April 24th: Job 22 & Hebrews 12:1-17

Alastair Roberts

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April 24th: Job 22 & Hebrews 12:1-17

April 24, 2021

Alastair Roberts

Eliphaz's indictment of Job. The discipline of sons.

Reflections upon the readings from the ACNA Book of Common Prayer (http://bcp2019.anglicanchurch.net/). My reflections are searchable by Bible chapter here: https://audio.alastairadversaria.com/explore/.

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Transcript

Job 22. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right? Or is it gain to Him if you make your ways blameless? Is it for your fear of Him that He reproves you and enters into judgment with you? Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.

For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing. You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. The man with power possessed the land, and the favoured man lived in it.

You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed. Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you, or darkness so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you. Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are! But you say, What does God know? Can He judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds veil Him so that He does not see, and He walks on the vault of heaven.

Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod? They were snatched away before their time, their foundation was washed away. They said to God, Depart from us! And what can the Almighty do to us? Yet He filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. The righteous see it, and are glad.

The innocent one mocks at them, saying, Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed. Agree with God and be at peace, therefore good will come to you. Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.

If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up. If you remove injustice, you will be in the dust. If you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophia among the stones of the torrent bed, then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.

For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, and He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. Decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.

For when they are humbled, you say, It is because of pride. But He saves the lowly. He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.

Job chapter 22 is the start of the third and final cycle of dialogues. Once again, it is Eliphaz who opens it. Eliphaz had opened his first speech to Job in chapter 4 quite gently.

His fundamental message had been that mortal man could not be pure in the sight of a holy God. In the face of God's transcendent holiness, all of man's faults would be seen, and man therefore had no standing to claim to be in the right before God. Eliphaz's third speech divides into three sections, verses 2-11, verses 12-20 and verses 21-30.

This time, in contrast to his first speech, Eliphaz takes a very aggressive approach. He will accuse Job of most serious sin. Verses 2-11 present a list of charges, matters in which Eliphaz suggests that Job has sinned.

Verses 12-20 present Job as having taken the way of the wicked, having aligned himself with the wicked. And the rest of the chapter presents a call to repent, which could be read in different ways. Perhaps Eliphaz thinks that Job might be receptive, or perhaps the call to repentance is designed to highlight Job's impenitence by contrast.

The opening verse of Eliphaz's speech raises some questions for translation. John Hartley translates it as follows. Norman Harville translates it as His justice is beyond question, and there is no way that Job can reign him.

David Clines presents a third possible translation. This would be making a similar point, but from a different perspective. God can't be put in anyone's debt.

God doesn't need anyone. He neither gains nor loses from the conduct of someone such as Job. The SV is an example of yet another reading.

Of the second half of the verse, Again, the fundamental point of the verse is similar, but the second half of the verse will be designed to show the true purpose of wisdom. The person is not wise because God needs them to be wise, or because that wisdom brings any benefit to God himself. No, the person is wise for their own sake and benefit.

Verses 3 and 4 develop the point of verse 2. God is impartial. He is also transcendent. He does not have a vested interest in this situation.

He is neither threatened by it, nor is he benefited by it. The implicit logic of Eliphaz's argument seems to be that since God does not have such an interest, he is not benefited by Job's actions, and he is not threatened by them. What has befallen Job clearly has not risen out of some private purpose on God's part, as if God, to get something out of one of his creatures, had to shake him down.

Nor, of course, is God unjust. And so, the only logical conclusion is that Job is suffering as a result of his sins. There is an irony in Eliphaz's argument here, of course, as the opening chapters of Job indicate that God does in fact have a vested interest in Job's righteousness.

Eliphaz, who had started his first case against Job hesitantly, now breaks forth into the most scathing condemnation of Job of all. Job, he insists, is guilty of immense sin. In particular, Eliphaz accuses Job of a series of acts of injustice.

Job, we must remember, was the greatest of the men of the East. He was a king or chief among his people, responsible for administering justice. To Eliphaz's mind, there can only be one explanation for what has happened to Job.

He must have been guilty of the most egregious oppression. These charges, of course, are nothing but falsehood. Job, in chapter 29, describes the way that he had been the one who had delivered people who were oppressed.

And in chapter 31, he gives a list of different sins that he might have committed, sins for which he might have been deserving of such judgment, and denies that he is guilty of any one of them. Eliphaz had described the doom of the wicked in chapter 15, verses 20 to 21. The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

Dreadful sounds are in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. Job, he argues, is such a wicked person, and as a result, this is why he experiences all these snares and terrors around him.

This is why he has been engulfed and overwhelmed with his troubles. He accuses Job, in the second part of his speech, of a sort of practical atheism. God is the most high God.

He is above all things. He is in the heavens. And he is ignorant of affairs on earth.

They are not occurring within his sight. Veiled in the darkness, he cannot see and he cannot judge. He is distant and detached.

Presuming Job to hold this theology, Eliphaz accuses him of going with the path of the wicked, a well-worn evil path that has been there since the beginning. Such men thought themselves immune to God's justice, even as God was mercifully allowing them to prosper for a time. Yet such men, in their misplaced confidence, are snatched away before their time, as in a flash flood they are swept away.

When this happens, the righteous rejoice over them, seeing the Lord's justice in action. The reference to the fire in verse 20 might again be intended to allude back to the fire of God that fell upon Job's servants and his sheep back in chapter 1. Eliphaz concludes his speech by presenting Job with the way of repentance and what will follow if he agrees with God, submitting himself under the Lord's punishment, he might hope for some sort of restoration. Judgment received in such a manner would be instructive and for Job's bettering.

To return to the Lord, he needs to eschew the injustice that he has been engaged in. He has clearly been gathering gold by wickedness and oppression, and so he needs to return the gold to its source, back to the dust in the bed of the river. Releasing his grip on this gold and turning to the Lord as his true wealth will be the way that he can be restored.

Gold has obviously taken over Job's heart and he must release his grip on it. If it is going to release its grip on him, then he can finally be restored. Verses 26-29 are a portrait of the man who has been restored in fellowship with God.

He delights in the Lord, he has fellowship with the Lord in prayer, his path will be established and he will agree with the Lord in his judgments. In his righteousness in this situation, Job will even be able to deliver others who are not righteous. Through his intercession for them, they may be delivered too.

Of course, the irony here is that at the end of the book, Job will have to intercede for Eliphaz and the other friends. A question to consider, while the reader of Job knows that Eliphaz is wrong, it might be worth reflecting upon how he is wrong. In what ways does Eliphaz here express a false view of God? What is he missing? Hebrews 12 verses 1-17 Hebrews 12 verses 1-17 Hebrews 12 verses 1-17 Hebrews 12 verses 1-17 Hebrews 12 verses 1-17 Following the great list of the forerunners in the faith in chapter 11, chapter 12 points us to the one in whom the entire story of faith reaches its climax, Jesus Christ, the pioneer and the perfecter of faith.

He does not just run the way of faith himself, he also trailblazes the way to its heavenly destination. He is both our example and our deliverer. He both leads the way and clears the way.

He opens our way to approach God here and now, but is also the high priest who establishes our final and complete access to God's presence. The way of faithfulness is most perfectly exemplified in him, but he is also the one to whom our faith looks as its object. Without the salvation of Christ, faith would be in vain.

The promise and the deliverance to which it looks would not be realized. In this respect, Christ is both like and unlike those who live by faith. He faithfully obeys and perseveres through suffering, but while his people must depend upon his work by faith to have a way to God, he is the one who creates this way for them, as the faithful son.

He does not need this way himself, rather he takes flesh and suffers, so that he might furnish a way for others. The author of Hebrews paints a picture for his hearers of a race before a vast audience, but not just of mere spectators. This is like a relay race of faith, with each generation passing on the baton to the generation succeeding them.

We saw this relay race in the preceding chapter, where generation after generation the people of faith passed on the torch of faith to those after them. Now these persons who have completed their leg of the uncompleted race are watching us run ours. They exemplify what faithfulness looks like.

And we look forward to Jesus, who has blazed the trail ahead of everyone to the finish line. He has brought the entire race of faith to its glorious completion. In him we see an example of faithfulness in extreme suffering, and an example of one who overcame through suffering.

He endured the shame of the cross, a death that was ignominious and humiliating, but also a death in which he bore the shame of mankind, the sin by which man lacks integrity and is cut off from God's face. He entered into our condition and bore our condition, and he did so for the joy that was set before him. The shame of the cross is set over against the joy that is awaited beyond it.

And here we have a similar contrast to that which is drawn in 2 Corinthians 4, 17-18. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory, beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Christ is the one who can look beyond the shame of his death. He can look beyond and see the power and the promises of God, and as a result can persevere through suffering. In this respect, he is the example to all who would follow.

The author of Hebrews wants his hearers to consider the example of Christ, lest they become weary and faint-hearted. Compared to the sufferings of Christ, their sufferings have been relatively minor. They've not yet had to shed their blood.

They've not experienced the same degree of shame or of hostility from others. In chapter 4, verse 15, he had written, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. The author of Hebrews does not think of temptation as all the little sins that might tempt us on the way.

Rather, he sees it as the more fundamental temptation of turning back or turning aside from the path that God has set before us. In this respect, Christ is our great example to follow. He has faced the full onslaught of the devil's temptation to turn back or to turn aside and persevered through suffering and difficulty and tribulation the like of which we will never experience in order to obtain the glory and the joy that was set before him by the Father.

He quotes from Proverbs 3, verses 11-12, a passage about fatherly instruction. Christ learned obedience through what he suffered. Hebrews 5, verses 7-8, In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Christ's heavenly exaltation came through the path of earthly obedience. As human beings, we grow in strength and character through suffering.

Our mettle is tested and proved in such times. Christ is the Son who directs our attention to the Father and he is the model and pattern of our obedience. He learned obedience through his suffering.

This is a model of sonship and the model that we must follow ourselves. Sonship is learned through suffering. We could think of the example of Job, for instance.

It is precisely on account of God's special regard for Job, his servant, that he is subject to the sort of suffering that he experiences. Suffering is a mark of legitimacy. The suffering in view is not merely or even primarily punitive.

It can be punitive on occasions, but much of the time, and primarily, it is for the purpose of growth through testing. In Romans 8, verses 13-19, we have a similar point. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us, for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. God forms us in the character of sonship through suffering. Rather than drawing back from suffering, then, suffering should be welcomed as a sign and proof of sonship, a sign of God's fatherly concern for our well-being and growth in character.

We submitted to earthly fathers. How much more to our heavenly father? If we trusted our earthly fathers to develop character in us by following their instructions, how much more the instructions of God? Discipline has a purpose, and its value is seen in its fruit, in the character that it produces in those who have been trained by it. Suffering is educative throughout Scripture, so that people might mature through testing.

This consideration should spur us to redoubled efforts. What undermines people is not suffering so much as meaningless suffering. When we truly grasp the end and purpose of our suffering, it ceases to undermine us and actually can spur us to growth.

We can think of the hand from which we are receiving suffering. The story of Job shows that it is not ultimately Satan who brings suffering to Job, but God. God has a purpose in the suffering that Job experiences.

He wants Job to grow through the experience of suffering, so that he might enter into a fuller experience of what it means to be a son of God. If we know and trust God as our heavenly father, we will receive suffering from his hand, knowing that whatever purpose he has in it, it is a good one. We have a birthright as sons and daughters of God, and we must not squander it.

Peace and holiness are essential. Indeed, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. We are charged to undertake a collective pursuit here.

We are striving for peace and holiness together. It's one of the reasons why meeting together is so imperative. We must look out for each other, ensuring that no one falls short.

And the author of Hebrews alludes to the covenant warning of Deuteronomy 29, verses 14-20 here. It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today. You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed.

And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself and his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.

This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. Esau is put forward as a particular example of such a person who fell short and squandered his birthright and blessing.

Esau is a negative example, in contrast to the positive examples of the preceding chapter. The danger of such persons is that they will infect others, that their pattern of unbelief and unfaithfulness will be taken up by others. Esau is described as sexually immoral and unholy.

There is debate in the commentators about whether that term should be translated as sexually immoral. However, it seems appropriate to the story of Esau. Esau was a man who squandered the great blessings that he had received.

He gave up the invaluable gift of the birthright of the covenant, of being the one who would carry on the legacy of Isaac for just a small meal. He devalued these things out of his sexual desire, marrying Canaanite women when he should have been faithful to the covenant. His desires were entirely for this world and what is seen.

He could not live in terms of the unseen, and his final end was tragic, and as a result, cautionary. He could not undo what he had done in selling the birthright and losing his blessing. He had set his course by his behaviour.

He may have mourned his loss, but he never seemed to truly repent of his sin. There is a real danger of apostasy, and the author of Hebrews is concerned to drive this home to his readers and hearers. Do not throw away what you have received.

Learn from the positive example of the people of faith, and learn also from the cautionary example of people like Esau.