Windy Knowledge! Job 15-17

 Job 15:1-6 (ESV)

Eliphaz Accuses: Job Does Not Fear God

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,

and fill his belly with the east wind?

3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk,

or in words with which he can do no good?

4 But you are doing away with the fear of God

and hindering meditation before God.

5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,

and you choose the tongue of the crafty.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;

your own lips testify against you.

Windy Knowledge! 

Job is suffering.  God has allowed righteous Job to be touched by the hand of Satan.  Satan has taken Job’s property, prosperity, his children and his health.   Job is on the side of the road scrapping the boils off his skin with broken pieces of pottery buried in the dust of the earth.   His three friends have heard of his plight and have traveled miles to “encourage” him.   The above lines are from one of the friends, Eliphaz, this is Eliphaz’s second speech to Job.  In Chapters four and five he spoke.  His claim then, as now, was that Job is reaping what he has sown.  His sin has been discovered by God and he is being punished because of that sin.   In the above lines, Eliphaz picks up his arguments, but this time begins to attack Job’s words.   He pivots slightly away from the “reason” for Job’s situation to berating Job’s defense of his situation.   For a man who came to comfort, Eliphaz, like his friends, have lost their way.   He tells Job that his words are nothing but “hot air.”   He tells they are “windy knowledge.”   In Counseling 101 one would be taught to not berate the person you are counseling.   If we look at Jesus’ response to those who came to Him with hurt, those who came with questions and even those who came to trap and hurt, His response was gentleness.  Notice what Paul tells young Timothy and Titus about their own approach to those they will be asked to minister to as a young pastors:

1 Timothy 3:3 (ESV)

3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

Titus 3:2 (ESV)

2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

2 Timothy 2:24-25 (ESV)

24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

Eliphaz is accusing Job of having nothing but “windy words,” when in reality God will tell him and his two friends that is exactly all they did ... they gave “windy knowledge” to Job and God condemned them.  God especially singles out Eliphaz:

Job 42:7 (ESV)

The LORD Rebukes Job's Friends

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.

When we are privileged to counsel others, we ought to learn the lesson that God gives us in Eliphaz’s speech to Job:  Don’t attack the person God as God works in their life. Their words may not be right and their thoughts might be bent, but God has sent you to them to point them to God, not to tell them how twisted their mind is in this crisis.