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what Job knew

Job 15:1-35 (JDV)

Job 15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Job 15:2 Does a wise person answer with empty counsel or fill himself with the hot east wind?
Job 15:3 Should he argue with useless talk or with words that serve no purpose?
Job 15:4 But you even frustrate the fear of God and hinder meditation before him.
Job 15:5 Your iniquity teaches you what to say, and you choose the language of the crafty.
Job 15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips testify against you.
Job 15:7 Were you the first of Adam ever born, or were you brought forth before the hills?
Job 15:8 Do you listen in on the council of God, or have a monopoly on wisdom?
Job 15:9 What do you know that we don’t? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
Job 15:10 Both the gray-haired and the elderly are with us — older than your father.
Job 15:11 Are God’s comforts not enough for you, or the words that deal gently with you?
Job 15:12 Why has your heart misled you, and why do your eyes flash
Job 15:13 as you turn your breath against God and allow such words to leave your mouth?
Job 15:14 What is a mere mortal, that he should be pure, or one born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Job 15:15 If God puts no trust in his holy ones and the sky is not pure in his sight,
Job 15:16 how much less one who is revolting and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?
Job 15:17 Listen to me and I will inform you. I will describe what I have seen,
Job 15:18 what the wise have declared and not concealed, that came from their ancestors,
Job 15:19 to whom alone the land was given when no stranger passed among them.
Job 15:20 A wicked person writhes in pain all his days, throughout the number of years reserved for the ruthless.
Job 15:21 Dreadful sounds fill his ears; when he is at peace, a robber attacks him.
Job 15:22 He doesn’t believe he will return from darkness; he is destined for the sword.
Job 15:23 He wanders about for food, asking, “Where is it?” He knows the day of darkness is at hand.
Job 15:24 Trouble and distress terrify him, overwhelming him like a king prepared for battle.
Job 15:25 For he has sent out his hand against God and has arrogantly opposed the Almighty.
Job 15:26 He rushes headlong at him with his thick, studded shields.
Job 15:27 Though his face is covered with fat and his waistline bulges with it,
Job 15:28 he will dwell in ruined cities, in abandoned houses destined to become piles of rubble.
Job 15:29 He will no longer be rich; his wealth will not endure. His crops will not spread over the ground.
Job 15:30 He will not escape from the darkness; flames will burn up his shoots, and by the breath of God’s mouth, he will depart.
Job 15:31 Let him not put trust in worthless things, being led astray, because what he gets in exchange will prove worthless.
Job 15:32 It will be accomplished before his time, and his branch will not flourish.
Job 15:33 He will be like a vine that drops its unripe grapes and like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms.
Job 15:34 Because the company of the godless will have no children, and fire will consume the tents of those who offer bribes.
Job 15:35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb prepares deception.

what Job knew

Eliphaz’ question in verse 9 was a good one – if only he had not meant it as a rhetorical device. Job did have access to a kind of knowledge that his three “comforters” did not. Job trusted in his creator. Job was not sinless. He admitted that he had sinned in his youth, and that God was not holding him accountable for those sins. He knew forgiveness. A person can endure much suffering and still stay true to God if that person has a relationship with God based on grace. Do you know Job’s secret? Do you know God’s forgiveness?

LORD, give us the wisdom to trust you, and to rely upon your grace.