DBG - June 15 - Job 35-37

In this chapter Elihu continues to examine Job’s defenses. 

vs. 1-8 – Elihu takes Job’s former claim to its logical conclusion: if Job felt that he was mistreated by God, he was claiming greater righteousness than God.  Elihu then proves that whether Job was righteous or not had no bearing on God.  God was still God.  God was not diminished in any way because of man’s actions.  Men affect themselves but God is not affected.

vs. 9-16 – Elihu next points to Job’s claim that God would not hear him.  He uses the illustration of people crying out to God in their oppression.  Had these same people cried out to God when they were blessed and not oppressed?  No.  The complaint then is not that God did not hear, but that He did not do so according to man’s expectations.  It was in fact pride that caused man to assume that God would answer and move at his every call.  God is a Person, not a robot.  He does not have to obey our commands, nor should He.  Not only is God then not obliged to answer man at his demand, but the sin of proud in which man makes the demand pushes God further away from answering.

In this chapter Elihu continues to examine Job’s defenses. 

vs. 1-7 - Elihu next defends God against Job’s accusations made in his frustration.  Surely, Elihu would be able to speak for God as he exalted Him against Job. It was a sin to accuse God of wrongdoing.  God did not bless the wicked or curse the righteous.  No, God exalted the righteous and established them forever.

vs. 8-18 – Elihu accuses Job of anger against God for his suffering.  Did the righteous suffer?  Yes, but God worked through it for their good.  God guided and taught through chastisement.  He accuses Job of not learning the assigned lesson yet, believing that God would restore blessing to him once he did.  But as long as he held onto pride and anger that was not going to happen.  In this, Elihu is not saying that Job suffered because of sin, but he was sinning for not trusting God and growing through his suffering. 

vs. 19-21 – Elihu exhorts Job to repent of his sin and submit to God.  He should not simply give up in despair.

vs. 22-33 – Elihu begins to use the object lesson of a storm.  The existence and power of a storm proved the greatness of God.  God could use the same storm to both bless and to judge; it both gave life and destroyed it.  There is a subtle jab in vs. 33, as Elihu points out that even the animals understood the coming storm better than Job understood what was happening to him.

In this chapter Elihu closes his speech by showing the might of God and the feebleness of man.

vs. 1-5 – Elihu uses the illustration of the storm to show God’s power.  Man cannot harness or even properly comprehend that power of a storm, and so it is that man cannot begin to grasp the might of God.

vs. 6-16 – Elihu broadens his comparison of God’s greatness to all sorts of weather: snow, frost, rain, whirlwinds, and more.  All of this was controlled by God and beyond man’s feeble strength.  As we see His greatness in nature and stand in awe of the might of God, so should Job stand before Him in the figurative storm that had engulfed him.

vs. 17-24 – Elihu ends with a flourish.  He appeals to the image of the storm and weather he has used to illustrated God’s might.  He then makes his striking conclusion in vs. 23: God is infinitely beyond mortal man in every way.  In power, in wisdom, in righteous – in every way!  Men are to fear the mighty God who despises the pride of man.  Thus concludes Elihu’s speech.  He has taken a sledgehammer to the errors that had infiltrated Job’s thinking.  He too blames Job’s sin for his state.  Not for causing it, but in response to it.  His words prepare the way for God to speak in the next chapter. 

Elihu is the first in this book to not see suffering only as detrimental.  He clearly shows that God can use it for good purposes also.  That is how amazing our God is.  He can make blessings bloom even in the darkest of valleys.  All things bend to His will, a will that is guaranteed to bring Him glory and to see all things work together for our good.

Our hymn today has one of the most fascinating histories of any we have thus far highlighted.  “Many and Great, O God” was written by Joseph Renville (1779-1846).  The son of a French-Canadian father and a Dakota mother, he became an important bridge between the Native American and European worlds.  He aided a mission at Lac qui Parle in Minnesota, helped translate the Bible into the Dakota language, and composed a few hymns also.  One of those texts was adapted later by Philip Frazer into the form we have here.  It echoes the description in our reading today of God’s greatness as revealed through nature.

Many and great, O God, are Thy things,
Maker of earth and sky;
Thy hands have set the heavens with stars;
Thy fingers spread the mountains and plains.
Lo, at Thy Word the waters were formed;
Deep seas obey Thy voice.

Grant unto us communion with Thee,
Thou star abiding One;
Come unto us and dwell with us;
With Thee are found the gifts of life,
Bless us with life that has no end,
Eternal life with Thee.