Elihu says "There is no profit in obeying God."

12/1/2011 8:06:52 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  There is no profit in obeying God

Bible Reading & Meditation                                      Reference:  Job 34:7-9; 35:1-16

            Message of the verses:  “7  "What man is like Job, Who drinks up derision like water, 8  Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, And walks with wicked men? 9  "For he has said, ’It profits a man nothing When he is pleased with God.’”

            “1 ¶  Then Elihu continued and said, 2  "Do you think this is according to justice? Do you say, ’My righteousness is more than God’s’? 3  "For you say, ’What advantage will it be to You? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’ 4  "I will answer you, And your friends with you. 5  "Look at the heavens and see; And behold the clouds-they are higher than you. 6  "If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him? And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him? 7  "If you are righteous, what do you give to Him, Or what does He receive from your hand? 8  "Your wickedness is for a man like yourself, And your righteousness is for a son of man.

    “9 ¶  "Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty. 10  "But no one says, ’Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night, 11  Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’ 12  "There they cry out, but He does not answer Because of the pride of evil men. 13  "Surely God will not listen to an empty cry, Nor will the Almighty regard it.

    “14 ¶  "How much less when you say you do not behold Him, The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him! 15  "And now, because He has not visited in His anger, Nor has He acknowledged transgression well, 16  So Job opens his mouth emptily; He multiplies words without knowledge.’”  (NASB)

            “7  “Tell me, has there ever been a man like Job,  with his thirst for irreverent talk? 8  He chooses evil people as companions.  He spends his time with wicked men. 9  He has even said, ’Why waste time  trying to please God?’”

            “1 ¶ Then Elihu said: 2  “Do you think it is right for you to claim,  ’I am righteous before God’? 3 For you also ask, ’What’s in it for me?  What’s the use of living a righteous life?’ 4  “I will answer you  and all your friends, too. 5  Look up into the sky,  and see the clouds high above you. 6 If you sin, how does that affect God?  Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have on him? 7 If you are good, is this some great gift to him?  What could you possibly give him? 8 No, your sins affect only people like yourself, and your good deeds also affect only humans.

    “9 ¶ “People cry out when they are oppressed.  They groan beneath the power of the mighty. 10 Yet they don’t ask, ’Where is God my Creator,  the one who gives songs in the night? 11 Where is the one who makes us smarter than the animals and wiser than the birds of the sky?’ 12 And when they cry out, God does not answer because of their pride. 13 But it is wrong to say God doesn’t listen, to say the Almighty isn’t concerned.

    “14 You say you can’t see him, but he will bring justice if you will only wait. 15 You say he does not respond to sinners with anger and is not greatly concerned about wickedness. 16 But you are talking nonsense, Job.  You have spoken like a fool.’”  (NLT)

            We will begin with a quote from Dr. Wiersbe:  “Again, Elihu tries to throw Job’s own words back in his face: ‘I am innocent’ (10:7; 12:4; 27:6), and ‘What have I gained by obeying God’ (9:29-31); 21:15) Job did make the first statement but the second is not an accurate quotation of his words.  Job never did bargain with God as Satan said he would (1:9, 21; 2:9-10).  Eliphaz had discussed this topic (Job 22) and had come to the conclusion that neither man’s piety nor his iniquity could make any difference to the character of God.  But Elihu felt it was important to deal with the theme again.”

            I would like to say that Satan has always dealt in half truths, which in affect are lies.  He began in the garden when tempting Eve with half truths and has never stopped.  I have to believe that Satan was doing everything he could to “win this bet” with God, and therefore I believe that Satan was using Elihu’s half truths to get Job to admit to something that he never did or said.

            In verses 35:5-7 Elihu is saying in affect that what we do here on earth does not affect God because He is so far away from the earth, yet he misses an attribute of God, omnipresence.

            In verses 8-16 Elihu asked Job and his friends to consider human society.  He is saying that are sins or our good works affecting people around us, but they do not affect God.  Genesis 6:6 shows that God grieves over man’s sins and Psalm 37:23 shows that He delights in the faith and obedience of man, so Elihu is wrong in what he is saying.

            We have to look at the character of God, for He is holy and does not change, and this is made plain in the Scriptures “Mal 3:6  ‘For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.’”  This is just one example from the Scriptures of the unchangeableness of God. 

            We know that God cares for the birds (Job 35:11; Matt. 6:25-24); but men who are made in the image of God will not cry out to God until they are in trouble (Job 35:9).  Men forget God until they have a lot of troubles and this is why Job’s prayers are not being answered (v14).  This is all according to Elihu.

            Another quote from Dr. Wiersbe:  “But even if God doesn’t relieve the burden, He can give the trusting sufferer ‘songs in the night’ (v. 10; Ps. 42:8; 77:6).  ‘Any man can sing in the day,’ said Charles Spurgeon.  ‘It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is the skillful singer who can sing when there is not a ray of light by which to read.’  The Lord gave ‘songs in the night’ to Jesus before He went to the cross (Matt. 26:30) and to Paul and Silas in the prison in Philippi (Acts 16:25).  If God doesn’t see fit to remove our burdens, He always gives strength to bear them—and a son to sing while doing it!”

            Even though Elihu dismisses Job’s complaint that he could not see God, that was not the important thing to remember, for God could see Job and that is what he should remember.  (See 35:14)  We see in verse 16 that Job’s situation won’t change by his empty talk and many words, so the only thing that Job can do is to wait and to trust (v14).

            “God is gracious (job 33), and God is just (36-37), and Elihu thought that Job needed to recognize how great God is.”  Lord willing we will look at that subject next.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am reminded of what a former Pastor that I had, in fact he was the first Pastor that I had after I became saved in 1974.  We began going to the church he pastured in 1978 and he went to be with the Lord earlier this year.  He would say that when you are reading a book that was not the Bible that it was like eating fish, he went on to say that when you eat fish and came to a bone you had to throw out the bone and keep eating fish.  Well I think that some of what Job’s friends were saying, and what Elihu was saying, and even what Job said occasionally were bones and it is kind of hard to tell the difference with some help from some of the commentators.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.      Continue to trust the Lord to guide me and that the Holy Spirit will be my teacher as I read and study His Word.

2.      Continue to strive to learn contentment.

12/1/2011 9:03:22 AM