Job 22:4

Eliphaz considered this impossible, and therefore that Job did not fear God at all. But it was actually true that, because of Job's fear of God, God was correcting him. What Eliphaz took for God's judgment against Job was not judgment at all. It was discipline and correction.

He resents the idea as absurd and insolent — that God could be influenced to turn aside from His unbending uprightness. So from the extreme dealings of God's hand he concludes that Job's wickedness is extreme. Was it not monstrous for Job to challenge Him to a court case? And it was unthinkable that God would argue with Job because He was afraid of him. There was only one reasonable conclusion. Job was suffering greatly because his wickedness was great, and his iniquities had no end.

Eliphaz asks Job, does not his chastisement prove his sin? For would God rebuke a man for piety — his godly fear? Therefore Job's sin is proven! Surely an easy way, in a world of suffering, to prove a man a sinner. But it proves too much, for it includes every sufferer — the righteous as well as the wicked.

Job had certainly been defending his own character. But did he give any profit or benefit to the Almighty by the righteousness and perfection that he claimed? And would God enter into judgment with him as though he were His equal? There could be only one answer to these questions, and it would be good for Job to realize what it was. As our Lord told His disciples, the confession of us all has to be, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty" (Luke 17:10).

Has God not suffered? Not in His blessed nature, but in what should have displayed it — righteousness in His creature. Everything was created for His glory and pleasure. So God is a loser when man fails to show in his life what displays the wisdom and goodness of his Creator. We get a cold view of God in the way Eliphaz describes Him. The word of God shows the opposite. He is 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 simply holding the scales of justice like a bystander with no stake, handing out punishment to the one who falls short.

Then Eliphaz comes out with his strong accusation against Job, without the slightest proof of it: "Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities" (v.5). Eliphaz probably thought that Job's claim to fear God was total hypocrisy, and that Job therefore deserved the strongest rebuke. Eliphaz was just the man to give that censure, for he was sure he was speaking for God. How sad was the delusion he was labouring under! How carefully we must watch ourselves here! We must not jump to conclusions about how another believer is doing, or about anything in their life that we suspect may be questionable.