Chapter 34
Elihu is not done yet, and continues into this chapter. This verse:
5 For Job has said, 'I am in the right, and God has taken away my right; 6 in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.' [Job 34:5-6 ESV]
This is indeed what Job has been saying, and what his friends have been unsuccessfully trying to refute.
10 "Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. [Job 34:10 ESV]
Elihu is on target here, like him or not. God can do what he wants, and is not subject to our attempted judgements. If Job is right, and in his own eyes sinless, then Job is counted a scoffer (vs. 7), and his friends, in agreeing that there is a "vettable" justification - there just has to be, else God is in the wrong - are evil men. They have all elevated themselves to God's level by thinking that they can discern right and wrong and that they can comprehend always and every way that God works. Job takes his place as God's judge by saying God is being unfair to him. The friends take the place of God by saying that God wouldn't be doing this is there wasn't sin in Job's life because they know God wouldn't do this unless there was sin. They all presume upon God's position as sovereign in all things - and always right whether we understand it or not.
2021 - The whole point is that Satan's excuse for his rebellion against God is that God treated him unjustly. Job is being treated unjustly, by Satan, with God's leave. Despite the injustice, Job has not rebelled against God. He is questioning him, he wants an explanation and so on, but Job has not rebelled and opposed God in any way.
But he persists in saying the same thing, although more aggressively, that the three friends were saying(last year...):
11 For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him. 12 Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. [Job 34:11-12 ESV]
(This year, 2020, Elihu says that whatever is happening is just. Whether they understand it or not, it is just. Whether it is about sin or not, it is just. Whether it is about earth or heaven, it is just.) The paragraph ends with this correct conclusion:
14 If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, 15 all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust. [Job 34:14-15 ESV]
God can justifiably wipe the planet clean, and be just and wise in doing so - because a just and wise God can do only what is just and wise. Vs 13 set this up when it points out that no one gave the planet and its people to God. God created. It is all His to do with as he likes.
(I have read Job four times before, and missed this every time. I would have missed it this time but for Dwight's five minutes after Sunday School class that day.)
In 16-20 Elihu talks about God's position relative to man's - far above. He makes and breaks kings. He is just to both the rich and the poor. And all are His to do with as He wills.
2020 - No...I think I'm off here. The point was injustice. Satan was in charge of Job's life, and was dishing out injustice right and left. God was not doing it at all. God was making an important point, for all men, for all eternity - a point important enough to allow injustice toward a single human being for a short period of time. Even in the face of injustice, He is still God, and He does what He thinks best. In this case, He allowed complete and utter injustice. Elihu is hitting all around it, but Elihu also misses the point.
2023 - Isn't Elihu saying here the very same things the three old men have been saying, and isn't he expressing the same "understanding" of how God works that Job is expressing? Elihu's difference seems, this year anyway, to be a matter of degree. Elihu is only saying that even a tiny sin is justification for the things Job is suffering, and yet here is Job unwilling to admit any sin at all. Everyone in the story is saying the same thing. vs. 12 repeats the position for emphasis. They have ALL put God in similar boxes. They all believe in justice on earth...and all this young man is saying is that it doesn't take much of a sin to deserve severe retribution from God.
And then this jewel from Elihu:
23 For God has no need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment. [Job 34:23 ESV]
There isn't going to be a trial with any evidence presented. God has seen everything that has taken place, and even knows the heart of men. Job will not get his day in court, because God already knows.
(2020 - For all have sinned...The point Elihu is making is that all deserve what Job is getting. But God is merciful and does not require this of us all, else what a miserable place, a miserable life, a miserable creation we would have had after the fall. Anything "better" than what Job is suffering is pure mercy from God. And as Elihu said earlier, there will have to be a mediator, a better creature than man can claim to be, that pleads our case with God, else we all will suffer as Job and even worse. This very young man figured all this out while his pompous elders sat around claiming to be wise enough to know everything there was to know about how the world worked. Job and his friends weren't really inquiring of God, they "already knew" all about him. Now this young man comes and says they cannot possibly know, and are arrogant all in their inquiries.)
(This from last year is all wrong. I misunderstood entirely. Perhaps I too am too wise in my own eyes...Elihu goes on and is very accusatory, not speaking with tact or wisdom at all. He accuses Job of lying as a wicked man lies about whether he has sinned. Elihu still thinks there is sin that Job refuses to acknowledge or confess. He says that though Job won't admit it, God still sees it because neither Job, nor anyone else, can have a sin that is secret from God. Elihu believes it is this sin that Job is being chastened for.)
36 Would that Job were tried to the end, because he answers like wicked men. [Job 34:36 ESV]
Sort of a summary statement for the chapter. Elihu says Job should suffer until he dies because he is lying to everyone about his righteousness.
NO! That is not what Elihu is saying. He is saying that Job is looking for an instance of sin that has brought all this suffering on him. Elihu is saying that there is much sin in Job's life - from beginning to now - and that any one single sin, any impurity, any misstep - is enough to justify the punishment he is receiving from a Holy God. And remember the initial point - God tells Satan that even if Job does receive what he deserves on earth, whether from God directly or through the "allowance" God gives to Satan to cause suffering - that Job will remain faithful. Looking at this now, Job is on the very edge of faithful here in his questioning of God. That's why so many of Job's previous statements seemed "dangerous" to me to be asking. Elihu says it this way:
37 For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God." [Job 34:37 ESV]
If there was no sin before, there most certainly is now. And perhaps it was to root out this sin - rebellion - that all this has happened. Sometimes God works this way.
Oh my...this is a principle that we don't often hear. Perhaps our suffering is to make us question God, and show us that arrogance toward Him is hidden deep in our souls, and only through this kind of suffering can it be rooted out. God had a purpose for Job in the suffering he allowed Satan to impose on him.