Job 22 - The Benefits of Getting Right With God

The Benefits of Getting Right with God

We are back to Eliphaz today. He is speaking up and it is intense to say the least. This not so comforting friend is now slamming Job with accusations. Friends, this is not pretty at all. How did Eliphaz even know if Job had actually done the things he was accusing him of in this chapter? Was he just making assumptions? Why was this guy even sticking around if he was going to be so cruel to his longtime friend? Let’s pray and seek God for what He wants to say to us in this chapter…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for every word in the Bible that gives us meaning and direction for our lives – not only for times past, but for right now. Show us what we need to see in this today Lord, and open our hearts to receive exactly what You know we need to hear. Father, we purpose to be hearers and doers of Your word. We exalt You and give You all the glory, all the honor and all the praise as You teach us – your children. Speak to me and through me and give me the utterance for what You have to say in this study. I thank You in advance for the changes You want to make in our lives in Jesus name! Amen.

Eliphaz starts off with a profound question. He asks if any man, even the wisest among us could truly be any benefit to God. He asks if any good living on a man’s part would benefit God. That in itself is a great question. Is there a man that has ever lived who can be a profit to the Almighty, perfect and pure Creator of the heavens and the earth; of all that is seen and unseen? The answer to that question is simple – No! Since all mankind has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, none are of benefit to Him in their fallen state. That is, without Jesus. So how can a man be of any use to the Lord? There is only one way that people can be a benefit and be used by God in this life. It all starts at the cross when a humble man or woman asks the Lord Jesus to be their Savior.

The good news is, once that has happened, then yes, we can be of benefit to God. He can use us mightily once we have repented of our sins and turned away from wickedness. We must get right with God before anything good can happen. Eliphaz goes into a barrage of accusations, calling Job everything but a byword, and then he calls him to repent and turn to God. He has assumed Job has done all kinds of wicked things and tells him to turn to the Lord. 

Let’s forget about Job personally for a minute and look at what is said especially in verses 21-30. As Eliphaz calls Job to repent, he says a lot of things that would make sense for any of us to hear. I believe these words are in here because they are truths that can set people free. God didn’t put anything in His word that did not carry a plan and a purpose to be of assistance to His children right now in 2016. As we mentioned earlier, nobody can be of use to the Lord when they walk in their old wicked ways. And God sees everything. There is no ‘dark cloud’ as Eliphaz mentioned that can hide our transgressions from HIm. No one can hide their sins from the eyes of the Almighty God. He is everywhere present…

Psalm 139:7-12

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

There is truly only one way to be close to God. We live in the New Testament days when we know that God sent His one and only Son Jesus, the Christ to save us from our sins…

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Many today try to claim that there are ‘many paths’ that lead to God. Friends, that is not true. Look at the Bible. Start reading in Matthew and all throughout the New Testament and anyone can plainly see that Jesus Christ is both Savior and Lord, sent by God to reconcile us to Him. There is no other way. Let’s look at what happens when a person truly turns their life over to the Lord. You will find this to be quite good news I’m sure.

Job 22:21

“Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.

How is that for a promise? When we go to God – through Jesus, the Prince of peace, we will have peace. And who doesn’t want peace these days, especially in these challenging moments in history? Here is what Jesus said about giving us His peace… 

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

With all the wars and rumors of wars going on around us, with a crumbling economy and corrupt leadership around the globe, with churches falling by the wayside because of poor leadership and such troubling times, how can a person really maintain peace in their heart? Friends, it is only by the grace of God through His Son Jesus Christ. He came to earth to leave us His peace. He lives in us and has given it to us. Many Christians are fretting terribly and troubled beyond description at what they see going on. But saints, this should not be so. Jesus didn’t make a suggestion about being at peace. He said, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

This was a command. And He would not tell us to do something that would be impossible for us to achieve – that would not be fair and the Lord is 100% fair 100% of the time. Now let’s look at the second part of the sentence in Job 22:21. He said that being acquainted with God would bring peace and thereby good would come to us. Yes, Eliphaz was talking to Job in this chapter, but in that God is speaking to you and me today. No matter what the issue was with Eliphaz as he hammered his friend with accusations, God used his mouth to speak some truth that Job actually needed to hear. And so do we. There is truth in these verses that can set us all free – hallelujah!

Next, in verse 22…

Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.

If we listen to this, we are heeding the best advice ever given and it is really coming from the mouth of God – so it has to be good. If we listen to what God says and store up His words in our heart, we will benefit. Let’s look at the book of Proverbs that says a lot about this very thing…

Proverbs 7:1-3

My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

The Lord has made it abundantly clear in the Bible that we are to focus on His word. We should read it out loud so we can hear it which causes faith in that word to come. We need to see it, hear it and hold it as a treasure in our hearts at all times. By doing that we will live right, think right and do right. Conversely let’s look at what happens when we don’t heed this advice… 

Proverbs 13:13

He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.

There is great reward in keeping God’s word – but for those who do not want it, there is destruction. That is so SADD-U-CEE! The next point of advice that Eliphaz gave was to return to the Almighty – our focus for the day…

Verse 23…

If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from your tents.

God’s word is food. I say it is like a very tasty sandwich with three layers. If we will do this or that…. then the Lord will do this or that…and we will have this or that…We do what He says (our part – the first layer of the sandwich) then He does His part (the meat in the middle of the sandwich) and then we get the blessing (the bottom layer that holds it all together) – hallelujah! If we are away from God, we can return and get built up. We have to remove iniquity (sin) from our lives. In other words, stop doing the wrong things by choice and start doing the right things. When we do that the Lord will build us up.

When I came to the Lord that day in October of 2005, I fell to my knees and said only these words as my prayer to Him, “Oh God, I’m a mess, will You fix me.” That was all the prayer the Lord needed to hear. From that time on He would begin the process of building me up into a brand new creation that would not look anything like the person I had been preceding that day. Glory to His name forever! He has been building me up in my walk with Him ever since! But I had to make a choice, and still do, each and every day to live right according to His word. And how would I know what His word says unless I read it – a lot? I wouldn’t it.

Many Christians today rarely open their Bible. They don’t mind listening to a preacher, or even many preachers on TV, but they just don’t want to open up the Bible for themselves to see what God wants to show them each day. And by not looking into His word and treasuring it in our hearts, we are depriving ourselves of the rich blessing of an abundant life that He has for each of us. Let’s look at verse 24-25 now…

Then you will lay your gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver;

Friends, when we turn to the Lord and make Him our number one heart’s desire, we will throw down every other thing in our life as meaningless compared to Him. If it is gold, we will throw it down from our heart. If it is alcohol, drugs, food, pornography, shopping, hobbies, whatever has been our “god” or idol, we will toss it to the dogs and pick up the greatest treasure there ever was – Jesus! The Father God is so loving and wonderful and He is able to fulfill us on the inside like nothing else ever could. Jesus, our best Friend forever, our Savior and Master is the best company we can ever be with. In Him is everything.

That’s why His name “I Am” is so important to understand. It means He is everything to us and for us. When we delight ourselves in Him, things and people and bills or money, family, just any concern we may have will melt away in His presence.

When we let go of what has bound our hearts, the Lord becomes to us more precious than silver or gold or any other thing. When He becomes ‘our everything’, truly in our hearts, we will have that peace in full operation. We will not let our hearts be troubled no matter what is whirling around us. These are the good things that will come to us, and so much more. What does the next promise say in verse 26…

For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God.

Once we have made the Lord our delight we will be able to approach Him without shame or guilt. We will be able to look Him in His wonderful eyes of love without holding back. When people are walking around in sin, their hearts are condemning them and they know they are guilty of wrong so they do not want to look anyone in the eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul and much can be seen in them without ever speaking a word. But when we set those sins aside and give our hearts fully to the Lord and repent of all our sins, we can approach Him with confidence…

1 John 3:16-23

 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

Now look at verse 27…

You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows.

When we can go to the Lord with confidence and clean hands, He will hear us. But if we try to ask for things from Him when we are sinning, we best think again. God will not bless disobedience. We want the Lord to hear our prayers, don’t we? But though He knows what we are praying, those prayers won’t get answered if we are carrying sin in our life and not being willing to repent. A lot of people wonder why their prayers are not getting answered. Right here we have our answer. And look at this…

Proverbs 28:9

One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

When we pray, we must remove sin from our lives. And we must pray according to the Lord’s will. We must not pray selfishly. These things do not please Him. If we pray for others according to His will and lift up a sincere request to Him that lines up with His word and will for our lives, then we can know that He hears us. Then we are the upright…

Proverbs 15:8

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

There is a great book that is very helpful in teaching us the right ways to pray in every situation. It was written by Brother Kenneth E. Hagin who has gone on to be with the Lord. It is called, “The Bible Study Prayer Guide” and we have found it to be biblically sound for instruction on prayer and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants more results from their prayers. Here is another encouraging verse about crying out to God in prayer…

Luke 18:7

And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?

He will come through for us – hallelujah! He will not keep putting us off. He is so faithful.

When we are right with God, we also pay our vows to Him. What does this mean? Whatever we have committed to the Lord, we will do. Do people do that when they are in sin? Certainly not. I can attest to this with a testimony of my own. One day I made a commitment to the Lord that I would keep my weight at a certain amount. I believe it was a number the Lord wanted me to set as a ‘line in the sand’ so to speak.

When a person has dealt with eating issues, they have to have a boundary to keep themselves in check. Well, I made that commitment to Him, but when I got in the flesh and would overeat, I would gain weight  and therefore I was sinning because I wasn’t doing what I said I would do. The Lord has had to remind me to keep my vows on multiple occasions. I am not happy to confess that I have been rebellious – and that behavior is like the devil, not the Lord. Just this past weekend I had to look at how my diet has been getting a little off track. I had to repent and get right before the Lord. He has been so good to me, and when confronted with the fact that my behavior was like the devil, I was cut to the heart. How could I call Him Lord and not do the things He wanted me to do? Look at this…

Luke 6:46

“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?

So here we are and it is a new day and I am working hard to stay on the right path. I want to be right with the Lord and be used by Him, (useful) to the things He wants to do through me. I would miss all those blessings if I continued to be rebellious, and I don’t want that. How about you?

Verse 28 of Job chapter 22 is a powerful promise and I am excited to look at it with you as the Lord gives us wisdom about it…

You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways.

A decree is a binding thing. If you do some research on decrees in the Bible, you will see that many were made. When we say something, it will be stablished. The words of our mouths are very powerful. We must always be mindful of what we ‘decree’ folks. It can bounce back and burn us if we are not careful. What we decree will be established and this can be a very good thing. The verse we are looking at says that “light will shine on our ways.”  I like the way the ERV puts it…

If you decide to do something, it will be successful. And your future will be very bright!

We certainly want that, don’t we saints? Doesn’t it feel just so good when you know you are doing things right? When we are pleasing God with our choices, there is no feeling that can dampen the joy it brings – way down deep in our souls. God has been dealing with His children (and that can be a 90 year old as much as a 5 year old) since the fall of Adam and Eve. He has been trying to get us back on the path with commandments and warnings ever since. Sadly, most won’t head that advice and walk into the abundant life He has for them. But some will. That’s you and me, right? Hallelujah!

Let’s review the last two verses (29-30), very encouraging I might add…   KJV

 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

This is a great ending. Basically it is telling us that when are walking right with the Lord, we can be used of the Lord to help others come up and walk right with Him. We can intercede on their behalf and they will be delivered! Glory to God. So by us having ‘clean hands’ before God, He can then use us to help others get clean hands too. That will please the Father immensely and be very useful to Him.

Like we said in the beginning, no man can be ‘useful’ to God without first getting washed by the blood of Jesus. Once we have accepted Jesus as Lord, then we are on a path for success when we cry out to Him with a humble heart. And once we have been cleansed, we can be a great benefit to the Father for the kingdom of heaven. So to respond to Eliphaz’s opening statement, we can say yes Eliphaz! A man can be of use to God. He wants to use every one of us to do the work that He wants done before He wraps this whole thing up.

But many are passed by. We talked about the many that are chosen but the few who get called. When people don’t turn to God and get right with Him, they cannot be of use to Him and that is so SADD-U-CEE! Dear eeaders and fellow saints, let’s make a commitment today to get back on the right path with God right away. It doesn’t matter how far we have slipped, it only matters how fast we go to Him and confess our sins and ask for His forgiveness. Once we do that we can resume the path He has for us and we can be well on our way to the greatest blessings we have ever experienced – glory to God!

Questions:

How did this chapter open?

In verses 21-30, what is the main emphasis?

Can a man be useful to God? In what way? How does he become useful?

List some ways that you may need to get right with God. Take it to Him in prayer.                                                 

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

There are three main points to consider from today’s study… 

Getting right with God brings peace and good things

Returning to the Lord opens a door for communication with Him

When we are right with the Lord we can be used by Him to help others get right with Him

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for making a way for us to get right with You through Your Son Jesus Christ. Father, I desire to be useful to You for the kingdom work that You want me to do. I desire to be effective and a great blessing to others because You have blessed me. Father, I ask You to show me any area of my life that I need to make right. I will be quick to repent and return to You. Thank You in advance in Jesus name. Amen. 

What do you need to get right with God about? Are you willing? 

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.                                           

        

1 Corinthians 10:31

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.