Job 34:31-37
Verse 33 Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I; so tell me what you know.
After spending time with the idea of God watching our every thought and action, Elihu brings attention to what repentance truly looks like. It is more than simply saying we are sorry, in fact, it is more than about words. Repentance includes more than remorse and Elihu wanted the older men to understand that.
Elihu asked Job how he could tell God he was sorry for his sin and then ask for the sin to be pointed out, it showed he couldn’t really be repenting because he didn’t know what he should be turning from. The young man knew true repentance acknowledged what was done wrong and deciding to turn from it altogether. A person can’t turn from something they can’t acknowledge. If they were asking what sin they had committed, they weren’t soft enough to the Lord and His Spirit to feel the conviction He would give at the very thought of doing the sin.
Elihu was trying to help the men understand how repentance and holy living must be done on God’s terms not ours. Just as His justice isn’t what we want to think it is, repentance and forgiveness don’t work the way we want them to but instead the way He has designed them too. We like things working according to our standards and don’t make the effort to see how often they don’t line up with God’s standards.
Finally for this passage, Elihu points out how Job had started out doing well but had ended up going off track in his address to the Almighty. He had gone from simply questioning the Lord to rebelling against His way of thinking and working. Job may have gone through a lot, no one would deny that, but his pain and loss weren’t a free pass to do as he wanted and speak how he wanted to the God of all creation.
By clasping his hands, Job was showing he was done being corrected and was now going to show the disrespect he felt he had been shown. Elihu was not going to give in to Job’s disrespect for the Lord. Job and the older men needed to correct their vision of the Lord and they weren’t going to do it without a wakeup lecture from this young man who had not lost sight of who God is.
Making It Personal
When have you lost the true picture of God and His holiness? What did it take to get you back on track? What have you done to stay on the right path?
Making It Personal Kids
Do you ever get mad at Jesus? What do you get mad about? What helps you get over being mad at Him?
Closing Prayer
Father, we repent for all the times we want our own way over Yours. Give us the strength and wisdom to turn back to You, desiring Your way always above our own. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Comments