For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 35:1-8

1 Then Elihu said:

2 ‘Do you think this is just?
    You say, “I am in the right, not God.”
3 Yet you ask him, “What profit is it to me,
    and what do I gain by not sinning?”

4 ‘I would like to reply to you
    and to your friends with you.
5 Look up at the heavens and see;
    gaze at the clouds so high above you.
6 If you sin, how does that affect him?
    If your sins are many, what does that do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him,
    or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself,
    and your righteousness only other people.

A. Find Out

1. What had Job maintained? v.2
2. Yet what had he said at the same time? v.3
3. What did Elihu want Job to do? v.5
4. What questions did he then ask? v.6,7
5. What conclusion did he reach? v.8

B. Think:

1. What had been the conflict in what Job had previously said?
2. What point was Elihu making in verses 5-8?

C. Comment:

Elihu has previously declared that Job had spoken unwisely. Now he gives an example of that and asks him to consider whether what he had said was just and true? (v.2a). On one hand Job had maintained he was righteous, and that God would clear him of wrongdoing (v.2b), but in a bad following moment in his anguish, he had wondered, in the face of his suffering, what was the point of trying to please God by not doing wrong (v.3).

OK, says Elihu, I have an answer for you and your friends (v.4): look upwards! (v.5). Looking at the magnitude and unchanging nature of Creation can often put things in perspective for us. Our petty quibbles, and even our small lives, fade into insignificance in the face of Creation. We actually need the Lord to bring significance to our lives.

Then he asks a very simple question: how does our wrongdoing affect God? (v.6). How does our right doing affect him? (v.7) i.e. is God’s character affected by our actions and, of course, the answer is no. God may feel differently about us in His love for us, when we behave in different ways, but His character is completely unchanged. No, says Elihu, your wrongs or your right doing affect only yourself (v.8). Therefore, to say what do I gain from not sinning (v.3) is silly if you are saying it to have a go at God. It’s like you are shooting yourself in the foot for you are the one you hurt most when you sin, so that is just silly talk!  There is a great truth here and many of us fail to see this, that our wrong living hurts us more than others!

D. Application:

1. God’s character remains unchanged by our behaviour.
2. God’s feelings may be moved by our behaviour. Think on that.

Passage: Job 35:9-16

9 ‘People cry out under a load of oppression;
    they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.
10 But no one says, “Where is God my Maker,
    who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than he teaches the beasts of the earth
    and makes us wiser than the birds in the sky?”
12 He does not answer when people cry out
    because of the arrogance of the wicked.
13 Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea;
    the Almighty pays no attention to it.
14 How much less, then, will he listen
    when you say that you do not see him,
that your case is before him
    and you must wait for him,
15 and further, that his anger never punishes
    and he does not take the least notice of wickedness.
16 So Job opens his mouth with empty talk;
    without knowledge he multiplies words.’

A. Find Out

1. How and why do men pray? v.9
2. But what don’t they say? v.10,11
3. What doesn’t God do? v.12,13
4. What two things had Job been saying? v.14,15
5. Do what does Elihu conclude? v.16

B. Think:

1. What point does Elihu make in verses 9 to 11?
2. What is he saying in verses 12 & 13?
3. How had Job spoken foolishly?

C. Comment:

Elihu had just dealt with one wrong thing that Job had said; now he deals with another which he doesn’t actually speak out until the end of the chapter. He berates Job for objecting to not being able to see God and discuss with him his situation (v.14) and for also saying that God doesn’t bother with or take notice of wickedness (v.15).

Working towards this, Elihu points out that people do cry out to God when they are oppressed (v.9) but in their desperation they do not berate God (v.10,11) demanding where He is. Usually people in distress are humble (implied). Indeed, he continues, when the arrogant do call out and berate Him, He doesn’t bother to answer (v.12,13). In reality there is no point the Lord replying to them for they only hear what they want to hear. When we come into a right attitude and right relationship with the Lord, then we start hearing again and then we start ‘seeing’ but until then it is a futile thing to be demanding of the Lord who is the Almighty and all-wise One.

It is just because God stays silent, because of these things, that it is foolish of Job to make such demands of the Lord and his words are judged empty and foolish (v.16 implied).

It is a thing we have to learn, that the Lord in His wisdom, knows that when we are in a bad frame of mind there is no point His answering our ranting demands.

D. Application:

1. God often remains silent until we come to our senses.
2. The moment we do, He is there speaking.