Job CCXLIV

 Job 22:19-20, “The righteous see it and are glad, and the innocent laugh at them: ‘Surely our adversaries are cut down, and the fire consumes their remnant.’”

If you don’t know what to look for, these two verses may seem innocuous enough. They could readily be glossed over and thought to be the bookend of a longer thread, the conclusion of Eliphaz’s verbal processing as to why he knew Job was suffering, but as is always the case, details matter, and given that more often than not those whose hobby is to carpet bomb anyone they deem worthy with baseless accusations, have the tendency to do likewise it’s worth pausing and seeing the whole sordid picture for what it is.

Not only did Eliphaz accuse Job of things he’d never done, horrendous, heartless, and needlessly cruel practices that would make any sensible person cringe, but he also placed himself among the righteous, since seeing the fate of the wicked, the righteous see it and are glad, and the innocent laugh at them.

It wasn’t enough for Job to be seen as a wicked man; Eliphaz insisted that he himself must be viewed as righteous, a noble man doing a noble deed as he kicked at the almost-corpse of his friend and made him out to be a monster when all he’d ever done was fear God and shun evil. If an individual is attempting to elevate themselves by tearing someone down, it’s suspect, and you should be wary of getting on the bandwagon, grabbing a handful of stones, and joining in the fun.

The madness of the crowd is a real and well-documented thing. One stone thrower turns into two, two turns into five, five into twenty, and eventually everyone’s throwing stones, but only a handful know exactly why the stones are being thrown.

God had not called Eliphaz a blameless and upright man, so he took it upon himself to allude to it, insisting upon his own righteousness as evidenced by his reaction to Job’s suffering. Learned as he thought himself to be, one’s reaction to another’s suffering does not a righteous man make.

There are situations where confrontation is unavoidable, when something must be dealt with lest it metastasizes and threatens an entire body, but that ought never be done in the hope of elevating one’s status by standing on the corpses of the accused, especially if the accused are innocent both in the sight of God and in the sight of man. The tragedy of it all is that the wolves surround themselves with yes men who have a vested interest in seeing them retain their authority because they’re usually on staff, cashing checks every other week, they insulate themselves, and aggregate power to the point that, lest something truly vile gets leaked or the authorities get involved, they are viewed as untouchable. The entire leadership structure and their livelihood depend on one individual, and rather than defend the truth, their entire purpose becomes the protection of the man, even at the expense of justice.

A true shepherd doesn’t think about concentrating power or about the position he holds as his, and when a wolf makes its way into his congregation, he is much easier to undermine than one whose entire existence is predicated upon his dominance and retaining his office.

We’ve all seen situations where a pastor gets run out of town, not because he committed sin but because a handful of people deemed him too direct, or not loving enough, only to see the person who headed up the mob take his place and be placed in the position of authority. Their first move out of the gate is absurd loyalty tests, not to Christ, but to himself, followed by the signing of non-disclosure agreements, and the purging of anyone who dares to point out that it's not his kingdom but God’s kingdom that we must be laboring for.

Eliphaz was using Job’s situation to elevate and highlight his own righteousness by juxtaposing his situation with Job’s and concluding that one was being punished for his wickedness while the other was walking in righteousness by being glad of it. It wasn’t to take over Job’s household, or replace him, but to save face before their mutual friends, and position himself as the chief elder and wise man among them.

Eliphaz was growing exceedingly confrontational and accusatory, not because new evidence had come to light, not because witnesses had come forward to accuse Job of wrongdoing, but because his attacks weren’t working, he was not making any headway, and his pride would not allow him to lose. Eliphaz was likely the one man among the three who was always deferred to, who was always acknowledged as being right, who won every argument, and to whom the others acquiesced, yet this man on the verge of death scratching at himself with a potsherd, covered in boils, and laying in the dust had the temerity to push back, and contradict his well thought out thesis. How dare he?

Vanity, hubris, the pride of life, and the constant feeding of one’s ego become as de facto gods to some men, and when this occurs, their only concern, their only purpose, that for which they struggle, claw, and tear, is the man in the mirror and the perception of those whom he surrounds himself with.

Anyone willing to sacrifice truth for the sake of their ego is not a righteous man, no matter how much they might insist upon it. Anyone willing to accuse the innocent, just to win an argument, is not a noble man, no matter how many times he tells you he is. It’s not up to me to gauge or assess my righteousness, nor is it up to you to measure yours. My duty is to pick up my cross and follow Jesus. God is the one who determines the level of righteousness one rises to. Whether a man or a nation, it is God who weighs and has the final say as to whether they are found wanting. A man calling another man righteous means nothing. Man’s praise and a two-dollar bill will get you a gas station grilled cheese and nothing more. God calling a man righteous, however, means everything, and when God deems him upright and blameless, though the whole world may call him wicked, he is what God said he was.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.