“Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight.”
~ Job 34:35
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you think that God has given you the right to speak for Him? Do you think that God has given you the right to judge other kids – or even a guy or gal, on what he or she has said and/or done? Do you think that God has given you an extra measure of smarts that allows you to speak into the lives of other kids – or even into the lives of guys and gals? Because of having a sanctimonious ego, Elihu – who was the youngest of Job’s clique of self-ascribed or self-appointed friends, had the narcissistic notion that God wanted him to bloviate in front of some wise men that included Job’s other three self-endorsed friends, in front of a badly, beaten down Job and to his own egotistical ears. Elihu – whose name means ‘my God is He’, assumed a self-assigned mediator role between God and Job. Elihu’s critique of what he heard Job saying about God was that Job was misguidedly discrediting God’s loving character and boorishly misrepresenting God’s unrestricted righteousness. Job 34 is Elihu’s second self-absorbed diatribe. Elihu begins his speech by telling everyone around him to listen to him. Even though Elihu was still a young guy, Elihu really believed that God had singled him out to give him more wisdom than other guys. Because Elihu really thought that God had specifically chosen him to be His messenger – which had Elihu disagreeing with what Job’s three other self-imposed friends were saying to Job and which had Elihu communicating to Job that Job’s personal theology was not aligned to what he knew about God’s omniscience, Elihu does not hesitate to condemn Job and to tell Job that he has no other recourse but to repent to God of his wrong, misguided attitudes and his flawed, mistaken beliefs. Even though Job never said that God should see him as being a guy without guilt, even though Job never expected God to reward him for always living his life for Him and even though Job never argued that God was the author of evil, Elihu still thought that he had to say what is in verse 35 to a hurting, suffering Job, “‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight.”’ Elihu went on to say that he really hoped that Job would be tested by God to the max for Job’s wicked responses and for Job’s impious reactions to his excellent counsel.
Have you ever had another kid – or a guy or gal, without apparent reason – other than thinking that it was his or her God given right to do so, accuse you of something that you purportedly said or allegedly did and which you know is not exactly the way that you had said it or the way that you had done it? When your grandpaa was asked to be one of the coaches for the Adventures in Missions September 2007 World Race squad, your grandpaa flew with this squad to Thailand. While your grandpaa was in Thailand, he spent three or four days with each of the four teams that made up the September 2007 World Race squad. Something that your grandpaa had hoped to do while he was with each World Race team – besides getting to know better each September 2007 World Race participant, was to encourage each team leader to practice a couple of disciplines. Your grandpaa encouraged each team leader to make sure that each guy and gal on his or her team be given the opportunity to share his or her life story, that two parts of any week day – a part being either a morning, afternoon or evening, be used for being at a ministry site and that a time be set aside each day as an apart time or an ‘a-b-c-d’ time. This time would be used to brief his or her team on what was tentatively scheduled for the next day, a debriefing time when each team member could download his or her feelings and a celebration time of remembering the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ of the day, sharing of a spiritual thought or promise and a time of praying together. The leader of one of the teams – after your grandpaa confronted Kellie for agreeing to do a ministry activity in all three parts of the day, related in a team debrief that your grandpaa had spoken harshly to her. Your grandpaa knows that he comes across harshly sometimes when he speaks so . . . when Kellie mentioned in her first team debrief that she felt that your grandpaa had spoken to her harshly – which your grandpaa is quite sure that Kellie was not saying it in a nefarious way during her debrief, your grandpaa ended up being confronted by his immediate supervisor for his ‘harshness’. Your grandpaa is sure that Kellie has no clue of the repercussions that incurred because of the rather innocuous statement that she made during her first debrief. What really disappointed – more like angered, your grandpaa at this time, was that his immediate supervisor did not give your grandpaa the opportunity to explain why he purportedly talked harshly to Kellie. Because Kellie is a very pleasant, even keel kind of gal who your grandpaa had gotten to know quite well and who he felt like he could talk to honestly, it still seems incongruous to your grandpaa that whatever it was that your grandpaa said to Kellie ended up being blown into something that led to your grandpaa’s immediate supervisor harshly reprimanding him.
Your grandpaa sometimes wonders how often he has unintentionally said something that has left a guy, gal or a kid feeling misunderstood or demeaned or disparaged or . . . when your grandpaa has found out that something he has said or something that he has done has . . . your grandpaa will do what he knows that he needs to do to make it right. Your grandmaa will make sure that your grandpaa will do what he needs to do to make something right with another guy, gal or kid who he has . . . your grandpaa has known and knows Elihus who think they have the right to brutalize with words – what he or she pompously think is correct to say or do, guys, gals and kids who they think need to hear what they said or did was wrong to say or do. Your grandpaa hopes that you will never pull an Elihu.
Job 34 (931)