Suffering, humility, and grace

There are a lot of problems in trying to interpret Job, and one of the biggest problems is what to do  with Elihu.

I’ve seen commentary that basically call him a big windbag full of hot air, which is why (they say) Job, his friends, and even God essentially ignore him.

And I’ve seen other commentators commending him saying that his speeches were a precursor to God’s own confrontation with Job.

I’m more inclined, after reading everything, to go with the idea that Elihu basically said what was right.

I think the key verse for me is found in chapter 32, where it says of Elihu,

[He] became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God.

He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.  (Job 32:2-3)

What was he angry about?  Two things.

First, that Job questioned God’s justice.

Second, that Job’s friends never refuted Job’s wrong ideas about God.  All they did was say he was a sinner, and that God was punishing him for it.  This without any shred of proof.

In chapter 33, he addresses Job’s complaints that God had made himself Job’s enemy for no reason, and that God wouldn’t answer Job’s complaints.

Elihu replies by saying God does speak; it’s just that many times, we aren’t listening.

Elihu mentions that God sometimes uses dreams to speak, perhaps referring to the nightmares that Job had been experiencing.  The purpose of these dreams?

To turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.  (Job 33:17-18)

In the same way, Elihu says that God also speaks to us through our suffering in order to chasten us.

Some commentators take these words as Elihu’s backhanded way of saying to Job, “You’ve sinned, and that’s why you’re being punished, so repent.”

But perhaps what spared Elihu the fate of Job’s friends was that he wasn’t saying the trials Job was going through was the result of some great sin he was trying to hide, but rather that God was using these trials to purge out the sin and pride latent in all of us.

And Elihu points out to Job that God was not doing this because he is our enemy.  Rather, he loves us and is constantly working to save us.  He tells Job,

God does all these things to a person— twice, even three times—to turn them back from the pit, that the light of life may shine on them.  (33:29-30)

What’s more, there’s an element of grace in all this.

In verses 23-25, we find an interesting passage where Elihu talks of a mediator that not only teaches a man what is right, but intercedes for him saying,

Spare them from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for them  (33:24)

And because of that intercession, that person can find pray and find favor with God.  And when they do, they cry out,

I have sinned, I have perverted what is right, but I did not get what I deserved.

God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.  (27-28)

Isn’t this the picture of salvation God gives us in the New Testament?

What I take from this is that God doesn’t allow trials into our lives for no reason.  He allows trials to humble us, and to remind us that we are all sinners in need of grace.

And if we ever doubt his intentions as Job did, let us remember that it was God that found a ransom for us that saved us from death and hell.  A ransom that cost his own Son his life.

So when we face suffering in our lives, remember that God allows it not because he hates us.  Rather in his love, he will use it both to save us and refine us.  And as Job himself said,

When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.  (Job 23:10)