Job 22
The chapter starts with Eliphaz the Temanite replying to Job. He postulates several things about God. “To postulate” means to assume as a truthful or accurate premise or axiom (a seemingly self-evident or necessary truth which is based on assumption), especially as a basis of an argument. Eliphaz gets really theoretical and asks, “Can a person do anything to help God?” (v.2). Personally, I assume that by doing the right things I am helping God because He loves me and doesn’t have to worry about me when I do the right things by being in agreement with Him. However, Eliphaz says something contrary to this in verse 5. He starts in verse 4 saying, “Is it because you’re so pious that he accuses you and brings judgment against you?” Job has a deep reverence and devotion to God, much like the way I want to have reverence towards Him. Then, in verse 5 he accuses Job, saying, “No, it’s because of your wickedness! There’s no limit to your sins.” He is calling Job as wicked as Job called the people in Job 21:14-15 who question the Almighty God and why they should obey Him: “And yet they say to God, ‘Go away. We want no part of you and your ways. Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him? What good will it do us to pray?”
Eliphaz then tells Job in 22:21, “Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you.” I find this to be very thoughtful and caring. All through the chapter, he gives examples of what his friend could have done wrong. I’m sure Job pondered on what he was talking about and whether or not he had actually done those things that Eliphaz considers a sin.
Job 23
Job is raw in chapter 23. He vents. He can’t find God (vv. 3–9), and he lays out his case. But notice this: he never abandons the fear of the Lord. He wrestles with God, not away from Him.
If Job had taken his wife’s advice back in 2:9 (“curse God and die”), he would’ve forfeited the revelation he reaches in Job 23:14: “So he will do to me whatever he has planned. He controls my destiny.”—God completes what He appoints. Even while grieving and confused, Job clings to a bigger truth: God’s will stands, and His purposes will be fulfilled.
Job 24
Job looks around and asks, “Why are the wicked not punished?” (24:1). He sees boundary stones moved, the poor pushed aside, widows and orphans overlooked (24:2–12). It stings because in Job 21 he already admitted what we’ve all noticed: the wicked can live long and look successful. Both chapters tell the truth: evil often seems to flourish and justice can feel delayed.
But what I feel about this isn’t unbelief; it’s faithful lament. Job brings the hard questions to God, not away from Him. He’s wrestling with a mystery: observation — the wicked prosper (Job 21); expectation — God sets times for judgment (Job 24:1); tension — we live in the gap between the two.
Refuse cynicism. Delayed justice does not equal absent justice. Anchor in God’s character, not headlines. Justice may be delayed, never denied (“And though they are great now, in a moment they will be gone like all others, cut off like heads of grain” Job 24:24.). Hope rests in who God is, not what today looks like.
Job 25
Bildad the Shuhite responds. And to me, his response is comforting to Job based on what he has said and what Eliphaz said earlier. He says in verse 4, “How can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone born of a woman be pure?” Then he talks about how God is more glorious than the moon. But then he says that people are maggots in comparison to the Lord. Just a sweeping claim about God’s absolute holiness and human smallness—"In comparison, people are maggots; we mortals are mere worms” (Job 25:6).
Bildad can feel more “comforting” than Eliphaz. He levels the field. He frames the problem as universal: before a holy God, all humans are unclean. Job isn’t singled out as uniquely wicked. He re-centers on God. Bildad turns the camera from Job’s alleged faults to God’s transcendence and dominion (vv. 2–3).
To me, Bildad falls short because Job seeks an advocate/mediator. Saying “we’re all worms” offers humility, not help. Bildad names God’s greatness without pointing to God’s mercy.
Job 26
Job responds to Bildad with anger. I think at this point it is clear that he feels none of his friends can understand what he has truly gone through. Job’s friends don’t really see him. In 26:1–4 he answers with sharp sarcasm: “How you have helped the powerless!”—because their “truth” lacked tenderness. Then Job lifts his eyes (Job 26:5–14): the God who hangs the earth on nothing, sets boundaries for the sea, and stills chaos is bigger than our explanations. And even that is just a whisper of His ways (Job 26:14).
Job 27
Job will (rightfully so) defend his integrity. Earlier, Job wondered why the wicked seem to prosper (Job 21; 24). Here he responds that their prosperity isn’t security. He says, “May my enemy be punished like the wicked, my adversary like those who do evil” (Job 27:7). Not because he envies them, but because he knows their end.
