Today’s Scripture: Job 32-34
Today’s passage gives us a refreshing change from the slalom of arguments between Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Another charatcer enters the scene (although I have to wonder if he has been there the whole time but simply was not mentioned before), and he brings the earlier speeches to a halt. I’m liking this guy already.
First, we see a clear image of their culture through the first several verses of Elihu’s speech. After his introduction, Elihu spends 17 verses defending himself to Job’s friends, telling them that he, too, is qualified to speak. He makes it clear that he was intentional in respecting the authority of elders by listening to them speak, but now that they have nothing more to say, he would like to add something. He also says, “But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right” (32:8-9). It is unclear just how revolutionary an idea this might have been at the time, but I can say from experience that it’s not entirely removed from our own culture today. Perhaps it has been just as much my own insecurity as it has been feedback from the world around me, but for one with the ambition to speak the Word of God to teach others, it is difficult to gain respect from elders. One feels the impulse to go further than necessary educationally to make up for youth, but here Elihu simply makes his case and leaves it at that. He says that he will speak, even if others tell him he is unqualified to do so. May we all be so bold!
Elihu goes on to say both that God redeems us many times over from our deserved doom (death) and that even if we do not hear Him speaking, who are we to challenge Him? Here again we see a Christlike image in 33:24b-26: “…I have found a ransom for him — then his flesh is renewed like a child’s; it is restored as in the days of his youth. He prays to God and finds favor with Him, he see God’s face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state.” Christ is the promised Messiah who would be the ransom for many — but again, have they received this prophesy yet, or are they speaking merely of God’s grace extended to those who humble themselves before Him and offer up sacrifices of atonement?
Elihu’s final words in this passage are strong: “Oh, that Job might be tested to the utmost for answering like a wicked man! To his sin he adds rebellion; scornfully he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God” (34:36-37). Elihu made it clear earlier on that he does not speak with the intention of slandering Job’s name, as it seems the others have (32:21, 33:6-7), but he also speaks truth where he sees it. It seems, at least concerning Job, that Elihu’s point here remains that in his stubborn will to clear his name, Job has been prideful and has sinned against God. Again, I mentioned this before in an earlier post so I won’t dig too far, but Elihu’s complaint with Job is spelled out from the beginning in 32:2: “[Elihu] became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God.”
It is refreshing here to see a meaningful answer to Job. His three friends gave him nothing but worthless condemnations that did not confront or even begin to address the arguments that Job made. Here, Elihu specifically counters with the idea that Job is arguing the wrong point. The bigger issue is that God is God, and who are we to aruge against that?
I think we all try to make ourselves out to be God sometimes. We don’t always do it on purpose, but even our tendency to fit everything into logical boxes is playing God in the sense that we lose the mystery of God’s ways. If we shrink Him to fit into our boxes, then it leaves no room for Him to be who He is — all-powerful, all-knowing. It is difficult to take a step back and just let Him work, but it’s a necessary step.
Tomorrow’s Scripture: Job 35-37
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