Punch to the Gut 3 – Job 22

In any trial there is an accusation of wrongdoing that is alleged against someone and then a presentation of evidence to affirm or deny the allegation. A panel of evaluators, a jury, then decides on the validity of the allegation and either acquits or condemns. Job’s friends have accused him of sinning and their evidence is that Job is suffering punishment from God. Job has asserted his innocence but Job’s friends have to convict him of sin or their whole outlook on life is demolished.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless? Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you? Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities. For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed. Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you, or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

“Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are! But you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.’ Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod? They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away. They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ Yet he filled their houses with good things— but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent one mocks at them, saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’

“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents, if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed, then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver. For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways. For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly. He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” (Job 22, ESV)

Eliphaz’s initial argument, that no one brings benefit to God, stands as a contradiction to who God is.  Eliphaz makes Him out to be someone who sits serene in heaven with no ultimate concern for how humans do except to mete out justice.  We might agree that God is self-sufficient, needing nothing, but He has made Himself our Creator and Father, and Jesus has taught us that He is intimately concerned with us, and if we are in the right it matters to Him.  Eliphaz’s God is the God of Islam, not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eliphaz then revisits the same tired argument that Job’s suffering is only explainable by his unending iniquity.  After all, God is not visiting him with suffering because Job is doing right. Without proof he alleges that Job has unfairly exacted pledges and left people helpless, neglected the poor and the needy.  God has put snares out for him to be caught in and so Job is terrified. Like a wicked man, Job has acted as if God cannot see what he is doing.

Eliphaz rightly rejects Job’s view that God has not seen his situation clearly but accuses Job of wickedness like those who rejected God despite His kindness and has therefore suffered destruction.  He appeals to Job to agree with God (i.e., agree with him in his perspective on God and on Job’s sinfulness) and so be restored.  He appeals to him to remove injustice from his life by giving his wealth to those who need it and experience the light of God’s pleasure in his life again.

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever been wrongly accused of something bad? How did you react?
2. Have you ever been punished for doing something good? How did you react?
3. Would God punish us for doing something good? Why or why not?
4. Would God allow something bad in our lives if we were living right?       Why or why not?
5. Has God punished you for all the wrong things you have done, and rewarded you for all the right things you have done?
6. How would you explain to a non-Christian that God is just even if He doesn’t immediately punish all evil and reward all good?