Can a man be profitable to God? surely it is unto himself that the wise man is profitable.
Eliphaz opens the third round of the debate. He begins not with comfort but with a question: does human goodness add anything to God? The question sounds reverent, and in one sense it is true. But Eliphaz uses it to turn a truth about God into a charge against a suffering man.
Eliphaz presses the gap between God's fullness and anything a creature could add to it. A wise man's wisdom benefits himself; it does not enrich God.
In this first part Eliphaz dwells on God's infinite greatness and on how He is complete in Himself. Is man profitable to God? Does he add anything to the infinite fullness of the Creator? A wise man is profitable to himself, but God does not depend on him in any way. A man's righteousness brings God no special profit — the word is "profit," not "pleasure," for He does take pleasure in His saints. As the One who emptied Himself says, "My goodness does not extend to You" (Ps. 16:2).
The same point cuts at any idea that obedience puts God in our debt.
Certainly it is folly for anyone to think that he is doing God a favour by his righteousness, for to be perfectly right is nothing more than he should be. But in Eliphaz speaking to Job, this was beside the point, for he considered that Job was wicked, not righteous.
The argument is a trap. If God gains nothing from a righteous man, He has no reason to strike one. So Job's suffering must expose hidden sin.
He starts by reminding Job of God's majesty. Can then a man be profitable to God? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty when you are righteous? Or does He gain anything by it if you are perfect in your ways? So God has no interest in man's righteousness, and He cannot punish Job for his righteousness. From this he concludes that Job is a great sinner.
But the test proves too much. If suffering proves sin, every sufferer stands condemned — "the righteous as well as the wicked," as Ridout notes in the same passage.
Kelly answers Eliphaz directly. Godliness was never a business deal. Measuring it by profit misses what moves a godly man.
Yes, Eliphaz, but cannot a man please God? It is not for profit that a pious man submits to God, and obeys the word of God, but it is to please Him, and why? Because he loves Him. That is not working for profit… "Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous?" Yes, it was. He was quite wrong about it. God was pleased with Job — that very man that they were so insidious against, and against whom they insinuated all kinds of evil.
Commentators differ on how much of Eliphaz's premise can stand. Ridout agrees that God needs nothing. But he rejects the picture of a God untouched by what His creatures do.
Has not God suffered, not in His blessed nature, but in what should have displayed it — righteousness in His creature? God created everything for His glory and pleasure. So God is the loser when man fails… We get only a cold view of God in Eliphaz's description of Him. The word of God shows the opposite. It presents Him as deeply concerned in all our affairs, and closely bound up with His creation. Eliphaz's one-sided statements leave no room for the gospel. God is not just holding the scales of justice as an uninvolved onlooker.
Kelly shows which way the benefit runs. God gains nothing, but the obedient man gains everything.
So he shows that the question is not whether man profits God, but how God profits man. God is owed our will, our love, and our glory. And beyond that, no one can walk in His ways without the richest reward of blessing. In every possible sense it is God who gives the increase… So the wickedness of man does not lower the majesty of God. It ruins the man who walks in it. In the same way, the obedience of man brings no profit to God. But it makes sure of very real and rich blessing for the man who is led that way.
- Premise. God needs nothing. No one can enrich the Creator, and being right is only what a creature owes anyway.
- Misuse. Eliphaz turns that truth into a weapon. God gains nothing from your goodness, he argues, so your suffering must expose hidden sin.
- Correction. God takes real pleasure in His people. He took pleasure in Job — the very man his friends were picking apart.
- Motive. Obedience is not trading for profit. A godly man obeys to please God, because he loves Him.
- Direction. The profit flows the other way. Man never enriches God, but no one walks in His ways without the richest reward of blessing.
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if thou art righteous? And is it gain [to him] that thou makest thy ways perfect?
Eliphaz begins again by pointing Job to the greatness of God: the Almighty gains nothing from a righteous man, so He has no reason to strike one. That leaves hidden sin as the only explanation for Job's suffering — but does God really care nothing for a righteous life?
Can a man be "profitable to God"? That is one question. Whether he can please God is another. One writer grants the first, then presses the second:
Eliphaz takes it up. He says, "Can a man be profitable to God, as he who is wise may be profitable to himself?" Yes, Eliphaz, but cannot a man please God? It is not for profit that a godly man submits to God and obeys the word of God, but to please Him, and why? Because he loves Him. That is not working for profit.
Another writer presses the first half of the question. Man adds nothing to his Maker — but he refuses the word "pleasure":
Is man profitable to God? Does he add anything to the infinite fullness of the Creator? A wise man is profitable to himself, but in no sense is God dependent on him. His righteousness brings God no special profit. But "pleasure" is the wrong word, for He does take pleasure in His saints.
Eliphaz's question is worth weighing on its own. It just had nothing to do with the man in front of him:
He first asks a question well worth considering: "Can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise may be profitable to himself?" It is folly for anyone to think that he is doing God a favour by his righteousness. To be perfectly right is nothing more than he should be. But in Eliphaz speaking to Job, this was beside the point. He considered that Job was wicked, not righteous.
These questions are the first step in an argument. The conclusion arrives two verses later:
He starts out by reminding Job of the majesty of God. Can a man then be profitable to God? ... God has no interest in man's righteousness, and He cannot punish Job for his righteousness. So he draws the conclusion that Job is a great sinner. Is not your wickedness great? Neither is there an end to your iniquities.
The reader of Job knows something Eliphaz does not. The opening chapters already record God's own verdict on Job, so the answer is plain:
"Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right?" Yes, it was. He was quite wrong about it. God was pleased with Job — the very man they were so underhanded toward, hinting all kinds of evil about him. At the beginning of the book, God pointed out that there was no man on earth like His servant Job in every way.
Eliphaz's God stands outside His own creation, untouched by what happens in it. One writer answers that picture:
Has not God suffered? Not in His blessed nature, but in what should have displayed it — righteousness in His creature. All has been created for His glory and pleasure. God is therefore a loser by the failure of man to show in his life what displays the wisdom and goodness of his Creator... We get only a cold view of God as Eliphaz describes Him. The word of God shows the opposite. It presents Him as deeply concerned in all our affairs, and closely bound up with His creation. There would be no room for the gospel in the partial statements of Eliphaz. God is not just holding the scales of justice as an uninvolved onlooker, handing out punishment to the one who falls short.
Eliphaz's next question assumes its own answer. He got it backwards:
Eliphaz asks, "Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you, and enters into judgment with you?" Eliphaz considered this impossible, and therefore that Job did not fear God at all. But in fact it was true: because Job feared God, God was correcting him. What Eliphaz considered God's judgment against Job was not judgment at all. It was discipline and correction.
Eliphaz's test is easy to apply in a world like ours. That is the trouble with it:
Surely an easy way, in a world of suffering, to prove man a sinner. But it proves too much, for it includes every sufferer — the righteous as well as the wicked.
- Gain — no one puts God in his debt. Being perfectly right is only what we already owe, so it earns no credit with the Creator.
- Pleasure — gaining nothing is not the same as feeling nothing. God takes pleasure in His saints, and the book opens with His pleasure in Job by name.
- Motive — the godly obey not for profit but to please Him, and the reason is love.
- Distortion — Eliphaz's God stands back holding the scales, an uninvolved judge. A God that cold leaves no room for the gospel.
- Misreading — what Eliphaz filed as judgment was correction. It came because Job feared God. Never read a verdict off someone else's suffering.