Join Alan J. Huth as he reflects on Elihu’s speeches in Job chapters 36 and 37. Through his personal Bible reading journals, Alan examines the themes of divine justice, majesty, and the humility required to truly understand God’s commands. This episode invites us to pause and recognize the profound beauty and order within God’s creation, encouraging a deep respect and fear for the Almighty. Amidst personal reflections and scriptural insights, we find a moment to praise and acknowledge the wonders of God.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Alan J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
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Today in Job chapters 36 and 37, the young man Elihu extols God’s greatness and proclaims God’s majesty. These are his final words before the Lord himself speaks in chapter 38. We can’t wait, right? But until then, let’s listen to Elihu in chapters 36 and 37. Job 36
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And Elihu continued and said, Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf. I will get my knowledge from afar, and ascribe righteousness to my Maker. For truly, my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. Behold, God is mighty and does not despise any. He is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right. He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted. And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction, then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.” He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity. If they listen and serve Him, they complete their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness. But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge. The godless in heart cherish anger. They do not cry for help when he binds them. They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes. He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping and what was set on your table was full of fatness. But you are full of the judgment on the wicked. Judgment and justice seize you. Beware, lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength? Do not long for the night when peoples vanish in their place. Take care, do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction.” Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? Who has prescribed for him his way? Or who can say, You have done wrong? Remember to extol his work of which men have sung. All mankind has looked on it. Man beholds it from afar. Behold, God is great, and we know him not. The number of his years is unsearchable.” For he draws up the drops of water, they distill his mist in rain, which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he scatters his lightning about him, and covers the roots of the sea. For by these he judges peoples, he gives food in abundance. He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. Its crashing declares his presence. The cattle also declare that he rises. At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place. Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. After it, his voice roars. He thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with his voice. He does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, Fall on the earth. Likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour. He seals up the hand of every man that all men whom he made may know it. Then the beasts go into their lairs and remain in their dens. From its chamber comes the whirlwind and cold from the scattering winds. By the breath of God, ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick cloud with moisture. The clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. Hear this, O Job, stop and consider the wondrous works of God. Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge? You whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind, can you, like him, spread out the skies hard as a cast metal mirror?” Teach us what we shall say to him. We cannot draw up our case because of darkness. Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up? And now no one looks on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them. Out of the north comes golden splendor. God is clothed with awesome majesty. The Almighty, we cannot find him. He is great in power. Justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. Therefore, men fear him. He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.
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Back in 1984, in that second journal I ever wrote, I read Job chapters 35 through 38 on the same day, and I wrote, Elihu finishes mouthing off. And jumping 21 years later, when I read Job 36 and 37 in 2015, I wrote, Elihu now speaks on God’s behalf, 36, 2 through 3, claiming to have perfect knowledge, 36, 4. Really? God blesses the righteous and binds up the wicked. He once blessed Job, but now afflicts him. Elihu honors God, 36, 26, and proclaims his majesty. we all agree thirty seven fourteen and twenty three he concludes with he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit thirty seven twenty four an accusation of job’s position For the most part, I think we would agree with what Elihu had to say in these two chapters. He believes he’s a spokesman for God himself. Let’s look at the opening verses of 36. Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf. I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker, for truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. That may be some of that pride we saw earlier in Elihu, or it might be that he absolutely believes he’s speaking on God’s behalf. I turn to my footnote in my English Standard Version Study Bible concerning these verses. Elihu presents his final speech as something offered on God’s behalf, emphasizing that unlike Job, he has understanding that comes from outside himself, and that he is perfect in knowledge, something he will later ascribe also to God in 37.16. Again, he seems more arrogant than he realizes, as young men sometimes do. even so in possibly his youthful arrogance he seems to have a pretty good grasp of god thirty six five behold god is mighty and does not despise any he is mighty in strength of understanding thirty six seven he does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous thirty six twenty two behold god is exalted in his power who is a teacher like him 36.26. Behold, God is great, and we know him not. The number of his years is unsearchable. He equates God’s voice to thunder.
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37.2.
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Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. He attributes thunder and lightning and rainstorms and snow all to the majesty of God. And we would agree. And from 37, 14 on, he challenges Job, do you really know God? He claims no one can understand the wondrous works of God Almighty. And again, we probably would agree. Verse 14, consider the wondrous works of God. Verse 15, do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? Do you know the balancing of the clouds? Verse 18, can you like him spread out the skies? And finally, the majesty of God in the last couple of verses. Out of the north comes gold and splendor. God is clothed with awesome majesty, the Almighty. We cannot find him. He is great in power, justice, and abundant righteousness. He will not violate. Yes, Elihu, we agree. And he closes with this, therefore men fear him. Hallelujah. Yes, we should have fear, a healthy respect for this majestic God. And then he lays that last claim before Job once again. He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit. That may be true, but that’s not Job’s problem, as we’re going to find out in the last few chapters of this book. Friends, my prayer every time I record an Ad Bible episode is that you hear from God and not from me. I pray for God’s anointing. But I would never claim, as Elihu did, for truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. Far from that. Yet I do hope that I have something to say on God’s behalf. I hope even through these chapters that we gain a healthy understanding of the majesty of God. Reading the Bible, listening to the Bible, always helps us understand God more. Even through the words of Elihu, that is true in these chapters. Our application is this. Today, take a moment to consider the wondrous works of God. Today, look up to heaven. Look at the majesty of creation, whether it’s the sun shining, the rain pouring, the snow falling, or the ice melting. All of it comes from the hand of our Almighty God. Stop and consider the wondrous works of God today. Father, you deserve all the glory, all the majesty, all the praise, all the worship we can muster. We offer it to you. Amen. As you consume the news of our day-to-day, you may become hopeless. So visit EzraProject.net and read Living in Goshen. It will brighten your countenance and renew your trust in God. Even as plagues rain down all around us, you can live in Goshen and not be affected. Visit EzraProject.net and read Living in Goshen today. I know you’re going to enjoy it and want to share it with others.
Join Alan J. Huth as he reflects on Elihu’s speeches in Job chapters 36 and 37. Through his personal Bible reading journals, Alan examines the themes of divine justice, majesty, and the humility required to truly understand God’s commands. This episode invites us to pause and recognize the profound beauty and order within God’s creation, encouraging a deep respect and fear for the Almighty. Amidst personal reflections and scriptural insights, we find a moment to praise and acknowledge the wonders of God.
