IMITATE THEIR FAITH/JOB - A Wise and Kind Counselor

 The account of Job next reveals a surprise.  There was another person nearby, a younger man name 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 right 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 out 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 respectfully held back, and I dared not tell you what I kbiw."  But he could longer keep silent. He went on:  "Age alone does not make one wise, nor is it only olld men who understand what is right."  (Job32:6, 9)  Elihu then spokeat length, proving those words true. He took a different approacg 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 digbified Job, addressing him by name and acknowledging that he had been treated with derision.  _ Respectfully, he said: "Now Job, please hear my words." - JOB 33:1, 7; 34:7.

Elihu offered Job some frank counsel:  "You said in my hearing, . . . 'I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, without error. But God finds reason to oppose me."' Elihu webt right to the heart of the problem, asking "Are you so convinced that you are right that you would say, '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.  (Job33:8-12; 35:2) Elihu knew that Job was filled with anger over his trerrible losses and his mistreatment at the hands of his false friends.  But Elihu cautioned Job: "Take care that rage does not lead you to spitefulness." - JOB 36:18. 

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

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