“Submit To God!”

“Submit To God!”(Job22:21-30).
“Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: if you remove wickedness from your tent…Surely you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways…”
The above are words of Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends who came to comfort him. While this may be considered as sound teaching and admonition to those who have wandered away from God, here its premise is faulty.
Eliphaz assumes that Job is a very wicked person and that he is mainly concerned with the restoration of his property.
However, Job’s story in its introduction and conclusion states the opposite. He was a pun in a contest between God and Satan; showing that good people too can experience real and very tough times – not because they have done anything wrong, but that God allows Satan to have his way so as to prove Satan wrong.
The story ends with God being angry with Eliphaz because he and his friends did not speak of God what is right like Job did.
It was Job who had to pray for them so that God will not deal with them according to their folly. It is not as if Job was a super perfect person, as such does not exist.
Job was ignorant of the many issues he raised with God, but in the end he repented in dust and ashes.
His repentance led to God restoring what Job lost tenfold.
At the end of the day repentance opened the door of grace; not so much in terms of material benefits, but that Job saw God with his own eyes(42:5), just as he had longed for when he had said, “I know that my Redeemer lives…I myself will see him with my own eyes…”(19:25-27).
All the same, the words of Eliphaz still stands for us who are surely not like Job: “Submit to God and be at peace…If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored… you will pray to him, and he will hear you…”
Prayer: Holy Spirit give me discernment to see where I have gone astray and redirect my way to the place of grace. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.