Read the Passage: Job 22-26

Listen to the Redeemed Mind Podcast: Job 22-26

Eliphaz’s Speech (22:1–23:17)

While each of the three cycles of debates recorded in Job 3–26 contain their own nuances and emphases, they are generally similar in content. In summary, Job’s friends connect his sufferings with his sins, while Job denies having committed any special, secret sin that would explain his condition. Job’s protestations seem to anger his friends, for their speeches become gradually more accusatory as their debate progresses. In Job 22, in his final speech, Eliphaz over-emphasizes God’s transcendence, as he implies that God is apathetic in regard to Job’s righteousness (cf. Job 22:3), and that God is not concerned with Job’s pleas (cf. Job 22:14). Furthermore, Eliphaz accuses Job of wickedness (cf. Job 22:5), bribery (cf. Job 22:6), inhospitality (cf. Job 22:7), and cruelty (cf. Job 22:9). This speech ends with Eliphaz exhorting Job to repent of his many sins (cf. Job. 22:19–30).

Unlike his previous replies to Eliphaz, Job’s response is not a rebuttal, but an expression of his desire for an audience with God. Job 23:1–7 details Job’s wish to meet with God, although Job realized that he could not contend with God. The fact that Job felt cut off from God, and unable to present his case, seems to have been more frustrating to Job than the false charges of his friends. Observe Job’s self-assurance, as he declares, “When God has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Despite his confidence in his own righteousness, it seems that Job was influenced by Eliphaz’s teachings about God being transcendent. In this passage Job declared, “But God is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever His soul desires, that he does” (Job 23:13). Job’s error here is not that he affirmed God’s sovereignty; rather, it is that Job did not trust that God was near to him (cf. Job 23:13–17).

Job’s Complaint (24:1–25)

Earlier, when Job responded to Zophar in chapter 21, he recognized and lamented the fact that sometimes the wicked prosper on the earth. This was in response to the overarching claim of his three companions that the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. Now, in chapter 24, Job again picks up this theme as he speaks about the seemingly unchecked oppression of the righteous by the wicked. Specific sins that Job mentions are: economic oppression (cf. Job 24:2–12), rebellion (cf. Job 24:13), murder (cf. Job 24:14), adultery (cf. Job 24:15), and stealing (cf. Job 24:16). Job refutes the arguments of his friends by observing that while these sins should be swiftly punished, they oftentimes are not (cf. Job 24:18–21). Finally, Job recognizes that it is God who allows the wicked to be blessed, but Job also says, “They are [only] exalted for a little while” (Job 24:24), and then the wicked are judged.

Bildad’s Speech (25:1–26:14)

Bildad’s speech to Job is the shortest, by far, of the eight speeches from Job’s friends that are recorded in Job 3–26. The reason for the brevity of this speech, as well as for the absence of a final speech from Zophar is not clear. In his first speech recorded in Job 8, Bildad showed empathy toward Job, as he argued from both history and nature, and even spoke about the joy of repentance. In Bildad’s second speech reported in Job 18, he was angry and sarcastic in tone. After these two speeches, as well as Job’s claims of his own innocence, it could be the case that Bildad simply had little else to say. Alternatively, it could also be true that Job’s arguments had caused Bildad to question his own beliefs. Whatever the case may be, here in Job 25 Bildad merely restated his earlier position in a general way, as he taught that God is sovereign and holy, and man is sinful and corrupt.

Chapter 26 contains Job’s response to Bildad’s general claims, as well as to all of his friends’ previous speeches. Job 26:1–4 contains six rhetorical questions in which Job essentially told his friend that they were all miserable counselors. Indeed, rather than speaking with Job, they had spoken at Job, and they failed to listen to his perspective. Next, as he had done in parts of several of his earlier speeches, Job again emphasizes God’s sovereignty (cf. Job 26:5–14). In this passage Job speaks about God’s creation of everything, as he refers to heaven and hell, stars and space, water and clouds, sky and sea, as well as night and day. These citations are somewhat ironic, for later in Job 38–41, in His interrogation of Job, God repeatedly refers to His creation and superintendence of the natural world. Indeed, God reveals Himself through the created order (cf. Ps. 19).

Application Questions:

1. How can we balance Bible verses that teach about God’s imminence (cf. Ps. 145:18) with verses that speak of God’s transcendence (cf. Isa. 55:8–9)?
2. Why did Job’s belief in God’s sovereignty make him terrified and afraid of God (cf. Job 23:15)?
3. How does God usually judge sin: immediately or eventually (cf. Prov. 1:31; 5:22; 22:8; Gal. 6:7–10)?
4. When we realize that our own position on a given topic is incorrect or incomplete, how should we react?
5. How much knowledge of God is accessible to the lost world through the created order (cf. Rom. 1:18–23)?