Good evening all,Yesterday and today, we have heard/are hearing the words of Elihu. Elihu hears the complaint of Job and he becomes angry because Job is attempting to justify himself before God, and because Job's friends are offering terrible advice. And so he pops into the story and we find a few interesting things to note here.
1) Scholars generally do not think this speech was originally part of the story, seeing as how the person doesn't really have interaction with the main characters. However, it has been tied into the flow of the story over time and has become accepted as a part of the canon; plus, it does provide another trajectory into the question of theodicy.
2) "But it is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding." We Christians have a tendency to think it's up to us to make people understand or believe. But we see here that it is the breath of the Almighty (i.e. the Holy Spirit) who enables a person to do these things. Perhaps the greatest tool we Christians have, then, is to pray that the Holy Spirit will enable a person to find understanding and peace in the midst of difficult situations and doubt.
3) Elihu claims that he too has been in a similar position as Job: he is "righteous" and yet bad things befall him, too. Yet, when these things happen, Elihu claims that the Lord is working to vindicate him. Thus, there is an inconsistency in Job's argument: for while he criticizes God's indifference to human activity and questions his justice, Job still seeks vindication from God (which I take to mean that he seeks God to exonerate him or find him "not deserving" of this torment and restore him to his life).
4) Elihu also makes it clear that because God is God, and transcendent (wholly-other, bigger, more powerful, different from us), God's ways are not our ways and His purposes are not always discernible by humans. We cannot begin to grasp the ways of God. So to criticize God's ways is to show our lack of this basic understanding.
5) Elihu answers Job's complaint that God would not communicate with him - in fact, he mentions two ways in which God communicates with his people - through dreams and through illness/suffering. Job had already experienced terrifying dreams, as well as the suffering on his bed. C.S. Lewis once said in his book The Problem of Pain that pain is the "megaphone to rouse a deaf world." For Elihu, God's purpose in suffering is often redemptive - it is meant to bring back a person from "the pit," namely to bring them back from eternal death by forcing them to place their trust in God and receive "the light of life." Still, this is not the kind of communication from God that Job is looking for.
6) Then Elihu launches into his defense of God's justice. He asks how the God who is all powerful, who laid the foundations of the earth, whose breath is borrowed by humanity and still belongs to him, could possibly do wrong. Further, when Job asserts his righteousness and God's injustice, Elihu seems to indicate that Job thinks he is more knowledgeable about what is just than God is.
7) Job's hope for vindication: "But if men are bound in chains, held fast by cords of affliction, [God] tells them what they have done— that they have sinned arrogantly. He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil. If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment. But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and die without knowledge."
8) "Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God's wonders." How often do we fail to meditate on God's handiwork in the creation around us. How often do we stop to marvel at the beauty of the flowers, the intricacies of the the trees, the flight of the bird or the cry of a wolf on a crisp winter night? Probably less than we should - but I think that truly when Christians can take time to appreciate the created order, we can catch a glimpse of God's goodness. Not only that, but it reminds us that the God who gave life to all these things and set them into motion, so cares for us that not even a hair can fall from our heads. If God cares that much, what makes us think that although we suffer and we don't understand, that God will not also deliver us through our suffering to a place where we are stronger and more mature?
9) In the end, Elihu seems to be saying that God is not punishing Job, but rather these trials are meant to build Job's faith in God, and to lead him to life. It is as if to say that suffering is a means of growth (Romans 8:28-30). But rather than patiently endure, Job would criticize God's justice and question God's ways. I think that it is fine for us to be upset at God when bad things befall us - it seems perfectly acceptable that we would express our emotions toward God. But we must also recognize that the God who created us, who set the world into motion and set the very definition of justice - whose breath is borrowed by us for our very life - that God is not mistreating us, but instead is using our suffering for a greater purpose.
It seems to me that the purpose of suffering here in Job, therefore, is to strengthen our faith in God and to draw us back to Him. It sounds strange, and perhaps unjust to our ears. But that just seems to be what this book is saying. Is it a complete view of suffering? Far from it - but it's one trajectory into the great abyss that is this problem.
On that note ... sermon writing awaits. Have a blessed evening! ... and please share thoughts/comments with me.
In Christ,
Pastor Nathan
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