Job 32

¹ So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ² Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. ³ He burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. ⁴ Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. ⁵ And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger. ⁶ And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you. ⁷ I said, ‘Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.’ ⁸ But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. ⁹ It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right. ¹⁰ Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion.’ ¹¹ “Behold, I waited for your words, I listened for your wise sayings, while you searched out what to say. ¹² I gave you my attention, and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job or who answered his words. ¹³ Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom; God may vanquish him, not a man.’ ¹⁴ He has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your speeches. ¹⁵ “They are dismayed; they answer no more; they have not a word to say. ¹⁶ And shall I wait, because they do not speak, because they stand there, and answer no more? ¹⁷ I also will answer with my share; I also will declare my opinion. ¹⁸ For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. ¹⁹ Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst. ²⁰ I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer. ²¹ I will not show partiality to any man or use flattery toward any person. ²² For I do not know how to flatter, else my Maker would soon take me away.

Job 33

¹ “But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words. ² Behold, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks. ³ My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely. ⁴ The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ⁵ Answer me, if you can; set your words in order before me; take your stand. ⁶ Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay. ⁷ Behold, no fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy upon you. ⁸ “Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words. ⁹ You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me. ¹⁰ Behold, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy, ¹¹ he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths.’ ¹² “Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. ¹³ Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s words’? ¹⁴ For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. ¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds, ¹⁶ then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, ¹⁷ that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; ¹⁸ he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword. ¹⁹ “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, ²⁰ so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food. ²¹ His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out. ²² His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death. ²³ If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, ²⁴ and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; ²⁵ let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’; ²⁶ then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness. ²⁷  He sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me. ²⁸ He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’ ²⁹ “Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, ³⁰ to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life. ³¹ Pay attention, O Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak. ³² If you have any words, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you. ³³ If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

Steven Lawson passes along a powerful little story coming out of London’s Hyde Park.

At the famous Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park, a man denounced the Christian faith and issued this challenge: “If there is a God, I will give him five minutes to strike me dead!” Before the stunned crowd, he took out his own watch and waited. After five minutes, with no thunderbolt thrust down from heaven, he smiled and said, “My friends, this proves that there is no God!” In the crowd that day a strong Christian who had the presence of mind to respond, “Do you think you could exhaust the patience of God in five minutes?”[1]

The patience of God truly cannot be exhausted by mortal man. That is true. To think that it can be is to think less of God than you should and more of man than you should. To be sure, God was patient with Job and Job could not exhaust His patience. Yet Job, even though he had not sinned as his three friends alleged, had begun to elevate himself more than he should have. Furthermore, his constant questioning of God along with his repeated pleas to have his day in court with God reflected a diminishing view of the glory and sovereignty of God within Job.

This is said to Job and to his friends by a young man named Elihu. Elihu is a fascinating character. He has sat in the shadows without speaking for thirty-one chapters. He obviously listened very carefully to both sides and, in so doing, he found both sides lacking. His words demonstrate a real theological depth and his approach demonstrates genuine concern for all involved.

One might be tempted to see Elihu as F.M. Cornford’s “young man in a hurry.”

The Young Man in a Hurry is afflicted with a conscience, which is apt to break out, like measles, in patches. To listen to him, you would think he united the virtues of a Brutus to the passion for lost causes of a Cato; he has not learnt that most of his causes are lost by letting the Cato out of the bag, instead of tying him up firmly and sitting on him, as experienced people do.[2]

To view him in this way, however, would be a mistake. Elihu does evidence strong youth zeal and passion, but there is great wisdom in his words. The speech he begins in chapter 32 will stretch over a number of chapters. It is not answered by Job. The next words after Elihu’s are God’s words. Furthermore, while Job and his friends are all rebuked by God at the conclusion of the book, Elihu is not. There are many reasons, then, to listen and listen closely to this young man.

Elihu is angry at everybody and believes that everybody has missed the point.

Job 32 begins with a summary statement of Elihu’s feelings about all that he had heard.

¹ So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ² Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. ³ He burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.

Elihu was angry at everybody. He was angry at Job because Job had become fixated on himself and his own righteousness and had neglected to think about the righteousness of God. He was angry at Job’s friends because of their stubborn pontificating on the same fallacious theme of retributive justice. Having heard it all, Elihu determined that he had heard enough.

His anger at Job is particularly noteworthy: “He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.” Again, Job had not sinned as his friends alleged, but Job had now veered into sin in the way that he accused God and exonerated himself. There is a way to be right in the wrong way. There is a way to be incorrect in being correct. Steven Lawson has offered a nice summary of Elihu’s approach.

Elihu’s approach to Job’s suffering was different from that of Job’s three friends. Job’s counselors had argued that Job needed to repent of sin that he surely had committed before his tragedies. Elihu, on the other hand, said that Job needed to repent of pride that developed during his suffering. The three companions claimed that Job was suffering because he had sinned. But Elihu reasoned that Job was sinning because he was suffering. According to Elihu, Job’s suffering had provoked an attitude of self-righteous pride before God as he questioned God’s ways.[3]

That is an apt summary and a helpful one. Elihu is therefore distancing himself from Job’s friends’ criticisms as well as from Job’s own criticisms of God. In a larger sense, Elihu is going to argue that Job is stuck in an earthly perspective and has forgotten the grandeur of God.

First, Elihu gives a defense of his words and of his speaking at all.

⁴ Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. ⁵ And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger. ⁶ And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you. ⁷ I said, ‘Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.’ ⁸ But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. ⁹ It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right. ¹⁰ Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion.’ ¹¹ “Behold, I waited for your words, I listened for your wise sayings, while you searched out what to say. ¹² I gave you my attention, and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job or who answered his words. ¹³ Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom; God may vanquish him, not a man.’ ¹⁴ He has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your speeches. ¹⁵ “They are dismayed; they answer no more; they have not a word to say. ¹⁶ And shall I wait, because they do not speak, because they stand there, and answer no more? ¹⁷ I also will answer with my share; I also will declare my opinion. ¹⁸ For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. ¹⁹ Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst. ²⁰ I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer. ²¹ I will not show partiality to any man or use flattery toward any person. ²² For I do not know how to flatter, else my Maker would soon take me away.

Job 33

¹ “But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words. ² Behold, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks. ³ My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely. ⁴ The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ⁵ Answer me, if you can; set your words in order before me; take your stand. ⁶ Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay. ⁷ Behold, no fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy upon you. ⁸ “Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words.

Elihu’s apology for his words can be basically summed up in three ideas: (1) he has remained silent out of respect for his elders for as long as he could, (2) wisdom is bound up with the Spirit of God more than it is bound up with mere length of years, and (3) he has the Spirit of God just like any of them do. We may see in this prolonged and careful introduction a picture of the social mores of ancient life. The elders were to be revered. The elders spoke first and the youth last.

We may also see in Elihu’s defense the same sentiment expressed in Paul’s words to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:

¹² Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

We may even see Elihus’ sentiments reflected in the conversation between God and Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:

⁴ Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” ⁶ Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” ⁷ But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” ⁹ Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰ See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

While it is true that wisdom usually follows the experience of the Godly, wisdom is rooted in God, not years, and a child who grasps God’s word is wiser than an elderly man who has rejected it. Because of this, Elihu speaks.

Elihu argues that Job’s problem is that he has not considered that God might be trying to teach him in his pain.

There are two ways to view reality: (1) from below upward and (2) from above downward. In other words, you can view reality from the perspective of the earth or from the perspective of the Kingdom of God. Elihu is going to make the point that Job has been so fixated on his own righteousness and his own innocence that he has begun to view the whole situation from the below upward.

Interestingly, Elihu’s first point of attack is Job’s assertion that God has not answered him.

⁹ You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me. ¹⁰ Behold, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy, ¹¹ he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths.’ ¹² “Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. ¹³ Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s words’? ¹⁴ For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. ¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds, ¹⁶ then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, ¹⁷ that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; ¹⁸ he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.

Perhaps we might see this as a rather secondary point, the way that God speaks. Perhaps we might be tempted to respond to Elihu, “Ok, fine and good, but none of that touches on the central problem of suffering and the people of God.” In fact, however, it does. The point that Elihu is making is bigger than the individual point he is making!

True, he is making the important point that just because God has not appeared in Job’s courtroom and just because God has not answered Job audibly that does not mean that God does not speak. After all, God is speaking to us all of the time, even when we are not conscious! God, Elihu points out, speaks to men in dreams, in “deep sleep,” and when men “slumber on their beds.” These are the times when God “opens the ears of men.”

One gathers that Job’s constant allegations concerning the alleged silence of God had grown increasingly grating to Elihu. “How do you know He has not spoken to you?!” he thunders. “How can you say that He is silent?!”

But there is a bigger point Elihu is making: what if Job is missing what God is saying because he has become so big in his own defense and protest that his own person has eclipsed the grandeur of God in his own mind? What if in constantly defending himself Job has come to occupy the place in his mind that only God should occupy?

Again, it is possible to be right in the wrong way. It is possible to sin by overly stressing the fact that you have not sinned. It is possible to win a battle but lose a war.

The constant fixation on the self causes the self to grow larger and, in the mind of the one so fixated, cause God to grow smaller. Then we begin to say foolish things like, “God is being silent because He has not responded as I think He should.” We begin, in other words, to make our own expectations the measuring stick for God Himself! “I think therefore I am” becomes “I think therefore God should be.” But God’s ways are not our ways and God’s movements are to grand to be captured in the petty protests of even His own people.

We might almost say that Elihu is arguing that theology needs to eclipse anthropology, that the ways of God need to be stressed more than the ways of man!

He then moves on to say that perhaps God allows suffering for His own reasons and purposes so that we might come to know Him and His ways better.

¹⁹ “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, ²⁰ so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food. ²¹ His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out. ²² His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death. ²³ If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, ²⁴ and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; ²⁵ let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’

In the course of his argument, Elihu paints a most provocative picture. We might almost see this as an example of the protoevangelium, the gospel depicted in shadowy ways in the Old Testament. He envisions God rebuking man with pain and strife. He depicts the decline of a man’s life into restlessness and decay. He speaks of this man as being on the very brink of death. Then, in verse 23, he speaks of a mediating angel, an angel who is a source of revelation to the man and also of salvation, who calls for the man to be spared. He speaks of the angel as having “found a ransom” that will allow the man’s life to be restored.

This is, for Christians, utterly fascinating. It is offered without further explanation by Elihu. For us, however, this is a most Christ-like image, a picture of the Savior who was coming. It reminds us of the ransom that has been paid for us at Calvary and the mediation that Christ ever and always offers for His people at the right hand of God.

Elihu depicts the suffering man as having been brought back by the brink. This results in restored joy.

²⁶ then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness. ²⁷  He sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me. ²⁸ He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’

Elihu argues that when God strikes then redeems the man the man rejoices, worships, and tells others of the greatness of God. But the key verses are verses 29 and 30.

²⁹ “Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man, ³⁰ to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life. ³¹ Pay attention, O Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak. ³² If you have any words, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you. ³³ If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

This is the closest thing we ever get to an “explanation” in the book of Job, and it is a beautiful one. “God does all these things,” Elihu says, “to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.” It is almost as if he is saying, “God allows the darkness to fall in our lives because it is only on the other side of the darkness that we are able to receive greater light.”

There is great wisdom here! Elihu acknowledges that God is ultimately behind this but not in the ways that Job’s friends envision (i.e., as a punisher) or in the ways that Job has come to envision (i.e., as a cruel master). Rather, God allows some suffering because God is a teacher and it is only in the classroom of tragedy that we are able to receive the greatest of truths.

Steven Chase has beautifully captured the essence of what Elihu is saying.

The Elihu speeches begin a shift in the writer’s perspective concerning the theology of suffering. In the Elihu speeches we find advocacy for suffering that is not just or unjust, not divinely righteous or unrighteous, not concerned with innocence or guilt, nor oriented toward justification or redemption. The theology of suffering in the Elihu speeches is rather focuse3d on suffering as formative and providential. In these chapters suffering is beyond human conceptions of good or bad, right or wrong, something certainly to be alleviated when possible, never condoned or perpetuated with malice, but somehow, in a transcendent, invisible, and unknowable way, suffering enters history and is immanent, visible, and knowable in and through creation. And in every case suffering is a formative, providential work of God, even if the eschatological dimensions of providence are to be “completed” in an afterlife.[4]

Does this answer all of our questions? No. Does this put a nice and neat bow on human suffering so that now it is seen as beautiful? No. Does this explain all types of suffering? No. Does this even explain why it is that God would sometimes teach us in the classroom of suffering? No.

What it does do, though, is open up a critically important third option to those presented in Job: the option that there is a kind of mercy in suffering allowed, a path to greater light and life through the crucible of pain. Elihu reminded Job and his friends and us that God might know exactly what God is doing in the situations that seem most nonsensical and even cruel.

We hear the words of Elihu and can now remind ourselves of this fact: there is light after the darkness, there is a sunrise after the darkest night. On the far end of tragedy there is light and life and understanding. Not exhaustive understanding. Not even the kind of understanding that answers all questions. But on the other side of the painful night there is a sunrise of the glory of God that reminds us that God is still with us, that God still loves us, and that, if we are willing to listen and to receive it, God can teach us on the ash heap better than He can ever teach us on the sofa.

The sun rises.

The Son rises.

Every Good Friday gives way to Easter glory, every tear at the tomb gives way to Hallelujah!

Do not despair. Do not let go.

 

[1] Steven J. Lawson, Job. Holman Old Testament Commentary. Vo.10 (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2004), p.271.

[2] Quoted in G.R. Evans, John Wyclif: Myth and Reality (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2005), p.143.

[3] Steven J. Lawson, p.272.

[4] Steven Chase, Job. Belief. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), p.235-236.