Job 36:3 Commentary and Bible Study

In this chapter Elihu gives wonderful illustrations. He explains he will use human illustrations but the truth will be from God. ‘From afar’ – no preacher can say that, but Elihu is given to speak inspired words. Look at the Lord; he is holy. You could not speak as you do, Job, if you had some sense of his majesty.It will not be hard for Job to listen to Elihu for he will not say simply common place things as the friends have done, words which anyone could bring, but he will stretch himself to bring Job what is truly pertinent and bears on his situation. A man who is filled with the Spirit feels within himself the power of God in the form of understanding which he knows is appropriate and profitable to his hearers. Elihu will fetch his knowledge from afar for he does not speak without prior preparation, but is like the merchant who crosses much terrain to find trade opportunities, or like the scholar who explores other lands to learn things of which there is no experience at home. This inner resourcefulness does not come in a moment but through years of holy living and study to understand the will of God, and the difference between good and evil. No one should rush forward to offer counsel who has not prepared in this way lest they be exposed as fools and conceited persons who only wish others to hear the sound of their voices. But Elihu is not speaking falsely or boastfully when he says this. He knows that Job needs instruction from the Lord, genuine wisdom and nothing less that this would suffice to lift him out of his present distress. It is a great responsibility to undertake to bring words to another which will make a genuine difference to them, but to bring mere human wisdom and platitudes to one who is in deep distress is cruel and selfish.Elihu’s most basic principle which guides all his thinking is his desire to ascribe righteousness to his Creator. The Lord is righteous in all he does; man can understand enough of God’s ways to appreciate this. No true understanding of the events of life can come if we do not start with this premise. We will have gone wrong before we begin to reason if we do not assume that God is who he declares himself to be. Elihu knows that any other foundation is false and this guides him in his own struggles with life as well as in what he observers of the affairs of those around him. No counsel to any others is going to be worth anything if it is does not start with this truth. These words are calculated to make Job receptive to what is about to be said, for Elihu knows that Job, being a man of faith, must receive the truth and will not want to hear admonition that assumes anything else.