Job 22:3

_IS IT ANY PLEASURE TO THE ALMIGHTY, THAT THOU ART RIGHTEOUS? OR IS IT GAIN TO HIM, THAT THOU MAKEST THY WAYS PERFECT?_ Pleasure - accession of happiness: God has pleasure in man's righteousness (Psalms 45:7), but He is not dependent on man's character for His happiness....

1-4 Eliphaz considers that, because Job complained so much of his afflictions, he thought God was unjust in afflicting him; but Job was far from thinking so. What Eliphaz says, is unjustly applied to Job, but it is very true, that when God does us good it is not because he is indebted to us. Man's piety is no profit to God, no gain. The gains of religion to men are infinitely greater than the losses of it. God is a Sovereign, who gives no account of his conduct; but he is perfectly wise, just, faithful, good, and merciful. He approves the likeness of his own holiness, and delights in the fruits of his Spirit; he accepts the thankful services of the humble believer, while he rejects the proud claim of the self-confident....

Verse Job 22:3. _IS IT ANY PLEASURE TO THE ALMIGHTY_] Infinite in his perfections, he can neither gain nor _lose_ by the wickedness or righteousness of men....

IS IT ANY PLEASURE TO THE ALMIGHTY THAT THOU ART RIGHTEOUS? - This is the same sentiment which was advanced in the previous verse. The meaning is, that it can be no advantage to God that a man is righteous. He is not dependent on man for happiness, and cannot be deterred from dealing justly with him because he is in danger of losing anything. In this sense, it is true. God “has” pleasure in holiness wherever it is, and is pleased when people are righteous; but it is not true that he is dependent on the character of his creatures for his own happiness, or that people can lay him under obligation by their own righteousness. Eliphaz applies this general truth to Job, probably, because he understood him as complaining of the dealings of God with him, as if he had laid God under obligation by his upright life. He supposes that it was implied in the remarks of Job, that he had been so upright,...

EXPOSITION JOB 22:1 Eliphaz returns to the attack, but with observations that are at first strangely pointless and irrelevant, _e.g._ on the unprofitableness of man to God (verses l, 2), and on the slight importance of Job's case (verse 3). After this weak prelude, however, there is more vigour in his assault. In verses 4-9 he directly charges Job with a number of specified sins, and in verses 10, 11 declares his sufferings to be the consequence of them. He then proceeds to accuse him of denying God's omniscience (verses 12-14), and, alter some not very successful attempts to retort on him his own words (verses 15-20), finally recurs to his favourite devices (see Job 5:17) of exhorting Job to submission and repentance, and promising him restoration to God's favour and a ret

[IS IT] ANY PLEASURE TO THE ALMIGHTY THAT THOU ART RIGHTEOUS?.... It is not; the Lord indeed takes pleasure in his people, not as sinners, but as righteous; and as they are considered such in Christ, he is well pleased for his righteousness' sake, and with it, being agreeable to his nature, will, and law; and with his people in Christ, in whom they are accepted, having imputed the righteousness of his Son unto them, and so they stand before him unblamable and irreprovable, and he takes pleasure in the work of his own hands upon them, called the good pleasure of his will, in the new man formed after his image in righteousness and true holiness, in the graces of his Spirit, and in the exercise of them, faith, hope, love, humility, fear of God, c. it is a pleasure to him to hear their prayers and praises, and to observe their ready and cheerful obedience to his will but then all this gives...

THE THIRD SERIES OF CONTROVERSIES CHAPTER 22 The Third Address of Eliphaz _ 1. Is not thy wickedness great? (Job 22:1)_ 2. In what Job had sinned (Job 22:6) 3. The omniscience of God and the ways of the wicked (Job 22:12) 4. Eliphaz's exhortation and promise (Job 22:21) Job 22:1. The third cycle of addresses begins again with Eliphaz, the wise man from Teman. He tries to maintain his dignity and lofty conception, but he proves too well that Job's accusation of insincerity is well-founded. He starts out with reminding Job of the majesty

JOB 22. THIRD SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ. The only new thing that Eliphaz has to say, is definitely to describe the sin of Job! Yet his mildness makes him end with bright promises. JOB 22:1. Is it not to Job's advantage to be pious? Will God chasten him for anything else but sin? Eliphaz would point out that it is Job s advantage to be pious, but he completes his statement by adding that it is no advantage to God. He means that God is too exalted to take any interest in man, except to reward and punish him. Hence the cause of man's calamities cannot be in God, but only in man (Job 22:6). Job 22:6 ascribes to Job the sins typical of the rich man....

IS IT. ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. THE ALMIGHTY. Hebrew Shaddai. App-4. INFINITE. without end....

The Third Circle of Speeches In the first round of speeches the three friends exhausted the argument from the general conception of God. In the second they exhausted the argument from the operation of His providence in the world, as observed in the fate of the wicked. To the last Job had replied by a direct contradiction, adducing facts and testimony in proof that the fate of the wicked man in God's providence was in no way so uniformly miserable as the three friends had represented (ch. 21.) There is, manifestly, now left but one weapon in the hands of the three friends, namely, to express openly what they had hinted at formerly in a veiled manner, and charge Job directly with great sins. This charge is made by Eliphaz in the opening speech of the third round of debate (ch. 22.) As in the two preceding circles of debate, Job's mind is too much absorbed in the contemplation of the grea...