The Remedy

Then the Almighty will be your gold and choice silver to you. Job 22:25

Then – It’s about the money!  For most of us, it’s always about the money.  In Job’s day, it was about the gold and the silver.  I suppose that a lot of us wish we have gold and silver instead of the promise on paper we carry in our wallets and purses.  But the concerns haven’t changed if even the commodity of exchange has.  What Eliphaz says here has a direct bearing on our struggles with money, and in particular, with our temptations toward greed.

Actually, there isn’t any Hebrew word justifying the translation “then” in this verse.  The first word of the verse is hayah – “will be.”  The temporal conditional “then” is added in order to draw a connection between the first action that Eliphaz suggests to Job and the subsequent result Job will experience.  Eliphaz suggests that Job treat his gold as dust and his silver as if it were common riverbed stones.  Then something will happen.  Job will see that his real wealth is found in El Shaddai, the Almighty.

We probably agree with Eliphaz.  It’s good advice.  We acknowledge that the Almighty really is the source of whatever prosperity we enjoy.  He is our true silver and gold.  But acknowledging the truth of Eliphaz’s statement isn’t quite the same as doing something about it, is it?  It’s hard to think of our wealth as nothing more than dust and river rock.  Jacque Ellul made the point that money – and the greed that usually accompanies it – must be desacrementalized.  We must turn the power of money upside down.  We must remove its pull from our consciousness.  How do we do that?  By demonstrating our declarations in concrete action.  If we say that our true gold is God, then we must actually treat our wealth as if it had no more power, and was of no more concern, than dust.  We demonstrate the truth of the Almighty’s sovereignty over our borrowed wealth by showing the world that it has no attachment to us.  We give it away!

“We see than that wealth is a down payment; it is the first part of the fulfillment.  God has promised grace, and he begins to fulfill this promise by acting in this material way [by granting us wealth].”[1]

“In our world, we solve our problems all alone with our technology, our science, our money, our political parties; God does not answer because we do not call him.  The poor do not call on him, and those who call him are the rich.   . . . The  Bible calls anyone who has no real need of God’s help rich.   . . . The church cannot be an assembly of the rich; it is made for  poor outsiders.”[2] We should be deeply distressed when we enter a church that is not filled to the brim with those who are in need.  A comfortable ease found in most sanctuaries is only a symptom that we are indeed among the rich, the ones who really no longer depend on El Shaddai for their status in life.  As the church accommodates itself to the symbols of success, it turns its back on the least of these, and on the Lord of the least of these.

Yeshua spoke more about money than any other subject.  He knew how much we value that dust and those river rocks.  He knew that concrete actions to remove the false and idolatrous holiness of money require enormous faith.  The world will offer no consolation.  To find our wealth in the Father is to shun the wealth-accumulating frenzy of the world.  What will you do today to affirm that you know gold is nothing but dust?

Topical Index: then, gold, dust, money, Job 22:25, Jacques Ellul


[1] Jacques Ellul, Money & Power, p. 64.

[2] Ellul, pp. 153, 152, 150.

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carl roberts

absolutely zero time this morning, but to say a “giant” AMEN!!!!! -Oh LORD, Yeshua,- let it be so! Amen.

Roy W Ludlow

I am tempted to say that you have stopped preaching and begun to mettle. However, to be sure, I would say that it is all preaching and this is just a little closer to home without having to think too hard about it. How to do with less “dust and river rock?” How do I mannage to take the cruise without it? I don’t! However, I do allow the Lord to guide me in what I do and where I go and trust Him to help me make the correct (right, honorable, faithful) decisions.

Gayle

Another site for which I am grateful is Hebrew4Christians. I have been able to learn from their teachings also, and have recommended it to many friends. Yesterday there was a prayer request regarding the current circumstances that require a deeper level of trust in God for their needs. I was really touched, and wondered if our community might be helpful in this concern.

L Brown

Hebrew4Christians is the first site I encountered when I began searching for a deeper understanding of the Hebrew language in God’s Word, beginning with the names of God. I, too, love that site and highly recommend it.

Brian

Shabbat Shalom everyone! I have been very busy the last few days, so………. I had the last three lessons to digest this morning. Thank you Skip for these succint messages.

Skip have you every considered doing some teachings on the premise advocated by the Jerusalem
School of Synoptic Research, that there are scattered units throughout the synoptics gospels that were originally longer stories.

Considering your teachings of the last few days, i was thinking about the two parables; the rich man who was going to store up his goods and the rich man and Lazar ( their contention is that these two parables were within a longer story unit).

This teaching of teaching of Jesus given its longer context would drive His message home of what is the greatest of importance! Peace and blessings!

St Jerome Davis

You continue to strengthen my thoughts and outlook on life, Christianity and the world since serving as the keynote speaker at my graduation in 2007 at MISD. Thanks Skip!! I’ve heard this statement [“Yeshua spoke more about money than any other subject”], in different wordings though, nth times. Is there a compilation of the references of money in the Bible that I could purchase to enable me study the contextual usages of the Bible references to/of/on/about money? Yes, it gets tough serving God in a “money world”…you’ve experienced both Skip.