Lenten Study Job Ch 34
Elihu continues to make his case. He reminds Job God is always good and right because He is God. He also reminds Job to step away from the line of arguments he is making because he is treading dangerously close to making statements about God they all know are untrue.
"There was a man in the land of Uz" by andrevanb is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Caption
1 Then Elihu continued and said,
2 “Hear my words, you wise men, And listen to me, you who know.
3 “For the ear tests words As the palate tastes food.
Job 34:1-3 (NASB)
The imagery in this passage is amazing. The ear tests words as the palate tastes food. Think about your ear “tasting” words as you hear them. I don’t know how a word would taste, you say. Fine. Let’s consider how we taste food and substitute the act of hearing for that.
Each cook who makes a dish makes it slightly different from the person before. Each time the cook makes the dish, even following the same recipe, it is slightly different. An experienced chef can make the same dish taste the same every time, but only after considerable time making that dish. Add more than one dish or ingredient into that, and we now have a melding of flavors. Add to that fine wine, and the nuances of food are further complicated. The variations on a single meal are incalculable.
But a word means what a word means, you reply. Yes, it does. However, body language, intonation, personal experience of the speaker, and context of the other words spoken become the cooking that is oration in the spoken word. We are all chefs of our discourse, and those who listen are the ones who consume our words like dinners at a restaurant. Some consume by choice and others because they are forced or have no alternative. The question is, are we cooking up fast food or fine dining?
4 “Let us choose for ourselves what is right; Let us know among ourselves what is good.
5 “For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, But God has taken away my right;
6 Should I lie concerning my right? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’
Job 34:4-6 (NASB)
This is a summary of Job’s complaint. Essentially, Job is claiming God has injured him without reason.
7 “What man is like Job, Who drinks up derision like water,
Job 34:7 (NASB)
Derision is the act of laughing at or ignoring someone who is ridiculing you. Job doesn’t care what other people think of him. He is secure in who he is, what he knows, and what God wants of him. At least he was.
8 Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, And walks with wicked men?
9 “For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing When he is pleased with God.’
Job 34:8-9 (NASB)
Job has walked among those who do not follow God’s ways and actively try to move people away from God unscathed. Job could do this because he was secure within himself that he was following God’s path for him. Elihu repeats a proverb Job has said before, and it is true for us today. If you are firm in your belief that you are observing and listening to what the Holy Spirit has to tell you, that you are following God’s directions for your life, you can do anything.
10 “Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wickedness, And from the Almighty to do wrong.
Job 34:10 (NASB)
God cannot do the wrong thing. He makes the rules, understands how all of creation works and is perfect in His judgment.
11 “For He pays a man according to his work, And makes him find it according to his way.
12 “Surely, God will not act wickedly, And the Almighty will not pervert justice.
Job 34:11-12 (NASB)
Elihu does not believe God could or would act wickedly or unjustly. It is not possible for God to do these things. We might believe something He has done isn’t right or just. However, we could be incorrectly assigning blame as Job is. God may not be the actor responsible for what is happening to us. Satan is the one responsible in Job’s case. Evil exists, and it acts in the world. I do not ascribe to the Calvinist doctrine that everything that happens in life is the will of God. That removes the free will and choices of people from the equation. I firmly believe there is scriptural evidence for free will and will carry that belief to the end. If we part ways there, that’s fine, but it is who I am and informs my understanding of God’s Word.
13 “Who gave Him authority over the earth? And who has laid on Him the whole world?
14 “If He should determine to do so, If He should gather to Himself His spirit and His breath,
15 All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust.
Job 34:13-15 (NASB)
This is a rhetorical statement everyone of the day knew, and we should know too. God has authority over everything because He made it all. Why does that give Him authority over everything? Because He can unmake any aspect of creation, remake it any way He wants, or change any aspect of anything as pleases Him. He has that power. Thus, all authority over what we know as the universe, creation, matter, people, etc., belongs to God.
16 “But if you have understanding, hear this; Listen to the sound of my words.
17 “Shall one who hates justice rule? And will you condemn the righteous mighty One,
18 Who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’ To nobles, ‘Wicked ones’;
19 Who shows no partiality to princes Nor regards the rich above the poor, For they all are the work of His hands?
20 “In a moment they die, and at midnight People are shaken and pass away, And the mighty are taken away without a hand.
Job 34:16-20 (NASB)
This is an eloquent statement of what I just said. God has power over everything. God has power over everyone. There isn’t a person alive who can overcome a decision of God’s, which is evident by the fact that no one has attained immortality though many people have desired such power.
21 “For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps.
22 “There is no darkness or deep shadow Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
23 “For He does not need to consider a man further, That he should go before God in judgment.
24 “He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, And sets others in their place.
25 “Therefore He knows their works, And He overthrows them in the night, And they are crushed.
Job 34:21-25 (NASB)
Another rhetorical statement about God everyone just knew. God knows all, sees all and understands all. There are no secrets from God.
26 “He strikes them like the wicked In a public place,
27 Because they turned aside from following Him, And had no regard for any of His ways;
28 So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him, And that He might hear the cry of the afflicted—
Job 34:26-28 (NASB)
In Job’s day, flogging and whipping, among other punishments, were carried out in the town square or other highly visible public places. The guilty were trotted out; an announcement was made about what crime they were convicted of and the punishment to be meted out. Then, that punishment was performed for all to see. This was a deterrent for others to see that justice was out there and handed out. Elihu assigns this quality to God’s punishment of the wicked.
29 When He keeps quiet, who then can condemn? And when He hides His face, who then can behold Him, That is, in regard to both nation and man?—
30 So that godless men would not rule Nor be snares of the people.
Job 34:29-30 (NASB)
If God chooses to act or not act, who has the power to oppose Him? If God decides to withdraw from the world and leave it to its own devices, who can force Him to return? Nothing in all of creation can make God do anything or stop Him from doing anything.
31 “For has anyone said to God, ‘I have borne chastisement; I will not offend anymore;
32 Teach me what I do not see; If I have done iniquity, I will not do it again’?
33 “Shall He recompense on your terms, because you have rejected it? For you must choose, and not I; Therefore declare what you know.
Job 34:31-33 (NASB)
Shall He recompense on your terms, because you have rejected it? God does not negotiate His ways. If we ask God to explain why we are being punished or what we got wrong, He will help us understand if we are being chastised for wrongdoing. However, God will not bow to our argument as though He were somehow wrong in what He did. That can never be. We must change our ways to conform to the ways of God. God does not change for Man.
34 “Men of understanding will say to me, And a wise man who hears me,
35 ‘Job speaks without knowledge, And his words are without wisdom.
36 ‘Job ought to be tried to the limit, Because he answers like wicked men.
37 ‘For he adds rebellion to his sin; He claps his hands among us, And multiplies his words against God.’”
Job 34:34-37 (NASB)
These last two groups of verses make Elihu’s point. Job is getting very close to declaring God is acting unjustly, which is impossible and everyone gathered there knows that. If Job actually crosses that line, he enters the realm of “wicked men,” which he is not. Elihu knows Job isn’t among the wicked in his beliefs or actions. He illustrates this point to Job, hoping that he can draw him away from that line before he crosses it.