"You can't argue with experience!...Or can you?"

In dealing with spiritual matters, I've heard it said that you can't argue with someone who has had an experience. The main idea is that an experience validates a motivation, a teaching, a perspective or a "leading". In those types of debates, experience claims to trump all else and cannot be challenged. It becomes the foundation for a belief, a doctrine or even a theology. No one can argue against it.  

Except Job.

If you look closely at the opening chapters of Job, you see God actually pointing Job out to Satan. God declares Job to be upright and blameless, not once, but twice (Job 1:8, 2:3). You just can't get a better endorsement on your righteousness than the one Job gets!

Satan accuses Job of being faithful to God only for what Job gets out of the relationship. To paraphrase Satan's accusation in Job 1:9 and Job 2:4-5, "Take away the blessings and Job will turn his back on you!" This is the over-arching question of the Book of Job: "Is Job faithful to God only because of what Job gets from God?" In other words, "Will Job lose his faith if his blessings are taken away?"

Satan is given permission to afflict Job. He goes all out,

taking Job's livelihood, his family and finally, his health. By the end of ch 3, Job's head is spinning and his heart is hurting, wondering why these things have come upon him, adamantly and passionately maintaining his innocence.

Job's three friends have come to comfort and counsel him. They're good friends, too. They sit with him for a week, silently giving support and comfort.

Eliphaz the  Temanite is the first of Job's counselors to speak. He accuses Job of some secret sin and hypocrisy (Job 3:2-6). Bad things happen only to bad people (Job 3:7-11). It is a strong accusation. 

But, Eliphaz claims to have proof that what he says is true. He has had an experience!

Job 4:12–16

12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it.

13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

14 dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

15 A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.

16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:

It's all there! A mysterious voice came to Eliphaz, a dream, a vision, goosebumps, trembling, whispers...a profound spiritual experience! 

What did the "voice" tell Eliphaz? The voice told him Job is not innocent, not upright, not blameless (Job 4:17-5:27), no man is.

There's just enough truth to what Eliphaz claims to have heard to make it sound plausible, except for one thing. It directly contradicts what God has already declared about Job.

Job continues to maintain his innocence. He struggles in epic proportions. Ultimately, Job's innocence is borne out and

God chastises Job's counselors for lying about Job (Job 42:7-9). Eliphaz's experience was, indeed an experience. It had physical and emotional impact on him. But, in the end, it was not founded on the truth of God's word. It was just an experience. In God's words, Eliphaz had spoken wrongly, goosebumps and all.

There are multitudes of lessons in Job's story. One of them is that any experience should line up with the word of God. Another is that there are times we can...and should...be wary of someone's experience, even our own. 

There's nothing wrong with having an experience. We should learn, however, not to rely on them when it comes to our understanding of God's word.