The New Kid in Town
Job 32-37
Job shuts up. Finally. And then his friends shut up. Finally.
Job 32:1: So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. (NRSV)
Job 32: 1: Job’s three friends now fell silent. They were talked out, stymied because Job wouldn’t budge an inch—wouldn’t admit to an ounce of guilt. (The Message)
The four of them seem to realize that this isn’t working. No one is listening. No one is compromising or meeting in the middle. 28 chapters of processing, and no progress. They are at an impasse.
I’m guessing that felt pretty good to Job, righteous in his own eyes. To not budge in his rightness would have been a small victory. I mean, it probably would have been better if he’d have been able to convince his friends of his rightness, but at least he’d stood his ground.
I’m also guessing that felt pretty frustrating to his friends. They wanted to convince their friend of the possibility that there could be another way to interpret this, and they ended up beating their heads against a wall.
We can guess about how Job and his friends felt, but we know for sure how one person felt about it. Enter Elihu.
Job 32:2-3: Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God; he was angry also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, though they had declared Job to be in the wrong. (NRSV)
Preach, Elihu. I had no idea you were watching this whole time, but I am with you, brother. Those two verses sum up what I’ve been trying to say for the last 10 days.
Elihu has tried to follow ash heap grieving protocol, allowing the elders to speak and listening intently. I don’t know how many hours or days Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar filibustered, but it appears Elihu has been here for it all. When he realizes that they are spent, that what he’s seen is the best they’ve got, he bursts out in anger. His speech lasts nearly 6 whole chapters, 160 verses, uninterrupted. No one else in the book gets that much uninterrupted time. I imagine it feels good to get that out.
Maybe because it is taken as one whole monologue, Elihu’s speech is the most coherent thing we’ve gotten so far. Through the course of his 160 verses, Elihu rebukes Job’s friends, rebukes Job, proclaims God’s justice, condemns self-righteousness, exalts God’s goodness, and proclaims God’s majesty. Those are the subheadings provided in the NRSV. He might be younger, but maybe younger is sharper. Or maybe “out of the mouths of babes” or something like that. Elihu sums it up and cuts to the chase.
It’s a relief.
It’s also a surprise. For some reason, I thought Job and his friends had the ash heap to themselves all along. I guess it’s possible that they aren’t even on the ash heap anymore; they could have wandered back to a more comfortable environment. I don’t know, though. It seems to me like Job would like the ritualistic drama of the ashes, a suitable backdrop for his oozing sores of undeserved suffering.
So I’m putting Job and company on the ash heap for the duration of this processing. If the ash heap is where you go when you’re oozing OT uncleanliness from your sores, would there have been other oozers there? Were there other hurting people on that ash heap, just waiting for Job and his buddies to shut up so they could take the mic?
And where there also healthy people there? It makes sense that healthy people would come and go because that ash/trash heap would have been a necessary chore of daily living. Was it normal for the non-oozing folks who were just dumping their trash to linger to listen to the oozers’ laments? Was Elihu the only one listening to the whole thing? Had a crowd gathered? Was Job an especially popular ash heap attraction because of his spectacular fall from grace?
It is interesting to consider who is there at this moment because something big is about to happen.