Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof

"Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom" (Job 4:12-20). So just what is this passage all about, and why is it in the book of Job? Well, it is about an actual encounter that Eliphaz the Temanite, one of Job's friends/tormentors, had with an angel of God. He is telling how he was effected in the encounter, and he's telling the word of the Lord that was delivered to him by the angel. That's all really good stuff and worthy of some serious attention, but there was one really big problem with his telling of the whole thing. That problem was that he was using a real spiritual experience of his to qualify himself to condemn Job, an innocent man who was guilty of no wrong. This is what took place in most of the book, Job's accusers misapplying actual truth about God to Job's situation, to condemn him for something that he hadn't done. Job suffered such affliction that his friends just knew that he had done something really bad, otherwise all of this calamity wouldn't have come upon him.

After sitting with Job for seven days and seven nights in total silence, in reverence to his unfathomable grief; once Job began to express his grief, the accusations began (Job 2:12,13). Eliphaz immediately responded to Job's expression of his grief with this encouraging and uplifting statement: "Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same" (Job 4:8). Wow. Talk about pouring salt into an open wound. In fact he made that judgmental statement right before telling of his encounter with the angel, and thereby extolling his own high spiritual state. He felt that because he had been visited from heaven, and had unmistakably heard the word of the Lord up close and personal, that he was qualified to judge why these afflictions had come to Job. He was wrong. It wasn't until he and his two friends had heaped accusation after accusation on Job for some time, confirming their misjudgments by their evident wisdom; that God showed up and rebuked their madness: "And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath" (Job 42:7). I'm not dissecting the book of Job here today, only this one point about Eliphaz glorying in his angelic encounter, and his feeling that it qualified him from then on to be a judge of everyone else's matters. The fact that he had the encounter was good. Everyone would like to be in that position, and I think it would benefit most people to have an experience like that. But the fact that he was eager to tell of this experience as soon as he started the accusation ball rolling, is evidence that he was using it as leverage against Job, to condemn him for his supposed wickedness that he had sown. Again I say, he was wrong.

I've seen this kind of thing repeatedly among God's people, that someone who has some kind of an experience, or a powerful prophetic word given to them, or a spiritual gift operating prolifically; somehow comes easily and eagerly to the conclusion that they have obtained some God-given authority to judge every matter that they come into contact with. That is a presumptuous and foolish conclusion to make about one's self, regardless of what the one presuming these things has experienced. I've got news for you: God isn't impressed by ANYTHING that you, me, or anyone else in heaven or in earth has experienced; other than what his Son experienced in this earth for over three years, and particularly what he experienced on the cross of Calvary for six grueling hours. The apostle Paul nailed that point down really tight to the Corinthians, who were prone to a lack of order and misuse of spiritual gifts: "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (I Cor. 4:7) Job's friends fell prey very quickly to the temptation that Jesus warned us against, when it comes to judging serious matters: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (Jn. 7:24). It can be very tempting to judge something according to the way it appears to be when one has an elevated esteem of his own judgment, due to some spiritual experience, knowledge, gift, etc. The 'righteous judgment' that Jesus mentioned is simply that we know what the Spirit of God is saying about a matter in real time (Jn. 16:13; Rev. 2:7). A situation with someone may look identical to another circumstance with someone else that we have seen, and found the right judgment on; but the actual judgment of the second situation may be something altogether different. If we assume that the one will be the same as the other, then we may very well be found "judging according to the appearance."

Job's friends for instance had seen bad things come on people who had done bad things, but they had never seen anything like what they saw with Job; the very worst of things come upon a man whom God himself referred to BEFORE the calamity as, "my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil" (Job 1:8). I can't think of anyone who wouldn't want to have that kind of report with God. I know I would love to think that God is saying something like that about me. In fact I would rather know that than to have thousands of angelic encounters, and a continual proliferation of spiritual gifts operating in my life; and assume that those things qualify me to be the judge of every matter, like Eliphaz the Temanite did. Eliphaz naturally felt to take the lead role in the judging of Job because of his glorious experience of hearing God's word straight out of the mouth of a messenger from heaven. In saying these things allow me to make it crystal clear that I would not trade any of my experiences in Christ, or any of my revelations of the holy Ghost, or any encounters of any kind that I've had; for anything or with anyone. Not only so, but I also desire to attain unto many more such things with the Lord, and I welcome whatever he would like for me to experience. Personally I love it all. If it's part of the kingdom of God, then it's home to me; and home is what I love more than anything. Nonetheless, if I could have only one particular report on my record when I stand before Christ at the final judgment, it would be that I kept the following admonition without failure: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2). I am also certain that the great apostle who wrote this was in full agreement with me in saying so. It is really interesting also how he followed up this monumental statement about the faith of Christ with this: "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself" (Gal. 6:3).

If Eliphaz and his two friends had been focused on bearing their brother's burden, then he and they would not have been found guilty of 'thinking they were something,' when in fact 'they were nothing.' These two verses from Galatians really do tell the story that I've told in this article. If we think we are 'qualified' to judge someone's matter because we have certain spiritual experiences or gifts in our repertoire, we can very quickly fall into the category of thinking we are something, when we are nothing. On the other hand, if our natural inclination is to "bear one another's burdens," then we just can't miss, and we'll probably come to the 'righteous' and helpful judgment for their matter. It all comes down to possessing the love of God, and being possessed by the love of God. The same apostle Paul showed us in another place the exact meaning of what he said in Galatians 6:2,3; as well as what I have set forth in this writing: "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not [love], I am nothing" (I Cor. 13:2). The love of God will naturally bear the burden of an afflicted brother or sister, but the spirit of Eliphaz would prefer to be critical of a hurting soul; all the while feeling qualified to do so because of having spiritual experiences or gifts in hand. At the end of the book of Job it was Job who was the one who had to bear the burden of his misguided brethren, and they who had to be borne: “Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.”(Job 42:8,9). Funny, but that's the way it often goes. Someone who appears to be 'nothing' is actually 'something,' and someone who appears to be 'something,' are actually 'nothing.' May God be forever praised.