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Understand This!

Posted on August 14, 2009 by joe

That could well have been Elihu's loud cry in the preceding chapters, but as he continues in chapters 36 and 37, his words cut! They reach down to the common denominator that man is not in charge. We are just caretakers. What we have is not a right but a gift. What we are is not because of what we have done, but because of what He allows.

Elihu seems to have seen through the words that flowed back and forth between Job and his friends. The "old guys" had rambled on and on, and the kid reminds them again and again that they had turned into windbags. Almost as though "you were talking just to hear yourself talk – you weren't really saying anything!"

One of the things that Elihu makes clear is that God can only act justly – He cannot do anything else, because He IS a god of justice and righteousness. He urges Job to understand that yelling at and about God won't get an answer. Elihu's words must have weighed heavily when he said "He has the case, and you (Job) have to wait for Him to answer! Stop babbling on Job, because by doing that you make it look like you don't know what you are talking about."

For all his youth, or the fact that he was so much younger than Job, Elipahz, Bildad and Zophar, Elihu must have listened well to some wise old men. His vision of who God is and what He can do has to be the result of his listening well. Here is the student, so to speak, teaching the teachers. It many ways, it was throwing their words back at them. While Job and Company carried on about many things, it was apparent to Elihu that they were missing the heart of the matter.

One of the challenges he lays down is in chapter 36 where he capsulizes the very power of God as a reminder that "we are not so much." In effect, he says "He has done a lot of things – remember? Can you tell how old God is, or where He will make it rain? Can you explain how the clouds work or how seeds sprout into food? Why aren't you able to explain how His lightning strikes and where? We can't get our head around it, so why are we sitting here blaming Him for what is happening?"

Then comes 37:13 where Elihu says "Whatever happens, whether it is to fix something, or for His world, or just because He loves us, He causes it to happen." BAM! It's as though he has hit the four old guys across the head with the very book they told him in his youth to read and remember. He was repeating their lessons back to them. He was reminding them of "Who's in charge."

You can read it for yourself in chapter 37, but in the end of his words, Elihu repeats his message. "God will not destroy (do violence or make a mockery of) justice and all His righteousness."

The message from Elihu over and over is that God cannot do anything but love us and deal with us according to His plan of justice. His laws have not changed – they are not subject to interpretation. His justice is not "living", but set. God will not deal with us in different ways, for to do so would mean there is no justice.

Our God IS an awesome God!

Key Verse

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. 1 Corinthians 3:18-19

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Helen Madere Bridge (aka: Rio Vista Bridge) across the Sacramento River in Rio Vista, CA; connecting Solano and Sacramento Counties via CA Highway 12 – Photo by: Joe Suttle

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