A Witness that has personal Knowledge of the Facts

 

Job 22:1-11

 

“Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.  Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?   Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?  Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.  For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.  You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.  The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.  Therefore, snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you, or darkness so that you cannot see,and a flood of water covers you.”

Eliphaz the Temanite has moved from implying to being both the prosecutor, judge, and jury, and Job is one evil dude.  How to hold on a moment, do you not see something very wrong with his statement about Job?  Has he not become a trial of one person?  Where are the witnesses, in Job 21:29, Job asks have you never consulted those who travel the roads?  What about this in Job’s defense; verse 27, “I know your thoughts very well, the schemes you would wrong me with.”  I wonder if these three saw themselves as all-knowing, had they moved into the role of God?

 

Now if I may, allow this very unqualified, not retired, but between Job’s for 13 years to call a witness.  I’m going to only call one, and my witness will be all the defense Job requires.  First, what is the requirement of a witness in a trial?  “To qualify to be a witness a person must possess witness capacity and have personal knowledge of facts relevant to the case, be able to understand the obligation, to tell the truth, and take the oath or affirm that he or she will testify truthfully.”  Not one witness was called, yet Job asks for them to do so.  But I’ve found a witness that meets all the requirement of a witness, you will find Job’s defense in Job chapter 1:8, “And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

 

I rest my defense on this one witness, as recorded in the word of God, and let me remind the jury; “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice