IMITATE THEIR FAITH/JOB

 A Wise and Kind Counselor

The account of Job next reveals a surprise.  There as another person nearby, a younger man named Elihu. He had been there all along. silently listening to the older men debating. And he was not at all happy with what he had heard.

Elihu was upset with Job. It pained him to see righteous Job allow himself to be goaded into "trying to prove himself righ rather than God."  Yet, Elihu truly felt empathy for Job-he could see the man's pain, his sincerity, and his desperate need for kind counsel and comfort. No wonder Elihu ran of patience with the three false comforters!  He had heard them attacking Job, trying to undermine his faith, his dignity, and his integrity. Worse still, their twisted words declared God himself wicked.  Elihu was fairly bursting with the urge to speak! -JOB 32:2-4,18. 

"I am young," he said,  "and you men are aged. So I respectfuly held back, and I dared not tell you what I know." But he could no longer keep silent. He went on:  "Age alone does not make one wise, nor is it only old men who understand what is right." (Job 32:6, 9)  Elihu then spoke at length, proving those words true. He took a very different approach from that of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  Elihu reassured Job, that he would  not talk down to him or add to his pressures. He also dignified Job, addressing him by name and acknowleding that he had been treated wutg derision.  Respectfully, he said:  "Now Job, please hear my word." - JOB 33:1, 7; 34:7. 

Elihu offered Job some frank counsel:  "You said in my hearing, . . . 'I am pure, without transgressions: I am cean, without error. But God finds reasns to oppose me."  Elihu want right to the heart of the problem, asking: "Are you so convinced that you are right that you would sayt,  "I am more righteous than God?"   He could not allow such reasoning to pass.  "You are not right in saying this,"  The young man said.  (Job 33:8-12; 35:2)   Elihu knew that Job was filled wth anger over his terrible losses and his mistreatment at the hands of his false friends.  But Elihu cautioned Job: "Take care that rage does not lead you into spitefulness." - JOB 36:18.

Next time: IMITATE THEIR FAITH/JOB - Elihu Highlights Jehovah's Kindness

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