Chapter 35

And still, Elihu continues to speak.  Once he got done waiting on the old guys, he made up for lost time.

2025 - This is now the fourth chapter given to Elihu.  I still think he's further off than the old guys.

He turns now to Job's contention that he might as well have sinned and sinned again if he was gong to be punished like this anyway.  Elihu asks him what difference it would have made to God, no matter which way he did thing?  Do Job's sins - or lack of them - make God's day or upset Him greatly?  No.  Such sins affect only Job.  And what if Job was super righteous?  How does that affect God?  Again, it won't change things.  God already knew, and God's plans would continue undeterred no matter how awesome Job's life.

Hmm...The note in MSB on 35:1-16 ends with this:  "Again, all this theoretical talk missed Job's predicament completely because he was righteous.  Elihu was no more help than the other counselors."

I am not so sure of this...Just as some of the things Job asked God make me cringe at the thought of how God might reply, I think Elihu saw Job's questions and request for "trial" as disrespectful and not very mindful of who it was that he was addressing.  My thought is that there was some sin in Job's life - his pride in how righteous he was - and that God is getting at that through this unearned punishment.  Job thinks that he is righteous enough all on his own to be treated well and only well by God.  I think this is a sinful, prideful attitude, and I think Job is going to come out the other side of this with an attitude that has been adjusted.  BUT, MSB position is that Job truly had not sinned, and therefore has a right to ask pointed questions of God. 

2022 - No.  Job had a problem.  Job was sorely tempted because he did not see that he was in fact a sinner before a Holy God.  There was no law to transgress, but sin was still there.  Man is born corrupt, born deserving of death, and born sentenced to death.  A sentence we cannot overcome on our own.  Elihu also negates Job's argument that he might as well be bad instead of good because the bad are better off than him.  And Elihu says that God is no more offended by the evil that men do than he is impressed by the good that men do.  It seems that what is in view here is the truly diminutive position of man in relation to God.  To assume that God acts BECAUSE of, and in response to either our good or our evil is to make ourselves far greater than we really are.  We are fleas on dogs on our best days.

Possible FB post, following up the one from 34.

2023 - These two verses:

2 "Do you think this to be just? Do you say, 'It is my right before God,' 3 that you ask, 'What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?' [Job 35:2-3 ESV].  I have to go strongly with Elihu here.  He is on the right track.  Is Elihu's speech written purposely to have "nuggets" of incite, yet still come across as the rambling of a young man, with much still to learn?  Is it on purpose that he gets some things right, but still rolls up some really immature ideas with them?  This would mean the book of Job, and Elihu's speech in particular, needs a lot of thought, a lot of distilling to get down to the parts that are indeed wisdom instead of just youthful misunderstanding.

What is "right" in this verse is that it is in tune with Jeremiah's "Will the thing formed say to the one how formed it "Why have you made me thus?".   No matter what, God as our creator has the right to treat us any way he wishes.  It is for him to just "stop the world and kick everyone off" if he chooses.  It is so dangerous to thing we have a right to question God - that even a good man can question God. 

2023 - And this verse:

6 If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? 7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand? [Job 35:6-7 ESV].  This too seems like really good insight to me.  If you are the world's worst sinner does that harm God?  If you are the world's best man, is that a gift that obligates God?  Nothing we do can hurt God or help him.  In this sense, all are the same.  This ought to be expandable into a good post, at least if the previous 2023 is also included...

Possible FB post.