JOB 36
OPENS WITH...ELIHU TEACHES JOB ABOUT GOD
Verses 1-4 tells us Elihu: "There are yet words to speak on God's behalf."
“Elihu also proceeded and said:
"Bear with me a little, and I will show you
That there are yet words to speak on God's behalf.
I will fetch my knowledge from afar;
I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
For truly my words are not false;
One who is perfect in knowledge is with you."
Bear with me a little, and I will show you that there are yet words to speak on God's behalf…
Apparently young Elihu saw that his listeners were becoming uncomfortable with his condemnation and long-windedness. He begs for them to keep listening, and ELIHU INSISTS that he is speaking on God's behalf.
Young Elihu spoke with a directness Job's other friends did NOT use (Job 33:1, 33:31, 34:5, 34:7, and so forth).
Yet he also spoke with an authority that Job's other friends did not. Job's other friends appealed to conventional, ancient wisdom and common knowledge.
Elihu BRASHLY AND ARROGANTLY claimed to speak on God's behalf.
I will fetch my knowledge from afar … One who is perfect in knowledge is with you…
Though Elihu was obviously too confident in his knowledge and his words, the One with perfect knowledge was probably a reference to God here.
Verses 5-12 tells us God rewards the obedient and the disobedient perish.
"Behold, God is mighty, but despises no one;
He is mighty in strength of understanding.
He does not preserve the life of the wicked,
But gives justice to the oppressed.
He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;
But they are on the throne with kings,
For He has seated them forever,
And they are exalted.
And if they are bound in fetters,
Held in the cords of affliction,
Then He tells them their work and their transgressions;
That they have acted defiantly.
He also opens their ear to instruction,
And commands that they turn from iniquity.
If they obey and serve Him,
They shall spend their days in prosperity,
And their years in pleasures.
But if they do not obey,
They shall perish by the sword,
And they shall die without knowledge."
Here Elihu again promoted the ideas of God's power and perfect justice. In His perfect justice, God punishes the wicked and works for the oppressed.
He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous…
Since Job had often said and felt that God had removed His eyes from Job, Elihu is clearly counting Job among the wicked. In Elihu's mind, the freedom God has for the righteous does NOT belong to Job because Job is NOT among the righteous.
In Elihu's mind, the righteous man was marked by many things; things that were conspicuously absent from the life of Job.
1. God's eyes are upon the righteous (He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous)
2. The righteous are exalted (they are on the throne with kings)
3. If the righteous are bound, God convicts them, sets them free, and are restored to prosperity and pleasures (if they are bound in fetters … He tells them their works and their transgressions … if they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity)
If they do not obey, they shall perish by the sword…
This was another one of Elihu's strong warnings to Job. He warned Job to repent and to not be like the disobedient who perish and who die without knowledge.
Verses 13-15 tells us The sad fate of the hypocrite.
"But the hypocrites in heart store up wrath;
They do not cry for help when He binds them.
They die in youth,
And their life ends among the perverted persons.
He delivers the poor in their affliction,
And opens their ears in oppression."
The hypocrites in heart store up wrath…
Elihu thought Job was a hypocrite for continuing to deny his guilt. He felt Job was putting himself under a greater and greater outpouring of God's wrath.
Their life ends among the perverted persons…
Elihu painted a bleak future for an unrepentant Job.
Verses 16-21 tells us Elihu to Job: "What God would have done for you."
"Indeed He would have brought you out of dire distress,
Into a broad place where there is no restraint;
And what is set on your table would be full of richness.
But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked;
Judgment and justice take hold of you.
Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow;
For a large ransom would not help you avoid it.
Will your riches,
Or all the mighty forces,
Keep you from distress?
Do not desire the night,
When people are cut off in their place.
Take heed, do not turn to iniquity,
For you have chosen this rather than affliction."
Elihu here spoke to Job about what God would have done for Job, if Job would only have repented as he should have (at least in Elihu's persective).
If Job would only have repented then God would have:
1. Brought Job out of his dire distress.
2. Brought Job into a broad place where there is no restraint.
3. Brought Job to a table … full of richness.
But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked…
For Elihu, Job's problems were easy to diagnose. Job did not have the blessings God gives to the obedient and repentant; therefore Job was not obedient and repentant. Instead he was filled with the judgment due the wicked.
In saying "judgment and justice take hold of you," Elihu could not be clearer.
There was ONE AND ONLY ONE reason for Job's crisis and loss; it was that the judgment and justice of God was against him. It is helpful to remind ourselves that Job chapters 1 and 2 make it clear that Elihu was absolutely WRONG in this analysis.
Will your riches, or all the mighty forces, keep you from distress?
Elihu assumed what many people assume…
That rich people trust in their riches. This is often true - perhaps almost always true; but it was NOT true in Job's case and it was WRONG for Elihu to assume it.
You have chosen this rather than affliction…
"Job, all this suffering and agony is your choice. It could all be different as soon as you repent and turn back to God."
It was this kind of counsel that drove Job crazy, because it demanded that he forsake his integrity and make a show of repentance just to PLEASE his friends.
Job had his own faults during this extended dialogue with his friends, sins that he will later repent of (Job 42:1-6); yet he showed amazing strength to hold to his integrity in the face of this constant barrage of accusations against his friends.
Verses 22-24 tells us Elihu again remembers the greatness of God.
"Behold, God is exalted by His power;
Who teaches like Him?
Who has assigned Him His way,
Or who has said, 'You have done wrong'?"
"Remember to magnify His work,
Of which men have sung.
Everyone has seen it;
Man looks on it from afar."
Elihu here again wanted to exalt God in the eyes of Job, thinking that Job's problem was that he had too low a view of God, and too high a view of himself.
This begins a section where a marked change comes over Elihu.
WHY?
NOTICE...As the following verses indicate, he probably spoke with his eye upon a rapidly approaching storm with all of its rain and wind and thunder and dark clouds. A sudden and wonderful inspiration filled Elihu, and he spoke in a very different way than his previous harsh and condemning way towards Job.
Remember to magnify His work, of which men have sung…
Job himself had magnified the work of God, and was well aware of the power, majesty, and glory of God.
As the storm approached Job and his friends, and as Elihu continued to describe it, we will recognize in Job 38 that the LORD was in this storm, READY to speak to Job.
Verses 25-33 tells us the unsearchable greatness of God is expressed in the storm.
"Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him;
Nor can the number of His years be discovered.
For He draws up drops of water,
Which distill as rain from the mist,
Which the clouds drop down
And pour abundantly on man.
Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds,
The thunder from His canopy?
Look, He scatters his light upon it,
And covers the depths of the sea.
For by these He judges the peoples;
He gives food in abundance.
He covers His hands with lightning,
And commands it to strike.
His thunder declares it,
The cattle also, concerning the rising storm."
Elihu again promoted the concept of the transcendence of God. He heard and sensed how Job demanded answers from God, and counseled Job to understand that God was beyond Job and beyond explaining things to Job.
This was Elihu's most truthful and powerful argument, yet it itself was based on the premise that Job had to do this in light of his great transgression against God. It was a powerful, good principle ONCE AGAIN WRONGLY applied to Job's situation.
For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist…
Elihu analyzed the water cycle of evaporation, distillation, and rain and used it as an example of God's brilliance and beauty as a Designer.
DID YOU KNOW…Elihu's wisdom in analyzing the water cycle has led MANY DOWN THROUGH HISTORY TO WRONGLY conclude that the Book of Job must have been written later than commonly supposed.
"The phenomenon of condensation (Job 36:27b) and precipitation (Job 36:28), while not technically understood, was certainly observable. But evaporation (Job 36:27) is NOT.
Duhm and others FORGET THAT ALMIGHTY GOD IS THE ORIGINATOR OF THE STORY OF JOB AND THAT ALMIGHTY GOD KNOWS ALL THINGS AND GRANTS WISDOM AS HE WILLS IT...TIME, TIDE, AND DISTANCE ARE MAN’S LIMITS, BUT THEY ARE NOT THE ALL-KNOWING, ALL-SEEING, ALL-RULING CREATOR GOD.
THAT BEING SAID, DUHM AND OTHERS therefore considered this proof that the Elihu speeches came a few centuries LATER than the divine speeches since meteorological knowledge would have been obtained from the Greeks.
The cattle also, concerning the rising storm: "Because divers cattle are very sagacious in this matter, and do not only perceive the rain when it is ready to fall, but foresee it at some distance by the vapours, which are drawn up by the sun in great abundance, and by divers motions and actions, give men timely notice of it, as hath been observed not only by husbandmen, but also by learned authors.