Job 22:13

There can be no doubt that the charge which follows accuses Job of deadly unbelief and irreverence toward God — as if God's matchless glory meant He could not concern Himself with what people on earth do and think. Job had indeed spoken much about the unsearchable wisdom and might of God, as sovereign and unstoppable. He had complained of severe dealings. But nothing could be less true, or more undeserved, than that he denied God's government. The insinuation came only from the wrong-headed theory of Eliphaz. … It was the bitter fruit of his hard, narrow and misleading theory about present suffering, as if suffering could come from no source but God's judgment on our evil.

In this section Eliphaz only shows how grossly unfair he is. He accuses Job of saying what Job had not said at all. Of course God is in the height of heaven, and Job had fully acknowledged this before (ch.9:4-12). Yet Eliphaz accuses Job of saying, "What does God know?" Job had spoken in complete contrast to this, declaring that "With God are wisdom and might; He has counsel and understanding" (ch.12:13).

This portion continues the unfair suspicions of Eliphaz. He makes Job say that God dwells in heaven, and has His home among the stars, so how can He see what is taking place beneath the clouds which hide the earth from His view? He walks about in the vault of heaven, perfectly content to know nothing of what goes on in the world below! Has Eliphaz forgotten Job's strong declaration in Job 9 that God knows everything and can do anything? Yet the right title for this passage is still "All is known to God." Job's imagined unbelief only throws into bolder light the great truth that nothing can be hidden from the Searcher of hearts.

Why did Eliphaz then accuse Job as he did? Because he thought he could see this attitude underneath what Job actually said. He considered that Job was hiding something in "the deep darkness," and thought that God could not see it because clouds covered Him (v.14). Whatever it was that Job had been guilty of, Eliphaz could not see it, though that did not keep him from condemning Job.

Anyone who suspects on the basis of appearances will soon do without even appearances.

But even now, is not suspicion of others all too common? One person fails in business, has illness in his family, loses loved ones. The hasty conclusion is that God is chastening him for some imagined faults. How cruel this is! It goes against the plain rule that "every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." Let us be slow to suspect, and slower still to charge unknown evil. Leave that to the Searcher of hearts. If He calls on us to declare evil, it is only of what He has unmistakably brought to light.

Men shrink from God's all-searching eye. As Hebrews 4:13 puts it: "And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." There is much that we can hide from one another, and even from ourselves. There is nothing that we can hide from God.