Job 34:1-37

Elihu continues to speak in his effort to convince Job of his sinfulness and to defend the Lord’s goodness.  He begs to be heard and understood as it is impossible in his mind that Job’s suffering has not been caused by his own rebellion against God.  He refuses to accept the possibility that God has allowed Job’s affliction without it being as a punishment for sin.  We may often think that we have a clear understanding of the God and His ways.  We know many things about God and we strive to know Him better.  However, we must always remember that our knowledge is always limited and our understanding is always skewed.  He is far above what we can comprehend and what we think we comprehend is tainted through our sinful interpretation.  God’s ways are always right, but they may not always fit within our perspective of what we may expect from God.  Elihu is basically making two points here.

JOB IS IN THE WRONG: Job’s state of affliction, in Elihu’s mind and according to his theology, must be due to his sin.  However, what bothers him the most is Job’s insistence that he is not guilty of great transgressions that justify the suffering he has faced.  Job is claiming that God has punished him without just cause.  Elihu and Job’s friends are claiming that God is punishing Job with just cause.  The truth is that God is not punishing Job.  We get in trouble when we try to over simplify things and impose on God our own perspective and understanding.  It is a dangerous game we play and we must be careful not to get caught up in this type of mentality.  Not all suffering is punishment from God.  There is an eternal existence of God in a realm that far exceeds our understanding and His ways do not fit into our conceptual thinking.


GOD IS IN THE RIGHT: God is always right; this is an unquestionable truth.  God’s authority over the world and the events on this planet do not come from someone else and are not passed down from some other source that is above Him.  God is over all and is the sovereign of the universe.  His authority comes from Himself.  God also knows all.  There is nothing that is above His knowledge and no events or actions that take place can be hidden from Him.  God is also perfectly just in all that He does.  So given that God is sovereign, knows everything and is just the only logical conclusion Elihu can make is that Job has some secret sin that God is now justly punishing and He is right to do so.  All of these statements about God are completely true, but the assumption that God is punishing Job is not.  The truth is that God uses suffering for more than just punishment.

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