Read Job
35-37 & Acts
13:24-52
To discover:
As you read consider what Elihu
stresses about God.
To ponder:
Chapter 35 isn’t easy to
understand. Job has implied God is unjust. But Elihu seems to be asking whether
it would be just for God to clear Job (as Job claims he will), whilst Job has
the attitude that there is nothing to be gained before God by not sinning
(35v1-3). He then suggests that because God is the transcendent creator, human
action does not affect him (35v1-8). Here, Elihu doesn’t mean God doesn’t care
about human action (see 36v5-16, 37v24). Rather, his point seems to be that Job
can’t somehow move God to answer his plea for deliverance by threatening to sin
because he feels God will not reward righteousness. Elihu then describes how
people cry out under deliverance whilst failing to actually look for their
Maker who can give them songs (ie. joy) at night, and wisdom too. And so,
because of this arrogance, God does not listen or answer them. His point is
that if God doesn’t respond then, how much more will he refuse to listen to Job
who claims (as 35v2-3) that his case is before God, but that God doesn’t care
about wickedness (35v9-16). Elihu’s portrayal of God here is that he is
unconcerned for people’s struggles, coldly administering justice, and lacking
in the grace to engage those who find his ways hard. The fact that God does
answer Job from chapter 38, and eventually comes to us personally in Christ,
shows just how wrong Elihu is.
Elihu
is, however, concerned to vindicate God’s justice (36v1-4). And so he restates
his contribution to the book’s discussion. He is adamant, as the others were,
that God cares for the afflicted, rewards the righteous (36v5-8), and that
suffering comes because of sin. However, he also stresses God’s purpose in it
is to “tell” people “what they have done” wrong, and so bring them to
repentance and restoration (26v5-12). Elihu therefore describes two groups of
people to Job: the godless who “harbour resentment” (as he assumes Job does),
and so do not cry out in their affliction, but die in sin; and those who do
listen as God “woos” them “from the jaws of distress” (36v11-16). He then
states that Job is currently “laden with the judgement due to the wicked,” and
shows concern that he could be turned to evil more generally. Elihu therefore
urges Job not to be enticed to sin for the sake of money, as wealth and effort
can do nothing to free him from his distress; and not to long for the night
when people might kidnap others (36v17-21) – perhaps in order to gain money by
way of ransom. (This may have been a particular problem in Job’s day). There is
wise warning here against responding to suffering by resenting and so rejecting
God, and therefore giving oneself to sin.
36v22-37v24
finish Elihu’s speech with a meditation on God’s supremacy as Creator and,
again, his power and wisdom (36v22). As similar truths are made by God in his
coming speech, it proves that although Elihu still misdiagnosed the reason for
Job’s sufferings and so wrongly condemned him, he was wiser than the others not
just in seeing how suffering can turn the wicked from sin, but in recognising
how limited our perspective on God’s ways is.
It is worth
taking time to chew the words of this section over. The main point seems to be
that the wonder of all God does throughout his creation shows that he is
“beyond our understanding” (36v26, 29, 37v5, 15, 16). The stress on his mighty
“voice” may also imply he should be humbly and reverently listened to, rather
than spoken back to (37v1-7, 19-20). And so Elihu concludes we cannot draw up
our case (ie. Job’s defence) before God because of “our darkness” (ie. lack of
understanding of his ways). Indeed, to do so is to risk being “swallowed up,”
for if we cannot look into the brightness of the sun, how much more can’t we
face up to God’s “awesome majesty” (37v19-22). So Elihu ends by saying God is
beyond our reach. He also reaffirms his key point that God is just, not
oppressing people (as Job has implied), and therefore to be “revered,” for he
looks well on the “wise in heart” (37v23-24). Of course, in Christ God shows
that he is not beyond our reach, but willing to come close and meet with us
face to face. And in Christ, he makes it possible for us to come close without
fear of being consumed.
Praying it home:
Praise God for the wonder of his
works in creation. Pray that you would not respond to suffering with resentment
and so sin.
Thinking
further:
None today.
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