It ought to be the case that the older have greater wisdom and experience of life, and can correct the younger but it is not always so. The aged are not always wise and if they lack the faith and wisdom that comes from God, their greater age just leads to greater hardness of heart and more entrenched views. It should be the case that among those who count themselves as the people of God there is sufficient wisdom to give counsel on every issue, and it is to their shame that they must give up and fall silent. Elihu was a man who understood the plan of salvation and the way in which believers should handle trials. Though he had certainly never seen a case like Job’s – for it is evident from the outstanding nature of Job’s character and from the basis of the argument between God and Satan and its outcome, that this was a unique event – he was able to apply the principles of faith to even this unusual situation.
‘It is necessary for us to bridle our anger, especially in respect of ourselves. However there is an anger which is good, namely, that which comes from the grief we feel when God is offended. Then we are inflamed with a good zeal, and maintain God’s quarrel; if we are angry we are not to blame for it. But let us note that such anger must be without respect of persons. For if a man be angry through a passion of the flesh, such a one has too much respect of himself, and intends to promote himself … Every man must begin with himself, and be angry at his own sins and vices in that we see we have provoked God’s wrath against us, and are full of so much wretchedness. Let us be angry and grieved at that; let that be the point at which we begin, and afterwards let us condemn the evil wherever it is found, as well in ourselves as in our friends, and let us not be led by any private hatred … In this way shall our anger be acceptable, and will show that it proceeds from a true zeal towards God’ (Calvin – in modern English).