Job 15

Introduction

Even though you claim to be a wise man, you are not a wise man.

In Job’s last speech, he asserted that he was a wise man

Job 12:3 “But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: Yea, who knoweth not such things as these?”

Job 13:2 “What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.”

Job 13:6 “Hear now my reasoning, And hearken to the pleadings of my lips.”

“Utter” - means to answer your friends

You have nothing to offer

Job 15:1–3 “Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, And fill his belly with the east wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?”

Job 6:26 “Do ye imagine to reprove words, And the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?”

Your knowledge is vain

“Vain” - Wind - empty

You have said nothing profitable

Belly - hollow

East wind - dries everything up - not profitable.

Your argument serves no one

“Reason” - argue

“Profitable” - serves no one.

Your profession is not good

You have no fear of God

Job 15:4–6 “Yea, thou castest off fear, And restrainest prayer before God. For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, And thou choosest the tongue of the crafty. Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: Yea, thine own lips testify against thee.”

You have been speaking without respect or reverence towards God.

“Casteth off fear” - you do not reverence God.

“Restainest” - You have scrapped praying before God

“Uttereth” - means to teach - You teach ungodly things

Crafty - You deliberate choose crafty words instead of candor and sincerity.

Your words condemn and testify against you.

Even though Eliphaz did not quote anything Job said that was condemning, he assumed Job was guilty; therefore, everything he said was condemning.

Job 9:20 “If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: If I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.”

You are prideful

Job 15:7–11 “Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard the secret of God? And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us? With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, Much elder than thy father. Are the consolations of God small with thee? Is there any secret thing with thee?”

Who do you think you are?

Are you the first man born

Were you made before creation

Have you heard the secret of God - In the primeval past when creation was being planned.

Are you the only one that has wisdom

What do you know that we do not

Job’s point of contention was not that he was wiser than they but their theology of retribution was wrong!

Job 12:2–6 “No doubt but ye are the people, And wisdom shall die with you. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: Yea, who knoweth not such things as these? I am as one mocked of his neighbour, Who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: The just upright man is laughed to scorn. He that is ready to slip with his feet Is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease. The tabernacles of robbers prosper, And they that provoke God are secure; Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.”

Eliphaz exaggerated Job’s claims.

He used Job’s argument against him - Job 12:12 “With the ancient is wisdom; And in length of days understanding.”

We are older than you

Are you disagreeing with the counsel of the ancients - Do not you believe that if you repent God will prosper you?

Do you know something that we do not.

You are drink iniquity

Job 15:12–16 “Why doth thine heart carry thee away? And what do thy eyes wink at, That thou turnest thy spirit against God, And lettest such words go out of thy mouth? What is man, that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy Is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?”

Eliphaz asked 2 questions

Why does your heart carry you away?

What does your eyes wink at?

He is being controlled by his emotions.

Turns your spirit against God and allows you to say what you have said.

Sees no hope in this life

He wants to die

He is sinful

Thought none of his sins accounted for this calamity

He wants God to give him space

He wants to be restored once God’s season of wrath has been concluded.

Eliphaz goes back to his original argument - Job 4:7 “Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off?”

People are unrighteous - The doctrine of human depravity. However, you have to wonder if he applied it to himself.

God puts no trust in His saints

However, you are more than this - Job 15:16 “How much more abominable and filthy Is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?”

What real and authentic wisemen have said

His authority to denounce Job’s wisdom: Appeals to the traditions

Job 15:17–19 “I will shew thee, hear me; And that which I have seen I will declare; Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hid it: Unto whom alone the earth was given, And no stranger passed among them.”

Wise men who heard from their fathers

Truth is more important than tradition.

Who hid nothing

The earth was given to them

No one came to corrupt their sentiments

Their declaration - Job 15:20–35 - The wicked get what they deserve - 20-26 present woes, 27-35 future woes.

Job 15:20 “The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, And the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.”

Wicked men travail in pain

He will be oppressed throughout his years

This is where you are Job!

Job 15:21 “A dreadful sound is in his ears: In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.”

Dreadful sound - Speaks of fear

The destroyer will come while prospers

Job 15:22 “He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, And he is waited for of the sword.”

He will not return to prosperity

His hope is the sword

Job 15:23 “He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.”

He will be the vultures meat

Death is ready at hand

Job 15:24 “Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; They shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.”

Trouble an anguish will make him afraid and will prevail against him

Job 15:25 “For he stretcheth out his hand against God, And strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.”

Job 15:26–27 “He runneth upon him, even on his neck, Upon the thick bosses of his bucklers: Because he covereth his face with his fatness, And maketh collops of fat on his flanks.”

As an army charges an enemy

His neck - arched - being prideful

bosses of his bucklers - Shield

Sad - “If Eliphaz had been wise he would have seen what Job was getting at – ‘Job is facing something I do not see; I don’t understand his problem, but I will treat him with respect’.

Job 15:27–35 “Because he covereth his face with his fatness, And maketh collops of fat on his flanks. And he dwelleth in desolate cities, And in houses which no man inhabiteth, Which are ready to become heaps. He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth. He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, And by the breath of his mouth shall he go away. Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: For vanity shall be his recompence. It shall be accomplished before his time, And his branch shall not be green. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive. For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, And fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery. They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, And their belly prepareth deceit.”

He will be judged

Though he covers his face with fatness, he we dwell in desolate places.

There was wisdom in Eliphaz’s description of the ungodly and their destiny. The problem was that they did not apply to Job and his situation. “Apart from the fact that these words did not fit the case of Job, they constitute a magnificent description of the unutterable folly of the man who rebels.” (Morgan)

He views Job as a hypocrite.

Conclusion

Horatio Spafford was successful by all appearances. But in April 1871, tragedy struck as Spafford’s business holdings were destroyed by the great Chicago fire. As Spafford struggled to recover from his financial losses, there was a brief period of joy in 1873 as the family welcomed their first son to the family of 6. Yet tragedy struck again when the young child died.

D. L. Moody, the world renowned evangelist and close friends of the Spaffords, invited the family to join him in Europe, on an evangelistic campaign. Horatio placed his wife and 4 daughter on the Ville du Havre, planning to follow a few days later. In the mid-Atlantic, the Ville du Havre was struck and sank. Only able to get information from newspapers headlines , Horatio was unaware if his family had survived. Finally, a tense telegram had arrived which read, “Saved Alone.”

In the great pain and agony, Spafford sailed for Europe to join his grieving wife. Then as the ship crossed the area where his four daughters bodies rested in the waters below, Spafford’s mind was focused on a poem. Grieving yet confident in the Sovereign plan of God, Spafford penned the venerable hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.” The Spafford’s eventually settled in Jerusalem and started a new family. In the holy city they were greatly used of God as they spread the Gospel.

If Horatio Spafford had been alive during the life of Job, the friends of Job would have concluded that his suffering was due to hidden sins. Yet Spafford’s life, like Job’s, illustartes the truth that suffering does not indicate unrighteousness in the life of the sufferer.