Learn from Elihu that God sends Suffering to Save his People from Pride and to Purify them
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If you take Job chapters 1-31 here is what you have as a theology of suffering. Basically you have
(1) God rules;
(2) God is just and wise;
(3) Things may look arbitrary, unreasonable and even erratic and based on whim and disorganised and unplanned and absurd in this life; but
(4) In the age to come, all wrongs will be righted and justice will be established.
Do you remember what Job said in Job 13:15? In this verse, he uttered these words of faith, "Though He slays me, yet will I hope in Him." Again in Job 19:25, Job gives similar words of faith and says, "For I know that my redeemer lives and at the last, he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another, my heart years within me, faints within me for this." Job knows that his redeemer, his vindicator is going to eventually take care of him. And
(5) God has loved us and saved us in Christ. Do you remember the words of Job in Job 16:19 where he says, "Even now, behold my witness is in heaven and He who testifies for me is on high [or my advocate is onhigh]. We as Christians know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so Job dimly, but did see the coming of his saviour, his Redeemer. And so he was resting in the redemption that would come. and so
(6) Trust God in your suffering! This should be the sixth point that we have here in the theology of suffering in Job 1-31. Trust God in your suffering even though you cannot understand his ways. So we have got six basic points of a theology of suffering that we can gain here. And this is not a bad theology of suffering. We could say that this is a decent theology of suffering and many Christians are very content with that theology of suffering. And they say, "Well, things could be rough here, but eventually, things will be right. God will save me. In the age to come, in the world to come, after death, and so, many Christians live with this, they are content with this, but God is not content that you only have a Job chapters 1-31 theology of suffering; because Job 31 is not the end of the book. We have got some more chapters to go.
God says, I want you to have a bigger theology of suffering. I want you to see more. I want you to see more of my purpose in suffering. This is an inadequate theology of suffering. This is a partial theology of suffering. There is more for you to see. So God sends Elihu to tell us more about suffering and to build on what we have learned in chapters 1-31. So Elihu is going to correct Job's three friends and Job himself.
Page 1 ⇦ Previous | Next ⇨ Page 3
If you take Job chapters 1-31 here is what you have as a theology of suffering. Basically you have
(1) God rules;
(2) God is just and wise;
(3) Things may look arbitrary, unreasonable and even erratic and based on whim and disorganised and unplanned and absurd in this life; but
(4) In the age to come, all wrongs will be righted and justice will be established.
Do you remember what Job said in Job 13:15? In this verse, he uttered these words of faith, "Though He slays me, yet will I hope in Him." Again in Job 19:25, Job gives similar words of faith and says, "For I know that my redeemer lives and at the last, he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another, my heart years within me, faints within me for this." Job knows that his redeemer, his vindicator is going to eventually take care of him. And
(5) God has loved us and saved us in Christ. Do you remember the words of Job in Job 16:19 where he says, "Even now, behold my witness is in heaven and He who testifies for me is on high [or my advocate is onhigh]. We as Christians know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And so Job dimly, but did see the coming of his saviour, his Redeemer. And so he was resting in the redemption that would come. and so
(6) Trust God in your suffering! This should be the sixth point that we have here in the theology of suffering in Job 1-31. Trust God in your suffering even though you cannot understand his ways. So we have got six basic points of a theology of suffering that we can gain here. And this is not a bad theology of suffering. We could say that this is a decent theology of suffering and many Christians are very content with that theology of suffering. And they say, "Well, things could be rough here, but eventually, things will be right. God will save me. In the age to come, in the world to come, after death, and so, many Christians live with this, they are content with this, but God is not content that you only have a Job chapters 1-31 theology of suffering; because Job 31 is not the end of the book. We have got some more chapters to go.
God says, I want you to have a bigger theology of suffering. I want you to see more. I want you to see more of my purpose in suffering. This is an inadequate theology of suffering. This is a partial theology of suffering. There is more for you to see. So God sends Elihu to tell us more about suffering and to build on what we have learned in chapters 1-31. So Elihu is going to correct Job's three friends and Job himself.
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