A Domesticated God (Job 23:1-17)

Geologists have discovered a massive deposit of precious metals in an area known as “The Duluth Complex.” This area, running across northeastern Minnesota from Virginia to Ely-Babbitt, represents the largest untapped non-ferrous metals resource in the world. Experts have already identified enough deposits of nickel, copper and platinum to mine for 100 years. Potentially, the mining operations of these deposits could rival that of iron ore during its heyday.

The Bible contains a wealth of precious ore and gems just waiting to be mined by anyone willing to put forth the effort and dig. And Job chapter 23 contains one of the richest veins within the massive deposit of God’s Word. We could read through this chapter 100 times and the 101st time we would discover something new.

23:1 Then Job replied, 2 “Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.”

It’s easy to dissect these passages and forget that there is a real person with terrible pain in a wretched ash heap existence around which these verses are wrapped. Job is continually racked with fever and his blackened skin flakes off. Perhaps Job is saying here that, “You (Eliphaz/Bildad/Zophar) may interpret my complaining as rebellion (and I may be complaining a lot), but it in no way matches the depth of my pain.”

23:3 “Oh that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat! 4 I would present my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would learn the words which He would answer, and perceive what He would say to me. 6 Would He contend with me by the greatness of His power? No, surely He would pay attention to me. 7 There the upright would reason with Him; and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.”

“Oh that I knew where I might find Him!” Job had lost everything, but His greatest loss was God’s presence. Francis I. Anderson writes, “His consuming desire is to come face to face with God.” Job’s great longing is to meet God in a legal setting. When you read through these verses from different versions, courtroom-style language abounds with such words as dispute, argue, convict, present his case, and rebuttal.

The New Living Translation puts verse 4 this way, “I would lay out my case and present my arguments.” And notice vs. 6 from The New International Version, “Would he oppose me with great power? No, he would not press charges against me.”

23:8 “Behold, I go forward but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; 9 when He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him. 10 But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

As I mentioned at the outset, this is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible, and these are three of the most memorized verses. For all appearances, it seems that God has utterly forsaken Job. Notice Job’s struggle:
I go forward, I go backward, I turn left and I turn right.
Forward to the east…He is not there.
Backward toward the west…I cannot perceive Him.
On my left toward the north…I cannot behold Him.
And on my right toward the south…I cannot see Him.
No matter where I look, I cannot perceive Him, I cannot behold Him, and I cannot see Him. Grace seems to have ended; God’s presence has vanished from Job’s life. He used to sing, “When darkness hides His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace…” But the hymn now just seems so hollow. Darkness was not only hiding the face of God, it was enveloping Job.

But….

He knows! He knows my journey, my path, and my struggles. He knows intimately the way that I take, and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold!

God’s goal for Job was not maggots and destruction and pain and darkness and despair. The goal is gold! In the previous chapter Eliphaz had wrongly accused Job of greedily clinging to his gold and riches as one of the reasons for his awful plight. God would heal him, so said Eliphaz, if Job would just give up his lust for gold. But Job replies, “My character is my gold! And the fire will only result in the proof of my integrity.” The emphasis in this passage is not so much on the removing of dross as it is on the revealing of the precious metal. You’ve heard the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” (You only get out what you put in). Job seems to be saying, “Gold in, gold out!” Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and the rest of the community of Uz may view Job as the dross – the useless leftovers of the refining process – but Job sees it differently.

When God tests or tries us, the motive isn’t, "Let's see how much this guy can endure.” It’s always done out of the motivation of love with a view to the end result. Job had no idea that the first storm of trial was coming in chapters 1-2, and he has no idea that the second storm of blessing is coming in chapter 37.

23:11 "My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside.”

This is a very interesting verse. It’s sort of the idea of putting my feet into the imprints of God’s footsteps (like following someone’s footsteps in the snow). But that’s not the total idea. “Held fast” has the idea of grasping. In many societies in the world today, the toes are almost as nimble as the fingers. In the West we wrap our feet in little containers called shoes almost from birth. But in some societies where shoes are not constantly worn, people become quite good at grasping with their toes. We would normally stoop to pick up an object; they may however just grasp it with their toes and then lift it up to their hand. So Job seems to be saying, “I not only put my foot into His footsteps, I hold tenaciously to Him…I grasp God with my toes!”

23:12 "I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”

In the previous chapter Eliphaz had urged Job to “get into the Word.” But Job answers Eliphaz’s implied charge, “I not only hold firm to God’s path, I also hold fast to God’s Word!”

23:13 "But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. 14 for He performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with Him.”

Francis I. Anderson writes, “And how different Job’s God is from the domesticated God of his friends.” The God of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar has been tamed by their theology; they’ve corralled God! But Job’s God is unique: majestic in His power and matchless in His wisdom and planning. What a tragedy it is when our God is no larger than what our intellect can comprehend.

23:15 “Therefore, I would be dismayed at His presence; when I consider, I am terrified of Him. 16 It is God who has made my heart faint, and the Almighty who has dismayed me, 17 but I am not silenced by the darkness, nor deep gloom which covers me.”

Job feels as if he is hemmed in by darkness and gloom. Hartley has some interesting things to say concerning the latter portion of this chapter, “(Job) cannot detect God’s grace anywhere…His struggle for faith reaches its severest test when his confidence in God collides with his fear of God…The ever-present God, from whom the troubled Psalmist cannot flee in Psalm 139, is hidden from Job…God’s distancing himself from Job’s consciousness reflects his trust in Job.”

Many people today face their own Job-like situations. A former coworker emailed a couple of us this past week and asked us to pray for her brother. I said that I would and asked for her permission to share her email on this blog. She gave her permission, but I have changed the names and circumstances around to keep it anonymous:

Hello –

As you both know, my brother lost his wife in a car accident 10 years ago. He is remarried, and two years ago his wife Barb’s oldest daughter died unexpectedly. Recently they had a grandson who has major health issues – he has already spent several months in the hospital and Barb has taken a lot of time off from work to care for their granddaughters while the parents are with their son in the hospital. Barb’s employer would not give her any more time off and forced her to quit. My brother has been unemployed for two years now. He has now trained in a new career area, but is finding no job opportunities.

To say he is depressed is a gross understatement. He is suicidal and has told me that he is ready to kill himself. He no longer believes in God. He will not listen to me or anyone.

I fear for him as well as his family, who are all struggling. Please keep them in your prayers if you would.

Blessings,
Tracey

Please remember to pray for this family.

Job, If You Would Just Pry Your Fingers Off Your Gold Bars, You Just Might Get Healed (Job Chapter 22)

Hoping that Job would get the hint, up to this point Eliphaz has argued with Job in rather general terms about the horrible fate of the wicked. But in his third and final speech, Eliphaz stops dancing around the issue and lays the charge directly before Job: “You are (as “The Message” translates it) a first-class moral failure!” You are simply a recalcitrant, chronic sinner whose sinning knows no bounds!

(Obviously Eliphaz misplaced his mission statement business card. The front read [in bold size 48 font], “COMFORTERS INCORPORATED.” And the back read simply, “We Always Tries….To Empathize.”)

He is astounded that, throughout this entire dialogue, Job has held onto his innocence so obstinately. Kindly Eliphaz comes to the conclusion that Job is nothing more than an intractable, obstinate sinner who deserves all of the excruciating pain and torment that God is hurling his way.

22:1-3, “Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded, 2 ‘Can a vigorous man be of use to God, or a wise man be useful to himself? 3 Is there any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or profit if you make your ways perfect?

In answering Eliphaz’s second question ("Is there any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous? [vs. 3a]), we could well reply with a resounding, “Yes!” According to chapter one, God admired Job’s character and brought it directly to the attention of Satan himself.

22:4 "Is it because of your reverence that He reproves you, that He enters into judgment against you?”

Someone has written, “It is so unfathomable to the three that this IS why he is suffering!” Job’s reverence and his integrity are directly related to his suffering; his renowned piety and devotion to God became the focus of attention in the heavenly court in chapters one and two. And that cosmic confrontation resulted in this titanic struggle of Job’s faith.

22:5 “Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquities without end?”

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar cannot see any other possibility then the fact that Job is a persistent, wicked sinner whose iniquities are infinite. The word “wickedness” in this verse is the same word for “evil” in chapters one and two. But God’s summary of Job’s life was just a little different than Eliphaz’s; twice God testified by saying that Job “eschewed (turned away from) evil.”

22:6 “For you have taken pledges of your brothers without cause, and stripped men naked. 7 to the weary you have given no water to drink, and from the hungry you have withheld bread. 8 but the earth belongs to the mighty man, and the honorable man dwells in it. 9 You have sent widows away empty, and the strength of the orphans has been crushed.”

Eliphaz heard a rumor that while Job was at the University of Uz (UU), he had botched “Compassion 101.” And he came to believe the gossip that Job was ruthless and cruel and anything but kind to the weary, the hungry, the widows and the orphans. Read verses 6-9 from the New Living Translation: “For example, you must have lent money to your friend and demanded clothing as security. Yes, you stripped him to the bone. You must have refused water for the thirsty and food for the hungry. You probably think the land belongs to the powerful and only the privileged have a right to it! You must have sent widows away empty-handed and crushed the hopes of orphans.”

Did you catch Eliphaz’s assumptions? Three times it’s, “You must have…” None of the three had any empirical or concrete evidence of ANY wrongdoing on the part of Job. They simply assumed he was guilty.

I am guessing that just about everyone has heard this riddle, “Fred lies dead in a pool of water on the floor surrounded by broken glass. The window is open and the curtain is flapping in the breeze. How did Fred die?”

The assumption is made that Fred is human.

He’s not.

He’s a goldfish…the wind blew the curtain against the goldfish bowl and thus Fred met an untimely demise.

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar see Job’s horrific suffering and their theology leaves room for only one assumption: Job is wicked. Only the wicked suffer…Job is suffering…thus Job is wicked. Hartley writes, “No other cause than Job’s sin can account for his suffering, according to the tenets of Eliphaz’s theology.”

22:10 “Therefore snares surround you, and sudden dread terrifies you, 11 or darkness, so that you cannot see, and an abundance of water covers you.”

In chapter one the Satan complained that God had “surrounded” Job with a hedge. The same word is used in verse 10 when Eliphaz says that Job is “surrounded” by traps. As a result of Job’s assumed wickedness, an unexpected and sickening dread terrifies Job; darkness overwhelms him and despair and misery engulf him.

22:12 “Is not God {in} the height of heaven? Look also at the distant stars, how high they are! 13 You say, "What does God know? Can He judge through the thick darkness? 14 Clouds are a hiding place for Him, so that He cannot see; and He walks on the vault of heaven.”

Eliphaz wrongly inferred (he wasn’t listening well) from one of Job’s statements that he (Job) believed that God, from His exalted position, couldn’t see through the thick clouds and thus was not able to notice the affairs of mankind on this little orb called earth. Eliphaz believed that Job believed that El-Shaddai didn’t have ground penetrating radar. But that wasn’t what Job believed. Job believed that God not only has ground penetrating radar, He has heart penetrating radar as well (plus some pretty cool night vision goggles). Hartley states, “In Eliphaz’s opinion Job’s view is heretical, being close to what is classified today as modern deism or practical atheism.”

22:15 "Will you keep to the ancient path which wicked men have trod, 16 Who were snatched away before their time, whose foundations were washed away by a river? 17 They said to God, ‘Depart from us!' And ‘What can the Almighty do to them?' 18 Yet He filled their houses with good {things ;} but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. 19 The righteous see and are glad, and the innocent mock them, 20 {Saying} ‘Truly our adversaries are cut off, and their abundance the fire has consumed.'”

When you go to certain verses of Job in either Barnes’ Commentary or Matthew Henry’s Commentary or Adam Clarke’s Commentary, it will say something like, “No (and then fill in the name of the commentator) Commentary on this/these verse(s).

Guess what? There is no Vander Ark Commentary on these verses. :>)

The last words of Eliphaz in the book of Job are in the form of an altar call. Its quite good actually…and quite moving. It’s sort of Billy Graham-ish. But the problem is that they don’t apply to Job.

22: 21 "Yield now and be at peace with Him; Thereby good will come to you.”

The first part of verse 21 is variously translated as “acquaint yourself with God” or “give in to God” or “submit yourself to God” or “reconcile yourself with God” or “put yourself in a right relationship with God.” To Eliphaz, Job is simply backslidden.

22:22 "Please receive instruction from His mouth and establish His words in your heart.”

Translation? “If you would just turn off the TV and read the Bible, you wouldn’t be in this awful mess.”
(But then again it probably wouldn’t hurt us to turn off the TV a little more and ask God to help us fall more deeply in love with His Word).

22:23 "If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; if you remove unrighteousness far from your tent, 24 And place {your} gold in the dust, and {the gold of} Ophir among the stones of the brooks, 25 Then the Almighty will be your gold and choice silver to you.”

In reading through this wonderful book, several times you get the distinct feeling that Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar were more than just a little envious of Job’s prominence in society and his immense wealth. And this is one of those places. To paraphrase Eliphaz, “Job, if you would just pry your greedy mitts off from your gold bars and throw them into the river, you’d get healed in a moment!”

22:26 “For then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. 27 You will pray to Him, and He will hear you; and you will pay your vows. 28 You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; and light will shine on your ways. 29 When you are cast down, you will speak with confidence, and the humble person He will save. 30 He will deliver one who is not innocent, and he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands (your intercessory prayer)."

Hartley writes a fitting summary to this chapter, “It needs to be remembered that God wants his followers to call people to repentance out of love purified by intercessory prayer. Then they will bring comfort to a troubled heart as they lead a person from guilt to forgiveness. In ministering, one’s theology must be elastic enough to be applied to a particular situation, since rigid applications of a dogma hinders the dynamic, spontaneous expression of God’s grace. Correctness of expression too often crowds out the authenticity of experience.”