Chapters 32—37
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Scripture Reading: Job 34; Job 35
Chapters thirty-four and thirty-five cover Elihu's second and third corrections and refutations of Job.
Elihu's second correction and refutation of Job is recorded in chapter thirty-four.
Elihu asked the wise and the knowledgeable to hear his words (vv. 1-4). According to him, the ear tries words as the palate tastes food. In verse 4 he said, "Let us choose for ourselves what is right;/Let us know among ourselves what is good."
Next, Elihu corrected Job for saying, "I am righteous,/And God has taken away my right," and, "It does not profit a man/To delight himself in God" (vv. 5, 9).
Elihu also condemned Job.
First, Elihu condemned Job by saying that he went in company with the workers of iniquity and walked with wicked men (vv. 7-8).
Elihu also said that Job had spoken without knowledge and that his words were without insight (v. 35). Elihu even declared that he wished that "Job were tried to the limit/Because of his answering like evil men" (v. 36). Furthermore, Elihu condemned Job by saying that he added rebellion to his sin and that among them he clapped his hands and multiplied his words against God (v. 37).
Elihu went on to refute Job, saying that God would never do evil and that the Almighty would never commit iniquity (v. 10). Rather, God will render a man's work to him and will cause a man to receive that which is according to his own way (v. 11). In verses 12 through 20 Elihu spoke further concerning God's not doing evil and not perverting justice. In verses 12 through 15 he declared, "Indeed in all certainty God will not do evil,/And the Almighty will not pervert justice./Who has ever put the earth in His charge?/Or who has ever set in order the whole world?/If He were to consider Himself only,/He would gather back to Himself His spirit and His breath;/All flesh would perish together,/And man would return to dust."
In verses 21 through 33 Elihu continued to refute Job, saying that God governs and judges the nations and men not to fit Job, since Job had rejected it. Elihu said that God's eyes are upon the ways of a man and that He sees all their steps; that He, knowing the actions of the mighty men, breaks them in pieces without inquiry and puts others in their stead; and that He strikes them as He would evil men because they turned aside from following Him and would not regard any of His ways. Toward the end of this speech, Elihu asked Job, "Should He recompense to fit you, since you have rejected it?" (v. 33a).
By reading chapter thirty-four, we can realize that Elihu was a person who was full of the knowledge of good and evil. This young man should have considered that Job and his three friends already knew all the things that he was speaking. But he was so full of knowledge, he said that he would burst if he did not speak.
I have often wondered why this book does not say that Job and his three friends and Elihu came together to pray by exercising their spirits to touch God. I cannot understand how such a group of godly men could come together without any prayer. They just exercised their minds. Their speaking was all composed of poetry. Even Elihu's word was spoken in poetic form. That requires much exercise of the mentality. Why would they not pray together to seek the Lord's mind, to seek the Lord's purpose? What a pity that they did not do this!
In chapter thirty-five we have Elihu's third correction and refutation of Job.
Elihu corrected Job further by checking with him concerning his answer (vv. 1-3). Elihu asked him if he considered his answer to be just. Then he asked Job, "Do you say, My righteousness is more than God's,/That you say, What advantage is there to me,/What do I profit, more than if I had sinned?" (vv. 2-3).
In verse 4 Elihu said, "I will respond to you with words, /And to your companions with you." This indicates that Elihu was refuting Job before his friends.
Elihu charged Job to look unto heaven and behold the skies, which were higher than him. "If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him?/And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?/If you are righteous, what can you give to Him,/Or what does He receive from your hand?" (vv. 6-7). Here Elihu was telling Job that whether he sinned or was righteous, that did not affect God.
Elihu's talk was vain. There was no need for him to charge Job in this way.
Elihu continued by teaching Job that men cry out to God because of oppressions and cry for help because of the mighty arm (v. 9). But according to Elihu, no one says, "Where is God my Maker,/Who gives songs in the night,/Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth/And makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?" (vv. 10-11). Elihu then said that God does not answer their cry because of the pride of evil men. He said further that God does not hear and regard an empty cry (vv. 12-13). Why did Elihu not charge Job and his friends to pray? Why did he not charge them to praise their Maker?
Elihu went on to say that Job had said that he did not behold God, that his cause was before God, and that he had to wait on God. According to Elihu, because God had not visited in His anger nor regarded such great arrogance, Job had opened his mouth in vanity and had multiplied words without knowledge (vv. 14-16). Elihu accused Job of speaking vanity, but what about his own words? As we read this chapter, we can see that there was no reality in Elihu's words.
In his further talk to Job, Elihu was still unable to answer Job concerning the purpose in God's dealing with him, as the apostle Paul did in declaring to the New Testament believers that the affliction that the believers are suffering works out for them an eternal weight of glory, which is the God of glory to be their glorious portion for them to gain and enjoy unto eternity (2 Cor. 4:17).
