Page 110 - Reading Job to Know God

God. Look at verse 11,
“Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word spoken
gently with you?”
Job, we did not come here for this. We came here to give you the
consolations of God. We have been telling you God’s will. We have been
trying to be nice to you and explain to you that you are a sinner, and you are
getting mad at us. Our words are the consolations of God. It was shocking
to Eliphaz to think that Job had contempt for their wisdom. The very idea,
Job! This young upstart! Telling us gray-haired old veterans. And so he
gets really sarcastic here. Look at verses 7 and 8,

“Were you the first man to be born, (Are you Adam?) Or were you
brought forth before the hills? Do you hear the secret counsel of God,
and limit wisdom to yourself?”
Oh, tell us, Job. Are you the first one born? Are you Adam? When God was
in the counsel of declaring what He was going to do, were you behind the
scenes listening to Him? But after his fluffed up feathers get cooled down a
little then he gets down to his narrow argument. Eliphaz makes it plain that
what he is about to say is not his own bright idea. This is the talk of the
ancestors. This is what the books have said. This is tradition. Verse 17
through 19,
“I will tell you, listen to me; and what I have seen I will also declare;
What wise men have told, and have not concealed from their fathers, to
whom alone the land was given, and no alien passed among them.”
In other words, Job, I am going to tell you something, and I did not make it
up. This is wisdom, and it is from the ancestors. They had this forever, and
no stranger came in and diluted the truth. You have heard it before. The
wicked suffer, Job, and you are suffering. Therefore, ergo, you are wicked.
His argument is basically that, but he divides it up into three facts. First he
says, the conscience of the wicked is troubled every day. Verse 20 and 21,
“The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, and numbered are the
years stored up for the ruthless. Sounds of terror are in his ears; While
at peace the destroyer comes upon him.”
Job, the wicked have a guilty conscience. Verse 24,

“Distress and anguish terrify him, they overpower him like a king
ready for the attack. Because he has stretched out his hand against
God and conducts himself arrogantly against the Almighty.”
And then he says the wicked always come to poverty. Verse 28,
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