If we are going to speak of good religion, we’ll also need to speak of bad religion.  Bad religion is something that we need to be constantly alert to and aware of.  In the early part of this century (post 9/11), religion was getting a lot of bad press.  Intellectual athiests like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins were very much in the public eye, stridently declaring that we needed to do away with religion to have peace.  In response, a man named Miroslav Volf – who came from a part of the world that had seen a lot of violence done in the name of religion – said “What the world needs is not less religion, but religion done well.” 

Bad religion.  We said very early on in this series that we need to be very careful about who we call the Satan’s accomplice or the devil’s instrument.  We must also look with great care at anyone (including ourselves) who claims to speak for God.  Such a person or persons, or their words at least, might not be all that they claim.

When we get to Job 32 the speeches have ended.  Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar.   Three cycles of going through these speeches where Job’s friends are putting forth a principle that they believe explains Job’s troubles – someone has sinned here and these are the consequences.  Whether it is Job himself or his children.  It’s a cause-and-effect view of the world that wraps everything up nicely and explains everything nicely.  Job has hung on to his integrity (he has not cursed God), and has been calling out to hear God’s voice, to meet God.  He cannot understand how God’s justice and his own uprightness can be reconciled.  Last week we heard a “hymn to wisdom” in chapter 28.  Remember, “And he said to humanity, ‘Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” (Job 28:28)  Job then makes a final speech in which he cries out to hear from God “O that I had one to hear me!  Here is my signature!  Let the Almighty answer me!)” (Job 31:35a)   “The words of Job are ended” is how chapter 31 ends.  We’re once more where we began back in chapter 2 – everyone sitting in silence. 

From seemingly out of nowhere Elihu strides onto the scene.  He’s not mentioned anywhere else.  He’s not mentioned in the epilogue.  He’s not mentioned in the lines where God will pardon Job’s three friends.  He comes onto the stage like a young prophet, claiming divine inspiration.  No problem right? Except we have to be careful about claims to divine inspiration.  The question here is not so much do we believe God or not, but rather “What is the authentic word of God?”

Let’s ask for God’s help as we look at the speech of young Elihu this morning.

There has been much irony throughout this book and it continues here with the coming on the scene of Elihu.  “Let me set you straight,” says Elihu.  He’s angry.  Elihu does not base what he’s saying on experience or the wisdom of years.  “I said let days speak and many years teach wisdom,” he says (32:7).  He goes on to claim divine inspiration – “But truly it is spirit in a mortal, the breath of the Almighty, that makes for understanding.” (32:8)  Elihu will claim to be perfect in knowledge, “For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.” (36:4)  The problem is that these words are undercut in many ways.  They’re undercut by Job’s own words about having the spirit of God being in him – “as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils” (27:3).  They’re undercut by the voice of God that will come right after, actually serving as a kind of interruption – “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (38:2)

So many words, so many words.  Elihu says some good things, just as Job’s friends do.  Largely he repeats what has already been said.  He promises Job’s friends “I will not answer with your speeches” (32:14).  Elihu then goes on to say things like “For according to their deeds he will repay them, and according to their ways he will make it befall them.” (34:11). Once again, we get what we deserve.  What goes around comes around.  Elihu is angry and on the attack. “Job opens his mouth in empty talk, multiplies words without knowledge.” (35:16)

Look at 35:6-8.  Here Elihu is repeating an earlier denial by Eliphaz that anything we do could make any difference to God.  “Can a mortal be of use to God?  Can even the wisest be of service to him?  Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?” (22:2-4)  It can be quite a common view of the divine.  God, if God exists, sits up there aloof and above all our petty troubles and squabbling and questions.  We have said from the beginning that the book of Job shows us that God has quite a big stake in our response to him. That the question of “Is God worthy of our love in any circumstance” is one posed by the heavenly council and it’s one in which we are involved in determining the answer.  God involves us. 

Christ involves us when he asks questions like “Who do you say that I am?” or “Do you want to be made well?” or “When the Son of Man returns will he find any faith on earth?”  Jesus speaks of great joy in heaven over one who was lost that is found.  There is a great line in Zephaniah 3 which speaks of rescue and restoration – “he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.” (Zeph 3:17b-18a) An aside - Any claims to divine inspiration and speaking for the divine must be weighed and tested.  They must be tested against the divine Word of God.  They must be weighed against our consciences with the help of the Holy Spirit.  We do this together.  We read about the first church council in Acts 15, known as the Jerusalem Council.  The early church was trying to discern God’s will for the inclusion of those outside Judaism into the church.  At the end of it they write a letter and say, “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15:28) Let us be people who are able to say the same thing as we seek to know God’s will together.  We have seen what damage can be done when groups of people claim divine inspiration to know things like, for example, that political leaders have been sent by God.  Let us test and weigh such claims.  We are continually wanting to know God’s will in our lives and in the life of his church here in North Toronto.  May we be doing this together and asking for the Spirit’s help and guidance and testing and weighing things with the Spirit’s help and experience and a growing knowledge of God together.  Always being reminded of what I like to call God’s Big Will for each of us.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and you neighbour as yourself.  What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?

God is not sitting anywhere aloof or distant.  God is as close as our breath. 

You may be asking at this point “Well why is Elihu in here at all?”  Many people believe this section to be a later addition to Job.  Why not just skip from Job’s speech in ch 31 to God’s voice in ch 38? Elihu does not simply repeat arguments already made.  He furthers them.  In this way, he acts like the Accuser. Remember how, when we started, we heard the Accuser say to God – “Take from Job everything he has and he will curse to your face.”  Recall how this didn’t happen.  Rather than saying something like “Well I guess I was wrong there – well done Job!”, the Accuser doubles down on his theory.  Sure that was fine when we were talking about his children and his possession, but skin for skin, a person will give everything they have to save their own life.

The Accuser has from the beginning been espousing a cause-and-effect view of God and of life.   It’s known as behaviourism.  A behaviourist view that says that our responses are conditioned by stimuli.  Good stimuli equals good response, and bad stimuli equals bad response.  This is the type of view with which we can wrongly characterize our relationship with God. The Accuser said, “Take away everything he has and he will curse you to your face.” Bad stimulus will bring bad response.  Job’s three friends take the same view.  Job is suffering because God is punishing him.  Bad stimuli from Job equals bad response from God.  God dispenses rewards and punishments here and now based on what we deserve.   Elihu repeats the same thing – “For according to their deeds he (God) will repay them, and according to their ways he will make it befall them.” (34:11)

See what I mean about bad religion? It’s like someone saying that faith or religion is a mere opiate.  Something we use to dull ourselves.  At which point I say when you consider all the ways around us in which people dull themselves, is this really the conversation you want to have?  We go wrong in thinking that we get what we deserve from God, when grace tells us that in the loving mercy of God we get what we don’t deserve.

The Accuser was proven wrong in his theory.  He doubled down and said “Well if he loses his good health he’ll surely curse God.”  He’s again proven wrong as Job has not turned away from God.

In much the same way, Elihu doubles down.  Elihu not only looks to the past to explain suffering, but he looks to the future.  Job’s suffering is not simply about sins one has committed, but it’s a means which God is using to bring Job back to him.  Suffering not only punishes, it educates.”  We hear this in 33:19 “They are also chastened with pain upon their beds, and with continual strife in their bones.”  Why?  “God indeed does all these things, twice, three times with mortals, to bring back their souls from the Pit, so that they may see the light of life.” (33:29-30)

So come on back Job!  God’s doing this for your own good!

You see what I mean about bad religion.   God forbid we ever say or infer such a thing.  We’ve said before that sure you can make some kind of connection often from sin to suffering.  We know that oftentimes, destructive behaviour brings destruction. What we mustn’t ever do it try to make a connection from suffering to sin, particularly when we’re thinking that God is bringing suffering in order to bring us closer to him.  Of course, that can happen and of course, we know that God can bring good out of the worst suffering, even suffering unto death.  We live in the shadow of the cross after all.  But let’s not play like we know God’s motivations.

To follow Christ is not so much to question whether or not we obey God, but rather to discern which voice is the voice of God.  No matter how pious, how prayerful, how faithful we are, we wonder.  No less a figure than Jeremiah could say “Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of Israel.” (Jer 2:4)  At the same time he would pray to God “Why is my pain increasing, my wounds incurable refusing to be healed?  Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fall.” (Jer 15:18) Because no one is ever simply one thing.

Elihu’s appearance here has been described as spectral or ghostlike.  He comes out of nowhere and disappears back into nowhere.  Can’t these kind of questions appear before us in the same way?  What did I do to deserve this God?  I must have done something.  Are you using these trials to bring me back to you?  Have I strayed unknowingly?  In this way we become our own accuser in a way. 

From within or from without, we may hear voices telling us that God is too far above humanity to care about us; telling us that we have done something to deserve this; or that God must be doing this to us for some reason.  Looking for answers, looking for reasons.  In the face of this and as we come to the Lord’s table today, let us remember what it means to live in the grace of God. To live in the grace of God is to trust God for his grace, his mercy, his compassion, his justice.  This doesn’t mean we’re given answers to all our questions.  Let us remember the words of Paul to the church in Corinth.  “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.” (2 Cor 4:8-10)  In the face of all his perplexity, Job is holding fast.  Job is waiting to hear from God, which we will all do next week.  The stage is set.  In the meantime, and all the time, let us pray for guidance that we might know, as we listen for God’s voice, God’s good and pleasing and perfect will.  It’s not something that we’re called to do on our own.  Let us continue to seek and to hear together.  Amen