Today in God's Word—July 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
July 2, Job 37
”The Almighty — we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit." - Elihu, Job 37:23-24
One night many years ago, it really was (as Snoopy's stories always begin) "a dark and stormy night." During a service when a guest speaker was preaching, a bolt of lightning struck, maybe striking the steeple, but very close to the church. It made a tremendous noise and knocked out the power. The sudden loud noise and darkness provoked some exclamations of surprise and fear from the audience. The veteran preacher, unruffled by the sudden noise and darkness, calmly said, "Now if that had been the Lord coming again, would you be ready to meet him?" That night, the weather conditions helped him make his point.
In Job 38, God will speak out of the whirlwind. In Chapter 37, Elihu spoke of thunder, lightning and downpours, along with other meteorological phenomena, as he finally approached his conclusion. Maybe he got the idea from the approaching storm that was already swirling around them. He stressed the power of God and the weakness of human beings by saying God is in control of the weather while humans cower in fear and sense the danger in its awesome force. Elihu personalized it for Job, pointing out how he suffered from the summertime heat when there was no breeze. So how could little, weak Job think that he wanted a face to face interview with such a big, strong God?
Elihu described how nature testifies to the power of God. That is true. But nature does not teach us about God's mercy or his love for fallen human beings and his plan to save them. Such knowledge of God comes only by divine revelation, through the voice and pens of inspired men, not the natural phenomenon of thunder.
In his closing comments, Elihu stressed that God was Almighty, and that humans cannot find him. He described God as great, powerful, just and righteous. No one argued that God is not those things. He said that God has no regard for fools who imagine themselves to be wise. He warned Job that God opposed proud ones who saw themselves as wise.
Elihu's final words in our text today were no doubt intended to convict Job. But as is so often the case with human judges and critics, the words they intend to reprove and rebuke others often describe the speaker as well as the one they meant to address.
In the next chapters, God will not call Elihu by name, as he will Job, Eliphaz and his friends. But he will refer to and dismiss Elihu's brash and unhelpful remarks with a single question.
God recognized Job as one who feared him, regardless of what Elihu and the others said about poor suffering Job. Elihu said that God has no regard for those who are wise in their own conceit. But he and the other three friends were the ones who presumed to know all about Job and teach him about God. Elihu even claimed perfect understanding. That sounds like "wise in his own conceit," doesn't it?
An old friend of mine who had very strong opinions and was not shy about sharing them once told me, "I am often wrong, but seldom in doubt." Elihu's long speech that spanned six chapters reminded me of my friend. Elihu, like many of us, thought he knew better than his elders. He must have liked to hear himself talk, because he spoke for a long time. He did not seem to realize that his ideas were really no different from those who had already spoken. The things he said in his youthful brashness were even more insulting and rude than Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had been. His blustering remarks failed to shed any light on the cause of Job's miserable suffering. Elihu was long on dramatic flair, but quite short on relevance, logic and good manners. When you
and I feel compelled to say something, let’s make sure not to follow Elihu’s example.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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