Page 117 - Reading Job to Know God

wicked are reserved for the day of calamity.” He knows, the wicked are
going to be punished one day. And so the second cycle of debates ends.
They cannot answer Job’s logic. Their whole argument has gone up in
smoke.
Let’s look at the facts of the third debate. This is the heaviest siege of all. It
goes from chapters 22-31. This time there are no innuendos, no insinuations,
and no vague metaphors. Eliphaz begins, chapter 22:5,
“To the weary you have given no water to drink, and from the hungry
you have withheld bread. But the earth belongs to the mighty man, and
the honorable man dwells in it. You have sent widows away empty, and
the strength of the orphans has been crushed. Therefore snares
surround you, and sudden dread terrifies you, or darkness, so that you
cannot see and an abundance of water covers you.”

Oh, how this must have broken the heart of Job. To hear these things from
Eliphaz, his former friend. He comes right out and says you have crushed the
orphan and you have turned away the widow and he begins to name sins.
You talk about judging a man’s heart. Eliphaz says I do not care what you
observed about the prosperity of the wicked, it is not true. The principle
remains. It looks like in verses 12 through 20 he says I am even going to
hold God to that principle. And his conclusion is, verse 21,
“Yield now and be at peace with Him.”

You had better repent. Then he goes back to the same old argument. The
wicked suffer. You are suffering. Isn’t it amazing how blind people can be?
Job is a lot more rational than Eliphaz was, and that is illustrated in his
response in chapters 23 and 24. Again, he first expresses the depths of his
heart. He does not want answers; he wants God. Chapter 23:3,
“Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His
seat! I would present my case before Him and fill my mouth with
arguments. I would learn the words which He would answer, and
perceive what He would say to me. Would He contend with me by the
greatness of His power? No, surely He would pay attention to me.
There the upright would reason with Him; And I would be delivered
forever from my Judge”.

“Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot
perceive Him; When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns
on the right, I cannot see Him.”
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