Elihu continues his speech into chapter 34. He sounds like a man sincerely wanting to get to the bottom of this deal, unlike the first three, content to demonstrate their knowledge. Job, continuing to suffer while his men prattled on with their assumptions and conclusions, must have just been losing it. It can't be fun when those around you offer their advice on what you should do when you don't ask for it, when you don't need it, and when (most especially when) it is based on a false premise, and that premise is this: Job is being punished for sin.
We know that's untrue. What we don't know is why God would allow himself to be drawn into this showdown with the devil at the expense of someone who loved and revered him very deeply. At least that's what it looks like to me. And Job is a long book, with like 8 more chapters, so I'm sure God will eventually speak up and shed some light on the situation. But for now it looks like Job was unjustly visited by tragedy. But there's that word again. Just. What is God doing? Just when I think I have a handle on God's justice, it flitters away out of reach like a butterfly aloft on a breeze.
What if verse 9 is true? What if, truly, it profits a man nothing when he tries to please God? What would that say about my pursuit? What does it say about the things I try to do to earn God's favor? What, if anything, can be earned from God? That God would pay out? Does this turn God into a retailer? A service provider? I consider my loved ones, and I have their love. I have not earned it. I have earned some things...trust, respect, etc. Should I put away this thought of trying to please God, and instead rest on his love? The idea that the almighty loves a man already, as he has said?
Elihu offers a lot of truths about who God is, which shows that any man can know about God, but not truly know God. And truly knowing God is reserved for the eternal...And I am not yet.
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