Job CCCL

 The prospect of one’s words arousing God's wrath is terrifying. More specifically, the words men speak regarding God. God made it clear as to why He was angry with Eliphaz, and there was no ambiguity about the reason: “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right.”

We’ve all witnessed the flippant way some individuals speak of God, the lack of reverence, the absence of godly fear, and every time you can’t help but wince and cringe and wonder if they truly understand what they’re doing, or if their desire for an audience overrides the reality that God does not take words spoken of Him that are untrue lightly.

When we attribute anything to God that He does not Himself declare to be true, we do what Eliphaz and his two friends did. We are speaking of God what is not right; we are projecting upon Him attributes He never claimed, and given His reaction to Eliphaz, we cannot conclude that He waves it off, or is indifferent toward them.

Yes, God gets wrathful. Yes, His wrath is aroused. Even the idea that God is a cheerful, grandfatherly sort who’s never cross with anyone, who does not judge sin, who does not punish the wicked, or is stirred in His wrath, is a projection by individuals, words they spoke about Him, that are not right, and for which they will one day have to answer.

My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. Nothing in the world can make a man wilt faster than hearing that he has aroused God’s wrath against him. God does not make baseless threats. He does not declare a thing without the ability to follow through. God is not in the empty words business. He spoke the universe into existence; He fashioned man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, so if God says his wrath is aroused, whether against an individual or a nation, He has the wherewithal to punish the transgressor for their transgression.

Even in His wrath, God was not absent mercy. This was not blind rage; God is not dictated by emotion as some men are, so He didn’t feel compelled to lash out, but offered Eliphaz and his two friends an opportunity to make it right, to repent, and what that entailed was seven bulls and seven rams to be offered as a burnt offering, and the prayer of the man they’d judged, mistreated, disheartened, and accosted, on their behalf.

The time had come for Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar to account for the words they spoke about God that were not right. They weren’t words of denial, nor were they words of irreverence; some of the things they’d said were noble and complimentary, yet they were not right.

You can say nice things about God and still be wrong. Saying something complimentary doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing, as Eliphaz just discovered. Just because they were nice words, they were not right words, because they assigned qualities to God that He never claimed.

Some people get so caught up in being praised that, even though they know the words being spoken about them fall short of the truth, they accept them and revel in them. This is how we get the inflated numbers we hear once in a while about how, at one crusade, more people gave their lives to Christ than the entire population of the country they were in, even though the largest space the crusade could have taken place in wouldn’t accommodate a tenth of the total number.

If we were to do a quick tally of some of the claims men have made regarding revival meetings and add them all together, every man, woman, and child within these United States ought to, by now, be saved and sanctified believers. Millions upon millions, they say, or someone says about them, and they never correct them, because, well, it is more impactful to hear that a million people gave their hearts to Jesus in one night at their altar call than twenty-three.

Notice, God’s wrath was not aroused against Eliphaz and his two friends because of what they’d spoken about Job that was not right, but what they’d spoken about Him that was not right. It’s not a distinction without a difference. Yes, they had misjudged Job; they had spoken things that were not right about him, but that was something they could have hashed out between themselves. They could have repented and apologized; Job would have graciously accepted their apology, and there was a chance that it could have been water under the bridge, forgiven and forgotten.

The three, however, had taken it upon themselves to speak things of God, to assume that they knew His thoughts and ways, His plan and purpose, and that was something God would not abide.

Not only did God reveal His displeasure at Eliphaz and his two friends for speaking things of Him that were not right, but He also justified Job in the same breath by declaring that what Job had said was right.

God picked a winner, and it ended the matter. Between Eliphaz and his two friends, and Job, one had spoken what was right regarding God, and the other three had not. Make certain you are on the side of right, because if God has to step in and clear up the matter, you may not like the outcome.

The same individuals who insist they would never be as myopic as Job’s three friends have no reservations about who they think will make it into heaven and who will be cast out. They can’t help themselves; it’s empowering. To sit in your moomoo on a given weekday and unequivocally decide who gets to walk through the pearly gates and who will find the doors barred is euphoric. While the euphoria passes, the words you spoke remain, and one day God will declare whether what you spoke was right or not, and be certain, consequences will follow. God is not mocked; it is one of those absolute realities that will not bend for anyone.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.