#670 His Ways

And Elihu answered and said:

2 “Do you think this to be just?

Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’

3 that you ask, ‘What advantage have I?

How am I better off than if I had sinned?’

4 I will answer you

and your friends with you.

5 Look at the heavens, and see;

and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

6 If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?

And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him?

Or what does he receive from your hand?

8 Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself,

and your righteousness a son of man.

9 “Because of the multitude of oppression people cry out;

they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.

10 But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker,

who gives songs in the night,

11 who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth

and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

12 There they cry out, but he does not answer,

because of the pride of evil men.

13 Surely God does not hear an empty cry,

nor does the Almighty regard it.

14 How much less when you say that you do not see him,

that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!

15 And now, because his anger does not punish,

and he does not take much note of transgression,

16 Job opens his mouth in empty talk;

he multiplies words without knowledge.” Job 35

What advantage - Elihu now accuses Job of saying that there was no value in his moral life. It is almost like the argument of accusation, where a man or woman says, "if you accuse me then I might as well be guilty of it", they should like to commit the accusations worth. There is a fault here in Job just like his friends which is much easier to see in retrospect and with the conversation that occurs between God and the devil, that assumes this to be the reward for wickedness. This is why Job is confused, and his friends, so loyal to tradition, cannot see any other possibility than Job's vile nature. It all hinges on his being quite criminal, reprobate. 

Look at the heavens - Elihu circles back around to the greatness of God which Job already knows. He wants him to look up and see the futility of arguing against God. It is a silly thing for a created being to think themselves on equal or greater terms than God, to think they have anywhere to stand that He did not create. Job understands as well as men can the glory and majesty of God, made visible in the creation, but he is confused and like a child wants to know that God loves him, for his feelings and brokenness do not suggest that.

If you are righteous - What does God gain from our righteousness? He does not need us, and it says in scripture that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. Elihu raises some good points, and I always run into this issue when I judge merit, since it is part of my job. The reviews are set up in brackets where honesty is one of the behavioral sections, and here is my issue, that there are marks for needs improvement, meets, and exceeds. If I ask you a question and you tell me the truth, even if the truth is that you don't know, that is what I am expecting, the truth. To me, you either meet or need improvement, you are honest or not honest, if you lie than you are a liar. I know this because I have lied before and I was a liar when I did it, and the Bible says "Thou shalt not lie." Sadly, it is so much the norm that we have set it up by degree, needs improvement must mean you lie a lot, meets must mean not as much and exceeds must mean that you mostly tell the truth. We continue to lower the bar, but does God? I don't believe a Holy God can lower the bar, and the advent of Christ does show this both predicted and fulfilled. So, Elihu, in his dissertation of  God's greatness, His majesty, Sovereignty and righteousness, has not included the attribute that brings value and worth to His creatures and their actions. They all agree on the aforementioned, but what if God is love, and if He is this, is it not infinitely so and in balance with His other attributes? This is what Job misses and grieves about, trying to reconcile the love of God into all this, "does He not love me anymore, or did He ever?" This is what his friends are lacking altogether, and to argue only in their vane brings it all to not. Yes, we agree that a man should receive his wages, that God has commanded righteousness as our duty, not as a suggestion. It is the logical and reasonable act of the creation to point to the Creator. Yet, God is love, and whom the Lord loveth, He chaseneth, He delights in His children and those who do righteousness because they reflect the image of His Son.

Does he thank the servant because he did what he was told? 10 So you also, when you have done everything commanded of you, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” 11 While Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee.…Luke 17: 9-11

So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of  heaven. Matthew 5: 19-20

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4: 8-10

People cry out - In some ways they acted before as if all Job needed to do was cry out to God and repent, but here he has heard Job do so already, and so it must be that Job is insincere in doing so. Now there is a good degree of general truth here from the young man again, since it is insincere to go to God only in time of want. It is reckless to go to God and then to another god, to try to appease Him and idols all at once. It is not love on our part when we only seek Him for what He can do for us, to put life in our favor. He is God yet still, of the downs and the hills, we should praise Him in hard times and times of plenty, for He is still God, there is none like Him.