Job 33:9–14 (NRSV)
9 You say, ‘I am clean, without
transgression;
I
am pure, and there is no iniquity in me.
10 Look, he finds occasions against me,
he
counts me as his enemy;
11 he puts my feet in the stocks,
and watches all my paths.’
12 “But in this you are not right. I will
answer you:
God
is greater than any mortal.
13 Why do you contend against him,
saying,
‘He will answer none of my words’?
14 For God speaks in one way,
and
in two, though people do not perceive it.
NOTE: Elihu now
speaks. He is the youngest of the group. Job never answers him nor does God
comment on his speech. I believe the gist of his argument is in these verses.
Basically Elihu questions Job's assumption that God will not answer his
charges. He will also make the argument that no one is innocent but unlike
Job's three friends will not argue sin as the reason for Job's suffering. He
restores the fact that God is just. The problem is that we do not see the
reason behind our pain, it seems pointless. But are we truly knowledgeable
enough to know that? Could there be a reason, and we lack the wisdom of God to
understand it? Rather than charge God with wrong doing, faith would accept that
there can be purpose and meaning in all suffering. Even if it does not come
from God but directly from evil persons. How can we be so arrogant as to assume
that we understand all things? Who made us the judge of what is right? But none
of those arguments take away the pain of suffering, and so the best answer is not
to answer another during their time of emotional response to suffering.
To the believe, God promises to use suffering for good (Rom 8:28). To the unbeliever, it reminds us to repent of rebellion (Luke 13:1-5) that started in the garden and ended the perfect world God had created.
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