1.
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2.
Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?
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Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect?
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Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?
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Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?
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For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
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Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
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But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.
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Thou has sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
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Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;
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Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.
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Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
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And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?
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Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.
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Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
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Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
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Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
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Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
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The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.
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Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.
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Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
SPIRITUAL ACQUAINTANCE
‘Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace.’
Job 22:21
I. We may learn much of God in nature.—Everywhere the world is beautiful—sea and sky, wave and grass, flower and sea-shell, wood and river; but how much poorer it would be if it did not speak from every leaf of its great picture-book—reminding us of the missals of the Middle Ages—of the Eternal God. As by studying the pictures, or books, of an illustrious man whom we have never seen, so by contemplating the works of God we may know Him. The invisible things of God are made known by the works of His hands—His eternal power and Godhead.
II. We may learn much of God also from great and good men who have lived in every age of the world and in every land.—‘Where is the country whose history is so dead that it has not had some such men to show?’ And we must always believe that the light which shone in them, amid a good deal of ignorance and mistake, was just borrowed from Christ Himself. ‘In them we have simply the sunlight before the sunrise.’
III. But after all, the only way of acquainting ourselves with God is by looking into the face of Jesus Christ.—‘Christ spoke the words of God, and that was much. Christ was the Word of God, and that was vastly more. The Incarnate Word of God is the real Light of the world.’ All other men are fragments of the One Man. In each there is some failure, some plan, something that we dare not imitate. But Jesus Christ is perfect Man, as He is also, by His essential nature, the Eternal God; and in His perfect humanity the Eternal God is declared. ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ He said to Philip, ‘How sayest thou then, Show us the Father?’
We must, first, be at peace with God by confessing ourselves worthless sinners, and taking our stand on His finished work, and then, being at peace with God through faith, we may go on to know God, according to His Divine promise, ‘I have declared thy name to those whom Thou hast given Me, and will declare it.’
Illustration
‘To acquaint oneself with God is no light and easy task; it involves an intercourse which must be not only personal, but profound. There are many persons in the world whom we may know by name, by hearsay, even by sight. But we never properly begin to be acquainted with them until we get upon what are called “speaking terms.” So one primary method of spiritual acquaintance with God is the method of prayer. Only as we master this method, step by step, and grow familiar with its conditions and its results, do we come to understand the inward meaning of the will of the Father, and to realise “those deep abysses of judgment and mercy in which the foundation of every prayer is laid.” ’
22.
Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
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If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
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Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
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Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.
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For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
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Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
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Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
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When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
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He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.