Questioning the Point

 

    Everyone has questions in life.  Even the people that may appear to be content through all circumstances.  The urgency of the question depends on the individual.  Some are willing to wait patiently for the certain answers to reveal themselves.  Then others want or need to know or understand situations.  The fact is some things in life will always be a mystery and we have to figure out for ourselves how to deal with that.

    Job was bold for his time to ask the questions that needed answers for himself.  It was just not done back then.  Eliphaz was the most empathetic of the three friends.  He was a little harsh, but he did seem to try to understand Job at points.  He responded to Job's soul searching questions with rhetorical questions that are logical.  Logic and faith don't always go together.

    Eliphaz asked how could humans help God?  We are God's creation, why would we think we are so special that God would need us?  In reality, He doesn't, but He does want us.  He gives us purpose because we need it.  Eliphaz reveals through his questions that he viewed God as a distant and uncaring God.  His view was that life is life and we should except it as it is.

    Eliphaz's opinion was that it doesn't matter if you are good because only the wicked gets God's attention.  He lets the "good people" live out their lives in peace.  Basically Eliphaz was soul searching too, but he thought that God didn't care.  He figured God would not listen to his questions, so he never asked them.

    Eliphaz believed that Job was being callous and deserved what he was getting.  The only way it would go away was if Job would admit he was wicked.  If Job kept on insisting that he was a "good person", then things would only get worse. 

    Job was working through his soul wound created by Satan.  He was trying to understand God and basically get closer to him.  Eliphaz was a literal friend.  He looked at the world through logic and facts.  That does not work well in a situation like this.  We will never truly understand all the depth that went into why God would allow Satan to have his freedom.  We just have to understand that he has been defeated and will lose his freedom.

    

Job 22