In order to try and track with Elihu’s counsel to Job, I’m reading ahead in my Job reading plan, taking in bigger chunks so as to try and grasp the big ideas. This morning, there’s a quotable quote that I think gets to at least part of the heart of the young guy’s message to the suffering senior saint.

“[God] delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.”

(Job 36:15 ESV)

While Elihu isn’t as condemning of Job as were Job’s other “friends”, Elihu is also a realist. Though Job may in fact have been a “man that was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1), nevertheless Elihu knows enough about the sons of Adam to know Job ain’t perfect. And, the youngster knows enough about his God to know that He is perfect. Thus, Elihu concludes something about how a perfect God deals with a less than perfect, though for the most part righteous, suffering saint.

“[God] does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne He sets them forever, and they are exalted.
And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction,
then He declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
He opens their ears to instruction
and commands that they return from iniquity.”

(Job 36:7-10 ESV)

God doesn’t turn His back on the righteous. In fact, His default posture is to exalt them. But, should the righteous find themselves in cords of affliction, God uses those cords to refine the not-yet-perfect righteous one. He wants to open their ears so that they would turn from iniquity. Thus, God delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.

Hmm . . . worth chewing on I think.

But, while I was hooked by that quotable quote, what I’m hovering over this morning is Elihu’s suggested response to having one’s ears opened.

“Take care; do not turn to iniquity,
for this you have chosen rather than affliction.
Behold, God is exalted in His power,
who is a teacher like Him?
Who has prescribed for Him His way,
or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?

“Remember to extol His work,
of which men have sung.
All mankind has looked on it;
man beholds it from afar.
Behold, God is great, and we know Him not;
the number of His years is unsearchable.”

(Job 36:21-26 ESV)

Take care . . . and behold. Remember . . . and behold.

First, says Elihu, affliction can open our ears or harden our hearts. So, take care. Beware of allowing your suffering to lead you into sin. Instead, seek a perspective which views your calamity as a classroom. Look to the Almighty, in all His sovereign power, as to an instructor – unlike any other, unable of doing anything wrong — who wants to teach you something. Something about yourself. Something about Himself.

Next, know that suffering can limit our ability to see beyond our circumstance and so, rob us of awe and wonder. Therefore, remember who your Maker is and all that He’s done, and submit the confusion of your pain to the greatness of His being. Trust what you cannot yet understand to Him whose ways are unsearchable.

Could we receive such counsel? Might we be open to our affliction delivering us from eyes that may have dimmed as to God’s glory. Would we let our suffering open our ears to know and hear afresh the presence and power of the God who is holy and righteous and just and has promised never to leave us nor forsake us?

Take care, remember, and behold.

By His grace. For His glory.