06/24/2022 – Day 117 – Job – Chapters 033 & 034 / Elihu’s presentation: Are you going to listen to me or are you going to listen to reason?
Let’s look at 34: 11 – 12: “He (God) repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves. It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice.”
It is amazing how Jews could hold to the proposition that your good is always returned with blessings from God, and your sin is punished with human suffering. Anyone who has lived any length of time could observe a myriad of exceptions to the rule just observing his close community circle around him or her. Some evil people never seem to suffer and some good people seem to never get out of suffering. So, by Elihu’s logic, that would mean the Almighty perverts justice? So, I agree, that is not possible but Elihu is stuck in his do loop so he just ignores all the obvious everyday evidence.
We suffer for 3 primary reasons: 1) Yes, we suffer from sin, our own poor choices, evidence of God’s love as a correcting Father; 2) We are Christ imitators. Our suffering glorifies him. Job is an example. ; and , 3) our suffering is “random, from the sin of others or random calamity like the collapse of the tower of Silom.
Soli Deo Gloria!