MAY 29 JOB 35-37

Job 35-37

ELIHU prepares to EXEUNT (stage right!)

Elihu has commanded CENTER STAGE for three chapters, but after one last shot at Job’s stubborn pride (Job 35), Elihu begins to point to the “coming of the Lord.” Yes, after multiple tragedies, many days of silence, followed by interminable philosophical discussions, God is coming! How do we know?

Beginning in the fifth chapter of Elihu’s speech-making, he begins to refer to God’s exalted power and greatness (Job 36:22, 26), likening them to God’s power in nature to pour down rain (Job 36:37-38), and cause thunder and lightning and violent storms. In chapter 37, Elihu’s last, this imagery gets stronger.

Here’s a list of his introductory cries:

• Keep listening to the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling of His mouth!
• Under the whole of heaven, He lets it go, and His lightning to the corners of the earth!
• He thunders wondrously with His majestic voice!

To the snow He says: Fall to the earth! Likewise to the downpour, the mighty downpour!

AS if to say, look out, Job! Look out, friends! God is coming! God is approaching, every bit as certainly as you see this storm approach! And, sure enough, Job 38 begins: And the Lord answered Job out of the storm (the whirlwind) and said…

We’ll wait till tomorrow before parsing what God has to say. In the meantime, let’s remember: it’s out of the storm itself that God often choses to speak to His people! Through which storm is God speaking to you right now?

Your brother in the Word,

Pastor Gary

MAY 28 JOB 32-34

Job 32-34

ENTER ELIHU (stage right!)

We didn’t know he was there; until this moment (Job 32:2) he hadn’t been mentioned. It bothers some scholars that the chapters he speaks are the only places in Job where he is mentioned. So let’s begin with some thoughts concerning “why” this is so.

First of all, the text itself gives us a perfectly rational explanation for why Elihu has not been mentioned up to this point: He had waited before stepping forward because “they were older than he.” Honoring the ages of Job and his three peers, he kept his mouth shut and his ears open, until he had seen the discussion wind down.


One argument for why Elihu is not mentioned again in Job, after his speech (Job 32-37) is because his words were essentially right. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar are mentioned again in Job 42, because the Lord rebuked them. Job is mentioned again because he is our main character; and must be humbled and vindicated by the Lord. One would think that Elihu might need a bit of humbling himself, but then, this is not Elihu’s story.

So, for six chapters Elihu speaks; today we look at the first three!

Elihu begins with a full awareness of his youthfulness, how he kept silent because of their age, and how he’s begun to wonder if age really brings wisdom after all (Job 32:9). He tells the “friends” how disappointed he was that they ran out of things to say. He would try not to repeat their arguments, but move on from them.

He speaks to Job and essentially does repeat one of the friends’ arguments: “How then can a man be made right before God?” (Job 25:4) He berates human pride and sinfulness. Yet, he does seem to introduce one new concept: Read Job 33:24-30 and just see if you aren’t reading about GRACE, the unmerited love of God toward sinful people! Elihu concludes part one of his remarks by extolling the justice (the rightness) of God.

Your brother in the Word, who wonders, How Elihu will finish?
Pastor Gary

MAY 27 JOB 29-31

Job 29-31

 

If this were court, we’ call it “Job’s Summary Defense.” His summary actually began in Job 26-28, where we saw Job’s first three points:

• God is too great for us to understand.
• I will maintain my integrity before God.
• I will never cease to search for God’s wisdom.

 In these last chapters, Job opens up and gets personal. Why hadn’t he gotten personal before this? It may have something to do with the assumption of Job’s friends, that his sinfulness was directly connected with his misfortune.

 

Job takes time to remember what life was like before Job’s calamities, when he was “in his prime” and “God seemed like a friend” and “his children were still all around him.” He also remembers his life of service to the poor and needy, how men “listened to him, and waited and kept silence before his counsel!” (present company, NOT included!)

 

But that was then and this is now. Before men listened, now they laughed. Before they honored him as an elder; now they mocked him for his infirmity. Before he had lots of friends; now he was the brother of jackals. Before he had health; now his skin is blackened and falling from him.

 

All this, after a lifetime of service and holiness! What gives? He had never looked at pornography (Job 31:1), or committed adultery (Job 31:9), or withheld his hand from the poor (Job 31:16), or trusted too much in gold (Job 31:24), or rejoiced at the ruin of his enemies (Job 31:29), or failed to confess his sins (Job 31:33). What gives?

 

Some sort of an answer is coming; I can feel it!

 

Your brother in the Word,

Pastor Gary

 

 

MAY 26 JOB 25-28

Job 25-28

Job 25 is the shortest chapter in the book of Job; it is also Bildad’s final shot across Job’s bow, and the last words of any of Job’s three friends. Job barely allows Bildad to ask one question, before he is off to the races, and will not hit the finish line for 6 long, grueling chapters.

Bildad’s final question is easy to ask and hard to answer: How can a small sinful man [like you, Job] be in the right before God? (Job 25:4)

Job’s answer is “all over the place” and summarizes much of he has said. Part One of Job’s “final response” is contained in Job 26-28 and follows these points:

God is beyond our reach; his majesty beyond searching. Even the greatest of his creative works are like “walking on the outskirts of his ways.” (Job 26:14)


I will stay honest before God: no lies, no deceit, no cover-up, no compromise. (Job 27:3-5)


In God’s majesty and my honesty, I will not cease to search for wisdom. (Job 28:12)

Job knows that whatever wisdom is available to human beings, it’s all connected with the Lord, that is, the fear of the Lord.

We finish Job’s words, tomorrow, but somehow, I don’t think that Job’s words will be the last words of the book of Job.

Your brother in the Word,
Pastor Gary