold, He putteth no trust in HIs saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight."

Eliphaz is telling Job that God doesn't even trust the angels, and He doesn't even consider the heavens clean.  This goes back to the beginning of this book where God called a conference in heaven, and even the angels were with him. 

Job  15:16   "How much more abominable and filty is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?"

Considering all the angels, how much more filthy is man that enjoys drinking up all the iniquity that is around him, like water. 

Job  15:17   "I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;"

Job  15:18   "Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:"

Now Eliphaz is asking God, which wise men have passed this wisdom down from generation to generation to their inheritance?  Those things that are passed on from generation to generation to be trusted to the end generation are what we call traditions.  When something is passed on through enough generations, even its errors and deceit within those traditions are trusted as the truth.    

Job  15:19   "Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them."

It was not "earth" but "land" that was given by God to Abraham, to be passed on from Isaac to Jacob and on to the final generation.  This gets into the identity of the seed of Abraham, true Israel, not the Kenites and the lies that surround what is going on today. 

Job  15:20   "The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor."

"Is hidden to the oppressor", means that it is "destined to the oppressor".  Satan is the oppressor, and his children Kenites are the ones that are doing the oppressing today.  We do have a destiny and there is a time and limit to all that is going on today. 

Job  15:21   "A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him."

Sometimes the oppressor thinks that they have the respect and ears of God, only in the end it will be their prosperity that shall destroy them.  Keep in mind that the table is completely changed around in their minds, for they think the things of God are from the devil, and what is from the devil comes from God.  Eliphaz thinks that it is God that is doing this trouble to Job, when in fact it is Satan, and thus every part of his thinking is in reverse order.  Eliphaz puts God as the destroyer, when Satan is the true destroyer.  Eliphaz knows that Job is sitting here in boils, and he also knows that Job was the richest man in the east.  All he has to relate to is what his physical eyes can see.  All Eliphaz can do is to assume that it must be Job that has caused this trouble to come upon himself.  So what he is doing is painting a picture of a sinner being stripped by the destroyer, and he is assuming that God is the destroyer.      

Job  15:22   "He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword."

Job  15:23   "He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, `where is it?' he knoweth that the days of darkness is ready at his hand."

A controversy between the different scholars on these verses with the King James, instead of "wandereth abroad for bread", it should read; "he seeketh for his bread".  In one of the older translation it reads that "his body is cast out like bread for the ravens".     

Job  15:24   "Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle."

Job  15:25   "For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty."

In other words, this sinner will even stand against the living God. 

Job  15:26   "He runneth upon Him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:"

Eliphaz is putting Job in a class that says he is charging against God, for Eliphaz still feels that Job has blasphemed against God.

Job  15:27   "Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks."

This figure of speech states that Job had a very soft life, with all his riches.

Job  15:28   "And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps."

This is to say that because of Job's life, those houses where he lived in were destroyed and have become heaps of rubble.  Eliphaz remembered the way that things were, and he knew what they have become, as he brings them to Job's remembrance. 

Job  15:29   "He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue. neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth."

This did come to pass for all of Job's children were killed and all of his wealth was taken from him, the perfect lifestyle was gone.  This friend is laying all these truths at Job's feet, as he is using these truths to stress a point of untruth.  The foundation of his whole discussion was that God was doing this to him for something he had done, when in fact, it was Satan using Job to prove that God's elect will turn against him when the chips are down.  Those outside of God's plan simply cannot understand that there are times of testing and God will allow them to happen.  The elect of our generation will be put to the test, and those of the true elect will stand. 

Job  15:30   "He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of His mouth shall he go away."

This states that the heat of the sun and the hardness of the wind will destroy him.  The wind here is the breath that comes from his own mouth speaking lies. 

Job  15:31   "Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence."

What this is saying, is when you ask for trouble, you will get it.  If you ask for God to destroy you, God will do that to you.  Eliphaz is telling Job that this is why you are having this trouble now, you asked for it. 

Job  15:32   "It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green."

In the Hebrew text, this "branch" is "palm branch".  We all know what happened on palm Sunday, as Christ entered into the city of Jerusalem.  It all was accomplished at Father's time and at the appointed place, when Jesus Christ became our sacrifice.  Though Eliphaz meant one thing, another subject was true with the words that he used.  What he used to destroy Job, is a fact of the truth of the victory that we have in Christ. 

Job  15:33   "He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive."

Eliphaz is telling Job that his life is going to blast, like over-ripped grapes on the vine. 

Job  15:34   "For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery."

Eliphaz is telling Job that he is of the congregation of Satan, of Kenites and hypocrites. 

Job  15:35   "They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit."

The only thing that can be said of Mr. Eliphaz is that with a friend like him, who needs enemies.  While Job was sitting with his boils, after loosing his family and all his wealth, to have this so-called friend come and call you a liar, a cheat, a blasphemer, and say right to your face that you are nothing but a big bag of wind.  He even said you were of the devil, well who needs to be around such fools?  Yet Job will continue listening to these fakes and distorters of the truth for another twenty three chapters before God will finally step in to wake Job up. 

The lesson to be learned here is to be aware of men and their false teachings, and their bad advice.  Why would you take their twisted advice when you have the word of God to go by?  Job is simple, yet it is difficult to understand.  Satan was present in the beginning of this book, and by the end of this book, Job will understand that Satan was the one that cause all the trouble in his life.