Job 22

Eliphaz restates (though with more force and specific detail) his original criticism of Job: he must have deserved what he got.

The specific criticism is no light weight stuff considering the nature of God's character:

"Is not your evil abundant?
For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
You have given no water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
The man with power possessed the land,
and the favored man lives in it.
You have sent widows away empty,
and the arms of the fatherless were crushed."

This is the kind of stuff God takes very seriously. Of course most times the prophets warned against God's judgment for these sort of behaviors they were warning people but rarely (if ever) telling weeping people in the street "I told you so."

There are two problems with Eliphaz's criticism:

1. We the audience know that they are inaccurate. Now if the book of Job were a history of a king or noble we might consider chapters 1-2 as fluff written under the guidance of mighty hands but Job is written less as a history and more as a parable or drama. It may well have been historical but that has nothing to do with how it was written. So as an audience we can not think of Eliphaz's criticism as accurate or even sincere because god has described Job as a just and righteous man and Eliphaz has enough knowledge of Job's life to know it. Eliphaz knew what sort of life Job lived and would know that he was not such a wicked oppressor. This makes Eliphaz seem a vicious, vicious mocker.
2. But suppose that we take Eliphaz's statements as more humanitarian finger pointing rather than malicious lies one would wonder what sort of life Eliphaz lives. If he correct that any person who lives a comfortable or rich life is counted wicked while there are still poor people then who is counted innocent at all? Who could escape Job's fate? Certainly not Eliphaz, he was a peer of Job. If he was not as rich as Job he most certainly was in his neighborhood. Eliphaz ought not have been judging Job but quaking in fear.

My application of Job is starting to materialize:
Do not be like Eliphaz, Bildad or Zophar
I live a sweet, sweet, sweet life. It is filled with all kinds of comforts and confidences that mostly began around the time of my conversion. Most of the stuff I am praised for was not true before I was a Christian. There is this tendency to think how lucky (if not smart) I was to be a Christian and to make the solution to other people's woes: be more like me. "Are you poor and struggling? Be more like me!" "Are you depressed and suffer from low self esteem? Be more like me!" "You want God's blessing? Be more like me!"

Though I hope this sort of thinking is rare but it is a danger. The truth is that even though I have received a crap load of blessing from God and have found great joy in following God but God does not love me more than those who suffer, I have not earned my blessing and God is worthy of praise without these many blessings I have received.

And there is an important remembrance: the greatest joy of my conversion was at day one. It was knowing that God loved me. I like having some financial security, good looks and respect but I would give all of that up in favor of knowing God's love. Or put another way I can imagine living poor and ugly and disliked... but I would never go back to my life without Jesus Christ, not for all of the gifts this life could offer.

This is not a great statement about my character but a simple observation: the poverty in God's family is richer than the wealth in the world.

So don't be so judgmental, Mikey.