For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 22:1-11 

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 ‘Can a man be of benefit to God?
    Can even a wise person benefit him?
3 What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous?
    What would he gain if your ways were blameless?

4 ‘Is it for your piety that he rebukes you
    and brings charges against you?
5 Is not your wickedness great?
    Are not your sins endless?
6 You demanded security from your relatives for no reason;
    you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.
7 You gave no water to the weary
    and you withheld food from the hungry,
8 though you were a powerful man, owning land –
    an honoured man, living on it.
9 And you sent widows away empty-handed
    and broke the strength of the fatherless.
10 That is why snares are all around you,
    why sudden peril terrifies you,
11 why it is so dark that you cannot see,
    and why a flood of water covers you.

A. Find Out

1. What questions does Eliphaz start off with here? v.2
2. What further question does he ask? v.3
3. What two opposing sets of questions does he then ask? v.4,5
4. List the sins of which he accuses Job. v.6-9
5. What does he conclude? v.10,11

B. Think:

1. What is his point in verses 2 & 3?
2. But what does he then go on to argue?

C. Comment:

The gloves are off! Eliphaz now comes fully on the attack. Presumably Job’s devastating critique of Zophar’s defensive argument has got under his skin and he now attacks Job. Initially he simply asks how any one of us can be of benefit to God (v.2) and what pleasure God would get from our righteousness (v.3). Well of course he gets pleasure from us being His children and of course He wants us to be righteous; this is just silly arguing. But, as if realising the futility of that argument Eliphaz quickly turns away from that and says that what has been happening to Job (v.10,11) has been because of his sin.

God wouldn’t attack you if you were pious, he argues (v.4). Oh no, it has to be for your wickedness (v.5). He then comes out with a list of supposed things that Job has done – although of course we know that these cannot be true because God has declared him blameless (1:8). He says, you must have been unjust in your handling of men (v.6), you obviously didn’t care and provide for needy men (v.7) and failed to use your power properly (v.8). You obviously disregarded widows and orphans (v.9) and it is for these reasons that God has obviously trapped you with suffering (v.10) and why darkness seems to envelope you (v.11).

Eliphaz thus assumes Job has done these wrong for after all, he argues, God doesn’t bring judgment on the pious, only on the wicked – so you must be wicked! Of course, we know from the first two chapters that this is completely erroneous arguing!

D. Application:

1. Bad things don’t only happen because of our sin.
2. Bad things can happen because of Satan and the Fallen World.

Passage: Job 22:12-20

12 ‘Is not God in the heights of heaven?
    And see how lofty are the highest stars!
13 Yet you say, “What does God know?
    Does he judge through such darkness?
14 Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us
    as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.”
15 Will you keep to the old path
    that the wicked have trod?
16 They were carried off before their time,
    their foundations washed away by a flood.
17 They said to God, “Leave us alone!
    What can the Almighty do to us?”
18 Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things,
    so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.
19 The righteous see their ruin and rejoice;
    the innocent mock them, saying,
20 “Surely our foes are destroyed,
    and fire devours their wealth.”

A. Find Out

1. Where does Eliphaz place God? v.12
2. What does he say Job has been saying about this? v.13,14
3. What does he warn against? v.15
4. What had happened to them despite what they said? v.16,17
5. What had they not realised? v.19
6. How is the end of such ‘evil men’ viewed? v.20,21

B. Think:

1. What is the challenge that Eliphaz is making in v.12-14?
2. What wrongs does he attribute to men of old?
3. What is he saying when he says that?

C. Comment:

Having just assumed Job’s guilt in the first part of this chapter, Eliphaz now brings two corrective warnings. The first one is simply that God sees what is going on.  God may appear to be distant (v.12) but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t see. Job had questioned whether God had seen what was going on (v.13,14 referring back perhaps to 19:8) but the truth is (implied) that He does see everything and therefore Job should be careful!

The second warning is to avoid the example of evil men from the past (v.15). Because of their sin they received the judgment of God and died prematurely (v.16). They had been godless in their attitudes and outlooks (v.17) without realising that all the good things they had had been the gift of God (v.18a). Their counsel was foolishness, and we should stand aloof or away from it (v.18b), for their activities and their end are very obvious to all (v.19) who clearly see that their end is an act of judgment (v.20).  His somewhat obscure or oblique warning is that Job should not similarly appear godless in his speeches otherwise he too might be utterly swept away in God’s judgment.

It is a vain or pointless warning because we know that these things do not apply to Job because the Lord Himself has declared that Job is blameless.

D. Application:

1. Beware condemning others. Leave that to God!
2. Realise that we never see the full picture. Beware!

Passage: Job 22:21-30

21 ‘Submit to God and be at peace with him;
    in this way prosperity will come to you.
22 Accept instruction from his mouth
    and lay up his words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored:
    if you remove wickedness far from your tent
24 and assign your nuggets to the dust,
    your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,
25 then the Almighty will be your gold,
    the choicest silver for you.
26 Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty
    and will lift up your face to God.
27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
    and you will fulfil your vows.
28 What you decide on will be done,
    and light will shine on your ways.
29 When people are brought low and you say, “Lift them up!”
    then he will save the downcast.
30 He will deliver even one who is not innocent,
    who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.’

A. Find Out

1. How, does he say, prosperity will come to Job? v.21,22
2. How, does he say, Job will be restored? v.23-25
3. What will he find? v.25,26
4. What else will change? v.27,28
5. What example of that does he give? v.29
6. To what extreme will that go? v.30

B. Think:

1. What things does Eliphaz say Job need to do?
2. What will the Lord do in return?
3. What impact will that have on the world?

C. Comment:

Eliphaz’s starting place in the first part of the chapter has been that Job must have sinned for all this to have happened to him. He also warned Job against appearing godless. Now he moves on to basically call Job to repentance. He gives a list now of things that Job needs to do. First in heart attitude submit to God and accept His will (v.21). Accept God’s instruction (v.22) and return to the Lord (v.23a) and put aside any wickedness (v.23b) and not put his reliance in any way in his wealth (v.24) so that the Lord is the most valuable thing in his life (v.25).

When Job does these things, he maintains, then the Lord will bring peace and prosperity (v.21) and restoration (v.23). All of this means that then Job will be able to delight in the Lord again (v.26a) and be able to pray again (v.26b,27). Moreover the Lord will answer his prayers (v.27,28) so that he will have a ministry of lifting up the downtrodden (v.29) and will even enable the guilty to receive the forgiveness of God and be restored (v.30).

Now all of this is good stuff, and this sort of things does happen, except it is based on a false premise – Job’s guilt!  The truth we know from the opening chapters is that Job is not guilty in this way and all these “if-then” logic things won’t work because this is a matter of testing and not judgement!

D. Application:

1. Repentance does open the way for God to bring blessing.
2. Refusal to repent does hinder an ongoing relationship with the Lord.