Job  

Chapter  22  

"Eliphaz's third address."  

Job  22:1   "Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,"

In this chapter Eliphaz the Temanite is going to get quite angry with Job. 

Job  22:2   "Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?"

Eliphaz is asking Job, "Do you think any person can benefit God whether he is wise or a fool?"   He is asking if Job thinks in his mind that he can change God by his words.  This is a strange statement for this so called man of God to make.

Job  22:3   "Is it any pleasure to The Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to Him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?"

Eliphaz is asking Job, just because you are perfect and righteous, do you think that's a benefit to God.  Again we have many words spoken here, but what were our Father's Words concerning Job?  "What do you think of My servant Job?"  Our Father was proud of Job because he was a righteous man, and it does make a great difference when a person strives to be a righteous person before God.  God doesn't care what you do or say.  He doesn't care if you are righteous, wise or a fool.  Eliphaz is trying to let Satan off the hook, by his accusations that God did all these things to you, Job.   

Job  22:4   "Will He reprove thee for fear of thee? will He enter with thee into judgment?"

Do you think that God is afraid of you, Job?  In other words, if you are righteous on judgment day do you think that God is going to punish you for your religious thoughts,  whether you revere and respect Him or not?  There are many people that will be punished for their religion, because they have accepted a false religion.  They have accepted a false Christ, and worshipped Satan's religion.  If you take the name and number of the beast, Satan's false religion, you will be punished greatly for the way your worship and the things you do and say.   

Job  22:5   "Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?"

Eliphaz is telling Job, 'you know what the trouble is, your are a sinner."    

Job  22:6   "For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing."

Job  22:7   "Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry."

Eliphaz is accusing Job of taking his wealth by ill-gotten gains, of dealing falsely with his brethren, and of turning his back on the needy.  Each of these accusations are simply not true for Job was a righteous man, and he sought to do what was right in the eyes of the Almighty Father.  However, do you see how words, words, words and the rambling goes on over nothing?  In time the words drift far from the facts.

Job  22:8   "But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it."

The man with the strongest arm will take land by force, but the honorable man just accepts what is given to him.  This is applied to those people that are accepted as being somebody of importance.  This is the way that it works in many of places of our land today.  If a man has enough money and speaks the right words, he is accepted in the community as being somebody important.  This line of thought is only accepted in this earth age.  Job, as we know from the first three chapters was not guilty of doing this to anyone, and taking anything by force. 

Job  22:9   "Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken."

Job  22:10   "Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;"

Eliphaz the Temanite is telling Job, after kicking out the widow, and fatherless and breaking them, you have a great deal to fear of God, and I don't blame you.  If Job had done this he should have been freightened, but he did not do these things that he is accused of. 

Job  22:11   "Or darkeness, that thou canst not see; and aboundance of waters cover thee."

As you sit there in your darkness, can't you see those great flood waters of Satan devouring you?  Eliphaz is still blaming God for the things that Satan is doing to him, and those flood waters are not from God, but Satan.  Can you tell the difference when Satan's flood waters are starting to cover you and drown you with words?

Job  22:12   "Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!"

Do you think for a moment that God doesn't know that you haven't done these things?  Of course Job knows in his heart and mind that God knows he is innocent.

Job  22:13   "And thou sayest,  'How doth God know? can He judge through the dark cloud?"

Eliphaz is telling Job, that though you think that your deeds are hidden from God by a dark cloud, that is not so.  God can see your evil deeds clearly through that dark cloud. 

Job  22:14   "Thick clouds are a covering to Him, that He seeth not; and He walketh in the circuit of heaven.' "

Job  22:15   "Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?"

You know what the results of the wicked ways that wicked men shall receive?   

Job  22:16   "Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:"

Eliphaz is now relating the flood of Noah's day to the wicked ways of the people of that day.  When man become so wicked, God just washed them away.    

Job  22:17   "Which said unto God, 'Depart from us:' and what can the Almighty do for them?"

"For them" should be "...to them".  Eliphaz is asking Job, when a person wants God to depart from them, what can God do to them?  Eliphaz is inferring that God can do nothing to the person for anything that a man desires to do.

Job  22:18   "Yet He filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me."

Even though their purpose was different than God's purpose, Eliphaz is telling Job that God still filled their houses with many good things.  He is saying that God blesses the wicked just as he blesses the good person.  Eliphaz is referring back to the time when Job was a rich man and well respected in the world around him. 

Job  22:19   "The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn." 

This clears up in the next verse.

Job  22:20   "Whereas or substance is not cut down but the remnant of them the fire consumeth."

What Eliphaz is saying here is that he laughs and rejoices when he sees the homes of the wicked destroyed and their substance taken from them.  This is saying that this so called friend of Job rejoiced when Job's family was taken from him, his house foreclosed on and his wealth was gone.  I think we can see just the kind of friend Eliphaz was by his own words.  What an insult to Job, and yet Job continued to sit and be insulted by this nut case.  Eliphaz is telling Job right out, "I'm glad your house got burned; I'm glad your kids were destroyed and so on."  It was God taking his vengeance upon you as a sinner. 

At this moment it must have hurt Job very much, for Eliphaz was a trusted friend when Job was well off and in good standing with the community.  Now in hard times, he sat there and took the garbage from these so-called Friends.  Again the point to this chapter; is be careful of seeking counsel of any man, but seek counsel from God through His Word, and a man or woman of God that understands the Scriptures.  What is important is that he or she can stick to the basics of God's plan, and not ramble on with nothing but words, words, words.  The facts here is that Satan placed the boils on Job's body.  Satan killed Job's kids, and it was Satan that took the wealth of Job from him to test him to see if Job would curse God to His face.  Those are the facts, and all the false accusations are nothing but words.

Job  22:21   "Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee."

These good friend are now asking Job to repent right here on the spot before them, and then God will give you peace.  Have you ever heard that before?  The good deacons and parson desiring someone to come forward and repent all their evil deeds to them so that God can save them?  There is nothing wrong with repentance before God, but that becomes the sole part to their religion.  "All you have to do is believe to be saved."  They tell you the facts of the rest of the Bible, the Old Testament and Revelation are not important.  This is not attacking repentance for repentance and salvation are only the beginning to the Christian life, just as milk is required for the babies to start their walk in life.  If there is no meat and solid food, there is no growth.  If you do not go past repentance than you would be floundering in the dark just like these three men are.   

Job  22:22   "Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth, and lay up His words in thine heart."

Study God's Word from the law, as given by God, and keep them in your mind. 

Job  22:23   "If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles."

 If he follows the Iaw sin will be put far from our homes, and iniquity will stay away. 

Job  22:24   "Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and gold a Ophir as the stones of the brooks."

Remember that it was in Ophir, where the Nephinims [Kenites] built their strongholds to control the house of God.  They took the center place at the brook and all the people brought their tithes and wealth to them.  We are talking about the priesthood that was taken over by the Kenites, as Ezra pointed out in Ezra 8:15, when their was not one Levite in the entire group returning to build the Temple.  The Kenites, the sons of Satan through Cain had taken over the priesthood.  

Job  22:25   "Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver."

Promises are all you get from these men of Ophir, with their good sounding words and promises.  Remember that the thing that these men are promising is Salvation through repentance.  This is good, but it requires much more.  Repentance and Salvation is the milk of the Word, but God requires that we must have the meat of His Word.  

Job  22:26   "For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God."

This must make Job feel real good, for Job hadn't sinned except for a few little things and that he told them those sins were none of their business anyway. 

Job  22:27   "Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows."

He is telling Job, God will listen to you Job if you will just make this prayer to him and pay these vows.  Have you heard these words before; repent and send your money? 

Job  22:28   "Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall shine upon thy ways."

Do you think this was reassuring to Job after he was just condemned wrongly, and accused of all sorts of things?  He is now being told to just make those decrees of things you have done, and God shall shine down upon your ways.   

Job  22:29   "When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, 'There is lifting up; and He shall save the humble person."

When men's pride are cast down, than the lifting takes place. 

Job  22:30   "He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.' "

What Eliphaz is telling Job is that if you do just as I am telling you to do, you will be right in the eyes of God.  Again, through all these words, Job was pure before God, for God looked upon Job as a righteous man.  Through this entire chapter, these men including Job have not placed the blame for the Job's trouble on Satan, but they have placed the blame on God.  We see this all the time in our generation, for they read something out of the Bible, and take it out of context to where it is nothing but a lie.  However there is a negative part to God's plan for this earth age.  This is what God is telling us through this chapter.  That negative part is Satan and his children, the Kenites.  Satan's children are known by many other names, which fit the roles that they play at that time.  In Ezra they were called the "Nethinims", and in Ezekiel 38 and 39 they were the "chief prince" of darkness and this world age. 

There is only one way to take the whole bread, and that is when you take the entire loaf of bread, and the Word of God is the bread of life for our generation.  This works the same way with your mind, for if you only allow half of the truth to enter into your mind, that is all you have to make your judgments on, and that is not enough.  This is a little strong, but it is a fact, stick to the facts from God's Word.