Job 22 Bible study: Acquaint yourself with him

Every word of this chapter after its first verse is Eliphaz's: "Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered" (22:1). By the book's headings it is his third speech and his last (chapters 4-5, 15 and 22), and Job has just answered Zophar (chapter 21). He opens with questions: "Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself" (22:2) (tap profitable), "Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?" (22:3) (tap Almighty), and "Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?" (22:4) (tap reproves). Keep in mind whose words these are. At the end of the book the LORD says to Eliphaz, "My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book doesn't say which of Eliphaz's words the LORD has in view, so these notes never treat what Eliphaz says as the book's own verdict. They don't throw out every word either: the honest questions below set his questions and his call to return beside other Scripture.

Job 22:13→leads toMatthew 6:8

Eliphaz asks, "Isn’t God in the heights of heaven?" (22:12), and sets against it words he gives Job: "You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?" (22:13). Job's own words in his next answer are "But he knows the way that I take" (23:10). Teaching about prayer, Jesus said, "Therefore don’t be like them, for your Father knows what things you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:8). Matthew doesn't name Job or Eliphaz, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear one subject in both: what God knows, which Eliphaz and Job both hold to, and which Jesus speaks of for those who pray. Others read each in its own setting: Jesus was teaching his hearers how to pray, and said nothing of Job. Neither reading makes Jesus' words an answer to Eliphaz or a verdict on Eliphaz or on Job.

סָכַןsakhansay sa-KHAN

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be of use or service, benefit". Strong's: "to be familiar with; by implication, to minister to, be serviceable to, to cherish". It comes three times in this chapter. Twice in Eliphaz's first question: "Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself" (22:2), where profitable is this verb both times. And once in his call: "Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace" (22:21), where acquaint yourself is this verb. The Hebrew of Job has it six times. Eliphaz had used it before: "Should he reason with unprofitable talk" (15:3). Elihu uses it twice: "It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God" (34:9), and "What advantage will it be to you?" (35:3). A psalm has it: "and are acquainted with all my ways" (Psalm 139:3).