Preaching To The Choir Series

Job 22: 1 – 14

Preaching To The Choir

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: 2 “Can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise may be profitable to himself. 3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless? 4 “Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you, and enters into judgment with you? 5 Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquity without end? 6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, and stripped the naked of their clothing. 7 You have not given the weary water to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. 8 But the mighty man possessed the land, and the honorable man dwelt in it. 9 You have sent widows away empty, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed. 10 Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden fear troubles you, 11 or darkness so that you cannot see; And an abundance of water covers you 12 “Is not God in the height of heaven? And see the highest stars, how lofty they are! 13 And you say, ‘What does God know? Can He judge through the deep darkness? 14 Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, and He walks above the circle of heaven.’

Yesterday I had in my office a man who is going blind. They say that out of our 5 senses the one most feared of being lost is eyesight. As a result of having condition that man has fallen into a manic deep depression. It has gotten so bad that now he believes that he is not a Christian. I was informed that he is going to a Psychiatrist who has issued him medication, ie drugs to deal with this problem. This type of sought out relief is not working.

I see this type a situation a lot. I like to call it ‘overriding symptoms’. People are not satisfied with the medication to solve their problems so then they seek out spiritual help. This is truly the cart before the horse outcome.

I see a good example of this in the book of 2 Kings Chapter 1. King Ahaziah suffered an accident and sought out worldly help as his first choice for help. Let us see how our Holy Creator thinks about this type of action.

1 Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. 2 Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria, and was injured; so he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.” 3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ 4 Now therefore, thus says the LORD: ‘You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” So Elijah departed. 5 And when the messengers returned to him, he said to them, “Why have you come back?” 6 So they said to him, “A man came up to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go, return to the king who sent you, and say to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ 7 Then he said to them, “What kind of man was it who came up to meet you and told you these words?” 8 So they answered him, “A hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” 9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. So he went up to him; and there he was, sitting on the top of a hill. And he spoke to him: “Man of God, the king has said, ‘Come down!’ ” 10 So Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. 11 Then he sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty men. And he answered and said to him: “Man of God, thus has the king said, ‘Come down quickly!’ ” 12 So Elijah answered and said to them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. 13 Again, he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and pleaded with him, and said to him: “Man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight. 14 Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up the first two captains of fifties with their fifties. But let my life now be precious in your sight.” 15 And the angel of the LORD said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So he arose and went down with him to the king. 16 Then he said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” 17 So Ahaziah died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. Because he had no son, Jehoram became king in his place, in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.