There is a lot of judging going on in the first few verses of chapter 34. Job’s friends judge that it is useless to continue to argue with Job because he is righteous in his own eyes. Job judges that he is righteous and his friends are unjust. Elihu judges both Job and his friends; the friends are wrong because “they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job” (v. 3), and Job is wrong because “he justified himself rather than God” (v. 2). Yet these are necessary judgments. Job needed advice from his friends and had to answer them when they wrongly accused him of sin. Elihu had to help both Job and the friends see where they had gone wrong.
Elihu appears unexpectedly. Chapter 2 did not name him as one of those present when Job’s friends came to comfort him, nor does his name appear anywhere in the first 31 chapters of the book. He speaks now (at length, 6 chapters without interruption!) and then disappears. The rest of the book does not mention him again. But it is clear from what he says that he has heard most or all of what Job and his friends had said. He himself says, “I listened to your reasonings, while you searched out what to say. I paid close attention to you” (vv. 11–12). He has a pretty good handle on what both parties have said.
Elihu judged correctly that the friends had condemned Job unjustly. They had at first brought no specific charge against him, and when they finally did bring a charge, it was wide of the mark. They said that Job had oppressed and neglected the poor. This was an area of his life in which Job was not vulnerable, and he answered them in detail (29:11–17, 31:13–23), no doubt truthfully.
Elihu also judged correctly when he condemned Job for justifying himself rather than God. His assessment of Job is very different from that of the friends. They concluded that Job was deceiving himself in claiming righteousness. Elihu isn’t really even interested in that question. Instead, he says to Job as it were, “You have been so passionate in your own defense that you have forgotten the fear of God. You have accused God of taking away your justice and wronging you. But you have your priorities wrong. You should begin with the assumption that God is righteous, and you should be more passionate in the defense of his righteousness than of your own.” The friends at least wanted to justify God, though they went about it in a way that dishonored him and falsely accused Job. Job ended by wanting only to justify himself, even if it was at the expense of accusing the Almighty. That was a grave error.
In chapter 33 Elihu explains to Job exactly what he means. In verses 9–11 he sums up what Job has been saying, and it comes down to two points: 1) I am innocent, and 2) God has looked for excuses to attack me, disgraced me publicly and spied on me.” That’s a pretty accurate summary of all Job’s lengthy speeches.
And his answer to Job is “In this you are not righteous… God is greater than man” (v. 12), and he does not give an accounting of any of his words. He speaks to men in dreams and visions at night, and when he speaks it is for man’s good “to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man,” to keep back “his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword” (vv. 17–18). He also speaks through chastening (vv. 19f), and sends a gracious messenger to deliver man from the pit and declare to him a ransom. He warns Job that by contending with God and refusing chastening he is resisting grace, the salvation of his soul and the light of life (v. 30).
Here then are two powerful lessons for us in our sufferings. First, justify God rather than yourself. Do not accuse him of wronging you or of withholding your justice. Believe that he is righteous in all his dealings, even if you cannot understand how it is so. And 2) do not despise the chastening of the Lord, “for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:6). “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peacable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:11).