Last week, God’s messenger Elihu declared that he would teach Job true wisdom. He does so in these four chapters by refuting Job’s claim that he is innocent before God and that God has violated his rights in afflicting him so horribly.
Elihu begins Chapter 34 with a humbling carpet-bombing of Job’s “poor me” act:
“What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water…and walks with wicked men? For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God’” (34:7-9, ESV).
Elihu replies:
“…God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice…Who gave him charge over the earth?...If he should set his heart to it, and gather to himself his spirit and breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (34:12-15).
In other words, why would the Creator destroy his own creation? Elihu uses Job’s demand, for an audience with God to present his case as an equal to God, to show how a person should respond to affliction:
“’I have borne punishment; I will not offend anymore; teach me what I do not see; I will do it no more…” (34:31-32)
.
Elihu concludes that Job is without knowledge or insight and adds rebellion to his sin by multiplying his complaints against God.
In Chapter 35, Elihu tells Job (and us) to consider how much bigger God is than we. When we sin, do we damage him? And if we are perfectly righteous, does that make him a better God? People always cry out to God when they are oppressed, but they want only restoration without repentance, and then wonder why God does not answer.
God longs only to hear us say:
“Where is my God, my Maker, who gives songs in the night…and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?” (35:10-11)
If there has been no answer for Job, Elihu says, it is because of the sinful pride of an evil man. The distance between God and humanity’s pride (without a Redeemer) is very, very wide. It is temptation, disobedience, and disunity with God.
In Chapter 36, Elihu says that God is “mighty in understanding” and withdraws from the wicked, not the righteous. He warns Job that his sin of declaring himself righteous has brought more afflictions on him for the purpose of warning him:
“He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. He also allured you out of distress onto a broad place…and what was set on your table was full of fatness…Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside” (36:15-18).
When God warns, judgment belongs to God, not to us:
“Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong?’” (36:22-23)
In Chapter 37, Elihu prepares Job for the voice of God himself, which will sound like heart-shaking thunder, look like brilliant lightning, and feel like a major tornado. Elihu says:
“Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen…Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit” (37:13, 24).
Job’s temptation to believe he is blameless, disobedience in demanding that God hear his case, and disunity with God by failing to heed his warnings, have now resulted in God’s impending verbal judgment. Even Elihu is terrified for what follows.
Can we even imagine what Job feels?
Hurry back next week: the conclusion to the Book of Job offers stunning implications for perfect unity with God.
Elihu begins Chapter 34 with a humbling carpet-bombing of Job’s “poor me” act:
“What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water…and walks with wicked men? For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God’” (34:7-9, ESV).
Elihu replies:
“…God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice…Who gave him charge over the earth?...If he should set his heart to it, and gather to himself his spirit and breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (34:12-15).
In other words, why would the Creator destroy his own creation? Elihu uses Job’s demand, for an audience with God to present his case as an equal to God, to show how a person should respond to affliction:
“’I have borne punishment; I will not offend anymore; teach me what I do not see; I will do it no more…” (34:31-32)
.
Elihu concludes that Job is without knowledge or insight and adds rebellion to his sin by multiplying his complaints against God.
In Chapter 35, Elihu tells Job (and us) to consider how much bigger God is than we. When we sin, do we damage him? And if we are perfectly righteous, does that make him a better God? People always cry out to God when they are oppressed, but they want only restoration without repentance, and then wonder why God does not answer.
God longs only to hear us say:
“Where is my God, my Maker, who gives songs in the night…and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?” (35:10-11)
If there has been no answer for Job, Elihu says, it is because of the sinful pride of an evil man. The distance between God and humanity’s pride (without a Redeemer) is very, very wide. It is temptation, disobedience, and disunity with God.
In Chapter 36, Elihu says that God is “mighty in understanding” and withdraws from the wicked, not the righteous. He warns Job that his sin of declaring himself righteous has brought more afflictions on him for the purpose of warning him:
“He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. He also allured you out of distress onto a broad place…and what was set on your table was full of fatness…Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside” (36:15-18).
When God warns, judgment belongs to God, not to us:
“Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong?’” (36:22-23)
In Chapter 37, Elihu prepares Job for the voice of God himself, which will sound like heart-shaking thunder, look like brilliant lightning, and feel like a major tornado. Elihu says:
“Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen…Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit” (37:13, 24).
Job’s temptation to believe he is blameless, disobedience in demanding that God hear his case, and disunity with God by failing to heed his warnings, have now resulted in God’s impending verbal judgment. Even Elihu is terrified for what follows.
Can we even imagine what Job feels?
Hurry back next week: the conclusion to the Book of Job offers stunning implications for perfect unity with God.
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