Above: The Wrath of Elihu, by William Blake
Image in the Public Domain
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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236
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Job 34:1-20
Psalm 28
Matthew 6:7-15
Hebrews 13:9-14 (15-16) 17-25
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Elihu seems like a rather annoying person. He is eager to defend God against Job’s complaints and to offer a more vigorous theodicy than that of Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. Elihu argues, in part:
So far is God removed from wickedness,
and Shaddai from injustice,
that he requites a man for what he does,
treating each one as his way of life deserves.
God is never wrong, do not doubt that!
Shaddai does not deflect the course of right.
–Job 34:10b-12, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
Translation: Job sinned, and these sufferings of his are divine punishment for those sins. If he repents, God will forgive Job and end his sufferings. This conclusion contradicts Job 1 and 2, which offer a truly disturbing answer: God has permitted an innocent man to suffer as part of a wager.
This seems like an excellent place at which to add the analysis of John Job, author of Job Speaks to Us Today (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1977), pages 102-103. The author asks, “Why are Job’s friends not truly wise?” He concludes, in part:
The friends, first of all, are shameless utilitarians. Repentance, in the estimation of Eliphaz, is a kind of insurance policy. Making petition to God is advocated, not for the intrinsic value of a relationship with him, but simply for the pay-off in material terms–as when he says, “Come to terms with God and you will prosper; that is the way to mend your fortune” (22:21). The interesting point here is that the friends adopt precisely the position which Satan regards as universally occupied by those who make a show of being god-fearing. “Does Job fear God for nothing?” he had asked. Eliphaz makes no secret of the grounds on which he is advising Job to fear God. It is all too shallow. Faith is depersonalized: it becomes self-centered instead of God-centered. Its character as faith is destroyed. Fear of God is simply not the right way to describe it.
If one replaces “Eliphaz” with “Elihu” and changes the citation from Job 22 to one from Chapter 34, this analysis remains valid.
The Book of Job defies the desire for easy answers that fundamentalism typifies. God is just, correct? Then how does one explain the wager in Job 1 and 2? And does not Job deserve better than the “I am God and you are not” speeches in Job 38-41? In Job 42, however, God expresses his displeasure with Eliphaz and company for speaking falsely about him and praises Job for speaking honestly about him (God). Those two responses seem incompatible, do they not? Of course, one came from one source and the other came from another. Elihu, who states correctly that God does not meet human measures (Job 33:12b), also spouts foolishness. The Book of Job provides no easy answers and offers a false, Hollywood ending, at least in its final, composite form. The original version ends with Job’s repentance for overreaching a few verses into Chapter 42.
Job needed good friends, not Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. He needed people who came to comfort him, to listen to him, and to let him cry on their shoulders. He needed friends who followed advice from Hebrews 13:16:
Never neglect to show kindness and to share what you have with others; for such are the sacrifices which God approves.
—The Revised English Bible (1989)
The standard we apply to others will be the standard God applies to us; we read this in Matthew 7:1-5. Forgiveness is something we are to extend to others, and divine forgiveness of our sins depends on our forgiveness of the sins of others. This is a lesson the author of Psalm 28 had not yet learned. This is a lesson with which I have struggled mightily and with which I continue to struggle. Success in the struggle does not depend on my own power, fortunately; grace is abundant. The desire to do something one knows one ought to do is something with which God can work. It is, metaphorically, a few loaves and fishes, which God can multiply.
In Job 42 God burned with anger toward Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. (The text does not mention Elihu, most likely because the text of the Book of Job did not yet contain the Elihu cycle.) The alleged friends had not spoken truthfully of God, but Job had. Job interceded on their behalf, however, and God excused their folly and forgave their sins. Job, who had complained bitterly to his alleged friends, who had taunted him and sometimes even enjoyed his sufferings, all while imagining that they were pious and that he had done something to deserve his plight, prayed for their forgiveness.
That is a fine lesson to draw from the Book of Job.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF CONSTANCE AND HER COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF ANNE HOULDITCH SHEPHERD, ANGLICAN NOVELIST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT ISAAC THE GREAT, PATRIARCH OF ARMENIA
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CHATTERTON DIX, HYMN WRITER
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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