Job 22 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study
Job 22 Short Summary:
Eliphaz starts tossing around specific accusations in Job 22, accusing Job of stealing from the poor, extortion, and a number of other sins. He provides no evidence for his accusations, rather they seem to be based in his own presuppositions about Job. He once again calls Job to repent and to get his life right with God.
Job 22 Bible Study
SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB
Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan
Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution
Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.
Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost
WHEN:
The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).
I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.
KEY CHARACTERS:
Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.
Eliphaz – Job’s friend who insisted he was being punished for sin. Eliphaz was previously the main speaker in Job 4 and Job 15.
WHERE:
Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.
OUTLINE:
ELIPHAZ GOES ON THE ATTACK (22:1-30):
Eliphaz scoffed at the idea that Job was righteous. He seemed to accuse Job of arrogance in making too much of his righteousness.
He asked Job rhetorically, “Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities” (22:4).
Then Eliphaz listed a number of sins he thought Job was guilty of. He seems to have conjured this list out of his mind, without any real evidence that Job had participated in these evil actions. Perhaps these were the negative assumptions he held in his heart about Job that finally bubbled up and spewed out in his speech.
He accused Job of extorting people, stealing from the poor, withholding water to the thirsty, depriving the hungry of food, banishing widows, and crushing orphans.
Eliphaz mischaracterized Job and accused him of blasphemy when he said that Job thought God was so high up in heaven that He couldn’t judge the world fairly because He was unable to see through the clouds (22:13-14).
He warned Job that those who mocked God’s oversight of the world quickly had their foundations washed out from under them.
He advised Job to accept that God’s judgement was always fair, and God was giving him what he deserved.
“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you” (22:21).
He told Job his prayers would only be answered when he got his life right with the Almighty.
APPLICATION
Be careful what assumptions you allow your mind to believe about people.
The human heart is quick to judge other people, assume their motives, and harbor suspicions about them.
Eliphaz’s suspicions about Job came spewing out of his mouth when the discussion got heated, but Eliphaz looked the fool because all of his suspicions were wrong.
His critical spirit had him bad mouthing and accusing a righteous man.
A mind that views other through a hostile and critical lens is not the mind of Christ.
Several Bible passages teach us to treat and think of others with honor and respect, to do so, we must keep our mind’s eye from viewing everyone in the worst light.
Romans 12:10 – “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
Philippians 2:3 – “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
