Job 22:21

Job KNOWLEDGE AND PEACEJob 22:21 . In the sense in which the speaker meant them, these words are not true. They mean little more than ‘It pays to be religious.’ What kind of notion of acquaintance with God Eliphaz may have had, one scarcely knows, but at any rate, the whole meaning of the text on his lips is poor and selfish. The peace promised is evidently only outward tranquillity and freedom from trouble, and the good that is to come to Job is plainly mere worldly prosperity. This strain of thought is expressed even more clearly in that extraordinary bit of bathos, which with solemn irony the great dramatist who wrote this book makes this Eliphaz utter immediately after the text, ‘The Almighty shall be thy defence and-thou shalt have plenty of silver!’ It has not been left for commercial Englishmen to recommend religion on the ground that it produces successful merchants and makes the best of both worlds. These friends of Job’s all err in believing that suffering is always and only the measure of sin, and that you can tell a man’s great guilt by observing his great sorrows. And so they have two main subjects on which they preach at their poor friend, pouring vitriol into his wounds: first, how wicked he must be to be so haunted by sorrows; second, how surely he will be delivered if he will only be religious after their pattern, that is, speak platitudes of conventional devotion and say, I submit. This is the meaning of our text as it stands.

But we may surely find a higher sense in which it is true and take that to heart. I. What is acquainting oneself with God? The first thing to note is that this acquaintance depends on us. So then there must have been a previous objective manifestation on His part. Of course there must be a God to know, and there must be a way of knowing Him. For us Jesus Christ is the Revealer. What men know of God apart from Him is dim, shadowy, indistinct; it lacks certainty, and so is not knowledge. I venture to say that there is nothing between cultivated men and the loss of certain knowledge of God and conviction of His Being, but the historical revelation of Jesus Christ. The Christ reveals the inmost character of God, and that not in words but in deeds. Without Him no man knows God; ‘No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.’ So then the objective revelation having been made, we must on our part embrace that revelation as ours. The act of so accepting begins with the familiar act of faith, which includes both an exercise of the understanding, as it embraces the facts of Christ’s revelation of the Father, and of the will as it casts itself upon and submits to Him. But that exercise of faith is but the point which has to be drawn out into a golden line, woven into the whole length of a life. And it is in the continuity of that line that the average Christian so sadly fails, and because of that failure his acquaintance with God is so distant.

(21) Acquaint now thyself with him. —As he himself had done in Job 5, and as Zophar had done in Job 11, Eliphaz proceeds to give Job some good advice. “Thereby good shall come unto thee,” or “Thereby shall thine increase be good;” or perhaps he means that peace and rest from the obstinate questionings he was disturbed with would come to him thereby.

Job 22:21 . Acquaint now thyself with him — That is, with God, as appears both from Job 22:23 , where he is expressed, and from the nature of the matter in hand, there being no other way to happiness. Renew thy acquaintance with God by prayer, and repentance for all thy sins, and true humiliation under his hand, and hearty compliance with all his commands, and diligent care to serve and enjoy him. It is our honour, that we are made capable of this acquaintance; our misery, that by sin we have lost it; our privilege, that through Christ we may return to it; and our unspeakable advantage, to renew and cultivate it. And be at peace — At peace with God, and at peace with thyself; not fretful or uneasy. Good shall come unto thee — All the good thou canst desire, temporal, spiritual, eternal.

21 . and be at peace ] i. e. thus shalt thou have peace, or, safety. 21–30 . Eliphaz exhorts Job to reconcile himself with God; assuring him of restoration and great felicity if he will do so. The passage consists of two parts, first, a series of exhortations, each of which is accompanied by a promise ( Job 22:21-25 ); and second, a series of great promises simply ( Job 22:26-30 ). The exhortations are: (1) that Job should reconcile himself with God and receive His words into his heart—thus should he be in peace and good would come to him ( Job 22:21-22 ); (2) that he should put away his evil—then should he be restored ( Job 22:23 ); (3) that he should set his heart no more on earthly treasure, but fling it to the dust and among the pebbles of the brooks—then should the Almighty be his treasure ( Job 22:24-25 ).

The promises are: (1) that, delighting himself in the Almighty, he would be able to lift up his face to God in confidence, unashamed by afflictions ( Job 22:26 ); (2) he would pray unto God with the assurance of being heard, and the vows which he made to God when presenting his request he would have cause to pay, his request being fulfilled ( Job 22:27 ); (3) his purposes in regard to the future would stand and be realized, for the light of God would be on his ways ( Job 22:28 ); (4) any casting down that might happen to him would speedily be turned by God into up-raising, because of his meekness and humility ( Job 22:29 ); and finally, even others who had incurred guilt would be saved through his availing prayer ( Job 22:30 ).

Verses 21-30. - At this point a transition occurs. Eliphaz turns away from reproaches, open or covert, designed to exhibit Job as an example of extreme wickedness, and falls back on those topics which were the main subjects of his first exhortation ( Job 5:8-27 ), viz. an earnest appeal to Job to return to God, to repent and amend (vers. 21-23) and a lavish outpouring of promises, or prophecies, that in that case he should be delivered from all his troubles, should recover his wealth and prosperity, obtain of God all that he should pray for, succeed in all his enterprises, and be able to help and ease others, even those who might be guilty in God's sight (vers. 24-30). Verse 21. - Acquaint now thyself with him ( i.e. God), and be at peace ; or, make, I beseech thee a trial of him , and be at peace ; i.e. risk everything, throw thyself upon his mercy, and so make thy peace with him. To do so is well worth thy while, for thereby good shall come unto thee. It is a question what sort of "good" is meant. If we are to explain the "good" of this passage by vers. 24, 25 exclusively, Eliphaz will become a mere utilitarian, and he will be rightly characterized as "selfish and sordid" (Cook) - an anticipation of the Mammon of Milton. But there seem to be no sufficient grounds for singling out vers. 24, 25 from the rest of the passage, and regarding them as forming its key-note.