Commentary and reflection:
It really makes you want to say “Amen!” to what Elifaz is saying by the end of chapter 22. I wonder how many times we have repeated the same words as correct.
21 “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace;
Thereby good will come to you.
22 Receive, please, instruction from His mouth,
And lay up His words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up;
You will remove iniquity far from your tents.
24 Then you will lay your gold in the dust,
And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
25 Yes, the Almighty will be your gold
And your precious silver;
26 For then you will have your delight in the Almighty,
And lift up your face to God.
27 You will make your prayer to Him,
He will hear you,
And you will pay your vows.
28 You will also declare a thing,
And it will be established for you;
So light will shine on your ways.
29 When they cast you down, and you say, ‘Exaltation will come!’
Then He will save the humble person.
30 He will even deliver one who is not innocent;
Yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands. Job 22:21-30
Basically, he is saying, “the wicked and disobedient fare badly and the righteous fare well”. (The prosperity gospel is older than we think). This is a fallacy; it is a deception by the adversary. It will certainly be true at the end when everything in the world will be in order. It would be true here and now if the world was sinless and perfect; but we live in a world where things are out of place because of sin. Truth is, we are all subject to disease and death.
It turns out that one of the great lessons of the book of Job is that life is not so simple, or as it appears to be. That God has a purpose beyond our current situation, beyond what we can see or perceive.
Isaiah is referring to this misperception when he says,
3 He is despised and ]rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we [i]esteemed Him stricken,
[j]Smitten by God, and afflicted. Isaiah 53:4,5
In other words, Jesus did not suffer because of what we thought, God had a purpose beyond what we saw or understood. It is worth taking not of how he reacted,
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth. Isaiah 53:7
Speaking of Jesus, the apostle Paul also says,
7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 5:7-10
In conclusion,
12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12,13
May God give us wisdom, may we learn to trust Him in difficult times, this is my prayer.
May God grant you a very blessed day.
Pastor Abel Paulin
