3B(JOB)21
© Jeff Stacey | Last updated: 9 December 2014
3B(JOB)21. How God communicated with Job and Eliphaz:
He did not speak directly to them until after all of their responses to Job’s calamities
3B(JOB)21(title) How God communicated with Job and Eliphaz
God spoke directly at length to Job to interrogate him! Job 38:1-40:2, 40:6-41:34. God also spoke briefly to Eliphaz about him and his two friends Job 42:7,8. But God never spoke to or about Elihu.
3B(JOB)21(sub-title) God did not speak directly to them until after all of their responses to Job’s calamities
The Book of Job opens with God making two superlative declarations about Job Job 1:8b, 2:3b. But God did not speak TO Job until after he had suffered his terrible calamities, had been condemned by his wife and four critics and had made various responses to them.
Eventually God responded by twice interrogating Job and exposing the ignorance of the questions he had addressed to God Job 38:4 – 39:30, 40:9 – 41:34. Yet God did not condemn Job for his questioning.
Finally God twice endorsed Job’s words Job 42:7b,8e although He did not speak to Job again. But God was angry with Job’s three critics Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar and twice rebuked them Job 42:7a,8d. He then instructed them to go to Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for themselves Job 42:8a.
So it is apparent that God saw no need to give any of them prior directions about how to respond to their circumstances or to each other. Instead He left them to act upon His existing instructions. Only after they had done so did He speak and give His evaluations of their responses.
Arrow 3B(JOB)20 -> 3B(JOB)21
This arrow indicates that God simply assumed Job and others already knew His instructions that He had communicated to Noah. They could not claim to be ignorant of God’s Covenantal requirements, commission and warnings. All people were accountable to obey them.