Job 36 Elihu tries to defend God
Elihu continued speaking: “Let me go on, and I will show you the truth. For I have not finished defending God! I will present profound arguments for the righteousness of my Creator. I am telling you nothing but the truth, for I am a man of great knowledge.”
Great! Now we have a guy who doesn’t even really know God attempting to defend Him. At this point, God must be smiling at Elihu’s presumption, given the shallow nature of Elihu’s actual experience with Him. God knows Elihu; however, Elihu has no personal experience with God but is only spouting platitudes he has gained from others.
“God is mighty, but he does not despise anyone! He is mighty in both power and understanding. He does not let the wicked live but gives justice to the afflicted. He never takes his eyes off the innocent, but he sets them on thrones with kings and exalts them forever. If they are bound in chains and caught up in a web of trouble, he shows them the reason. He shows them their sins of pride. He gets their attention and commands that they turn from evil.”
Hmmm. So Elihu is arguing that Job must have committed some secret sin for which God is punishing him. Big deal! The three men preceding Elihu have already ridden that argument past the point of exhaustion. Listening to Elihu, Job is likely rolling his eyes heavenward so much that his eyeballs are in danger of being stuck in that position.
“If they listen and obey God, they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives. All their years will be pleasant. But if they refuse to listen to him, they will cross over the river of death, dying from lack of understanding. For the godless are full of resentment. Even when he punishes them, they refuse to cry out to him for help. They die when they are young, after wasting their lives in immoral living. But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer. For he gets their attention through adversity.”
Hoo-boy! Here Elihu goes with his cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all arguments! Some wicked people die young while others live long lives. Some righteous also people die young. Some people do seek God in adversity; however, others do not. Any time you hear someone making sweeping generalizations, the one thing you can be sure of is that those generalizations are wrong. My Facebook feed this morning bears this statement out. Two different relatively young police officers have died from horrific injuries suffered when motorists deliberately ran into them. Family men with wives and children, men who have dedicated their lives to saving others, are dead because of someone’s spite and anger.
“God is leading you away from danger, Job, to a place free from distress. He is setting your table with the best food.” Say what??? Elihu, you are speaking to a man who has lost everything, including his sense of taste. From great wealth, this man is now impoverished and wretched.
“But you are obsessed with whether the godless will be judged. Don’t worry, judgment and justice will be upheld. But watch out, or you may be seduced by wealth. Don’t let yourself be bribed into sin. Could all your wealth or all your mighty efforts keep you from distress? Do not long for the cover of night, for that is when people will be destroyed. Be on guard! Turn back from evil, for God sent this suffering to keep you from a life of evil.”
Obsessed? At this point, the only thing about which Job is obsessed is gaining some relief from the infernal itching, pain, and smell of his sores-and gaining relief from self-styled comforters such as Elihu. Besides, why is Elihu nattering on about wealth? Doesn’t he remember that Job has lost everything? One wonders if Elihu has been secretly envying Job and is now delighted to lecture him on the pitfalls of riches.
Elihu Reminds Job of God’s Power
“Look, God is all-powerful. Who is a teacher like him? No one can tell him what to do, or say to him, ‘You have done wrong.’ Instead, glorify his mighty works, singing songs of praise. Everyone has seen these things, though only from a distance. Look, God is greater than we can understand. His years cannot be counted. He draws up the water vapor and then distills it into rain. The rain pours down from the clouds, and everyone benefits. Who can understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunder that rolls forth from heaven? See how he spreads the lightning around him and how it lights up the depths of the sea. By these mighty acts he nourishes the people, giving them food in abundance. He fills his hands with lightning bolts and hurls each at its target. The thunder announces his presence; the storm announces his indignant anger.”
Once more, Elihu goes off on a long description of God’s power. Taken out of context, these statements are wonderful and certainly worth being meditated upon. Elihu’s problem is that he intersperses generic statements about God with attacks on Job’s character. If Job tries to argue, Elihu will hide behind those same generic statements, rather than admitting that he has always envied Job and is trying to tear him down. The only way one might appreciate Elihu is from a distance….a very great distance!
What’s wrong with Elihu’s arguments? Simply this: God knows the human heart and only God is fit to judge the motives and ideas of His creatures. While Elihu claims to be refuting all of Job’s arguments, he has only seized the opportunity to take advantage of Job’s losses and infirmities by talking at Job.
You can always identify those who have actually suffered, for in any given situation, these are the people who talk little but who help much. These are the people who will quietly find out the needs of the suffering and then work to fill those needs. If such people speak, they speak out of compassion. If such people pray, their prayers are blessings and not curses cloaked in religious jargon. If such people share the needs of a suffering individual or family, they do so without a hint of gossip.
No matter what Elihu has to say about God, Elihu is simply a poseur, a fake who only wants to take advantage of Job’s wretchedness so that he can hear himself orate at length. You can imagine Elihu returning to his place of repose at sundown, patting himself on the back for all the great things he has said, repeating them to himself. And while Elihu is congratulating himself on his eloquence, Job is undoubtedly gazing heavenward and begging, “Oh Lord, how much longer must I endure this foolish young man?”
Once more, we must realize that theological correctness is never a substitute for compassion. I have met many people who had no idea of sophisticated theological concepts; however, if you were in trouble, these people would be right there bailing you out. C.H. Spurgeon once preached a sermon about life boats and pointed out that when a ship wrecks, the victims don’t worry about the name on the life boat; they just want to be rescued. Elihu is the kind of guy who would refuse help if it didn’t come from a source of which he approved. May God help us, so that we will serve Him and not our prejudices!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to follow You and to do Your work, regardless of theological or philosophical differences. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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