Some of the advice offered to Job had touches of “the prosperity gospel” in it. Therefore, it was necessary in our previous chapter to offer some clarity regarding the biblical perspective of prosperity. Like the advice of Job’s friends, much of what is taught in the church today is incomplete. Such erroneous teaching can bring condemnation to those who are suffering—not as a result of sin, but according to God’s will and for their eternal benefit.
Well-meaning friends can be prone to focus on perceived fault rather than true need. Job had three such friends who did the right thing in coming to comfort him. But instead of communicating God’s perspective, they focused on their own soulish thoughts. That mistake, as Scripture infers, can actually have its roots in the occult.
THE SOURCE OF ELIPHAZ’S TEACHING
It is very interesting that Eliphaz reveals one of the sources of his teaching as an evil spirit. Here are his own words:
“Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying” (Job 4:12-16).
This was a visitation of an evil spirit that brought great fear with it. What the spirit said in this encounter is really the crux of the Book of Job:
‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? If He puts no trust in His servants, if He charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth?’ (Job 4:17-19)
The spirit’s message was that it is ridiculous and presumptuous for anyone to claim to be right with God, nor can any person be righteous in the presence of God. This, of course, was not true. Job was declared righteous by God Himself. Additionally, it is the clear teaching of Scripture that saints in both the Old and New Testaments were declared righteous by God because of their faith.
ZOPHAR SLAMS JOB
In the course of their words, Job’s friends set forth a fearful catalog of all the terrors that await the wicked. It is as if they were telling Job what he should expect. Zophar spoke the following in Job 20:20-29:
“Because he [the wicked] knows no quietness in his heart, he will not save anything he desires. Nothing is left for him to eat; therefore his well-being will not last. In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress; every hand of misery will come against him. When he is about to fill his stomach, God will cast on him the fury of His wrath, and will rain it on him while he is eating. He will flee from the iron weapon; a bronze bow will pierce him through. It is drawn, and comes out of the body; yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors come upon him; Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. An unfanned fire will consume him; it shall go ill with him who is left in his tent. The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him. The increase of his house will depart, and his goods will flow away in the day of His wrath. This is the portion from God for a wicked man, the heritage appointed to him by God.”
Zophar was saying, in so many words, “Job, this is what happens to the wicked and it is happening to you.”
BILDAD’S RELIGIOUS SPIRIT
Then Bildad added similar thoughts, recorded in Job 25:1-6:
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: “Dominion and fear belong to Him; He makes peace in His high places. Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not rise? How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight, how much less man, who is a maggot, and a son of man, who is a worm?”
Bildad said it is a ridiculous presumption for any man to claim to be right with God. Please take note—this is the basic issue that Satan resists. He could have spoken the very words of Bildad, ridiculing any claim to be right with God. We need to realize that these accusations came from an evil spirit—not the Spirit of God. I believe the spirit that gave these impressions to Bildad was a religious spirit.
A religious spirit is one of the hardest to deal with—and there are many of them in all expressions of Christianity. They use wonderful sounding language to beat down other people, and that is precisely the way Job’s friends operated.
Something we should recognize about religious spirits is that they are too good to be true. They use their apparent goodness, righteousness, and spirituality to make others feel guilty and spiritually inferior. They are very deceptive because, like Job’s friends, they use all the right language. However, they cause no end of trouble, and they are more religious than God Himself.
The Scripture’s answer to, “Can a man be right with God?” is found in Romans. Righteousness, in fact, is the whole issue of Romans. In that New Testament book, Paul declares that we are made righteous by faith, not by any good works or merit on our part.
God clearly declares that we may be righteous before Him. But Satan argues continually that we cannot, and he usually uses religious arguments to make us feel guilty. The enemy will dig up everything you have ever done wrong and point out every shortcoming to convince you that you cannot possibly be righteous in God’s eyes. Isn’t it amazing that this is a major issue in the case of Job? That book, which is possibly 4,000 years old, is exactly relevant to the situations in which we find ourselves today.
We have seen Job suffer unspeakable tragedy. We have listened to the religious arguments of his friends condemning him. How does Job respond to all this? In our upcoming chapter, we will explore the answer to that significant question.