Job 22

Remembering Job 21 and the Accusations of Zophar

And just before we dive into the chapter, just a quick reminder of what happened last week when we read in Chapter 21, and I hope you at least remember some of it. We looked at the speech of Zophaz and how he accused Job, actually Chapter 21 is Job's response, but the last time we looked at one of the friends, it was Zophaz and his accusation against Job was that he is getting what he deserves as we have been looking through the book and that there's no way that God could possibly be blessing him in this situation and therefore it's because he's a wicked man.

And you remember Job's response last week and we looked at a couple different scriptures about the way Job responds to him and ultimately what Job is saying is that Zophaz had misunderstood the prosperity of the wicked and assumed and makes that assumption that if there is suffering in our life, if there's affliction, if there's loss, if there's trials, it can only be because of a life that is displeasing to God and I think Job did an excellent job of defending that truth and if you remember we look at Psalm 73 where it talks about how many in this world exit this world with very little affliction, with very little problems, even in the area of death that many of those who ultimately will find themselves under the judgment of God, they actually die with no real afflictions, even physical afflictions and again, many just close their eyes and unfortunately when they wake up, when they open their eyes, they're under the judgment of God.

So that was pretty much what we looked at. So this morning now, Job's finished with Zophaz and now guess who comes back in? Well it's Eliphaz. Remember, Eliphaz is the first one who spoke to Job as they came to bring him comfort and of course the words that they bring, we have found out moving through the chapters that they really aren't much friends, as a matter of fact, they're more a hindrance to Job than a comforter or one who brings compassion and certainly that's a lesson for us that we really think about it.

We really ought to be those who seek to lift up and not tear down. It's much easier to tear down. I know some of us have been talking about Christmas has come and you can't wait almost at this point, you can't wait to do what?

Put Christmas away, right? And it's always easier to take everything down than it is to build everything up and so certainly that's a principle that we all see and so his friends really, they just keep shooting away at him.

Anyway, Eliphaz now comes and here's one thing to think about as we will read the chapter and we'll look at a couple of the different verses. Here's something to think about, Eliphaz has heard all of these speeches, the ones that he spoke to Job, Job's response and then Bildad came and basically blasted Job all over again and Eliphaz heard that and then certainly Zophaz who in my understanding, he's just about the most brutal in the way he treats Job and so Eliphaz has heard it even as we just talked about chapter 20 and 21, Eliphaz has heard the words of both Zophaz and Job and now here he comes and so with that in our minds, let's just read the chapter and then make some more inroads if we can.

Eliphaz Accuses Job of Wickedness and Injustice

So chapter 22, then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, can a man be profitable to God though he who is wise may be profitable to himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous or is it gain to him that you make your ways blameless?

Is it because of your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with.

You?

Is not your wickedness great and your iniquity without end? You have taken pledges from your brother for no reason and stripped the naked of their.

Clothing.

You have not given the weary water to drink. You've withheld bread from the hungry, but the mighty man possessed the land and the honorable man dwelt in it. You have sent away widows empty and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

Therefore, snares are all around you and sudden fears trouble you. What darkness so that you cannot see in an abundance of water covers you. Is not God in the height of heaven and see the highest stars, how lofty they are?

And you say, what does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness, thick clouds cover him so that he cannot see when he walks above the circle of the heaven? Will you keep the old way which wicked men have trod, who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood?

They said to God, depart from us. What can the almighty do to them? 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 and the innocent laugh to scorn and surely our adversaries are cut down and the fire consumes their remnant.

Now acquaint yourself with him and be at peace. Thereby good will come to you. Receive please instruction from my mouth. Lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the almighty, you will be built up.

You will remove iniquity far from your tents. Then you will lay your gold in the dust and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the.

Brooks.

Yes, the almighty will be your gold and your precious silver. For then you will have your delight 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 and you will also declare a thing and it will be established for you.

So light will shine in your ways when they cast you down and you say, exaltation will.

Come.

Then he will save the humble person. He will even deliver one who is not innocent. Yes, he will deliver by the purity of his hands. And so there's a lot in this chapter that Zophas, I mean that Eliphaz, I get confused sometimes with the phases, but of what Eliphaz is saying and you'll see that as we move forward in chapter 23 and 24, Job's going to respond to this also.

Job’s Patience Under Repeated False Counsel

And here's a thought that I had. I thought about this a while this week. I thought about, let's just say someone was treating you this way. Let's just say your so-called friends see you suffering and they come with a pretense to comfort and all they do is try to bury you further down.

Now let me ask this question because I got to ask myself, how many of us would continue to have conversation with those friends? How many of us would not say, hey, you know what, get out of here. I mean, just think about it.

They've been blasting him one after another after another, plus all his own suffering, plus his confusion in the thought of God's dealing with him. And yet for all that, Job just continues to respond.

Now again, as some will say, this book is really, repeats itself and yet I think there's lessons in that. And again, in some extent the book of Job could be thought of that way, but we don't always need to jump from one thing to another thing to another thing.

Matter of fact, I think it's good for us at times to settle in in our mind in a certain area and think it through as far as we can.

Right?

Because many times we'll read something, we'll read an account in the Bible and it'll float in our mind for a minute and then it's gone and then we're on another thought, right? And especially as you read through the gospels, sometimes if you lose sight of the idea of the context of things, you'll read a miracle and then you read something else and then you read something else and read something else.

But as you read through the book of Job, this thing keeps repeating itself. But I do think, and I admire Job a little bit in that he seeks to, I want to be careful about how, I think he seeks to not only defend himself, right?

But I think he's also trying to do something else besides just defend himself. And I think he's trying to do is he's trying to, as a man of integrity, he's trying to correct some of the wrong thoughts of these supposed friends.

But again, I think I would be tempted to say to these princely guys, because they're not, these are a royal people, Eliphaz, Zophaz, and Bildad, hey, go back to your own kingdom. Leave me alone. I have enough issues without you.

And I thought about this and then we'll look at some of the details of the text. I thought about this. Did the Lord Jesus do that? Did he brush people away? Even those that attacked him, just think about it from what we understand in the Gospels.

Where would we find in the Gospels where, when the Pharisees and the scribes and the lawyers and those that didn't believe in him, when they came against him and they called, they said he works miracles by the power of Beelzebub and he has a demon and he can't be the Christ and what good thing can come out of Galilee, and on and on and on.

Would we say in the Gospels that we see Christ always there to respond and always willing, and I say willing because again, that thought is, he could have basically just moved that, and there are times he does that, right?

There are times he dismisses the crowd and we find him off in the mountain praying or along with his disciples, but did he not seek many times to answer the dictates that the Pharisees and the rulers and the scribes, all those malicious people, he took the time to respond.

I wanted to just quickly, just leave your finger there. Go to Proverbs chapter 26 a minute. I thought about this this morning. I want to show you something in Proverbs chapter 26 and ask you if you think that it kind of would be included in our thought that we're discussing right now.

In Proverbs chapter 26, I want you to read these two verses with me. Proverbs chapter 26, verse four and verse five, look what it says. It says, do not answer a fool according to his folly lest you also be like him.

I think we could draw from that that we shouldn't get ourselves into situations when people are talking in foolish ways, that there is a danger if we continue on that path to fall into the very things that they're talking about and to be driven away from things, but I want you to look at verse five because unless I'm mistaken to some, it might appear as a contradiction.

So verse four, do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him. Look at verse five, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Now, I've looked at this verse over the years and maybe you have.

And what do you think?

Is that a contradiction or is there is there some understanding that we should have from.

That? In verse four, it's saying, don't don't accept the presuppositions of the fool because you're standing on Cook's end. Yeah, yeah. In verse five, it's saying, show the fool his presuppositions and where it fails.

You know, you're you're exposing it.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think so. So here's the way I thought about it. So in verse four, the danger is this, right? The fool's going to tear you down. The fool's going to cause you to descend into into his thoughts.

And verse five is really that we should try to do this. Right. We should seek to lift others and not give way, especially in areas of great importance. In other words, if someone thinks that something should be white and you think it should be blue, blue, red or whatever it is, that's that's not the issue.

But when people start to come against you and and they come against you concerning your faith in God, then I do do think we have an an obligation, if you will, to respond and that the obligation is not only to clear ourselves, but to do this, to seek to again, because he could have said to Eliphaz, get out of here, but he doesn't.

And I don't think you would find that the Lord Jesus Christ ever did that. There's just very few occasions and we talked about one of them, even Brother Keith talked about one of them even Wednesday night about remember when they came to him and they they asked him by whose authority he's doing these things.

Remember his response was, I'm going to ask you a question, you answer me and then I'll answer you. And of course, they couldn't answer his question because they try to trap him and instead he trapped them.

And and then it says, well, you Jesus said you won't answer me. I'm not answering you. But other than that, how many times will we find in the Gospels? Well, people's accusations weren't responded to, and so certainly as we look at Job back in chapter 22, I think it bears some relationship that Job not only is seeking to, if you will, maintain his integrity, but he's also seeking to correct them.

And correction, friends, is certainly what the word of God is meant to do. And again, as the light of the world, we should seek to dispel the darkness. Agree. And so there are times when we have to stand our ground.

And we have to defend the truth. And the more that people come against us, the more we are to defend it. So I think that plays a little bit into what Eliphaz and Job are going through right now. Actually, what Eliphaz, Zophaz and Bildad have been doing to Job, and yet Job responds.

So go ahead, Brett.

How about when Jesus said to his disciples, you know, two by two, he said, if you're not to proclaim the gospel, then he said, if you don't, you know, they don't accept you, just wipe your feet and move on.

Yeah, that's a good that's a good way to bring it into the conversation. Yeah. I mean, again, even as we looked at, I think Brother Keith mentioned this, I know we did last week. To some, we're a saver of what?

Life unto life. To others, we're a saver of death unto death. Same way in our witness, if you think about it. In other words, do you ever wonder, like, have a thought like I've talked to someone about the Lord.

And they haven't listened. Though, what are we to do with that? I mean, are we to then say, oh, I'm done. I told them about Jesus and they haven't responded, so therefore I kick the dust off my feet and move on.

Or do we seek because we have a desire again, and I'll use my sophisticated analogy here. Do we have a desire to see them go from here to here? Therefore, as long as there's opportunity, what are we going to do?

Right, especially when it comes to in relationships, right, especially when it comes to kids and unbelieving spouses and relations and friends and people we work with. I mean, there is a time. I do think there is a time when we ought to be silent.

But I do think that in the main, we ought to be those who seek to bring people into the light and to, again, dispel the darkness, because the only thing that dispels darkness is what?

Most frustrating, vice versa of Job, you know, his friends are coming to him, vice versa, like we go to somebody, right, and we try to counsel them or they ask for our counsel and they're a brother and sister in Christ and you give them sound counsel and they just blow it off, right?

And it's like that is so frustrating, right, because they continually come for another thing and another thing.

So they want counsel. They just don't want the truth.

Yeah, right.

They want counsel that will make them feel at peace or comforted or whatever it is. Right. But they don't really want the truth. And unfortunately, as we think about it, the only thing that sets people free is the.

Truth. Right.

And I've often thought about the analogy of light and darkness and, you know, I think I'm right in this. You cannot add darkness and dispel light. Just think about that for a minute. You can't add darkness to light and dispel the light, but you can add light and dispel the darkness.

Let's just think about that for a minute. Lightness, light will always dispel darkness and darkness cannot put out the light. So so again, even in that thought, when you think about it and I I'm not so certain that this is utmost in Job's mind, because Job is an absolute mess.

Right. I mean, he's got he's got tons of issues to deal with, but I do think in his integrity. He's willing to stand for what he believes and he's willing to take the time to correct him. And so as we go through this, just keep that in mind.

Because I do think there's an application for us. OK. I haven't said all that. Let's just look at a couple of the verses. So in verses one through five, basically Eliphaz, this is his introduction. And Eliphaz the demonite answered and said, can a man be profitable to God?

Oh, he who is wise may be profitable to himself. Is any pleasure in the almighty that you are righteous? Is it gain to him that you make your ways blameless? Let's just stop there for a minute. Think about that.

I'm going to ask you a question. Verse three, is it any pleasure to the almighty that you are righteous? Yes, no, maybe so.

Is that true?

I think there's pleasure in our obedience, so in our obedience that should come out as righteousness. OK.

Larry, I would say yes, because if he sees us, he can see the righteousness. OK. Anybody say no? OK. I'm going to throw a little no in there. I'm going to say yes, no. Can't go wrong. You say yes, no.

Right. Yes, no question. But here's a thought. And and we've looked at this before, but let's just look at it again, as Eliphaz says, because what he's going to say is, do you think God really cares that you're defending your integrity?

But I wanted to show you something. And it's it's an interesting thought. And if you will look in Job chapter thirty five a second. And I think Brother Gary, what you said will come into focus a little bit as we look at these verses.

So Job chapter thirty five. And this is Elihu who we'll look at in more detail later. But look what he says. Chapter thirty five, verse one, moreover, Elihu answered and said, do you think this is right?

Do you say my righteousness is more than God's? For you say, what advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have more than if I have sin? But. I want you to drill down now from verse four on, I will answer you and your companions with you look to the heavens and see and behold the clouds which are higher than you.

If you sin, what do you accomplish against him? Or if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? Then verse seven, if you are righteous, what do you give him or what does he receive from your hand?

Your wickedness affects a man such as you and your righteousness, a son of man. Now, I just wanted to think about this a second. I want to say the reason why I would say yes, no. Is because as we think about God in his being, think about two things, his essential being or his essential glory, if you will.

So I'll even put that in there. His manifested. Or distributed or seen or whatever way you want to do it, his manifested glory, right? Let's think about this is what he says in Job thirty five. And as you think about God.

Does anything change God can add to it, you can't subtract to it from it, right? And that's what he says in Job in these verses, he says, what do you accomplish? Does God become smaller when people sin?

No, God in his essential glory or his essential being is the same yesterday, today and forever. Is he not?

I am that I am.

There's no addition, no subtraction. And in that sense, God is not affected. And we could think about it as far as impassibility of God, that God is not affected by outward things, is he? Just as much as does does God really change his mind?

I'd say no, doesn't really change his mind. Because his mind is perfect, his actions are perfect. So in that sense, as Eliphaz makes this accusation to Job, as if to say, what do you think that God is impressed by your righteousness?

That I would say that the answer would be, can we can we diminish or add to God as far as his essential glory, his essential being? I say no. However, and I think this is what you began to hit on, as far as what is seen and as far as the outward praise and glory of God.

But what does the scripture say? God is of pure eyes to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity. And there are times, especially in the history of Israel, where God was displeased.

Right.

And that the sin of Israel assures our sin that it it doesn't move God in his essential glory, don't add or make him less, but it does have an effect here, doesn't it? Again, the life that we live is a living testimony of what we say we believe in and who we say we believe in.

And in this sense, even like it says, grieve not the spirit of God, quench not the spirit. So I would say that there is this reality that you and I are to seek to honor him for who he is, in his essential being, and that we are to seek to be those who manifest the glory of God.

Does that make any sense at all? I hope it does, because sometimes we we're better if we begin to divide and not the easiest thing to think about, because we're so driven by the things that we're seeing.

We're so driven by touch, taste, feel, smell and the senses, but always consider God in his essential being, just like we say at times that God is outside of space and time, which you and I could not even begin to comprehend.

Can you? I can't. I can't comprehend what it's like to be timeless. So when you think about that, and as we go back to Job 22, when he says this to Job, I think what he's trying to say is, hey, Job, you really think that God, you really think you're so special to God?

You think you're profitable to God? You might be profitable to other men or to yourself, but is there any pleasure in the.

Almighty?

Is it because of your fear of him that he reproves? And that's an interesting look at verse four, because it's rather interesting what he's.

Saying.

Is it because of your fear that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you? Now, here's what I think he's saying. I think what he's saying is, Job, look at your life. You're an absolute mess. And do you think just because you say you're righteous, that God would bless you?

What he's really telling Job is he's a liar. He's a hypocrite because God doesn't do those kinds of things. God doesn't bless those who are suffering. And we continue to say great affliction is not always an indication of great sin.

Just the same way great prosperity is not always an indication of great righteousness. So what he's really saying, and then you'll see how he bears it out in verse five, is it because of your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?

As if it's a question, then in verse five, is not your wickedness great and your iniquity without end? He's saying, basically saying, Job, look at your life. You're an absolute mess. Therefore, you should think about why all these things are coming upon you, and therefore it's because you're a sinner and you're a wicked person and you're this, that and the other thing.

Now, that's a prosperity gospel, right? That we see all the time right now.

Yep, absolutely. It's which is so it's amazing. It's so prevalent right in our day. And yet when you think when you begin to to peel back the onion on that, that kind of thought, that's an insane thought, right?

Because there isn't anyone who's free. There's nobody that's not afflicted. There's nobody who's not damaged goods. Right. And then, of course, the whole area about I think it was Keith that brought it up.

You know, you preach the prosperity gospel and yet you're wearing glasses, have hearing aids and you walk with a cane. Some ain't right. Anyway, he I think what he's saying in verse four and verse five, and then we'll just look at the detail of it.

He says, do you think, Job, that your life would be like it is if you were righteous? No way, Job. And so it's your wickedness and your iniquity without end, then. If you will, he he begins to make these accusations against Job and I'm tell you what, he's got to know how to say he got a lot of nerve.

He's pretty bold and I want to look at this and ask you who might agree. He makes these specific accusations against Job in verses six and following. Let's look at some of the things that he says in verse six.

He says, you've taken pledges from your father, from your brother with no reason. Not to me. He's basically accusing him of being a loan shark, basically saying he's been abusing people. He's an extortioner.

He's this, that and the other thing. So I think he's that's what he's saying that the verse, the second half of verse six and stripped the naked of their clothing. Now he's calling Job a thief. And then look at verse seven.

You've not given the weary water to drink. Basically, I think he's telling Job, give him cruel all your life, Ebenezer, Scrooge. And then look at you have the second half of verse seven. You've withheld bread from the hungry.

I think he's calling him a stingy person, a cheapskate. And then he just doesn't stop. The mighty man possessed the land. And I think what he's saying is the only way that you got what you got, Job, is because you're so self-absorbed and, and you just took what you wanted without any thought about the consequences and the honorable man dwelt in.

And then verse nine, you've sent away widow. You've sent widows away empty. I think he's telling him you got no, you got no heart, Job. Now, whether you agree with me on those very things, that's, we could have discussion, but here's my, here's what struck me in all this.

Where does Eliphaz get off making these accusations against Job? Where's the witnesses of all this? Now, if you think about it in the opening verses of the chapter, he's basically speaking for God. He's basically saying God's not thrilled because of you, Job.

And now he's making accusations. And I want to ask him, have you never read Eliphaz that things had to be established between two or three witnesses?

What happened to that?

How do you know what Job did all his life? You weren't around him. Job was mightily blessed. So he makes this correlation again. And why is he making that correlation? Because of what he sees. Not listening to his words.

Remember what it says? Let every man be what? Swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to rep. These guys are pretty much the opposite. They're quick to get bad at Job and they're not willing to really hear it because they haven't heard a word he said.

I haven't found yet anywhere where they've shown Job the least amount of compassion and said, Hey, Job, you know what? I think you're right. No, they just keep piling on. And now again, where do you get off?

I'll say this. I think these three friends are full of arrogance. Now that's just my, my thought that they have such pride about themselves. And remember now they're not living like Job. They're, they're on the higher end of the scale.

Is it not true? Friends think about this. People who live on the higher end of life.

Now, okay.

Whether you want to talk about as far as power or money or prestige or situation or ability, people who, who live on the higher side of, of the rung, if you are of the chain, have a tendency to do what look down on people who don't have what they have, right?

And there's a sense in which, have you not, sometimes we'll watch house hunters, it's on cable TV, you know, people looking for houses or there's the other one is when people are looking for an Island to buy Island life.

I think it's called, and I always, and I see people come in and then the realtor will say, well, what's your budget for, for the Island that you want to, Oh, can't go over eight mil. And they seem to have a sense of, uh, uh, yes, I have 8 million to spend.

And, um, and I'm not going to live like peasants. I want what I want.

And.

I just think that the LFS bill Dan is all fast, have a sense of arrogance and friends, we ought not to be like that. We ought to be. If anyone has taught us that lesson, it's Christ, right? He who was equal with God thought it not.

He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but why made himself with no reputation to call himself the form of a servant humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. If there's anything that we should understand of, of the great one is his humility in that sense.

And that you and I should listen. If we could never go wrong, if we worked on humility, right? Because the other one, arrogance, pride, self-absorption that comes almost naturally, that's to me, that's the way the river goes, right?

It's a fight against the tide to, to seek, to put on a humbleness and a humility and to be more willing to see this than to think of it this way. Uh, you might say, well, that's your problem, brother.

I don't have that problem. I would just have to say, yes, you do. Cause there isn't one of us that doesn't deal with, doesn't fight pride and arrogance, and even in that sense, self-absorption, so he makes all these accusations, um, and then verse 10 and I'm not sure we'll get through the whole chapter today, but we'll finish it next week and get into the next chapter.

But look what he says in verse 10. So he's made all these accusations. He's made all his, his thoughts known to Job, called him all these things. Verse 10, therefore, this is, this is his, his summation.

Snares are all around you and sudden fears trouble you or darkness so that you can't see in an abundance of water covers you. What is he saying again? You sue, you have sown and now you reap it's your fault, Job, and you're getting, remember what they've said, you're getting what you deserve.

And even one of them said, you're not even getting as much as you deserve. So again, they're making judgments and they're not part of this, right? Cause again, I, I can't find myself to think about. I would just say, Hey guys, come on, keep on piling on.

I would tell him, you know, go, go away. I can't deal with this no more. And yet it probably affected Job. Wouldn't you think? I mean, this constant barrage, it's like, it's like telling someone they're no good.

You're no good. You're no good. You're no good. And at first you might say, well, I could brush that off or you'll never amount to anything, but you know what? Words have a way of trickling down through our souls and they do affect us.

Don't you think? I think they do. Um, either way. I mean, you keep telling someone they look great. And before you know it, they think they look great. Um, just, you know, when you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror, what do you see someone great or someone who needs a lot of work, it all depends.