Got Circumstances? (Job 33:1-12)

The killing fields of Pol Pot’s Cambodia.
The gas chambers of Hitler’s Germany.
The car accident that takes the life of a son or daughter (while the drunk driver escapes without a scratch).
The senseless drive-by shooting of a ten year old boy.

And the ghostly shadow and disease ridden body of the Sheik of Uz.

Is God good?
And does God care?

Our theology tells us that He is and that He does (and that He is and does all of the time).

But to Job (and to so many “Jobs” down through the ages) at times it “seems” that He is not good and that He does not care. For all practical purposes it appears that the God of Glory has abandoned Mr. and Mrs. Job.

Their prayers have gone unheeded and their tears have gone unnoticed. (Or so it seems)

Three rounds of dialogue with Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar haven’t yielded an ounce of comfort. And Job comes extremely close to believing that a life of integrity spent loving God doesn’t matter.

Francis I. Anderson writes, “The full answer to Job’s suffering cannot therefore be found in questions about justice. Beyond justice there is a benevolence in God that calls men to trust Him. More simply stated, the issue is whether a person can continue to believe that God is really good. Then he will be able to sing in the dark no matter what happens. The search for an explanation by tracking Job’s sufferings to their origin and cause has failed. More light will be gained in the search for their outcome and goal.”

This then is the direction that this young, brash preacher by the name of Elihu is taking us.

33:1 “However now, Job, please hear my speech, and listen to all my words. 2 Behold now, I open my mouth, my tongue in my mouth (palate) speaks.”

Unlike the Comforters, Elihu addresses the main character by name. And he asks that Job would listen attentively to all that he had to say in the same way that he had listened so attentively to Job (32:11). Whereas the Comforters tossed sincerity and impartiality aside during the heat of the argument, Eliphaz determined that he wouldn’t follow their course. (They also seemed to forget that they were visiting a very sick man in the hospice wing of Uz Memorial Hospital and were not having a theological debate in seminary)

Note how the version called The Message puts verse 1, "So please, Job, hear me out, honor me by listening to me.” Whether it be a coworker or a boss or our spouse or children or our neighbor, we give honor to someone when we listen attentively to what they have to say.

33:3 “My words are from the uprightness of my heart, and my lips speak knowledge sincerely.”

Some word historians conjecture that the word “sincere” came from a Latin word (or words) meaning “without wax.” Apparently in Roman time, if marble sculptures had any small flaws, the blemishes could be hidden by using wax as sort of a caulk. But people wanted to know that what they were about to purchase was “sin-cere.” So sometimes the buyer would have their sculpture sit in the hot sun for a time before the actual purchase to see if wax began to melt out of any imperfections. While engaging Job, Elihu wanted to be “without wax” or sin-cere – forthright, honest and genuine.

33:4 “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 5 Refute me if you can; Array yourselves before me, take your stand. 6 Behold, I belong to God like you; I too have been formed out of the clay.”

In the phrase, “The Spirit of God has made me…” perhaps Elihu is simply saying, “Hey Job, I’m just like you!”

Note the word “array” in verse 5. One of the lexicons explains this word as being a verb of preparation, a setting in order with sort of a militaristic tone. Elihu is asking Job to “prepare your word-weapons.” Between Elihu and Job, this was to be linguistic combat – a verbal war of words.

In verse 6 Elihu again emphasizes the fact that “I’m just like you.” Note the words, “I too have been formed out of the clay.” “Formed” carries the idea of “pinched;” so we have the picture of a potter grabbing a slab of clay and pinching off a chunk to begin to shape his masterpiece.

In this verbal combat in the land of Uz, it was clay versus clay.

33:7 “Behold, no fear of me should terrify you, nor should my pressure weigh heavily on you.”

Elihu at times did get a little wrapped up in himself. When they heard this statement of Elihu’s, I imagine Job and the three comforters just rolled their eyes and muttered, “Oh brother!”

33:8 “Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words:”

One of the marks of a good listener is their ability to restate (back to the one who had just spoken) what they heard them say. They may say something like, “Ok, I think this is what you are saying, am I hearing you correctly?” So Elihu, in the following verses, summarizes what he had heard from Job during the long debate with the Comforters.

33:9 “’I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent and there is no guilt in me. 10 Behold, He invents pretexts against me; He counts me as His enemy. 11 He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches all my paths.’”

Part of Elihu’s synopsis (particularly verse 11) is almost a word for word recital of what Job had stated earlier in chapter 13, “Why dost Thou hide Thy face, and consider me Thine enemy?...For Thou dost write bitter things against me, And dost make me to inherit the iniquities of my youth. Thou dost put my feet in the stocks, and dost watch all my paths…” (24-27)

Hartley writes, “(Job) never asserts that he has not sinned. His position is that he cannot recall having committed any transgressions that would require such harsh punishment.” And Poole writes, “Remember, (some of the words of Job) shocked the friends (and Elihu); perhaps Job never crossed the line of explicitly accusing God of malice or dishonesty -- but he sure came close to it and it was hard for the four not to come to the conclusion that he had. But Trapp reminds us, “Only out of the greatness of his grief and the unkindness of his friends did job finally cast out some rash and harsh words against God.”

33:12 “Behold, let me tell you, you are not right in this, for God is greater than man.”

Note the first part of this verse (“Behold, let me tell you, you are not right in this”). At times, we need Elihus in our own lives who will have the courage to say to us, “You are not right in this.” We need people who will look us in the eye and tell it like it is. To paraphrase Trapp, “Someone who flatters is simply a courteous murderer.” God puts certain individuals into our lives who will speak the truth, and speak it even if it may not be done out of love. We certainly do need people who will love us unconditionally and show us tremendous compassion in our trials and troubles. But we also need the “without-wax” people (John Wayne cowboy types?) who will level with us.

My family and I pastored a church in North Dakota in the 1980’s and had a wonderful time of revival and grew to love the people. A few years later the Lord led us to pastor a church in northern Wisconsin where again God did wonderful things and we fell in love with the congregation. But in between the church in North Dakota and the church in Wisconsin, we pastored a home missions church for three years where we seemed to have entered “The Great Tribulation” (and the last half where the world is in total chaos and turmoil). To put it simply, it was a very, very painful time (but necessary). Somewhere during the second or third year at that church, an older gentleman who attended off and on came to visit me. During our conversation, he said simply this, “If you had half the personality of your wife, this church would grow!”

I was mad enough to spit BB’s.

But he was right. Not in his conclusion as to how to get the church to grow, nor in his conclusion that I should try to be someone I wasn’t (the two previous pastors were very gregarious whereas I was more the studious type). But during those difficult times my attitude had gone south and people could sense it.

It was either at that meeting or a subsequent one that, after we both had our say, we began to pray for one another. And suddenly the love of God began to flood our hearts in such a marvelous way that we hugged each other as the tears flowed down our faces.

Individuals may say things to us in a manner that conveys anything but an attitude of love. But what they say may be true and it is in those “gut-check” moments that we should simply pray something like, “Lord, I don’t like what that person had to say, but is it true?” (“Oh the gift that God would give us, to see ourselves as others see us.”) And if our prayers are genuine and earnest, the Holy Spirit will definitely reveal to us if we need an attitude check-up. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:15, “…and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you.”

Finally, notice the second part of verse 12, “…for God is greater than man.” Francis I Anderson writes, “The truth that God is greater than man is so obvious as to be banal (devoid of freshness or originality, something that is trite).”

But I disagree. When going through dispiriting circumstances, we often need to be reminded of the greatness and majesty of our God.

It’s as if this young preacher is saying, “Job, I know you’re going through a horrible time, and I can’t imagine the depth of your sorrow and pain. But somehow, someway, somewhere God has a plan in all of this! All you see right now is death and destruction and disease, but God is greater than your current situation!”

It is when our circumstances are “clothed with worms and a crust of dirt” (Job 7:5) that we need to see Him is clothed in radiant splendor.

Got circumstances? And are they “clothed in a crust of dirt?” Remember, God is the Grand Architect of Circumstances. Take time to worship Him who guides the universe. The song, “Revelation Hymn” speaks of the glory and majesty of God (click on the link at the left for a YouTube video of this song).