Those of us who are familiar with the game of chess understand there is a great difference between a pawn (the weakest piece) and a queen (the most powerful piece). The difference in power is also felt, but not as great, between the pawn and the other powerful pieces: the rook, the bishop and the knight. Yet, a well-placed pawn may mean the difference between loosing and victory. A well-placed pawn may allow the greater pieces to exalt their power over their opponent, while keeping the opponent’s powerful pieces from obtaining a winning position. Therefore, it would be unwise to devalue the importance of pawns. One could say that they permit other pieces to exalt their power, while keeping the opponents powerful pieces at bay and, in effect, take away a possible winning strategy.
I believe it is something like this that Elihu has in mind, when he tells us that God is mighty but despises no one. In other words, the Lord values those who don’t have much strength or much insight (Job 36:5). He is unlike the movers and shakers of our lives, who lord-it-over the weak and use them as sacrificial pawns to obtain their selfish objectives. The wicked exalt their power by intimidating the weak and have no care for those who lack the strength or the wisdom to oppose them. Nevertheless, God, who is Ruler over all, isn’t like that. He is impartial toward the powerful and the weak, valuing the positions of both, knowing the one is unable to obtain his desires without the help of the other. In other words, God always acts with justice in mind. He favors no one and isn’t so weak or so unwise in himself, that he must favor the powerful over the weak in order to obtain his overall objective!
So, Elihu has lain the groundwork for his next argument, saying God is just and values the lives and positions of all the people. Do powerful, wicked men intimidate and abuse the weak? God exalts the power of the adversaries of the wicked and brings them with great force against evil people, destroying them, while saving the weak out of trouble (Job 36:6; cp. Isaiah 9:11). Thus, Elihu uses Bildad’s earlier argument (Job 8:20), which also implies that the calamities that have befallen Job are well deserved, and he needs to repent.
Therefore, no matter how things appear, the Lord always has his eyes upon the righteous (Job 36:7; cp. 1Peter 3:12), which may be a response to Job’s earlier statements (Job 29:1-5). What Elihu claims is that even in tragedy (personal or national) the Lord is always aware of the righteous (cp. Genesis 41:40; Esther 10:3), which is another earlier argument, made by Eliphaz, which Elihu wishes to establish here (Job 5:11). There, Eliphaz claimed that the Lord disappoints the crafty plans of the wicked, destroying them through their own strategies by causing their pursuits to fail. In doing so, the Lord also saves the poor and weak out of their hands (Job 5:11-15). Thereby, the weak are able to rejoice, as though they were seated with kings. Therefore, whether they are like Joseph or Mordecai (Genesis 41:40; Esther 10:3) or simply released from their troubles (Psalm 113:7), it is as though the king’s power worked for them against their enemies.
In the present context, if Job is righteous, why is he unable to rejoice? If Job is righteous, why is he among those, whom the Lord has destroyed? If Job is righteous and bound in the cords of affliction (Job 36:8), is he listening for the Lord to tell him what he had done to deserve such a fate, that he might repent and be saved out of his trouble (Job 36:9-10)? It is difficult to argue against this premise, which Elihu has laid before Job. Is the Lord mighty, but impartial in his judgements (Job 36:5)? Does the Lord value the weak with the powerful and righteously judge them according to their works (Job 36:6-7)? Certainly no one among the righteous would deny what Elihu claims about God. Surely, the Great God will do right (cp. Genesis 18:23, 25)!
Therefore, Elihu concludes this part of his discourse by defending the main objective: as a man sows, so shall he reap! Obedience reaps prosperity and pleasure, while disobedience reaps destruction and confusion (Job 36:11-12). The problem isn’t with Elihu’s description of the Lord’s power and wisdom, or even with his sense of justice. Rather, Elihu’s error lay with his interpretation of Job’s situation. Elihu and everyone else involved in this debate are ignorant of the Lord’s wager, which we understand from the first two chapters of the Book of Job. There, we are told that the Lord had brought down all these terrible calamities upon the most righteous man on earth! Judgment is not the issue. Something else is going on here, and that something else involves the worldview that Job has found inadequate, but Elihu and the friends continue to defend!
Smoodock's Blog 