Job 15:1-35
15:1-6 Although Job made honest pleas to God and spoke frankly to his friends, they refused to see reason in his statements. They insisted that Job was a sinful man who deserved punishment. They were entirely wrong: Job was a righteous man and he was not being punished. From people like Eliphaz in scripture, we learn that we cannot heal or correct people by emphasizing or insisting on their faults or failures. Productive criticism leads a person to seek God's judgement and counsel rather than one's own.
15:7-13 Job's friends were annoyed that he considered them to be wrong. They wanted their speeches to be well received, even though their talk was empty and unhelpful. They felt they were righteous enough to condemn Job to sins he had not committed.
15:14-16 Job professed innocence and his friends rejected it. They pretended to understand the work and decisions of God. They attempted to explain a situation they knew nothing about and were not involved in. No person can accurately or totally interpret the reason behind another's (or even their own) hardship. Trials in life serve as many different things for many different people.
15:17-26 Eliphaz was a self-proclaimed wise man, but was not actually so. He felt that all tribulation was sent as punishment from God. Yet from earlier books in the Bible especially, we learned that God disciplines and sometimes allows people to choose their own destructive path but punishment is not His method. Love is God's method. Release is God's method: those who were evil were broken from their covenant with God and instead of punished, were released to live their own tumultuous life.
Tribulation was not an absolute indication that Job was guilty of sin.
15:27-35 Rather tragically, Eliphaz used fear against Job. He spoke to Job of death and darkness. He never listened to Job. And it is clear that Eliphaz never listened to God either. He did not love his friend Job, he only admonished him. He had no empathy, no understanding, no constructive support, encouragement or advice. He just liked to condemn.
