Verbal Assaults of the Accuser

Job 15:1-16

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 "Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge,
And fill himself with the east wind?

3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
Or by speeches with which he can do no good?

4 Yes, you cast off fear,
And restrain prayer before God.

5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
And you choose the tongue of the crafty.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
Yes, your own lips testify against you.

7 "Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you made before the hills?

8 Have you heard the counsel of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

9 What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not in us?

10 Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
Much older than your father.

11 Are the consolations of God too small for you,
And the word spoken gently with you?

12 Why does your heart carry you away,
And what do your eyes wink at,

13 That you turn your spirit against God,
And let such words go out of your mouth?

14 "What is man, that he could be pure?
And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?

15 If God puts no trust in His saints,
And the heavens are not pure in His sight,

16 How much less man, who is abominable and filthy,
Who drinks iniquity like water!

Now Eliphaz takes his second turn to accuse Job of folly.  This is the friend from chapter 4 who claimed divine revelation from a spirit (Job 4:15-16), and who had in verse 6 accused his friend of relying on his own holiness and integrity for his standing with the LORD.  Now Eliphaz continues these attacks by slandering Job as if he were only speaking empty knowledge and worthless talk.  He accused Job of losing his fear of God and speaking cunningly out of sin, which condemns himself.  He again derides Job with accusations of self righteousness and pride to dare speak as if he knew better than his elders.  Eliphaz then further spoke ill of Job, demeaning his hearing from God (while he himself had listened to spirits in chapter 4).  Job was accused of not listening to God through these men come to help him, having listened to his own feelings instead of good counsel as they imagined it.  He even said that Job had turned against God by speaking as he did!  Of course, Eliphaz states the obvious that no man can be pure, but the integrity of Job was relative for him as a man and was described by God Himself to be upright, which started satan’s attacks in the first place.  He then tries to use the sinfulness of others and the corruption of creation reaching to heaven as a reason for Job to stop claiming to be right and righteous.  Yet he forgot that Job was described by the Almighty as being upright in His sight, a truth not to be argued by another sinful man.  There are elements of truth in what Eliphaz says, but they are misappropriated and misapplied to Job in the self righteousness of Eliphaz himself as accuser, just as the accuser and adversary in the spiritual realm.  He was being used by the adversary to question God’s servant and His words, ultimately.  The accuser of us all will be judged in the end (Revelation 12:10), and our vindication will be in the sacrifice of Christ in our stead.  His declaration of our righteousness in Jesus will be our eternal security, and our hope now and forever against all the attacks and slander of the evil one until His words end as those of Job’s accusers.  It is therefore not our uprightness under attack, but God’s, just as the devil spoke against the LORD in the first two chapters of this book, for it is God who declares our integrity and uprightness in Him.