ELIPHAZ THE SEER

The three friends who come to condole with Job are named Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. The author means us to mark certain capital distinctions which separate any one of them from either of the other two. Sub-deties of characterisation are not to be looked for — at least, by the ordinary student reading the book in English. Broadly we may say that Eliphaz is a man of the old, prophetic type, if not quite great enough to be considered a prophet We will call him a seer. Bildad is a man wise with the lore of his time and[ of preceding generations. We will call him' a sage. Zophar is the average religious man of his day, without distinguished intellectual or spiritual culture. And, without prejudice, he may be described as an ordinary soul.

The arrangement of the discussion is of primitive simplicity. There are three cycles of speeches. The friends speak in turn, and Job replies to each before the other begins. In the third cycle Zophar does not speak — unless the disputed passage in chapter xxvii is his final word. So there are three speeches by Eliphaz with three replies by Job, three speeches by Bildad with three replies, and two speeches by Zophar with Job's replies. Eliphaz, clearly the oldest man of the three, the wisest, and the most important, is in all the cycles the first speaker.

The First Speech of Eliphaz.

The opening words of Eliphaz breathe genuine sympathy and a spirit entirely noble. He grieves with Job in his grief. He appeals from Job in adversity to Job in prosperity, and exhorts his friend to recall his own teaching, and the faith which he had' preached to those in affliction. He plunges at once into an assertion of the law of life, as he and the other two understand it, and as he supposes Job understands it, the law of reward and retribution — an assertion which is to cause Job greater mental and spiritual suffering than the Satan has been able to inflict. But there is no bitterness and no condemnation in the words of Eliphaz nor in his thought. His meaning is, good must come to the upright man, evil to the bad man: you have been upright; take courage, therefore, and look for a good issue from all.

But the word "upright" as applied to any human being, and every related and similar word connoting righteousness, must be regarded as subject to a thousand deductions and qualifications. Eliphaz shrinks from the implication of his own words. And he proceeds to affirm the corruption of our human nature in round set speech which leaves no loophole for exception. In language, the majesty of which has appealed to every person of literary taste who has ever opened the Book of Job, Eliphaz describes his vision in the night:

"Fear came upon me, and trembling.

Which made all my bones to shake.

Then a spirit passed before my face;

The hair of my flesh stood up.

It stood still, but I could not discern the appearance thereof;

A form was before mine eyes;

There was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

Shall mortal man be just before God?

Shall a man be pure in the presence of his Maker?"1

It is pathetic to reflect that the vision of Eliphaz, so awe-inspiring in itself, and described in language the most impressive which has ever served to make an apparition real, does but bring to him a supernatural sanction of his disheartening dogma concerning the corruption of mankind!

But clearly it is not for Job to storm the battlements of heaven with his audacities. Man does but suffer the consequences of this fraility of his blood. Virtue consists in submission to the will of God. God is righteous, and His beneficence is over all. Were he, Eliphaz, in like manner afflicted he would seek unto God, humbly, penitently, dutifully; he would praise Him for His providence, His goodness, and His unceasing care. Yea, he would go further; he would praise Him for His chastisements — ** happy is the man whom God correcteth" — and to this submission he exhorts Job, promising to him, in the name of his God, deliverance from all his trouble, the restoration of his wealth, children and children's children, a grand old age, a sweet and peaceful death.

The Failure or the Speech.

The speech fails of its purpose. Examining it carefully we see that it was bound to fail.

The speech lacks the note of human feeling. In the common phrase of our day, there is no red blood in it. Lofty? Yes. Eloquent? Without a doubt. And true as the truth was then conceived. For us the theology is bad theology and the philosophy is unsound. And this, we know, is the view of the author. He allows the patriarch to put the friends to silence. Jehovah rebukes them. These facts must be borne in mind throughout the study of Job. It would be wearying to insist upon them at each fresh stage of the debate. The point, however, is not that the theology and the philosophy are false and bad, but that theology and philosophy, good or bad, are wholly out of place. At such an hour it is not loftiness of thought nor eloquence of diction nor the most admired truths of philosophy which the sufferer needs. He wants the grip of a friend's hand, the light that shines from a soul that knows through eyes that see, and most of all, he wants to feel that his friend feels as he does — resents as a personal wrong the grief that has fallen upon him, and is ready when occasion offers to take up arms on his behalf against the universe I This may not be sound theology nor may it fit the mood of a great philosopher. But theology and philosophy are precisely what the sufferer cannot away with. He wants to feel the heart-beats of a brother man.

If the preacher is to bring to the sorrowing comfort and strength he must identify himself with his suffering brother. The successful advocate in a court of justice insists upon the "we" until one smiles at the affectation. But there is no madness in his method. "We" did this, he asserts, "we" said that, and "we" are ready to swear to something else. And the unsuccessful preacher says "you!" The difference too often is not in word; it is in the essence and in substance. A preacher cannot find for the word he speaks entrance into another's heart until he has knocked at the door of his own. He must bring to repentance the sinner in the pulpit before he can convict of sin the sinner in the pew. His deepest word must ever be, "Come and let us return unto the Lord!" "Let us exalt His name together!" And when he kneels by the bed of pain or stands with the bereaved by the open grave, he cannot mediate to the stricken soul the consolation of our God unless he first resents with a personal resentment the stroke which has fallen, and then along with the sufferer submits himself to the will of God. "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping who came with her, he was moved with indignation in the spirit, and was troubled."2 We have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feel of our infirmities!

The Second Speech of Eliphaz.

The faults of the first speech are accentuated in the second. And there is an added element of bitterness. Eliphaz has been deeply wounded by the contempt with which Job has brushed aside his philosophising and the preaching of his companions. He has lost patience with Job, and he shows it He is shocked and horrified by the daring irreverences of Job, the rebelliousness of his complaints and the audacity of his appeals to the Most High. And he is persuaded that Job is a worse man than he supposed. Sorrow and affliction are bringing the true man into view, Eliphaz thinks, and the true Job he begins to see in a very unfavourable light. Iniquity and craftiness, he declares, shape the thoughts of Job; and the words of his mouth condemn him. He comes back to his degrading view of human nature, once more affirming its innate corruption, and in support of his view appeals to the judgment of the » pure races of mankind in many ages.

But in one way the matter of his polemic has been modified. He ceases to declare that all is well with the righteous; he contents himself with proclaiming the penal consequences of wrong-doing. It is a characteristic of the genius of our author that he puts into the mouth of Eliphaz large and striking truths concerning the fate of the wicked. When he asserts a law, a law which knows no exceptions and no delays, he is in error as to the fact. When he reverses the statement of the law, "The wicked suffer," and makes it read, "Those who suffer are wicked," he wrongs both man and God. When he applies the inverted rule to a particular instance, the case of Job, and asserts Job's gross and palpable wickedness, he himself descends to gross and palpable untruths. The things that he asserts concerning the retributive consequences of guilt are true, and we do well to remember them: the sense of threatening calamity induced by an accusing conscience, and the disintegrating, destructive power of sensual sin. It is the use he makes of these truths which turns them into cruel falsities. It is not enough to present the truth. The truth must be presented truly. God, justice, and Eternal Judgment, Christ, the Incarnation, and the Atonement, truths more indestructible than the universe, may each and every one of them be affirmed by the preacher in such a way as to be false to the mind or heart that needs them most. We need to remember that every apologetic, like every appeal, is relative — it is relative to the individual to whom it is addressed, and relative as well to his temperament, his circumstances, and the mood in which it finds him.

Eliphaz concludes without a word of sympathy, without a breath of hope. And such a conclusion condemns itself.

The Third Speech of Eliphaz.

When next Eliphaz speaks it is clear that his thoughts have gone from bad to worse. The lesson of it has been admirably stated: "In this last colloquy we are saddened by an impressive illustration of the baneful effect of mere controversy even on a mind of the largest and most generous kind. Eliphaz, the prophet, sinks well-nigh to the level of Zophar, the bigot. . . . Stung by the mortification of defeat, he breaks out into a string of definite charges against Job, accusing him of the most vulgar and brutal crimes for which he could allege no shadow of proof."3

The language is not too strong. Eliphaz is not satisfied with hints of secret wrongdoing. He is not content with the assertion of his false and foolish syllogism: "The wicked suffer; you are suffering; therefore you are wicked." He comes down to particulars, and lies — there is no other word for it — for the honour of God, as many have done since, but never without disaster;

"For thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought,

And stripped the naked of their clothing.

Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,

And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.

Thou hast sent widows away empty,

And the arms of the fatherless have been broken."4

There can be no palliation of this. We had better learn the lesson of it. That lesson is "writ large" across the history of councils, synods, assemblies for nearly twenty centuries. From theological bitterness to false witness against one's neighbour, how easy the descent! But when an honest difference of opinion about the meaning of a Hebrew verb or Greek substantive becomes an occasion of moral offence and a cause of rancour, of envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, the grounds of sanity have been departed from not less surely than the Christian spirit. Where there is no sense of proportion there is no sanity. And if any man have not the mind of Christ he is none of His!

The Salvation or Eliphaz.

Most happily, in the case of Eliphaz, we have not to leave it here. The great man in him asserts itself above the cramping littleness of his creed. The soul of the seer sees and the heart of the prophet flames with love and truth. His final words are words of appeal, and the appeal is of all but matchless worth.

"Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace";

he begins, and in words of strength and grace and beauty he proceeds to tell the blessedness of the life which is lived in God. He speaks of its joy:

"Thou shalt delight thyself in the Almighty" ;

of its assurance:

"Thou shalt lift up thy face unto God";

of communion:

"Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he will hear thee";

of enduring influence:

"Thou shalt decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee;

And light shall shine upon thy ways";

and of the priesthood of believing souls:

"Even him that is not innocent thou shalt deliver;

Yea, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of thy hands."

Eliphaz has lost the debate, but he has saved — himself!

1 Job iv. 14-17.

2 John xi. 33 (margin of Revised Version).

3 Cox, Job, in loco.

4 Job xxii. 6, 7, 9.