Job 34

Job 34:1

GOD NEVER DOES WICKEDLYNow as we continue listening to Elihu in chapter 34, notice that for a man of his day he has real spiritual insight. He certainly is defending God in this matter. Up to this point the Lord was at a distinct disadvantage, because it looked as if the Lord were either punishing Job because of some great sin in his life, or, if there were no great sin in his life, then God was unjust. It looked as if the Lord would have to prove Job to be a great sinner, but God didn’t have to do that, as we shall see. If Job could only have been shown by his friends that God was dealing with himnot in the sense of punishing him for his sin, but that God was using all of these instruments in attempting to take pride out of his life and reduce him to a plane where he could trust God, where he could respond even as little Samuel did, “… Speak; for thy servant heareth” (1Sa_3:10). Job was so busy defending himself that he couldn’t see that God was using circumstances, people, the Sabeans, storms, even Satan himself as God’s marvelous agencies to bring this man to a very gracious and a very wise end. God’s mercy was actually being displayed. His mercy endureth forever! Job had lost sight of that, which removed him from God. We need to recognize that God moves in our lives as believers. We get occupied with men and things and circumstances, and we look at them in reference to our lives instead of walking with God. We do not live above our circumstances but under them, and then our circumstances weigh us down. A wonderful man of God, who is now with the Lord, was my friend in the ministry. He used to kid me and say, “McGee, your trouble is that you live under your circumstances and you don’t live on top of them.” Although he was kidding me, what he said was true. Actually, God permitted me to have cancer, and now I can see a purpose in it. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not being pious and saying, “I praise the Lord for my cancer.” I do not. I’d get rid of it in the next minute if I could. But the point of it is that I recognize God has used this in my life. When we let circumstances come between us and God, God is shut out, and as a result of that we lose the sense of His presence. We get to the place where there is worry and distress instead of peace in our souls, and we do not feel His fatherly hand upon us. We become fretful and impatient and irritable and faultfinding. We get far away from God and out of communion with Him. We do not see the hand of God in all our circumstances. All the while He wants to bring us back to Himself in brokenness of heart and humbleness of mind. This is the “end of the Lord,” that for which He is striving in your life and in mine. Elihu is the one who concludes man’s attempted ministry to Job. Now Job will experience the direct ministry of God. There will be a threefold effect on him: it will change his relationship to God and to his friends and to himself. My friend, we all need to be changed within ourselves. The Lord will chasten for this purpose. God doesn’t mind doing that, because it will bring us to that place of humility before God so that He can use us. God uses chastening for this purpose in our lives. Now Elihu turns to the three friends and has a word for them.

Job 34:3

As we taste something that we eat with our tastebuds, so also the ear tastesit tastes words or “trieth words.” Music is delightful to the ear; we taste it with our ears.

Job 34:4

Just as we like to taste something good, let’s hear something that is good.

Job 34:5

Job has been saying that he is righteous and that God hasn’t given him a fair trial. In other words, God is not fair to me.

Job 34:6

Job maintains that he has an incurable disease and didn’t do anything to deserve it.

Job 34:7

Job despised the chastening of the Lord. He felt that God had no right to treat him so. This attitude removed him far from God. Then he began to faint under the chasteningwe are not to faint when we are rebuked of Him. God is doing all this to accomplish a good purpose in our lives.

Job 34:8

Job has joined the protesters outside of heaven. He is in company with the workers of iniquity and walks with wicked men. It is as if he is marching up and down with a placard that reads: “God is wrong and I am right.” A lot of folk are doing that. Job has joined with those who are in rebellion against God.

Job 34:9

Job might as well have said, “I have been serving God and being a nice little boy, and I expected to have a Sunday School pin. At Christmas I expected God to put a nice gift in my stocking. Instead, God put ashes in my stocking, and I don’t think that God has been very nice to me in doing that.” That was the attitude of Job, and it is the attitude of a lot of Christians today.

Job 34:10

Again he is saying that God does not do wrong. Remember that Paul asked, “Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid” (Rom_9:14). My friend, it may sound ugly to say this, but if you say that God is wrong then you are wrong. God is always right and you and I are the ones who are always wrong. No matter what God does, He is right. He doesn’t have to report to you or me. He doesn’t need to ask our permission to do something. It is interesting today to find people who are willing to let criminals have their freedom to live as they choose, but they don’t want God to have the freedom to run the universe the way He chooses. My friend, He will run it right, and He is not bound by your standards or my standards.

Job 34:12

Now that is something you can write down in your little book and keep it there. God does not do wickedly. He will not permit a wrong act. If you want to go back in the Old Testament and find fault with God for getting rid of the Amorites, that is your privilege. But that doesn’t make God wrong. He was right. Maybe you say, “I just don’t see it.” Well, maybe I don’t either. But I know that God extended His grace to them for four hundred years and gave them time to repent, and only after that period of time did He wipe them out. God is always right. Reason from that point. You see, our whole system of human thinking is based on reasoning from experience to the truth, and that is why so few of us ever arrive at truth. God reasons from truth, and He is the truth. The Lord Jesus said, “… I am …the truth” (Joh_14:6). When Pilate asked, “… What is truth? …” (Joh_18:38), Truth was standing right before him. Jesus is the Truth. We need to learn to reason from the truth to experience, which is what God does.

Job 34:13

The point is that God has a care, God has a concern for man.

Job 34:31

If God has chastened you, then you ought to learn your lesson and not continue in your old way. Maybe God is attempting to develop something in your life. He won’t let anything happen to you unless it accomplishes a worthy purpose.

Job 34:32

If you have done iniquity, and you know the purpose of God’s chastening is to get you away from sin, then for goodness’ sake, learn the lesson and turn from the sin.

Job 34:34

What is said of Job could be said of most of us. We do a lot of talking, but a great deal of it is “without knowledge” and “without wisdom.” We are living in a day when we have what are known as rap sessions. I meet with a lot of groups, especially young people, who want to have a rap session. I welcome the opportunity, but I hear a lot of asinine and foolish things said. It wasn’t only Job who spoke without knowledge. A lot of folk today speak without knowledge and some of them have a Ph.D. degree. A degree is no guarantee of knowledge or wisdom.

Job 34:36

What Elihu is saying is that he hopes God will try Job until Job will be able to defend God instead of defending himself.