Mortality from the Vantage Point of Angels

Article #4 on Mortality in the Book of Job

Eliphaz Encountered an Angel & it Spoke about
​the Mortality of Mankind in Job 4:13-21

​In this encounter, the spirit was quoting the Word of God while making a wrong application in Job’s situation, similar to how the Devil quoted Scripture attempting to deceive Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:1-11.

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Satan

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​The Tempter can rarely succeed to ensnare godly men through outright immoral temptations, but through misinterpretations of Scripture or a misapplication of biblical truth he can deceive them by making them think that they are doing the right thing. Even so, where Satan failed to deceive the Son of God in Matthew 4:1-11, he succeeded with Eliphaz in Job 4:13-21 – thus Eliphaz and his friends were preaching and promoting right doctrine with the wrong application in Job’s unique situation. Demonic encounters serve their purpose as a little nudge to push godly men forward in a wrong direction. Where Eliphaz was cautiously suspicious before, he then became confident and resolved thinking that he knew all that he needed to know about Job’s situation (see Job 4:13-21, 15:15-16, 25:4-5).

The Doctrine of Mortality

The angel spoke the truth about how unjust and impure mortal men are in comparison to angels and God (Job 4:17). Job and his friends agreed with this doctrine. As the distant disciples of Adam, Seth, and Enoch, and the more immediate disciples of Noah, Shem, and Eber, these men knew all about the fall of angels and men in the Genesis of time, and the catastrophic consequences that followed in the justice of the Almighty (Job 4:18).

This is what the angel was emphasizing in his argument: the mortality of men (the presence of death) reveals their unrighteousness and impurity. For, even immortal angels were found to be impure in God’s sight (Job 4:18, Ezek. 28:15, Rev. 12:3-4); and, the angel argues, how much more are mere men to be despised, and justly condemned, seeing that men were made finite and weak insomuch that they perish every moment in comparison to angels.
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There is a bodily difference between men and angels (Lk. 20:34-38, 1 Cor. 15:35-51). The former are mortal and the latter are immortal. A man’s body is a physical and earthly body, while an angelic body is a “spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44, Heb. 1:14) – an otherworldly body whose excellence is like the flame of fire (Heb. 1:7). As it was written, “Who maketh His angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire:” (Heb. 1:7). It is a good thing that God didn’t make the angels fleshly and earthly when they were originally created. The fact that God “maketh” the angels “spirits” is a marvelous feat of glory and excellence, namely because literally their spirituality is an excellence like “a flaming fire”.

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What a dreadful sight this must have been for the prophets of old! Nevertheless, “Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:” (Job 4:18). Despite their dignity and superiority, God didn’t even put his “trust” in “His angels” (Job 4:18). Alas! They were found to be untrustworthy in the fall (Rev. 12:3-4).

Therefore, the angel that was speaking to Eliphaz implied that Job, as a mere man, shouldn’t trust in himself, for in doing so he is exalting himself against angels and God. Do you understand this ancient line of reasoning (Jude 1:8-10)? The sinfulness of men is magnified in the fragility of their mortal lives – they dwell in “houses of clay”, and their weakness and movableness is like a “foundation” in “dust” (Job 4:19; Matt. 7:26), namely in that they are easily “crushed” – like the garment before the moth, inglorious men are feeble and defenseless before the power of the worm (Job 4:19-20). The feeding stages of the moth when it devours garments is before metamorphosis, when the moth is a mere larva worm.

The angel went on to say, “they perish for ever without any regarding it” (Job 4:20), which is to say that men perish so frequently, and nearly continuously, there are people dying worldwide “from morning to evening” (Job 4:20). Statistically, a staggering 56 million people worldwide die every year! This comes out to around 6,000 people every hour, 106 people every minute, and ≈2 people dying every second of the day. Immortals looking on at this situation are amazed to behold the destruction. The frail bodies of the strongest of men can fall sick in the morning and utterly perishing in the evening, not unlike grass dies in a single day when exposed to the burning heat of the sun (Ps. 90:6). Like an insignificant grass blade, which perishes without anyone “regarding it” (Job 4:20), even so it is with men in respect to their mortality as it is compared to a superior race of immortal angels. The mortality of men is their doom. By the virtue of committing one sin…they all must die (Gen. 2:16-17, Ezek. 18:4, 20). Therefore, mortality is the curse of human depravity.

However, this dogmatic declaration, “they perish for ever” (Job 4:20), or others like it (Job 14:14, 16:22), do not deny the existence of the resurrection, seeing that Job and his friends knew about and believed in the resurrection (Job 14:14). This statement perfectly agrees with other declarations of Scripture that emphasize the destruction of wicked sinners without denying the resurrection (Ps. 39:13, 92:7). The constancy of death seizing mortal men throughout all time is being emphasized.

Nevertheless, with respect to the afterlife, men who die in want of salvation do indeed perish forever. Evidently, in this sense, these words are fulfilled in the resurrection of the damned. For, even though the damned souls of sinners are resurrected, and thus rejoined to their human bodies, it is not so that they would live among the inhabitants of the earth, or return to life as normal in the world that they loved; rather it is for them to be judged by Christ before the Great White Throne, and from thence to be cast into the Lake of Fire (“the second death” – Rev. 20:6, 14, 21:8), which will eternally destroy both the bodies and the souls of sinners.

In conclusion, the dogmatic statements of the Book of Job need to be taken in context. Otherwise, interpreters will assume that the belief system of these ancient saints was very primitive and even erroneous. Many heretics resort here to support false doctrines that are contrary to the full body of Holy Scripture.

One might think that Job and his friends imagine everyone to be unclean, or that true righteousness is unobtainable to sinners, or that nobody can truly be forgiven of their sins (Job 14:4, 15:14, 25:4-6), but that is obviously not what they are meaning in these various instances based upon other acknowledgements within the discourse. The dogmatic statements made by ancient saints must be interpreted within the context of all that they affirm to be true in the lengthy doctrinal discourse of the Book of Job.