Re: [asa] Re: asa-digest V1 #6228

D. F. Siemens, Jr. wrote:
> Did you note that God butted into Elihu's speech with a very strong
> condemnation: "Who is this darkening counsel speaking without
> knowledge?" (Job 38:2) If God called him a fool, why are we trying to
> make sense of his lengthy declamation (32:6-37:34)?
> Dave
I guess I always assumed Elihu was finished and that God was finally
"butting in" on everybody -- especially Job. After all it does say in
the next verse: "Then the Lord answered _Job_ out of the whirlwind and
said, ..." Perhaps God's criticism of foolishness includes Elihu along
with all the others here, but if it does why does God only speak of the
first three friends in 42:7 as needing to offer sacrifices of
repentance?

Also, even if all four of Job's friends are spouting foolishness, isn't
it interesting that their foolishness sounds so much like us? Take any
of their passages out of context and stick them in the psalms and we
would be happily reading them as correct praise for the Creator.
They're especially interesting precisely AS the apparently negative
example they are held to be.

I think Wayne touches well on some of this below. (further comments to
that at the end)

>
> On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:59:00 EDT Dawsonzhu@aol.com
> <mailto:Dawsonzhu@aol.com> writes:
>
>
>
>
>> (B.T.W. this may have been addressed in another thread I've
>> forgotten, but does
>> anyone know why Elihu alone among Job's friends was not singled
>> out for
>> repentance? If we put Elihu's exhortations next to those of
>> Bildad, Eliphaz &
>> Co., could anyone tell the difference?)
>
>
> Elihu's argument seems to center on the righteousness of God
> 33:12-13
> [12] But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater
> than man.
> [13] Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man's words?
>
> 34:10-13
> [10] So listen to me, you men of understanding, Far be it from God
> to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong.
> [11] He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what
> his conduct deserves
> [12] It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the almighty
> would pervert justice.
> [13] Who appointed him over the earth? Why put him in charge of
> the whole world?
>
> I tended to read verse 34:11 as though Elihu is repeating the same
> refrain as his friends, but in context, Elihu does imply that he
> will not
> raise the same assertions (32:12- "...but not one of you has proved
> Job wrong; none of you has answered his arguments."). So
> maybe the way to read this is something like the following.
>

> (1) A general statement about God's judgment, not aimed directly
> at Job himself.
> (2) God's ultimate judgment at the end of the age when everything
> is laid out, whereupon Job will receive his reward.
>
This sounds reasonable. I have heard it speculated that the last
verses in Job (48:10 to the end where his fortunes are restored double)
were tacked on later by editors who wanted to paste a "happy ending" on
a profound but tragic story. Is there anything to this from scholarly
circles? I have always thought the ending to be a syrupy disappointing
ending to an otherwise profound book. Perhaps the original audience
(who had little concept of any afterlife -- Job 7:7-10) couldn't bear to
have the dangling ending. Like us they wanted the episode wrapped up,
bad guys in Jail, good guys celebrating (complete with new replacement
family!). Anyway, if Job's reward did wait until judgment day, as you
speculate, that would have been much more profoundly realistic, I
think. But I don't think the readers of that time would agree with us
on that. (Sorry to those of you who think Job was a literal history in
which case all this talk of "realism" would be nonsense. I'm obviously
operating under the assumption that it is a morality play. -- to think
of God actually making playful wagers with Satan does indeed endorse
Dawkin's snarling epithets about God. Personally, I don't think Dawkins
or any other fundamentalists are even scratching the surface of God's Word.)

--merv

> The main issue is that Job was tending toward trying to
> condemn God to justify himself.
>
> by Grace we proceed,
> Wayne
>
>

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Received on Wed Oct 18 23:00:31 2006