Beloved, I have the joy of sharing with you today the above theme from Job 34:1-2 onwards. Indeed, it is impossible for a man to form a judgment on God by his own reasoning. He has only his peers as elements of comparison. In order for His creature to know Him, God had to reveal Himself. And again, it is not our own intelligence that can grasp this divine revelation. Faith alone is capable of this. God is now manifesting Himself through His Spirit. “No one knows the things of God… except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). He leads the believer into all truth (John 16:12-15). Elihu teaching Job is an image of this. He shows him that by deducing his knowledge of God from his experiences and thoughts (v. 33) he has been completely wrong. Has he not come to condemn the One who is the righteous par excellence (v. 17)? What should Job have done, instead of nurturing and expressing all these false thoughts about God? humbly ask Him: “What I do not see, show it to me” (v. 32). A short prayer that each of us also needs to address to the Lord at any time of the day!
Elihu does not stop at what he has just exposed. In chapter 34, he goes further in the development of the truth. We can assume that there was a pause at this point in the interview. Did Job have any answer to what he had just heard? Had he and his friends gained a more accurate knowledge of the truth? We still have to wait for this result to be achieved. It is not that Job did not benefit a little from Elihu’s words, but we can fear that it was not so with his friends. As long as the conscience has not judged the self before God, the mind works in vain in the divine realm. Let us be assured that there can never be a real and lasting blessing for us without the breaking of ourselves.
“And Elihu spoke again and said, ‘Wise, listen to my words, and you who have knowledge, lend me your ear. For the ear experiences speeches, as the palate tastes food.” He faithfully blames Job, interweaving the reprehension with all the words of grace he addresses to him. Is this not a salutary and blessed lesson for our souls? This is exactly how the apostle addresses the Colossians, placing the truth before them. Elihu’s speech was always, we can say, “in a spirit of grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6). Indeed, there is no shortage of salt in this presentation. “For Job said, ‘I am righteous, and God has set aside my righteousness. Will I lie against my righteousness?” In truth, Job had shown a complete absence of mind-breaking. “My wound is incurable, without there being any transgression. Who is the man who is like Job? He drinks mockery like water.” He does not say that Job drinks “iniquity” as Eliphaz had accused him, but he imputes “mockery” to him.
His words had been unseemly and irreverent. Elihu does not attribute to him some secret crime that God must punish severely. But Job, in the assurance of his integrity, was wrongly indulging in what he was for God by grace, and this is what God must lead him to disregard. “He walks in the company of iniquity workers.” Elihu does not mean “in his ways,” but “in his words,” for Job had allowed himself to speak without restraint, having been provoked by Eliphaz and his companions. They claimed that wicked men are invariably punished and that the good always thrive in this world, which was apt to overthrow the faith of the afflicted, if God had allowed it. Job had responded to these arguments, but with great intemperance of language, according to his justified aversion to these erroneous principles.
However, in his retorts, Job gave the impression that he not only maintained his righteousness, but that he accused God of ignoring it, since there was no reason whatsoever for it to be tested. But this language was eminently apt to encourage those who practice iniquity. And what did he mean by saying that it is without any profit to find one’s delights in the company of God or in communion with Him? It is quite obvious that neither he nor his friends had learned God’s lesson. The Judge of all the earth could not be unjust; and did Job have the right to entertain such thoughts and speak as he had done?
Thus Elihu severely condemns Job’s speeches, and then he stops. It was not yet the time when God would call His people Israel, as together, to go through the special trial through which He had put Job through. The Christian is now called to carry always in his body the death of the Lord Jesus, and I cannot help thinking that this exercise is more profound than any of the trials of the saints of old, but Christ had not yet paved the way.
Meanwhile, Job was chosen to cross the furnace, not because there was some evil hidden behind his apparent integrity, but because he was the straightest man on earth. Jehovah clearly declares that this was the formal reason for the unprecedented trial that befell him. It was thus proved before the holy angels and before the rebellious angels, as well as before God and men, that, far from serving God for his own benefit or satisfaction, he clung to Him when all was lost, without finding any advantage in it. He did so in the most intense suffering of soul and body, because he received everything from God, without knowing why the God who loves to bless delivered to such distress the one he loved. Before the full congregation of heavenly creatures, Satan had questioned the reality of Job’s utter disinterestedness in his service to God. But, as we know, he was defeated entirely. It was shown that God was incomparably dearer to Job when he was suddenly reduced to misery and suffering after all the prosperity God had granted him up to that point.
But then God brought out of Job’s heart what neither he nor other men, nor even Satan, had suspected existed, and this by the presence and sympathy of his three friends. Who would have expected that? This patient man fell into impatience and, provoked by the false judgments of his friends, he gave free rein to the bitterness of his soul, as if God had become his enemy, for he could not approach Him. The thick cloud between his soul and God was precisely the cause of his pain, the reason why he was at times so close to despair. It was not death that frightened him, for he knew that it would be the end of his calamities; but why did such a God act so towards his servant Job?
Thus, on the one hand, he had spoken so improminently of God, and on the other so lightly of how the wicked prosper in the world, that Elihu could justly say, “He walks in the company of the workers of iniquity, and he walks with the wicked men,” for it was precisely such language that would have pleased them. These were words that would obscure the conscience and encourage sinners in their evil ways, while grieving faithful souls. “For he said, ‘He takes nothing of man’s pleasure in God. Therefore, men of sense, listen to me: Far from God wickedness, and far from the Almighty iniquity! For he will give back to man what he has done, and he will make each one find according to his way”.
This is quite true, but God has his own time, and his own means for the accomplishment of his ways, regardless even of this final reward that awaits the workers of iniquity. “Certainly God does not act unjustly, and the Almighty does not pervert the law.” Elihu firmly holds this truth, as we have already seen, and proclaims the greatness of God who stoops in a merciful condescension to bless man in the midst of the sorrows of this world. He restores to God the honor due to him and remains assured of his unyielding justice. “If he thought only of himself and withdrew his spirit and breath from him, all flesh would expire together and man would return to dust. If you have intelligence, listen to this; listen to the voice of my words.” Elihu then shows how far from the truth Job was, for not only does God act toward man, but He executes judgment on wickedness, even here on earth, according to and when he pleases him in his sovereign wisdom. It is not, however, an invariable rule or fact, as the three friends had claimed.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped for your better understanding.
Elihu impeached Job:
- Knowledge, general references to the, intellectual
Prov 1:4 To give the simple of discernment, to the young man of knowledge and reflection. Dn 1.4 young boys without bodily defects, handsome in figure, endowed with wisdom, intelligence and instruction, capable of serving in the king’s palace, and who would be taught the letters and language of the Chaldeans. Dn 5:12 because in him, in Daniel, appointed by King Beltshazzar, a superior mind, of science and intelligence, was found the faculty of interpreting dreams, explaining riddles, and solving difficult questions. Let Daniel be called, and he will give the explanation. Dn 12:4 You, Daniel, keep these words secret, and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will then read it, and knowledge will increase.
- Exhortations to heed the rebuke
Deut 4:1 Now, Israel, listen to the laws and ordinances I teach you. Put them into practice, that you may live, and come into possession of the land given to you by Jehovah, the God of your fathers. Job 34:10 Listen to me, men of sense! Far from God injustice, Far from the Almighty iniquity! Mk 7:14 Then, having again called the crowd to him, he said to him, Listen to me all, and understand. James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has not God chosen the poor in the eyes of the world, that they may be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him?
- Divine Call to Make a Decision
Deut 30:15 See, today I put before you life and good, death and evil. Rt 1:15 Naomi said to Ruth, Behold, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods; return, as your sister-in-law. Mark 10:21 Jesus, having looked at him, loved him, and said to him: You lack one thing; go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me. John 6:67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “And you, don’t you also want to go away?”
- Bad associations, warnings about
Ex 23:2 Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil; and thou shalt not testify in a trial by siding with the many, to violate justice. Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk according to the counsel of the wicked, Who does not stop in the way of sinners, And who does not sit in the company of mockers, 1 Corinthians 5:11 Now, what I have written to you is not to have relations with someone who, calling himself a brother, is shameless, or greedy, or idolatrous, or outrageous, or drunkard, or kidnapper, not even to eat with such a man. 2 Cor 6:14 Do not put yourselves with the infidels under a foreign yoke. For what is the relationship between justice and iniquity? Or what is there in common between light and darkness?
From all of the above, we note that on the other could not rightly assert that God was indifferent to evil, as his speeches seemed to say. In other words, Elihu corrects the thoughts of both parties until the end of the chapter. Because the afflicted tribes of Judah were kept captive and restored in their own land, the story of the period before the writer’s mind seems to him to provide conclusive proof of the righteousness of the Almighty. But we don’t see it. Eliphaz and Bildad could have spoken in the same terms Elihu uses here. Everything is assumed that Job by force of circumstances was forced to doubt. The whole is a homily about God’s irresponsible power and penetrating wisdom which, of course, must be exercised in justice. Where proof is needed, nothing but an assertion is offered. It is easy to say that when a man is struck in the sight of others, it is because he has been cruel to the poor and the Almighty has been moved by the cry of the afflicted. But here is Job struck down in the sight of others; And is it for harshness towards the poor? If Elihu doesn’t mean that, what does he mean? And if the patient dares to complain, he does so at his own risk. Elihu would not be a man to complain about in such a case. He would suffer in silence. But the choice is Job’s; And he needs to think carefully before making a decision. Elihu implies that Job is still in an evil spirit, and he ends this part of his speech in a kind of brutal triumph over the victim because he had complained of her suffering. He puts condemnation in the mouths of “intelligent men”; but it is his. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS PERSONAL LORD AND SAVIOR
I now invite anyone who wants to become a new creation by walking in truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as my personal Lord and Savior. I acknowledge that you died at the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and my faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I too can contemplate the wonders of your kingdom by walking according to your ways.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to be baptized by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
To you all worship, power and glory, now and for ever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “Elihu’s Third Discourse: God Is neither Deaf nor Indifferent.” (Jb 3 5)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.