Oh, wait. Professor Eliphaz isn’t finished. <shh>

What do you know that we don’t?
    What do you understand that we do not?
On our side are aged, gray-haired men
    much older than your father! (Job 15:9-10)

Okay. Remember when Eliphaz was all gentle and like, “Hey, it’s okay buddy, we all mess up, God will forgive you because you’ve always been so good”? Well. He’s done with that “gentle” condescension bit now. Enter: “openly hostile” condescension. This happens when you correct professors.

Your sins are telling your mouth what to say.
    Your words are based on clever deception.
Your own mouth condemns you, not I.
    Your own lips testify against you. (Job 15:4-6)

Basically, what this accusation amounts to is this: “Dude, you’re sitting there in God’s handcuffs. We know you messed up. Knock off the foolish bravado. Give it up already!” As far as how they know he’s guilty, he reiterates his first argument, the “I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes so I know it’s true” argument, then picks up Bildad’s argument – “old people say so” – and finally caps it off with, “everybody says so.”

And it is confirmed by the reports of wise men
    who have heard the same thing from their fathers—
from those to whom the land was given
    long before any foreigners arrived. (Job 15:18-19)

Oh, well. If everybody says so, it must be true! Majority rules, and as we know, the majority is always right, right? So, as a refresher, Eliphaz reminds us what everybody says:

These wicked people are heavy and prosperous;
    their waists bulge with fat.
But their cities will be ruined.
    They will live in abandoned houses
    that are ready to tumble down.
Their riches will not last,
    and their wealth will not endure.
    Their possessions will no longer spread across the horizon. (Job 15:27-29)

Okay. Let’s refresh what happened to Job at the beginning of the book: 1) he started out “heavy and prosperous,” shall we say (it doesn’t say his “waist bulged with fat,” but it does say he was rich); 2) the house his kids were all feasting in collapsed on top of them (“ready to tumble down” much?); 3) all his stuff was stolen and his “riches [did] not last.” What could Eliphaz possibly be insinuating? Surely he’s not suggesting Job is one of these “wicked people.” He’s a good friend. He wouldn’t accuse his best buddy of such a thing.

Let them no longer fool themselves by trusting in empty riches,
    for emptiness will be their only reward. (Job 15:31)

He would never.

It’s interesting to note here that all the people he calls as his witnesses that this is the way God works are humans, not God himself. This is interesting because Job has already responded to this in chapter 12.

Wisdom belongs to the aged,
    and understanding to the old.

But true wisdom and power are found in God;
    counsel and understanding are his. (Job 12:12-13)

He’s already suggested to them that he is done talking to people about God and is ready to hear it straight from God’s own mouth! Human wisdom has failed him; he’s after something sturdier. He’s told his friends, “Listen, I know it’s crazy to approach this omnipotent being as the fragile, foolish human that I am, but I’ve already lost everything, so why not? I’m gonna do it,” and Eliphaz is, once again, trying to talk him down off that self-destructive ledge: “We already know about God! Other people told us! You can’t just go walk up to GOD and just talk to him like you’re good enough! Don’t be STUPID! Don’t you know who that guy IS, Job??”

The wise don’t engage in empty chatter.
    What good are such words?
Have you no fear of God,
    no reverence for him? (Job 15:2-3)

And Job, again, has a choice. He can take the plea deal, as his friends are suggesting, and try to get back on God’s good side by offering a bunch of sacrifices, maybe? Do a bunch of extra good deeds? And continue the transactional, avoidant relationship he’s always had with God, even though he knows that didn’t work the first time, or he can reassert his innocence and reiterate that actually, what he really wants is a way to restore and enjoy fellowship with his Creator, and take his chances with God. What will he choose? This is the question that keeps us reading, the question that always keeps us reading! What will he choose?!

As a post-Messiah believer who knows it was always God’s desire and plan to restore and enjoy fellowship with us, I’m beginning to see a reason God may have allowed things to go down the way they did. I am not God; I lack his depth of wisdom and understanding, and I’m sure my reasoning only begins to scratch the surface of his. But I am beginning to recognize the same God who pursues me relentlessly, who wants me to come to him with my questions, with my needs, with my knots and tangles, with my successes, with my delights, with my everything – I am beginning to recognize, in Job’s response, the Voice that is calling to him.

And I’m beginning to recognize the same traps that keep people apart from God, too: the safety of self-reliance, the fear of God’s rejection, the temptation to strike the “I won’t bother you if you won’t bother me!” deal. Approaching God to ask for more of him is scary. I mean, do you know who that guy is???

So the question remains: what will Job choose? Will he be brave enough to approach the God he’s been warned away from? Will his desire win over his fear? Or will he run back to the safety of avoidance, the safety of trying to control God from a distance, the safety of trying to earn God’s rewards by doing as many good things as he can think of to do. What will Job choose?

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33, NIV)

Glory in his holy name;
    let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Look to the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always. (1 Chronicles 16:10, NIV)

God looks down from heaven
    on the entire human race;
he looks to see if anyone is truly wise,
    if anyone seeks God. (Psalm 53:2)