Wisdom from an evil spirit?

“Now a word was brought to me stealthily, And my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, Dread came upon me, and trembling, And made all my bones shake.Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; A form was before my eyes; —Job 4:12-16a

A spirit comes to Job’s friend at night. The spirit is very real to him, terrifying him greatly. But is this spirit from God or from Satan? Meeting an angel can be terrifying, but in the Bible, when God’s messengers speak to someone, they comfort the person, try to dispel the fear, but here even the identity of the spirit remains hidden, just adding to the fear. This spirit shows no concern for this man, for one made in God’s image.

There was silence, then I heard a voice: ‘Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? He puts no trust even in His servants; And against His angels He charges error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth! Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unobserved, they perish forever. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, yet without wisdom.’—Job 4:16b-21

Job’s friend shares these words he recieved from this spirit as truth, encouraging Job to follow this advice. With these words the spirit and Job’s friend imply that Job is not innocent, is not blameless, even though none of them are aware of any specific sin. They judge him based on the false assumption that all suffering is punishment due to personal sin. Furthermore, they imply that God does not trust Job anymore, removing the hedge of protection and his blessings because of Job’s sin.

But are these words from this spirit truth or are these words lies?

1. Is Job suffering because of his sin?

In the first chapter, God declares that Job is blameless, so he is not suffering because of sin, he is not being punished for his sin. Job knew he was blameless, but did not know why he was suffering. Job’s friends believed he was suffering because of sin and was hiding it from God.

2. Is God punishing him for sin while hiding the reason?

There is no sin and so there cannot be a hidden reason either. It is also not God’s character to hide our sin from us. David expected God to reveal any hidden sin in his life so he asked, so he could then confess it. Satan wants us to doubt God’s character, drive a wedge between us and God.

3. Is Job suffering because God does not trust him anymore?

Job is blameless, so his suffering cannot be caused by a break in trust with God. Because Job knew he was blameless, he also knew that if there was a break, it couldn’t be caused by his sin. When we sin, we want to hide from God but He doesn’t want to hide from us. He wants us to confess and repent so that he can forgive us and cleanse us.

4. Does God distrust all his servants, even his angels?

There were many servants that God trusted even though they sinned. God had close relationships with Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and David. The only angel “charged with error” that is revealed in the Bible was Satan whose rebellion without repentance against God did break the trust with God.

The words of this spirit that spoke to Job’s friend are just like the words spoken to Eve by the serpent in the garden and those spoken to Jesus by Satan in the desert. These words are deceptive and twisted, lies from a spirit sent from the kingdom of darkness. It is unwise to recieve words brought to us stealthily or wrapped in fear. What business does light have with darkness? There is no wisdom from an evil spirit.