Job 33-37

Job 33

Elihu makes his opening statement against Job. He expresses an optimism about God, that if people go to God, they will be rescued. God will do it personally or send an angel to the person. He also expresses skepticism to Job's point of view, in that God did not pick a quarrel with Job. He also believes that he will give wisdom to Job.

Job 34

Elihu continues and focuses on Job's mistaken idea about God. He argues that Job should not blame his problems on God. If God as Creator his breath, then life would cease. Therefore, it could not happened to Job. He calls Job to repentance but does not identify things Job did before the calamities, but for the way Job spoke about God.

Job 35

Elihu continues and focuses on justice from the perspective of God. He argues that God does listen to cries for help, but people do not (always?) get answers because of their own pride. He advises Job to wait for God to provide justice.

The implicit logic seems sensible - when pride gets in the way of God's justice because people do not wait for it. Perhaps because their own pride makes them expect something from God that God does not want to do, so when it does not happen, they lose patience.

Job 36

Elihu continues with God's justice. He talks of how the wicked will be judged. He argues that the godless will be judged whether or not Job obsesses about it. This is a little unfair since his friends brought it up.

Elihu believes that Job's suffering was God's way to get his attention and to lead him from sin. He does not specifically say that Job was sinful (unlike the other friends), but rather he may have been led astray. In essence, the suffering was a preventive action to prevent a life of sin. He does say that God "sent" the suffering. (v. 21).

36/37

He then goes on to argue that God is beyond the comprehension of human understanding and imagination. God as Creator did things that people cannot emulate, but rather just wonder in awe. The examples that Elihu uses focus on the power of the natural world - God's breath in thunder and snowstorms and rainstorms make people stop working.

In all this, Elihu makes the curious statement that God sends thunder, rain, and snow to punish people or out of unfailing love. A clear dichotomy, but it exposes the contradiction of associating natural events with God's punishment as another person could see the same event as a demonstration of God's love.

The final word of Elihu - it is wiser to give God reverence.

God speaks next. Elihu told Job to put his pride aside and wait for God's justice. God's speech appears at the end of the book after all the human voices have been heard.