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.”
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