Today's passage is Job 15.
Eliphaz replies to Job. In verses 7 8, he says rhetorically asks Job he was born before the hills were made. He says Job sins by being angry at God and shouting that he is righteous. Eliphaz says that no man can be pure. He says that the wicked suffer secret anguish because they know they are guilty and one day will be punished.
Eliphaz gives Job a simiar answer to the one God gives Job at the end of the book. The problem, of course, is that Eliphaz isn't God, so it doesn't have the same effect or the same value. And it really isn't Eliphaz's to give.
Eliphaz is Job's friend. As such, he's probably rich because rich people don't tend to have poor friends.
All of his examples talk about rich people, not the sufferings of the poor.
He talks of people whose waists bulge with flesh.
Nowadays poor people are fat because of poor diets but in those days poor people were skinny from lack of food.
Eliphaz talks of rich people losing their wealth.
He doesn't talk about poor people or people with diseases like Job has.
Eliphaz has no empathy for Job, only judgement.
Eliphaz judges because he's in a position of comfort.
And maybe he judges because he's afraid his wealth will vanish as suddenly as Job's did.
He justifies himself by attacking Job.
In doing so, he has one eye on God, hoping God sees him saying the right things and, without openly saying so, showing he's more righteous than Job.
His unstated prayer is that by being more righteous, he should be allowed to keep his wealth.
What Eliphaz should be doing is empathizing with Job, giving some kind of human comfort, no matter how small.
He never says, "I'm sorry you've lost everything Job.
It''s terrible!" He never touches Job, maybe because Job looks so disgusting covered in boils and scabs.
I have a friend whose wife has just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
We've only spoken briefly on the phone. He's texted me even more briefly.
I'm praying for his wife, him, and his family.
None of them seem equipped to deal with their situation.
They don't go to church. They have no spiritual community.
I will see him next week when I know I will hug him and pray with him for God's mercy.
My wife overheard my brief phone conversation with him and she called me a "dry man".
I've learned this is Korean code for unemotional, unfeeling. She was right.
I didn't say, "Dear God! That's terrible! You must be in shock!" I don't know if I should have said that because he's not an emotional man.
My emotional response might have scared him even more than he is scared.
On the other hand it might have helped him.
I just don't know. And that's the problem.
My wife encouraged me to call him back after his call to me.
I told him I would be praying for him which he was truly grateful for. Then just as I was about to pray for him on the phone, he had hung up, thinking our conversation was over.
In subsequent texts, he's expressed gratitutde for prayer.
From that I ventured to say that suffering is a blessing and touched on my experience.
But even as I said it I felt like one of Job's friends giving inappropriate comfort.
He later responded by saying he was already beginning to feel that truth.
But all I'd given him was a bit of wisdom which is no comfort to a man in unfamiliar territory.
I praise God that we're reading Job right now so that I can learn more about myself and my not inconsiderable failings as a comforter, so I can repent and, I pray God, give comfort as Jesus would.
The irony of the situation is not lost to me.
I am a man like Job who has been in a similar situation of extreme loss.
Yet I behave like Job's friends to fellow sufferers!
Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. Help me repent as I need to for my lack of empathy and lack of true comfort to others. Let me love those who need comfort. Cover my insecurity with your grace so that I may serve my friend.
