(REFLECTIONS ON Job 22:1-30)

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?

It would be too simple if after each of Job’s friend’s comments we just write it off as being uncaring and untrue. Rather what we should try to do as we go through the Book of Job is to consider what his friends say, because there is truth in it.

In today’s Scripture, Eliphaz challenges Job in the worth of being vigorous (healthy and strong), wise, righteous, or perfect. Does it profit God if we are perfect, righteous, wise, and full of energy and passion? Does it bring God down a level, a notch, making Him less of Himself if we are anything but perfect?

In Exodus, when God told Moses His name was “I AM WHO I AM,” it showed that God could not be defined by human standards, is not bound to birth and death, beginning and end, but is self-sufficient, subject to nothing, and “IS” no matter if we believe it or not.

God “IS” also speaks to the unchanging nature of God no matter if His creation is perfect, flawed, glorifying Him, or cursing Him. So, no, it doesn’t profit God in any way how His creation acts and reacts to Him, and God is also not obligated to fulfill our expectations of how He should respond to us whether righteousness or unrighteous. His responses are governed by His sovereign wisdom and righteous character, not by formulas we establish.

This then means that God will respond as He chooses to respond, and if His response is blessing then it is the ultimate form of grace, nothing deserved, and nothing we can do on our own to obtain. That is why Jesus Christ, His blood covering over our sins, and the work of the Holy Spirit in us, is not because we deserve it, or that God is forced to it, but the ultimate statement of grace for an undeserving creation.

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…
26 “…then you will delight in the Almighty
And lift up your face to God.

These words from Eliphaz sound right, but takes away grace and replaces it with what is deserved. We are unrighteous and it is grace that provides us a way to God outside of our own righteousness or unrighteousness. We should yield to God, receive instruction from His mouth, establish His words in our heart, return to the Almighty, not because He will restore us, but because He has poured grace upon us through Jesus Christ, His Son.

This is the authority of God. Not our way, not our righteousness, not because we deserve it, but because God is sovereign, and He decides the way, and that way is the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

I recently had a conversation with someone about authority, and we both agreed that when authority is from humans, institutions, governments, culture, tradition, and even churches, that this authority is often tainted because it is creation trying to have authority over creation.

However, what Job and his friends need to learn, is not an authority of creation over creation, but an authority of the Creator over His creation. When it is the authority of the Creator over His creation then it is no longer about Job and his friends, about righteousness and unrighteousness, but about God, His order, His rules, and His grace.

In the authority of the Creator over His creation there can be at the same time, order, discipline, rules, and love, compassion, and grace. Let us then move towards His authority and learn to live in Him, through Christ, by the Spirit, rather than only in the institution that His creation has established.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Job 22