Eliphaz goes on to describe the destruction of the wicked in Job 22:15-20, but we need to keep in mind that Eliphaz includes Job in their number (Job 22:5). Therefore, when he says: “Have you noted the old way, which the wicked have walked?” (Job22:15), he is asking Job, if he has considered the path he has chosen to walk—the manner in which all wicked men have walked. Some scholars believe Eliphaz was referring specifically to the wicked who lived before the Genesis Flood and were all judged by God. While this would fit the fact that Eliphaz wants to show that all the wicked are judged in their own lifetimes, it doesn’t seem to fit Job 22:19-20. Where were the righteous who saw the Genesis Flood and rejoiced, concluding that their oppressors were destroyed? While the Deluge does fit Eliphaz’s argument that the wicked are judged in their own lifetimes, I think he is still alluding to his faulty argument that all the wicked are judged by God in the present.
Eliphaz persistently argues that the wicked are cut off before their time. Disaster strikes, and the prosperity, upon which they depend, is suddenly lost and flows away as the flood waters of a river (Job 22:16). Concluding that their prosperity was their own doing, they wondered what God could possibly do for them. Therefore, they walked contrary to him, having no desire to know him or his ways (Job 22:17; cp. Genesis 2:17; Romans 1:21, 28).
Job claimed that the prosperity of the wicked, although gained through wicked means, was preserved or secured not by their own power, but by the power of God. Nevertheless, Job was not in agreement with wicked folks. That is, he wouldn’t follow their ways (Job 21:16). Pointing to Job’s conclusion, Eliphaz misquotes him by saying Job claimed God filled the houses of the wicked with good things (Job 22:18). Job, however, said no such thing. Instead, he claimed the ill-gotten prosperity of the wicked was not secured by their power. Rather, God permitted them to keep their stolen wealth, or in other words, he didn’t judge them for their wicked deeds prior to their deaths. Therefore, intending to be ironical, Eliphaz continued to quote Job with: “…but the counsel of the wicked is far from me” (Job 22:18, cp. 21:16). Really? Eliphaz argued, if God blessed the wicked with prosperity, why would Job claim he’d never follow their way? What possible motive would the righteous have for being righteous, if the Lord blessed the way of the wicked?
The reality is, according to Eliphaz, the righteous see it and are glad. That is, they rejoice over the judgment of the wicked. They’ve seen God’s judgment upon Job, and are, presently, laughing at his state of destruction (Job 22:19), mocking him, as he, himself admits (Job 12:4). In other words, Eliphaz seems to be drawing his evidence from gossip and perhaps Job’s enemies. It seems that wicked men, called righteous by Eliphaz (Job 22:20), whom Job may have opposed in the past, had been rejoicing over and mocking Job, in that his power and wealth have been destroyed, while their wealth and authority have been preserved. When one is unable to prove his doctrine with good evidence, the obstinate believer often turns to the wicked to support his doctrine.[1]
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[1] A modern example of this can be seen in Evangelical Christianity’s support for Donald Trump’s bid for the American Presidency, in an effort to gain inroads to overturn the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling of 1973. In effect, Evangelical Christian America accepted a bribe from the political arena to obtain what they desired, because they were too impatient to trust God to perform his will through the Gospel in a time of his choosing. In other words, Evangelical Christianity’s position is “Two wrongs, indeed, **DO** make a right!”
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