How the book of Job proceeds at this point is remarkable: Rejecting all notions about the eternity of the universe, Job had professed his conviction that this cosmos will have an end no less than it also had a beginning, and that on this future day of judgment he will therefore be vindicated (14:12).
The implications of such faith are far reaching. If the universe would revolve in endless circles of reincarnation, serving God can wait until another life (14:14), where God might make it easier for us to obey (14:15). Furthermore, no transgressions would really matter, because there would be no accountability: Every injustice would be covered up and forgotten with time (14:17).
This picture of the world and its implicit pantheism are contrasted to the cosmology that spacetime actually had a beginning: Biblical faith anticipated that this cosmos is finite long before science could confirm it using radio telescopes that can hear the echo of the Big Bang. Using as metaphors what he could observe about this created order, Job also prophesied that the world will not revolve forever in circles in the future either: “The mountains crumble. Torrents wash away the soil…” (14:18-19): The world is no perpetuum mobile; it was created only for a time and is destined to wear out.
Since nature was caused into being, it cannot have been its own cause when it did not yet exist. And if even time was created at the command “Let there be light!”, its Creator must exist outside of time. If it matters to that Creator how His creatures treat each other, their actions matter beyond spacetime (13:16-17; 19:28-29; cf Mt 5:22-26). From that perspective, adversity is no longer meaningless, but rather becomes a test and a cause of future glory (19:25-27; Mt 5:10-12; 10:28).
One wonders, though, whether Job’s friends-turned-adversaries ever listened, given that they addressed not one of his reasonings. Unable to be an authority by teaching what is true (6:24-25; cf 1Th 5:12-13, Tit 2:7-8), such people instead claim authority based on how they cling to tradition at the expense of truth and to suppress it (Jn 9:28-34). Thus, when found wrong (13:12), they cannot but crush dissent by slander and bullying:
You think it’s all about you
Job 15 (2nd speech of Eliphaz):
- 15:1-2 Your knowledge is just a fart of your belly, and you feed it with more and more air (lit. east wind).
- 15:3 Your arguing is counterproductive;
- 15:4 you thereby only hinder the godly;
- 15:5-6 your words and tongue are crafty, but motivated by iniquity;
- 15:7-10 How arrogant of you to think that you are the first and the only wise! We are your seniors: how could you possibly teach us anything that we don’t know?
- 15:11-13 The word of God would be your comfort if only you would rightly understand it as we do:
- 15:14-16 In particular, your claim that you are innocent (14:4) cannot possibly be true, because according to Scripture no man can be without sin.
- 15:17-19 Your opinion would not find approval from the holy fathers. My insight does, however, and I would graciously share it with you, if only you would listen:
- 15:20-22 The very fact that you writhe in pain proves how wicked you are. And because of your small faith, you are doomed.
- 15:23-26 You run from God, being set against him. You even fight him;
- 15:27 …and I know why: Your face is fat (i.e. you are not looking to him), and your fat waist proves that you are not as self-denying as we are.
- 15:28 Look at you and with whom and in what houses you associated in fellowship!
- 29-30 Of course God must pour his just vengence on you!
- 15:31 Stop trusting in emptiness, which you yourself have brought on yourself as your deserved reward.
- 15:32-33 ‘No green branch’ means: You will never recover. ‘Flowers’ mean: Now your bad fruit proves that you only made a temporary appearance of holiness.
- 15:34 For your business was unfruitful: You only used your hospitality and apparent generosity to bribe people for your own cause.
- 15:35 Your group only exists to cause trouble, and as an incubator of deception.
Job’s reply: How so, if my motive is to be counted as dead?
Job 16-17:
- 16:1-3 You miserable comforters, who asked you to speak?
- 16:4-6 Surely even I could talk like you!
- 16:7-22 & 17:1-7 Instead… (At this point, Job’s description of his sufferings would equally apply to those of Christ).
Job 17:
- 17:8-10 For believers, their share in these sufferings becomes a source of strength and resolve, cf 2Cor 12:9. You, however, only prove how clueless you are.
- 17:11-14 I have already died to this world (i.e., I expect my reward in another, cf 14:12; 19:15-27).
- 17:15-16 You, by contrast, when we all rest together in the dust, you will be separated in the underworld (i.e. from me)*
* Unlike interpretations which against all evidence read into Job that he denied faith in a resurrection, this is the sense given by literal translations of Job 17:16, see e.g. YLT
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