Commentary - Job 22:21-30

Bird's-eye view

In this final speech from Eliphaz, we are treated to one of the purest expressions of what has come to be known as the prosperity gospel. It is a masterful blend of truth and error, which is what makes it so potent and, frankly, so dangerous. Eliphaz is not entirely wrong; the problem with Job's counselors is not that they were wrong, but rather that they were right woodenly. They take a general principle, that righteousness leads to blessing and sin to cursing, and apply it with a sledgehammer to Job's particular situation, refusing to see any complexity or mystery in God's dealings. The result is a theology that is neat, tidy, and utterly merciless.

Eliphaz calls Job to repent of sins he has not committed in order to restore a prosperity that was taken from him by God's sovereign permission, not as a direct result of some specific transgression. He lays out a formula: submit, receive instruction, return, put away unrighteousness, devalue earthly wealth, and then God will restore everything and more. The irony, of course, is that Job's ultimate restoration will come not through this formula, but through a direct encounter with God Himself, who will rebuke Eliphaz and his friends for not speaking of Him what was right. This passage serves as a stark warning against a transactional view of God, where our obedience becomes a lever to manipulate divine blessing.

Outline

Context In Job

This is the third and final round of speeches, and Eliphaz, as the first of the friends, delivers his closing argument. His tone has hardened. In his first speech (Ch. 4-5), he was more suggestive, but now he is openly accusatory, having just laid out a list of phantom sins he imagines Job must have committed (Job 22:5-9). This counsel in verses 21-30 is therefore predicated on a false assumption: that Job's suffering is the direct and immediate consequence of heinous personal sin.

The entire book of Job is a frontal assault on a simplistic, mechanical view of divine providence. God is sovereign, yes, and He works all things after the counsel of His own will. But His ways are not our ways. The connection between sowing and reaping is a biblical reality (Gal. 6:7), but it is not a simple algebraic formula that we can solve in every instance. Eliphaz's speech here represents the very wisdom of the world that the book is designed to dismantle. It sounds pious, but it is a piety that has no room for the cross, no room for suffering that is not immediately punitive, and ultimately, no room for a God who is truly sovereign and free.

Key Issues

Commentary

21 “Yield now and be at peace with Him; Thereby good will come to you.

Eliphaz begins with what sounds like excellent advice. Who could argue with yielding to God? The Hebrew word means to be familiar with, to acquiesce. It is a call to submission. And the result is peace with Him. This is all true, in a sense. The problem is the context. Eliphaz is telling Job to yield on the basis of a false charge. It is like telling an innocent man to confess to a crime in order to have peace with the judge. True peace with God does not come from agreeing with false accusations; it comes from agreeing with God's verdict on our sin, which is true, and His verdict on Christ's righteousness, which is our only hope. The second clause, "Thereby good will come to you," reveals the transactional nature of Eliphaz's thinking. The "good" he has in mind is primarily material prosperity, the restoration of Job's lost estate. It is a quid pro quo. You do this, and God will give you that. This is the essence of all pagan religion, and it is a distortion of the covenant of grace.

22 Please receive instruction from His mouth And set His words in your heart.

Again, this is impeccable advice on its face. We are commanded throughout Scripture to receive God's law and treasure it in our hearts (Ps. 119:11). But Eliphaz assumes that Job has rejected God's instruction, which is the very thing Job has been wrestling to understand. Job's problem is not that he has cast God's words aside, but that God's present providence seems to contradict His revealed character and promises. Eliphaz is using the Word of God as a bludgeon. He implies that Job is unteachable and hard-hearted. The irony is that it is Eliphaz and his friends who will be rebuked by God for their failure to listen, for their refusal to sit in the ashes with their friend and simply acknowledge the profound mystery of his suffering.

23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; If you remove unrighteousness far from your tent,

Here the "if/then" structure of his argument becomes explicit. "If you return..." This is the language of repentance. Repentance is absolutely central to the Christian life. We are to turn from our sin and turn to God. But Eliphaz defines "returning" as Job admitting to the specific sins of injustice and cruelty that Eliphaz has just invented. "...you will be restored." The Hebrew word means "to be built up." Eliphaz promises a full reconstruction of Job's life, his family, his wealth. The condition is to "remove unrighteousness far from your tent." This is a direct shot, implying that Job's home, the very center of his life and worship, is polluted with secret sin. It is a cruel and baseless accusation, dressed up in the language of pious counsel.

24 And put your gold in the dust, And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks,

This sounds wonderfully spiritual, doesn't it? A call to radical detachment from wealth. Eliphaz suggests that Job's problem might be greed, an over-attachment to his former riches. He tells him to treat his gold like dirt, to toss the finest gold of Ophir away with the river rocks. This is a classic move of false piety. It sets up a false dichotomy between loving God and having wealth. The Bible warns against the love of money, not money itself. Abraham was fabulously wealthy, and he was the friend of God. The issue is not the possession of gold, but what possesses the heart. Eliphaz's counsel here is a form of works-righteousness. He is telling Job to perform a grand gesture of renunciation to prove his sincerity to God. But God is not impressed by such external displays; He looks at the heart.

25 Then the Almighty will be your gold And choice silver to you.

This is the payoff. If you devalue earthly treasure, then God Himself will become your true treasure. This is a profound spiritual truth, but in the mouth of Eliphaz, it is twisted. He presents it as the result of a transaction. You give up your gold, and you get God. But this is backwards. We do not empty our hands of idols in order to get God; rather, when God reveals Himself to us in His glory, the idols are exposed for the dust and rocks they truly are. The joy of the Lord becomes our strength, and He Himself becomes our portion and our prize. Eliphaz has the cart before the horse. He thinks a spiritual attitude can be generated by a physical act, when in reality, a true spiritual encounter with the living God is what reorients our entire value structure.

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

The results of this prescribed repentance continue. Job will once again "delight in the Almighty." The implication is that his current state of misery is a state of displeasure with God. To "lift up your face" is an idiom for confidence and clear conscience. It means to stand before God without shame. Eliphaz is promising Job the restoration of intimacy and joy in his relationship with God. And these are wonderful promises. But they are held out as a reward for following Eliphaz's flawed prescription. True delight in God is a gift of the Spirit, not a wage earned by our spiritual disciplines. It is the fruit of justification by faith alone, not the result of our successful efforts at self-purification.

27 You will entreat Him, and He will hear you; And you will pay your vows.

The promise of answered prayer is a key component of the prosperity message, both ancient and modern. Eliphaz assures Job that if he gets right with God, the lines of communication will be opened again. His prayers will be effective. Job has been complaining that God is silent, that his cries go unanswered. Eliphaz says, "Here is the key to fix that." And you will "pay your vows," meaning you will have the prosperity and success out of which to make good on your promises to God. It is a cycle of blessing: God hears you, He blesses you, and you give back to Him from the abundance He has provided. Again, this is not wrong in itself, but it is presented as a mechanical process that Job can initiate and control through his repentance.

28 You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; And light will shine on your ways.

This verse is a favorite of the modern "name it and claim it" crowd. The idea is that a righteous person gains a sort of creative power with their words. You "decree a thing," and it happens. This is a profound misunderstanding of our relationship to God's sovereignty. We do not command God. We ask, we seek, we knock. Our wills are to be submitted to His, not the other way around. The verse, in its context, is speaking of the confidence and effectiveness of a man whose life is aligned with God's will. His plans succeed because his plans are God's plans. Light shines on his ways because he is walking in the light. Eliphaz presents this as a power Job can reclaim, a tool he can wield. The Bible presents it as the fruit of a life lived in humble submission to the all-wise purposes of God.

29 When some are cast down, you will speak with confidence, And the humble person He will save.

The restored Job will not only be blessed himself, but he will become a source of blessing and encouragement to others. When he sees others in trouble ("cast down"), he will be able to speak a word of confident hope ("Lift them up!"). And because of his righteous standing, God will act to save the humble. Eliphaz is painting a picture of Job restored to his position as a patriarchal leader and a man of influence. He will have the moral authority and spiritual power to effect positive change in his community. This is an appeal to Job's sense of purpose and his desire to be a man who helps others, a role he clearly cherished before his calamities.

30 He will provide escape for one who is not innocent, And he will escape through the cleanness of your hands.”

This is the climax of Eliphaz's pitch. Job's righteousness will become so potent that it will have vicarious power. God will deliver even the guilty ("one who is not innocent") on account of Job's standing. "He will escape through the cleanness of your hands." Eliphaz is essentially promising Job the power of intercession. The supreme irony here is that Eliphaz is predicting the very thing that will happen at the end of the book, but with the roles completely reversed. It will be Job who intercedes for Eliphaz and his friends. God will tell them, "My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has" (Job 42:8). Eliphaz's theology is so wrong that he ends up prophesying his own condemnation and his own need for the very grace he is currently withholding from his suffering friend.

Application

The message of Eliphaz is alive and well. It is the native language of the natural man. It is the religion of "if you do your part, God will do His." It is a religion of formulas, transactions, and human control. It is a theology that cannot handle the cross. Why did Jesus, the only truly innocent one, suffer? Eliphaz has no category for that. His system would require him to accuse God Himself of injustice.

We must be ruthless in rooting this thinking out of our own hearts. God does not owe us prosperity because we are obedient. God owes us nothing but wrath. All blessing, both material and spiritual, is a gift of sheer, unadulterated grace, purchased by the blood of Christ. Our obedience is not the cause of God's blessing; it is the fruit of it. We do not return to God in order to be restored; we are restored by His sovereign grace in Christ, and therefore we return.

When we encounter suffering, either in our own lives or in the lives of others, our first instinct must not be to look for the formula, to find the secret sin, to assign blame. Our first instinct must be to look to Christ, who suffered for us, the righteous for the unrighteous. We must learn to sit in the ashes, to acknowledge the mystery of God's hard providences, and to trust that our Redeemer lives, even when everything around us seems dead. True wealth is not the absence of suffering, but the presence of God in the midst of it.