"Prosperity Gospel" has deep and long roots - Job 22

Job is the oldest of all the books in the Bible. It was written and composed before other books and covers some of the earliest views of man. There is much to learn from reading Job that goes beyond the main theme of the book. But, in chapter 22 we have, once again, Eliphaz (Who's name means: God is fine gold) is telling Job that if he were righteous none of this would be happening to him. Eliphaz states in 22:21 the following: Yield now and be at peace with Him; Thereby good will come to you. That verse, taken as is, is at the heart of modern day "prosperity gospel." Most who preach prosperity gospel would echol Eliphaz and use him as their chef spokeman. They too believe that if we simply come to God "good" things will come to you. They too, like Eliphaz define good things as resources, treasure and material goods (at least that is what he implies in the rest of the chapter). Eliphaz doesn't know why God is allowing this suffering to come to Job but it is not because Job lacked a heart for God. Eliphaz, like most believers today, thinks that if you love God, God is obligated to free your life from pain and suffering. Yet, Paul repeatedly in his writings tells us that God does allow bad things to happen to "good" people. When we preach a gospel that says only good will happen when we come to Christ we do injustice to the true gospel. Suffering is part of livning in a world full of sin ... and it is not always our sin. Sin makes things break just because sin is death. Suffering happens to those who walk with Christ. Paul was given a "thorn in his side" to make sure he constantly was humble before God. And, sometimes suffering happens because we do sin and God needs to chasten us (Hebrews 10). Let us make sure we are not like Eliphaz; believing that if we come to God He is now obligated to keep us from all harm. God is only promising to caring us through the storm, not keep us from it.