Job 22:21

21 Acquaint [cakan] now thyself with him, and be at peace [shalam]: thereby good [towb] shall come [bow'] unto thee. KJV-Interlinear

21 'Yield now and be at peace with Him; Thereby good will come to you. NASB

Eliphaz has already made up his mind regarding Job. Since he is suffering, he must be wicked. Since he is wicked, he must not be acquainted with God. Since he does not know God, then he has no relationship with God. And, finally, since he has no relationship with God, then he has no access to blessings, all of which come only from God.

The concept is true, the application to Job is not.

Therefore, yield. What does that mean? I am sure that you have heard that term, if not in church then in some movie, 'Yield brother!'

Yielding in one sense means, to give way to another. In the spiritual sense, it means to set your sin nature pattern of life aside, and make way for your spiritual side.

But better put, yield means to become acquainted. But not just any kind of acquaintance. This is an intimate acquaintance, a very, very, intimate acquaintance. It means to be serviceable to, to be accessible to, to be familiar in every detail.

And in this, Eliphaz is going to teach us all just how to begin and function in our spiritual life.

The first order of business in the spiritual life, is to change your attitude. You have to stop being negative, and start being positive toward God. You have to start wanting to know God. And you have to become aware that what you are doing now, in indifference, is getting you nowhere and will never get you anywhere.

So, there must logically be something better out there, and God must be that, 'something better.'

The next order of business is becoming at peace with God. Gaining peace is a process. Peace does not come instantaneously. Just as growing up from toddler, to teenager, to young adult, to adulthood did not come overnight. So too, the spiritual life comes one day at a time. And just as growth comes one day at a time, so too our learning comes one study at a time, one verse at a time, one concept at a time and so forth. Verse upon verse, precept upon precept, and so forth. We learn little by little and build upon that which we already have learned.

Peace means to be completed, to be restored, to be rendered whole from dismembered fragments. Peace is a building process, a construction in progress, a system or a pattern of life inside of which God, who is the contractor, builds something out of you.

And the result of this new approach to life? 'Good!'

So what is good?

Here it is used in its broadest sense. Eliphaz will use specific examples in then next couple of verses, but even those references are generalized results, used in order to make a point.

Good means better, best, bountiful, cheerful, joy, favor, precious prosperity, sweet wealth. In other words, anything legitimate, which you can imagine as being pleasant and desirable, is a result of good.

So good results from peace. Peace is a completion of ones self, a completion of ones relationship with God.

That completion comes as a result of your turning you attitude around and pursuing God and your spiritual life, rather than exclusively pursuing the carnal things of this world.

Now is the time to post a prayer.