Job 36:1-4
Elihu continued and said:
“Bear with me a little, and I will whow you, for I have something to say on God’s behalf.
I will bring knowledge from far away, and ascribe a righteousness to my Maker.
For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.”
“…I have something to say on God’s behalf.” Does Elihu really think that God needs Elihu to defend him? As if God is himself not capable of defending himself. My first response was ridicule, to laugh at Elihu. This intitial response was tempered by my realization of how often I attempt o do just that. I might not say, “I have something to say on God’s behalf,” but I do the same thing nonetheless. It might look more like, you just don’t get Jesus, let me explain him to you. Or, you’re missing the whole point! It’s like this…! Am I really any different than Elihu?
It seems that Elihu has this desire to correct Job’s “incorrect” or “misguided” thoughts and words so that he speaks accurately about God. It is interesting to me that Elihu was mostly responding to Job’s expression of agony, pain, and confusion. Job was expressing the world as he saw it. Elihu was convinced Job was wrong and that he had the responsibility, on God’s behalf, to correct Job.
Does the desire to defend God belay a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit to correct and teach without me? Does it represent a fear in the consequences of poor thinking, logic, or belief? Maybe both?
Regardless, God does not need me to defend him. This is not to say that I do not need to tell people about the incredible love of Jesus. That is different. Absolutely I need to tell people about Jesus. But telling people the story of a God that loves them is completely different from criticizing and correcting those who I think are responding to life situations poorly. God calls us to love, and to love constantly. The only people in the Bible that I see Jesus yelling at or criticizing are the religious elite who think they’re better than everyone else. To the seeker, the lost, the sinner, the broken, I see only love, compassion, and friendship.
Holy Spirit, deflate my impulse to criticize.
Teach me to love, to extol, to lift up others.
Teach me your ways, to trust you more, and to live by love.
Amen.