Job 22:15 Commentary and Bible Study

Have you, Job, considered the history of wickedness and the outcome to which it leads. Have you thought about those who were removed from the earth and how their evils ways caught up with them? They thought they could ignore their consciences and pursue their lusts and that nobody would call them to account: ‘We are on our own and no Judge can catch up with us.’ Most understand Eliphaz to be referring to the flood which removed all but eight souls from the earth. This intervention of God was a lesson to all subsequent generations. They were not allowed to reach the natural end of their lives, but God unusually acted to make an example of them and to restrain all following generations so that the world would not hurry to corruption quite as fast as it would otherwise. You say that God does not act against the wicked but that they go to their graves unmolested; that is not true. ‘Here, Job, is an historic example of how God punishes a whole generation with fearful and supernatural judgment right now.’ Eliphaz was right to argue that God at times intervenes and by doing so shows his hatred of human violence and corruption, but he was wrong to see the flood as an example of how God acts in every generation. The flood was exceptional. It certainly shows how the world will end and it is a warning to all, but it doesn’t disprove Job’s point that a great number of wicked persons come to the end of their lives undisturbed and unchecked in their course. It was enough for God to show once by the flood what his feelings are towards human sin without repeating it constantly. Men and women are expected to look back and learn from this event.