Job 32:11 Commentary and Bible Study

‘I waited’, he says. ‘I observed your whole manner of reasoning’ – the comforters’ reasoning. ‘I disagree not only with your words, but with your method of thinking, of marshalling your arguments.’ Elihu is to go on to say that the only way to confront the problem is to consider, What does God say?, not, What do the ancients say? There is a plan in God’s word for every area of guidance, but so often we want subjective guidance – a form of guidance which will allow us to do what we want. I pray each day and in the end I will know what is right – what I want. There is a tendency for us to forget God’s rules because we approach guidance in the wrong way.Elihu listened with a discerning ear to all that the three friends had said. He studied their words and considered whether they grasped why Job suffered, where Job went wrong, and how to correct him, and he found that not one of them had spoken with understanding. This public rebuke of three older men was greatly to their shame, but it was necessary because their foolish words had done much harm to Job, adding greatly to his suffering. Their ideas would continue to do harm to others also, while it was thought that this was a proper response to Job. Wrong ideas must be corrected regardless of the standing of those who have voiced them. Elihu waited; he was not in a hurry to speak as if he could not bear to let others say the right thing before he did. He positively wanted them to speak with understanding, for it was right that an older man should know more than he did. Because he had waited patiently, no one could now accuse him of simply wanting to display his knowledge. Their reasoning had however been poor. Like an inexperienced surgeon who presumes to open up the body and fix some problem, but who has not properly learnt his anatomy, so these foolish counsellors made cuts in one direction and another, without knowing the condition they were dealing with. They had heard what Job had said and they had ample opportunity to make a right diagnosis, but their own wrong assumptions about him and about themselves meant that they were bound to be blind to the real problem. One man cannot help another man until he has first understood the Bible’s teaching about God’s character, human nature, the fall, the deceitfulness of sin, the meaning of sacrifices acceptable to God, the experience of conversion, how God’s grace operates and how God justifies the soul. The three friends were strangers to these things and therefore their blundering response did more harm than good. Job remained unconvinced by anything they said and because their efforts were so inept, he was instead fortified in his inappropriate defence of himself. It was easy for him to reject everything that they said because they missed the mark so widely.