Reading
SAA Notes
What do you think of Elihu’s anger towards Job and towards the three friends? Is he justified? Elihu is the angry young man who charges in where angels fear to tread! His words burst forth in a passionate torrent. Elihu paints himself as the angel in 33:23 who comes to mediate between God and Job. Elihu will plead with God for Job, so he begs Job to repent of his sin! Elihu, too, believes that the issue is Job’s sin.
SJA Notes
* Almighty God, please help us give without sounding trumpets, so that our left hand does not know what our right hand is doing, that our giving may be in secret.
“But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words.”
Here is Elihu, a young man who has listened to the debate thus far. Full of frustrated right-ness at both Job and his friends. Wrath that Job would acquit himself as innocent before the Lord.
Elihu has misunderstood Job.
Job’s arguments have been from within the framework of what has happened to him, resisting the idea that he had done something with a one-to-one correlation (a bad thing happened to you because you did a bad thing).
As well, Elihu has misunderstood the Lord.
We don’t bring God glory by fuming with anger, burning with wrath.
Anger is like a super power. But not a good one. It stops us from caring about our words, our actions.
Jesus came to save sinners. Sinners such as us.
Jesus came to call the lost, the lonely, the down and sorrowed, the burdened.
And praise God for that! His grace and mercy toward us so that we might be saved, and might point those around us to Him.
Of much more importance that pointing out faults in arguments of those around us, of people in our lives, of politicians and power-brokers, of kings and of beggars – Of far more importance is our state before God.
Do we know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour?
We need to listen to Him more.
More of Jesus, less of us.
* Loving God,
Thank You for Your grace, giving us what we do not deserve – That You give to us new life in the _now_, and a wonderful inheritance in the _then_ through Jesus.
Thank You for Your mercy, not giving us what we deserve – That we escape Your just punishment for our sin through Jesus.
Amen.