Job’s Fourth Friends - Job 32-34

Job 33:8-11 (ESV)

“Surely you have spoken in my ears,

and I have heard the sound of your words.

You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression;

I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.

Behold, he finds occasions against me,

he counts me as his enemy,

he puts my feet in the stocks

and watches all my paths.’

In chapters 33-37 Job’s fourth friend speaks up.   He is younger than Job and the other three friends.  As a result he felt compelled to remain silent during the last 30+ chapters.   His respect for the aged controlled the desire of his tongue to speak.  He did need to speak, however:

Job 32:18-19 (ESV)

For I am full of words;

the spirit within me constrains me.

Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst.

He now begins to burst with his opinion:  

Job 32:10 (ESV)

Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;

let me also declare my opinion.’

A portion of his opinion is seen in the above passage.  Elihu’s main thought was that in his defense, Job forgot one main point.  Job forget that the reason he is righteous (chapter 1) is not because of his own works but because he was declared righteous by God.   The entire first 30+ chapters are about Job justifying himself that his performance proves his righteousness.  However, that is not why he was righteous.   Righteousness ONLY comes from God’s grace.   This young, fire in his bosom, theologian/counselor and fourth friend of Job, was able to tell Job and the others something they all had missed.   It was not about the suffering.  It was about his defense of himself.  Like Job, most of us in suffering try to figure out the why behind it and believe we are not deserving of it.   Yet, what is man that he complains about how God deals with him? 

Lamentations 3:37-39 (ESV)

Who has spoken and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has commanded it?

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and bad come?

Why should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Job, of course, would say he did not sin to cause this suffering.   But in his defense about the suffering, Job did.   He was so bent on providing his other three friends wrong regarding their accusations that he actually fell into the vein of their accusations.    In his defense he declared his righteousness based upon his performance.   That was their entire argument to him.  Later God will bring them all into check.  But for the moment it is a young man with fire in his belly.  Job’s fourth friend.