Day 151. Job 31-34

At the beginning of our reading for today Job composes a list of the many ways in which he might have sinned again God, and thus deserved the suffering he is experiencing. His list includes sensual sins and social ones—adultery, lust, greed, and exploitation of the poor. If he has shown he has been callous to the complaints of his slaves (31:13-14) or indifferent toward the need of widows and orphans (31:16-22), he might have been liable to the judgment he has received. But he has not been. If he had not relished anger (31:29) or failed to show hospitality to strangers (31:32), he might have been struck down. But he has done neither—indeed he could not because he "was in terror of calamity from God," and had he violated his law he would not have been able to face the divine majesty (31:24). (It is obvious that Job's obedience is based, at least in part, upon fear of punishment and desire for reward—what St. Paul would call a righteousness
based on works, rather than faith. But it really isn't as simple as that, because it is clear that Job genuinely longs for friendship with God and relishes his integrity for its own sake. But it is certainly true that his claim to righteousness is based upon his good works and the absence of sin and corruption that has marked his life, that he is "blameless and upright" (1:1). It is easy for us to be critical of this "works righteousness," looking at his life from a Christian point of view. But Job is playing by the rules as he understands them.) At the end of the list of the sins he has not committed, Job again cries out for "one to hear" his case (31:35)—he begs for a written indictment from his adversary—God-- so that he may reply to it. And if he did receive such an indictment, he promises that he would delight in it and wear it "like a crown" (31:36).
But instead what Job gets is exactly what he doesn't want or need--another critic. Elihu is not mentioned earlier and the next six chapters which contain his speech may be a later addition because they do not fit well into the structure of the Book of Job. Elihu is younger than Job and his "comforters" (32:6), and for that reason he tells us that has restrained himself from speaking until now. He has overheard all their earlier conversation, however, and he is frustrated and angry with Job for justifying "himself rather than God" (32:3). He is also angry with his Job's three friends because although they "declare Job to be in the wrong," they have not been able prove him deserving of his sufferings (32:3).
He has restrained his anger until Job reduces his three friends to silence, can hold it in no longer then he --he is bursting with words. His heart, he says, is like a wineskin that is filled with the gas of the fermenting grapes and might explode if it is not given vent (32:19). The "spirit within him" constrains him to speak without partiality or flattery, that same spirit of God [that] made [him], and the breath of the Almighty [that gives him] life" (33:4).
He is no better than Job—"I too was formed from a piece of clay" (33:6), he says, referring to the creation story in Genesis 2:7, which tells how God fashioned the first human being out of mud. So he scolds Job for demanding that God speak to him and complaining of his silence. But Elihu says that God speaks in many ways, in dreams, in visions in the night, in "warnings," and by chastening them with pain and "strife in their bones" (33:19). Job's sufferings are the way God has chosen to address him. God is trying to tell him something by drawing his soul "near the Pit."
Then Elihu suggests that once in a great while-- once in a thousand--for such a one, wasted and near death-- "an angel, a mediator" may appear to declare that person "upright" and say, 'Deliver him from going down into the Pit; I have found a ransom" (33:24). Then God shows mercy to that person, but on the condition of his repentance and his admission that he has indeed "sinned and perverted what is right" (33:27). Elihu is suggesting that Job might be redeemed and put right with God through the good offices of such a mediator, if he were to confess. (This mediator for us Christians would of course be Jesus Christ, who puts us right with God through his sacrifice on the cross. It isn't clear exactly who Elihu has in mind, probably an angel or some other divine being who is willing to act the part of a defense attorney on behalf a person deemed worthy of a second chance.)
Then, repeating arguments already made by his "comforters," Elihu rebukes Job for asking what good it does to "take delight in God" or obey his law if the just are punished anyway. And like Job's three friends, he falls back on platitudes, easy answers that do not reflect the depth of Job's suffering or the seriousness of his questioning. "Of a truth," Elihu says, "God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice" (34:12)—but this, of course, is exactly what Job disputes on the basis of his experience. Job has no right to question the one upon whom his life and every life depends (34:14-15), one who is "righteous and mighty" (34:17). Job should not question his "betters," Elihu says. But God's sight pierces the deepest darkness, his knowledge reaches to the furthest corner of every heart; he knows where sin hides. So if Job is suffering, it must be for an undisclosed sin that God knows. (We have heard
all this before.) Elihu even suggests that he may not be suffering enough—"Would that Job were tried to the limit," he says, "because his answers are those of the wicked" (34:36). But by refusing to acknowledge his guilt and blaming God for his suffering, Job is adding "rebellion to his sin" (34:37)