4th November 2025

4th November 2025


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Job 15)


Message (Scott Woodburn) 


When my contract ended with BT back in May 2025 I contacted the company to inform them of my departure. Three months later my contract had still not been cancelled and after five phone calls I believed I would never be able to leave BT. Finally, I rang for the sixth time and after nearly two hours on the phone I at last found someone who listened carefully and addressed all my concerns. Unfortunately, Job had no such person.


In the first round of speeches Job’s friends told him clearly that he was guilty of some undisclosed sin of which he would have to repent. Job protested his innocence and pleaded with his friends to relent. Sadly, they did not listen and the second and third round of speeches would become more and more heated. Eliphaz the Temanite was the oldest counsellor and supposedly the wisest and after hearing Job’s pleading he accused Job of being full of hot air and unprofitable talk (v2-3). Indeed, Eliphaz believed he had discovered a deeper issue about Job - the broken man no longer feared God and his true sinful state was shown by his crafty words (v4-5). For Eliphaz, Job’s problem was that he was a bit of a know it all whose words were now betraying his sinful heart.


Eliphaz mockingly asked Job “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?” (v7-11). Do you grasp the thrust of Eliphaz’ argument? Essentially he asked Job “who do you think you are?” Was Job wiser than his friends? Did Job know everything?


Job’s friend was convinced that it would be better for Job to shut up and listen to those wiser than him (v12-13). There is no pure man (v14) and if God judges the angels (v15) then what will he do to someone who is corrupt in his sight (v16)?


Eliphaz had listened to Job and found the assertion that calamity comes to the righteous and the wicked alike to be false. You might say that Eliphaz believed Job to be a heretic - what is heresy? To say that Jesus was just a man is heresy, to claim that God doesn’t know all things is heresy and to deny the return of Christ is heresy. Heresy is false teaching and those who subscribe to heresy are heretics. The late great Presbyterian Meredith Kline states that Eliphaz here attacks what he considered the “Joban heresy” or in simple language, Eliphaz considered Job as a heretic promoting heresy. Eliphaz simply could not comprehend that trouble could also come to the righteous.  


According to the oldest counsellor, the wicked knows pain all his days (v20), he has no hope in the midst of darkness (v22) and his distress and anguish leave him terrified (v24). To be counted as wicked is to be someone who has defied God Himself (v25). The wicked may appear healthy and wealthy with a fat face and waist (v27) but they have nothing to look forward to except the judgement of God.


In many ways Eliphaz was right - the wicked will not prosper. Nevertheless, we need to add one word to clarify what is the Biblical position - the wicked will not prosper ULTIMATELY. Job understood that both the wicked and the righteous experience highs and lows upon this earth. He was no heretic, he simply accepted what his friends refused to countenance.


Brothers and sisters, the Lord is not blind to the injustice of this world and He is not a disinterested spectator when it comes to the affairs of men. It is our Lord who sends the rain on the righteous and the wicked alike (Matthew 5v45) and it is Jesus who will dispense justice on the final day (Acts 17v31). Job had no earthly counsellor to hear his cry but there was One who was listening. Life seems unfair and justice may come slowly but ultimately, one day, the whole world will witness the perfect justice of God. Wait for the Lord brothers and sisters. Wait for the Lord. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q10 How did God create man?
God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
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