Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Year 8, Day 128: Job 34


Theological Commentary: Click Here



Elihu is emboldened in this passage.  However, he is young.  Elihu returns to the tried and tried – and still wrong – approach that Job is wrong.  Job can’t be righteous because calamity has befallen him.  Job can’t be righteous because God doesn’t do an unjust act.  Elihu assumes that Job’s circumstances are proof of his guilt.



Unfortunately, what Elihu is showing us is that sometimes we talk to much and don’t listen enough.  Elihu should have listened to his own words!  Only two chapters ago Elihu was onto something.  Elihu opened up the possibility that there was something else going on that nobody had considered.  How quickly has Elihu forgotten his own advice and returned to human logic!



The reality is that God hasn’t punished Job.  This isn’t a trial at all.  God is proving how faithful Job will be, even when faced with the worst consequence possible short of death.  Job is a case study, not a criminal.



What a powerful reminder.  How often do we think that when life is going well that it is proof of our proximity to God?  How often do we think that when our life goes poorly it is proof of God’s distance from us?  How much better would it be to remember that God is always ear to us and to have an eternal focus!



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