Job 34
Summary
This week we return to the book of Job.
We had started looking at the reply of an angry young man, Elihu, to suffering Job and his unsupportive friends.
In this chapter Elihu continues his thoughts on Job's declaration of being righteous and God having unfairly afflicted him.
Elihu speaks of God's holiness, sovereignty and inability to do wrong, but then in contrast Job's derision of God and his behaving like the wicked. He tells how God's knowledge of all the ways of man justify his judgement to them.
Thoughts
Having not closely studied the words of Elihu before I was disappointed to read that he too had nothing kind to say to Job. Instead, he reveals 'My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers for wicked men' (verse 36).
In other words he wants Job to be tried to the utmost because Elihu believes Job has answered his friends like wicked men!
And in the following verse he additionally says it is because Job is adding rebellion to his sin, clapping his hands - or boasting - and multiplying words against God.
How unkind this sounds!
It seems Elihu is putting himself in the place of a judge, speaking of Job's sins and wanting him to be 'tried' unto the end or utmost.
Are we ever like this?
We think we have just cause to be angry at somebody because of how we perceive them to be behaving towards God, and we want them to be punished for this?
What did Jesus say to his disciples when they wanted to command fire to come down from heaven and consume a village of Samaritans who wouldn't entertain them?
'Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them' (Luke 9:55-56).
The disciples were wrongly assuming that the Samaritans wouldn't receive them from animosity towards the Lord and them, rather than realising it was because of historical prejudice towards Jerusalem.
Jesus could read the motives and pride of their hearts and had to warn them (the disciples) - and perhaps this warning is appropriate for you and me today: is our zeal for the Lord actually feeding our own pride and ambition and thus doing more harm than good, or is it coming from a place of mercy and compassion? (Thoughts arising from Henry's commentary).
But to return to Elihu here, on looking up the meaning of 'tried' and 'end' in Strong's concordance I got a slightly different impression of what Elihu was meaning:
Tried can also mean 'tested' or 'examined'.
End appears to mean (as my Study Bible suggests) the utmost of something - a distant goal, for example in truthfulness.
So is there an element of Elihu saying he wants to get to the bottom of this, to have Job examined to find the absolute truth of his situation, because God is holy, sovereign, cannot do wrong and yet here is Job foolishly saying he hasn't sinned and accusing God of unjustness?
Does this have a message to us today in our lives to not judge people as guilty until we have heard the whole truth - but then to deal with them in compassion, knowing that we too are sinners?
How easy - how almost instinctive it is - for us to get on our 'high-horse' and judge people as if we ourselves never sin.
Isn't this what the writer of Romans 2:1 was saying, 'Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things'?
Of course we need to have law and order, and we need those who will judge and maintain justice, but in our every day lives as we mingle with others and live with those around us, do we secretly think we are better than them or judge them for their actions as if we never do the same, or think about doing what they are doing?
Jesus tells us to take the beam (or plank) our of our own eye before offering to pull the moat (or speck) out of our brother's eye (Matthew 7:5). We may clearly see small faults in others but not be aware of the big faults in our own behaviour or character.
Elihu seemed aware of the contradiction in what had happened to Job and his protested innocence in view of their knowledge of a just and righteous God.
Although not beating about the bush with regard to what he thought of Job, he perhaps wanted to get to the bottom of this matter so that God would be seen to be vindicated - perhaps his zeal, like the disciples was coming from a place of pride and judgement, rather than a place of mercy.
May we be helped to examine ourselves and the thoughts and motives of our hearts. Is there somebody - or some people - whose behaviour, actions or appearance we are condemning, criticising or looking down on?
Not condoning evil, because compassion doesn't mean it is okay to sin, but surely it is all about having the right attitude towards others and being very aware of our own need for continual cleansing and forgiveness from sin.
Could we instead ask the Lord to show us how we could love and help that person who we have been judging? Ask to have our eyes opened to our own sins that need to be rooted out, mortified, forgiven and repented of, and pray to be given a right spirit of mercy and compassion.
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