(Job 35:1) Elihu spoke moreover, and said, (2) "Do you think this is right, that you said, 'My righteousness is more than God's'? (3) For you said, 'What advantage will it be to You? What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?'
Job never said his righteousness was more than God's, but Elihu further qualifies his interpretation of Job's meaning by adding what Job indeed said. I'm not sure that Job really said those things, either, but it may have seemed he insinuated them when he said God destroys the perfect and the wicked. This passage reminds me of a commercial I heard on Christian radio one time, and the moral of it really stuck with me. When we fall into the trap of mind-reading and start acting on what we think the person means, and not on what they really meant but may not have expressed well, then we are acting on a lie. I don't believe for a moment that Job believed he was more righteous than God. He was just lamenting the fact that he tried to do good, but look where it got him.
Actually, when you look at what Elihu said Job had said, there is really nothing wrong with "What advantage will it be to You?" There is no advantage to God when we are righteous. God doesn't NEED our righteousness. He can act with or without it. It is always about OUR good.
"What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?" Again, taken literally the way Elihu expressed it, it's merely a pondering question. Obviously, from the benefit of knowing the end of the story, we know God is still working this to Job's benefit. He may not can see it at this point, but the vast bigger-picture ways of God are not finished yet. Part of following our Lord is to do His will. We want to do His will because we know it is far better than what our puny human minds can contemplate. In this case, Job was indeed blessed more abundantly by God, and the story of Job has been an example of faith for hundreds of years to countless souls. And if you want to lament the death of his children, if they were true followers, then they will be with their Lord, which is a far better place than still living on earth. Believers never have to fear dying, and although we may grieve selfishly because we miss them, because we love them we would never want them to be removed from that better place. If Job's children were not believers, then they were never going to be believers; you can have faith in that. The all-seeing God knows His people!
(4) "I will answer you, and your companions with you."
Elihu states he will now answer Job and his friends, and one can assume he means to better explain Job's situation. Whether he plans to truly answer Job's questions or plans to answer what he, in error, thinks Job thinks, remains to be seen at this point.
(5) "Look to the heavens and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than you. (6) If you sin, what do you (accomplish) against Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him? (7) If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?"
So far, so good. Elihu points out that God's ways are higher than our ways, and that indeed, God is not hurt nor does He profit from anything man does.
(8) "Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit the son of man."
In this case the "son of man" seems to mean "generations of men". Job's (or any man's) actions do not hurt or profit God, but they may hurt or profit mortal men, and even generations to come. We sometimes forget this when we want to blame God for what seems to us senseless acts that we know He alone could have prevented. When my precious Daddy died way too young of a painful cancer 23 years ago, I was angry at God for months, probably even a couple of years or more. Then one day I realized that man had created cancer, not God. The things we do to our environment, the additives in our food, the additives we put on our skin and use every day, are full of carcinogens. Once again, men become fools thinking they are so wise making things better and better with chemicals! We have brought disease to ourselves. I am sure it is even more painful to see a young child suffer and die with cancer, or a young mother who dies and leaves small children. God surely could have prevented or reversed that! Yes, He could have, and in some cases He does perform miraculous healing. But why does He choose to heal some and not others? Well, only the sovereign Lord knows that, but He is always about the greater good, His ways being higher than our ways. Often people in the very worst of circumstances, only then, turn to the Lord. I believe often He may allow these things to happen in order to bring His people back to Him. Recall Jesus's words in Matthew 18:8-9 that say it's better to enter heaven maimed or blinded in one eye than to be whole and cast into hell. Whatever it takes to save us!! What a merciful God we have! The sweet children who suffer and die go to be with Him, so they are much happier, and through grief and despair, perhaps their parents are able to join them. It is hard for us to understand how God could sacrifice an innocent little child like that, but then again, He sacrificed His own son to save us sinners. He loves us ALL!
Another thought along the same lines on why some people are healed and others are not: again God knows the bigger picture. He knows what will happen if one is saved, and what will happen if one is not. What is the greater good? What will save His lost sheep? Just like the hypocritical leader and nation described in the last post, if people are continually blessed when they are doing wrong, they may be ensnared into believing they are doing right. Tragedy often brings us closer to God. And we must remember the tragedy was not caused by God, but He does, in fact, allow it.
(9) "Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; they cry out because of the arm of the mighty."
We are back to the people Job may hurt with his wickedness from verse 8.
(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 heaven?'"
Apparently Elihu is making a point that the oppressed do not reach out to God when they suffer. "In the night" is a picture of "in the midst of trouble". God has given men wisdom to know Him, but they forget Him and don't think to call on Him in their times of trouble.
(12) "There they cry, but none gives answer, because of the pride of evil men."
The oppressed cry, but there is no one to answer them because they don't cry out to the right One. Whether they are crying ABOUT the pride of evil men that has caused the trouble, or because their own pride keeps them from calling on God, either way, they do not look to their Creator.
(13) "Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it."
God will not hear empty hollow words or lies.
(14) "Although you say you will not see Him, yet judgment is before Him; therefore trust in Him."
Elihu seems to be turning his point about how the oppressed do not call on God to Job. Paraphrased, "Just because you don't look to Him, He and His righteous judgment are there; therefore you should trust in Him."
(15) "But now, because it is not so, He has visited in His anger; yet he doesn't know it in great extremity: (16) Therefore does Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplies words without knowledge."
It looks like Elihu believes that because Job did not turn to God, God has visited him in anger, although we have to believe that an apparent righteous and Spirit-led man as Elihu must have meant chastisement rather than vengeful anger. Otherwise, I would have to say Elihu has really lost it by this point, and should have stopped talking in the last chapter! I had to chuckle when I looked at the original meaning of the word that was translated as "extremity". It means "stupidity"! Elihu says Job was so stupid he didn't even know why God had visited him in anger. Well, now I know Elihu has gone too far. He may have started talking feeling led by the Holy Spirit, but I am sure he let his own ego take over at some point. Elihu concludes this chapter by saying that Job has been speaking senseless and meaningless words in his complaints against God, and that he speaks without any real knowledge. And we, knowing the rest of the story, could say that last part about Elihu, as well!
"Multiplying words without knowledge"...I could not help but get an image of the so-called intelligent of our day, who "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools". Paul tells us in Romans 1:22 how people reject God, changing "the truth of God into a lie" and become fools, wise in their own eyes.
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