Job and Eliphaz the Lord Message

The Lord rebukes Eliphaz for having misinterpreted His will and Job’s disposition. God is angered by the false rationales given by Eliphaz and the others regarding the ills that have befallen Job. He does not appreciate their attempts, born out of vanity and pride, to assert themselves as interpreters of the will of God. After dealing with Job, He turns his attention to Job’s friends and pronounces judgment upon them—just as they have done towards Job. The Lord also distinguishes between Eliphaz and his friends and Job, whom the Lord calls “his servant”—the insinuation, of course, being that Eliphaz and the others are not true servants of God because they are not humble in the way that Job is. Job argued that he was innocent throughout his afflictions, while Eliphaz and the others argued that Job was being punished for his sins. The Lord, here, clearly indicates that he favors Job (even though he has afflicted him) and that He disapproves of those who condemn him. Job thus serves as a prefiguring of Christ, and the Lord is setting the stage for that narrative to come.