Job 4:12-21 Where Did Eliphaz the Temanite Receive His Information About God that Distorted His View of Job’s Sufferings?

Throughout the discourses by Eliphaz as contained in the book of Job, one central thought he clearly and consistently presents is that the Almighty God is just and righteous and as such would never punish a righteous person.  Although this is correct, his thinking had been trifled with and twisted.  This basic truth about Jehovah was turned in such a way before Eliphaz that he came to the conclusion that since God does not punish the righteous, then if a person was wicked He would punish and bring harm and destruction upon him and even his family and possessions.  Thus, his thinking toward Job was manipulated to believe that, despite Job’s appeals that he was innocent and righteous and had done no wrong and practiced nothing wicked, Job must be a liar and his present misery and misfortunes were clearly from God’s hand.  How did he come to this?

Looking at Eliphaz’s very first discourse to Job (chapter 4 and 5) we find he relates an experience he had one night with “a spirit” that imparted to him certain “wisdom” about God.  This encounter appears to be what twisted his thinking about God and Job.  The account reads:

“Now a word was stealthily brought to me, and my ear caught a whisper of it. In the troubling thoughts of the dreams in the night when a deep sleep falls on men, a dread gripped me and a terror and made all my bones shudder.  Then a spirit passes before my face; it made the hair of my flesh stand up!  It stood still, but I could not recognize its appearance; an image was before my eyes, and there was a calm then I heard a murmuring voice: ‘Can a mortal man be more righteous than God? Or an able-bodied man be more pure than his Maker?’” – Job 4:12-17.

The effect upon Eliphaz from this spiritual encounter is then reflected in his apparent words following the spirit’s statement:

“Look - God puts no faith in his servants and attributes faultiness to his angels [messengers], how much more to those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed more quickly than a moth?” – Job 4:18, 19.

Since this “spirit” that stealthily brought Eliphaz this “word” projects the thought that Jehovah the Almighty God does not have trust of faith in his own heavenly messengers, angels, than why would He have any faith or trust in mere mortal men who are made of dust and born imperfect - faulty?  (Job 14:1, 2)This sort of demonic reasoning twisted Eliphaz’s thinking to the point that he appears to have concluded that if God has no faith in angels – those who serve in his own divine presence and who are perfect, than he cannot have any real faith in those made of dust who do not serve in His presence.  Consequently, despite Job’s pleadings that he is innocent of sins deserving of the disasters that have befallen him, he obviously has sinned and is not telling truth.  He deserves from the Most High what he has and is receiving and should repent.  This is reflected in his further discourse to Job. – Job 5:1-7, 17, 18, 27; note 5:7-9.

This “spirit”, therefore, could not be one of those faithful messengers or angels of God.  Since this spirit cast aspersions upon Jehovah’s character and that of faithful angels and thus twisted Eliphaz’s thinking to doubt Job and falsely accuse him of secret sins, he could not be any other than Satan himself or one of his evil messengers, demons, to do his slanderous and malicious will. – Revelation 12:9, 10; Zechariah 3:1; Luke 22:31; 1 Peter 5:8.