Commentary on the Book of Job part ninety five

                                     Job 34:1-37

In Job 34:1-4, Elihu revealed that a part of his philosophy was that if enough words are said in debate, then somewhere within the bulk of those words, the truth can be discerned. Just as a mouth can taste food, so the ears can test words to discern between truth and falsity. Courts of law use a similar method to attempt to discover the truth in matters of law and judgment.

In Job 34:5-12, Elihu proclaimed that he could not believe in a God of love and grace. Elihu believed Job lied when he said that God had cleansed him of his sins and had made him righteous and accepted with God. Elihu believed Job had adopted a self-righteous attitude of scorn for his fellow man by making such a claim. Elihu believed in a God of judgment, never mercy. Elihu claimed that Job had become self-righteous and wicked by believing that his Redeemer had given him grace. In verse nine, Elihu claimed that Job had contradicted himself when he asserted that Job had said that man gains nothing from his faith in God, but Job had never said that. In verse ten, Elihu asserted that if God actually ever provided grace to believers in a Redeemer, then God Himself would be wicked because, in Elihu's way of thinking, that would mean that God would excuse man's sins. In verses 11-12, Elihu declared his belief that God judges humans' lives on earth only, and for God to do otherwise would pervert judgment. Elihu simply could not believe in the self-sacrificial Love of God.

In Job 34:13-15, Elihu stated his belief that God alone rules the earth and that no one could be greater than God. In verses 14 and 15 taken together, Elihu did not avow that he believed that the spirit and breath of man were individual consciousnesses that survived physical death. Rather, he demonstrated that he believed that the spirit and breath of man were but ideas in God's Mind that He used to give life to man on the earth only. Elihu betrayed his true belief that the whole man returns to dust, including his consciousness. Elihu did not believe in life after death.