The Vision

Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil (1:1).  After facing three rounds of accusations of sin and condemnations for questioning God by his friends, we meet a young man named Elihu the Buzite who is certain he has everything figured out. Even though Job is blameless, Elihu is angry with Job for declaring his innocence (32:2), and he’s angry with Job’s three friends for not winning the arguments with Job (32:3), and when the friends stop questioning Job “his anger was aroused” (32:5). Elihu was angry, and decided to defend God in his anger (36:2). As a matter of fact, Elihu is so certain of his own understanding that he claims to have perfect knowledge of God’s working in the world (36:4). I’ve been like Elihu, and it’s quite possible you have too. Most of the time we are so certain that we too have obtained perfect knowledge that we act in anger toward anyone who dare challenge our understanding. Just the thought of someone asking questions about the way we view the world can cause our anger to be aroused. That’s Elihu. And that has also been me. And sadly that reflects most in our world today. We are in a time of great unknown, yet everyone seems to have obtained perfect knowledge. The strange thing is everyone has conflicting perfect knowledge. The world is full of Elihu’s when what it needs is more Job’s. Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil (1:1). This is where we should start. Above all else, we need to fear God, shun evil. This is something Job’s friends failed to do as they judged and condemned an innocent man. The other thing I greatly respect about Job is that when he realizes he spoke in ignorance, he owns it. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.” - Job 42:5-6 NASB95 Though he was blameless, Job didn’t know everything about God, and he repented and retracted his statements when he learned more. Job was humble. Elihu was a jerk who claimed to speak in behalf of God with perfect knowledge, but he was completely wrong. If you have always spoken with perfect knowledge, then congratulations. For the rest of us normal people in the world, we need to be careful how we speak, especially in areas we don’t understand. There are lots of people out there who have earned their education by reading headlines on the internet. Don’t be one of them. And in your interactions with others, speak with tons of grace and humility. Job’s friends act like the satan (1:11), and wind up arousing God’s anger by their careless speech (42:7). Job, on the other hand, was blameless. Matt