"The Arrogance of Youth"

Scripture Passage For Today

JOB 32:1-34:37

Scripture Focus

4 Elihu had waited for the others to speak to Job because they were older than he. 5 But when he saw that they had no further reply, he spoke out angrily. (Job 32:4-5 NLT)

Observation

This is one spot where the challenges of only reading a few chapters of Scripture at a time really start to show up. These specific chapters mean very little apart from the whole—as is true for any few chapters within Job. To dissect too thoroughly anything Elihu has to say here is a bit like assessing a delightful recipe by eating only one ingredient. The taste of paprika tells you nothing about the delight of chicken cordon bleu! (Might be the only recipe I know anything about!) Still, it’s a daily blog, so I’m diving in…

We get introduced to a new voice in the dialogue—Elihu, son of Barakel the Buzite. Buz was the son of Abraham’s brother, Nahor, so perhaps Elihu was a distant relative of Abraham. Outside of that, the only thing we really know about Elihu is that he describes himself as the youngest of those involved in this chapters-long debate.

Bottom line, Elihu has waited for the others to shut Job down, to reveal the foolishness of his arguments, to bring Job to a place of confession and repentance for the hidden sin that *must* be behind his suffering. Their inability to do so has left Elihu steaming, and he can’t keep quiet anymore.

Elihu is angry over both what he sees as Job’s arrogance, and what he sees as the inability of the elders to bring Job’s arguments to naught.

Does that remind you of anyone you know? Somebody waiting on the sidelines…ruminating, cogitating, and growing increasingly frustrated…until they simply can’t take it any longer and must burst forth to share from their rich vein of insightful knowledge? Someone who’s not only sure they’re right, but also sure that everyone else is wrong, and that they are (apparently) the only competent one around?

(But enough about me…)

Elihu is arrogant like that, and it’d be easy to blame that on Elihu’s youth. (Indeed, there may be some validity to that characterization. Otherwise, why would the book of Job make it such a point that Elihu was younger than everyone else?) Perhaps this sort of know-it-all arrogance *is* more prevalent among the young—but it’s certainly not limited to the young.

The fact is, Elihu really has nothing to say that hasn’t already been said. And none of Job’s detractors have made an accurate assessment of the situation yet. There’s information the reader knows that neither Job nor his friends knew. No one involved in the dialogue—including Job—knew about the conversation whereby Satan had been given permission to test Job. Nobody but Job knows that Job isn’t suffering because of some hidden sin.
 And that’s the challenge with Elihu’s words—and the words of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They speak of things they do not know. They’ve eliminated the mystery of God, and simplified the mystery of humanity. They’ve made life formulaic—sinful people suffer, righteous people win. They are living obliviously.

8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
(Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV)

I understand Elihu’s arrogance. It’s frustrating to live with the unknown, to not have pat answers, to not be able to declare “Thus saith the Lord” in any and every circumstance. But “upon further review”, I’m not sure I’d want a God that simple, or a theology—a life—drained of mystery. Rather, I’m with Job—just give me a connection…a hearing…a place of conversation…with that majestic God who remains beyond my full comprehension!