40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Job 32:1-33:18 (Episode 413)

Episode Date: April 20, 2024

Elihu breaks into the conversation and has something to say to everyone. Is Elihu righteous or self-righteous? Is he making any new arguments? He is young and he is definitely upset. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: 30 Minutes in the NT on Youtube Remembering Rod Rosenbladt Preorder: Encouragement for Motherhood Edited by Katie Koplin Available Now: Be Thou My Song by Kerri Tom Last Chance: NWA Conference May 3rd-4th More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 podcast network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast to check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. So much stuff, articles, events, academies, videos, do all that. Hey, you know what you could do? Also, I don't know if you listen to 30 Minutes in the New Testament. You could listen to that show.

It's like the sister show to this show. There's no Chad, but there is me. And so, you know, if Chad's the only reason you're here, then I get it. But, you know, if it's not that way, you could listen to 30 Minutes in the New Testament, and it is doing something new, where we actually are going through the process of videoing all of those podcasts. So it's not just an audio podcast, but you can watch it on YouTube. So if you're looking for something to watch on YouTube, a little New Testament Bible study, you can go to YouTube and search up 30 Minutes in the New Testament. There should be a link in the show

notes as well, and you can check that out. You know, even if you're not that interested, you should just go there and subscribe, because that helps us out. So why don't you do that? Do it for me. Do it for me. If you never do anything else for me your whole life, if you go over to YouTube and subscribe to 30 Minutes in the New Testament, I'd appreciate it. All right, Chad, we are in Job chapter 32, and Job has made his final appeal. At least that's what the ESV tells us. He has made his appeal, and you know, you kind of maybe feel like things are wrapping up. Like, okay, Joe's final appeal. We must be nearing the end here.

We're going to get the conclusion. And out of nowhere, we just have a guy parachute in, and he's got some thoughts. And no one seems to care about his thoughts. No one seems to think that his thoughts are worth listening to, or maybe they're just so exhausted by this conversation at this point that they just can't take anymore. But we are going to be introduced to Elihu, who is, yeah, man, I mean, This guy just thinks he's right.

He's got it figured out. It can be quite an entertaining research to read the commentaries on Job with regard to this guy. Because it is kind of all over the place, people's perspective and opinions with regard to him, especially his character. I mean, his words too, but just kind of the overall portrayal of him. you come across things like uh you know bombastic arrogant uh a uh you know what do you call the people the uh the uh the backseat backseat drivers you know he's the he's the guy that has everything figured out i mean you just on and on and on this list of descriptions negative descriptions of him and some of these are some of these are i think somewhat fair some of them are a little bit unfair

but you will find that kind of negative portrayals of him and then interestingly you will find also people that think he is a a type of christ as if he is the one who is going to come in parachute in as you said and as you can see we drop in wisdom left and right and that he is in fact uh purposely portrayed here as a type of the second person of the trinity so you get those kind of arguments in fact i find it interesting anytime i post about job or specifically elihu on my social media channels there's always one or two comments that pop up with people who have that perspective which was something new to me but that is i've done a little looking myself and there are a few people who advocate for that i don't find it convincing

whatsoever as as will become clear as we work our way through these chapters but i just put that out there because he is one of these one of these people in job unlike job's three friends where everybody pretty much agrees but he is one of these people where you have a wide range of opinions with regard to his you know his his his wisdom or lack thereof his character good or bad uh so we'll i guess we'll see as we work our way through this what uh kind of opinion we end up with but uh i'll be up front and saying that he's like the three friends and that he says some things which are true he says some things which are half true half false and some things which are just outright false but from my perspective there's one thing which is for sure is is that he

is uh he's very certain that he's right and everybody else is wrong yeah the the trouble with a view of him being like here here comes jesus is that yeah i think he just says some things that are obviously not true and so that makes it uh tough like like i don't know but he's just straight wrong uh about something so uh that makes it tough also one of the things that's weird about him is that uh you assume he's been here like for the whole time i mean like he parachutes into the narrative here but like you get the impression at least i get the impression that this is a guy that has become increasingly frustrated as he's listened to this so like you almost think of him like sitting in the background listening to all this and and

chapter 32 is where he's had enough but he just blows his lid right like so and is everyone shut up and listen to me like i've been listening to this for all this time and and he's i mean because he's mad at everyone i mean he's mad at joe he's mad at joe's three friends because he thinks that they've done a poor job in their argumentation uh it's yeah this is a guy i i guess he's just been sitting there just getting hotter and hotter and hotter i went to seminary with a guy who if he got upset you would see this red begin to work his way from his his neck upward all the way into his face and by the time he was really worked up um and he was he looked like a tomato i mean he was as red as red can be and you can see it just gradually ascending his neck and face and that's

kind of the way i picture elihu here he's just yeah he's he's sitting in the background it's almost like you have i mean he might not have been the only one who's listening to this back and forth and yeah he's just listening and he's shaking his head at first like you guys you should be saying this or you should be saying that and then joe speaks and he gets even angrier and then finally he says you know what enough is enough i'm gonna step up here these old people don't know what they're talking about i'm gonna even though i'm young i've bided my time and it's uh it's time for me to speak you do feel like joe's probably you know an older guy uh not necessarily an old man when i think of joe but i think of someone like my age like some dude in

his 40s or something like that yeah uh i think of his friends being the same uh this guy seems like he's 23 years old yeah he's definitely younger i mean we we see that i am young in years he says in verse six uh how young i mean we don't know younger than these guys joe bellifaz build that so far yeah we so relatively younger anyway yeah okay so yeah i don't know where here comes you like who and and by the way as people probably probably realize once he finishes his speeches which will comprise quite a bit. He's going to be talking from chapter 32 onward. He's got five chapters here.

Longest uninterrupted speech, by the way, of anybody in the whole book, even God. He doesn't speak this long uninterruptedly, so he's got a lot to say. But once he's finished, it's it. God doesn't address him. There's no mention of him in the closing part of the book of Job. He just pops in, has his long speech, pops out, and that's it. So anyway, chapter 32. Here's kind of the setup.

First five verses say, So these three men, of course talking here about Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, these three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu, the son of Barakel, the Buzite of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. He burned with anger also at Job's three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he.

and when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three friends guess what? He burned with anger so in case you didn't miss it he's angry one, two, three four times we're told

in this opening five verse section that we have a young angry theologian on our hands who's about to speak which will happen in verse six there's one phrase here that's a little that i think is a little bit hard because typically when you hear it you don't that you have you think of something um very negative i mean they're in

his own eyes yeah so like yeah so you have the other just sort of pause right so joe makes his final appeal and there's a pause and this is where a lot who's going to break in and this pause and and take his opportunity. But the reason it gives for the pause, that they're not going to answer Job's final appeal, because it says, because Job was righteous in his own eyes. Now, typically, Chad, if you or I were to say that so-and-so is righteous in their own eyes, what we mean is that they think they're righteous, but they certainly are not. Or we would—this is, to me, anyway, this is associated with self-righteousness, like it's the opposite of righteousness, right? Right, yeah.

But I don't think that's what it means here. I think that they—it might be what they perceive it, they're like, well, Job just thinks he's righteous. It is, of course, possible to believe that your cause is righteous and be correct about it, it just isn't typically the case. Yeah, I think it's hard to get past that negativity associated with this, but yeah it's basically saying these three guys cease to answer job because job was convinced and argued convincingly that he was in the right that he had not sinned and that he was not guilty of some deep dark secret that god was punishing him for and uh when it says you know he justified himself rather than god it's just basically it's it's accurate in the sense of yeah job is saying that

But he does not see how God could be in the right when Job doesn't see himself being in the wrong, more or less. And some of this also is the—I think you had to read this also as the perception of the people, right? So these three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. Okay, well, Job definitely thinks his cause is righteous, but he's also describing how they view Job as someone who— They probably do think he's self-righteous. They're like, man, this guy's just not going to back down from this, I haven't done anything. And, you know, and Elihu's mad at Job because he justified himself rather than God. That's, now, you could say, like, well, Job is justifying himself, but of course Job's the one that's suffering here, not God.

And he is upset with God. But this is Elihu's perception of it, is that, like, oh, well, Job is making himself sound like the just one and questioning the justice of God. So, I mean, I just can't let this stand. Yeah, yeah, that's very accurate. So sometimes we have reported the perspective of someone who's about to speak. It doesn't mean it's necessarily the objective perspective, but this is his perspective on Job as well as his three friends. so uh with that introduction telling us he's he's very upset he's angry at everybody basically he's angry at job he's angry at job's three friends then he's going to talk now elihu uh it does i

think uh earn and deserve the reputation of being a bit uh windy a bit loquacious he's like captain thesaurus because he's going to heap up all these words over and over until he really honestly until he really has anything to add he's got this long preface and it's going to begin with chapter 32 verse 6 where he's going to basically argue in three different ways that he uh here's what here's the way one commentator paraphrased it in verses 6 through 10 he's going to tell them more or less I want to speak. Verses 11 through 14, he's going to tell them I can speak. And then verses 15 through the rest of the chapter, I must speak. And that's really all he's going to say. He's going to heap up a lot of words to communicate this, but that's what he's getting across in

verse 6 through 22. I want to speak, I can speak, and I must speak. And so you kind of get the impression that he, I don't know if he's trying to convince himself or if he's trying to convince Job and the three friends that he should be part of this conversation. He should be part of this dialogue, but this is the way he goes about it. So I'll start out here with verse six. Elihu, the son of Barakel, the Buzite answered and said, I'm young in years and you're aged. Therefore, I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you. I said, let days speak and many years speak wisdom. But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. It's not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right. Therefore, I say,

listen to me. Let me also declare my opinion. I think this is hilarious. So, if you ever knew a guy that was, you know, you might call this the cage stage. Maybe a guy just recently got really into theology you know he's studying theology now maybe he's even going to school for such a thing you know he's doing that sort of thing now there there's going to be a a necessity among someone like this to make sure that other people because because you're going to have like strong opinions but you also need to perceive be perceived as someone who is a righteous person. And so what do you have going on here? You have a guy saying, now listen, I was doing the right thing. I was respecting my elders. I was not going to go out of my place.

I said, I am young. You are aged. I'm going to let the older guys speak. Many years, I'm going to teach wisdom. I'm here. Maybe I'm going to learn something. I was here to listen. And then I realized that, you know what? It's not the old who are wise. That's not it at all. It's the people that really understand what God is like that are wise. So I just need to tell you, you guys ought to be quiet and listen to my opinion here. It's basically saying, I was going to just stand here and listen to you guys and learn something,

and what I learned is that wisdom is not with the aged. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, verse 8, where he says, it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty that makes him understand. That, I believe, is his argument for kind of a democratization of wisdom. So he's saying, listen, I've got the breath of the Almighty in me, just like you do. Now, some have argued that he is claiming the gift of inspiration here. I don't buy that. I think we'd have to have some sort of stronger language used

to argue that he is claiming to have an elevated gift of the Spirit that enables him to claim inspiration. It seems to me that what he's saying here is God's Spirit is in you just like it's in me. the breath of the Almighty is in me, and that gives understanding. And this breath of the Almighty, it's the same word, nashama, in Hebrew, that occurs back in Genesis 2-7, where you had God breathing into Adam and making him a living person. So I've got the breath of the Almighty in me, just like you do, and that ultimately is what gives us the ability to understand.

So, in other words, I can speak even though I'm younger than you are. wisdom is not necessarily just with just with those who have you know a few more birthdays behind them yeah i mean i mean there's definitely like a an insult here too i mean it's uh it's it's it's it's so i mean like you i you can picture this guy man like i know this guy probably was this guy uh at one point where where you're you're declaring that you did the right thing and in doing the right thing, learned that you must do this other thing, which is I yielded to my elders only to find that you guys really need me. Yeah, good thing I'm here.

So that's his first part. I'm entitled to speak. Now he's going to move on, 11 through 14, to say this. Look, I waited for your words. I listened for your wise sayings while you searched out what to say. i gave you my attention and behold there was none among you who refuted job or who answered his words beware yeah he says beware lest you say we have found wisdom god may vanquish him not a man he has not directed his words against me and i will not answer him with your speeches

so the first part first couple of verses there are really not adding anything to the conversation Elihu is just basically saying, I waited around for you guys. I didn't fall asleep during this back and forth. I was listening to what you said. I was listening to what Job said. I gave you my attention. And you know what I found out? I found out that none of you guys could refute Job.

He would speak, and you couldn't answer him. It kind of sounds like he's saying, I was waiting around, because they'll be like, I mean, obviously, we heard lots of answers to Job, right? I mean, they did a lot of talking back to him. It seems what Elihu is saying is like, But I listened to what you guys said, and this is the situation. Job's wrong, but he's won this debate.

So here I come. Yes, yes. Because who had the last word, right? Job did. There was no response from LFI's build-out so far. Job finished his speech, and you can just kind of picture those three guys looking at each other like, You got anything to add? I don't.

Do you? No. I don't have anything else to say. So it's at that point when Elihu steps forward. Now this verse 13 is, I think you can take it a couple different ways. That's the verse that says, so Elihu tells them to be beware. He says, beware. I don't want you to be saying, quote, we have found wisdom.

God may vanquish him, not a man. I think it's a couple different ways that can be interpreted. So when they say, when he warns them not to say, we have found wisdom, he could be saying, don't be saying we have found Job to be wise. Right, that's how I take it, is that... Yeah, with the implication that perhaps God can vanquish him, but we can't. Yeah, this is the idea that Elihu thinks that Job has won the argument, and so he doesn't want them to think, well, Job won the argument. man, I guess he's right. So I guess we're going to concede that Elijah's like, wait until Isaac come in here. Let me win this argument for you, and then you'll know that it wasn't that Job was

right. It's just that you guys were terrible. Yeah, yeah. So that's one, I think that's a more convincing way. Another way you can read this is, we have found wisdom. Beware, lest you say, we have found wisdom in ourselves. So we've got wisdom. We found it. But Job won't listen to us. So we're going to have to let God vanquish him, and he's going to have to deal with him and not a man. So that's another interpretation that's out there. But contextually, it makes the most sense to me that Elihu is telling his friends, these older guys, don't be going around saying that Job has been the winner of this debate because he has all this wisdom, and you're just going to turn it over to God. Well, listen, we don't need God. I'm here. And I'm going to speak

for God. I'm going to tell you exactly what you should have said all along. Even though he hasn't, he finishes that in verse 14 by saying that Job hasn't directed his words against me. And of course that would be true. He's not, he hasn't been debating with Elihu. And then he says, I will not answer him with your speeches. So Elihu claims that everything he's going to say is original. Now, we're going to see cases where that is not true. He's going to recycle, in fact, arguments that we heard already in the opening back and forth between Job and his three friends with regard to how God might use suffering to discipline his people. That's going to be Elihu's main contribution to the whole discussion, but that's already been said,

So it's not really a contribution that's original to the dialogue here. Well, that's his claim anyway. He's like, I'm not recycling your arguments. I got fresh material here that I'm going to put out here before you and finally be able to show you what wisdom looks like. So that's the second part. Third part begins with verse 15. They are dismayed.

He's talking here, of course, about the three friends. They're dismayed. They answer no more. They have not a word to say. and shall i wait because they don't speak because they stand there and answer no more i also will answer with my share i also will declare my opinion for i am full of words that's that's that's that's the first that's like the most truthful thing for sure let's say that no lie detected in that statement yeah yeah i was gonna say this is this is definitely the

truest statement that Eli, who has made so far. No argument with you there, buddy. You are definitely, definitely full of words. I am full of words. The spirit within constrains me. Then he has this image, verse 19, of what it's like for him to be holding in these words. Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent, like new wineskins ready to burst. He's got the fire in the belly going on here. Or as he says, wine, he's got this wine in the belly, uh, expanding and ready to burst. And he's going to pour forth the wine of this wisdom in the speeches that come. I must speak. He says that I may find relief. I must open my lips and answer. I'm not show partiality to any man. The Hebrew there is a Hebrew idiom. I mean, it's literally, I will not lift up the face

of a man. That's what the Hebrew has anytime you have this idea of showing partiality. So lifting up someone's face. I'm not going to lift up the face. I'm not going to show partiality to anybody or use flattery toward a person. And the Hebrew there is I'm not going to give honor to someone, but it has this negative implication of flattery in this context. I'm not going to use flattering words toward any person or he says i don't know how to flatter or else my maker would soon take me away i love that i'm not going to use flattery i wouldn't even know how i wouldn't even know how to do that yeah i don't even know how to flatter people never done it some pretty uh self-flattery i it seems to me in his uh depiction of his ability to speak wisdom there but i guess he

doesn't know how to flatter flutter other people hey have has have never done it won't ever do it don't know how to do it so that that's the uh that's the opening chapter about elihu uh i don't know about you damn but i'm i'm pretty getting a pretty good feel for his personality oh yeah uh i mean he's he's really all he said so far he's added nothing to the debate at all all he said is, you guys failed. I'm not going to. I listened to you. I waited. You didn't refute Job. I'm mad. I got a lot of things to say. I can say them, and I will say them because I must say them. That's really all he said so far. He said a lot of verses to get that across, but that's all that he's said so far. Yeah, well, Elihu's like, listen, this book of Job should start

right now. You can forget everything else that was said before this. I'm not going to be referencing any of the things said. All these arguments were terrible. I use mine. We have wasted our time up to this point, Chad, on the podcast, going up through these. I mean, this was a colossal waste

of time. We should have just started right here, and we could have heard the winning argument. Yeah, yeah. Well, too late for us, I guess, But let's see what we can learn from this young, angry theologian. So, chapter 33. But now, hear my speech, O Job.

So I didn't realize this until this morning. One of the commentaries that I've been using pointed out that the three friends never addressed Job by name. I did not realize that. So Elihu is the only one who does. He does it more than once. So you should make of that what you want. Some people think it's because Elihu was more closely connected to Job, and so he felt like he could address him by name.

Some people think it's actually more kind of an insult, like especially this younger person should not be addressing an older person by their first name. I don't know. I mean, I don't know that we know enough about the cultural context of Job's time to be able to say with certainty. But it is an interesting, at least, detail that the three friends never addressed Job by name, but Elihu does. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if this is a thing in the Hebrew or not, but it's not just that he says Job, but he has this O Job, which, I mean, certainly if I did that, you would know exactly.

I mean, if I said, listen to my speech, oh, Chad, there's like a—you already know that I am—I have already insulted you, or you know my attitude, right? But again, I don't know if it's really baked in there in the Hebrew, but when you read it, certainly in English, especially since no one has used this name so far, but it's like, but now, hear my speech, O Job. It's almost like what you would say to somebody who you thought thought more of themselves than they ought. Yeah, yeah. It's not in the Hebrew. It's just in the translation. but i i do appreciate the translation because it does carry that nuance yeah that way yeah yeah he would say that to insult someone who you thought yeah was uh thinking more of themselves

than they ought to think and so right from the jump you would be like just so you know like i don't think of you that way but i'll uh oh oh chad let me explain to you yeah yeah so listen up oh job i got a lot of words to say behold i open my mouth the tongue in my mouth speaks my words declare the uprightness of my heart and what my lips know they speak sincerely the spirit of god has made me and the breath of the almighty gives me a life that's that same kind of language we heard earlier by the way this breath of the almighty and the spirit answer me if you can he goes on set your words in order before me take your stand behold i am toward god as you are i too was pinched off from a piece of clay

behold no fear of me need terrify you my pressure will not be heavy upon you i don't really get the impression job's scared of him i don't know why elihu needs to caution jobes and listen don't be terrified by me i'm just you know i was pinched off by the divine potter just like you were and made into clay uh the same god that made you said made me so no need to tremble with fear as i as i address you i mean it yeah it is how he does cover costs is so pompous yeah i mean i'm just a man like you jobe i know it's easy to confuse me with something other than that but uh just a man even though i do like i mean i do like this uh i don't know why it's it's just kind of a cool uh image this sort of i was pinched off

from a piece of clay i mean that's pretty that's pretty good language if you are trying to say like If you were trying to tell someone that you're both equal and by equal in relation, if you're comparing yourself to God, really nothing, pinched off from a piece of clay is a pretty good description of trying to say, hey, I'm not really anything. Yeah, that needs to be another one of those Job expressions that we revive, along with being companion of ostriches, you know, when things are going really bad in your life. yeah companion of ostriches uh so that one and pinched off from a piece of clay that's we need to insert those into more of our more of our work yeah we do i'm gonna make those i'm gonna

insert those into some things but that it's actually like maybe a cool thing to say if you were it's almost like it's it's not the appropriate way so say you were going to go talk to someone who is suffering, and you were trying to comfort them, and then you went in there and said, hey, man, I'm here for you. I'm not God. I'm just a man. I'm just like you. I, too, was pinched off from a piece of clay, but I'm here to suffer with you. It would seem like that would be a great way to You've used kind of a beautiful phrase. But in this context, it comes across just completely disingenuous and like, listen, I know I just stepped in here, and let me tell you, I'm going to open my mouth, and I'm going to use my tongue. And, man, when I start talking, man, the uprightness of my heart is going to be revealed to all.

And that might make you think that I'm more than I am, but I'm just a man. but prepare yourself for these divine like words that are about to flow yeah it doesn't hit the same way it's a nice line but it's wasted

yeah in this context so he goes on and here he's going to he's going to begin before he speaks he still really hasn't had any contribution besides some good expressions here and there

But he's going to sum up in his own words, and to some extent in the words of Job, some of the claims that Job has made. So before he begins to actually offer a rebuttal or a correction, he's going to try and summarize some of what Job has said. Verse 8. Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I've heard the sound of your words. In other words, I've been listening this entire time. and uh here's some things that i've heard from you joe verse 9 you say i am pure without transgression i'm clean and there is no iniquity no iniquity in me behold he that is talking about god behold god finds occasions against me and he counts me as his enemy and he puts my feet in the

stalks and watches all my paths. So this is, I would say it's a fairly accurate representation of what Job has said. Some of it is almost verbatim, in fact. The only issue that I would have with Elihu's summation of at least part of the arguments of Job is that it kind of comes across as if Job has claimed to be sinless. And we both know, we all know that that's not the case. I mean, Job has talked about his errors. He's talked about the sins of his youth. So yes, of course, he has in other passages talked about the fact that he's not committed some heinous sin, which has led to the sufferings that he is enduring. This isn't some kind of divine punishment for any iniquity.

But you certainly walk away from this summation on Elihu's part with the impression that Job has claimed that he's some sort of sinless person. But anyway, that's how Elihu

summarizes what Job has said. I feel like Job's argument has consistently been, because it starts with this, there's an accusation that he must have done something to deserve this. And Job's argument has consistently been not that he is completely righteous and never

sinned or has never done anything even maybe that deserves punishment, but that whether you're comparing him to his friends or comparing him to the rest of mankind, he has done nothing to exceed the sins of anyone else that this would be happening to him. So he looks around, and this isn't happening to anyone else, and what we have at the beginning of Job is that, of course Job's not sinless, but Job is positioned as a person that is better, not just like the same as everybody else, but better than everyone else, and it seems that everyone knows it. And Job – and the frustration with Job is that he knows that everyone knows it. He knows his friends know it. And so, like, this – yeah, this is a little bit skewed where it's like, oh, he's just saying that you're without iniquity entirely. There's no transgression.

You're completely pure, huh? It's like, no, no, no. I'm just saying that, like, look at what's happening to me. And if you compare me with you, there's nothing that, like, I've done that you haven't done. In fact, I'm better than you. right? And so that's the whole argument. And so, yeah, I think that this hits a little bit. This overstates what Job is saying. Yeah. Well, it's like you and I have talked about many other times. I don't know if it was on or off here, but anytime someone

begins a response to us by saying, so what you're saying is blah, blah, blah, then, yeah, 99.9% of the time, that's not what you're saying, or it's a misreversal. It's at least such an incomplete summation of what you're saying, that it comes across as a misrepresentation of what you're claiming. Yeah, I mean, if he had just said here, let me recap your argument, Job. What you're saying is that you have done nothing that is unique from the rest of mankind to deserve this unique punishment. That would be more, that would be accurate, right? That's Job's whole thing, it's like, I've done nothing that's so unique that my punishment would be so unique. Yeah, yeah, so that would be a fairer way for Elihu to sum it up. Now he goes on in verse 12.

so after summarizing what what he claims job has said behold in this you're not right i will answer you for god is greater than man why do you contend against him saying he will answer none of man's words that kind of leads up here uh to what you think is going to be some sort of striking argument and it's not really much of an argument at all when he says god is greater than man it's not like job is going to disagree with that that's in fact that's really the substance of much of what job has to say god is greater than man in fact he says it in in essence more than once and because of that job can't get his day in court he can't have any kind of conversation with god because god is in fact greater and higher and more powerful than man is and so

there's nothing really that he would be able to to do in order to be on the level with god so that he could he could address him so verse 13 ends with this uh why do you contend against him saying he will answer none of man's words well job contends against him because of all the things that joe has said because he is the innocent sufferer and what he has been going through is in no way equivalent to what he himself has done with regard to any kind of, like, horizontal righteousness. Well, the implication here, too, is that, look, Job, God is greater than man, which is, you're like, thanks, that's great to know, but that, of course, he's not going to answer you like what what who are you like what do you what do you mean what do you like so you're

you're going to contend against him and say he'll answer none of my words well he's gone so i mean why why would he answer you uh and then he's going to go on to say like he only speaks in like one or two ways uh by the way he's like straight up wrong right here but but uh like but what he's definitely saying is that god's not gonna talk to you like a person yeah yeah so he goes on to say god speaks in one way or in two though man doesn't perceive it in a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falls on men while they slumber on their beds so while people are asleep elihu says god does communicate he speaks and what's the goal of the speech he says he opens the ears of men literally in hebrew he uncovers their ears and

terrifies them with warnings that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man. He keeps back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword. What a bummer. This is the only way that God's going to ever talk to you. He's going to give you a dream in the middle of the night. And by the way, you're going to wake up in a sweat because you're going to be terrified about what you saw.

I'm sure glad this isn't the only way that God communicates is by divine nightmares to warn us away from going to hell yeah i don't know that i'd ever go to bed uh but yeah that's that's so that's elihu's uh solution to the problem oh god's going to communicate he gives you nightmares that warn you not to go to hell yeah that's basically the uh the gist of of this communication well i'm not disputing the fact that god gives dreams and visions we have those all over the scriptures uh but this is not thank god the only way that communication takes place or if he does give a dream or vision it's not always this like it's always this yeah exactly yeah like most of the time it's not such a negative kind of communication

it almost seems like he's like listen job god's not going to talk to you like have a conversation with you using words there's only one way that he's going to talk to you and uh it's when you're asleep and he gives you this nightmare maybe you should have listened to that job maybe when you had that nightmare, you should have listened and not done whatever it is that you did, right? Yes. Yeah, this... Again, this might make it difficult

for this to be Jesus, because you're like, uh... That's not true. No. Doesn't sound very much like what Jesus would say. No. I also liked it. He's like, don't worry, Job. My words won't be burdensome at all.

And then he lays out... And he lays this on. I don't know. Elihu feels pretty heavy to me. Your yoke is not easy, and your burden is not light that you're putting on me. 90-pound sack of rocks that you just laid on my back. For sure. All right, man.

Well, that is it. We are out of time. We will definitely be hearing more from Elihu. He's got a lot of words, as he has stated, and we're going to explore more of those, but we're going to have to wait until next week to do that. I'll see you then, Chad. See you then. We'll see you next time.