What Is Man That You Make So Much of Him?

[Sung Psalm: 88]

Last time we saw that Eliphaz started by suggesting that maybe this is just “common wrath.” Compared to God, what is man? Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his maker? Eliphaz is willing to grant (for the moment) the possibility that Job is innocent – but “affliction does not come from the dust… man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Trouble is the common lot of man.

Common wrath is an important category, because sometimes people think that God is “picking on them” – when in fact, they are simply experiencing what happens to everyone.

But sometimes God is picking on you! If you look at Job, in a single day, but in four separate actions, he lost all his worldly possessions – as well as all his ten children! Rightly does Job say, “the terrors of God are arrayed against me” Well does he ask, “Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?”

Eliphaz had said that “vexation kills the fool” (5:2) – Job now replies, “you have no idea!”