Eliphaz on Righteousness Job 22

Job 22:3 "Is it any pleasure to the Almight, that thou are righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?"

My answer to both questions would be YES. I don't know about these boys who have come to Job to comfort him. They tell him he is suffering because of wickedness, then one switches as if to say, 'Okay so you are righteous, Does God care?'

I think it is so important to God that he sent his only begotten Son to die so that man had the opportunity to be pleasing to the Father.

Romans 6:13 "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

I Timothy 4:8 "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

There are many verses to answer Eliphaz's questions in a positive way. At this time, they did not have the New Testament so many things were a mystery to them. Abraham would like to have know the details of the mysteries (I suppose) but he went on faith.

Now Eliphaz tells Job that God is far away and cannot see what is going on. Basically, it seems, he is saying that God just does not have time for people and the goings-on on earth.

v14 "Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not, and he walketh in the circuit of heaven."

The thick clouds were to protect the people not hide God. Sinful people before a holy God would not last long, so as in the case of Moses, God choose to appear in the thick cloud. But to say that God cannot see what's happening, is to be naive and misinformed.

Proverbs 15:3 "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."

In verses 15-16 Eliphaz refers to the flood in which Noah and his family were saved. See Genesis 6.

"Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood;"

So Eliphaz brings it down to one thing: if you are innocent you will be delivered.

v30 "He shall deliver the island of the innocent; and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands."

We ought to try to live right and do right. One preacher said 'It is never wrong to do right and it is never right to do wrong to do right.' However, man can not deliver or redeem himself by pureness because he has none. If man could save himself, I use to jokingly say: 'Pick up one foot, (while standing) now the other but keep the first one up too.' Also, it is not always God's will to deliver us from our suffering or testing time. True in the end we will be with Him and be just fine but some of our troubles just have to be gone through, often for purposes that only God knows. But He does know!

A good sermon can be found on testing time at this church website in the sermon section. It was about two Sundays ago in the morning service.

Job reasons about God in the next couple of chapters.

Psalm 62:1-2 "Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

Eliphaz talks about God being far away.