I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 29-33.

There are multiple lessons which can be taken from Job’s monologue in today’s passage, but I want to focus on his declaration of innocence.  In particular, he does not base his claim on innocence on what he has not done.  No, he declares what he has done.  We often make the mistake of thinking that sinning is just a matter of what you have done.  However, Job shows us that we sin when we do not do the right thing.  Being a righteous person is more than not doing the things which God commands us not to do.  Being a righteous person means doing the things which God commands us to do: things like feeding the hungry and helping the poor.

Now we come to Elihu’s monologue.  I struggle with what to make of it.  Elihu is not mentioned in the beginning of the Book as one of the friends who came to comfort Job, nor is he mentioned at the end when God reprimands the other three.  Of those who challenged Job, Elihu seems to make an argument which we should heed.  First, he makes a point of being humble and stating that he is no better than Job.  This is the first lesson we can learn from Elihu, if we find it necessary to point out error or sin in those who are suffering we must be emphatic in stating that we make no claim to being better than they.

Second, Elihu reprimands Job for accusing God of wrongdoing in not responding to people.  Elihu points out that the fault is not God’s, because God speaks to people in multiple ways.  The fault lies with those who refuse to listen to what God has to say because He does not say what they want to hear in the way in which they wish to hear it.  Further, Elihu points out that sometimes God sends suffering upon the righteous in order to correct them or draw them closer to Himself.  We need to remember that when God seems silent it just means that we are not listening to what He has to say, perhaps because we do not want to hear it.