liphaz reproves Job. (1-6) And maintains that God's judgments
are for the wicked. (7-11) The vision of Eliphaz. (12-21)
Verses 1-6: Satan undertook to prove Job a hypocrite by afflicting him;
and his friends concluded him to be one because he was so
afflicted, and showed impatience. This we must keep in mind if
we would understand what passed. Eliphaz speaks of Job, and his
afflicted condition, with tenderness; but charges him with
weakness and faint-heartedness. Men make few allowances for
those who have taught others. Even pious friends will count that
only a touch which we feel as a wound. Learn from hence to draw
off the mind of a sufferer from brooding over the affliction, to
look at the God of mercies in the affliction. And how can this
be done so well as by looking to Christ Jesus, in whose
unequalled sorrows every child of God soonest learns to forget
his own?
Verses 7-11: Eliphaz argues, 1. That good men were never thus ruined.
But there is one event both to the righteous and to the wicked,
(Ec 9:2), both in life and death; the great and certain
difference is after death. Our worst mistakes are occasioned by
drawing wrong views from undeniable truths. 2. That wicked men
were often thus ruined: for the proof of this, Eliphaz vouches
his own observation. We may see the same every day.
Verses 12-21: Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our
own hearts, and are still, (Ps 4:4), then is a time for the Holy
Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great
fear. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to
receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect
no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more
just, more pure, than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and
Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of man! How
great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very
foundation of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in
the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but
upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon
than others but still it is the earth that stays us up, and will
shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering
distemper, which consumes like a moth, be sent to destroy him,
he cannot resist it. Shall such a creature pretend to blame the
appointments of God? Look upon man in his death. Life is short,
and in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength,
learning, not only cannot secure them from death, but these
things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or
power, continue after them. Shall a weak, sinful, dying
creature, pretend to be more just than God, and more pure than
his Maker? No: instead of quarrelling with his afflictions, let
him wonder that he is out of hell. Can a man be cleansed without
his Maker? Will God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from
guilt? or will he do so without their having an interest in the
righteousness and gracious help of their promised Redeemer, when
angels, once ministering spirits before his throne, receive the
just recompence of their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming
impunity of men for a short time, though living without God in
the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen
angels, and is continually overtaking them. Yet careless sinners
note it so little, that they expect not the change, nor are wise
to consider their latter end.
liphaz reproves Job. (1-6) And maintains that God's judgments
are for the wicked. (7-11) The vision of Eliphaz. (12-21)