24:1-25
Why does the Almighty not set times for judgement? v1 NIV
We long for injustice to be punished. We long for those who do terrible things to be stopped and brought low before God. But that is not how He works. We cry out in our suffering and we think God doesn’t care. That He isn’t helping us.
Then we suffer really bad times and it seems that God is singling us out for punishment. And it doesn’t feel fair. Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked thrive?
Job asks these questions. Just as we do. It is the age old cry of the suffering believer.
Job answers that God does judge, but in his own time. Job recognises that, but he wishes God would do it soon so he could know the comfort of vindication, because if God judges the evil he will be shown to be righteous. With friends such as his, who offer judgement and condemnation, I don’t blame him for desperately longing for vindication so the terrible judgements of his friends will stop.
It is hard to maintain faith in God’s promises when enduring terrible suffering. In that circumstance we need people who will walk with us and encourage us, not like Job’s friends who increased his suffering, but those who will listen, care and not judge.
What sort of friend are you?
 

Job 23:1-17
Job replies to Eliphaz. He is despairing. His friends are accusing him of being evil and he knows he is not. This increases his sense of injustice. He feels God’s hand is heavy on him. He is desperate to find God and plead his case and argue with God. He is confident God will not condemn him. He cannot find God but he knows God is aware of where he is. He knows God will test him and he will pass the test. He has followed God as closely as he can and not turned away to follow earthly temptations. He has read the words of God and treasured them above all else. God is great and unique. He is above all others. Job fears God and considers Him so great He is above all human control and does what He pleases, not what human will demands. Note that Job’s friends see God as someone predictable and perceive Him as having less power than He has.
In many ways Job is describing himself as the one in Psalm 1 who is blessed to not walk the way of the sinners but delights in the law of God and meditates on it day and night. That man is like a tree planted by streams of water. He will stand at the judgement and God watches over him. So Job cannot understand why he is not being treated like the blessed man, although he will find God and argue his case and stand as a righteous man in judgement. This psalm is echoed in the beginning verses of Psalm 119, except the writer of Psalm 119 is aware of his weakness and difficulty in following God’s law as well as he might and begs God to not forsake him. Job is not there yet and I wonder if he would be more humble before God if his friends were more supportive. It is as if he has been forced into the position of claiming his innocence and demanding God vindicate him because of the harsh judgements of his friends. It is a timely warning to us to be careful how we support those who need our help. Do we sit with them and listen and allow them to find their way to God or do we judge them harshly and push them into a corner where they demand God gives them justice? Do we treat ourselves with compassion and allow ourselves space to be honest before God or do our own harsh self-judgements push us into demanding God’s justice for us?
 

22:21-30
Taken at face value, this section of Eliphaz’s speech gives sound advice. He tells Job to submit to God, to be instructed by God and ‘lay God’s words on his heart’. He adds that Job must forsake wickedness and return to God, then seek to delight more in God than in earthly possessions. Then Job must pray to God, not just about himself but in intercession for others. Then Eliphaz tells him he will find the joy of God again.
This is a great call to repentance in one who has wandered from faith, but Job has not done this. Eliphaz is assuming that Job is a sinner who needs repentance. He assumes this because he believes bad things happen to sinners and the good are always blessed. Applying his beliefs to what has happened to Job, he can see the evidence that Job is a very wicked man. I have spoken of this dangerous belief before in this series and of the terrible harm such beliefs do to those who are suffering so I will not elaborate here.
Another point of concern is Eliphaz’s assertion that all you have to do to be prosperous is to submit to God and be at peace with Him. This dangerous belief is shared by many Christians today. It is a terribly harmful belief. It excludes the ‘have nots’ from God’s message, and sets people, particularly those who are new to faith, up for failure.
Some years ago a fellow follower of Jesus went to a function and was regaled with stories about another woman’s hard life. The woman then told her that God loved her and her life would be great if she just gave her life to Jesus. Apart from the fact this woman, like Eliphaz, made an assumption about my fellow follower’s faith, she spoke hypocritically. As the fellow follower said, she complained about her miserable life but then told the fellow follower all she had to do was accept God and life would be easy! If she didn’t already follow Jesus what would she have thought at this woman’s contradictory statements? This woman was a terrible witness and one who had a poor understanding of God. Perhaps she is a good example of what Eliphaz would have been like?
My last point here is that Eliphaz, like the woman at the function, failed to consider the truth, that Job wanted, actually yearned, for God and was distressed because he felt cut off from Him.
When you are the one sitting with a distressed friend, never assume. Listen. Never judge. Listen and suspend judgement. Forget doctrine, take things as an opportunity to get to know God better as you journey lovingly with your distressed friend.
 

22:12-20
Eliphaz continues to speak to Job. He chastises Job at what he sees as Job denying God’s greatness. Surely, he asks Job, you agree that God is in charge? The proof can be seen in the stars in the sky. He accuses Job of saying God doesn’t know anything and follows Bildad and Zophar in saying Job is evil and that is why he is suffering, or in their eyes, being punished. Yet persistently in his speeches Job has acknowledged God is in control. His complaint is that he cannot hear God or feel Him near and he longs to be in contact with God once again.
Eliphaz challenges Job to stop doing evil and accuses Job of thinking God cannot touch him. An extraordinary thing to say when Job has been speaking of how God is punishing him. If he considers God is punishing him then he obviously does know God can touch him. Of course neither Eliphaz nor Job understand the full nature of suffering. That it is not always about being punished.
Eliphaz also accused Job of not acknowledging the blessings God has given him in his life, which is bizarre given Job’s faithfulness in acknowledging the blessings God had given him. At no time in this book has Job cursed God or failed to acknowledge all that God has given him. He has begged God to vindicate him, but he has also acknowledged he does not expect that to happen in his lifetime. He is guilty of interpreting his suffering as due to God, which is behind his argument to God to allow him to plead his case and his belief he is being unfairly punished. In all this Job’s desire has not been for wealth and other ‘blessings’ but for contact with God.
Eliphaz concludes this section by saying that the righteous (that is, Eliphaz, and the other friends) celebrate that he, an evil man, is destroyed and his wealth has gone. Not a nice thing to say to someone in Job’s circumstances. ‘We your friends have come to tell you how happy we are at your suffering as we see it as punishment for your evil deeds. We are not interested in comforting you.’
The sad thing is that God is more interested in comforting us than punishing us. He will discipline us, but He will always love us. Comforting is about love. Rejoicing at another’s misfortune is about hatred and hatred is not of God.