Sunday September 16th

Sunday, September 19th 2012

Job 32-37

Elihu

As one of the younger people doing this day by day Bible reading, I find it appropriate that I get to write about Elihu. Elihu, who wasn't introduced into this narrative until now, was a young bystander to Job and his three friends as they discussed Job's suffering. When it seemed that the four were done speaking, Elihu decided to voice his opinion. Up until that point he had said nothing, but he was so angry at Job and his friends that he felt he needed to speak. He was mad at Job for focusing on himself and his problems rather than God and His actions, and he was angry at Job's friends because they put Job down when they didn't have any concrete answers in the first place. Elihu hadn't said anything because he felt that his youth and their age made them wiser, and he believed that age should mean wisdom.

Elihu then goes on to voice his opinion. He starts out by saying something that is a repeated lesson in the Bible. He tells Job that he cannot make God his enemy because God and man are not even on the same playing field. It would be like the Cowboys playing against the Yankees (football and baseball), it just can't happen. He tells Job that God communicates with men in many ways, be it a dream, vision, a lesson learned from pain, or through a special messenger. God sends these messages because He wants us to learn and grow. He doesn't want to just see us suffer.

For his final argument, he defends God's justice. He implies that Job's negative outlook on God's justice is what is causing his perceived lack of justice. Elihu pointed out that God doesn't play favorites. The justice scale is the same for everyone. Job is wrong for thinking otherwise, and his whole theological debate on God's justice is premature because God's justice hasn't even reached Job yet. So with this Elihu asks Job to recognize God's greatness and how incomprehensible it is.

What really interested me in today's reading was the idea of age and its effect on wisdom. As Elihu explained that age does not always equal wisdom or a full understanding of justice, I thought of how accurate he was. Wisdom isn't measured by how many years you've been alive, but rather how your experiences shape your knowledge and understanding of life. For Elihu to assume that older meant wiser was naïve of him.

As I continued reading this, though, I noticed how even though what he was saying was wise, Elihu's youth shined through his almost arrogance. It is one thing to believe something whole-heartedly, but it is another thing entirely to be closed off to new ideas. In the beginning, Elihu talks about himself and how he is about to show them the right answers. Throughout the narrative he places himself in a position of knowledge, and he states that as men of understanding, Job and his friends should easily agree with what he is saying. He even said that he has "perfect knowledge" that "comes from afar." He was actually trying to be God's spokesman, which is pretty arrogant all in itself.

I guess the main lesson to learn from Elihu is that being wise doesn't mean you are above being arrogant, and that we should try to remember that when we are disagreeing with someone's opinions.

Hope you all had a lovely Sunday!

Gina.