Chapter 34
Chapter 34 is the second part of Elihu’s long (chapters 32-37) speech. In it he speaks first to wise men (vv. 1–15), then to Job (vv. 16–33, the second person pronouns are singular), and then again, it seems, to wise men (34–37). The wise men he talks to may be Job’s friends. If so, then his name for them is somewhat ironic; he believed that they had not answered Job wisely. But he may also be talking to others who were there, even the elders of the city. Though the book does not say anything about the presence of others, it does not tell us either about the presence of Elihu before he began to speak.
He first summarizes for these wise men, whoever they are, Job’s position (vv. 5–6): 1) I am righteous. 2) God has taken away my justice. 3) I will not change my mind because that would make me a liar. 4) My wound is incurable. God has become my enemy and is destroying me. He may be talking about both his physical and spiritual afflictions. This amounts to saying that righteousness does not profit (v. 9).
Next, he accuses Job of going in company with wicked men (vv. 7–9). He does not mean that Job has literally made friends of the wicked, but rather that he has joined the party of the wicked in saying, “It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.” This is what wicked men say. Job did not use precisely these words, but he did come very close in 9:22: “Therefore I [Job] say, ‘He destroys the blameless and the wicked.’”
Thirdly, he recoils in horror from Job’s charge against God (vv. 10–15): “Nor will the Almighty pervert justice” (v. 12). His might means that he stands beyond all human power or right to question him. The very fact that he is God, that no one gave him charge over the earth (v. 13) and that he is able to destroy life altogether (v. 14) implies that he is just. Precisely because he rules, every desire of his heart is right. He is the definition of justice.
This is something that can never be said of men. Because their authority is always derivative, it can never be said of them that what they do is, by definition, just. To be just they must conform to the one from whom they derived their authority. But the Almighty, who made the world, made also it’s law, government, righteousness and justice. He cannot do wrong.
Elihu therefore does what Job failed to do. He justifies God rather than Job.
In verses 16–33 Elihu rebukes Job for impugning the justice of God: “Will you condemn him who is most just? Is it fitting to say to a king, ‘You are worthless’” (v. 18)? You should be very careful about accusing even a human king of injustice; how dare you then accuse God?
But that question, “Is it fitting…” serves another purpose. Elihu says immediately afterward, “Yet He is not partial to princes.” In other words, though you must be very careful about accusing one of God’s representatives, God will do it. He has the right, and he treats them with the very same justice that he administers to the poor. He is absolutely impartial.
That’s the first point he makes about the justice of God (vv. 17–20). The second is that his justice is based on perfect knowledge (vv. 21–25). When the mighty stand before him in judgment he doesn’t even need to investigate or ask questions. “His eyes are on the ways of man” (v. 21), “He need not further consider a man” (v. 23), “He knows their works” (v. 25). Therefore “He overthrows them in the night” (v. 25).
His third point is that God does all this publicly (vv. 26–28). He does not administer justice in secret, hidden away in a dark corner where no one can observe. All can see his judgment, and all can know that he is righteous in it.
Finally, Elihu argues that no one may question God when he delays judgment (as he sometimes does) or accuse him when he hides his face and we can’t understand his ways (vv. 29–30). He may judge a nation rather than a single man, but even then he has purposes which may be hidden from us. But always his purposes are righteous. He removes the hypocrite, lest the people be ensnared.
We must see verses 31–33 as a unit. In verses 31–32 Elihu imagines a situation in which God has chastised a man. This man then responds to his chastisement with submission. He acknowledges God’s justice, promises to amend his life, and even invites God to expose further sin, if there is any still in him. If God teaches him, he will also put off that sin. What then? Does it belong to that man to determine his reward? “Should [God] repay it according to your terms, just because you disavow it?”
The point is a powerful one. Job does not have the right to say that God should reward him for his righteousness. The judge, not the judged, determines the reward of righteousness, and this is especially true when the judge is the altogether just Almighty.
In verses 34–37 Elihu again addresses the wise men, and either talks to them about other wise men or assumes that they will now be on his side in his dispute with Job: “Men of understanding say to me… Job speaks without knowledge. His words are without wisdom.”
The wisdom of these men consists partly in this, that they will not let Job go unchallenged even though he is obstinate in his refusal to hear. He must be “tried to the utmost” because he has spoken like wicked men and multiplied his words against God. From a desire to recover Job from his sin, Elihu intends to keep talking as long as is necessary to persuade Job.
Elihu sounds a bit like the three friends, but his assessment is not that Job’s sin is the only possible explanation of his affliction. Instead, he is saying to Job, “You have sinned in responding to your affliction as you have. You may not charge God with taking away your justice.”
Chapter 35
In chapter 35 Elihu again talks directly to Job, and here he says directly to Job what he had first said about Job to those who were listening (34:9). His charge against Job is in verses 1–3, and it comes down to this, that Job thinks he should be rewarded for his righteousness. “What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?”
The most important part of Elihu’s answer is in verses 4–8. Again, he points to the might of God. The clouds are higher than Job (v. 5), and God is exalted above the clouds. He is far greater than Job. Therefore, Job’s sins do not harm him, and Job’s righteousness does not benefit him. He is the eternally self-sufficient and exalted one. “Your wickedness affects a man such as you, and your righteousness a son of man,” but God remains untouched by anything you do. How then can you claim a right to a reward? What right do you have to question his ways when they are not according to your liking?
In the rest of the chapter Elihu makes three more points.
The first is that men sometimes cry out in oppression but their cry is without faith. They do not say, “Where is God my maker” who gives good gifts and has exalted us above the beasts? Therefore he does not answer them. He will not listen to empty talk. There is a warning here for Job. Perhaps he too has spoken empty words and taken a proud stance against God, and God will not hear him.
In verse 14 Elihu tells Job that he must wait for God. You do not see him, but justice goes before him. It will come, even if he delays for a time. Therefore, do not be impatient.
In verses 15–16 Elihu warns Job against using the silence of God to justify even bolder words and greater sin. Wicked men will say, “God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see” (Ps. 10:11), but he does see and repay (Ps. 10:14). Job must not “multiply words without knowledge.”
In these first four chapters of his speech, Elihu makes four accusations against Job; 1) He justifies himself rather than God (32:2), 2) He claims innocence and accuses God of finding occasions against him (33:9–11), 3) he says that God has taken away his justice (34:5), and 4) he says that it profits a man nothing if he is righteous. Elihu’s answers to him are 1) You must justify God rather than yourself, 2) God’s greatness means that he is righteous. You are not in a position to charge him with unrighteousness, 3) You are going in company with wicked men when you make such charges, and 4) God is under no obligation to reward you for your righteousness. He also adds two exhortations: 1) Wait for him; justice will come, and 2) do not let delays in his execution of justice encourage you to greater sin. You have already gone too far.
All of this is sound advice. In it Elihu answers any questions we may have about the righteousness of God. But he does not answer those questions by explaining the righteousness of God; that is beyond our right and probably beyond our capacity. He teaches us that we must lay our hands on our mouths because God is both just and great. He is far beyond our power and right to question him.