Job 4.17 17 ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?’ (ESV)
There was an assumption on the part of Eliphaz the
Temanite: man is irreparably guilty.
There is no one who is right and all men deserve what they get – no one stands
before God righteous or pure. And that’s true: in one sense.
God created Adam in goodness and purity: So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God saw
everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was
evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1.27, 31 ESV)
Whatever God proclaims good is good and we can assess to that goodness: right
and pure. Even though our first parents fell, they didn’t fall beyond grace –
God always favors His creation.
Granted, Mr. Eliphaz, (whose name meant: God is fine gold), man is fallen and
capable of the worst atrocities, but he isn’t fallen without remedy, and not
everyone commits the worst atrocities. Man in his fallenness still appreciates
goodness, kindness, doing things right the first time, and purity. These things
may be tainted because of man’s condition, but they aren’t beyond God’s power
to transform them. Unless Eliphaz, you cynically persist in thinking that
things will always remain the way they are at the moment, and that people are
beyond God’s power, influence, and presence.
Many think like Eliphaz – and they may be fine gold people – but their tarnish is
cynicism, and their view of God is too small.
To answer Eliphaz’s question to Job, the answer is: yes –
mortal man can be right before God
and a man can be pure before his
Maker. God’s view of us is different than ours – He sees our potential in Him
and He knows our need for Him.
I’ve heard it called stinking
thinking – this incessant proclivity of man to undersell himself because he’s
either too focused on his own shortcomings, or on those of others. He gives
himself names like sinner, loser, unrighteous, impure because he leaves God out
of the equation. Low self-esteem is built upon a foundation of denial of the
gift of life that is ours because of God. We refuse to admit who we are and Whose
we are. It’s a deadly form of pride.
I wrestle constantly with the cynicism of Eliphaz and I
have to fight it because though I read the truth, I tend to believe my conduct.
I am called righteous and pure not because I say so, but because
God says so: that is my status in
Christ. That is my response to the Eliphaz-isms of the world which steadfastly
deny God His opinion of who we are and Whose we are.
Father, Eliphaz may have been a fine-gold kind of guy but
he was un-right and impure in his view of You. Help me in the fight to say no,
and to live so, because of who You say I am and because I belong to You. Amen.
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