Elihu was a patientl listener to the arguments back and forth
between Job and his friends. However, it came to a point were he blew
his top! ‘Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family
of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he
justified himself rather than God. He burned with anger also at Job's
three friends because they had found no answer, although they had
declared Job to be in the wrong’ (Job 32:2-3).
It is not an acceptable behaviour in ancient societies for young
people to speak in the presence of the elders, leave alone criticise
them. Elihu had reserved the most disrespectful, caustic comments
about the whole thing. The reason for his frustration is not that the
debate between Job and his friends has been the poorest show on earth
but they proved themselves to be fools, though they were widely
accepted wisemen! He burst out, ‘I am young in years, and you are
aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you.
I said, “Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom”’ (Job
32:6-7).
That is only a rather gentle introduction to sharp criticism of wisdom of aged that is to come. He said, ‘It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right’ (Job 32:9). That statement flies at the face of the values that the ancient world cherished. There was no Google those days to consult. Wisdom was oral, passed on from one generation to another. The older the person, the wiser he would be, because wisdom is accumulated by age. This is what the young man Elihu is dares to deny.
What is important here is that, Elihu is not denying the wisdom of the wisemen or the old. He points out to another source of wisdom which neither Job nor his friends have realized. That is the Spirit of the Almighty God which dwells in human beings. He argues, ‘But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand’ (32:8). Before we take a closer look at Elihu’s statement we need to do see why Elihu blew a fuse!
The secret of Elihu’s outburst is evident in the structure of the book itself. Job has lost everything: his wealth, his children and his health. He has moved from the honourable place he had at the city gate to the trash dump in the city. His friends wise in every way (the three came from the major seats of learning in the ancient world) comes to visit him. They argued only one thing: Job is a sinner and that is the reason for his suffering. Ask God’s forgiveness and he will be fine. That is exactly what Job could not accept. He didn’t hear the conversation between Satan and Yahweh in the heavenly court where Yahweh swore that Job is righteous in every way. But he had the inner conviction that he is not a sinner as his friends tries to argue. There are three rounds of arguments between Job and his friends. They will speak one after another and Job replies to each of them in each round. They used their wisdom and reasoning to convince Job but he kept justifying himself.
The friends were tired. Their arguments became shorter and shorter as they move from one round of arguments to another. The friends speak in the order as Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. However, by the second round Zophar seems to have given up. He has no speech in the third round. By the end of the third round the other two also gave up. The three friends ‘had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.’ (Job 32:3). Now, did Job win the argument? Not at all. Because the rebuttal to his positions comes from God who speaks ‘out of the whirlwind’ in chapter 38. Elihu is only a transitional figure between human wisdom (of the three friends and Job) and divine wisdom. God then unleashes a barrage of questions at Job in his speech. Questions that have no answer. What is God trying to tell him? Its simple: there are hundreds of questions for which human minds have no answer! Suffering of the innocent is just one the myriad of such questions. Keep quiet!
Then finally, God condemned Job’s friends and gives Job the privilege to pray for them. The verdict is out now. The friend who were experts in traditional wisdom are wrong, Job who justified himself is wrong. All of them except Elihu who thought they can find answers to all the mysteries of life are wrong. The friends were wrong because they depended on the wisdom that they gathered over the years. They could not think outside the box of traditional wisdom. Job was wrong, though he is righteous in God’s eyes he had no right to justify himself. It is God who justifies.
Elihu is right! Because he did not depend on the traditional wisdom nor one’s own self-confidence of being right but on God’s wisdom. That wisdom was available to him not from Google or encyclopedias but by the indwelling of God’s Spirit in him. Before he set forth this argument he disclosed that secret when he said: ‘But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand’ (32:8). The Spirit of God that dwells in him makes him restless. He said: ‘For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst. I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer’ (Job 32:18-20). The nearest parallel to this restlessness is in Jeremiah. The prophet is filled with the Word of God that he is so restless until he get it out of his chest! Jeremiah laments: ‘If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot’ (Job 20:9).
Then after Elihu has spoken and relieved himself of the great burden that the Spirit of God has placed in his heart, be breaks into one of the great doxologies we find in the Bible, the great praise of God almighty in Job 36-37 at the end of which God takes his place on the stage to speak out of the whirl wind and take the debate to its conclusion.
We just learn one lesson. Human wisdom has its limits. Even those who are righteous in God’s own eyes have no right to justify themselves. The source of wisdom is God and God imparts this to human beings through indwelling of his Spirit. All other wisdom and reasoning is an endless merry-go-round going round and round in vain and comes to an end when we are tired of speaking/thinking! The real source of wisdom is the Spirit of God which dwells in everyone who believes.
That is only a rather gentle introduction to sharp criticism of wisdom of aged that is to come. He said, ‘It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right’ (Job 32:9). That statement flies at the face of the values that the ancient world cherished. There was no Google those days to consult. Wisdom was oral, passed on from one generation to another. The older the person, the wiser he would be, because wisdom is accumulated by age. This is what the young man Elihu is dares to deny.
What is important here is that, Elihu is not denying the wisdom of the wisemen or the old. He points out to another source of wisdom which neither Job nor his friends have realized. That is the Spirit of the Almighty God which dwells in human beings. He argues, ‘But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand’ (32:8). Before we take a closer look at Elihu’s statement we need to do see why Elihu blew a fuse!
The secret of Elihu’s outburst is evident in the structure of the book itself. Job has lost everything: his wealth, his children and his health. He has moved from the honourable place he had at the city gate to the trash dump in the city. His friends wise in every way (the three came from the major seats of learning in the ancient world) comes to visit him. They argued only one thing: Job is a sinner and that is the reason for his suffering. Ask God’s forgiveness and he will be fine. That is exactly what Job could not accept. He didn’t hear the conversation between Satan and Yahweh in the heavenly court where Yahweh swore that Job is righteous in every way. But he had the inner conviction that he is not a sinner as his friends tries to argue. There are three rounds of arguments between Job and his friends. They will speak one after another and Job replies to each of them in each round. They used their wisdom and reasoning to convince Job but he kept justifying himself.
The friends were tired. Their arguments became shorter and shorter as they move from one round of arguments to another. The friends speak in the order as Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. However, by the second round Zophar seems to have given up. He has no speech in the third round. By the end of the third round the other two also gave up. The three friends ‘had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.’ (Job 32:3). Now, did Job win the argument? Not at all. Because the rebuttal to his positions comes from God who speaks ‘out of the whirlwind’ in chapter 38. Elihu is only a transitional figure between human wisdom (of the three friends and Job) and divine wisdom. God then unleashes a barrage of questions at Job in his speech. Questions that have no answer. What is God trying to tell him? Its simple: there are hundreds of questions for which human minds have no answer! Suffering of the innocent is just one the myriad of such questions. Keep quiet!
Then finally, God condemned Job’s friends and gives Job the privilege to pray for them. The verdict is out now. The friend who were experts in traditional wisdom are wrong, Job who justified himself is wrong. All of them except Elihu who thought they can find answers to all the mysteries of life are wrong. The friends were wrong because they depended on the wisdom that they gathered over the years. They could not think outside the box of traditional wisdom. Job was wrong, though he is righteous in God’s eyes he had no right to justify himself. It is God who justifies.
Elihu is right! Because he did not depend on the traditional wisdom nor one’s own self-confidence of being right but on God’s wisdom. That wisdom was available to him not from Google or encyclopedias but by the indwelling of God’s Spirit in him. Before he set forth this argument he disclosed that secret when he said: ‘But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand’ (32:8). The Spirit of God that dwells in him makes him restless. He said: ‘For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst. I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer’ (Job 32:18-20). The nearest parallel to this restlessness is in Jeremiah. The prophet is filled with the Word of God that he is so restless until he get it out of his chest! Jeremiah laments: ‘If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot’ (Job 20:9).
Then after Elihu has spoken and relieved himself of the great burden that the Spirit of God has placed in his heart, be breaks into one of the great doxologies we find in the Bible, the great praise of God almighty in Job 36-37 at the end of which God takes his place on the stage to speak out of the whirl wind and take the debate to its conclusion.
We just learn one lesson. Human wisdom has its limits. Even those who are righteous in God’s own eyes have no right to justify themselves. The source of wisdom is God and God imparts this to human beings through indwelling of his Spirit. All other wisdom and reasoning is an endless merry-go-round going round and round in vain and comes to an end when we are tired of speaking/thinking! The real source of wisdom is the Spirit of God which dwells in everyone who believes.