March 12, 2022

Passage Read: Job 33-36
Meditation Verses: 35:2-3

Thought

Elihu seems to be misrepresenting Job, twisting Job's words into something he didn't say. He is perhaps taking Job's words further than Job meant them, that the implication of Job's complaint was that he was more righteous than God because God has punished him without cause. But I doubt Job meant that. Nor do I believe Job meant to say he'd be just as profited by doing evil as by doing the good he did. Job was confused as most people are confused by the suffering that comes on those who do good. He wasn't justifying evil, but convinced that only good should come to those who do good, so why was he suffering so terribly?

Application

It is easy to get caught up in words and logical conclusions to words spoken, but it is more needful to listen carefully to the one speaking in order to hear their intent. To impose an intent on their words simply because those words can proceed to a logical conclusion is to lose track of the conversation and begin arguing a different problem. It is no longer engaging with the person who asked, but has become simply a display of the answerer's intellect. But they lost the argument when they left the original question; all their words have become irrelevant. I need to be careful to hear what is actually being asked or argued rather than be led astray by what I perceive to be the logical end of a statement or question.