Job 4:12-21 - Exposition

Eliphaz proceeds to narrate a spiritual experience of a very strange and striking character. It was night, and he had fallen asleep, when suddenly he was, or seemed to himself to be, awake. A horrible fear came over him, and all his limbs trembled and quaked. Then a spirit seemed to pass before his face, while every hair on his body rose up and stiffened with horror. It did not simply pass across him, but stood still, in a formless form, which he could see but not clearly distinguish. There was a deep hush. Then out of the silence there seemed to come a voice, a whisper, which articulated solemn words. "Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man," etc.? Supernatural visitations were vouchsafed by God to many besides the chosen people—to Laban, when he pursued Jacob ( Genesis 31:24 ), to Abimelech ( Genesis 20:6 ), to the Pharaoh of the time of Joseph ( Genesis 41:1-7 ), to his chief butler ( Genesis 40:9-11 ), and his chief baker ( Genesis 40:16 , Genesis 40:17 ), to Balaam the son of Beer ( Numbers 22:12 , Numbers 22:20 ; Numbers 23:5-10 , Numbers 23:16-24 ; Numbers 24:3-9 , Numbers 24:15-24 ), to Nebuchadnezzar ( Daniel 2:28-35 ; Daniel 4:1-32 ), and others. The method and manner of these visitations raise a multitude of questions which it is impossible to answer, but are convincing evidence to all who believe Scripture to be true, that communications can pass between the spiritual and material worlds of a strange and mysterious character. The communication to Eliphaz may have been a mere vision, impressed upon his mind in sleep, or it may have been actually brought to him by a spiritual messenger, whom he could dimly see, and whose voice he was privileged to hear. Modern pseudo-science pronounces such seeing and hearing to be impossible. But poets are often clearer-sighted than scientists, and Shakespeare utters a pregnant truth when he says—

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."