12 "A word came to me in secret - a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly. 13 It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep. 14 Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death - I shook from head to foot. 15 A spirit glided right in front of me - the hair on my head stood on end. 16 I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there - a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice: 17 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator? 18 Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels, 19 So how much less these bodies composed of mud, fragile as moths?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 4:12-19
Commentary on Job 4:12-21
(Read Job 4:12-21)
Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our own hearts, and are still, Psalm 4:4, then is a time for the Holy Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great fear. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more just, more pure, than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of man! How great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very foundation of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon than others but still it is the earth that stays us up, and will shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering distemper, which consumes like a moth, be sent to destroy him, he cannot resist it. Shall such a creature pretend to blame the appointments of God? Look upon man in his death. Life is short, and in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength, learning, not only cannot secure them from death, but these things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or power, continue after them. Shall a weak, sinful, dying creature, pretend to be more just than God, and more pure than his Maker? No: instead of quarrelling with his afflictions, let him wonder that he is out of hell. Can a man be cleansed without his Maker? Will God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from guilt? or will he do so without their having an interest in the righteousness and gracious help of their promised Redeemer, when angels, once ministering spirits before his throne, receive the just recompence of their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming impunity of men for a short time, though living without God in the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen angels, and is continually overtaking them. Yet careless sinners note it so little, that they expect not the change, nor are wise to consider their latter end.