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God Is Mighty But Despises No One
God Is Mighty But Despises No One Job 36:1-37:24 Key Verse 36:5 “God is mighty, but despises no one; he is mighty, and firm in his purpose.” We have spent two Sundays studying the words of Elihu. In the first week we learned that Elihu felt that he had to talk because he was mad at both Job for justifying himself instead of God and with Job’s friends for accusing and condemning Job of some hidden sin, yet they were unable to prove it. In the first part of the speech, we saw that Elihu really had the heart of God. In chapter 33 he said that God talks to men all the time in order that they might repent and come back to him a theme that will come back today. Then in verses 23-28 of chapter 33 Elihu gives an nearly perfect explanation of the gospel. In chapters 34 and 35, Elihu goes on to rebuke Job for saying that God was being unjust in bringing this suffering upon him. Elihu says to Job, “Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong.” We may not understand why God does what he does, but there is no way that what God does is wrong. In these chapters, Elihu concludes his speech. He has one main goal in this section of the speech and that is to get both Job and his friends to stop focusing on Job and whether he is righteous or not, and to start focusing on God who is so mighty and glorious that we cannot even come close to understanding him completely. Yet at the same time this mighty God loves each of us. Once again, I was amazed at Elihu’s words and his deep understanding of the heart of God. May God bless us today to listen very carefully to Elihu’s words so that we can always keep our eyes clearly focused on God. Elihu begins this part of his speech with a very interesting introduction in verses 2-4. Let’s look at verse 2 first. “Bear with me a little longer and I will show you that there is more to be said in God’s behalf.” In this verse Job makes it clear that he is not speaking for himself. He says that he is speaking on behalf (or for) God. This is very interesting especially in light of verses 3 & 4. Let’s look carefully at these two verses. “I get my knowledge from afar; I will ascribe justice to my Maker. Be assured that my words are not false; one who has perfect knowledge is with you.” Elihu doesn’t say that he got his knowledge from his parents, his elders, Job or his friends, or from a good education and studying hard. He simply states that he got his knowledge from afar – this means a faraway place. He doesn’t specify where this place might be, but if we look at what he says in the context of this book, I think that it becomes clear that this place is heaven. I have to keep going back to the fact that when God speaks (which he will do in the very next chapter), He rebukes both Job and his three friends, but God never mentions Elihu. In fact, as you will see, God uses the same line of reason that Elihu uses in these chapters to rebuke Job. As I read and studied this, I came to the conclusion that God doesn’t rebuke Elihu, because what he says is true. I think we really must conclude that Elihu really is speaking for God and God is permitting him to do so. Some people might think that this is crazy, but this is what we believe about all the authors of the Bible. They were all inspired by God and these are His words that we are studying. So let’s continue to look at Elihu’s words very carefully. What does Elihu want to do with this knowledge that he got from some far off place? Verse 3 says, “I will ascribe justice to my Maker.” In simple English, it means that he is going to justify God and not Job. The focus of Job and his three friends was all about Job and not about God. Elihu’s view of the entire matter is quite different. Elihu’s view is all about God and not about Job at all. Now verse 4 is very difficult because Elihu makes a seemingly outrageous or crazy statement. He says, “Be assured that my words are not false; one who has perfect knowledge is with you.” John Macarthur, a very well-known and respected Bible scholar and pastor in America said The following about this verse, “Elihu made what appeared to be an outrageous claim in order to give credibility to his remarks.” He doesn’t explain what he meant by the word ‘appeared,’ but I don’t believe this claim was so outrageous at all. In fact, I think Elihu knew something that no one else there knew and that was that God was present as Elihu spoke. I don’t think that Elihu is referring to himself when he says that one with perfect knowledge was with them, I think he was referring to God – remember God speaks immediately following Elihu’s remarks. In a clear reference to God in Chapter 37:16, Elihu uses the very same words. Look at 37:16 “Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge?” Given this and the fact that Elihu was not rebuked by God for what he said, I think that these words of Elihu are divinely inspired and that God was there as Elihu was speaking. Now let’s get into the heart of what Elihu has to say. Look at verse 5. “God is mighty, but despises no one; he is mighty, and firm in his purpose.” Here Elihu says three things about God which are essential to his whole argument. First of all, he says that God is mighty. He goes on to explain what he means by this in much more detail at the end of chapter 36 and throughout chapter 37, but here he says simply that God is mighty. What he means is that God is mighty beyond our human understanding. His power and might are something that our human brains simply can’t fully understand. Yet at the same time God despises no one. If we look at this sentence from another way we could say that even though God is so mighty we can’t quite understand him fully, He loves everyone all the same. This is very important for Job to understand. Job thinks that God is punishing him for some reason and that therefor God must despise him for some reason. Elihu says that this is not true. Let’s look at the end of this statement. Elihu says, “he is mighty, and firm in his purpose.” He goes back to the idea of God’s mightiness, but then goes on to say that God is firm in his purpose. Again, because God is mighty beyond our understanding, we may not always fully understand what God’s purpose is in our life. Especially if we face times like Job was facing then. But as we look at what Elihu tells Job about God’s purpose in treating Job this way, I want you to keep Romans 8:28 in your mind. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God’s purpose in doing the things that He does is always for the good of those who love him. It doesn’t matter what our circumstances may be, if we love God we can be assured that we are there because God wants to work some greater good in our life. This may not always be easy to understand or accept, but it is true. These were the words that Job really needed to hear just then. Elihu goes on to say that God sees everyone, both the good and the bad. God is a God of justice and he will give it to those who are oppressed. In verse 7 Elihu says something truly remarkable. While studying this book I read several commentaries and I remember reading one that said the idea of resurrection or life after death is never directly addressed in this book, but I disagree with this. There are several instances where I think both Job and Elihu refer to this idea, maybe not directly, but they certainly address it. In this verse, however, I think Elihu addresses it quite clearly. He says that God will exalt the righteous on kings’ thrones forever. To me that means, God will give eternal life to the righteous. Of course none of us are righteous, so none of us deserve this reward. But remember, God doesn’t despise us, He loves us and that is why He gave us Jesus. More on this in just a minute. In verses 8,9 and 10 Elihu goes on to tell Job something remarkable about God. He says that even if a person is tied up by God and has to suffer, this is because God is speaking to that person. God does this because he wants that person to listen to him and repent of their sin. There are two great ideas here. First, God speaks to us individually. We are nothing compared to God, yet he does not despise us, he loves us enough to talk to us. But even more than that, he does it in such a way as to make us listen to Him. He makes us listen to him, not because He wants to see us suffer, but so that we might repent and come back to Him. Look at verse 11. “If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.” Now look down at verse 16 where Elihu is speaking directly to Job. Verse 16 is a beautiful verse explaining God’s heart. “He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.” God speaks to each one of us, because he wants us to repent so that he can bless us. Elihu truly knew the heart of God, because this was exactly Jesus message. Jesus came saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Then he said, if you repent and accept me I will come and make my home in your heart. More than that, I will exalt you forever and give you eternal life in my home with my Father. In that kingdom there will be no more tears and there will be a Heavenly banquet. Your joy will be complete and you will enjoy this forever. Of course, you can also choose not to listed to God; that is, choose not to repent. Elihu mentions the fate of such people in verses 12-15. For such people they will die without knowledge at a young age surrounded by terrible people. In verses 17-21, Elihu talks directly to Job about the situation he found himself in just then. In verse 17 He seems to make the same mistake that Job’s three friends made. However, there is a slight difference between the two arguments. Job’s friends said that Job’s situation had to be the result of some hidden sin that God was punishing him for. Elihu simply says that Job is suffering the punishment of the wicked without making any claim about whether or not Job deserved to suffer this way. This is a slight difference, but it highlights the different points of view of Elihu and the three friends. Elihu wasn’t interested in whether or not Job deserved to suffer, he was only interested in justifying God. From Elihu’s point of view, Job was in the situation he was in and the important thing was how Job responded to it. Remember, to Elihu, God was speaking to Job in order to woo him back to Himself. Complaining about the situation and trying to justify his own righteousness wasn’t going to help him. Elihu also warns him in verses 18-21 that relying on riches, power or evil schemes to get them would not help him either. In Elihu’s mind there was only one solution for Job and that was to turn back to the Almighty who was calling him home. I think that if we give careful consideration to Elihu’s words we can see just how true they really are. No one has ever alleviated their suffering in a bad situation by complaining about how they don’t deserve to be suffering like that. Complaining just makes the situation worse because it fills you head and heart with negative thoughts and emotions. It is also true that when we try to change the situation with our own human strength or head knowledge, especially if we turn to evil schemes to rectify the situation, we often end up in a worse situation. The novel, Crime and Punishment, by Dostoevsky is a great example of this. In that book a young man, Raskolnikov, is forced to quit his university studies because of lack of money. Instead of turning to God, he turned completely away from God and began to think of people he considered great like Napoleon. Raskolnikov reasoned that for great men like that the law didn’t matter – they could do whatever they like in their pursuit to change the situation of the world. He eventually decided that what he needed to do to get out of his situation and change the world for the better was to kill an old pawn broker, steal her money and use it to do good. Well, needless to say, when he carried out his plan everything went horribly wrong and instead of his situation getting better it ended up getting far worse. However, that is not the end of the story because he eventually heard God speaking to him through one young lady named Sonia. I don’t want to give away the end of the novel, so I’ll stop there and let you read it on your own. Beginning with 36:22 and going through the end of chapter 37, Elihu begins to describe what he meant when he said that God was mighty. He uses the weather to try to get his point across. Before he begins he asks Job two questions. The first one I think was meant to help Job look to God as his loving Father who is trying to teach him something. Look at verse 22. “God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?” Again, Elihu makes reference to God’s mightiness when he says that God is exalted in power, but then he goes on to say that God is a teacher. God is always teaching us. Remember he is wooing us back to himself. I think Elihu wanted Job to think about this. The second question seem to me to be pointed at Job to help him see where he was wrong in his argument. Look at verse 23. “Who has prescribed his ways for him, or said to him, ‘You have done wrong’?” This made me think of Elihu’s words to Job in 35:2, “Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am in the right, not God.’” So I think with this second question, Elihu was trying to help Job see just where he had made his mistake. After these introductory questions, Elihu goes on to show the mightiness, or rather the greatness of God, by showing that we can’t really even understand the simplest ways of God. He does this by describing clouds, lightning, thunder and storms in general. He asks Job to consider these things and then he asks Job if he knows how God does all of these things. How does God make the clouds hang in the sky? After all Job knew that from those clouds large amounts of rain could fall, enough to cause great devastation to the land through massive floods. Some of those clouds must weigh several million kilograms – how is that they can float in the air. Where does lightning come from? What causes the thunder? Of course now we can answer all these question through modern science, but there are still so many more that science will never be able to answer. Questions like, how did God created everything just by speaking? If you just want a purely scientific question, how was everything created from nothing or what caused the Big Bang? How is it that we (human beings) can think? What is thinking? What is the universe expanding into? I could go on and on. One of the great verses in this section is 37:13, “He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth and show his love.” Elihu’s point was that Job could not understand the processes God used every day to both punish and bless people, so how could he be expected to understand why God was doing what he was doing to him. The best Job could do was to turn back to God to obey and serve him. Only God could provide the answers Job was looking for – complaining about how unjust his situation was would not help Job. Elihu ends his speech by comparing the glory of God to one of God’s created things, the sun. The sun is so magnificent that we cannot even look at it and it is just one of billions of God’s creations. So how magnificent must it be to look at God? Elihu’s conclusion is, “The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress. Therefore, people revere him, for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?” Elihu says that God does not oppress. Job thought God was oppressing him, but Elihu believed God was lovingly talking to Job, teaching him and wooing Job back to himself. God is doing the same for each of us today. Therefore, God is worthy of Job’s and our reverence. |
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