Job 35, Elihu: God Far Above You

After waiting to see if Job will disagree with him, and receiving only silence, brash Elihu presses on. 

Job 35:1-3, What do I gain by sinning?

Then Elihu said:

"Do you think this is just? 

You say, `I will be cleared by God.'

Yet you ask him, `What profit is it to me,

and what do I gain by not sinning?'

Job is characterized as claiming that righteousness has no reward. Job's claims of innocence have angered Elihu and in response Elihu overstates Job's claim.

Job 35:4-8, How high above us is God

"I would like to reply to you 

and to your friends with you.

Look up at the heavens and see; 

gaze at the clouds so high above you.

If you sin, how does that affect him? 

If your sins are many, what does that do to him?

 If you are righteous, what do you give to him, 

or what does he receive from your hand?

Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself,

and your righteousness only the sons of men.

Look up at the heavens, says Elihu (Psalm 8: 3-4.) God is so far above us that our sins (or righteousness) have no effect on God. He needs nothing from us. However, our wickedness and/or righteousness affect humans around us.

Job 35:9-11, Where is my Maker?

"Men cry out under a load of oppression; 

they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.

But no one says, `Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

who teaches more to us than to the beasts of the earth 

and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?'

We may cry out under oppression but no one asks for the Maker, who teaches us and blesses us with life.

Job 35:12-16, God does not answer the pleas of the wicked

He does not answer when men cry out 

because of the arrogance of the wicked.

Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea; 

the Almighty pays no attention to it.

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,

and further, that his anger never punishes

and he does not take the

  least notice of wickedness.

So Job opens his mouth with empty talk; 

without knowledge he multiplies words."

Elihu warns Job that when the arrogant wicked cry out, God does not answer them. He challenges Job that since Job has arrogantly called for his case to be before him and has claimed that he does not see God, then God will not respond. At the end, Elihu claims Job's speeches have just been foolish chaff.

Hartley suggests that Elihu's rough challenges prepare Job for a coming conversation. These challenges, suggest the possibility that Job's claims of innocence, bordering on arrogance, will need to be surrendered when God finally appears.