Ponderosity - Chambers, Oswald

Job 15

A pill to cure an earthquake. . . .

G. K.

Chesterton there is nothing more ludicrous than the way in which some folk try to soothe sorrow and deal with trouble in other lives. Eliphaz makes out that jobs problems are not what he thinks they are; he tries to wear down jobs opposition by sheer ponderosity, i. E. , saying nothing with terrific emphasis. One can almost hear him choking with indignation: what knowest thou, that we know not? . . . ( job 15:9). Then follows the revealing of the unconscious egotism of the orthodox credist, dictatorially asserting the character of god ( job 15:1416). Then, like a theological buzzard, he sits on the perch of massive tradition and preens his ruffled feathers and croaks his eloquent platitudes. There is no trace of the fraud in eliphaz, he vigorously believes his beliefs, but he is at a total loss to know god. Eliphaz represents the kind of humbug that results from remaining true to conviction instead of to facts which dispute the conviction. The difference between an obstinate man and a strong-minded man lies just here: an obstinate man refuses to use his intelligence when a matter is in dispute, while a strong-minded man makes his decision after having deliberately looked at it from all standpoints, and when opposed, he is willing to give reasons for his decision.

1. The weapons of the temporising mind ( job 15:16)

Then answered eliphaz the temanite and said, should a wise man suffer vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good? ( job 15:13)

 A temporising mind is one that takes its position from immediate circumstances and never alters that position. Eliphaz says that job is simply bombastic; he sees in job what he is himself. The weapon of a temporising mind is sarcasm. There is a difference between sarcasm and irony (cf. Job 12:13). Sarcasm is the weapon of the weak man; the word literally means to tear flesh from the bone. Both Isaiah and the apostle paul make free use of irony, but they never use sarcasm. If a weak man is presented with facts he cannot understand, he invariably turns to sarcasm.

Eliphaz addresses a man of straw, but all the time he purports to be talking to job. First, he takes the scolding turn all you say about the suffering.

You are going through is much ado about nothing. Scolding is characteristic of the mind which is in a corner and does not see the way out; it falls back therefore to its own entrenched position. No one damns like an theologian, nor is any quarrel so bitter as a religious quarrel. If god can be summed up in a phraseand eliphaz and every man with a creed holds that he can be then there is the ban of final- ity about the view: what i say is god; and this is the essential nature of religious tyranny. Up to the time of the war, god, to many a man, was merely his own theological statement of him; but now his religious forms of belief have been swept away and for a while he say si have lost my faith in god. What has happened is that though he has lost his faith in his statement of god, he is on the way to finding god himself. Never be afraid if your circumstances dispute what you have been taught about god; be willing to examine what you have been taught, and never take the conception of an theologian as infallible; it is simply an attempt to state things.

2. The weight of the traditional manner ( job 15:713)

Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard the secret of god? And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself ? What knowest thou, that we know not? What understandest thou, which is not in us? ( job 15:79)

When once the sledge-hammer of tradition is brought to bear there is nothing more to say with us are both the grey-headed and the very aged men, much elder than thy father. Eliphaz says to job do you imagine that you have a setting of the problem which has never been dealt with before? The pharisees adopted this method with Jesus. Our lord claimed that the law and the prophets were until himself. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, . . . But i say unto you . . . The pharisees said, we have all the weight of history behind us and the lore of tradition, consequently the constitution of god is with us and not with you; you are devil-possessed and a sinner, and they put him to death. That is the traditional manner at its worst. The eliphaz method has hindered more souls in developing the life with god than almost any other thing, because very few men are willing to say: yes, i have a re-statement of the problem which has never been dealt with traditionally. When once the weight of what was known in the past is brought to bear, it

Crushes the life out of what is going on in the pres- ent. If the traditional manner has any weight at all, it should make men courteous with the problems which are recent. Pauls advice to timothy waslet no man despise thy youth. Dont try to make up for your youth by dogmatism and talk, but see that you walk in such a manner that you are an example to the believers. No really wise, liberal-minded person ever needs to say, remember how old i am. Traditional belief has the root of the matter in it, but its form is often archaic. We begin our religious life by believing our beliefs, we accept what we are taught without questioning; then when we come up against things we begin to be critical and we find that however right those beliefs are, they are not right for us because we have not bought them by suffering. Jobs experiences and his suffering made him re-state his beliefs. It is absurd to tell a man he must believe this and that; in the meantime he cannot. The tra- ditional manner sits on the safety valve of every new type of experience. After the war, the redemption will need to be re-stated theologically. Redemption must be seen to be gods bit, not mans. A man cannot redeem himself. At present redemption is not in the vocabulary of the average earnest christian man. When the traditional believer hears men talk as they are doing, he is apt to get scared and to squash the life out of what, behind its insufficient expression, is going to be a re-illumination of traditional truth. If eliphaz had been wise he would have seen what job was getting atjob is facing something i do not see; i dont understand his problem, but i will treat him with respect. Instead of that he said, according to my traditional belief, you are a hypocrite, job.

3. The ways of the theological method ( job 15:1416)

Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? ( job 15:1516)

Theology is the science of religion, an intellectual attempt to systematise the consciousness of god. If we take the doctrine of the trinity (which is a noble attempt of the mind of man to put into an theological formula the godhead as revealed in the bible) and saythat is god, every other attempt at a statement of the godhead is met by a sledge-hammer blow of finality. My theology has taken the place of god and i have to say that is blasphemy. Theology is second, not first; in its place it is a hand- maid of religion, but it becomes a tyrant if put in the first place. The great doctrines of predestination and election are secondary matters, they are attempts at definition, but if we take sides with the theological method we will damn men who differ from us with- out a minutes hesitation. Is there any form of belief which has taken the place of god with me? We only believe along the line of what we conceive of god, and when things happen contrary to that line, we deny the experience and remain true to our theologi- cal method. Job is on the right trail.

4. The words of the tragedy-monger ( job 15:1735)

 I will shew thee, hear me; and that which i have seen i will declare. ( job 15:17)

Eliphaz empties all the vials of his wrath on job, he takes the facts of jobs life and colours them, then states them again as a man of straw. He pictures the terrific tragedy which is likely to happen to his man of straw, and drives it home withthou art the man. If job is right, eliphaz must be wrong, so he has to come to the conclusion that job is a hypocrite, the worst of bad men, because what his creed declares to be the portion of a bad man, has come to job. This accounts for the tirade of eliphaz.

As a product of shallow evangelical teaching, people are led to cod themselves into believing that they are what they know perfectly well they are not; whereas the new testament says if a man has the holy spirit it will show itself in fruitwherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. There are any number of men who suddenly realise the shallowness of persuading themselves that they are what they are not, and they long for reality.

The standard for god cannot be experience; the standard is what jesus christ has revealed about god. If anything we may be told about god contradicts the manifestation given by Jesus Christ, we are at liberty to say, no, i cannot believe that. Things have been taught about god which are seen to be diabolical when viewed in the light of our lords revelation of him. Remain steadfastly true to what you have learned, and when you have to suspend your judgement, say it is suspended. This was jobs attitude all through. Your creed distorts the character of god, but i know in the end he will prove to be all that i trust him to be, a god of love and justice, and absolutely honourable.