Last month, in our first issue of The Christian on Job, we spoke a little of Job and his three friends — who they were and when they lived. We might mention a little about them as to their ancestral origin. It is recorded that Eliphaz was a Temanite, and we know that the original man bearing the name Eliphaz was a son of Esau. In turn, his son Teman is named as one of the dukes of Edom — see Genesis 36:10,1510These are the names of Esau's sons; Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Bashemath the wife of Esau. (Genesis 36:10)
15These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, (Genesis 36:15). Bildad the Shuhite is next named, and he may have been a descendant of Shuah, who was a son of Abraham and Keturah. Finally, Zophar the Naamathite is named, and we have no particular information about his ancestry. But all were friends of Job, although they probably lived at some distance from him.
Their interaction with Job is interesting and instructive, for although they wrongly accused Job, yet the Lord allowed it, for it brought out something in Job that had not yet surfaced, despite all his previous affliction from Satan. What was it in their speeches to Job that caused so much difficulty?
It is clear that they really were Job’s friends. In all of their interaction with Job, the Spirit of God never calls them anything else but his friends. That they really cared about Job is evident, for they had arranged to come together to visit him, no doubt after hearing reports of all that had happened to him. More than this, they were not quick to speak, as perhaps some of us would have been. No, it is recorded that “they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great” (Job 2:1313So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great. (Job 2:13)). Then it was Job who broke the silence, and they began, one after another, to answer him.
Retributive Justice
What was said by those three friends at times had truth in it, and even Job acknowledged this at one point, when he said, “I know it so of a truth” (Job 9:22I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? (Job 9:2)). However, their outlook and basis of reasoning was a wrong one, and one that has often been used in this world, when God’s dealings with man are in question. All three of them assumed that God’s present dealings with man, and particularly what seemed to be “retributive justice,” were God’s government and judgment on man for wrongdoing. When Job was afflicted so severely, they assumed that God was punishing him for hidden sins. They even made up a litany of supposed sins that Job had allegedly committed, and they accused him of them, without any proof whatever.
As we have pointed out elsewhere in this issue of The Christian, God used all this to bring out something in Job that perhaps even he had not realized was there—an anger and impatience that were the result of his pride in his own character. Sadly, this anger and impatience were eventually even directed against the Lord. However, when Job had learned his lesson, God had to say to Eliphaz, “My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath” (Job 42:77And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. (Job 42:7)). They were compelled to offer sacrifices and to ask Job to pray for them. Evidently they did so and were forgiven.
What do we learn from all this? First of all, from Job’s side, we learn that God can and does use those who may say things about us that are not true. An old brother used to remind us, “I will never know how closely you walk with the Lord until someone says something unkind about you, and I see how you react.” Others may be guilty of wrong actions, but are we sometimes, like Job, guilty of wrong reactions?
Wrong Assumptions
From the side of Job’s friends, their reactions to Job’s calamities showed that they had no idea of how the Lord works or what He was doing with Job. As a result, all their advice was “wide of the mark” and only increased Job’s suffering. They based their advice on their own thoughts and experience, rather than on God’s thoughts. In this way they made assumptions about Job that were not true and that did a lot of harm.
Some might argue that they did the best they could and really tried to help with the limited light that they had from God in those days. But then a younger man comes along—Elihu—who had the mind of the Lord and who spoke for God, not only to Job, but also to his friends. How did he get this light, in a day before the Scriptures were written? The answer is that he was walking with the Lord, and as a younger man he did not rely on his own experience or his own thoughts. Rather, he sought to look at the whole matter with God’s viewpoint, and he was the only one able to clarify the whole matter for both Job and his friends. The Lord gave him wisdom far beyond his years because he relied on the Lord, and not on his own wisdom.
Speak Right for the Lord
To be able to speak for the Lord in this world is something much to be coveted by each one of us. We live in a world that is departing from the fear of the Lord with increasing momentum and that despises God’s thoughts, while exalting itself. In the middle of all this, those who can speak for the Lord, with His thoughts, are more and more needed. Paul could remind the Colossians, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:66Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. (Colossians 4:6)), and it is this twofold character of language that we should desire. Grace is the character of this dispensation, for God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:44Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4)). On the other hand, salt reminds us of God’s holiness and His righteous claims over us. To be able to blend these together in a right combination can be done only by a walk with the Lord and by the power of the Spirit of God.
W. J. Prost