For thirty-one chapters we have read about a lot of questions about suffering and the way God runs the world. The friends of Job have insisted that the way God runs the world is that the wicked suffer and the righteous do not suffering. Therefore, Job must have sinned. However, we know this is wrong because Job is blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning from evil (cf. Job 1:8; 2:3). Job has insisted on his own righteousness and that he has done nothing deserving of the suffering he is experiencing. Job is right about this. His suffering is not the punishment of God. Job and his friends are in a stalemate. The friends’ answer does not change. Job’s response does not change. So what is the answer? What is God doing in the world? What is God doing through suffering?
In Job 32 we read about a new person who have not seen before in the book. His name is Elihu. We are told in Job 32:4 that Elihu had waited to speak to Job because Job’s friends were older than him. But the three friends have failed in their discussion with Job. You will notice in Job 32:2-3 that Elihu is not happy with anyone. He is angry at Job because Job is spending his time justifying himself rather than justifying God. He is also angry with the three friends because they could not refute Job but had condemned Job in the process.
But before we can dig into looking at what Elihu says, we need to know how to read what Elihu says. Most writers believe that Elihu brings nothing new to the discussion. Many see Elihu as just an angry young man who is making the same charges against Job. Elihu is often classified as being just as wrong as the friends of Job. You can see that if you think Elihu is wrong, then this will change everything about how you read what he says. But if you think Elihu is right, then you will read his words and draw the opposite conclusion. So how should we read Elihu’s words?
Examining Elihu (Job 32)
There are seven reasons that show that Elihu is right in his defense of God and his explanations for suffering. First, in Job 42:7 we do not read that Elihu is condemned for what he said. The three friends are condemned but Elihu is not. This should be very weighty to us. If Elihu is wrong, then his name should be here in the list of those who did not speak rightly about the Lord. Second, Elihu has the longest speeches. The speeches of the three friends get shorter and shorter with each turn they take, as if they have nothing helpful to say. However, Elihu’s speeches do not get shorter as he goes. Elihu only stops when God begins to speak. Third, Elihu’s speeches introduce God. Much of what Elihu says prepares for the speeches that God is going to make to Job. Fourth, Job has no response to Elihu. When you read Elihu’s speeches you will see that he gives Job a chance to respond to his words. But Job never does. By contrast, every time Job’s friends speak, Job has a rebuttal. Job is never silenced by the three friends but Elihu successfully silences Job. Fifth, if Elihu is to be condemned and is just saying the same thing as the three friends, then the book does not advance at all. Chapters 32-37 are in essence a waste of space if there is nothing new here and everything Elihu says is wrong. It is hard to suggest that we have six chapters of wrong teaching, where there is no correction or refutation from Job. Sixth, Elihu says that he will not give the same arguments as the three friends of Job gave (Job 32:14). So we should not say that Elihu is saying the same thing as the friends when he declares that he is not saying the same things that the friends said to Job. Finally, and perhaps most important, Elihu is arguing with Job based on what Job has said. Job’s friends condemn Job because they assume that Job has done something wrong in the past to bring about all of this suffering on himself. But Elihu is not going to teach Job, assuming Job sinned in the past. In fact, we are told that Elihu is angry that the friends did condemn Job (cf. Job 32:3). Elihu is going to argue with what Job has said after his suffering began (cf. Job 33:8-11; 34:5; 35:2-3; 35:14; 36:23). Over the next few lessons we are going to look at some of the things Job has said and how Elihu will defend God and defend how God runs the world.
God Is Not Silent (Job 33)
The first challenge Elihu has for Job is found in Job 33:8-12. Now Elihu says a lot right here and he will show Job’s error in HIS WORDS over the next few chapters. But the particular argument that he will address first is in verse 13 — Why do you charge God with being silent? Why do you say that God does not speak when you are suffering? I want us to think about this charge for a moment. I think this is a very important charge to consider because we can feel the same way and may even say the same things. Why is God silent? Why doesn’t God answer me? Why doesn’t God respond to my cries? This is exactly where Elihu wants to defend God.
Notice in Job 33:14 that Elihu says that God does speak but does so in ways that we do not notice. What we fail to see is that God speaks through our suffering. We often miss that God is speaking to us. Job says that God is not speaking. Elihu says that God is screaming at you through your trials. What is God saying in our trials? What is God doing in our suffering? Notice how God uses the tool of trials in Job 33:17-18. God uses trials and suffering to turn people from their actions and to keep people from pride.
I want us to think about this for a moment. Prosperity and happiness do not cause course corrections in our lives. When things are good in life, we try to keep the good times rolling. We try not to rock the boat. We try to keep the blessings flowing. It is suffering that makes us look at our lives. It is a trial that makes us reconsider our life course. It is the pain of life that makes us evaluation our life decisions. God uses pain to turn the direction of our lives. Further, God uses suffering to keep us from pride. We get proud and self-righteous when life is going well. But when we are broken, we forfeit all pride. We no longer feel like we are on top of the world and start turning our eyes upward rather than inward. Look at verse 18. God allows our suffering and trial to turn our souls back from pit. Look at verses 23-24. Our suffering is to function like a messenger, like an angel, and like a mediator to spare us from going down to the pit of destruction. God’s grace is speaking through our suffering so that we will seek the Lord and be restored (Job 33:24-28). Job says that God is silent. Elihu says that God is talking to you right now through your pain and anguish so that you will be turned from wrongdoing, that you will be kept from pride, and so that your life will be turned away from the pit.
To make this point another way, Elihu is telling Job that suffering is not punishment. Suffering is not punitive. Suffering does not mean that God is blasting you for something that you have done. But suffering can be protective and corrective. Difficulties teach us. Hardships help us reconsider where we are going. Let’s use physical pain as an illustration. Imagine if you did not have physical pain. On the surface this sounds wonderful. Except physical pain prevents us from doing something more harmful to ourselves. Feeling the quick pain of something hot on your hand helps you to quickly change what you are doing before further damage is done. God uses pain and suffering in the same way. It seems like life in this world without pain would be perfect. The problem is that then we will all continue down the road to destruction in this life and lose out on eternal life. God speaks to us in suffering to turn our directions and change who we are so that we do not have to go down into the pit and instead can look upon the light of life (Job 33:28). Pleasure keeps us where we are. Pain quickly turns our life direction if we are listening to God. Elihu will say it this way a little later:
He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. (Job 36:15 ESV)
The apostle Paul understood the same point when he is telling the Corinthians about his thorn in the flesh. Listen to how Paul explains what was happening.
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. (2 Corinthians 12:7 ESV)
Notice that Paul says it twice. “To keep me from becoming conceited.” The suffering in Paul’s life was to keep him from pride. His pain was not punitive. Paul was not be punished. But God was speaking to Paul and using his suffering to move him in the right direction. God is acting as a surgeon over your heart, working to purge and purify what is in it.
Praising In The Storm
You will notice in verses 26-27 that Elihu says that those people who see God speaking through the suffering are able to see God’s face and shout for joy. They are able to sing before others as they walk through their trials. This is exactly the teaching idea that James opens his book with when he writes to first century Christians.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV)
How can we count our various trials as joy when we are hurting? We know that God is speaking. We know that God is working. We know that God is transforming us. How do we let steadfastness have its full effect? We let steadfastness have its full effect by understanding that God is trying to move us and mold us. Rather than resisting our pain, we learn from it. We pay attention and consider the direction of our lives. Even if are blameless and living uprightly before God, will anyone ever be able to say that there are not more areas in our lives in which we need more holiness? Will anyone ever say that we have completely matched the attitude and actions of Christ? There is always more room to grow. There is always more areas of transformation that need to be made. Suffering is the catalyst. Trials are God’s way of talking to us.
In fact, notice what Elihu says in Job 33:29-30. He says that God will do these things two or three times to turn our souls so that we may shine with the light of life. There is no question of suffering. There is no question that you are going to be placed into trials. You are going to have a few times when you are leveled by trials. There is no question that God is speaking to every person as they go through the trials. Suffering is to move us to say, “Not my will, but your will be done, Father.”
Are We Listening?
The question is not, “Why is God not speaking to me?” The question is, “Am I listening to what God has been saying in my suffering?” We need to consider the direction God is taking us in our suffering. It is easy to sit in our pain and complain. It is easy to resist God in our trials. But we are supposed to be different people, transformed by God’s grace as we experience various trials. I have frequently said that I have been radically changed in every way imaginable because of the trials in my life. We need to let endurance have its full effect so that we draw near to God and we are further transformed into the image of his Son. Are you listening to what God is saying to you in your hurt and pain?