Job 5:27
Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.
Hear, and know it for your good.”
Tag: Could Your Data Be Wrong?
The first one to respond to Job’s situation and Job’s complaint is Eliphaz. Job has just spoken out of his pain. He has told his three friends he wished he was dead ... that he would have died at child-birth, rather than suffer these unspeakable harms. Eliphaz is going to enlighten Job, however. In the above verse we see his concluding statement. All that he has said to Job has been “searched out.” Yet, notice these comments throughout Eliphaz’s words to Job. Note the sources for his “searching” out:
Job 4:8
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
Job 4:12-13
“Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
my ear received the whisper of it.
Amid thoughts from visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
Job 4:15-16
A spirit glided past my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up.
It stood still,
but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard a voice:
Eliphaz uses his own observations and his own visions for the basis of his comments to Job. Even though he, too, suffers from a corrupt and sinful mind, he believes that his own visions and his own dreams should be Job’s marching orders. Notice what God says about Eliphaz’s words at the end of the book of Job:
Job 42:7
After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.
We need to be careful to use our own words and our own observations and our own experiences when we counsel others. God is not pleased. We need to make sure that God’s Word is the final authority for our counsel to others.
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