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 34-37.

As I wrote yesterday, I am not quite sure what to make of Elihu’s monologue which continues in today’s passage.   He seems at times to condemn Job as Job’s other friends did, but he also says some very insightful things.  I will focus on the things he says which strike me as insightful and leave the rest for another time.  Before I get started I want to point out something I just realized.  Previously when I have read Job I have struggled mightily with the bulk of it.  It seemed like it went on and on about a subject which could have been wrapped up in just a few chapters.  This time as I am going through it I find much more than ever before.  Which gives me hope that in another year or two God’s Spirit will reveal meaning for me in the parts which are opaque to me now.

In chapter 34 Elihu tells us that God does not, cannot, sin.  Further God loves justice and watches the actions of everyone everywhere.  There is no obstacle which can hide us from God’s eyes and He will determine when we come before Him for judgement.  When God deems the time is ripe, He brings the wicked to judgement without asking anyone’s opinion, no matter how mighty they might be. All of which brings us to Elihu’s key insight in this section. <blockquote>“Why don’t people say to God, ‘I have sinned,
    but I will sin no more’?
Or ‘I don’t know what evil I have done—tell me.
    If I have done wrong, I will stop at once’?</blockquote>

We know that God sees and knows our sins.  So, why don’t we confess them and ask Him to help us stop committing them?  And why don’t we ask Him to show us the ways in which we sin that we are unaware, so that we can stop doing those things?

Elihu continues to teach us that our sins do not harm God and a righteousness grants Him nothing He does not already have.  God’s commands to us are not for His benefit but for ours.  The godless suffer because they are too proud to seek God and His guidance.  They condemn Him for the suffering which results from their own actions and refuse to call out to Him for relief.