Job 4:19-21

19 How much less ['aph] in them that dwell [shakan] in houses [bayith] of clay [chomer], whose foundation [yacowd] is in the dust [`aphar], which are crushed [daka'] before [paniym] the moth [`ash]?

20 They are destroyed [kathath] from morning [boqer] to evening [`ereb]: they perish ['abad] for ever [netsach] without any regarding [suwm] it.

21 Doth not their excellency [yether] which is in them go away [naca`]? they die [muwth], even without wisdom [chokmah]. KJV-Interlinear

19 'How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth! 20 'Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unobserved, they perish forever. 21 'Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, yet without wisdom.' NASB

If angels failed in their first administration of the universe, then what are mans chances for a successful rule over this little earth?

Man is fragile. Mans body is nothing more than clay, or the dust of the earth. Mans dust is not an eternal dust, but an element to which man will return, when he dies.

From the moment of his first breath, mans decay begins. From morning to evening, from day to day, mans body continually goes through a cycle of perishing. Whether a person lives only a few moments, or has a life font of several hundred years, as they had back in Job's day, the systematic decay of the human body was common knowledge.

The 'excellency' or 'tent-cord' is a reference or metaphor, for that which is highest in man. His soul and spirit. Just as the body returns to dust, the soul and spirit are plucked out of the human body. The soul and spirit are not a part of the body of flesh and bone, but are residents within the body, and provide the supporting life for the physical body.

Remove the tent cord and the tent collapses. Remove the soul, and the physical life ends.

When a person dies, the body remains on this earth to decay, and the soul is plucked out and returns to God.

When a person died in Old Testament times, if they were an unbeliever, then their soul was plucked out of the body and sent to Torments. If they were a believer in the Savior, then their soul and spirit were sent to Paradise.

In our New Testament times, when a person dies, as a believer in Christ, who is the Savior, he or she goes straight to heaven to be with the Lord. Unbelievers still go to Torments and there they wait until their resurrection for the Great White Throne, which will occur at the end of the Millennium.

Man is extremely weak as creatures go. Eliphaz compares man to the moth. A moth is easily destroyed. So too, man is extremely vulnerable in life.

As an infant, when we are born into this world, we enter without academic wisdom. So too, when we die, all that wonderful academic wisdom, which we have accumulated, disappears. The opinions of the world remain behind and do not go on to heaven.

Eliphaz is trying to make a point here. Job had been complaining that with all of his misery, he had wished for death, or even for non-existence. But of course, no one can go back and undo their birth. That is an impossibility.

So once born, then our life is in the hands of God and providence. If the angels do not have control over their lives, then how much less control does humanity have, given that humanity is inferior to angels?

Man isn't 'just.' Man is not without flaws. Man is not pure. Man is no cleaner than the common dust of the ground. How can anyone, who lacks understanding, and that means lacking the thorough understanding of this universe, how can anyone question God as Job has done?

Eliphaz is of the opinion that God punishes only those who are bad, and blesses only those who are good. An incorrect assumption, by the way. He believes that since Job is suffering, Job must be under punishment, therefore Job is a sinner.

Since Job is a human being, and therefore a vessel of clay, or dust, then how can Job expect to be as righteous as he thinks he is, when even the angels do not have the trust of God? And angels, those saved or elect angels who returned to God, are superior to humanity.

God created a perfect universe. The universe did not begin in chaos, as the 'Big Bang' theory implies and then move to order. God created all things perfect and Satan's rebellion caused creation to steadily deteriorate into chaos.

Man, on his own, comes into this world with nothing and when he leaves it, he has nothing. Humanity even at its greatest, is nothing. This should be sufficient to put all bragging, all boasting, all pride of accomplishments to the exclusion of the spiritual life, in their proper place, which is no place.

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