Job

Job 15: God exposes empty human confidence

Begin in prayer

Before we read Eliphaz’s next answer, please ask God to expose empty confidence in our own hearts. Ask Him to search our confidence and to show our family why we need Jesus.

Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?

Isaiah 2:22

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Help us receive true warnings without making false charges. Show us why Christ is wiser than every empty hope. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Eliphaz answers again and says Job’s words condemn him as crafty and irreverent. He questions Job’s claim to wisdom and appeals to older teachers. He describes human corruption before God’s purity. Then he gives a long picture of a wicked man troubled by fear and threatened by destruction. This man has proudly opposed God, but his wealth and strength will not last. Eliphaz ends with empty confidence, lost fruit, bribery and deceit.

As you read Job 15, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God will bring proud wickedness to ruin, but Eliphaz cannot make that warning a true accusation against Job.

Eliphaz now treats Job’s own words as evidence that he has abandoned reverence and chosen deceit. His questions challenge Job’s wisdom without answering his particular case. He appeals to old age and inherited teaching, yet neither can replace evidence. His account of corrupt humanity states a need shared by all, rather than proving that Job’s calamities punish secret crimes. The long picture of the wicked makes rebellion against God look armed and defiant. Its ending exposes the emptiness of trusting what cannot endure. That warning should search our confidence, while God’s earlier verdict prevents us from using it to condemn Job.

How does Job 15 show us that God will bring proud wickedness to ruin, but Eliphaz cannot make that warning a true accusation against Job?

Religious confidence can carry a false charge.

Eliphaz calls his own counsel God’s consolation and says Job’s mouth condemns him. He has not proved the crimes his argument requires. A teacher’s confidence cannot supply the missing truth. Learn Job 15 verse 14 as a true word about every person’s need, and not as Eliphaz’s verdict on Job.

Proud rebellion cannot stand against God.

The wicked person in Eliphaz’s picture runs against the Almighty with a stiff neck and strong shields. Those defenses cannot preserve wealth or life. Human defiance does not make God weak.

Empty confidence ends without what it promises.

Branches dry, grapes fall unripe and olive flowers drop. Eliphaz uses lost fruit to show an expectation that fails. The warning against emptiness is true, even though he wrongly directs his portrait at Job.

Memorise

What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Job 15:14

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, what empty hope keeps me from trusting Jesus?

Eliphaz warns against confidence that ends in emptiness. But he still uses a true warning to press a false case against Job. His account of human wisdom needs the same testing as Job’s words.

First Corinthians 1 verse 24 calls Christ the wisdom of God. The Lord whom people rejected as foolish came to save sinners through His cross. He carried the sins of His people and bore their judgment there. His sacrifice was complete, with nothing missing from their redemption. He rose from the dead, defeating the death they could not escape.

Turn from your sins and come to Jesus in faith. He grants forgiveness to everyone resting in Him. Human status, wealth and proud arguments cannot give the solid hope His finished work provides.

Parent's note

Tell your children to heed God’s warnings without treating another person’s suffering as proof of secret wickedness. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God that proud wickedness cannot defeat Him, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18

Father, thank You that proud wickedness cannot overcome You. Forgive the empty things we trust and the false judgments we make. Please turn us from sin to faith in Jesus and His finished sacrifice. Help us receive Your warnings and give truthful counsel this week. In Jesus' name, Amen.