We need to keep in mind that the events of the Book of Job took place before the word of God was written down. In fact, if Job was a contemporary of Abraham, as seems to be the case, Job was written down before any of the books of the Law were written. While some household records of Genesis were written and handed down from generation to generation, these were yet to be codified by the man of God, and the bulk of Genesis, recording the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were yet to be written. If this is true, from where did man get his knowledge of God?
It seems that the Lord spoke with mankind through dreams and visions, at least from time to time, prior to records being kept for later generations (cp. Genesis 3; 4:6-7, 9-15; 6:13-21; 7:1-4; 8:15-17; 9:8-17; 12:1-3 etc.). Therefore, if this is logical and true, it puts the Book of Job squarely in that era, when God spoke to folks like Abraham (cp Genesis 15:1-5; 20:3-8). In fact, other than the Gospels, Job chapters 38-42 contain the longest dissertation of God’s own words that are found in the Bible. What seems to have taken place is God acted in a given manner that produced the worldview held by Job and his friends, but this wasn’t the complete truth about God. Therefore, when it came time to take man further into the depths of the understanding of God, the Lord took advantage of the attitude of one of Job’s enemies (satan in the text), and struck Job down for no apparent reason. That is, not apparent according to the worldview of God that men held at that time. Job cried out: “Unfair! I don’t deserve this treatment. If this chaos is what I can expect from life, I’d rather be dead!”[1]
After listening to Eliphaz’ argument that Job was acting the fool (Job 5:2), Job responded with his grief/wrath (H3708) was far outweighed by the predicament he had been left to endure (Job 6:1-3). If this was God’s correction, God is a cruel teacher, and, if that be the case, Job would rather die than live in such a cruel, chaotic world. If the Lord acts chaotically, how could Job ever learn to do his will? If God isn’t logical, how we ever begin to understand the truth of him?
Job complains that the Lord has used poisoned arrows against him, and they are drinking up his spirit. That is, Job is in the state of constant fear: what else will the Lord bring down upon him? The terrors of the Lord are in battle array against Job. His courage wanes, and he is all be swallowed up in fear (Job 6:4).
If Job’s suffering is merely the Lord’s correction for wrongdoing, as is supposed by Job’s friend, Eliphaz (Job 5:17-27), why doesn’t Job see it? Is he so blind that he was unable to see such a simple solution? Will a donkey bray in hunger, when he stands over the tender grass that is his food? Does the ox bellow, or cry out in hunger, when he is given his food? In other words, why would Job suffer inconceivable pain, if he knew how to alleviate it by confessing his sins to the Lord? If that is all it took for God to remove Job’s suffering, he would have done it already, and been now at ease, but the hand of God is too heavy upon Job to be correction for wrongdoing (Job 6:5). Therefore, Eliphaz’ argument isn’t logical, and his advice, namely, confess your sins to the Lord, is misplaced. In other words, Eliphaz’ words are tasteless, like the white of an egg. There’s no salt (cp. Matthew 5:13) or flavor in his speech. It is meaningless, and doesn’t fit Job’s predicament (Job 6:6-7). Once one’s worldview has been found wrong, it has lost its salt, and cannot be made to fit life’s predicaments. It makes no sense at all to speak in the wisdom of one’s truth that has been found erroneous.
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[1] See Job chapter 3, and my previous study: The Cursing: Let the Day Perish!
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