Bible Reading Challenge Blog

The desire of this Elihu, who is not counted as one of Job’s friends by the way, is that Job would be: “tried to the limit, because his answers are those of the wicked.”  There are quite a few accusations here against Job which I’m not really sure would hold up under a court of law.  Elihu also states that Job’s perspective is one of: “It profits one nothing to take delight in God.”  One more thing he adds to the list of accusations is that Job “goes in the company with evildoers and walks with the wicked.”  

Job is being portrayed here in a very, very negative light.  There isn’t much we can do to defend him except let Elihu speak himself out, which he hasn’t done yet and he won’t do at least for one more chapter and maybe more.  The accusations against Job are simply from the perspective of one who thinks that Job has to be guilty because of his life situation.  He may not  even know Job, but just knows that state that he is in and so he has to be someone that God has  turned His back on him.  

Be careful to judge anyone based upon their life situation.  Are all homeless people dangerous, or criminals, or psychotic, or could it just be that most of them are just one paycheck away from not having made it.  When we generalize any groups of people who tend to be needy and say that it is because of these stereotypical reasons, we don’t do the individuals justice.  We need to do them justice by giving them the benefit of the doubt, because the them is really us.  

So after that big wind up Elihu launches but it is not anything like what I expected.  I expected him to really come down hard on Job and to call him out for his unfaithfulness and just get over it like everyone else does.  But instead there is a very intellectual approach to the whole matter at hand.  He begins by building up his own credentials by stating that he is no different from Job.  Both of them are the clay and God is the potter (vs.6), so he understands what it feels like to be in Job’s position.  

But he begins in a very passive, aggressive way to chastise Job in vs.9 by accusing him of pretending that he is clean and without transgression.  He doesn’t mock him, but calls Job out because Job insists that there is no iniquity in him.  He calls Job out for accusing God of being his enemy for no reason.  

He then tries to give Job a tutorial on how we are able to hear the voice of God in the midst of suffering.  He speaks about God revealing Himself to us through dreams (which is true by the way), and encourages him to follow the example of those who confess their sin so that God is given the opportunity to send His angels to redeem the guilty one from the miry pit.  He insists that it is God’s intention and desire to draw everyone out of the pit.  God’s purpose is to draw everyone out of the darkness and into the light.

I can’t really argue with that.  I kind of like Elihu at this point.  He is reasonable, he argues with conviction, and yet not with disdain.  We do need people in our lives who will call us out on the mat but in a way that is gentle and kind and allows us to see our faults.  Now Job didn’t really need his faults to be lifted up, but we do.  His speech continues in the next chapter.  Let’s see if he keeps the same tone as this chapter.

What the who, Elihu?  It is interesting how the narrator describes how the friends of Job ceased to speak to him because he declared himself righteous in his own eyes.  They knew that there was no wiggle room for Job to declare the obvious sin that he was committing which resulted in God’s obvious punishment.  Job simply stated that none of this is obvious.  God’s providence stretches far beyond our wisdom.  That is nice to hear when we struggle, that God’s providence stretches far beyond our understanding, so when we don’t understand life, that’s okay.

But then comes Elihu who is not classified as a friend of Job, but rather as an innocent bystander who becomes curious and interested in this conversation and in the end becomes absolutely enraged at the lack of courage and lack of ability of these friends of Job to put him in his place.  Chapter 32 is basically a wind up for Elihu before he addresses Job and puts him in his place.  

He does strike me as someone who is a bit full of hot air and not necessarily one who is as gifted or skilled or full of wisdom as he might think that he is.  Be wary of anyone who states: I am full of words, the spirit within me constrains me.  Basically this person is saying that I would say a lot more but I know that I better not.  You normally find that this person then goes on to say way more than they should have said.  Look out for Elihu.

It seems like we come to the end, well, because it states: the words of Job ended.  But not really, we have the words of Job that come later on, but this is definitely the definitive ending to his defense of why he is not being punished by God, but rather that he remained righteous even in the midst of these calamities that he is experiencing.  

It is interesting that he lifts up sexual sin as a potential for why God might have punished him, if that were the case with him.  Look at vs.1, 7, 9, and vs.10.  But he assures us, the readers, that this simply was not the case.  He had remained faithful to his wife and to his God.  Even though his wife was not his strongest supporter, still he declares that he has remained faithful even in all this.

He creates hypothetical scenarios in regards to what should happen if he had been unfaithful not just to his wife but also to God.  If he had withheld anything from the poor then his arm should be broken from his socket.  If he had just trusted in gold alone then thorns should grow in his land instead of wheat and barley.  He insists that he has not prayed calamity upon his detractors, but rather he has been faithful to the Lord.  He is defending himself strongly here against all accusations.

I want to cherry pick a few verses which I think might resonate with us today, in this day and time.  Look at vs.22 and I can’t help but think of Hurricane Florence as the author states: “You toss me about int he roar of a storm.”  With the impending storm it is hard to think about much else, as you see people leaving and you hear the shrill warnings you wonder if anything is going to survive.  But we have experience that not all things will come to pass as they say, but we are called to prudence.  

I know that there are a few readers out there who read vs.17 and say, AMEN!  “The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.”  I feel very fortunate that I do not suffer from pain and the gnawing of my bones but I know that there are many out there who not only experience constant pain, but have no end in sight to the pain.  Take comfort in the words of Job that he has experienced the same reality and yet God, in the end, does come to deliver him.

This entire chapter is a reflection that while Job’s glory days are behind him, right now he is experiencing a situation where those whom he used to employ, are now mercilessly mocking him and taking delight in his current reality.  You know that he has to be speaking about his friends Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar.  Maybe at one time they had worked for Job and he had been lord over them, and now their children are rising up against him and speaking against him in unkind ways.

Isn’t it something when glory days are over and you find yourself humbled in a mighty way.  But God remains faithful even if it feels like “you have turned cruel to me.”

I think there is only one song that would be appropriate for this chapter.

Job speaks about the years gone by when he was respected, and really revered, by all those in the city and beyond.  But notice the reason why he was so respected  and why they were defined as his glory days.  Look at vs.12 and you can read: “because I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper.”  There then follows a whole litany of ways in which Job had helped the most destitute around him.  It was this highlight of his life which he missed the most.  Because of his current condition he is no longer able to “champion the cause of the stranger.”

The days that Job describes in chapter 29 when he “chose their way and sat as a chief”, were long since gone.  You will notice that in the next chapter things are very different.

At first this seems like random meanderings about the substance and the depths of the earth, but then Job comes out with the reason for this entire chapter.  It takes us all the way to vs.12 when he asks the question: “Where shall wisdom be found?”  It is interesting to speak about this word wisdom.  

Job describes it as a thing which is absolutely impossible to capture by humans, or animals, or anything on the face of this earth.  The value of wisdom is extolled in this entire chapter and its elusiveness is described in detail.  The question which will soon be answered in vs.20 states: where does wisdom come from?  That is the question that will be answered from verses 23-28.

Just like every good children’s sermon we read that God understands all things and has placed wisdom upon the face of this earth.  God knows from where wisdom originates and where it finds its home.  God established it and tells us, according to vs.28: the fear of the Lord is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.  When we live according to that which God directs us to live, then we are also discovering wisdom.  

Once again it seems like Job is speaking the words that his friends might be more comfortable speaking.  There is one friend, Zophar, who only has one speech while all the others have two, so this could be his third, but it is attributed to Job.  

Again, just like before, the reason we are saying this is because while Job begins this chapter by stating his innocence (vs.6, “I hold fast my righteousness), vs. 13 begins a series of statements describing how the wicked get their due.  If you look at vs. 21 you see how the author describes a wind that takes the children of the wicked and carries them away.  This should make you think of Job 1:19 where the children of Job were in a tent that succumbed to: “a great wind that came across the desert.”  Yeah, pretty much Job is being equated with all the rest of the wicked who have these types of calamities fall upon them.  The righteous never suffer like this.

I hope by now you know that this simply is not the way God works.  Yeah, this is probably Zophar.

The power and providence of God remain unchallenged.  The first four verses we find Job asking rhetorical questions, because the answer to all of them would only be God.  The descriptions that he then lays out refer to the power and providence of God which remain unchallenged.  

He concludes by stating that all which he had just mentioned is but a small token of all that God is able to do and all that God has under His control.  I love the thought that we just hear a very small whisper of the power and the providence of God.  We just catch an imperfect and small glimpse of all that He is able to do.  Job describes it as a whisper.  

He continues on and asks the question: who is  able to understand the thunder of His power.  Did you notice the juxtaposition?  He uses whisper to describe all that we know about God, which is very little, and uses thunder to describe the power  and providence of God, which, by the way, remain unchallenged.

So, what I’m thinking is that maybe, just maybe chapter 24 should have been spoken by Bildad and his ending is found in chapter 25.  It is a very short chapter this 25th one and so it gives you more time to go out in the very, very hot yard and work on your garden.  But, if you are not doing that, then look at how he continues the theme of 24 by speaking about light and dark and the birth of a person, all of these  themes were brought up also in chapter 24.  

So, if chapter 24 is not by Job but by Bildad then we once again have another instance of Job being ganged up on by his friends.  We once again have another instance where in chapter 26 he needs to defend himself.  We once again find ourselves able to commiserate with someone who feels attacked from all sides, including by God, and he has no solution as to why this is happening.  But he perseveres.  He does not lose hope.  He continues to love and serve God even in the midst of this mess.