Job 22 · a question people ask
Does God gain anything when someone is righteous?
Eliphaz asks, "Can a man be profitable to God?" (22:2), and "Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?" (22:3). Elihu will ask the like: "If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?" (35:7). When the LORD answers Job, he says, "Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine" (41:11). Paul told the men of Athens that God "isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything" (Acts 17:25). Jesus told his apostles to say, when they have done all they were commanded, "We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty" (Luke 17:10). Scripture also says, "The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his loving kindness" (Psalm 147:11), and "those whose ways are blameless are his delight" (Proverbs 11:20). These verses stand side by side in Scripture. What the book says of Eliphaz's words is 42:7, and it doesn't say which words it means, so these notes add no verdict on his question.
The verses
““Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?”
“If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?”
“Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.”
“He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.”