Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
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?
Profit and Pleasure
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:
William KellyEliphaz 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":
Samuel RidoutIs 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.
The Half-Truth Inside the Question
Eliphaz's question is worth weighing on its own. It just had nothing to do with the man in front of him:
Leslie M. GrantHe 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.
Where the Argument Was Headed
These questions are the first step in an argument. The conclusion arrives two verses later:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe 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 Answer the Book Itself Gives
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:
William Kelly"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.
A God With Nothing at Stake
Eliphaz's God stands outside His own creation, untouched by what happens in it. One writer answers that picture:
Samuel RidoutHas 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.
Correction Read as a Verdict
Eliphaz's next question assumes its own answer. He got it backwards:
Leslie M. GrantEliphaz 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:
Samuel RidoutSurely 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.
Summary
- 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.