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

When Job finishes his final monologue the passage tells us that his three friends stopped answering him “because he was righteous in his own eyes.”  This reminds me of a theme which was brought up repeatedly by the writer of the Book of Judges, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”  Further, it tells us that Elihu, a fourth friend of Job who was not mentioned earlier, was angry because Job had justified himself rather than justifying God.  So, Elihu begins to speak.  He starts by first declaring that he waited for his elders to speak before he voiced his own thoughts because with age should come wisdom.  He then says that young people may possess wisdom as well.  Now that those with more experience have exhausted their arguments against Job and failed to refute him, he will present his own thoughts about Job’s rants.  Elihu starts by declaring that he knows that he is no better in God’s eyes than Job, so Job should not consider anything he says to be a condemnation of Job.

Which brings Elihu to his first point.  He challenges Job’s assertion that he has done no wrong but is nevertheless condemned by God.  In particular, Elihu challenges Job’s assertion that God does not respond to those who call out to Him.  Elihu declares that God does speak, it’s just that we humans do not listen when He does.  God sends a messenger to us, in one form or another, when we sin, who will show us how to be upright and do God’s will.  The messenger might be a dream or a nightmare.  It might be suffering which we experience.  Or, it might be wise advice from a person we meet. We need to be alert and repent of our sins in response to the messages which God sends us.

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