Job 22:15-30 “Acquaint Yourself With Him and Be At Peace”
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Job 22:15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
Job 22:16 Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
Job 22:17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
Job 22:18 Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Job 22:19 The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.
Job 22:20 Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.
Job 22:21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
Job 22:22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
Job 22:23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
Job 22:24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
Job 22:25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.
Job 22:26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
Job 22:27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
Job 22:28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
Job 22:29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
Job 22:30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.
Introduction
It is Eliphaz’s sincere understanding that under no circumstance would God ever bless the wicked while pouring our His wrath upon His own elect. After all, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are the type and shadow of who we are while we are enslaved to the lies which are Babylon the Great. Like any tithe- paying, church- going Babylonian who first hears “I create evil… I the Lord do all these things”, Eliphaz will not let the Truth stand in his way as he defends his god who would never, under any circumstance, “chasten and scourge” His own child, while physically blessing evil men who He uses to chasten His elect. But what do the scriptures teach us?
Isa 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
The “Assyrian” is the Babylonian who kills God’s witnesses and leaves their dead bodies unburied in the streets of “that great city”.
Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
“The great city… where our Lord was crucified… spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. What else is “that great city where our Lord was crucified” spiritually called?
Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
“The great city where also our Lord was crucified” is within each of us, and it is also called “great Babylon”. It is given to us to be the first to endure the wrath of God upon our own self- righteous old man (1Pe 4:17). Eliphaz is the spirit of Babylon, which is the “Assyrian” who God uses to chasten and crucify His Christ, His elect .
This is all unheard of by any of us while we work at our own righteousness. Nevertheless this is what God is working:
Psa 73:3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Psa 73:4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
Psa 73:5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Psa 73:6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Psa 73:7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
“They are not plagued like other men” includes the plagues which God pours out on His own sons, of whom Job is the Old Testament type:
Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
God’s chastening scourges us to the point that we all “faint”. If we are told not to faint, it is because we faint. Like Job who wanted to die, and like our Lord in the garden, we are “troubled, even unto death”, to the point that these words are placed here and to the point that Christ Himself had to be strengthened by an angel to endure the pain of physical suffering and the even greater mental pain of being forsaken by His closest friends, His disciples.
Mat 26:31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.
Mat 26:32 But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.
Mat 26:33 Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.
Mat 26:34 Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
Mat 26:35 Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.
Mat 26:38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
Luk 22:41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Luk 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Luk 22:43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Luk 22:44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
In this same way, Job typifies Christ, as Eliphaz, Bildah, and Zophar, his “inward friends” blatantly, and with no proof or witnesses, tell him to his face that what they really think of him is that his “wickedness is great”.
Job 22:5 Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?
‘After all, just witness what God has done to you, Job. You are obviously a sinner above all men. Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquities infinite?’ Eliphaz is the same spirit and is the same as the symbol of the Pharisee who looks down on the publican. He simply cannot conceive of a righteous child of God ever needing to be chastened or scourged by his heavenly Father. Self- righteousness is not even detected as being a sin in the mind of Eliphaz.
Isaiah speaks of this spirit:
Isa 65:5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
Christ, of course, was especially repulsed by such an insidious sin which inflates us with pride and causes us to despise our brothers.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
It is with this spirit that Eliphaz continues to assault his friend he had come to comfort:
Job 22:15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men havetrodden?
Job 22:16 Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
“Have you marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?” Job lived much closer to the time of the flood than we live. There was no foolish ‘theory of evolution’ denying that God had destroyed the evil in a flood. My own father and grandfather never heard of the theory of evolution when they were attending school. The flood was taught as history for well over half of our nation’s history. It was very much a part of the history of Job’s day, so how, Eliphaz wonders, could Job possibly think that God would punish the righteous while prospering the wicked.
Job 22:17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
Job 22:18 Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
“Which say unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them? Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of wicked is far from me”; These are all Job’s own words with which he had just answered Zophar in the last chapter:
Job 21:14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
Job 21:15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?
Job 21:16 Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Eliphaz is quoting Job’s words back to him, mocking him and casting everything Job told Zophar in a different light, as if the fact “a flood… overflow[ ing] the foundation of the wicked” somehow proved how wrong Job is about God blessing the wicked in this age. At the same time he mockingly applies Job’s statement that “the counsel of the wicked is far from me” to himself rather than Job.
“Which said unto God, Depart from us” is Job’s observation of how God blesses the wicked in this age. Eliphaz is furious that Job actually thinks that God blesses the wicked who tell God to depart from them, while simultaneously “chastening and scourging” His own people. Yet that is the exact experience of which our judgment consists. But King David saw how God works, and he witnesses to this same experience in his observations of life in this evil age:
Psa 73:11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
Psa 73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
So the ungodly do prosper in this world, while God’s children are being chastened and scourged and purified in this age. Christ Himself tells us the same thing in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. This is Christ Himself, telling us how He operates and “works all things after the counsel of His own will”:
Luk 16:22 And it came to pass, that the beggar [ Lazarus] died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Luk 16:23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luk 16:24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
Luk 16:25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
As Eliphaz we see none of this, and we self- righteously continue to equate our own physical blessings as proof positive of our own righteousness and the trials of our elect brothers as worthy of our scorn. So Eliphaz continues his attack upon the prostrate suffering Job:
Job 22:19 The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.
Job 22:20 Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.
“The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn”. Is this true? Here is what the scriptures reveal:
2Ki 19:20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
2Ki 19:21 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him [ the king of Assyria]; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
2Ki 19:22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
Psa 2:4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Psa 37:13 The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.
Psa 52:6 The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him:
Psa 52:7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
“See it, and are glad” refers to what Eliphaz had said in verses 15-16:
Job 22:15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
Job 22:16 Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
Eliphaz sees himself as “the righteous” who is witnessing Job’s destruction, and he sees himself as “the innocent [ who will] laugh [ Job] to scorn, as he witnesses God’s judgment upon Job. What Eliphaz, as well as the Pharisees of Babylon, cannot see is that it is Job who is the type of those at whose house judgment begins first:
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
“Whereas our substance is not cut down” [ as yours is Job], is what Eliphaz is saying here. “But the remnant of them the fire consumed” as Job’s substance was consumed with fire from heaven.
Job 1:16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, T he fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Eliphaz considered Job to be as wicked as Sodom, and therefore Job’s household was like the remnant of those who were destroyed in the flood. In drawing this parallel, Eliphaz is ignoring the fact that God had given the dominion of the kingdoms of men over to evil men from Noah to Sodom, and right up to his own day.
Like the self- righteous Pharisee he typifies within each of us, Eliphaz thinks he knows God and that he knows how God thinks, yet he would have no idea what these words mean, and it is these words which express the true mind of God, :
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did [ as Eliphaz, the self- righteous Pharisee] esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Eliphaz is you and me when we see our brothers and sisters being “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”, and we look down on them like the Pharisee looked down on the publican, and the rich man looked down on Lazarus.
So he admonishes Job:
Job 22:21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
Job 22:22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
Job 22:23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
Job 22:24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
If only we can indeed come to ‘acquaint ourselves with God’. If only we can come to know who is God, and who is Christ! “Acquaint… thyself with Him, and be at peace” is the very definition of “life eternal”. There is no way of knowing the Father but by Christ, and when we “know Christ”, then we understand that we have no righteousness of our own, and we know that Christ was the very first to be ‘esteemed (by us) stricken and smitten of God, and afflicted’:
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did [ as Eliphaz, the self righteous Pharisee] esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Mat 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Eliphaz tells Job, “Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart”. “The law from his mouth” includes these words:
Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth [ like Job].
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation [ like Job] enter into the kingdom of God.
1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you [ like Job], as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings [ typified by Job’s suffering]; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
1Pe 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
But while dominated by the stubborn, rebellious, self- righteous spirit of Eliphaz, we are blinded to these words.
“If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.” This is all true, but until we are granted to admit we have strayed from the sheepfold, we will never be acquainted with “the Almighty”. As long as we are the “ninety and nine which (think they) need no repentance”, and we cannot see that the gold we are to acquire must be “gold tried in the fire”, we will never be given to partake of the blessing of all of these riches.
Luk 15:7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
As Eliphaz we cannot yet accept such weighty words. We want only to have our ‘decrees established’ and to have God’s favor.
Job 22:25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.
Job 22:26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
Job 22:27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
Job 22:28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
Every word here is true, but when we never see that all of these blessings must be preceded by judgment upon our own house, these words all amount to nothing more than half- truths. So we are told:
Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
Part of that “sum” is these words:
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
As Eliphaz we read those words and we say ‘Amen’, and we don’t have a clue what they mean. We continue to place every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God concerning the wicked and the judgment of those wicked off on that wicked man, Job, whose “iniquities [ we see as being] infinite”.
As Eliphaz these words of King David mean very little to us:
Psa 119:75 I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
Just look at how Eliphaz utters words of truth, even as he demonstrates that he has no idea what he is saying:
Job 22:29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
Job 22:30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.
As the self righteous Pharisee within us, who Eliphaz symbolizes, we acknowledge that men must be cast down before there can be a lifting up. We confess that God saves those who have first been humbled. We speak of being pure, and all the while we think we are speaking of ourselves, even as we argue against the obvious and undeniable Truth that God is blessing the wicked in this age, while simultaneously using them to chasten and to scourge His elect. We read of suffering loss and yet being saved (1Co3:15), and we don’t even see what we just read. We read that all things are ours (1Co3:21-22), and we don’t see what we just read. We read that we are to keep the things written in the revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:3), but we cannot see that the revelation of Jesus Christ is the revelation of the description of the seven churches within us. It is all the events described in each of the seven seals. It is the judgments of the seven trumpets, which are a perfect parallel of the seven bowls which fill up the wrath of God which is poured out upon our self- righteous old man “beast” for the purpose of destroying that old man and thereby birthing a new man who is conformed to the image of our humble Lord, who has given us this experience of evil to humble us and to make us like Him.
Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.
Next week, if the Lord wills, we will read of Job’s answer to Eliphaz, and we will see that God’s elect are all just the first to be tried by the fire of God’s Word, and we will see that before that trial we are just as self- righteous as Eliphaz before the spirit of Eliphaz is burned out of us, as we “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
Here are next week’s verses:
Job 23:1 Then Job answered and said,
Job 23:2 Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Job 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
Job 23:4 I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
Job 23:5 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
Job 23:6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.
Job 23:7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
Job 23:8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
Job 23:9 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:
Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Job 23:13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14 For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
Job 23:15 Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.
Job 23:16 For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:
Job 23:17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.
Other related posts
- You Shall Be Hated Of All Men Part 1 (January 11, 2009)
- Why Go to Church? (September 19, 2011)
- Why Did Christ Curse the Fig Tree? (July 1, 2013)
- We All Were The Children Of Wrath Even As Others (July 12, 2011)
- The Keys to The Kingdom of Heaven - Part 4 (September 12, 2015)
- Job 22:15-30 "Acquaint Yourself With Him and Be At Peace" (August 6, 2012)
- How Do We Know When God is Chastening Us? (October 12, 2014)
- Elect Presently Experience The Millennium? (August 4, 2008)
- Does The Bible Condone Gambling? (February 1, 2010)