Be Careful What You Ask God - Job 37

Job 37:19-20 (ESV)

Teach us what we shall say to him;

we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.

Shall it be told him that I would speak?

Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?

To understand the above words of Elihu, we must recall why he, Job’s fourth friend, is talking to Job.  Job, in his trauma, begins to complain to God and desires an audience with God to plead his case. Job believes he is innocent of the crimes the other three friends of Job are accusing him.   He believes he is being mistreated by God and does not deserve any of the suffering he has been experiencing.   Job has been demanding to appear before God to plead his cause.   Who wouldn’t? Who in trauma has not yelled out, “Why O God, why?”   Note David’s plea toward God:

Psalms 22:1 (ESV)

TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE DOE OF THE DAWN. A PSALM OF DAVID.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

This was one of Job’s first questions:

Job 10:2 (ESV)

I will say to God, Do not condemn me;

let me know why you contend against me.

Jesus, Himself, on the cross to pay for our sins, said:

Matthew 27:46 (ESV)

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

What Elihu maintains in this entire chapter is that Job can’t even understand nature. Therefore, what would he really do if he was actually standing before God to commence the trial?  Remember, to question God’s work in our lives is to put God on trial.   Elihu, in the above verse, is simply saying, to ask for such a trail is to ask to be swallowed up by God.   Did a man ever ask that?  When we ask to stand before God, in order to tell Him He messed up in our lives, is to ask to be swallowed up by Him.  The word for swallowed, in the Hebrew here, is used 49 times in the Old Testament.  Most of those are translated swallow.  But 9 times it is translated destroyed.   Does a man ask to be destroyed.  We can certainly have questions in times of trauma in our lives.  We can certainly want answers.  We can even want to talk to God to understand what is happening.  But to demand of God to bring a trial and place God on the stand to ask Him why, is to ask to be swallowed.