Job 22:19-20

19 The righteous [tsaddiyq] see [ra'ah] it, and are glad [samach]: and the innocent [naqiy] laugh them to scorn [la`ag].

20 Whereas ['im] our substance [qiym] is not cut down [kachad], but the remnant [yether] of them the fire ['esh] consumeth ['akal]. KJV-Interlinear

19 'The righteous see and are glad, And the innocent mock them, 20 Saying,' Truly our adversaries are cut off, And their abundance the fire has consumed.' NASB

Eliphaz sets himself apart from Job and on the opposite side of the spiritual spectrum. He has stated that Job, being among the wicked, has lost all that he had, and for the obvious reasons that Eliphaz has presumed, and that the righteous will one day see all evil vanquished and gone forever.

Number yourself among the righteous rather than the wicked, as Eliphaz here suggests, so that you do not fall in the fires of judgment and have nothing when life is over here, and starts anew in the next life.

And I repeat, that Eliphaz has misjudged Job completely, but his doctrine is sound. He just has an application problem.

Eliphaz opens this passage with the 'hope' with the 'expectation' that all believers have. And that is that there is something better out there. That there is a light at the end of the tunnel of life. That there is going to b a judgment, and all evil will disappear. That we all will have all of our burdens lifted from our shoulders, and a better time will come to us all.

Psa. 58:11

11 And men will say, 'Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth!' NASB

The righteous do not mock or ridicule, but they will have cause for celebration when that future day arrives.

In the fires of Gods judgments, His final judgments, everyone who has ignored him all of their life, will discover their errors. It will be too late of course, but then everyone who has ignored God, knows full well what they are doing and what they are risking. They just don't care.

The fire is symbolic for judgment. For unbelievers that judgment will be absolutely horrible as they are cast into the Lake of Fire. For believers who had all of the opportunities of salvation, but ignored their spiritual life, their cleansing will be by a special fire, but in the end, they will have nothing to show for their life of indifference.

We just returned from a memorial service, a friend died last week. I am certain that he is with the Lord now. He was not old, but just six months ago was quite active and vigorous. Then an aggressive cancer began, from seemingly out of nowhere, and took him quickly.

None of us have any guarantees in this life. Disaster can come at us from out of nowhere. It is the devils world. But we do have the opportunity to pursue our spiritual life for as long as we are able to breathe.

Unfortunately, most people do not take life very seriously.

Like the wicked, that we have been studying, we look at life and take because it is there. People go online and take things because they are there. They do not pay for them, even though they benefit from them. And that has become the sad legacy of society. It is there and available, so why not just take it? All moral obligations are compromised away. We reason that someone else will take care of our obligations, or that others do not deserve anything anyway.

Just as people take music and art and studies and such, so too spiritually negative people take life, the air we breathe, the world we live in, our jobs, out income, our possessions, and they take it all for granted. They give no thought to its source, which is God the Father, through Jesus Christ.

If you benefit then you should pay. That is the proper attitude.

If you do not pay, then you will just end up paying the hard way later on. But we slip by in life and nothing negative happens to us, so we keep on taking everything for granted, and that is a very deceptive trap that will become our undoing.

One day life will catch up with each one of us, and then you will wish desperately that you had done the right thing when you had the chance.

The wake up call is always present. Don't ignore it.

Now is the time to post a prayer.