The Power of His Presence

Daily Devotions

From the Writings of Ray Stedman

False Accusations

December 15th

Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you? (Job 22:4).

Here Eliphaz misunderstands what Job has said. He thinks that Job is accusing God of unfairly punishing him, but, once again, Job never said that. If Job were guilty of this he would be doing what Satan wanted him to do—he would be accusing and blaspheming God. It is true that Job asks God questions about His motives, but never once does he say, "You're at fault," and charge God with unrighteousness, as Eliphaz suggests. I think this is one of the most helpful things we can learn from the book of Job, because in our testings, our pressures, and our times of torment, Satan is trying to get us to do the very thing he tried to get Job to do—he is trying to get us to blame God and accuse Him of being an unfair and unjust God. If that is where Satan drives us, we have fallen. We have gone over the brink and become guilty of an accusation against the God of righteousness. Job never does that. He comes very close, but he refuses to do that. So because he is upset and angry with Job's resistance against his charges, Eliphaz goes on to invent unsupported, untruthful accusations against him (Job 22:5-11).

Today there is a kind of pharisaism that seeks to get you to agree with its limited theology, and if you refuse to do so, some may insult you and pour out charges against you. In my wife's early Christian life, she began listening to a radio broadcast that taught her the truth from the Scriptures, and the pastor of her church became very angry and upset at her. He brought her before him and tried to straighten her out, using insults instead of the Scriptures. When she would not be persuaded because she was learning the truth from the Word of God, he did the very thing that Eliphaz did. He railed against her and charged her with all kinds of things that she had not done, threatening to expose her to the church as a heretic. She endured a great deal of mental torment and suffering through that time.

There is nothing worse than this kind of unfounded, murderous, slanderous attack that Job has to face from his so-called friends. Eliphaz goes on, in chapter 22:12-14, to accuse Job of having wrong perceptions about God: "The trouble with you, Job, is you think God is such a limited being that He can't even see what you're doing. He's up high in heaven, and the clouds come in-between and shut you off, and you think you're getting by with hiding your sin because God can't see through the clouds!" This is a ridiculous accusation, for Job has already demonstrated that he has a consciousness of the mightiness, the greatness, the majesty, and the mystery of God—far beyond what these friends hold. But they cannot live with that, and they will not accept it, so they charge him with these childish concepts.

Thank You, Lord, that You know me better than anyone else. You know my heart; and I trust that You will reveal to me that which I need to know.

This daily devotion was inspired by one of Ray's sermons. Please read "Why Doesn't God Intervene" (or listen to the audio file  ) for more on this portion of scripture.