Job 35: 1 – 8
“And Elihu answered and said: “Do you think this to be just? Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’ that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’ I will answer you and your friends with you. Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you. If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself, and your righteousness a son of man.”
Elihu is asking a rhetorical question and is implying a negative answer, he is stating that Job established his righteousness apart from God. We have not seen that in any of Job’s speeches. He also wrongly states that Job believes that keeping God's laws does not gain man anything. He goes on to state that mankind's actions do not have any effect on God. In verse eight he does state a truth, that man's action has to influence others for good and evil.
Job 9 – 16
“Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.[ But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’ There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men. Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it. How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him! And now, because his anger does not punish,
and he does not take much note of transgression, Job opens his mouth in empty talk;
he multiplies words without knowledge.”
Elihu must be feeling very wise as he tells Job and his friends all that he knows, such as the oppressed often forget the person and work of God, because they are too concerned with what is happening to them. He reminds the four men that God has a purpose for both suffering and blessing.
Once more, without saying so Elihu implies Job is a sinful man full of pride and that is why he is not hearing from God. Elihu goes on in verse 14 to let Job know that his claim of being in right standing with God is his problem, it was Job’s pride and arrogance.
And the young man goes back to how he closes chapter 34, God is giving Job what he deserves, and yet Job is full of empty words.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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