Job - Elihu's Speech (1)

I. The young man waits to speak

The three friends progressively arrive at harsher and harsher accusations. They are convinced that Job must have some sin he has committed to suffer so much. Eliphaz ultimately gets delusional, accusing Job of outlandish sins. Bildad makes his final argument with only six verses that people are generally sinful. Zophar does not even respond on the third round of speeches.

But, Job finishes his speeches by defending himself and his righteousness before God. (Job 27:1-6; 31:35-37) The friends are silent. Job won the argument, but has not answered the question. Job has established that suffering is not based simply on karma/justice principle. However, the answer we are left with at this point is that God is capricious and arbitrary in how He doles out suffering.

For 29 chapters, a younger man, Elihu, has been sitting quietly by listening to Job and his three aged comforters. When Job finishes defending himself, and the three friends finish defending their karma principle, Elihu explodes like a champagne bottle.

So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then Elihu the son of Barachel 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 men, he burned with anger. (Job 32:1-5)

What follows is not just another misguided effort at solving the problem with bad theology. Many commentators say that Elihu is just more of the same stuff as Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. However, there is clear evidence from the text that he is God’s messenger, preparing the way for Chapters 38 on to 41 where God speaks.

Here are four reasons why that is the case:

1. Job is silent at the end of Elihu’s speech. "If you have any words, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you." (Job 33:32); but God picks up right where Elihu leaves off;
   
2. God expresses anger at the three friends, but not Elihu. After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." (Job 42:7)
   
3. Elihu says he’s going to say something different. He disagrees with both sides. "He has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your speeches." (Job 32:14)
   
4. If he is simply going to repeat the other arguments, why would the writer go on with Elihu for another six chapters after we’ve just gone through 29 chapters of half-truths?

We need to pay attention to Elihu’s speech. He’s not just repeating the same arguments. He says some of the same things the friends have said. Not everything the friends said was error. Sometimes Elihu may be too harsh in his criticism of Job, but he does provide an answer to the problem of why the righteous suffer in the short term. But before we get to that, let's examine why Elihu was confident that he had something to offer to the conversation.