Exasperation

In this, his third speech, Eliphaz the Temanite abandons all restraint in his response to Job.

The Trial of Job: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Job, by Patrick Henry Reardon

We have seen until now in the progression of speeches by Job’s three friends, a steady reduction in some sort of rational presentation and a steady increase in antagonistic rhetoric. This sequence both began and will end with Eliphaz, the most thoughtful of the three, yet, here, demonstrating the exasperation he and his two companions feel. He began as the highest moral authority of the three, but now sinks to the lowest.

Job 22: 5 “Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquity without end?”

Eliphaz accuses Job of the vilest crimes, a long list of charges finding root in principle, and not in fact. The principle? Because Job is punished, he must be guilty of such crimes. There is no evidence of these crimes, other than this punishment. The effect proves the cause, at least in the moral order of Eliphaz.

People suffer if they sin; Job is suffering; therefore, Job has sinned. Yet there are numerous reasons why people suffer, but Eliphaz cannot see this. He has had some experience that tells him that this effect only follows this cause, so it must be the case with Job.

Eliphaz then presumes to be God’s spokesman:

Job 22: 21 “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. 22 Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. 23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from your tents.”

Job responds, not in an argumentative manner as he had before, but more meditative. He repudiates Eliphaz’s slanders against him, instead looking for the opportunity to confront God directly:

Job 23: 3 Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat! 4 I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

Where a few chapters earlier, Job presented a strong statement of faith, here he is more somber – perhaps because it is now obvious to him that his friends can provide no comfort for him.

Job 23: 8 Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him

Job seeks God in every direction, yet cannot find Him anywhere. This, in contrast to David, who finds God everywhere:

Psalm 139: 7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

It isn’t that Job is a skeptic. He knows God is there, present. It is just that He seems not present to Job.

Job next moves from contemplating his own experience to reflecting on the condition of man.

Job 24: 1 “Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know Him see not His days?”

Why does God not intervene with all the suffering in the world, given that God obviously sees it? Theft, homelessness, exposure, injustice, oppression, hunger. God sees these but does not put a stop to these. Why?

Thus Job demolishes the theory that suffering is solely the lot of the wicked. Those who would defend the justice of God must do so in a way that takes seriously these sad facts of life.

As it is obvious that the just sometimes suffer, can it not also be the case that the unjust go unpunished? Is it clear to us and our understanding that God always chastises the sinner? Those who suggest that the world is based on divine justice (as they understand it) better take a closer look at the evidence.

Job, of course, is not suggesting that God is unjust. Instead, to understand God’s justice requires understanding the evidence and realities around us.

Job is taking seriously the classical problem of theodicy: How do we reconcile the existence of an all-wise, all-just, and all-knowing God with the simultaneous existence of evil?

Job recognizes that goodness and good fortune are not always joined hand-in-hand. The evidence all around us is too overwhelming on this matter:

Job 24: 25 “Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”

So often, life demonstrates the separateness of these two.

Man’s innate sense that goodness and good fortune should go together, Kant reasoned, is an instinct that demands some future adjudication.

In other words, God will deal with it in His time.

Conclusion

Finally, Job’s responses seem to have put an end to his friends’ spirited and ever more aggressive attacks. They have reached the end of their intellectual road. Bildad will reply, but it isn’t really a reply. Instead, just six short verses worth of rambling. It is clear here that Bildad has lost his way. All he knew was to rely on his elders, and if he doesn’t have that he has nothing. By this point, it seems he doesn’t know what to think.

Job 25: 4 How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?

Here Bildad is mumbling a few lines that he recalls from what Eliphaz has said earlier, as if an automaton at this point. None of these are a response to anything Job has said. Further, Zophar does not even bother replying a third time. it is clear that all three friends have become undone.

Bildad has said nothing worth answering, so Job doesn’t answer him.