#657 That Same Mouth

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 “Can a man be profitable to God?

Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

3 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?

4 Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you

and enters into judgment with you?

5 Is not your evil abundant?

There is no end to your iniquities.

6 For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing

and stripped the naked of their clothing.

7 You have given no water to the weary to drink,

and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

8 The man with power possessed the land,

and the favored man lived in it.

9 You have sent widows away empty,

and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

10 Therefore snares are all around you,

and sudden terror overwhelms you,

11 or darkness, so that you cannot see,

and a flood of water covers you.

12 “Is not God high in the heavens?

See the highest stars, how lofty they are!

13 But you say, ‘What does God know?

Can he judge through the deep darkness?

14 Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,

and he walks on the vault of heaven.’

15 Will you keep to the old way

that wicked men have trod?

16 They were snatched away before their time;

their foundation was washed away.

17 They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

18 Yet he filled their houses with good things—

but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

19 The righteous see it and are glad;

the innocent one mocks at them,

20 saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,

and what they left the fire has consumed.’

21 “Agree with God, and be at peace;

thereby good will come to you.

22 Receive instruction from his mouth,

and lay up his words in your heart.

23 If you return to the Almighty you will be built up;

if you remove injustice far from your tents,

24 if you lay gold in the dust,

and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,

25 then the Almighty will be your gold

and your precious silver.

26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty

and lift up your face to God.

27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you,

and you will pay your vows.

28 You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,

and light will shine on your ways.

29 For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;[c]

but he saves the lowly.

30 He delivers even the one who is not innocent,

who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” Job 22 ESV

Eliphaz ask a good question, but maybe ask yourself, or do not be so quick to run with this as an application here. Who is profitable to God? Who does God need?

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?” 35“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?” 36For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.…Romans 11: 34-36

So, and I agree, God does not need me to behave righteously, it is the least that I can do, and as the law is for the lawless it is also the wisest for me to do. Even the most heathen among us, myself when I asked God to look elsewhere, that this was my life somehow, please have nothing to do with me, even I enjoyed the peace of the saints who did right around me. I benefited from the lives of those who loved me just because I was made in God's image, though I held Him in great disdain. There are those all around who have benefited from God's laws, like thou shalt not kill, and the adaptation and enforcement of such laws, even by those most liberal of governments, has influenced good. But consider from Him (the Father), through Him (the Son) and to Him (the Holy Spirit) are all things. We come into being by the Creator through His Word and come back to Him by the enabling of His Spirit. Existence is from Him, forgiveness is through Him and salvation is by Him. What does Eliphaz miss here? It's true, God does not need men to be, for He is "I Am", and He is infinite so what He is by attributes, Holy, Just, Loving, these He is also infinitely. Eliphaz points out that Job can do nothing good that God would owe him for. I agree thus far, but then he goes on to accuse Job specifically of crimes that he feels would invoke God's wrath. In verse 6, he accuses Job of basically enslaving his own family, leaving them naked and afflicted. 

12If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession; 13be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the LORD your God. 14Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.…Deuteronomy 24:12-14

Before Moses penned these things down, the patriarchs had these words close to their bosom. He says God is not impressed with Job's supposed righteousness on the one hand, but then works hard at demonstrating that this is because of your unrighteousness, and then he throws a hundred darts, hoping that one will stick. You did not give water to the thirsty, you withheld food from the hungry. You took from those who had and gave to those you favored. You abused your power, and blessed those who did not earn it by other than kissing up to you. Look at the fatherless and the widow, how you left them empty handed. Whatever was in your power to do good, you chose to keep to yourself, at the calamity of others. "A flood of water covers you," you are basically as those in the days of Noah, but even worse, because you know the example of this, and yet still fortify yourself against my sound judgment. Of course it is beautifully written and well put, and all those things would be horrible to be accused of, which as a Christian, you will be accused, but search yourself, make sure it is not true of your life, Job's actions showed this to be a lie, for God called him, "blameless." 

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 1 John 3:17

He goes on in wonderful verse that we should all consider, do you think God cannot see you? Men may love darkness, as they cling to evil, but do you really think that there is any place to go where you may escape the eye of God? He ask Job to look again at the old way, the flood of Noah's time, those who were not in the ark were swept away. They told God to depart from them, they enjoyed all the things that life had here, their houses were full, but He was the provider of life itself, it all belonged to Him. What was left of them, who rebelled in that time, were they not consumed, and here I think he refers him to Sodom and Gomorrah. He seems to attempt at holding a very firm causation, yet acknowledging Job cannot impress God either. I wonder that this does not in some way comfort him, like the Pharisees cleaning the outside of the cup. I am not guilty of smoking crack, have not laid waste any widow's houses today, I own no slaves, well at least none that are my brothers or sisters, and gave the orphan a shilling or whatever they used back then. It would be too scary to acknowledge Job as a good man that this calamity has fallen on, especially if I remember him right, was maybe a better man than me. Ah, these are the good old days though, for if we look to the example of Christ, that God looks at the heart, then there is hardly anything that I could not be accused of, though I may comfort myself directly, would I not be guilty then indirectly? If all have sinned and what God has called sin is, then don't my very thoughts condemn me? Forget about your friends or your earthly accusers, God is infinitely Holy and Just. 

For whatever hypocrisy we may find in Eliphaz, his last words are good in a universal sense, and God can make even Balaam say what is good, or a donkey stop a fool in his tracks. Lord, I do agree with You, I want to know Your words as I think Job did too. I don't want my house to be found in hypocrisy, so forgive us our sins and lead us away from them, let us see it as in affront to You and let our affections be ever to You. Let me put Your word above gold, and let me see that it is not this world's riches, but rather Your grace that is everything to me. Let the things of this world grow strangely dim, since my treasure is laid up with You. May we be so blessed in my family as to always be humble before You, for You give grace to the lowly. To thine be the Glory, the Honor and the Praise, Amen.