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Job 36:26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

One theme in the Book of Job is that God is incomprehensible. We have some knowledge about God, for the Bible contains many details about who God is, how we can know Him, and how we can have an eternal relationship with Him. But because we are created creatures we cannot know Him completely. We can never know enough to answer all of life’s questions, to predict our own future, or to see how all His purposes fit together. Life creates more questions, so we must constantly turn to God for insight and for strength for each day.

The Lord God has revealed enough in His Word, and preeminently in His Son, for us to live and die on. But the things we do not need to comprehend are still hidden from us. For instance, we cannot really understand eternity (“the number of His years”). In the Bible God tells us what we need to know for life and salvation. But that still leaves mysteries we cannot see. God is so great that the human creation cannot really wrap his head around it.

With the Spirit’s help we can believe what He has revealed, and so we can trust Him for what we cannot fully comprehend. Some mysteries are still hidden from us, but some are revealed so that we may trust Him for what we do not know. Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things that are revealed belong to us.” Our response to life’s questions is to dig in and study the Word to hear what God has revealed. This we can know and believe, and it is sufficient.

Job 36:11-12 If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.

Elihu spouts the conventional wisdom about rewards and punishments for good or bad behavior, assuming that Job must have done wickedly. He is right in one sense but wrong in his assumptions about cause and effect in regard to Job. It is true that obeying God brings blessing as a natural consequence of obedience, and that disobedience naturally results in a bad life.

Our disobedience was punished at the cross of Christ and the obedience of Christ was given to us by grace. But the presence of Sin in a messed up world rains injustice on both the good and the evil. So there is no direct correlation between the sins we commit and the sufferings we experience. All suffering is the consequence of sin generally, just as death is the wages of sin for all humans.

We don’t enjoy God’s favor and blessing because we have been good, but rather because of Christ. We perish because of Sin, not because God is being mean. The problems we experience is our fault, not God’s. God does not punish a lie by giving us a cold. We all suffer sicknesses and injuries as “little deaths” because we are sinners sentenced to death. But thanks be to God, who gives us victory in Christ. Therefore, we daily repent and believe the Gospel.

Job 35:6-8 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? Or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? Or what receiveth he of thine hand? Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.

Martin Luther once said, “God does not need your service, but men do.” We serve God by serving people. “Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren ye have done it to me.” God is self-existent and does not need the help, service, or good works of anyone to live well. But humans do need our service.

Elihu says that if we sin it doesn’t diminish God and if we do right it doesn’t increase Him. Our sins may hurt humans and our good works may benefit others. We respond to the needs of others because we love God. We love Him because He first loved us. Life works like this: God’s incredible love for me causes me to love Him; my love for God causes me to love people. Then life is good, and human relationships run smoothly. God gave the Ten Commandments for our blessing and benefit. God is pleased when we live righteously; He is pleased because He loves all people and wants to love them through us.

God forgives our sin and produces in us love and kindness toward others. We respond to His love and forgiveness by loving and forgiving other people.

Job 34:31-32 Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more. That which I see not teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.

Elihu is right in calling for repentance and turning, but he is wrong in accusing Job. Job in the end does repent after God speaks to him, but here he still maintains his innocence. Surely it is good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places confess sin and make a commitment to stop sinning and do better. Ask the Lord to use the Law to show you sins you did not even know about. Repent daily and turn to God. For Christ’s sake He forgives and the Spirit uses that power to change our ways and turn to God for help.

We have a better chance of actually turning and changing in response to the Gospel than in response to the Law. The Law shows us our sin to lead us to the Gospel, but does not give the ability to repent. The Gospel gives the power to repent and turn. Romans 2:4 “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.” The Law changes the mind and admits that God is right and I am wrong. The Gospel changes the heart and grants the desire and power to do better.

Job 34:9 For he hath said, it profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.

Once again Job’s friends speak nuggets of truth hidden behind false assumptions and conclusions. It is true that unbelievers, sinners, evildoers, and atheists speak this way, but it is false that Job is accounted as one of those. “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” It is foolish stupidity to think, say, and act in such a way.

The practical atheist says that it doesn’t do me any good to delight myself in God, which means believe Him. “What’s in it for me? What do I get out of it?” It profits me nothing. To think this way about God, that He is not good to me, is the same thing as unbelief. It is how the devil tempted Adam and Eve.

All of us sinners are at times tempted to think the same way. What material or physical benefit do I get out of going to church, praying, studying the Bible, or even being kind to others? God didn’t give me anything; I worked hard for everything I have.

The Spirit through the Gospel creates delight (faith) in the Lord. If God can be so good to us, then we will delight ourself in the Lord. Believing God is good brings great joy.

Job 33:26-28 He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness. He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall the light.

While accusing Job of pride and unbelief, Elihu does speak the truth for Job and all men: pray to God for forgiveness and He will be gracious to forgive; admit sin and He will deliver from hell and grant eternal life. Prayer and repentance is the response that the Lord is looking for. He is searching all hearts looking for a man that repents and believes, and when He finds him He grants forgiveness of sin, deliverance from hell, and freely implants eternal life.

We don’t have to be at the extremity of suffering like Job in order to pray and repent. Each day has enough troubles of its own in every human life to prompt us to repent, pray, and believe. Daily we repent, pray for grace, and believe for life; and daily God, for Christ’s sake, grants favor, deliverance, and eternal life. Life’s experiences teach us to admit sin and failure and to trust in Christ’s forgiveness and victory. Daily we admit that our sin is leading us on the wrong path and when the Spirit grants faith we are turned around and go the right way, back to God and to life.

Job 33:12-14 Behold, in this thou art not just; I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive against him? For he giveth not account of any of his matters. For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

Elihu speaks some truth when he accuses Job of complaining (striving) against God. In order to maintain his innocence Job must imply that God is in the wrong. Elihu picks up on a theme of the book: that “God’s ways are not man’s ways,” and even if we are told what God is doing and why we could not perceive (understand) it.

We are left with what God has revealed (Jesus, the Word, the Son) and that is enough for us to believe His love and trust His wisdom and justice. It is admittedly extremely difficult for Job in his suffering to say, “God is good.” However, after a long story and an abundance of words Job confesses that God is God and he is not and that God is good and he is not: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted…I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know [Job 42:2-3].” He repented in dust and ashes.

God gave us Jesus, and He is all we need. Therefore, we can trust the Lord for the things we do not know, the great mysteries of godliness. “Striving” against God, or just complaining, is a way of saying, “I’m greater than God,” which is a lie. Instead we trust God, for He is good.

Job 33:9 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.

Elihu quotes Job’s words, wherein he protests his innocence. This protestation is a part of the theme of the book: “Why am I being punished?” Job was right in this, that he was a good man by every measure that man makes. He feared God and avoided evil. He was innocent by human standards and he did not deserve the depth of suffering as punishment for his sins.

Job was a little right. His punishment was not commensurate with his deeds. However, Job does not yet (until God shows him) realize that he is a sinner who deserves death. We all deserve suffering like Job’s for all have sinned. It is only by the grace of God that we still have life at all. The sinful human condition earns suffering, loss, and death.

Instead of protesting our innocence and claiming that we are basically good, we need to humbly repent, beg for mercy, and cling to the cross. This is what Job finally did after God spoke to him and showed him that he was not God and could not understand His ways. Even if God told him that was all just the result of a bet between God and Satan, it would not help.

The only thing we can do is humbly repent of sin, trust God’s mercy, surrender to His will, and receive His absolution. All because of Christ. Then let God renew.

Job 32:2-3 Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

After Job’s three friends had exhausted the discussion of their opinions about Job, Elihu, a younger bystander, began to speak and offer a different perspective. His response of wrath against Job and the three friends was prompted by his opinion about how wrong they all were.

He basically said that the three said Job was suffering from some past sins. But Elihu said Job’s suffering would not go away until he realized his present sin. Job wasn’t suffering because of sin; he was sinning because of suffering. He pointed out that Job’s attitude became arrogant. He also said that suffering is not meant to punish but to correct and restore.

Elihu’s wrathful response was partially true, but he still could not know what is really going on. No one knows the whole truth until God reveals it. His indignation reflects our indignation at the wisdom of the world (which is foolishness). Philosophers and psychologists do not have all the answers. Only God is all truth and has all the answers, and He has revealed to us what we need to know. Trust Him. Trust His wisdom and mercy for what you cannot know.

We may be upset at the foolishness of the world and our own ignorance, but we trust the Lord for revealing His love for us in the Son, the God-man. “God said it, I believe it; that settles it for me.”

Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

In this chapter Job rehearses his integrity and uprightness and all the good deeds he has done. This is his response to the sufferings inflicted by Satan with God’s permission: self-justification. He does not deserve it, for he has been a God-fearing man, giving the example here of keeping the Sixth Commandment about lust. Who can avoid the convicting words of Jesus, “He that lusteth after woman…?”

No matter how good a man Job was, he is still a sinner who desperately needs mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Self-justification implies that since I am in the right then God must be in the wrong. Job 40:8: “Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?” The lesson of the book is that no matter how good I think I am, God is always right and I am always in the wrong. This sinner needs the mercy of God, which is given in Christ. The simple truth is: Praise the Lord, for He alone is good; do not praise yourself, for you are not good.