God Will Save the Humble

Introduction

Object Lesson: What if you had a big room full of coins, but they were no longer currency?

What do we value in life? How could you tell with science what someone values? Maybe you could measure what they spend their money on. Surely that would show us something about someone’s values. You could also include what they spend their time on. If we were all to measure throughout every day what we spend our time and money on, I wonder what that would say about our values? Would the things we spend our time and money on line up with what we SAY are our highest values?

When I consider the speech of Job’s friend Eliphaz in Job 22, I see a lot of accusations leveled at Job here. These accusations I think amount to accusing Job of putting his value in the wrong things. We know of course that Job is not guilty of the things that Eliphaz is accusing him of, so in the context of the book this speech is easily dismissed in this particular case. Yet I think if we dig a little deeper, we see some important lessons about what we value with our money and time and where we should place our value. Let’s read chapter 22 together.

Job 22 CSB

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: Can a man be of any use to God? Can even a wise man be of use to him? Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous? Does he profit if you perfect your behavior? Does he correct you and take you to court because of your piety? Isn’t your wickedness abundant and aren’t your iniquities endless? For you took collateral from your brothers without cause, stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked. You gave no water to the thirsty and withheld food from the famished, while the land belonged to a powerful man and an influential man lived on it. You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed. Therefore snares surround you, and sudden dread terrifies you, or darkness, so you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you. Isn’t God as high as the heavens? And look at the highest stars—how lofty they are! Yet you say, “What does God know? Can he judge through total darkness? Clouds veil him so that he cannot see, as he walks on the circle of the sky.” Will you continue on the ancient path that wicked men have walked? They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were washed away by a river. They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!” and “What can the Almighty do to us?” But it was he who filled their houses with good things. The counsel of the wicked is far from me! The righteous see this and rejoice; the innocent mock them, saying, “Surely our opponents are destroyed, and fire has consumed what they left behind.” Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you. Receive instruction from his mouth, and place his sayings in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed. If you banish injustice from your tent and consign your gold to the dust, the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis, the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver. Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. When you make a decision, it will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways. When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,” God will save the humble. He will even rescue the guilty one, who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.

Although Eliphaz completely misjudges Job's heart, he correctly identifies the kinds of sins that God truly hates. So where do I see lessons on our values in this passage? First I see in the seriousness with which Eliphaz takes the neglect of the poor an emphasis on placing the needs of people over our own wealth. I also see in the call for Job to give up his gold and cherish God instead the importance of seeking the kingdom of God over the accumilation of money. Finally we see the emphasis on God saving the humble as a call to value our relationship with God over our reputation with the community.

Neglecting Charity

Illustration: Anyone who owns a home knows that the longer you leave a closet unorganized or a project undone, or some other thing that doesn’t affect your everyday but you want to finish, the more it just starts to become a part of your background. It gets to the point where you don’t really even notice it any more. For example, there’s a gap between my bathroom vanity and the wall that I want to put a piece of quarter round over. At first it was jarring and unpleasant. These days I don’t really notice it very much any more.

Now as much as this can happen with smaller things like that, there’s also a real danger of this kind of thing happening with bigger stuff. Things that at first were shocking and jarring that sort of fade into the background of our daily lives. Like tents popping up in places around the city. At first you see them and realize that people are living in tents in our city and it breaks your heart, but then they become something you drive by every morning on your way to work.

Yet to God these are not small details. Consider what Eliphaz says about neglecting the poor and the needy in verses 5-9.

Job 22:5–9 CSB

Isn’t your wickedness abundant and aren’t your iniquities endless? For you took collateral from your brothers without cause, stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked. You gave no water to the thirsty and withheld food from the famished, while the land belonged to a powerful man and an influential man lived on it. You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

Notice the “for” there? In other words, Eliphaz is saying that the explanation for saying that Job is abundantly wicked and full of endless iniquities is because he neglects the poor. The first thing in this list is an accusation of taking something from someone, but the rest is not taking but simply neglecting to give. And for this reason again, his wickedness is abundent and his iniquities endless.

Yet this is Eliphaz speaking, not God. So the question is, does God share Eliphaz’s opinion on the seriousness of caring for the poor and the widow and the orphan? God shows His heart for the poor and the needy in Isaiah 58:5-8

Isaiah 58:5–8 CSB

Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? Isn’t this the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore your own flesh and blood? Then your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard.

Fasting is something that throughout history has been considered an act of piety, a way to put God even before our own bodily needs. But God through Isaiah is telling the Israelites that the true piety that He’s seeking is not to deny yourself food, but to give food to the hungry and provide for those in need, to end oppression and free slaves.

Consider these strong words from God’s law in Exodus 22:21-27

Exodus 22:21–27 CSB

“You must not exploit a resident alien or oppress him, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt. “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, they will no doubt cry to me, and I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless. “If you lend silver to my people, to the poor person among you, you must not be like a creditor to him; you must not charge him interest. “If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him before sunset. For it is his only covering; it is the clothing for his body. What will he sleep in? And if he cries out to me, I will listen because I am gracious.

And consider that when Jesus is talking about the final judgment of mankind, He separates people based on their treatment of the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the prisoner. Matthew 25:31-46

Matthew 25:31–46 CSB

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. “ ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’ “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe me, sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.’ “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?’ “Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Now to be clear, we know from a fuller exploration of the New Testament that all who believe in Jesus will be saved, and we can’t earn our salvation by caring for those in need. Yet that is far from an excuse to neglect the poor and the needy.

Now I don’t really need to strain very hard to come up with an application for this point. We all know what we need to do here, right? God is calling us to take care of the poor and the needy around us. Have we been neglecting that call? This is a moment for personal reflection. Is there more I could be doing to take care of those in need? This is no accusation from me, I am preaching this point because it’s in the text not because I have special reason to believe anyone in our church is neglecting it. I also don’t have an easy answer about how much is “enough” to be giving. There is more poverty than we can reasonably address with our own limited funds, so it’s very possible to give too much. But better than me is the Holy Spirit. He can be your guide. SO my challenge to everyone here, myself included, is to set aside intentional time this week to pray, perhaps even fast, and seek the Holy Spirit asking whether there’s something more you could be doing to support those in need.

God is Better than Gold

Illustration: Human beings sort of have something of a weakness for shiny rocks. I mean, how else do you explain how Gold has been valuable throughout history? In the modern era Gold has actually found usefulness as a great conductor of electricity, but for a long time gold was valuable just because… it was pretty I guess? Yet if society collapsed tomorrow and we were put into a situation where our only priority were survival, would you be happy to have a huge stockpile of gold? You cannot eat it, you can’t burn it for fuel, and it would probably make terrible clothing.

Yet even still great lengths have been undertaken to collect massive amounts of gold. Wars have been fought. People have been enslaved. I’ll remind you that even now Gold is one of the goods most commonly produced using forced labour as of 2024. I think this is a pretty good illustration of how mixed up we can get in our priorities.

Eliphaz recommends a better way here. Let’s take a look at what he says in verses 23-27.

Job 22:23–27 CSB

If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed. If you banish injustice from your tent and consign your gold to the dust, the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis, the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver. Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

Now before anyone accuses me of stretching the text, I am aware that what Eliphaz is talking about here is specifically getting rid of ill-gotten gains. He’s accusing Job of getting his riches through wicked deeds, so giving up his gold is about righting a wrong, removing something he should not righfully have. Yet in the Bible, we see calls to rid ourselves of riches beyond just as atonement for gaining them wrongfully, don’t we? Consider the rich young ruler, as he is often called. We hear his story in Luke 18:18-23

Luke 18:18–23 CSB

A ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother.” “I have kept all these from my youth,” he said. When Jesus heard this, he told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell all you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” After he heard this, he became extremely sad, because he was very rich.

Despite trying his best to keep all the commandments all of his life, this man was guilty of having his priorities all wrong. He valued his riches more than his relationship with God. That’s why when Jesus asked him to give it all up he walked away extremely sad. Jesus goes so far as to compare money to an idol that people can choose over God.

Matthew 6:24 CSB

“No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

So we need to be careful to not serve money as our master. Now I will hasten to point out that Jesus does not call all of his followers to give up all their possessions. In fact, Jesus and His disciples were supported by several wealthy women whom he never challenge to sell all their possessions. And when Ananias and Saphira are punished in the book of Acts it’s not because they didn’t sell everything, it’s because they lied about it. So the point is not that all of us should sell all of our possessions. The question is, do you own your possessions or do they own you? How would you respond if Jesus DID ask you to sell all that you owned?

More to the point, is God your gold and finest silver? Because the point is not to avoid loving money, but to seek love of God over all. Money only becomes a problem when it stands between us and our love for God. After all the greatest commandment is to love God will all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So is there something in my life that I love more than God? Than it needs to go. Don’t be afraid to do something radical if it means gaining a deeper relationship with God.

God Loves Humility

Illustration: The parents here can attest along with me that having kids keeps you humble. The other night we get the scale out so we can weigh Hazel, because we’re considering going up to the next diaper size, and they base sizes on the weight of the baby. Owen of course wanted to weight himself also, so he weighed himself a few times. So then curiousity got the better of me, and I stepped on the scale. Owen’t response? “Wow, that’s a lot.”

We need some moments like that in our life, don’t we? If we’re not careful and life is going generally pretty well, there’s a real danger that we might start to think a little too highly of ourselves. To overlook our own flaws and think of ourselves too often and give ourselves too much credit. It’s no coincidence that the words humiliate and humble start the same. They come from the same root because they mean similar things. To be humiliated is to be humbled beyond your control. This is what Eliphaz is talking about when he says this in verses 29 to 30.

Job 22:29–30 CSB

When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,” God will save the humble. He will even rescue the guilty one, who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.

Now what Eliphaz is saying here is a part of his pronouncement of the blessings that Job can expect if he repents of his supposed evil and turns back to God. Eliphaz says that if Job does this, his prayers will be answered by God not just on his own behalf, but on the behalf of others who have been humiliated. Job will find rescue not just for himself, but extended to others.

Yet I think there is a bigger principle behind this that is more broadly relevant. This along with other passages in Scripture paints a picture of God’s attitude towards those who are humble, especially in contrast to those who are prideful. Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 23:12

Matthew 23:12 CSB

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Likewise in the book of James, Jesus’ brother writes these words in James 4:6

James 4:6 CSB

But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

When it comes to personal renown and reputation, you get the opposite of what you are seeking, according to Jesus. He turned a lot of things on their head, claiming that the first will be last and the last will be first. This is just one aspect of this. If we spend our lives seeking attention and praise and trying to make ourselves seem great, Jesus says that God will humble us. In other words, we will be humiliated in the end. The opposite is also true. If we seek to avoid praise, give credit to God over ourselves, and obscure our good deeds when possible, than God Himself will exalt us in the end.

This is the spirit of Matthew 6:1-6

Matthew 6:1–6 CSB

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven. So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

People will often do the right thing for the wrong reason. Giving to charity to be seen as generous, praying in public to seem holy. Jesus tells us to do both of these in secret. Not as a new pharasaical rule that we must avoid anyone knowing about our prayer and giving at all costs, but as a guard against prideful righteousness, being motivated by pride instead of by love of God to do good things.

So we should all for these reasons seek to humble ourselves before God. Are we in the habit of sharing our achievements with others to gain reputation? Are we in love with being seen as good people? Is social media adding fuel to the fire of our need for public validation? Let’s try doing everything we can to do our good works in secret, as an act of love for God instead of an act of love for ourselves.

Conclusion

So to recap, we have seen a few important lessons inspired by Eliphaz’s speech in Job 22. We have seen the heart of God for the poor, the widow, and the orphan, and the seriousness with which God takes the neglect of these people. We have seen the danger of putting gold and valuables before God, and how we may even need to rid ourselves of things if they stand before us and a loving relationship with our creator. Finallyw e have seen that God loves humility, and calls us to humble ourselves so that He can one day exalt us.

Really there’s a chain pulling all these ideas together, and that’s what we value. Do we value the lives of the desperate and needy over our own wealth? Do we value our own wealth over God? Do we value our reputation over doing what is right because it’s right? So for that reason my challenge to all of us is to do some heart reflection. Why are we doing the things that we’re doing? Are we really seeking first the kingdom of God? What might need to change to make that more real in my life? I really do encourage all of us to take special time to consider this in prayer.

And as we sing one more song and then wrap up the service, let’s remember the words of Job. The Lord Gives, the Lord Takes, Blessed Be the Name of the Lord.