Don’t Believe Everything You Hear - Job 32-34

Job 34:1-4 (ESV)

Then Elihu answered and said:

“Hear my words, you wise men,

and give ear to me, you who know;

for the ear tests words

as the palate tastes food.

Let us choose what is right;

let us know among ourselves what is good.

Elihu is Job’s fourth friend.   He is speaking to both Job and Job’s first three friends.   The three friends came to comfort Job but only condemned him.  They did not point Job back to God.  Although Elihu does not refrain from judging Job, he does attempt to turn him and these so-called friends, back toward God.  In the above lines he starts a discourse on the fact that God is just.   He will say in a moment:

Job 34:10 (ESV)

“Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding:

far be it from God that he should do wickedness,

and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.

In that verse he calls these three friends, men of understanding.   In the above verses he calls them, wise men.   He is honoring them with title but about to destroy them with truth.  He reminds them (and us) that we are to be discerning in our listening to the words of others.   Note what he says, again:

for the ear tests words

as the palate tastes food.

Let us choose what is right;

let us know among ourselves what is good.

We are not to simply listen to the words of mankind and accept them.  They are to be discerned.   The Apostle Paul says it this way in his writings:

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Philippians 1:9-10 (ESV)

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

We are to be discerning in our listening because mankind is not always right in his speaking.  Elihu is pointing this out to Job’s friends and us.