Eliphaz meant nothing more than mere earthly tranquillity and
exemption from trouble, but his words are true in a far loftier
region.
Knowledge of God as He really is brings peace, because His heart is
full of love. We do but need to know the actual state of the heart of
God towards us to be lapped and folded in peace that nothing outside
of God and ourselves can destroy. If we lived under the constant
benediction of the deepest truth in the universe, 'God is love,' our
peace would be full. That is enough, if we believe it to bring peace.
The thought of God which alarms and terrifies cannot be a true
thought. But, alas! in proportion as we know ourselves, it becomes
difficult to believe that God is love. The stings of conscience hiss
prophecies to us of that in God which cannot but be antagonistic to
that in us which conscience condemns. Only when our thought of God is
drawn from the revelation of Him in Jesus Christ, does it become
possible for any man to grasp in one act of his consciousness the
conviction, I am a sinner, and the conquering conviction, God is Love,
and only Love to me. So the old exhortation, 'Acquaint thyself with
God and be at peace,' comes to be in Christian language: 'Behold God
in Jesus, and thou shalt possess the peace of God to keep thy heart
and mind.'
Knowledge of God gives peace, because in it we find the satisfaction
of our whole nature. Thereby we are freed from the unrest of
tumultuous passions and storms of self-will. The internecine war
between the better and the worse selves within ceases to rage, and
when we have become God's friends, that in us which is meant to rule
rules, and that in us which is meant to serve serves, and the inner
kingdom is no longer torn asunder but is harmonised with itself.
Knowledge of God brings peace amid all changes, for he who has God for
his continual Companion draws little of his supplies from without, and
can be tranquil when the seas roar and are troubled and the mountains
are cast into the midst of the sea. He bears all his treasures with
him, and need fear no loss of any real good. And at last the angel of
peace will lead us through the momentary darkness and guide us, after
a passing shadow on our path, into 'the land of peace wherein we
trusted,' while yet in the land of warfare. Jesus still whispers the
ancient salutation with which He greeted the company in the upper room
on the evening of the day of resurrection, as He comes to His servants
here, and it will be His welcome to them when He receives them above.