Eliphaz returns
"Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you in due time."
—I Peter 3:6
Eliphaz seems to roll of his sleeves and levels one serious charge after another against Job, from deliberate deceitfulness to the corruption of true religion. Eventually he throws up his hands and say, "Your own mouth condemns you, not mine."
"Do you presume to know more than we do? Hey, we have tradition, age, the voice of the majority, all this carries weight. Are you—one man—going to stand out against all of our wisdom? God is on our side here, are His consolations that we have given you too trivial for you? Or were we too gentle with you the first time to be effective?
"Like I told you before about my vision, man could never be righteous before God. He's so holy that even heaven isn't clean enough for Him, much less a man who drinks iniquity like water."
I do not know about your Bible, but mine says that Jesus "redeemed us unto God by his blood." He has taken our place on the cross and we are to "put off the old man which is corrupt," and "put on the new man created in righteousness and holiness and truth."
Eliphaz is still relying on his spirit-vision that was intended to blind its captives from the liberty and peace that is available through the "shedding of blood for the remission of sin."
Job had learned through experience that the way to God was by making the burned offerings that God had commanded. Maybe he could not explain it in "New Testament" language, but the words he uses show that he knew what he was in his natural state, but he also knew in his heart that he had access to God.
Eliphaz and the other friends seemed convinced that Job is his own worst enemy and that his trials are entirely of his own making. What can you do with someone who refuses to repent? In the eyes of these spiritual doctors, Job is like a patient who has lung cancer because he has smoked too much. Now, they say, just look at the old fool—in spite of all the radiation and surgery and chemotherapy, he is still puffing away like a human smokestack. In their eyes, it is useless to waste one ounce of pity. Funny though, the fact that they themselves might have contracted a far worse disease—a cancer of the heart brought on by the failure to love, is conveniently overlooked in their medical textbooks.
Our Confidence
It was the confidence of Job that his friends could not understand, because they measured him by their own understanding and experience. And the same thing will happen to you with your "religious" friends once you have settled in your own heart that God accepts you just as you are—that you are indeed His very own child. Do not expect approval, friend, when you begin to speak boldly and confidently with and about the Lord. When you begin to confess His words as if they are for you, as if they are your words, too. That is why they crucified our Lord! He had the audacity to speak of God as his "Father," and so can you! They will "crucify" you, too.
"Are you weary of trying to win my love? But I tell you that I love you. My love is already yours. The one thing that I ask of you is that rather than spending yourselves doing, doing, more and more and trying to earn a place in my heart, sit back and allow me to love you. Allow me to love you every day.
"Allow me to love you every moment and know that when you face the onslaught of the attacks, when you face trouble, or ridicule, I will be your hiding place, your comforter, your rear-guard, and you will know in experience, if you've allowed me to love you. Know that when you come to bitter waters, I will penetrate them and make them sweet and you will know that you can count on Me if you've allowed me to love you. Know that when you stand in the midst of famine, you will experience plenty, because you will be covered by the love of your God. Your God who owns everything, your God who created everything. Know that you can stand in the midst of filth and be clean because you will be shielded by your God. Know that you will lack no good thing and know that your joy will be complete even as you walk through suffering, even as you wield the weapons that I give you. Before you do, before you pour yourselves out, let me fill you up and then let me replenish you day by day, moment by moment. The thing I ask of you is to allow me to love you."
Prophecy given 1988
Word of God Covenant Community
Take a glass of dirty, mushy, yucky water and put it under the faucet. It will take awhile, but eventually the running water will clean the glass out. Now, if you take that glass away from the continually running water, it will get dirty again. However, if you kept it under the running water, whatever contaminants did come in would be washed away immediately. That is what the Lord is trying to get across to us. If we would simply stay in His presence, and let the "water" of the Holy Spirit continue to flow into our lives and overflow to those around us, we could stay in an attitude of joy. It is when we get away from the "running water" that we run into problems.
Job's Reply
"Phaz, you and your buddies are all just a bunch of miserable comforters. If you and I could switch places for a while, I suppose it would be very easy for me to sermonize you, to look at you, shake my head, and cluck my tongue is disdain. It's so easy," cries Job, "when we are not in the furnace ourselves, to 'talk to the grief' (Ps. 69:26) of those who are suffering."
We are only going to be able to minister the comfort of God to others to the measure of God's comfort we have realized in our own lives. When I was single and pastoring a church, I found myself at times having to give "advice" to newly married couples or counseling young parents when I did not have any children. Sure, it was very easy to give the "advice" but very difficult to back it up with real-life evidence. There was no way I could fully comprehend the struggles. That is like a white guy, such as me, counseling a black guy about racism! However, when Patty and I had our twins, well that's a different story, now I could understand! My pastor has gone through many struggles and painful difficulties with me. After all the "suffering" I have experienced, he stated he has more confidence in me now, then he ever did before. Paul understood that his struggles were actually giving him the ability to minister to others. "If we are troubled," he said, "it is for your comfort; and if we are comforted it is for your comfort and encouragement which work in you when you endure the same evils that we do" (II Cor.1:6).
"But," Job said to Eliphaz, "if you were in my place, suffering like this . . . I would try to strengthen you with my words; speak in such a way that would help you, not cast you down and condemn you; I would try to take away your grief. Instead of callous reasoning and philosophizing over the greatness of God and the corruption of man and telling me I was only getting what I deserved! Stick it in your ear, Phaz!"
All of us are "miserable comforters" at times. I remember when Patty was in labor with the twins for 22 hours and I, one who has never experienced the "joys" of childbirth (I suppose my own birth doesn't count), was there with her. At one point I was trying so hard to comfort her and ease the tension of the moment. I looked her in the eyes, and with all the love, empathy, and compassion I could muster, gave her a sweet, loving smile . . . only to receive a very sharp, formal, business-like, "Don't smile at me!" Boy, what a "miserable comforter" I was. My heart was right, but I had never (and to my knowledge could never), enter the suffering myself. When our third child was born, we had a much more qualified coach along, one that had been through it four times herself.
Even though you and I live in the full light of the gospel and in the knowledge of Him who was made perfect through suffering, we still have hidden in our hearts the very same thoughts that Job's friends had. We make suffering a test of being in sin, and freedom from suffering is proof that we are right with God. That simply is not true. Much of our suffering and struggles are a direct result of our right standing with God. We need to understand the full wisdom of the Lord.
"Christ bore our sorrows," we say, "He took the Cross so that we don't have to." How little we understand the deepest purposes of God in the sacrifice of Jesus.
It is true that Christ bore our sorrows, but it was so that we would enter His sorrows over the world and His people. He took the Cross in order to bring us into fellowship with Him in the Cross. He took away our burdens, so that we would share His burdens.
For that to happen, we have to be broken down on every side so we can lose our hardness in dealing with others. Am I saying that God is the one who killed your brother or sister? Is He the one responsible for your sickness? Did He decide to give you diabetes? NO! A thousand times no! God is not the destroyer. He is not the one making everyone sick! Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy! God does use those times of suffering to force us to cling to our faith is His love.
Although, there is a form of cleansing and purifying that God does work in our lives. It is by His command, oversight, and planning.
Cleansing Through Suffering
I am absolutely convinced that times of crisis and sorrow are necessary for spiritual growth because sorrow will produce what laughter never can.
For one thing, they will produce a deeper degree of sanctification, as I pointed out earlier with the illustration of the impure clay. When you are seeking God, I mean honestly and earnestly seeking God with all your heart, you will get below the surface, down into the innermost recesses of your heart, where God is able to show you things you never knew were there.
Perhaps He will show you roots of selfishness or pride you thought were gone forever. It is possible you will discover a source of anger or unforgiveness. How about hidden sins you thought you had dealt with and conquered years ago? It is amazing the things He can find in there!
Isaiah experienced this when he saw himself in the light of God's glory and cried out, "Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of an unclean generation."
Moses, in his zeal, tried to go out and become the leader of
God was telling Moses he cannot do it out of the flesh, it has to be done by His Spirit! God had to kill the flesh in order to get him in the spirit, so God could equip him to be the leader of
Moses could not do it as long as he trusted in his own abilities. God's greatest hindrances in our lives are our abilities, because anytime He instructs us to do something, we will do it to the best of "our ability" and get everything screwed up. Have you ever heard the phrase “putting you best foot forward?” Every time I have done that, it ended up in my mouth. But His Grace, His ability, is for our weaknesses. Write this down, memorize it, and repeat over and over: Faith changes things, Grace chances us! I said it before and I say it again, we cannot have a Pentecost without a
Prayer Through Suffering
Our times of crisis also cause the greatest need for prayer. You just do not pray the same way when you are faced with a crisis. When you are going through a tough time and you have absolutely nothing but God to depend on—you are going to pray!
When sorrow fills your heart, you cannot turn away from God and trust in the "chariots of the world." You have to turn and run to the heart of God, because God is the only one that can come to your rescue. It is His Word and your reliance on His Word that will pull you through, not the psychiatrist, or even your "12 Step" program.
In the midst of my "crisis" when Patty and I first moved to
I had a dream during this period that took many years for me to understand. In my dream, a giant eagle was pursuing me (I know it sounds odd, but dreams are supposed to). As this huge eagle flew toward me, I was terrified and began to panic and run. But it was too late. It was too swift and strong and forcibly pinned me to the ground by his gigantic claws. I exhausted myself as I kicked, squirmed, fought and screamed. Although the eagle was gigantic and could have crushed the life out of me, it did not. It just stared at me, patiently waiting for me to give up, stop fighting and surrender.
After I had expended all my strength and just gave myself over to the mercy of the giant bird of prey, it seemed to smile at me (in dreams eagles can smile) and loosened its hold on me. It did not release me, it simply relaxed its grasp.
What I now see, is that sometimes the Lord will "hold us down," so to speak, until we quit thrashing around. Sometimes we need to be "held down" so that He can speak openly to us and reveal His intentions. When we shut up and listen, He will finally reveal His intentions. That is the hard part. Closing our mouths and sitting quietly so He can get a word in edge-wise.
There are many times when I have had to just fall down on my face before the Lord and cry out to Him. I need my heart cleansed and my motives clarified before I can understand what He is trying to work in my life. I remember when I was teaching all the time, it was very easy to trust in my own natural gifts and abilities. I realized though, that if I ever did trust in my own strength there would be no power, no anointing. If there is no anointing, there is no life; if there is no life, there is no change in me or in those that were listening.
It doesn't matter how much you know or how much talent or human wisdom you have, you have to get down on your face and depend on God—and God alone! You cannot depend on the arm of the flesh.
All of these things will temper and tame our pride and make us more sensitive to the Lord's heart and transform us to His image. That is the true work of grace in our lives.
