Purpose Of Suffering | Elihu’s Speech | Job 32-37 Series

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Why do we go through hard times? Is it because God is not pleased with us? What is the true purpose of suffering? What counsel can you give to the suffering of the world today?

In Job 1, Job lost his 10 children, wealth, and servants. Job 2, dreaded skin disease, and boils came upon him. Also, in Job 3, Job curses the day of his birth, and his three friends who came to mourn with him start to speak. From chapter 4 to 31 Job conversed with his three friends; Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, about the meaning of suffering.

They had argued the retribution principle of God: Job’s friends said that suffering is basically punishment for sin and prosperity is reward for righteousness (Job 4:7–8). The friends said, “Job’s extraordinary suffering can only be explained as the punishment of God for grievous sin.”

How do you feel when you go through suffering and your friends come and accuse you of wrongdoing? Job defended himself all along by saying, that the wicked often prosper and the righteous often suffer (Job 21:29–30). And in his case in particular he had not committed any grievous sin that would set him up for such suffering above others.

Job Won The Argument But The Question Of Why The Righteous Suffer Remained Unanswered.

We are left at the end of chapter 31 confused with the apparent ways of God. All seems to be arbitrary/random choice of God. God rules the affairs of men. Job never doubts God but as to why the righteous suffer—so far he has no answer.

It would be possible to live the rest of our lives at this level of understanding.

We could simply say, “Yes, I believe God rules over the world and controls what happens. I also believe that he is just and wise. All wrongs will be righted in the age to come. I know Jesus Christ as the Savior. So I will be still and trust God, though I cannot understand his strange ways.”

That is not a bad way to live. This honors God. But the writer of the book of Job is not satisfied to stop there and live that way. And he wants his readers to know that God has not concealed all of his ways. There is more to see of God’s purpose in suffering than we may think.

When if when you go through uncertainties of life, someone comes alongside and help you see things more clearly and gives you understanding? That is what Elihu does to Job.

Elihu Breaks In

Job 32:1-5 1So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.2But Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God. 3He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him. 4Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job because they were older than he. 5But when he saw that the three men had nothing more to say, his anger was aroused.

Elihu

So Elihu’s speaks all the way from Job 32 to 37. Let’s try to learn today what this young Elihu has to say.

Elihu’s Rebuke Of Job

Elihu thinks that Job has been wrong in some of what Job has said—indeed, he sees pride and arrogance in Job’s attitude (see 33:17; 35:12; 36:9). In 33:8–12 he puts his finger on Job’s error:

Elihu said to Job: Job 33:8-12 8“But you have said in my hearing—I heard the very words— 9‘I am pure, I have done no wrong; I am clean and free from sin. 10Yet God has found fault with me; he considers me his enemy. 11He fastens my feet in shackles; he keeps close watch on all my paths.’ 12“But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than any mortal.

Job’s three friends said, Job is suffering because of his sin. Elihu said Job has sinned in his suffering. Job was justifying himself in his suffering rather than God 32:2. There is only one who has lived in this world without sin, Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 8:46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? Even though Job was a righteous man in Job 1:1; Job was not a perfect man when suffering falls. When suffering fell Job sinned. There was a sediment of pride that began to cloud the purity of his life when it was stirred up by suffering.

Elihu’s Explanation Of Suffering

Elihu’s understanding of why the righteous suffer has to do with this residue of pride in them. Job had pride, self-reliance, self-righteousness lying at the bottom of Job’s life. His life was clean until it was shaken by suffering, then the sediment began to be stirred up and it came out in words that were overly self-justifying and overly disrespectful to his maker.