Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Job 4-5

Job's friend Eliphaz speaks. At first, his words are good. He reminds Job that he helped encourage the downtrodden in the past. Then, Eliphaz seems to suggest that Job is at fault. Eliphaz describes an encounter with a spirit who talked to him. The message and context indicate it was a demon, but Eliphaz trusts its message.

Before the spirit spoke, Eliphaz had chills up his spine and his hair stood on end. The spirit asked questions that suggested that mortals cannot be clean before God. Well, the dialogue in the heavenly assembly in Job 1-2 stated that Job was clean before God. The spirit also said that God does fully trust his angels and God will trust humans even less as we are made of clay.

Coming from this standpoint, the rest of Eliphaz's ideas are polluted. He does mention that God can rescue Job (a truth) but puts the blame on Job and calls him to repent his sins (inappropriate advice, but the fruit of Eliphaz's encounter with the spirit).

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