Insight
After three rounds of heated discussion, Job and his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (Job 2:11) are at an impasse in their debate of theodicy—the question of why a good God permits evil. Elihu, being a much younger man, had waited for his turn to speak and now gives his insights (chs. 32–37). Elihu was a Buzite (32:2). Buz was a son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother (Genesis 22:20–21), which makes Elihu a descendant of one of Abraham’s nephews. Concluding his rebuke in this fourth and final speech, Elihu highlights God’s power and majesty (chs. 36–37). He asks Job to “consider God’s wonders” (37:14) in controlling His creation, challenging Job to explain how God sovereignly controls the meteorological elements—the clouds, lightning, winds, skies, and sun (vv. 15–24). Elihu tells Job to fear and revere such a great God (v. 24).
By: K. T. Sim
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