Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today, for the first time in almost a week of reading, someone new shows up on the scene. And what we know about him right away is that he's very angry. Elihu, this new angry man, is angry not only at Job, but also at Job's three friends, because they're all kind of self-righteous.
Chapter 32, verse 4, makes it sound like Elihu has been there all along, listening to the whole back and forth from everyone, and he's been holding his tongue. Perhaps out of some humility, since he's younger than everyone else, but also out of fear of man, as we find out in verse 6. But then, after listening to them all talk, it turns out that these three older men have nothing good to say. So he speaks up.
Age doesn't always equal wisdom, and youth doesn't always equal foolishness. Elihu points out in verse 8 that it's God, not time, who grants wisdom. It doesn't only come via time and life experience. Sometimes those are the means God uses, but sometimes He just dispenses wisdom at will.
And for Elihu, he believes God has advanced his wisdom beyond his years. And we'll have to wait a little longer to see if we think he's right. He starts out by rebuking Job's three friends and telling them that in all their speeches, they were never able to offer a proper rebuttal to what Job said. Then in chapter 33, he goes on to rebuke Job.
even though he initially approaches it with a little more gentleness than the other three did. He says, He seems to stay humble in his approach to rebuking Job, unlike Job's other friends.
Elihu gets a few things wrong in his rebuke of Job, though. In verse 9, he said Job had claimed to be without transgression, and Job never actually claimed that. The very fact that Job offered sacrifices meant he knew that he wasn't innocent before God. If he sat before God as judge, he knew there would be claims against him. In verses 29-30, Elihu points out that sometimes God brings hardship in the temporary in order to bring healing in the eternal.
He says, Elihu is basically saying here that God plays the long game. God's eternality allows him a vantage point that you and I don't have, and it also solidifies his patience toward us when we're going through trials.
It's easier to be patient when you can guarantee the process and the outcome will be worth it. God has that kind of guarantee because of his eternality, because of his sovereignty, because of his omniscience, which is just a big word meaning he knows everything.
But here's the thing about all of that. It's true that God sometimes does allow hardship to turn people's hearts back to him. But by adding this idea to his speech, Elihu starts to take on the same themes that Job's friends presented repeatedly, basically saying, God let all this happen to bring Job's soul back from the pit. Or in more direct terms, so Job would turn from his transgression.
I'd hoped it would play out differently this time around. Honestly, I thought Job had finally found a friend who understood, but it's all starting to sound very familiar.
He starts to accuse Job of walking with the wicked men, of being foolish, and not only of sinning, but also rebelling against God. Are you guys exhausted of the ways Job is misunderstood? Imagine you just lost your job and your home, and your family was killed, and God feels distant, and your friends all just keep rebuking you, and you can't for the life of you think of what you may need to repent of.
And on top of that, you're covered in boils. I do not envy Job, but I'm so glad his story is recorded in Scripture, because I think we've all experienced seasons of life that feel like this to some small degree. And if you haven't yet, you almost certainly will. Tomorrow we'll finish up Elihu's speech. But as for today, what was your God shot? What was your snapshot of God and His character?
For me, it was the part where Elihu talks about how God plays the long game. Much of what these men say about God is true. It's when they talk about Job that they really get it wrong. So when Elihu points out that God will allow us to struggle in our lives as long as it serves to turn our hearts from darkness to light, it made me grateful. Maybe this feels cruel to you, but isn't it what all good parents do?
If you're a parent, don't you let your child learn the lessons the hard way sometimes? Especially if you know that the long-term consequences of learning something are less detrimental than the short-term consequences of the lesson.
I want the kind of parent who lets me suffer through doing my homework so that I can learn to read, or who lets me struggle through swim lessons so that I can enjoy our trips to the pool. I love that God isn't always lined up with my desires in the moment and that He can see further than I can. It makes me trust Him more.
It reminds me that while I'm only right here in the pain and uncertainty of the moment, if I can connect to him and learn to trust him in that, then I can access something more than my current emotions. And in fact, that's when I selfishly want to connect with him most, because I know that he's where the joy is. ♪
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