Eliphaz to Job: the opening of the second controversy: 1. The relation of suffering to sin.
I. A COURTEOUS EXORDIUM. Eliphaz, the oldest and wisest of the friends, adopts an apologetic strain in replying to Job's imprecation, representing the task assumed by him as:
1. Painful to Job; which it certainly was. In circumstances even the most favourable, it requires no little grace to receive admonition with equanimity; not to speak of counting it a kindness and esteeming it an excellent oil (Psalms 141:5), and embracing its dispenser with affection (Proverbs 9:8); and much more when that admonition is not only felt to be undeserved, but spoken at a time when the soul, crushed beneath the burden of its misery, wants sympathy rather than reproof, and when, besides, the reproof is unfeeling in its tone and somewhat flavoured with self-complacency on the part of the giver. If to hear and accept rebuke be a sign of grace (Proverbs 15:5) and a pathway to wisdom (Proverbs 15:32) and honour (Proverbs 13:18), it is much more a mark of tender piety and fine Christian sagacity to be able to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), and to rebuke with long-suffering (2 Timothy 4:2). Reproof that lacerates seldom profits.
2. Distasteful to himself (Eliphaz). Charity dictates that the best construction, rather than the worst, should be put upon the conduct of the Temanite. Hence, instead of pronouncing his language coarse, haughty, arrogant, and violent, we regard it, especially in the introduction, as characterized by delicacy and consideration, hinting, as it manifestly does, that Eliphaz had entered on the office of Mentor to his friend with reluctance; and certainly an office so fitted to give pain, and so apt to produce harmful results, should never be engaged in except with palpable tokens of grief.
3. Required by cerise. "But who can withhold himself from speaking?" The impulse which Eliphaz confessed was not the kindling heat of poetic fire, but the moral constraint of duty.
II. A GENEROUS COMMENDATION. The piety of Job was acknowledged by Eliphaz to have been:
1. Conspicuous. "Behold!" Eminent piety can usually speak for itself, always secure attention, and seldom fails to elicit commendation. Even so should Christians let their light shine (Matthew 5:16; 1 Peter 2:12).
2. Philanthropic. Job's piety was not simply intellectual and emotional, but also practical, aiming at the good of others. Like the great Exemplar (Matthew 20:28; Acts 10:38), of whom in some respects he was a type, this Arabian patriarch went about doing good (Job 29:12-17). So Christ instructs his followers to do (Matthew 10:42; Luke 10:37; John 14:15; 1 Corinthians 14:1; Galatians 5:14; Colossians 3:12-14). Where works of faith and labours of love are entirely absent, there is ground to suspect that genuine religion is not present (Galatians 5:22; James 1:27; 1 John 3:17).
3. Manifold.
4. Habitual. The tenses of the verbs indicate customary actions and lifelong habits. Isolated good deeds do not necessarily proceed from gracious hearts; there can be no better evidence of saintship than a lifetime of holy walking.
III. A DELICATE INSINUATION.
1. That Job's piety had failed where it ought to have stood. "But now it is come upon thee and, thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled" (verse 5). Either
2. That Job's confidence had stood where it ought to have failed. "Is not thy fear thy confidence? And thy hope, is it not the uprightness of thy ways?" (verse 6)
IV. A FALLACIOUS PHILOSOPHY.
1. That good men never perish. "Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?" (verse 7).
2. That bad men always perish. "Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same" (verse 8); in which may be noted:
(a) metaphorically as ploughing iniquity and sowing wickedness, alluding, perhaps, to the deliberate purpose, mental activity, steady perseverance, onward progress, and eager expectation with which great criminals contrive and carry out their nefarious schemes; and
(b) analogically, being likened to a lion passing through the successive stages of its development, and increasing as it grows in strength, ferocity, and violence.
(a) in accordance with the natural laws of retribution, reaping the whirlwind where they have sown the wind (Proverbs 22:8; Hosea 8:7; Hosea 10:13; Galatians 6:7, Galatians 6:8);
(b) by the express visitation of God, perishing (as Job's children did, is what he means) by the blast of God, and before the breath of his nostrils; and
(c) to the complete extinction of their former greatness, the providentially overtaken and divinely punished transgressor being compared to an old lioness, once formidable and powerful, roaring and devouring, but now lying helpless and impotent, toothless and voiceless, dying for lack of prey, and abandoned even by her whelps.
Learn:
1. To cultivate the habit of politeness of speech. Courtesy is a dictate of religion as well as an element of virtue.
2. To commend where we can, and reprove only where we must. To detect goodness in others is a higher attainment than to espy faults.
3. To beware of trusting in self-righteousness, as much after conversion as before. The saint's trust should never be in himself, but always in his God.
4. To be cautious in making general deductions from what may, after all, be isolated facts. One man's observation does not afford a basis broad enough for the construction of a philosophy of life.
5. To think about the harvests we shall reap before commencing to plough and sow. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"