In this episode, we delve further into the dramatic passages of the book of Job, focusing on chapter 15 where Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, levels accusations against him. Eliphaz questions Job’s wisdom and fear of God, suggesting that his suffering is a result of abandoning reverence for the divine. This conversation sets the stage for a fascinating exploration of righteousness and suffering as understood in the ancient text. Join us as we navigate these complex themes and consider what lessons they hold for our personal spiritual journeys today.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Alan J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
Today brings us to Job chapter 15. His friend Eliphaz accuses Job of not fearing God. So let’s listen in to Faith Comes to Our Hearings reading of Job 15. Job 15
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind? Should he argue in unprofitable talk or in words with which he can do no good? But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God. For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Your own lips testify against you. Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the counsel of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? What is man that he can be pure, or he who is born of a woman that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight. How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water. I will show you, hear me, and what I have seen I will declare. What wise men have told without hiding it from their fathers to whom alone the land was given and no stranger passed among them? The wicked man writhes in pain all his days through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. Dreadful sounds are in his ears. In prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him. He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand. Distress and anguish terrify him. They prevail against him like a king ready for battle. Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty, running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield, because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist and has lived in desolate cities in houses that none should inhabit which were ready to become heaps of ruins He will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the earth. He will not depart from darkness. The flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart. Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself. For emptiness will be his payment. It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. For the company of the godless is barren. and fire consumes the tents of bribery. They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit.
In 1984, I read Job chapters 15 through 17 on the same day, and I didn’t make any comments about this chapter. However, I do have a circle on that day, and the circle is 15. I noticed the day before it was 30, and the day after it was 25. And those circles meant the amount of time I spent in my quiet time. So the day before it was 30 minutes, this day it was 15 minutes, it was a Saturday, and then the next day it was 25 minutes. So at that time in 1984, I was trying to keep track of my time with the Lord. How much time did I spend daily in Bible reading and prayer? And this journal highlights that. If I look back to when I started Job, the first day it was 15 minutes. The next day it was 25 minutes. Then another day of 15 minutes. Then a day of 25 minutes, 25 minutes, and 30 minutes. So you can see by the notations in my journals that when I was 29 years old, I was spending about 30 minutes a day in my quiet time. How are you doing with your quiet time with the Lord each and every day? What would your average be? Would you say it’s 10 minutes? Would you say it’s 15 minutes? Would you say it’s 30 minutes? Would you say it’s an hour? How much time are you giving God each day for Bible reading and prayer? That may be the application out of Job chapter 15 in your life. So let’s move on to 1997. That year, I mentioned in previous recordings that I read Job chapters 12 through 21 on the same day. I was reading the full Old Testament that year. Maybe you’ve never done that. That might be another application you can get out of this chapter. And that is just to take a year and read the whole Old Testament. I’ve done that in some years. Some years I’ve just read the whole New Testament. Other years I’ve read the whole Bible. Some other years I’ve read the Bible chronologically. Other times I’ve just read a book a month. So I vary my Bible reading each and every year to keep it fresh. AdBible, of course, is another way to do that. We move from Old Testament to New Testament books throughout the year. And you will get a great smorgasbord of the Bible through AdBible each and every year. In 2015, because it was the year 2015… I created a plan through the Ezra Project called the 2015 Plan. 20 Old Testament books and 15 New Testament books. So in that year, we read 35 books of the Bible, including the book of Job. I was in Las Vegas on a family trip when I read Job chapters 14 and 15 on the same day. Concerning chapter 15, I wrote, Eliphaz reminds Job again, man cannot be pure before God. True. but Job has done nothing wrong. His predicament occurred because of an event between Satan and God in heaven. We know that, but neither Job nor his friends know that. Here in chapter 15, Eliphaz lights up Job once again. He starts right off in verse 2. Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind? Should he argue in unprofitable talk or in words with which he can do no good? He’s talking about Job. And then he makes his accusation in verse 4. But you are doing away with the fear of God. And he continues his condemnation in verse 6. Your own mouth condemns you and not I. Your own lips testify against you. He obviously doesn’t buy Job’s answers in chapters 12 through 14. He goes on in verse 8 to say, Have you listened in the counsel of God, and do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? And then again in verses 12 and following, he accuses Job of not fearing God. He says, Why does your heart carry you away? And why do your eyes flash that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? So the gist of Job 15 is Eliphaz saying, Job, you don’t fear God. So let’s stop right there. Have you ever been accused of that? Have you ever been accused of not fearing God? Have you been accused of having no respect for God? Or taken a little differently, have you been accused of not knowing very much about God? In other words, the people that may be talking to you think they know a whole lot more about God than you do. When you get in a discussion like that, how do you respond? I hope you’re spending time in God’s Word because the Word says if you search the Scriptures, you will know me, you will find me, you will learn about me. In Job’s day, he probably did not have a copy of the written Word. But you do. So what’s your excuse? What do you really know about God? If you got in a discussion, a debate like Job did with his friends, could you defend your knowledge of God? Could you describe the attributes of God? And could you defend your relationship with Him? In the next two chapters, we’ll hear Job’s response. While we wait for that response, think about your own response if you were challenged by someone like Eliphaz. Father, we pray that we would never be accused of not fearing you, that our lives would be reflective that we truly fear you and have a personal relationship with you. We pray, Holy Spirit, that if ever condemned about our relationship with God, that you would put the words in our heart to defend our relationship with you. And we pray that as we spend time in your word, you will reveal yourself more and more to us so that we truly will understand your character. We thank you for challenging us to think about our true relationship with you by reading the book of Job. Speak to our hearts even more as we continue through this great book in the word of God. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You have probably noticed I refer to my personal Bible reading journals in AdBible. I took an honors English class in high school and learned about journaling. I kept a journal in high school probably related to that class, and then I quit. For some reason, I started journaling my Bible reading about 10 years later. I don’t know why I decided to journal my Bible reading, but my first journal is dated 1983. Back then, I bought spiral-bound notebooks from a retail store. Nothing fancy. But when I started the Ezra Project, I decided to publish Bible reading journals. You can find two of them on our website at ezraproject.net. Why journal? It will change the way you read the Bible. If you struggle with your daily quiet time, try it. If you know you’re going to write something down after you read, you will pay more attention to what you’re reading. It can be as simple as your favorite verse in the passage or the major point you got out of the passage. You decide. It’s your journal. And it’s not a personal journal. It’s a Bible reading journal. So you shouldn’t have to worry about someone finding it and reading it. I wanted to print a bumper sticker once called Real Men Journal. I figured it would look good on the back of the pickup trucks. Well, you know, I never printed it because I knew it wouldn’t sell. But get an Ezra Project Bible reading journal at EzraProject.net. I know you’re going to enjoy it. And want to share it with others.
