What can we learn from Eliphaz? There is much we can learn from Eliphaz in Job chapter five. Eliphaz, remember, represents normalcy, which is learned from or by experience. The youth does not know what to expect of life, for he has not made Eliphaz his ‘friend.’ He therefore cannot tell whether his experiences are normal or not, and only later may he look back and see if his upbringing was normal or different. A wise man makes Eliphaz his ‘friend’ and draws comfort from normalcy. He is then better able to judge the abnormality in any situation. The Christian must learn that it is abnormal for the innocent to suffer, so that as he suffers for Christ’s sake and the gospel he will not be confused and think that perhaps this is a normal, reasonable, acceptable part of the life of every man. Rather he will be driven to God in prayer the more. A poor fisherman who is seasick each time his boat leaves harbor might well believe it an acceptable, normal hazard of his occupation, instead of seeing he would do better as a farmer perhaps. Thus we can deliberately cultivate the ‘friendship’ of Eliphaz to our advantage, and study his words to our edification. God has recorded all his words here in the book of Job so that we might learn from them, and better understand thereafter what is normal in creation. It is normal in creation for the sparks to fly upward, is it not? So it is normal in life to encounter trouble. Eliphaz says, “Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” Trouble – what one calls “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” – is the norm for all men, not something peculiar to you, and a life without trouble is abnormal. You see, if a man is perfectly happy his life is abnormal. If a man and his wife never argue, but agree on every point, their marriage is abnormal, not normal. If you never encounter trouble, your life is different from that of most men. Eliphaz, speaking from experience, says in chapter four, “even as I have seen.” So Eliphaz, as we said earlier, represents in one ‘character’ these things – reasonable or rational behavior, normalcy, accumulated wisdom, experience. And Eliphaz is the Temanite – he ‘springs from’ an awareness of God, the Creator. He speaks of God in this fifth chapter on this wise – “Which doeth great things and unsearchable, marvellous things without number.” When we see a miracle of God we say it is abnormal, strange, different. If Eliphaz were our ‘friend’ we would perceive that miracles are the norm as far as God is concerned, and a lack of miracles would be seen to be abnormal. If Christ had done no mighty works there would have been something abnormal about His behavior, for God was His Father. God is a God of wonders, doing marvellously, says scripture. That is God’s normal behavior, says Eliphaz. What else is God’s normal behavior? “Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields.” You see, drought is an abnormal condition in creation. And if our souls are dry and our spirits hot and dusty that is an abnormal condition before God, who has stated that He will pour out water to the thirsty soul, and give plentifully to him that is dry. Indeed Christ assures those who come to Him that out of their belly will flow rivers of living water. If the scriptures are a dry and dusty collection of writings, or if the church is a dry and dusty place, then something is wrong somewhere. Eliphaz speaks only of what is normal. And we should experience this. What else then is normal to God? “To set up on high those that be low” says Eliphaz in verse eleven, “that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.” If you have humbled yourself as Paul told you to do and God has not exalted you, then something is wrong; God is acting contrary to His normal behavior. Perhaps He is merely testing your patience. But at least know this – if you have mourned for your sins, and bent low before the Cross of Christ at Calvary and asked to be forgiven, and become a simple believer in Christ, and God does not raise you up at the resurrection of the just and seat you with Christ in heavenly places, then God has gone berserk. His behavior would be so extraordinary, abnormal, so unlike God that reason would fail and Eliphaz would be found a liar. We saw in chapter four the opposite picture – the end of the wicked. “By the blast of God they perish,” says Eliphaz, “and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.” If the wicked get away with it, as we say, after the day of judgment, then God’s behavior would be termed extraordinary, to say the least, and who would worship a mad God? We have to see that wrath for sin is the normal, day-to-day attitude of the unchangeable God. We need to see that the exaltation to a place of safety of the simple believer in Christ is what our experience with God would lead us to expect. And if we had time to study the words of our ‘friend’ Eliphaz recorded in scripture we might come to a truer understanding of God our Creator. Now only a fool would believe there is no God, no Creator, and Eliphaz warns us in this fifth chapter against such folly. Let us not anger God with our unbelief, “for wrath killeth the foolish man,” states Eliphaz. Don’t be silly, for God is a jealous God, as Moses told us in the law, “and envy slayeth the silly one,” says Eliphaz. Normal behavior! Now it should be possible with the help of ‘friend’ Eliphaz to see something else in Job chapter five, something concerning Christ. Once we have established what is normal behavior with God, we see clearly what is abnormal behavior with God. Man might rationalize away the Cross of Christ, saying Jesus was an insurrectionist in a politically troubled land whose death was the only result to be anticipated from His radical teachings. Nonsense! We see from Job that for God to allow the righteous to suffer as the wicked is abnormal behavior. There must be a special reason for it, therefore. We know – or should know – that there was a very special reason for allowing Christ to suffer and to die. He was the Sin-offering for all the world. God was not chastening His Son, either, for the normal pattern here, as Eliphaz tell us, is quite different. “For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.” If God chastens us as His children then we may temporarily feel sore, and momentarily feel wounded, only to discover afresh how much God loves us. But Christ was deliberately betrayed, mocked, beaten, crowned with thorns, tried by unjust judges, scourged and then publicly executed by the most cruel means available, whilst Barabbas, murderer and insurrectionist, is set free. You see the abnormality of it? Furthermore, Eliphaz assures us in verse 19, “He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.” That is the normal and expected behavior of God. But all seven come upon Christ in one day and He was delivered from none of them. Was that not extraordinary? Eliphaz goes on to assure us, “Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.” Eliphaz is speaking from experience and from accumulated wisdom. We have searched it, it is so! What were the seven troubles that could befall a man? “In famine, he shall redeem thee from death…” Famine here implies drought, which would have been a better word, to make it easier to see. Now Christ cried, “I thirst,” but God did not save Him from death. “And in war from the power of the sword.” But the enemy accomplished His death. “Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue,” says Eliphaz, but the malefactors railed on Him. “Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh,” but He was destroyed. “At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh” – that is scripture – but the Man of Sorrows gave up the ghost. “Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.” Well, brutal man exhibited a bestiality at Golgotha which has never been equalled, and Christ sweat as it were great drops of blood at the thought of what He was called upon to endure. Does that sound as though nothing abnormal had ever taken place? What is the debate in the book of Job all about? ‘Should a truly righteous man ever suffer, or not?’ Eliphaz answers “No,” therefore we can rest assured that in normal circumstances Jesus Christ the Righteous would have been declared faultless, and set free. The conclusion we are forced to accept therefore is that there was nothing normal about Calvary. Of all events, it is the most extraordinary. God’s whole pattern of behavior is altered. The Just is made to suffer as the unjust. The sinless Son of God and two evil malefactors hang together. A murderer is released, and the Lord of Glory is crucified. There was no deliverance from the seven troubles. Christ is left comfortless – to die. If that were the ‘normal’ with God, which of us would want to go to heaven? We must clearly see, therefore, and fully understand that Calvary was truly extraordinary. Praise God! Perhaps we can make the matter clearer again in this way. God raised Christ from the dead the third day. Now if we have judged correctly, and if Eliphaz is right, then that is not – we repeat, not – extraordinary. That is what we should have expected. Wonderful, yes, but our God is a God of wonders, doing marvellously. It was to be expected, you see. Christ Risen rebukes His disciples because they were astonished. He clearly expected to rise from the dead the third day. He had told them so. They should have known enough about God to expect it, and confidently await the third day. It was the normal. It was what to expect. It had to happen, if the unchangeable God were to remain changeless. Why any man should doubt the Resurrection of Christ is beyond us. Surely this was the only reasonable, rational, normal thing to happen in that short period of time. Up to Calvary, Christ is doing wonders, and God is doing wonders among the people. Three days after Calvary the wonders begin again. So what is abnormal? Calvary! If Lazarus is raised from the dead, can Christ not be raised? And at Pentecost the wonders are seen again. And the apostles go on to do wonders, even to raising the dead. Why? Because that is the normal. Anything else would have been abnormal. So the church can judge if her state today is normal or abnormal by whether the wonders are seen or not. If they are not, something is wrong. If they are, everything is fine. Let us learn from Eliphaz therefore to distinguish clearly between the normal and the abnormal. Let us study scripture a little more carefully and diligently in future. And let us come closer to God, and learn more of what God is like, and see for ourselves the true meaning of Calvary. O Lord, how great Thou art!