Spooky Counsel and Half-Truths: Eliphaz's Ghost Story Text: Job 4:12-21
Introduction: The Danger of Pious-Sounding Nonsense
We come now to the first of Job’s counselors, Eliphaz the Temanite. And we must understand that Job’s friends did not come to him as wicked men intent on deceiving him. They came as respected men, wise in their own eyes, intending to offer comfort. But as we will see, comfort detached from the full counsel of God is no comfort at all. It is a ministry of misery. And the counsel Eliphaz offers here is a master class in the devil’s favorite tactic: the pious-sounding half-truth.
The book of Job is about many things, but at its heart, it is about the collision of two worldviews. There is the worldview of Job, who knows he is righteous before God, yet cannot explain his suffering. And there is the worldview of his friends, a tidy, mechanical universe where suffering is always and only the direct result of personal sin. Theirs is a form of prosperity theology in reverse. If you are blessed, you are righteous. If you are suffering, you have sinned. It is a neat little syllogism, and it is dead wrong. God Himself will say at the end of this book that they have not spoken of Him what is right, as His servant Job has (Job 42:7).
But before we get to their arguments, we must deal with the source of their arguments. Where does Eliphaz get his theology? He tells us plainly. He didn’t get it from careful meditation on the character of God. He got it from a ghost. He bases his counsel not on public revelation, but on a private, spooky, nocturnal experience. And this should be our first warning sign. The devil loves to whisper things in the dark. God speaks authoritatively in the daylight. Eliphaz is about to deliver a message that is part true and part deadly poison, and he wraps it all in the authority of a supernatural encounter. This is a tactic as old as the Garden, where the serpent mixed truth with lies to devastating effect. "Did God actually say...?"
The message of this spirit contains truths that, in isolation, are biblically correct. Is man pure before his Maker? No. Does God charge His angels with error? Yes. But the application, the insinuation, is demonic. The conclusion he draws is that Job is a hypocrite who is getting what he deserves. It is truth weaponized for the purpose of accusation. And the accuser of the brethren is Satan. Eliphaz, meaning well, has become a mouthpiece for the adversary.
The Text
"Now a word was brought to me stealthily, And my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, Dread came upon me, and trembling, And made the multitude of my bones shake in dread. Then a spirit swept by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not recognize its appearance; A form was before my eyes; There was silence, then I heard a voice: ‘Can mankind be right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? He puts no trust even in His slaves; And against His angels He charges error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth! Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unobserved, they perish forever. Is not their tent-cord pulled up within them? They die, yet without wisdom.’"
(Job 4:12-21 LSB)
The Stealthy Revelation (vv. 12-16)
Eliphaz begins by establishing the authority for his message. He wants Job to know this is not just his personal opinion.
"Now a word was brought to me stealthily, And my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, Dread came upon me, and trembling, And made the multitude of my bones shake in dread. Then a spirit swept by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not recognize its appearance; A form was before my eyes; There was silence, then I heard a voice:" (Job 4:12-16)
Notice the atmosphere here. It is all stealth, whispers, night visions, deep sleep, dread, and trembling. The hair on his flesh stands up. This is the classic language of a séance, not a divine revelation. When God’s messengers appear in Scripture, they often say, "Fear not." Their presence can be terrifying, but their message brings peace and clarity. This spirit, however, traffics in fear and ambiguity. Eliphaz "could not recognize its appearance." It is a shadowy, indistinct form.
This is a counterfeit revelation. True revelation from God is clear, public, and covenantal. It is the Word of God, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. It is not a stealthy whisper in the dead of night. Eliphaz is impressed by the experience, by the goosebumps. But we are not to judge a message by the experience that accompanies it, but by the content of the message itself, measured against the character of God. The Galatians were warned not to accept another gospel, even if it came from an angel from heaven (Gal. 1:8). Eliphaz fails this test. He is so overwhelmed by the spooky delivery that he fails to critically examine the diabolical application of the message.
This is a perennial temptation for the church. People will always be more impressed by a dramatic testimony, a vision, or a dream than they are by the faithful, week-in, week-out preaching of the Word. But God has given us His sufficient Word, and we are to build our lives and our theology on that solid rock, not on the shifting sands of subjective spiritual experiences.
The Unimpeachable Premise (vv. 17-18)
Now we get to the actual content of the spirit’s message. And it begins with a question that is, on its face, entirely true.
"‘Can mankind be right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? He puts no trust even in His slaves; And against His angels He charges error." (Job 4:17-18 LSB)
Can mortal man be righteous before God? The answer, of course, is no. "None is righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10). Can a man be pure before his Maker? No. We are all born in sin, and our hearts are deceitful above all things. This is basic, biblical orthodoxy. This is the truth that drives us to the cross. So the premise is correct. The spirit is not telling a bald-faced lie; he is telling a truth.
He even extends this to the heavenly realm. God "puts no trust even in His slaves," referring to his angelic servants. And He "charges His angels with error." This too is true. We know that a third of the angels fell with Satan (Rev. 12:4). They did not keep their first estate (Jude 6). So even among the highest created beings, there is fallibility and the potential for sin. God alone is immutable, perfect, and utterly trustworthy.
So far, so good. If Eliphaz had stopped here and used this as a foundation for a sermon on the grace of God, he would have been on solid ground. This is the truth that humbles us. This is the black velvet on which the diamond of the gospel shines. But this spirit is not preaching the gospel. He is using the holiness of God as a club to beat a suffering man.
The Crushing Conclusion (vv. 19-21)
Having established his unimpeachable premise, the spirit now draws a devastating, and false, conclusion.
"How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth! Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unobserved, they perish forever. Is not their tent-cord pulled up within them? They die, yet without wisdom.’" (Job 4:19-21 LSB)
The logic is an argument from the greater to the lesser. If angels, who are mighty spirits, are fallible, then "how much more" are men? We are described in the most pathetic terms: we live in houses of clay, our foundation is dust, and we are crushed more easily than a moth. We are fragile, transient beings. We are broken between morning and evening and perish "unobserved."
Here the lie begins to surface. Do men perish "unobserved"? Not by God. He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. The very hairs of our head are all numbered (Matt. 10:29-30). The death of His saints is precious in His sight (Ps. 116:15). This spirit preaches a deistic god, a distant, untouchable deity who is so holy that He cannot be bothered with the affairs of dusty mortals. This is the god of the philosophers, not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The final line is the dagger: "They die, yet without wisdom." The clear implication for Job is this: "Job, you are a man. Men are impure. God is holy and distant. Therefore, your suffering is proof of your sin, and if you die in this state, you will die as a fool, without wisdom." This is the counsel of despair. It takes the glorious truth of God’s transcendent holiness and twists it into a justification for kicking a man when he is down.
The Gospel Answer to the Ghost
How do we answer this demonic half-truth? We answer it with the gospel. The spirit asks, "Can mankind be right before God?" The world, and this spirit, says no. But the gospel shouts YES.
Not in ourselves, of course. Eliphaz’s ghost was right about that. In our houses of clay, with our foundation in the dust, we are utterly without hope. If we stand before God in our own righteousness, we will be consumed. But the good news is that we do not have to stand in our own righteousness.
God did not remain distant. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, in a house of clay (John 1:14). God the Son took on a foundation of dust. And on the cross, He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). The question "Can a man be pure before his Maker?" is answered at the cross. Yes, a man can. That man is Jesus Christ. And through faith in that man, we are counted as pure. His perfect righteousness is imputed to us.
Eliphaz’s theology had no room for a righteous sufferer. His tidy system could not comprehend a man like Job, who was blameless and upright, yet afflicted. And his system certainly has no room for the Lord Jesus Christ, the only truly innocent sufferer, who was crushed not for His own sin, but for ours. The friends’ theology is a theology of karma, of sterile cause and effect. The Bible’s theology is a theology of the cross, where God in His wisdom turns the greatest injustice in history into the greatest act of salvation.
The spirit says we are crushed before the moth and perish unobserved. But Christ’s death was not unobserved. All of heaven and hell watched as He was crushed for our iniquities. And His death was not the end. His tent-cord was not pulled up permanently. He was raised on the third day, securing an eternal wisdom for all who trust in Him.
So we must learn to discern. Not every spiritual-sounding statement is from God. Not every supernatural experience is divine. We must test the spirits. And the test is always the gospel. Does this message point me to my own performance, my own sin, my own failure? Or does it point me to Christ? Eliphaz’s ghost pointed Job to despair. The Holy Spirit points us to Christ, our Redeemer, who lives, and in whom, though we are but dust, we can stand righteous and pure before our Maker.