There is a tendency in our world today for people to be “know-it-alls.” Maybe it is because of the “doubling down” effect of feeling out of control and needing to be your own authority. Perhaps it is the feeling that “we can barely hang on to any truth.” For whatever reason, people lose all humility and respect (“fear of God”) and fly off at the handle with their words or their actions.
During my ministry there has been one type of person that I have found hardest to deal with and, consequently, for whom I have had the least respect. The arrogant ones. You find them in every church and in every situation. They talk as if they have a corner on wisdom on any subject. Religion, politics, entertainment, investment—they have the right idea about everything. It is as if God gave them “the golden brain.”
Eliphaz has trouble with Job’s arrogance in questioning God. Perhaps the elder of his friends, he spoke first in chapters four and five. He humbly gave advice from his personal view, “As for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.” Now, after listening to Job for a while, he honestly thought that Job was out of control, that his questioning of God was beyond the pale. So, he questions Job’s human wisdom and lack of respect for God. He encourages Job to be humble and to quit thinking that he could know the ways of God.
When we suffer, as Job did, it easy to develop a “poor me” attitude. We think we are the only one who ever faced such difficulty and that, since we are pretty good people (a sign of our self-righteousness), we don’t deserve to experiencing such difficulties.
Like Job, though, we need to be reminded that we are human beings and not God. In addition, we confess as we do in worship, “we have not loved God with our whole heart and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” In other words, we should not be arrogant, but we should humbly admit that no “one is righteous before a holy God.” (Romans 3:10)
Job’s response to Eliphaz and his other friends will be to call them “miserable comforters.” (16:2) But really, they have begun to strike a nerve in him. He is beginning to think that he doesn’t know it all. For Job and for us, that kind of humility and trust will go a long way toward being able to get through a tough situation!
“Let us pray. Lord, when things seem out of control for us and we don’t know what will happen next—like right now—help us to acknowledge that we don’t have the answers, but to trust that you will bring us through them. Amen.”
Pastor Roger Black
