Job · chapter 36 of 42
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In Job 36 Elihu continues his speech, claiming he has more to say on God's behalf. He says God is mighty but despises no one, that he gives justice to the afflicted and that when he binds people in cords of affliction he shows them their sin and calls them to return. He warns Job against iniquity and ends by exalting God's greatness in rain and cloud.
Elihu has already given three speeches and is not finished. Job 36 begins the last one, which fills chapters 36 and 37 and prepares for God's answer. Here Elihu presents his central idea: suffering can be a discipline by which God teaches and rescues. The chapter mixes truths about God's goodness and greatness with an application to Job that the book does not confirm.
Elihu asks Job for a little patience, for he still has words on God's behalf. He will bring his knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to his Maker; he says the one speaking with him is perfect in knowledge (vv. 1-4). He affirms that God is mighty but despises no one; he is mighty in strength and understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive but gives justice to the afflicted and does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous (vv. 5-7).
If anyone is bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction, God declares to them their work and their pride, opens their ear to instruction and commands them to turn from iniquity. If they listen and serve, they will complete their days in prosperity; if not, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge. The godless in heart cherish anger. God delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by oppression. He also wants to bring Job out of distress to a broad place, with his table full of rich food (vv. 8-16).
Elihu warns Job: he is full of the judgment of the wicked; let not riches or a bribe turn him aside. Let him beware of turning to iniquity, which he has preferred to affliction (vv. 17-21). Then Elihu exalts God's greatness: who is a teacher like him? Who has told him what to do, or who can say, you have done wrong? We should remember to extol his work, which men have sung. God is great and we do not know him; the number of his years is unsearchable. He draws up the drops of water, which distill his mist as rain, and the clouds pour it down on mankind abundantly. Who can understand the thunder of his pavilion? He covers his hands with lightning and commands it to strike the mark. His thunder declares the storm, and even the cattle know it is coming (vv. 22-33).
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Elihu says God is mighty but despises no one, firm in strength and understanding. He joins two truths: God's power is not arbitrary but comes with a heart that does not despise the weak.
Elihu affirms that God delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear through oppression. His idea is that suffering can be a means of teaching and rescue. It is a truth seen in other biblical passages, though in Job it does not explain why he suffers.
Elihu declares that God is exalted in his power and asks who is a teacher like him. It is an invitation to reverence and to recognize that no one has the wisdom of God, something God himself will affirm in his speeches.
Elihu admits that God is great and that we do not know him; the number of his years is unsearchable. At this point Elihu comes close to what God will say, that human understanding has limits before the Creator.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Righteousness. — Job 36:3
Answer: Mighty, but he despises no one. — Job 36:5
Answer: He shows them their work and pride, opens their ear to instruction and commands them to turn from iniquity. — Job 36:8-10
Answer: Those who obey complete their days in prosperity; those who do not perish by the sword and die without knowledge. — Job 36:11-12
Answer: By their affliction, and through oppression he opens their ear. — Job 36:15
Answer: The drops of water that become rain, the clouds, lightning and thunder. — Job 36:27-33
Job 36 teaches that suffering can sometimes be a means of teaching, and God can use affliction to open ears. This appears throughout the Bible: God disciplines those he loves. In a class or small group this chapter helps us ask whether there is something God wants to teach us in the midst of a trial.
But it warns against applying that idea to others without humility. Elihu sees in Job a discipline Job did not need. It is best to apply this truth to ourselves and, with those who suffer, to accompany rather than diagnose. God's greatness, seen in rain and storm, is a good place to begin: before understanding, worship.
Job 36 leaves Elihu exalting God's greatness in rain, clouds and storm. In chapter 37 his speech will end with God's voice in the thunder, and the approaching storm will announce the Lord's answer.
No. Elihu holds that suffering can be a way God teaches and delivers, not that all suffering is discipline for sin. The book itself shows Job's was not (Job 1:8; 42:7). The Bible affirms God's discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11) without reducing all pain to it.
Elihu says true things about God's greatness and justice and proposes that God uses suffering to teach, which goes beyond the friends' accusation. But he shares their mistake of applying that idea to Job. God does not correct him by name in the book.
To show God's power and wisdom in nature: no one controls or fully understands how clouds form and rain falls. It prepares the way for God's answer, which will also appeal to creation.