Elihu Archives – Sonshine's Journal

January 13, 2025January 13, 2025

1.13.25.God is…

Job 35-37 God is Sovereign & His Ways are unknowable to man.

Elihu continues on his way offering a myriad of reasons men find themselves humbled but still wondering what is really happening because although God is sovereign, he is still unknowable in human terms. Elihu asks a thousand questions about life and the destiny of men and animals. He isn’t satisfied and Job isn’t either, or so he presumes. So now we have four men who think they have the answers to suffering but in the end they are as confused as they were at the beginning! One thing stands out: God knows what He is doing and the purposes yet man is in the dark and so men make. assumptions as to the real reason. “Elihu claimed that God is under no obligation to react to people’s actions be they good or bad. He is free to respond or not respond as He chooses. God is above the human sphere of life and only reacts to people when He chooses to do so. This is a thought Eliphaz had expressed earlier.”

And so here we are in this and although we believe God and His ways because we have the completed Word, but we want to stand up and shout: this is a trial that God has allowed to prove His servant Job is honorable to the core. But, as Elihu says, God doesn’t have to tell us at all what He is doing because He is God and that is all that men need to remember.

May 23, 2022May 23, 2022

Choosing Words Carefully…

Job 32-34 and Luke 18 Self-Righteous Hypocrisy

For the first time, we hear from the young man Elihu. In reading this, one NT story comes to mind: the story of the self-righteous Pharisee and the humble Publican in Luke 18:9-14. It is amazing how the OT and the NT mirror each other. Enter Elihu, who has sat on the sidelines biding his time to speak, and he ‘humbly’ says I waited until you all had had your turn and Job as well. First, Elihu is angry because they could not find an answer, yet declared Job guilty. Then he becomes very angry! Elihu speaks for several chapters about how unrighteous Job is and how righteous he is. It sounds like the prayer of the Pharisee in Luke 18:11: I am so glad I am not like that other man, I do this, and I do that; indeed God is pleased. However, God said that it was not he, but the publican that went home justified.

Such hypocrisy! Do we become angry at one another? Are we much like the Pharisee? And so it goes. The lesson for us is this: we are not in the place of God; who are we to declare someone guilty before God? In this, we act like the Pharisee and not the Publican. Today, may we choose our words carefully for one day we will be held accountable for every word spoken! [Matt 12:36]

May 24, 2019

Seek God while He may be found…

Job 35-37 We have been following Job and his friends as they respond to his suffering. The young Elihu continues to wax eloquently and finally near the end he poses a question that has been asked for centuries: whom or what do you seek when you are in distress. The world seeks to find help in themselves or other avenues but often leaves God out of the equation. Sometimes they never seek God…read to the end…. It is disheartening when that happens but again we present the truth but the results lay in the hand of the receiver and God.

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Elihu says it really doesn’t matter, God is God and He is not at all bothered about whether we do good or bad. At that, we want to stop and say “whoa!” Not affected? Doesn’t care? What presumption! Elihu is wrong on both accounts and we need look no further than Ezekiel chapter 20 and you get a very different picture. There the elders come to Ezekiel inquiring about life and wanting to know when this exile will end. What they got must have been a deafening wake-up call. God answers their inquiry with this: “I will not allow you to inquire of Me.” God was definitely affected. He told Ezekiel that when men leave God out of the equation He is grieved and broken-hearted—especially when He has called you. Rejecting God has serious consequences and without Him, you are bereft as a boat without a sail.

Elihu is right about one thing: Storms come that we may seek His face and His understanding. He is also right in his description about God: He is all of splendor and more. We cannot attain to Him. God is God and man is man.

The question is will you seek Him or will you be like my neighbor who said, I never needed God in all of my life and I don’t need him now—as he breathed his last. I thought it was hard enough to hear my grandmother say that but then when my neighbor said that my heart felt like it had been run over with a bulldozer. Men choose their destiny…don’t ever forget that. When you need God don’t be like these two examples. Seek Him while He may be found!

January 12, 2017

Forgive Me but Really????

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“Do not be rash with your mouth or hasty in your heart… for God is in heaven and you are on earth! Therefore, let your words be few.”[Ecc 5:2] God often brings this verse to my mind as a gentle reminder of who I am and who God is. Who we are is often revealed by the voluminous words we speak versus the few words God speaks. Elihu, in Job 32-34 would have been wise to have taken this advice but he is really a pompous windbag in many ways.These chapters on Elihu are so like Meryl Streep’s rant at the Golden Globe awards to which I say “Forgive me but really??” And here’s why:

Elihu begins with his diatribe saying he is angry. When we are angry we often say things we later regret. He is not just angry with Job but the other three friends as well. He has, as we often say, “had enough.” He is controlled by his anger which is a danger signal. Secondly, he does not attribute wisdom to the fear of God but to age. Granted with age we do become wiser but the source of godly wisdom is from God, not from man. Thirdly, he admits he is full of words! Over and over through the book of Proverbs, it is the fool with the busy tongue. James reminds us that we cannot subdue the tongue and it is full of deadly poison. Fourthly, Elihu says Job is not listening to God for God reveals his plan and purpose and Job, you don’t a clue!

God exalts the humble, not the proud. Forgive me but I think Elihu is a proud “windbag.” Instead, we should heed this verse: “Like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word skillfully spoken.” [Pro 25:11]