Lenten Study Job Ch 35
Elihu is tired of these four men getting things wrong. He calls them out on their mistakes, starting with Job, but he catches the three friends in there a few times as well. This is a short chapter today, but it has some very poignant points made by the younger man.
"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 “Do you think this is according to justice? Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?
3 “For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’
Job 35:1-3 (NASB)
That’s exactly what Job said, but I don’t think Job meant to say it. I also don’t think Elihu believes Job meant to say it either. When Job says God is making a mistake and goes on to list all the ways he is righteous and why he is not wicked, he says God is making a mistake by punishing him. God can’t and doesn’t make mistakes.
4 “I will answer you, And your friends with you.
Job 35:4 (NASB)
Remember, Elihu is angry with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar too. They have not been supportive of Job, and he intends to let them know they’ve fallen down on the job with Job.
5 “Look at the heavens and see; And behold the clouds—they are higher than you.
6 “If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him? And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him?
Job 35:5-6 (NASB)
Our sins don’t hurt God. When we break His rules, we don’t injure Him. Of course, God is not happy that His children cannot see the wisdom of His ways and choose a path of self-harm. He gave us free will allowing us to make those choices. The damage is not done to God but ourselves.
7 “If you are righteous, what do you give to Him, Or what does He receive from your hand?
Job 35:7 (NASB)
In like fashion, when we do what we are supposed to do, God gains nothing of substance from that. We are the beneficiaries of making wise choices. Our lives are improved. Certainly, God is happy about our decision to follow His ways, but He doesn’t get to put another gold star on His calendar when we do.
8 “Your wickedness is for a man like yourself, And your righteousness is for a son of man.
Job 35:8 (NASB)
Elihu merely reminds them that their actions are for themselves, meaning people. This is not a statement of pride or greed that they act purely for selfish reasons. What he means is what I’ve stated above. Their failures or successes benefit human beings, themselves, and others.
9 “Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.
Job 35:9 (NASB)
This one verse is Elihu explaining that bad things happen to good people “…because of the arm of the mighty.” Bad things happen because people do bad things, make bad choices, and cause bad consequences. Evil is real, but so are mistakes that have bad outcomes, and innocent people get caught in those consequences and outcomes.
10 “But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night,
11 Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’
Job 35:10-11 (NASB)
This reinforces that God does not cause bad things to happen to good people. Evil does. The evil of Man. The evil of people making bad choices either on purpose or by accident. The evil of choosing to walk a human path instead of a god-centered path. We do not get to say I make my own choices, but God is the cause of my discomfort, and blame Him when we decide on our own to ignore His advice. Life doesn’t work that way. Conversely, God is not sitting on His throne in Heaven making everything move the way it does with some people who appear to be righteous and good having tragedy because He has some “Divine Plan” we cannot fathom because we aren’t God and we have to accept “His Will.” God also doesn’t work that way.
12 “There they cry out, but He does not answer Because of the pride of evil men.
13 “Surely God will not listen to an empty cry, Nor will the Almighty regard it.
14 “How much less when you say you do not behold Him, The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him!
Job 35:12-14 (NASB)
We don’t get to run around stubbornly saying, “I’m going to do it my way,” When that way fails, call on God to bail us out. God isn’t happy we decided to ignore His good advice in the Bible. He also isn’t going to remove the consequences of our actions simply because now that we are wallowing in our misery, we only then decide to repent. Certainly, He is happy about that, but also, He is cautious because He knows that for some, we only intend to return to our sinful ways once the discomfort is over. That isn’t repentance.
15 “And now, because He has not visited in His anger, Nor has He acknowledged transgression well,
16 So Job opens his mouth emptily; He multiplies words without knowledge.”
Job 35:15-16 (NASB)
Go has not responded to any of Job’s prayers, and Job doesn’t know why. God used to respond to Job, and suddenly He no longer does. Job can’t figure out what he has done to warrant this cutting off? He hasn’t changed anything he was doing in his life that had him fully blessed to that point, but suddenly, everything changed, and no one can figure out why. In the absence of information explaining things, Job points to God as having made a mistake, which they all know is impossible, while his friends are pointing at him, telling him he has done something which Job knows isn’t right. It is a complete mystery to everyone, but maybe Elihu will shed some light on things.