“Elihu Lit into Job Again!” (Grace Note #92)
By
Gary L. Clendenon, January
4,
2021
(All
Bible verses quoted from The
Message Bible)
In
the biblical book of Job, chapter 35, after Job’s three friends
have all expressed their arguments against Job, a young man named
Elihu continues
to speaks.
He says to Job, “I’m
going to show you that you don’t know what you are talking about,
neither you nor your friends.”
(verse 4). So, this young man has all the answers, he thinks. I was
a young man once, and I recognize that “confidence”. LOL.
Elihu
says, “If
you sin, what difference does that make to God? … If you are
good, what would God get out of that? Do you think he’s dependent
on your accomplishments?”
(verses
6&7)
Is
GOD dependent on our behavior? Obviously, He’s not
Co-dependent—because that would be unhealthy. But, look at the
whole Old Testament: It’s basically GOD grieving all out loud and
messy that His people’s behavior is hurtful to Him! So, whether or
not He has to be dependent, He has chosen
to be effected by our behavior. That’s what happens when you
choose to Love and be in relationship with others: their behavior
effects you!
Elihu
continues, “When
times get bad, people cry out for help. … But never give a
thought to God when things go well. People are arrogantly
indifferent to God—until, of course, they are in trouble, and then
God is indifferent to them.”
(verses 9-13)
Although
I agree wholeheartedly with Elihu’s first thought—after all, it
is human nature to take relationships for granted when they are going
well, I strongly disagree with his conclusion that “God is
indifferent” to us when we call out to Him in trouble. Elihu’s
argument is completely debunked by the outsider’s view of the Job
story where we get to see the whole picture—the whole story. We
know that God is not only NOT
indifferent to Job’s life and story, but intimately involved with
it and
very closely monitoring every act and word of this story!
One
might say, “Well,
that just Job’s story!”
But, I would argue, based on the very intimate and personal promises
made to His children and sprinkled throughout the whole Bible, that
if these promises are true, and I choose to believe that they are,
then GOD is also intimately involved with each of our lives. GOD
desires that intimacy and, as much as we let Him, GOD
will be that close to us. GOD
wants to be, as “The Carpenters” famously sang, “Close to you”!
Once
again, Elihu continues in Job chapter 36, verses 3&4, “Trust
me, … I know these things inside and out. It’s true that God is
all-powerful, but he doesn’t bully innocent people.”
In
other words, Elihu is saying, “Job,
logically, you
have to be wrong.
Because, obviously you cannot be ‘innocent’ because these bad
things have happened to you. So, you must repent of your sin. This
is the reason for your suffering. You are only making things worse
by fighting us, your friends, and GOD on this. This is all on you.
So, don’t be stupid here!”
Ironically,
this is the same argument that Job’s “3 Friends” had already
made in so many different ways, and therefore, nothing new.
It
is my understanding, as learned from Professor Alden Thompson in his
“Old Testament History” class, that the Old Testament view of
suffering was that all things—good and bad—came from GOD, and
that GOD took credit for everything.
(1)
That is to say that the Old Testament mind had no knowledge of Satan
or demons bringing
trouble
to us. Obviously, that perspective changed with Jesus enlightening
His followers to the
works of Satan and demons. Now, because of that and other New
Testament writings, we have a more balanced perspective on this
topic.
So,
it is actually true that Job’s friends’ logic was not that far
off—based on their understandings of the Universe they lived in. I
like what Eugene Peterson, author “The Message Bible”, says about
this in his “Intro” to the book of Job: “Many of the answers
that Job’s so-called friends give him are technically true. But it
is the ‘technical’ part that ruins them. They are answers
without personal relationship, intellect without intimacy. The
answers are slapped on Job’s ravaged life like labels on a specimen
bottle. Job rages against this secularized wisdom that has lost
touch with the living realities of God.”
In
the end of Job’s story, when GOD finally does answer Job, we find
out that everyone
was wrong—Job and all of his friends! But, and this is a very
interesting point to ponder, out of all of them, according to GOD,
Job was the most
right in his words and actions.
Prayer:
GOD,
your mysterious ways are unfathomable to us mere humans. Help me to
maintain a proper perspective of humility in what I think that I know
about you—or anything else for that matter. ~ Amen!
(1)
For more on this idea, read Alden Thompson’s book, “Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God?”
