Job 15-16

Job 15
Eliphaz tells again of Job's windy talk and useless complaining. He says that by doing this Job ignores reverence and meditation before God. Job is condemn by his friend as guilty. His friend reiterates what has already been said, "Do you limit wisdom to yourself?" We find out that old men are his in this counsel (v10). Eliphaz is calling out Job, saying that Job has allowed himself to be turned from God through all of his trouble, reiterating that no man is pure and righteous before the Lord.

Eliphaz begins a story about an evil man who knows of his evil and cowers before God (his main sin against the Lord being arrogance; v25). The evil man, through this arrogance, attacks God. Eliphaz says that this man will not prosper. His livelihood will fail, and his house will be consumed with fire (seemingly acts of God, so maybe he's saying that God will pour out his wrath on this evil fellow).

Job 16
Job fires back with what seems to be a broken record or maybe the trendy thing to say during this day, "Is there no limit to windy words?" Job chides his friends for not being more understanding (understanding of what?; I would think understanding of the possibility that God may bring hardship of the righteous and the unrighteous; Matthew 5:45). Job's friends did not exactly build him up as Ephesians 4:29 says to do, and Job tells them this. He tells them that their company has shriveled him up, exhausted him, and torn him down.

It seems strange, though, still to me that Job is blaming God for all of this. Satan truly is the one who touched him though God allowed this. How about the fact that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Job deserves death for his sin, but he has not received it. However he does desire death to this torture, as he claims this life to be; perhaps God still has plans for him.

Job does have a good understanding that man needs an advocate with the Lord. He seems to be the only one who understands this. Praise the Lord that our advocate is Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1; Hebrews 7:25). Even the spirit of God, who lives inside those who believe, makes intercession for us to the Father! (Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:26).