Job Was Not Sinless

Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the clan of Ram, became angry. He was angry because Job refused to admit that he had sinned and that God was right in punishing him. He was also angry with Job’s three friends, for they made God appear to be wrong by their inability to answer Job’s arguments. [Job 32.2-3]

Who was Elihu? Other than his lineage, all we know is that he was a young man who was listening to Job and his friends argue (although not necessarily a friend of Job's). Oh, and one other thing, we know that God did not rebuke Elihu or call him to repent for what he said!

Based upon the fact that God did not rebuke Elihu, we should consider that perhaps what Elihu said is actually something from Job's story that we don't have to sort out the truth from error! And, that's a big deal!

First, Elihu was angry because Job refused to admit guilt and that what he was experiencing (loss and suffering) was indeed just punishment for sin. Let's look at this further:

For Job also said, ‘I am innocent, but God has taken away my rights. I am innocent, but they call me a liar. My suffering is incurable, though I have not sinned.’ “Tell me, has there ever been a man like Job, with his thirst for irreverent talk? [Job 34.5-7]

Inadvertently, Elihu indicts every person here who ever suffered like Job while maintaining their claim of innocence. Elihu points out that such talk is irreverent! While the topic is basically taboo in modern Christianity, Elihu stood on the established truth that Job's loss was the result of sin and therefore required repentance. Elihu's unrefuted speech rings throughout all time that sickness and loss are the result of sin and therefore require repentance. The answer to sickness is not treatment, but repentance! If this is not true, then we must simply discard the Bible altogether.

Second, Elihu was angry at Job's three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, because of their ignorance, and therefore their inability, to refute Job. Job's three friends, like most Christians today (leadership included), are too ignorant to declare the truth of God's Word regarding curses (like Job's loss and sickness) and set the record straight accordingly. Like Job's irreverent talk, Job's friends' inability to argue the established principles of sin and death reek of the irreverence of willful ignorance. The confusion of Job's friends' arguments can be likened to the libraries of theological and doctrinal books that irreverently 'explain away' suffering like Job experienced in the Church today without even a mention of repentance.

I don't want to be like Job and I don't want to be like one of his friends! I want to be humble and repentant and I want to accurately declare the need for the same to everyone I encounter.

Oh yes, 'Pandora's Box' has been opened! But it is time that we simplify our 'theology' and just get right with God and His Word! Sure, we know all the academic explanations for loss and sickness, but do we believe man's knowledge, or do we believe God's Word? Deuteronomy 28 is in no way unclear that everything Job experienced was resultant to sin and disobedience. The same applies to us today in our loss and sickness - except that we have One Very Important Difference: we have JESUS! But, before we go and complicate things, let us remember that 'coming to Jesus' is not without REPENTANCE!

Unlike most of us today, Job's only sin was pride and arrogance. In fact, let's look a what God Himself said about Job:

Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” [Job 1.8]

I want to carefully point out that God did NOT declare Job sinless! He simply described Job with the humanly observable trait of integrity. This is important and necessary because neither Satan nor anyone else but God could see the depths of Job's heart where the sin of pride existed all along. That is the very reason God asked Satan about Job - God NEVER asks a question He does not already know the answer to!

Our approach today to loss and sickness is irreverent: few, if any, humbly repent as Elihu suggested:

“Why don’t people say to God, ‘I have sinned, but I will sin no more’? Or ‘I don’t know what evil I have done—tell me. If I have done wrong, I will stop at once’? [Job 34.31-32]

No, the first thing people do today is go to the doctor. Oh, and then they ask folks to pray "for God's will"... (yes, we should read sarcasm into that).

If we read Job with our eyes open, we will see that when we experience loss and sickness, we should first consider what God unleashed (about Himself) on Job in chapters 38-41 before we start our human reasoning about our circumstances! 

Job actually did pretty good of maintaining his outward integrity in Job chapter 1 - his response was one of worship. But when sickness hit his body in chapter 2 as Satan predicted Job's pride and arrogance literally began to gush from his mouth! And this is precisely why God questioned Satan - so that Job's humanly indiscernible sin could be dealt with. And it was. And Job eventually repented. And Job was restored.

Now, before we say, "but we have Jesus..." let's consider that humility and repentance ALWAYS accompany faith. There is nary a soul who has genuinely come to Jesus in their pride and arrogance. Like Job, if pride resides unchecked in our hearts, no amount of "in Jesus' name" will fix it. God's Holy Spirit convicts... and when He does, there is only one response: repentance.

Job's story is ONLY complicated if we ignorantly separate loss and sickness (like Job's) from sin. That is exactly what Elihu was angry about. It should anger us too...

Father, Your Spirit is speaking here... Oh, help me to listen! Forgive me for my pride and arrogance (not to mention all the obvious sins of my life). May You find my heart open, humble, and repentant! I long for Your restoration in my life - but first deal with my rebellion and break my stubborn heart! So be it!