Day 149. Job 22-26

Eliphaz, whose first discourse was relatively gentle, now becomes much more savage in his allegations. If Job's sorrows and misfortunes are like "a flood of water" that "covers" him (22:11), it must be because his sins are truly monstrous. So Eliphaz accuses him of utter heartlessness. Job has "given no water to the weary to drink" and "withheld bread from the hungry" (22:7). He has "sent widows away empty-handed" and so on. There is no sign that any of this is true. He is simply arguing from the effect to the cause. If he is suffering harshly he must have sinned greatly.
Nevertheless, if Job will acknowledge his sin, however great, and "return to the Almighty," he will be restored to prosperity (22:23). If he will "agree with God" (22:21) and humble himself before the Almighty, he will be lifted out of the ash-heap and restored to his former estate (22:29).
It is not clear, however, that Job wants to return to what he was. What he desires is justice and an opportunity to "lay his case" before God. He feels sure that if God would only "give heed" and listen, then an upright person should be able to "reason with him" and "be acquitted forever" (23:6-7). Job defends his own righteousness before God—"I have not departed from the commandment of his lips," he says. "I have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth" (23:12). But the source of Job's despair is that, that in spite of his own uprightness, God is free to deal with him any way he wishes—"What he desires, that he does" (23:13). Since God is absolutely free to be unjust if he wishes and there is no one to take him to task—can he be trusted? Because of the terrible things that have happened to him, Job is convinced anything could happen. And he is "in dread" of such arbitrary power, in the face of which he
wishes he could vanish altogether into the darkness.
How can he expect God to vindicate his righteousness, when he does not punish the wicked, or at least control their vicious tendencies. "Why are times not kept by the Almighty?" Job asks (24:1). He tolerates all kinds of evil behavior. "They remove landmarks," Job says (24:2), and he does not prevent or punish them. In Old Testament time removing landmarks is a grave sin, amounting to stealing the property of another (see Deuteronomy 27:14-26). Job goes through a whole litany of injustices that God tolerates. He allows the wicked to kidnap the children of the poor in order to collect debts owed them, a crime expressly condemned in the Law of Moses (see Deuteronomy 24:7). They "harm the childless woman, and do no good to the widow," (24:21), and they live long and get away with it--that is until the "womb forgets them," and the "worm finds them sweet" (24:20)—which is the common lot of humanity, both the righteous and the corrupt..
Then Bildad returns to a question introduced earlier—Job stubbornly affirms his own innocence, but "how can a mortal be righteous before God?" (25:4) Beside the purity of the LORD, everything else is corrupt. "The stars are not pure in his sight, how much less can a mortal, who is a maggot" (25:5-6), Bildad says. And Job does not reply, but Job goes on to exalt the glory of God and his great power manifested by his creation. The elements are subject to him—the sky, the sea, the underworld. His power reaches everywhere. Sheol—the abode of the dead—"is naked before God" (26:6). He stills the Sea—the symbol of chaos—by the power of his word. He strikes down Rahab (26:12)—the sea monster which in ancient mythology is slain in the act of creation —"his hand [pierces] the fleeing serpent" (26:14). Job affirms the power and majesty of the creator in glorious poetry, and yet in the end this God who does such wonders and reveals
himself with such power is inscrutable and unknowable—"The thunder of his power who can understand?"