Job 36

¹ And Elihu continued, and said: ² “Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf. ³ I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker. ⁴ For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you. ⁵ “Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding. ⁶ He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right. ⁷ He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted. ⁸ And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction, ⁹ then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. ¹⁰ He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity. ¹¹ If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness. ¹² But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge. ¹³ “The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them. ¹⁴ They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes. ¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. ¹⁶ He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness. ¹⁷ “But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you. ¹⁸ Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. ¹⁹ Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength? ²⁰ Do not long for the night, when peoples vanish in their place. ²¹ Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction. ²² Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? ²³ Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’? ²⁴ “Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung. ²⁵ All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar. ²⁶ Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. ²⁷ For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, ²⁸ which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. ²⁹ Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? ³⁰ Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. ³¹ For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance. ³² He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. ³³ Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises.

Job 37

¹ “At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place. ² Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. ³ Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. ⁴ After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. ⁵ God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. ⁶ For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour. ⁷ He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he made may know it. ⁸ Then the beasts go into their lairs, and remain in their dens. ⁹ From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds. ¹⁰ By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. ¹¹ He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. ¹² They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. ¹³ Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. ¹⁴ “Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God. ¹⁵ Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? ¹⁶ Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge, ¹⁷ you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind? ¹⁸ Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror? ¹⁹ Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness. ²⁰ Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up? ²¹ “And now no one looks on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them. ²² Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty. ²³ The Almighty—we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. ²⁴ Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”

An interesting story about Charles Simeon has come down to us that is helpful as we approach the end of Elihu’s speech.

Charles Simeon, rector of Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge, England, for fifty-four years (1782-1836), had a profound effect on his students. Among those converted through Simeon’s ministry was Henry Martyn, pioneer missionary to India. Often this noted pastor invited students to his house for tea. Here he encouraged them to question him about spiritual truth. Once he was asked, “How do you maintain a close walk with God?”

            This was Simeon’s reply: “By constantly meditating on the goodness of God and on our great deliverance from that punishment which our sins deserve. Keeping both of these in mind, we shall find ourselves advancing on our course; we shall feel the presence of God; we shall experience his love; we shall live in the enjoyment of his favor and in the hope of his grace. Meditation is the grand means of our growth and grace.[1]

At his best, this is what Elihu was pleading for: meditation on the grandeur of God in order to put our own predicaments in proper perspective. In this, Elihu was absolutely correct. He says this, however, in a very uneven manner. I would argue that Elihu starts very weakly but ends very strongly. Francis Andersen is correct when he writes, “Elihu’s last word falls into two parts so distinct in tone and content as to give the impression that they are independent compositions and could have been separate speeches.”[2] The first part of Elihu’s speech, Job 36:1-21, is an unfortunate final expression of the theory of Job’s friends, but the second part, Job 36:22-37:24, is a powerful statement on the supremacy and glory of God.

Elihu appears to indulge in the old theory of retributive justice one last time.

In the first part of Job 36, Elihu appears to indulge in the old theory of retributive justice one last time. Elihu begins with a statement that is breathtakingly arrogant.

¹ And Elihu continued, and said: ² “Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf. ³ I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker. ⁴ For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

As a general rule, we should be careful of those who dare to speak on God’s behalf. We should, of course, have confidence in God’s word as well as in the fact that God has revealed Himself in Jesus, in the Bible, and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But there is a great gulf between the statement “God has spoken!” and the statement “When you hear me you hear the voice of God!”

Do you remember Neale Donald Walsch? He made a splash some years back publishing his Conversations With God books. In these books, Walsch passed on to his fans (of which I am not one) words he alleged God told him. He was once asked why it is he thought God had chosen to speak to him in particular. He responded:

I think it’s just a few who allow themselves to feel worthy of being chosen and therefore experience the fact that they’ve been chosen. I was inspired to write these things, and now over a million people have said by their purchasing and their thunderous response to these books that they have found value in that material. So I’m deeply grateful and, I have to say, very humbled.[3]

There is something laugh-out-loud funny about that last statement, especially when compared to the first statement, but, be that as it may, here we have but one example out of many of those who have dared throughout history to claim to be the mouthpiece of God.

Is Elihu doing this? We should also be careful in saying this is necessarily the case. To be sure, this is an arrogant statement and a regrettable one. Elihu seems to be crossing a line here. Even so, Elihu does know the true God and he will go on to say a number of things that Job, his friends, and all of us need to hear. Once again we find Elihu and his message to be a mixed bag.

⁵ “Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding. ⁶ He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right. ⁷ He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted. ⁸ And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction, ⁹ then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. ¹⁰ He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity. ¹¹ If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness. ¹² But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge. ¹³ “The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them. ¹⁴ They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes. ¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. ¹⁶ He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness. ¹⁷ “But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you. ¹⁸ Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. ¹⁹ Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength? ²⁰ Do not long for the night, when peoples vanish in their place. ²¹ Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction.

If Elihu is saying that Job has compounded his suffering by sinfully diminishing God and exulting himself in his protest against his friends’ false diagnosis of the situation, there is truth here. If, however, Elihu is siding with Job’s friends in arguing that Job had sinned before the tragedy befell him, then Elihu is as wrong as Job’s friends.

Robert Alden believes the latter, that Elihu is here siding with Job’s friends and that he is diagnosing Job’s tragedy as punishment for sin. Here is how Alden puts it:

The message is true. Elihu was orthodox. But Job was not an unregenerate sinner who needed to hear this message. Like many a good gospel message, it was wasted, as it were, on the saved rather than being well invested and preached to the lost. A trained athlete does not need to be told the value of diet and exercise.

Elihu’s admonition does not apply to Job.[4]

If Elihu is indeed committing this error, he is deserving of Alden’s censure. I would like to propose that Elihu is committing this error. In fact, you might could say that verses 11 and 12 are as concise a summary of the theory of retributive justice as one is likely to find:

¹¹ If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness. ¹² But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

In an ultimate sense, in the face of eternity, Elihu is correct. There will be a final reckoning. But Elihu appears to be saying that this reckoning happens on this side of heaven. This is an unfortunate error. How should we interpret this? We should interpret it as testimony of the innate attractiveness and simplicity of the theory. It is a hard theory to shake. While Elihu knew better than Job’s friends, he did lapse into their mindset here and there. Even then, however, there does appear to be more subtlety of thought in Elihu and we do recall that he sought to distance himself from their blunt appraisals.

Elihu rightly calls for a renewed focus on the grandeur and awesome beauty and power of God.

Elihu’s words in the last section of Job 36 and throughout Job 37 are, however, a model example of theological doxology. Elihu praises the greatness and glory of God on high. He does so in order to remind Job and his friends of Who exactly it is they are speaking of. It was, to be sure, a lesson that Elihu himself needed to remember, as we have seen. But he is right in what he says and it is to his credit that he ends on a very strong note.

²² Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? ²³ Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’? ²⁴ “Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung. ²⁵ All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar. ²⁶ Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. ²⁷ For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, ²⁸ which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. ²⁹ Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? ³⁰ Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea. ³¹ For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance. ³² He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. ³³ Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises.

Job 37

¹ “At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place. ² Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. ³ Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. ⁴ After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. ⁵ God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. ⁶ For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour. ⁷ He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he made may know it. ⁸ Then the beasts go into their lairs, and remain in their dens. ⁹ From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds. ¹⁰ By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. ¹¹ He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. ¹² They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. ¹³ Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. ¹⁴ “Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God. ¹⁵ Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? ¹⁶ Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge, ¹⁷ you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind? ¹⁸ Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror? ¹⁹ Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness. ²⁰ Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up? ²¹ “And now no one looks on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them. ²² Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty. ²³ The Almighty—we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. ²⁴ Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”

What immediately strikes us about this is that it sounds very much like what God will say beginning in Job 38. As God grows bigger in our minds, we grow smaller, and that is a good thing. Perhaps we might say that we need intentional reflection on the greatness of God to keep us grounded in that fact. Perhaps we might also say that when we stop reflecting, He immediately begins to get smaller in our own minds and hearts.

Elihu has done Job and his friends and all of us a great service here. He has reminded us that God is, in fact, never silent. He is always speaking in and through His creation: the wind, the rain, the lightning, the thunder, the clouds, the snow, and even the actions of the animals all reveal that the voice of God permeates the earth. What we see as the impersonal laws of nature, we should see as the hand of a loving God.

Furthermore, Elihu is pointing to a great truth that we all must ever keep in mind: we should not be asking God to give an answer; we should see that God is the answer. I repeat: God is the answer.

Perhaps this sounds too vague for us. In reality, it is anything but. Hear the words of Elihu and learn: every raindrop is evidence that God is with you. The movement of the clouds is evidence that God is with you. Each thunderclap is the shout of God to humanity, and each lightning bolt illuminates His presence and His might. Every time a snowflake gently falls upon the earth, God has whispered, “I am here. I am still here! I am with you! There was never a time when I was not with you.” Steve Zeisler passes on a pertinent story from Tony Campolo:

A friend of mine has an adorable four-year-old daughter. She is bright and she is talkative. If tryouts were being held for a modern-day Shirley Temple, I think she would win hands down. One night there was a violent thunderstorm. The lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled. It was one of those terrifying storms that forces everyone to stop and tremble a bit. My friend ran upstairs to his daughter’s room to assure her that everything would be all right. He got to her room and found her standing on the window sill spread-eagled against the glass. He shouted, “What are you doing?” She turned away from the flashing lightning and happily reported, “I think God is trying to take my picture!”[5]

This is charming, sweet even, but it makes a rock-solid theological point: what we are tempted to see as the terrifying happenings of chaotic nature we might just as easily see as a loving reminder from God that He is with us.

He is always with us.

We are not alone.

You are not alone.

He has not abandoned you.

 

[1] Steven J. Lawson, Job. Holman Old Testament Commentary. Vo.10 (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2004), p.307.

[2] Francis I. Andersen, Job. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. 14 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2008), p.276.

[3] RJN, “While We’re At It,” First Things. October 1997.

[4] Robert A. Alden, Job. The New American Commentary. Vol. 11 (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishing Group, 1993), p.350-351,353.

[5] https://www.pbc.org/files/messages/7300/4346.html