Job 15

“Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: ‘Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or by speeches with which he can do no good? Yes, you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God. For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; yes, your own lips testify against you. Are you the first man who was born or were you made before the hills?  Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, much older than your father.’” Job 15:1-10 (NKJV)

Envy is pride, wounded in competition. Whenever someone is envious of you, regardless of whether you sense any degree of competition with them, just know that they are in competition with you and they feel endangered of losing. Envy is a negative defense mechanism that many people use when they feel threatened by competition. Envy’s goal is always to crush its competitor to the degree that they never rise up in competition again. Envy’s tactics include gossip, misinformation, and false counsel. Envy is what we observe from Eliphaz the Temanite’s conversation with Job, and the competition stemmed from Job’s former status of being “the greatest of all the people of the East.” (Job 1:3b)

When you read the first chapter of Job, did you not sense a bit of competition with Job yourself? When I read that Job was blameless & upright, that he feared God and shunned evil, had a big happy family, the respect of his peers, and great wealth, I compared my life to Job’s. I assumed the difference in our lifestyles must be related to my lack of righteousness to some degree. Just being honest. So, when God allows Satan to come at Job so hard, it rocks our life expectations because we must all admit that (to some degree) we hold to a theological paradigm of “quid pro quo” blessing for righteousness. Job forces us to stop comparing our lives & lifestyles with those of others.  Comparing lifestyles (based on blessing-for-righteousness) is actually a form of competition that is an open door for envy. We should not compare ourselves to others but rather to God’s standard, as He has articulated in His Word, the Bible. Then, our appreciation for Messiah Jesus’ atonement is elevated because we realize we can never earn enough to merit His favor. Our purpose in life is to seek Him and share Him with others, regardless of lifestyle reward.

In his envy, Eliphaz wrongly rebukes Job by attacking his 1) Personal experience, 2) Ability to receive God’s counsel, and 3) Going against the tradition of the elders. When the theology is off, the diagnosis is off; thus, the suggested road to recovery and expectations of healing never pay off. We seek God’s Word so we can weigh counsel. Bad counsel comes from bad theology, which leads to competition & envy.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1(NKJV)