Job and Eliphaz

In the 22nd chapter of Job, Job's friend Eliphaz was trying to diagnose why Job had been cursed by God (see the story of Job for all of the painful details). Like a lot of God's people today Eliphaz equated God's favor with earthly blessings. See for yourself . . . "If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents . . . then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver."  (Job 22:23-25)

This advice didn't make God happy, "I am angry with you [Eliphaz] and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me." (Job 42:7) - It's a dangerous thing to speak untruths about the King of Kings. We can see at the end of the book of Job that God only forgave Job's friends after Job prayed for them.


We can see the bad advice that Job's friends have uttered to him in his despair. God, as we can see in the verse above, has already clarified that they did not tell the truth about Him and His character. You see Job's friends had incorrect view of God and His blessings. For instance, wealth is not a automatic sign of God's blessing. In fact. the Bible is clear that Satan is the prince of this world and that he can bestow wealth upon whom he desires. It doesn't take a serious dive into scripture to ascertain that wealth (as well as health, relationships, etc.) is not automatically given to all of God's children, no matter what their level of obedience. Jesus said in this world we will have trouble, but to take heart! He has overcome this world. (John 16:33)

And yet there is wisdom in Eliphaz's statement as we can discern from the teachings of Jesus himself. In Mark, chapter 10 we read the story of the rich young ruler who was seeking the truth about eternal life from Jesus. Jesus (who of course already knew the state of this man's heart) asked the young man if he was keeping the commandments of God to which the ruler stated that he had. And remember that Jesus didn't rebuke him after this statement. In fact. Jesus said he only needed to do two more things to achieve eternal life. 1) Sell all of your possessions and give them to the poor and 2) follow Jesus as he achieved his earthly mission.

We can see that God is not as concerned about our earthly possession (or comfort for that matter) as He his about the status of our soul. "For what shall it profit a man, if shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" - Mark 8:36. Comfort in this life is not a barometer of our spiritual health or God's favor. So be careful examining an connection between your spiritual health and your earthly comfort, because God doesn't promise a connection between those two things.