In the previous study we considered the hidden errors in determining what is good for others. Whatever one concludes is truth is only a matter of conjecture, not in the sense that truth is relative, but in the sense that truth is hardly ever absolutely so. While one might be able to conclude what is generally true, making too firm a conclusion doesn’t provide for the exception to the general rule. In the matter of Job’s situation, the dominant worldview had been: what one sows, one reaps, which is generally true. Nevertheless, it doesn’t take chapters one and two of the book into consideration. Neither Job nor any of the friends nor even Elihu were aware of the wager God made there. It was his wager, remember, that has resulted in Job’s calamities. Simply put, one can’t force-fit God into a box erected through what we know to be true, because at the end of the day, we know only in part (1Corinthians 13:9-12).
The Book of Job is all about God’s greatness and his supremacy. Yet, Elihu and the friends never really get it. While they talk about the greatness of God, they don’t allow him to be greater than their worldview of him. Job does! Job is genuinely surprised and even depressed over how he’s been treated by God. Nevertheless, Job’s awe of God increases, as he realizes that, although he is righteous, he hasn’t been treated accordingly by God, in the context of the dominant worldview of Job’s day, a worldview that even he had embraced, until his calamities had come upon him. Job is confused and confesses his lack of understanding, and it is this ignorance of God’s character that is most responsible for Job’s depression. He even sees it somewhat chaotic in the context of the then prevailing, but disproved, worldview.
As for Elihu, he accuses Job of wickedness in the light of the prevailing worldview. This is the good that has been established as truth. Job must be judged unrighteous in light of the worldview that claims: what one sows, one reaps (Hosea 10:12-13; Galatians 6:7)! If this is true and good, then Job **must** be wicked, because he has reaped calamity. Nevertheless, according to Elihu, Job has called God a liar, because he clings to his own righteousness, while saying God is unjust in that he has taken away Job’s rightful reward for doing good (Job 34:5). Job even refuses to admit error, claiming he would be lying, if he said he was unrighteous. In fact, his wounds are incurable and he is ready to die, yet all his calamities have come upon him even though he hasn’t sinned (Job 34: 6)! Such statements are anathema, according to the then present worldview, because it makes God out to be an unrighteous judge.
Therefore, Elihu has accused Job of blasphemy. He claims Job consumes what is contemptible like one would drink water (Job 34:7), which, basically, repeats Eliphaz’ argument (Job 15:16), who claimed Job had a secret sin in his life (Job 15:12). Elihu suggests that Job was keeping bad company (Job 34:8; cp. 1Corinthians 15:33-34), and it was this that corrupted Job’s way, for now he says: “It profits a man nothing, if he delights himself in God (Job 34:9). Of course, this isn’t so (cp. Job 13:15), but it must be so, if Elihu is to prove the truth of the worldview that Job has undermined by claiming his innocence in the face of his present calamities. This is the problem when defending truth. If one isn’t open to the possibility of error, it is inevitable that the innocent will be condemned in order to protect one’s erroneous worldview/tradition (cp. Matthew 12:7; Mark 7:13).
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