Was Eliphaz Preaching a Prosperity Gospel?

“Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee, Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth, and lay up His words in thine heart.  If thou return to the Almighty thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.  Then shall thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.  Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defense, and thou shalt have plenty of silver”.  Job 22:21-25

If I didn’t know better, I would think that Eliphaz had been watching those prosperity gospel preachers on television.  You know, the ones who say if you have enough faith, then everything will go your way.  You will have money, health, and basically whatever your heart desires.  That sounds good, almost too good to be true, and it isn’t true.  The idea that if a person lives practically perfectly, then he or she will have it all, materially and spiritually.  However, first of all, no one can live practically perfectly, and even if one could, whatever he or she receives is based on God’s grace and not on the “good” behavior of believers.  Of course, we should live righteously, and the Lord will help us to do so, but, secondly, there is nothing in scripture which promises pie in the sky now as we sojourn this sin-cursed world.  Anyone who has surrendered to Christ can attest to that fact, but what we do gain is more valuable than all the gold in Fort Knox, assuming that the gold is still there!

In Chapter 21 of Job, his argument to Zophar concerned how the wicked seem to escape suffering while on this earth, contrary to what his three friends had been saying all along.  They were so certain of their belief that the wicked will always suffer in his or her lifetime.  However, Job knew that wasn’t always the case.  He wondered how his friends could help him when they didn’t really know the truth.  He could have asked them to not judge him until they had walked a mile in his shoes.

Eliphaz began his reply.  He accused Job of believing himself to be nearly perfect before God and thus unfairly treated by God leading Eliphaz to ask Job if a man can be profitable to God.  We know that is impossible.  There is nothing that man can do to profit God, to benefit, assist, or to prosper Him.  God doesn’t need man’s help, man’s input, or man’s resources.  Humans cannot make God a debtor to them.  The opposite is true.  Humans are in debt to a gracious and mighty God who has provided a way for their debt to be paid because of His great mercy.  It is all of God and none of man.  Eliphaz insinuated that Job considered his righteousness as some sort of gain to God.  Was God sitting in heaven hoping that Job was a perfect man so that God can feel better about Himself?  Of course not.  What an absurd question.  Did Job have so much righteous power that God feared him and would let him off the hook of his afflictions?  Does God bring judgment against men to keep them from rising to a higher level because He fears them getting too much power?

Up until now, the charges against Job by his friends were harsh, but they were only general accusations of fraud, hypocrisy, and charging God with injustice.  However, Eliphaz began to be specific.  He accused Job of refusing to help widows and the fatherless in their time of need.  James wrote that one of the actions of those who desire to be an honorable Christian is to “visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27a).  (It is interesting to note that many things that were written in the book of Job relate to both the Old and New Testament writings which had not yet been written nor had the events therein written about occurred.)  According to Eliphaz, it was no wonder why Job was in such a miserable condition.  His sins had finally caught up with him.  At least the widows and fatherless have the light of day and their integrity, but Job stumbles around in the dark and can’t see the light of day.  His fears covered him like the waves of the sea.

Eliphaz accused Job of assuming that God walked throughout heaven with never a thought or care of His creation, not even bothering to look down to see what was going on.  Perhaps, as Bildad had already suggested, Job should go back and look at history.  Examine what the wicked men of old had experienced at the hand of God for their sin.  Adam and Eve lost their home in paradise because of sin.  Cain became a vagabond because he killed his brother Abel.  What about all those folks who tried to build a tower to heaven, but had their languages confused and their families scattered?  Remember why God destroyed all living things except Noah, his family, and pairs of animals.  Wasn’t it because of sin?  Eliphaz declared that the arrogant attitude of the wicked when God had blessed them so was far beyond his level of understanding.  Beyond mine, too.  Eliphaz assumed that Bildad, Zophar, and himself were righteous men because none of them had ever suffered, but Job, because he was suffering, must be one of the evil men.

Hey, Job, just have enough faith, turn from your wickedness, and turn to God and all of your troubles will be over.  Now, Eliphaz’ advice about repentance and trusting God was correct, but Job had never abandoned God.  He questioned Him, but he never denied Him, as Satan was sure that he would.  In order for Job to be at peace, he would have to accept the fact that God had a good reason for allowing his afflictions.  Even if he made peace with God and with his situation, there was no guarantee that all of his troubles would disappear, and all would be nearly perfect again in his life as Eliphaz asserted.  We wonder if all of these instructions offered by Eliphaz were from his personal experience or was he just trying to sound pious in order to impress Job and the other two visitors?    Much of what they spoke about God was true, but their error was in judging Job for a situation about which they knew nothing.

Next week:  Job’s Appeal to God