Job 4
12 "Now a word was secretly
brought to me, And my ear received a whisper of it.
13 In disquieting thoughts
from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men,
14 Fear came upon me, and
trembling, Which made all my bones shake.
15 Then a spirit passed
before my face; The hair on my body stood up.
16 It stood still, But I
could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; There
was silence; Then I heard a voice saying:
17 'Can a mortal be more
righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 If He puts no trust in His
servants, If He charges His angels with error,
19 How much more those who
dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are
crushed before a moth?
20 They are broken in pieces
from morning till evening; They perish forever, with no one regarding.
21 Does not their own
excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.'
(bible blog entry for March 9, 2021
I'm now in the Book of Job, the great book about
perseverance. The only reference I know
of the Book of Job in the New Testament refers to his perseverance (James
5:11). The traditional author of the
Book is Moses, in addition to the five books of Moses at the beginning of the
Old Testament. I suspect that the story
of Job may have existed for some time as oral tradition, memorized carefully by
scribes for many years on end. In the
story Job, a prosperous man who suffers one disaster after another, is visited
by friends to try to make sense of his suffering but consistently come to the
wrong conclusion; that is, Job must have done something wrong and is being
punished. There is a long debate between
Job and his friends until God shows up at the end of the book. In the first speech in the long conversation
among Job and his friends, a young man, Eliphaz, tells of a vision he had in
the night.
What was the spirit that Eliphaz saw? An angel?
The Holy Spirit? I would imagine
an angel. This happened "when deep
sleep falls on men", similar to the sleep in which Abram encountered God
in Genesis 15. In one way or another he
had a riveting encounter with the righteousness of God. It was true, but did not fit the situation
for Job was not being judged. Eliphaz
speaks and makes an erroneous application of a theological truth. No one is righteous before God, which is
true, compared to the holiness of God.
He also states that people suffer misfortune only because of sin, which
isn't true. The innocent suffer
misfortune all the time and the unrighteous often prosper (cf. Habakkuk
2). The questions the spirit asked
Eliphaz are questions we do better to ask ourselves than to ask others, especially if they are suffering.
The Spirit Filled Life Bible study note for verse 17 is
helpful. "Mortal" in this
verse is one of four words for humans.
One refers to man in his full strength, or man as a champion of his
people. The other refers to
"man" as a species. There is
also a word for "man" meaning man as an individual. Then there is the word for "man" as
a mortal, literally meaning one that is weak, sick, frail, sad and in
need. It is this last word used in this
verse. Later, Daniel 7:13 will use the
Aramaic equivalent "son of man" as a title for the Messiah. Jesus often called Himself the "Son of
Man". He identifies with humans
even in their weakest and most frail.
