11.1 Evidence in support of Elihu as the herald of God
- The timing of Elihu’s entry is critical in understanding his role.
Job is a blameless man, beloved of God, and he has earnestly desired an audience with the Father. Regardless of what stumbles he may have made in contracting some of the pride of Les Conforteurs Miserables, he is a faithful disciple of the Lord, the Lord who has made this promise:
“ ‘See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Mal 3:1).
The Lord promises He will come when His company is urgently sought by those who serve Him. (The initial quote was given to the Israelites at the time of the prophet Malachi precisely because they did not truly seek the Lord at all, but merely performed ritual duties devoid of any true dedication of heart or mind, which is why the Lord was not active in their lives.) In the same prophecy, the Lord also reveals that He does not change (Mal 3:6), which means that His promise is true at all times. To this we add these facts:
- James teaches: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16, KJV).
- Job is one of the most righteous men who ever lived (see Ezek 14:20).
- Job’s prayer is to hear from his God: the ‘Lord whom he is seeking’, as Malachi phrases it.
- Job’s prayer is certainly fervent.
Considering this Scriptural evidence we conclude God will come to Job, albeit not because Job has demanded it, which is what Job believes at the end of the debate, but because God has promised it. Further, God explains in the prophecy above that He will first send a messenger to prepare the way before Him.
For God to send a messenger before Him is logical. When God’s Son came into the world to present his ministry, God sent ‘Elijah’ to come before him, who was John the Baptist (Luke 7:27). John the Baptist took the role of correcting the deficiencies in the thinking and practices of the local populace, so they could be appropriately washed, even in baptism, to meet the One for whom they had waited so long. In fact when any important speaker is to address an audience, he or she generally has some form of introduction given by another person, to quiet the crowd, and set the stage, so to speak. Therefore, if God’s Son is worthy of a messenger to go before him and introduce his ministry, how much more is God
Himself worthy? In fact having said this we conclude it would be quite bizarre for God to present a speech without one preparing the way beforehand. Now we notice Elihu the Buzite appears directly before the speeches of the Almighty, which timing implies that Elihu has been set in the role of God’s herald.
- Elihu uses some of the same language that God Himself will use in His speeches to Job. This is particularly powerful in establishing Elihu as occupying the role of the ‘messenger who goes before’, because it is a mirror of the dynamic between John the Baptist and Jesus.
John the Baptist first proclaimed the message of repentance (and the same Scripture also establishes him as occupying the role of the one sent to prepare). John said:
“ ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: A‘ voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him” ’ ” (Matt 3:2,3, quoting Isa 40:3).
And when Jesus began his ministry he proclaimed: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matt 4:17).
John the Baptist and Jesus have used exactly the same phrase. Yet I believe it would be inaccurate to say Jesus is quoting John the Baptist, even though the words are identical and John has spoken them first. Jesus is the greater, John the lesser. I describe what we see here as John correctly anticipating the message of Jesus, by reason of him being a man closely attuned to the mission of the Christ. John is essentially quoting the Christ, before Christ has spoken.
I submit we see the same dynamic here in the book of Job between Elihu the Buzite and God. Elihu speaks first, as the one who goes before, and describes certain aspects of the wondrous works of the Maker. God speaks later on the identical subject matter, and some of the phrases are again the same. But it is not, of course, that Yahweh is quoting Elihu. Rather Elihu is correctly anticipating small fragments of the speeches of the Almighty, by reason of being closely attuned to God’s thinking.
Example 1: The thunderous voice of God.
Elihu: “God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding”
(Job 37:5). GOD: “Do you have an arm like God’s,
and can your voice thunder like his?” (Job 40:9).
Example 2: Part of God’s uncontrollable majesty is seen in His governance of the meteorological elements of snow, clouds and lightning.
Elihu: “He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’,
and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’
Listen to this, Job;
stop and consider God’s wonders.
Do you know how God controls the clouds
and makes his lightningflash?” (Job 37:6,14,15).
GOD: “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?
…Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?” (Job 38:22,23,34,35)
Example 3: Pride is the threat to man’s eternal salvation
Elihu: “He may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
to turn man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride,
to preserve his soul from the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword” (Job 33:16-18).
GOD: “Unleash the fury of your wrath,
look at every proud man and bring him low,
look at every proud man and humble him,
crush the wicked where they stand.
Bury them all in the dust together;
shroud their faces in the grave.
Then I myself will admit to you
that your own right hand can save you” (Job 40:11-14).
It is inconceivable to me that a wicked man could faithfully anticipate the very themes God Himself chooses to use! This point alone is compelling in demonstrating Elihu is indeed God’s messenger.
In fact, by understanding Elihu the Buzite as a type of John the Baptist, this discovery of seeing him use the same words God will use, essentially quoting God before God speaks, is understandable. It makes good sense because it matches a Scriptural template with which we’re already familiar: the dynamic of the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus.
- Elihu is absent from the epilogue. While this detail itself may seem unhelpful in establishing anything, it is actually surprisingly useful in supporting the notion that Elihu occupies the role of John the Baptist. John himself said, concerning the arrival of the One he heralded:
“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:27-30, NKJV).
This Scripture teaches it is the nature of the herald to diminish, to fade into the background and disappear, once his role is completed. This now provides an explanation, perhaps the only reasonable explanation, of why Elihu the Buzite so enigmatically fades away from the drama, seemingly without proper closure to his character or conduct. We have already reasoned that the fact he is not rebuked along with the three friends is evidence that he is not culpable of wrongdoing, as they are. And with his role understood as the herald who is to diminish, so that the One he introduces is appropriately augmented, it makes good sense that he is not rewarded and celebrated as is righteous Job, even though he has spoken appropriately of God in his speeches.
Nor should we think Elihu unjustly under-served. As we have said, it is a central message of the drama of Job to challenge the reader on the whole concept of that which is ‘deserved’. Suffice to hear the words of the Master:
“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’ ” (Luke 17:10).
11.2. The work of Elihu: Clearing the subpoena
The generic role of the ‘one who went before’ is described by the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling:
‘In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken’ ” (Isa 40:3-5).
So we should anticipate that Elihu will operate in much the same way John the Baptist did: refuting the contemporary false doctrines and practices and urging a road to repentance to meet with God. In short, Elihu the Buzite will ‘straighten the way’.
Nor can we ignore the dramatic setting in which Elihu’s speeches are couched. A storm is building, both physically and metaphorically. The metaphorical storm has been compounded from the combined anger of all the participants. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite are all frustrated with Job; and Zophar has somehow contrived to feel insulted to boot. Job is angry: angry at his worthless comforters for sure and frankly angry at God too. Added to this comes Elihu the Buzite and, as we learn at the very outset, he too is angry — with everyone! This is a tense and stormy scene indeed.
As if to augment, even exacerbate, this stressful scenario, a physical storm is building. I presume this equates to a rising wind, a lowering sky, a darkening vista and perhaps already some staccato accentuations of lightning on the horizon. Indeed Elihu may have been partly drawn to reference the meteorological elements in his speech by reason of their visible proximity. I do not mean to undermine the previous argument that Elihu the herald correctly anticipates small parts of God’s speech, rather I suggest that God has prepared the storm purposefully to graphically illustrate His oratory and Elihu, being sensitive to this excellent example of God’s uncontrollable power, is therefore drawn to reference it.
In Elihu’s straightening of the way we find explicit corrections. First, Elihu corrects Job’s angry conclusion that God does not listen to the cry of the afflicted.
Job: “I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer;
I stand up, but you merely look at me” (Job 30:20, also 31:35).
Elihu: “Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man’s words?
For God does speak — now one way, now another —
Though man may not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men
as they slumber in their beds,
he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
to turn man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride,
to preserve his soul from the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword” (Job 33:13-18).
As we noted above, Elihu describes the primary act of salvation as a man being saved from his own pride. Elihu identifies pride as if it is the sole wrongdoing of man; the core of the spectrum of sin; the primary mechanism by which his life is threatened. We will return to this critical theme later and identify Elihu’s remark as one of great perspicacity and relevance.
In a second example, Elihu also straightens Job’s crooked implications that the Almighty is unjust and that to see the example of righteousness one should look to Job.
Job: “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul,
as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God in my nostrils,
my lips will not speak wickedness,
and my tongue will utter no deceit.
I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it;
my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live”
(Job 27:2-6, see also 32:1).
Elihu: But Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God…
“It is unthinkable that God would do wrong,
that the Almighty would pervert justice”
(Job 32:2, also 34:12),
The work of Elihu the Buzite is completed. The subpoena that Job has issued, that God must answer him because Job’s notion of justice requires it, has been vacated. Atkinson comments similarly on the effect of Elihu: “The Elihu speeches, which came after Job’s last stand, prevent us from thinking that God is somehow forced into a reply by Job’s persistence in his previous speech” 1 — a surprising conclusion for Atkinson to make, since Atkinson previously concluded the Elihu speeches were an addition to the original text; yet now he finds good reason for them to be there.
Most important, however, is the effect of the vacated subpoena. Elihu has spoken for God and enabled Job to perceive that God does not owe him an answer. Job has been released from his own trap and he is free once more to receive communication from the Almighty. Thus we are set to move into the final phase of the drama. During the speeches of Elihu the storm has been building up. It is about to climax. As the lightning cracks, detonating in thunderous explosions the very air through which it passes, as the rain lashes and the wind howls, the culmination of the debate, indeed many debates, is about to be heard. In the center of the storm, the final Speaker is preparing and, as the storm breaks upon them, He speaks.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One