Today in God's Word—July 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
July 1, Job 36
"He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness. But you are full of judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you.” - Elihu, Job 36 :15-17
Isn’t it particularly distasteful when a person finds and condemns faults in others that he has in his own life, visible to everyone except himself? We don’t like to listen to an arrogant, boastful man decry pride in others. Who believes an unjust fellow who cares nothing about the rights of others when he accuses someone else of injustice?
Elihu was really no different from Job's three unkind and merciless friends. They accused poor Job of wickedness without any proof or evidence, and condemned Job without considering that their judgment was flawed. Their broad sweeping statements about God, righteousness and wickedness contained some truth, but nothing they said pertained to Job's case. As readers, we know more about Job than these men could have known. They saw Job’s intense suffering, and proceeded to presume his guilt because of their flawed theology. Elihu criticized the others because they failed to convict Job. Elihu also claimed to have inspired perfect knowledge to teach them all. But his argument turned out to be no different from theirs. He was long on accusing and condemning, but short on any proof to sustain his case.
Elihu ascribed righteousness to God. That was good and right. But he used it to make a hateful point. He claimed God was too righteous to punish an innocent man, and therefore Job could not be innocent. Anyone who suffered like Job suffered had to be very wicked and full of iniquity. A righteous God couldn't make a mistake and get such a matter wrong.
Elihu claimed wisdom that exceeded wisdom from fellow humans. He described himself as God's perfect messenger. And his warning to Job was, “You can confess your gross iniquity and prosper once again. Or you can deny what I am saying and be destroyed.”
Elihu tried to strengthen his case with a poetic description of God’s power in nature. Everyone agrees that God is powerful. But that does not prove anything about Job’s guilt or God’s justice. The appeal to nature about justice is ironic. Nature is neither merciful nor just. Inexplicable events and aggressive predators are part of the natural world.
The last verses in Chapter 36 employ weather imagery to suggest that a severe storm was approaching in advance of God. Elihu may have used the stormy language to drive home his point. He told Job that even cattle know when a storm is on the way. But he said Job was so wicked that he had not recognized the disciplinary hand of God, and was about to be destroyed.
Can you imagine how weary Job must have been by this time? He was already sick and in pain. His heart had already been shattered, and now four men had verbally assaulted him. If Job replied at all to Elihu's extended remarks, his reply is not in the book. A reply is about to come, but not from Job. Elihu will say a few more things, and then the voice of God will take control of the situation.
Let's remember how ugly pride and false accusation are to those who witness it. Let's resolve to be humble and not arrogant when we speak to others. And if we don't want to be treated like these men treated Job, we should never treat anyone that way ourselves.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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