Man’s Righteousness Adds Nothing to God
8 Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself,
and your righteousness a son of man.
In chapters 32-37 of Job we are listening to the words of Elihu, the fourth friend of Job. The fourth friend stands in great contrast to the three friends. The three friends of Job attempted to debate Job and point him to the value of their arguments and the fault of his arguments. The fourth friend, Elihu, simply points Job to God. The above verse reflects that difference. Whereas the three friends of Job (Zophar, Bildad, Eliphaz) attempted to argue for man’s righteousness and how important acting righteous and being righteous was, Elihu confesses the above. Just prior to the above verse, Elihu states:
6 If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?
And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him?
Or what does he receive from your hand?
He then ends the paragraph with verse eight. Our wickedness neither distrusts or hinders God and our righteousness does not add to or bolster God. Our righteousness does benefit mankind, but it does not add anything to our walk with God. God did go to great lengths to make us righteous, of course:
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
But, our earthly righteousness does not benefit God. Elihu is trying to let Job know that he has no position with God whether righteous or unrighteous. Our righteous acts of kindness do benefit mankind. But, that is all they are good for. They do not, however, earn us merit before God. Elihu is trying to put all the arguments between Job and his three, older friends into perspective. He is trying to point them all to God and His majesty. The only way to see the majesty of God (which will end up freeing Job from his affliction) is to point people away from their own righteousness and toward the majesty and holiness of God.
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