11/16/2011 8:21:10 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Three False Accusations
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job 22:1-30
Message of the verses: With this SD we begin the last chapter of the book of Job, and it also begins a new chapter from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Job, “Be Patient.” He entitles chapter eight “Order in the Court,” and it will cover chapters twenty-two through chapter twenty-four. In today’s SD we begin with the next speech of Eliphaz and he will have three false accusations to go against Job. These conversations are getting more heated as we will soon see. I can’t help but believe that the enemy of our souls had great influence on these three friends of Job because the steaks were very high for Satan, yet when one looks at it through the eyes of the Lord and through His character and attribute one will realize that God would win this “contest” with Satan, and it will be because of Job’s integrity that Satan will lose. Job did not worship the Lord for what he got from the Lord, but he worshiped the Lord because he loved the Lord and desired to serve him in the good times as well as the bad times.
Job is a sinner (Job 22:1-11): “1 ¶ 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? 4 "Is it because of your reverence that He reproves you, That He enters into judgment against you?
5 ¶ "Is not your wickedness great, And your iniquities without end? 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. 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.” (NASB)
“1 ¶ Once again Eliphaz the Temanite took up his theme: 2 "Are any of us strong enough to give God a hand, or smart enough to give him advice? 3 So what if you were righteous—would God Almighty even notice? Even if you gave a perfect performance, do you think he’d applaud? 4 Do you think it’s because he cares about your purity that he’s disciplining you, putting you on the spot?
5 ¶ Hardly! It’s because you’re a first-class moral failure, because there’s no end to your sins. 6 When people came to you for help, you took the shirts off their backs, exploited their helplessness. 7 You wouldn’t so much as give a drink to the thirsty, or food, not even a scrap, to the hungry. 8 And there you sat, strong and honored by everyone, surrounded by immense wealth! 9 You turned poor widows away from your door; heartless, you crushed orphans. 10 Now you’re the one trapped in terror, paralyzed by fear. Suddenly the tables have turned! 11 How do you like living in the dark, sightless, up to your neck in flood waters?” (Message)
I wish at this time to give a quote from Matthew Henry that appears at the very beginning of the chapter in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary, “The God of Israel, the Savior, is sometimes a God that hides Himself, but never a God that absents Himself; sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.” I am sure that if you would read this quote to Job at this time in his life he would have said “Amen!”
The first question that I wish to ask is how did Eliphaz know all of these things about Job? Was he just making them up? Did he get the answers to these charges from some of Job’s neighbors? This whole thing reminds me of the political scene that is now going on in the US where one party slings mud at another even though they know that their facts are not true but do not care because it will get people to begin to think that they are true. Eliphaz is doing this to Job, but Job is not buying it.
Eliphaz is accusing Job of having too much pride in verses one through three. He is saying that Job is acting like his character is important to God and Eliphaz is saying that it is not at all important to God. However it is important to God for that is the premise of this whole “contest” between God and Satan.
In verse six Eliphaz accuses Job of covetousness. He says that Job is a greedy man. Covetousness is what the tenth commandment is all about for it says that a person is not to covet, covet a man’s house or donkey, or wife. To covet something you have to do it in your heart and when you do this you break that law. Job was not doing what Eliphaz accused him of doing.
Job is accused by Eliphaz of a lack of mercy and compassion in verse seven through nine. If this were true of Job one could probably see why the Lord was not answering his prayers, but it was not true.
Job is hiding his sins (Job 22:12-20): “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.’
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.’” (NASB)
“12 "You agree, don’t you, that God is in charge? He runs the universe—just look at the stars! 13 Yet you dare raise questions: ‘What does God know? From that distance and darkness, how can he judge? 14 He roams the heavens wrapped in clouds, so how can he see us?’
15 ¶ "Are you going to persist in that tired old line that wicked men and women have always used? 16 Where did it get them? They died young, flash floods sweeping them off to their doom. 17 They told God, ‘Get lost! What good is God Almighty to us?’ 18 And yet it was God who gave them everything they had. It’s beyond me how they can carry on like this! 19 "Good people see bad people crash, and call for a celebration. Relieved, they crow, 20 ‘At last! Our enemies—wiped out. Everything they had and stood for is up in smoke!’” (Message)
Eliphaz is actually saying that Job is a hypocrite, something that has been hinted at earlier in the speeches of Job’s “friends.” Dr. Wiersbe write of hypocrites: “A hypocrite is not a person who fails to reach his desired spiritual goals, because all of us fail in one way or another. A hypocrite is a person who doesn’t even try to reach any goals, but he makes people think that he has. His profession and his practice never meet. The Puritan preacher Stephen Charnock said, ‘It is a sad thing to be Christians at a supper, heathens in our shops, and devils in our closets.’”
A hypocrite does not believe that God can see them and so they can act and do as they wish, but according to verse twelve God sees all. This is a true statement, but accusing Job of being a hypocrite is not. Again we see truth in what Job’s accusers are stating, but their accusations that go against Job are not true. In verse twelve Eliphaz wants Job to look up and then in verses 15-18 he wants him to look back. He want him to remember what has happened to sinners in the past. I like what Dr. Wiersbe writes about this: “Poor Job! No matter which way he turned or how he tried to reason with his accusers, he was wasting his time and energy. First they said that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked, and now Eliphaz claims that God blesses the hypocrite and fills his house with good things!—It has been will said that the highest reward for a faithful life is not what you get for it but what you become by it. Bishop Brooke Westcott said ‘Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak, and at last some crisis shows what we have become.’”
Job must repent of his sins (Job 22:21-30): “21 ¶ "Yield now and be at peace with Him; Thereby good will come to you. 22 "Please receive instruction from His mouth And establish His words in your heart. 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. 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.’” (NASB)
“21 ¶ "Give in to God, come to terms with him and everything will turn out just fine. 22 Let him tell you what to do; take his words to heart. 23 Come back to God Almighty and he’ll rebuild your life. Clean house of everything evil. 24 Relax your grip on your money and abandon your gold-plated luxury. 25 God Almighty will be your treasure, more wealth than you can imagine. 26 "You’ll take delight in God, the Mighty One, and look to him joyfully, boldly. 27 You’ll pray to him and he’ll listen; he’ll help you do what you’ve promised. 28 You’ll decide what you want and it will happen; your life will be bathed in light. 29 To those who feel low you’ll say, ‘Chin up! Be brave!’ and God will save them. 30 Yes, even the guilty will escape, escape through God’s grace in your life.’” (Message)
The only commentary on this section that I will give is from the pen of Dr. Wiersbe for I surely could not say it any better: “Eliphaz says some excellent things in this appeal, but he says them to the wrong man. When we get to the end of the book we will discover that it is Eliphaz and his two friends who are out of fellowship with God. They will need Job to intercede for them so they can be restored (42:7-10)
“If you were Job how would you respond to this appeal?” (Good question)
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look back as some of the speeches that Job’s “friends” gave to him I find a lot of truth in them just as Dr. Wiersbe points out from this last section, but it is given to the wrong man at the wrong time. When people are hurting they need a listening ear and not a threatening tongue like Job’s three friends were giving to him. This is one of the great things that I can take away from this book, and by God’s grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit put into practice in order to help others who are in need of help.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Have a listening ear that listens from the heart and not have a threatening tongue that will hurt people worse than they are already hurting.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
3. Romans 12:1-2.
4. Ephesians 6:10-18.
5. Proverbs 3:5-6.
11/16/2011 9:33:53 AM
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