January 7
The Dialogue Between Job and His Friends Continues
In Job 14-16, Job continues to express his despair and engages in increasingly intense dialogues with his friends.
In Job 14, Job describes human life as hard and short, a theme already declared to the friends. “Man,” he says, “is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not” (v. 1-2). Not only is man’s life short, but his days and months are determined by God, with time limits beyond which he cannot go (v. 5).
Given how constrained man is and how fleeting his days are, Job suggests that God turn His gaze away and “leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day” (v. 6). In the midst of his anguish, Job reflects profoundly on the nature of human existence and mortality. He contrasts the fate of man with that of a tree, which, even when cut down, has the hope of renewal (v. 7-9). Job yearns for a renewal where God would guide his steps and forgive his sins (v. 15–17); however, still, he had no hope for reprieve before the grave. Like a crumbling mountain, like stones worn down by water, and like soil washed away by rainstorms, so the hope of man wears away (v. 18 -19).
In Job 15, Eliphaz rebukes Job, accusing him of arrogance and challenging God’s wisdom. Eliphaz abandons his earlier praise of Job’s character and instead accuses him of speaking from sin rather than wisdom. “Would a wise person answer with empty notions or fill their belly with the hot east wind? Would they argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value? But you even undermine piety and hinder devotion to God. Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you” (v. 2-6).
Eliphaz insists that Job’s complaints reveal his guilt and misunderstanding of God’s ways, arguing that only the wicked suffer as Job does. Drawing from the wisdom of their ancestors, Eliphaz insists, “The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless” (v. 20). Eliphaz proceeds to enumerate, in verses 21-35, the terrible troubles that befall a sinner. Eliphaz is hoping that Job will see himself in the images and turn from defending himself to repentance. However, Eliphaz did not have all the facts. His attempt to jolt Job into repentance failed.
In Job 16, Job begins by pointing out that his friends have failed as comforters. Job responds bitterly, calling his friends “miserable comforters” (v. 2). He tells his friends that he could speak like them if they were in his place, but his mouth would encourage them and bring them comfort. "I also could speak as you do if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain (v. 4-5). He laments his suffering, saying that God has worn him out, torn him apart, and made him a target of relentless attack (v. 6–14). Despite his despair, Job boldly appeals to heaven, declaring that his witness and advocate are on high. “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high” (v. 19). He pleads for God to intervene as his intercessor before his death. “My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return” (v. 20–22).
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