Job 5:8  I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:
9  Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
10  Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:
11  To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
12  He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
13  He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
14  They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
15  But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.
16  So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.
17  Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
18  For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.

Eliphaz continued his false counsel. He boasted that he would seek God. If he would have sought God, he would never be saying the things he was saying in our text. His god was not the true God. Job was dependent upon God. His response to his losses was to glorify God in spite of his troubles. After suffering for a while with the boils, he grew somewhat impatient with God. He wanted an answer to what was going on. He needed to learn to trust God even when he did not understand His ways.
Eliphaz also needed to seek unto God. He and his friends sat silent with Job for seven days. They would have been wise to remain silent, seeing as they had nothing worthwhile to say to him. Those who want to give counsel need to know the Lord first of all.
In verse 9 Eliphaz stated the truth about God. He is all-knowing. He does things that are unsearchable. From the creation of the world and on, God has done marvellous things. In verse 10 we see that God sends rain on earth. He blesses man with good things even though man does not deserve it.
In verse 11 God is able to lift up the lowly. That is true. Those who mourn can be exalted to safety by God. Eliphaz had some things right, but he came to the wrong conclusions with what he believed. That is the danger in false teachers. They may have some truth in what they believe, but they make a mess of any truth with their faulty interpretations.
In verse 12 Eliphaz again proves the folly of his thinking. Charles Darwin promoted the lie of evolution. He kept promoting that all his life. Evolution is still being taught in our school systems. Most doctors and nurses are indoctrinated in that false science. When they approach sickness, they look at everything through the lens of evolution. There are many others who have crafty devices that they promote and follow after. In the end it will all come to naught, but in this life many people follow crafty devices.
In verse 13, Eliphaz continued his bad counsel. First of all a crafty person, in this context, is not wise. Eliphaz spoke of the counsel of the froward. He was speaking of himself and did not even know it. In verse 14 he further described himself. He was walking in darkness. He was not helping Job at all.
The poor have hope if they are poor in spirit. The poor are not necessarily safe. The mighty can be quite abusive. They seem to get away with that. The hope of man is not in things. It is found in God.
In verse 17 Eliphaz spoke of God’s chastening. God does chasten His children. Job was not being chastened by God. He was being tested by the devil. The devil was trying to make him fall.
Eliphaz should have been quite concerned. His theology was faulty and yet God was not chastening him. Of course he was deluded and believed that his theology was right.
He warned Job not to despise the chastening of the Almighty.
God does cause pain to His child when he or she is in sin. He can make life very difficult for His child. He wounds and He can also make whole again. Eliphaz had some things about God right. The problem was that Eliphaz was the one who was sinning, not Job. Eliphaz approached Job in his self-righteousness. He condemned Job as being guilty of secret sins and that was why God was punishing him. He did not know Job that well. He had no way of knowing that Job was hiding some sin.
The devil’s helpers are very good at trying to catch people off guard. Those who do not know the Lord very well, could easily be thrown off course by the devil’s tactics. Job had enough understanding about God that he knew it would not be wise to try to hide some secret sin from Him. We know that Job was concerned about his children’s spiritual life. He would offer sacrifices on their behalf, just in case they had committed sin at their gatherings. He did not accuse them of sinning. He just wanted to make sure any sin they might have committed was covered for.
Eliphaz did not offer Job this same kindness. He just assumed that Job had sinned and that he needed to confess his sin. His theology did not allow for any other scenario than that Job’s suffering was due to his sin. Eliphaz was barking up the wrong tree and he was of no help because of that.
It is important for the true child of God to keep short accounts with God. It is important to trust God when trouble comes that we have no answer for. Job would learn the cause of his trouble in due time. He would learn the importance of walking humbly with the Lord in all things.
Today, it is important for us to know the Lord as God and Saviour. It is important to walk humbly with Him. As we grow in Him, we learn to trust Him more fully. We can pray for other saints that are struggling. We can seek to be a help to them in their time of trouble. We need to be careful not to think we are equal with God and that we know for sure what is going on when we have no facts to back it up. Bad theology is not a good reason to attack a true saint. Paul reminds us:

II Timothy 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16  But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

Two things are important for true Christians here. We need to study God’s word faithfully. We need to do so in a manner that meets with God’s approval. We need to rightly divide the word of truth.
Secondly, we need to shun profane and vain babblings. Eliphaz was guilty of profane and vain babbling. He had no basis for his attack against Job. He had some facts about God right, but he had all his facts regarding God’s relationship with Job wrong.
Satan is very good at taking part of a Bible truth and then laying his lie so close to that truth that the undiscerning are swept up with his lies. He did that very well with Eve in the Garden. He has been doing it quite successfully over the centuries. Eliphaz and his two friends were tools the devil could use to try to confuse Job.
We can learn much from this account. Those who are saved can learn the importance of patience with God. We need to understand that even when we do not know what is happening, He knows. Those who are lost but think they are saved, can see that God exposes their false theology and it is readily visible to the true child of God. Trust in God and be sure you know Him.
Pastor Bartel