Job 22:19 Commentary and Bible Study

In general terms all that Eliphaz says in these verses is true. The righteous see that ‘wicked men are cut down out of time’ (22:16) and are glad. It is a trial to the righteous that God bears so long with the wicked and allows the foundations of the world to appear to go so far out of kilter. Not for their own sakes only, but for the truth’s sake and for the Lord’s glory, they long to see truth established and the licence that has been given to evil men to do their evil deeds brought to a close. ‘If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ (Psalm 11:3). When therefore God does finally act, the righteous see it as a token that he has not forgotten his cause, that the reason he delayed was not out of indifference or inability to act, but accords with his own wisdom. How much the righteous had to suffer at the mouth and hands of the wicked, and now it has come to an end. A stronger hand than their own has intervened on their behalf; they may look with confidence to the Lord though they do not understand his delays.The innocent laugh at the proud and arrogant man. Though they may have had to live under his oppressive influence and though he has gloated about his power over them, yet by faith, they laugh. They laugh even before he is cut down because they know that, for all his triumphant language, his time is coming to an end and when the end comes, it will be so disastrous for him that all thought of recovery will be abandoned. As they watch the wicked in his period of ascendency, they do not envy him but shrink away from him because the possibility of being in his position is so abhorrent to them. Faith sees that his triumph cannot last but is joined to his downfall by an unbreakable bond. The righteous, as usual, see things from the point of view of eternity and not with short-term eyes. They can wait for their good things to come in God’s good time because they trust his wisdom.Nevertheless when the time comes, it is a period of particular rejoicing to them. Faith has its joys, but sight has its greater joys. Sight is the vindication of faith. ‘Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.’ Sight rejoices with God about the righteousness and triumph of faith which precedes it. Sight says of faith, it was as good as sight. It saw through the darkness with keen gaze, when all it had to go on was the word of God. All it had to go on? What could be more certain? Yet faith cost effort and many do not exercise faith in the darkness. Faith is the wise choice of those who could not penetrate the darkness with sight. But now that sight has come, faith is not redundant; it continues to be there even when sight can see for itself, for sight can never see everything, and even when sight is not staring at what seems to contradict the goodness of God, faith continues to be sure that what sight cannot see all at once will be seen in the future: the goodness of the eternal God.After they are passed away, to the righteous it will seem only a brief period that they had to endure the oppression of the wicked. Fire consumes their remnant. Nevertheless Eliphaz is mistaken in thinking that all this is sure to take place in this life as if we live to see the resolution of all matters of justice. He has not taken account of what Job has referred to: that most of the wicked pass into the next world without ever being made to give an account for what they do.