Elihu Condemns Self-Righteousness
August 24, 2019
Commentary
In his third speech, Elihu attempted to refute Job’s argument that righteousness avails nothing. Job had claimed to have done no wrong and that he was righteous before God, but that had made no difference (vv. 1-3). In other words, he would have been just as well off, had he sinned. While responding to Job’s claim, Elihu, at the same time corrected his three friends (v. 4). He told Job to look heavenward and see if he were able to detect any effect of his sin upon the abode of God (vv. 5-6). In doing so he implied that it had not made the slightest difference. Even if man had performed only righteous acts, these did not in the end benefit God (v. 7). They would only benefit man. Only man is the loser from sin, or the one to gain from righteousness (v. 8). By this Elihu was suggesting that in the end righteousness benefits man just as surely as unrighteousness harms him.
Following these assertions, Elihu took up the problem of God’s righteousness and the cry of the oppressed (v. 9). He would give them reason to sing His praise (v. 10). He reminds Job that the birds and beasts can teach us the ways of God in the world, but that men are made to be wiser than they (v. 11). Men should be able to see that suffering is to encourage them to call upon God in sincere repentance, not just to be delivered from the circumstances (v. 12). It should be obvious to all, especially to Job, that God will not hear that kind of cry (v. 13). God will not hear those who do not cry in penitence, nor to those who charge Him with inconsistency in the way that Job had (v. 14). Elihu concludes with a condemnation of Job’s charge that the wicked go unpunished (vv. 15-16).
Application
Job was saying, “My life is not affecting God.” The problem was that it was affecting God. A sin is something that is infinite. An example is when Abraham sinned when he took his handmaid Hagar. The world is still paying for that sin in the conflicts in the Middle East. I am a “preacher“ of righteousness or unrighteousness. Sin in my life will hurt me, and it may hurt many other people. But if I live a righteous life it possibly will help many people.
Job 35:1– 16 (NET)
1 Then Elihu answered:
2 “Do you think this to be just when you say, ‘My right before God’?
3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’ and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’
4 I will reply to you, and to your friends with you.
5 Gaze at the heavens and see; consider the clouds, which are higher than you.
6 If you sin, how does it affect God? If your transgressions are many, what does it do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God, or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness affects only a person like yourself, and your righteousness only other people.
9 “People cry out because of the excess of oppression; they cry out for help because of the power of the mighty.
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God, my Creator, who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than the wild animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
12 Then they cry out—but he does not answer— because of the arrogance of the wicked.
13 Surely it is an empty cry —God does not hear it; the Almighty does not take notice of it.
14 How much less, then, when you say that you do not perceive him, that the case is before him and you are waiting for him!
15 And further, when you say that his anger does not punish, and that he does not know transgression!
16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose; without knowledge he multiplies words.”