SCRIPTURE: Job 22
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you. [Job 22:21]
If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored— so clean up your life. [Job 22:23]
What intrigues me is how “christian” the words that Eliphaz speaks.
This sounds a lot like the message the church has communicated through the ages.
I have heard the ideas of Job 22:21 from preachers and televangelists.
And the first half of Job 22:23, which is the message of Jesus, is often ruined by the latter part – so clean up your life!
Both verses, and all of Eliphaz’s speech, basically state that in order for God to accept us, we first need to get our lives straightened out.
If you do these things, then God will give you peace and prosperity and success!
God remains distant and apart, unable to help or bless us, as long as we remain sinners.

Is this what Jesus preached? Is this what Jesus practiced?
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum? ” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” [Matthew 9:9-13]
The Good News is that God does not wait for us to come to Him, or to clean up our lives.
God in mercy comes to us while we are still sinners, while we are still rebellious, while we are still dirty and unclean.

Practically speaking, this means that we ought to engaging and loving people who are sinful and rebellious – treating them in ways that seem to be opposite to what they deserve.
How should we treat the convicted rapist that lives in our neighbourhood?
How should we deal with the man who cheated seniors out of their life savings?
How should we react to the neighbourhood teens that are drinking, vandalizing and causing disturbances in the local park?
How should we handle the difficult kid at our sports camp, breaking the rules and making our work difficult?
How should we relate to the pimps and prostitutes at work near where we live?

Eliphaz would point his finger at them, tell them they were sinners, and urge them to repent.
Eliphaz would insist that they have to clean up their lives SO THAT God could love them and help them.
But Jesus would take a different approach, a controversial approach.
He would go up to them, love them as God’s wayward children, join with them at their drinking parties, and relate to them as a friend who cares.
No, He would not join with them in their sinful behaviour, but He would spend time with them, assuring them of God’s love no matter what is going on in their lives.
No, He would not deny sin or approve of sinful behaviour, but He would not look at them as sinners first, but as children of God in need of love and mercy.

This may sound good in theory, but how does it work in practice.
The best way to understand grace is to do it; find someone that lives in a messed up way, someone that is living contrary to what is good or moral – a drug dealer, a gang member, a prostitute, an obnoxious neighbour, an anarchist, etc. – and spend some time with them.
Get to know them, respect the person behind the repulsive behaviours, treat them with unexpected kindness.
As you do this, remember this is exactly what God does with us!

PRAYER:
Lord, if You did not come to me in mercy, I would not be where I am today. Help me to not be like Eliphaz, but to be like You!