Eliphaz

“Come on, Job,” I said, encouragingly. “Remember how you used to instruct and support us when we were going through a tough time? You strengthened my hands when they were weak. You supported Bildad when he stumbled. You firmed Zophar’s knees when they were feeble. And now you’re going through a tough time – I mean, an excruciatingly tough time. I’m not trying to minimize that. I’m just saying, we’re only trying to encourage you the same way you used to encourage us.”

Job continued to lay in the dirt and cut his skin with broken pottery. He faced away from me, seemingly ignoring everything I was saying.

I sighed and prayed silently. “LORD, I don’t know how to do this. I mean, you’ve seen his suffering. All of his crops, his health, his children even! His entire life basically destroyed. What am I supposed to say? How can I possibly make him feel better? How can I lead him back to praise after all that?”

And then everything was dark, like I was sleeping. There was a breeze with a whisper in it and a figure appeared before me. I yelped and stepped back, my hair standing on end. I squinted at the figure, trying to figure out what it was but I couldn’t make any familiar shape out of it. All was silent for a moment in that darkness before a voice spoke as if from nowhere and everywhere:

“Can mortals be righteous before God? Can human beings be pure before their Maker? Even in Their servants They put no trust, and Their angels They charge with error; how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth. Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish forever without any regarding it. Their tent-cord is plucked up within them, and they die devoid of wisdom.”

The voice rode away as a whisper on the wind and again I found myself before my poor friend Job. With a deep inhale to steady myself, I recounted the contents of my vision.

“God gave me a vision, a word of wisdom for you. Look, no human is perfect. Yes, you’re a great guy. You’ve always been thoughtful and successful and faithful. I can’t see any reason you deserve all this. But you are still human, and no human is truly, completely righteous. That’s God’s thing, not ours. We can’t avoid suffering. We all suffer at some point even though it doesn’t make sense. But we just have to be patient and ultimately our response to the torments of life should be to praise God and trust that They will restore all of us who suffer.”

Zophar and Bildad nodded behind me, and I appreciated their support. I smiled, knowing that I had just delivered the word of the LORD, an orthodox understanding of the supernatural consistent with our wisdom tradition.

Surely, that must have cheered Job up and he would be back to feeling like himself in no time.

 

Job 4