6-22-14. Job 4:1-21. Eliphaz’ Vision – my devotional

Job 4:1-21                                                                                                             6-22-14

Key verse   4:17                                                                                                Kevin E. Jesmer

“Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker” (17)

Dear Lord, thank you for making my life rich and full in your love and grace. Thank you  for the fellowship in the word of God. You are my Savior, friend, Lord and King. I submit my heart to your Lordship. Please bless the Art of Marriage session tonight. Please bless it and bear much fruit through it. I pray in the life giving name of Jesus. Amen.

Part 1:  What It Means To Be  A Good Shepherd  (1-11)

Chapter 4:1-21, “Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: 2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? 3 Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. 4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. 5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. 6 Should not your piety be your confidence    and your blameless ways your hope? 7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?    Where were the upright ever destroyed? 8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. 9 At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more. 10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. 11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. (NIV)

Job was a good shepherd. We can tell that by what other people were saying about him in Job 4:1-7. We can get a glimpse of Job’s life, before all the affliction came upon him. He had lived quite the exemplary life. Look at verses 3 & 4. “Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. 4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.” Job was a shepherd of God’s flock. He instructed many. He strengthened feeble hands. He supported those who stumbled. He strengthened those with faltering knees. He was a good shepherd, caring for those whom God brought into his life. He glorified God as a spiritual leader in his community.

The spiritual leaders in Ezekiel’s time failed to be good shepherds of the flock of God. Look at how the prophet described the spiritual leaders of his time in Ezekiel chapter 34:1-4,

“The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.” (NIV)

We can see the affects that their lack of shepherding had on the flock of God in verses 5-6.

“5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.” (NIV)

God was not happy when the people, who were called to be shepherds did not live up to their calling in the Lord. Look at verses 7-10,

“‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.”  (NIV)

 God was going to do something about the lack of good shepherds, that did not depend on people. He himself was going to be their shepherd, by his Spirit. He will accomplish this by sending Jesus and working in believer’s hearts through his spirit. Look at verses 11-16.

“11 ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.” (NIV)

Jesus will also work through his redeemed people. And so now, we are in the New Testament era and Jesus is our Great Shepherd. But that does not exempt mature Christian leaders from accepting the call stand as shepherds of God’s flock. In 1 Peter, Peter exhorted mature Christian leaders to be shepherds of God’s flock. 1 Peter 5:1-3 reads, “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:1-3, NIV) Being a shepherd has sometimes been referred to as being a mentor. But we can not be good shepherds on our own. We need help and that help comes from Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the good shepherd. (John 10) He shows us how to serve others around us with the love of the Father. He loved, served, encouraged, in so many ways. Then, he laid down his life for the sins of the world. He led all, who have faith, to a restored relationship with our Father in haven and to the eternal kingdom of God. He is the ultimate example of a good shepherd. If we are to answer God’s call to be a shepherd of God’s flock, we need to look to Jesus, the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. We need to allow the Spirit of God to work in our hearts and transform us from within. He will enable us to shepherd others in the grace and truth of God.

But even good shepherds stumble during times of duress. Look at verses Job 4: 5 & 6, “5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. 6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?” It is difficult to always be on top of your game. There are times when the shepherd needs a shepherd, at least a friend to talk to and pray with. There are times when shepherds need times of strengthening and encouragement. People are not God. We are not Jesus Christ. We will come to our limits. That is the time that spiritual leaders need to seek refreshing from the Lord. It is also the time that the congregation needs to embrace their spiritual leaders with grace and understanding. Those who are co-dependent on their pastors, depending on them in ways that they should only be depending on Jesus, will grow discontented with their spiritual leaders when they show weakness, as Job did. But they need to turn their hearts to Jesus and pray for and encourage their spiritual leaders instead of expecting them to be Jesus himself.

Job’s friend Eliphaz, decides that it was time for Job to listen to advice and he was going to give it. The name Eliphaz means “God is fine gold” and “God is strength”. Eliphaz acts as the leading spokesman for Job’s friends and his speeches show clearer reasoning than either Bildad or Zophar. But yet he was a little off. In this passage Eliphaz continues in verse 7-10. In his conversation we can see where his theology breaks down. “7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? 8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. 9 At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more. 10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. 11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.”

He was implying that Job was suffering because he was somehow plowing evil and sowing trouble. This is not true as we know. Job’s suffering was a spiritual assault from the devil himself. There are people who are living lives pleasing to God and yet they are suffering. Just because you are suffering does not mean that you are not walking with the Lord. Jesus suffered the most painful and humiliating death on the cross and he tasted rejection, and yet he was living a life pleasing to God.

In order to be a good shepherd of God’s flock, one needs to get their theology straight. Eliphaz did not have it right. Job didn’t have it right either, but he was seeking answers. He was not overly confident in wrong theology. He was willing to admit that he didn’t know and was waiting for God to give him the answers.

Part 2:  Eliphaz’ Ungoldy Advice (12-21)

Verses 12-21, “12 “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. 13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, 14 fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. 15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. 16 It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: 17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? 18 If God places no trust in his servants,  if he charges his angels with error, 19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! 20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever. 21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’” (NIV)

Eliphaz told Job how he reached the conclusions that he expressed to Job. He spoke of a terrifying vision in verses 12-16, “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. 13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, 14 fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. 15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. 16 It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:” This is not too reliable of a source. I would not believe Eliphaz. The credibility of the source of truth can is very important.

The most credible source of information is the Bible itself. If we can find the words in the Bible, even the application of Biblical principles, then this is pretty reliable. The words of a reliable teacher could be credible. If I received counsel from a reputable person of faith, I could trust it. But I would have to check it against the Bible itself. There are people who say that God communicated to them in dreams. There are may people who had dreams in the Bible. I would accept that too. But again, I would have to back it up with the word of God in the Bible.

In the vision, the ghost said Eliphaz, “Can a mortal be more righteous than God?” From this Eliphaz implies that Job has some secret sin that is the cause of his trouble. He is saying that God is charging Job with error and he places no trust in Job and therefore Job is experiencing the repercussions of his sins. I agree that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. On our own we are blameworthy and headed towards judgment. But God forgives us. He does trust in us, because of the loving faith a father has for his child. God knows that we have done wrong, but he forgives us and keeps us in his grace. He helps us to remain in Jesus. We are made righteous by the blood of Jesus. It is because of this gospel that we are treated as our sins deserve. I feel that this ghostly image was not of God and Eliphaz’s words were not of God either. They are words that can plunge a person into a prison house of despair and fatalism.

Prayer: Lord, when suffering comes, help me to trust you that you are working all things out for your and my good.

One Word: Trust in the Lord. Continue to be a shepherd. There is a reason for the hardship.