Job 22:27 Commentary and Bible Study

Eliphaz believes that God answers prayer. He is convinced that right relations between Job and his God will be restored if Job will accept Eliphaz’ diagnosis of his condition. This amounts to what he considers the normal interaction between a believer and his God: the believer prays, the Lord hears and answers, and the believer maintains integrity towards God in doing the things he has said he is going to do. Eliphaz was well aware that this was not Job’s present experience. Job was continually crying out to God and receiving no answer. He received no explanation for his trial – although Eliphaz thought the explanation was obvious – and he received no answer to his request for its remove. Nor, in Eliphaz view, was he currently living a life of obedience in which he honoured the pledges he made to God. Eliphaz refused to budge from this analysis of Job’s sufferings.If Job repents, says Eliphaz, he will no longer find his purposes and plans constantly being frustrated by contrary providences. He will make all his plans in the light of his understanding of the will of God, and because he seeks the Lord’s guidance over every major decision in life and aligns his will with God’s will, the Lord will be pleased to give him the joy of success and the fulfilment of even his human purposes. Job’s way would be established rather than being constantly impeded by unexpected obstacles. This would fill his whole life with a sense of God’s approval and blessing on him and he will no longer question whether God was really for him or against him. Is this an accurate description of the life of the righteous? Surely they must still face setbacks and oppositions of the devil, and certainly the Apostle Paul knew what it was to be obstructed (Romans 1:10; 15:22). Even in the age when God blessed in an external way, the patriarchs faced many trials in their lives and not this earthly utopia that Eliphaz outlines.