Job 35:1

JOB 35

MORE OF THE SAME FROM ELIHU:

ELIHU'S REPLY TO JOB'S ALLEGED CONTENTION THAT THERE

IS THERE NO ADVANTAGE IN RIGHTEOUS CONDUCT

Job 35:1-8

"Moreover Elihu answered and said,

Thinkest thou this to be thy right,

Or sayest thou, My righteousness is more than God's,

That thou sayest, What advantage will it be unto thee?

And what profit shall I have, more than if

I had sinned?

I will answer thee,

And thy companions with thee.

Look unto the heavens, and see;

And behold thy skies which are higher than thou.

If thou hast sinned, what effectest thou against him?

And if thy transgressions be multiplied, what dost thou unto him?

If thou be righteous, what givest thou unto him?

Or what receivest thee of thy hand?

Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art,

Or thy righteousness may profit a son of man."

Back in Job 34:9, Elihu had mentioned a third accusation against Job, namely, that he had declared faithfulness to God as affording no profit; and here Elihu proposes to answer that alleged claim of Job. Elihu here ignored altogether the real point of whether or not there is profit in serving God in this life, focusing his attack against Job on whether or not Job had any right to complain.

This whole paragraph affirms the proposition that neither man's righteousness nor his wickedness affects God. "Transgressions do not diminish God, nor do pious acts give him anything."[1] We are stunned and amazed at this ridiculous position of Elihu. "He comes very close here to viewing God as so far removed from human life, that he cannot be known or loved at all."[2] Against this colossal error, there stand the glorious facts: the Cross of Jesus Christ, God's love of the whole world, and the willingness of the Son of God to die for human redemption. Elihu's position here, as more fully expressed in the following paragraph, is that God is no more concerned with human prayer than he might be with the cry of a screaming rabbit in the clutches of a hawk.