If One Will Do, Why Not Try 2 Series

Job 15: 1 – 16

If one will do, why not try 2

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: 2 “Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? 3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or by speeches with which he can do no good? 4 Yes, you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God. 5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. 6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; Yes, your own lips testify against you. 7 “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you made before the hills? 8 Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? 9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us? 10 Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, much older than your father. 11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, and the word spoken gently with you? 12 Why does your heart carry you away, and what do your eyes wink at, 13 that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? 14 “What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? 15 If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens are not pure in His sight, 16 how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!

I am sure you have heard of the word ‘Oxymoron’. The rhetorical term oxymoron, made up of two Greek words meaning "sharp" and "dull," is itself oxymoronic. As you probably remember from school, an oxymoron is a compressed paradox: a figure of speech in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. The oxymoron has also been called "the show-off" figure, one that gives voice to life's inherent conflicts and incongruities.

Here is a list of a few of the more popular ones;

1. cheerful pessimist

2. civil war

3. clearly misunderstood

4. " conspicuous absence

5. cool passion

6. crash landing

7. deafening silence

8. deceptively honest

9. definite maybe

10. dull roar

11. even odds

12. exact estimate

13. found missing

14. freezer burn

15. genuine imitation

16. good grief

17. growing smaller

18. humane slaughter

19. icy hot

20. impossible solution

21. intense apathy

22. jumbo shrimp

23. larger half

24. lead balloon

25. living dead

26. living end

27. living sacrifices

28. loosely sealed

29. loud whisper

30. loyal opposition

31. militant pacifist

32. minor miracle

33. negative growth

34. negative income

35. old news

36. one-man band

37. only choice

38. openly deceptive

39. open secret

40. original copy

41. paper tablecloth

42. plastic glasses

43. poor health

44. pretty ugly

45. random order

46. recorded live

47. resident alien

48. sad smile

49. same difference

50. seriously funny

51. silent scream

52. small crowd

53. soft rock

54. static flow

55. steel wool

56. student teacher

57. terribly good

58. unbiased opinion

59. working vacation

Have you come up with the reason why I brought up this subject? Do you see an oxymoron statement brought up by Elipaz? What about these groups of words ‘empty knowledge’ or how about ‘reason with unprofitable talk’. We will see these conflicts throughout this awesome book so let’s get right into it.

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: 2 “Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? 3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or by speeches with which he can do no good?

Eliphaz jumps all over Job because he contradicted what he and his colleagues had said, and did not accept their advice as they had expected. Has something like this ever happen in your life? Perhaps a family member, a friend, or a co-worker has rebuked you for something that is totally incorrect. And if you tried to correct the misunderstanding you faced more wraths from the person? Eliphaz is bent out of shape emotionally because Job would not agree that he was a hypocrite.

He charges Job with lacking good sense and proper judgment. In a way he said that Job was absurd. Since he had a reputation of being a wise man, any one would say now that his wisdom had departed from him. Eliphaz said to Job, “You call yourself a wise man. If that be the case than how is it that all we hear from you is dumb remarks. You do not make any sense.’

In truth there is in the world a great deal of vain knowledge, science falsely so called, that is useless, and therefore worthless. This is the knowledge that puffs up, with which men swell in a fond conceit of their own accomplishments. Therefore it is important to know that any vain knowledge a man may have in his head, if he would be thought a wise man he must not reveal it but just let it go and not say it. In other words keep it to himself.