Stop Complaining, God is Righteous!
Job 35:1-16
March 20, 2016
Well as you know we are now in the home stretch of the book of Job.
Job and his three friends spent 31 chapters
Rebuking and complaining and finally accomplished nothing.
At the sight of this a young man named Elihu was fed up.
Job 32:1-5 “Then these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram burned; against Job his anger burned because he justified himself before God. And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were years older than he. And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men his anger burned.”
As we learned right off the bat, Elihu had:
• Holy Zeal
• Spiritual Wisdom
• Genuine Humility
• Deep Conviction
• Absolute Humility
And we have said from the beginning that these 5 attributes are NECESSARY for anyone who is going to step into the role of counselor.
In chapter 33 Elihu rose to address the entire situation.
We’ve said you can break Elihu’s sermon down into 4 main points.
We’ve seen the first two already.
1) STOP COMPLAINING, GOD IS GREAT! (Job 33)
Elihu told Job that he had no business
Complaining about God’s workings and presumed silence.
• God was speaking to Job through terrifying dreams and intense pain,
• But God was only doing these things for Job’s good.
• Namely God was crushing Job’s pride.
Job should stop complaining about God and start thanking Him.
2) STOP COMPLAINING, GOD IS JUST (Job 34)
Another complaint of Job’s was that God was perverting justice
(i.e. showing partiality) and Elihu couldn’t stand that either.
He emphatically reminded Job that it is God who has no problem
Confronting Kings or Princes or Nobles or the Rich. God is very just.
And Elihu didn’t mind rebuking Job by telling him that in accusing God of being unjust Job sounded just like the wicked.
ELIHU HAS BEEN PULLING NO PUNCHES.
Tonight we get to the third leg of Elihu’s sermon to Job and his 3 friends and it is this: STOP COMPLAINING, GOD IS RIGHTEOUS!
So let’s look at the first point.
#1 THE ISSUE
Job 35:1-3
The issue of this chapter is rather easy to spot.
In verse 2 Elihu asks: “Do you think this is according to justice? Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?”
As Elihu sat and listened to Job rant on and on about the injustice God was doing to him, it became apparent to Elihu what Job was saying.
It gave the appearance that Job believed that
He was actually more righteous than God in this matter.
• Why?
• How could Job think that?
• Why would Elihu think Job felt that way?
(3) “For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’”
Here is what Job said:
Job 9:29-31 “I am accounted wicked, Why then should I toil in vain? “If I should wash myself with snow And cleanse my hands with lye, Yet You would plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes would abhor me.”
Job wasn’t just saying that I am suffering unjustly,
But also that there has been no benefit to my having been righteous.
Job argued that even if “I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye” (i.e. be perfectly righteous) it still wouldn’t help, You would still “plunge me into the pit,”
So the ACCUSATION is that not only has God been unjust toward me,
But God has also failed to reward me according to my goodness.
According to Elihu, Job is accusing God of being unrighteous.
How so?
Job seems to think that when he does good that it benefits God.
Therefore God should return the favor and bless Job.
Let me put it like this.
Let’s say that you get sick and I come over mow your grass. I mow it, weed eat it, rake it, just make it look nice and don’t ask for a thing in the world. I just did it because you needed it.
Then, as fate would have it, later on I got sick and I saw you drive by my house on your riding lawn mower but you wouldn’t come mow my grass.
Now based on the reactions of society,
Who would we say was the better person there? The one who did good.
Are you following Job’s accusation?
• I did good and God benefited from it.
• Now, I’m in need and God is nowhere to be found.
It makes the insinuation that God is not holding up His end of the deal.
It paints God as less than faithful.
It paints God as the wrong one.
It paints God as the unrighteous one of the two.
The same insinuation can be seen in John 11.
After Jesus purposely waited for Lazarus to die and be dead 4 days.
Listen to Martha when He arrives:
John 11:21 “Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Now listen to Mary:
John 11:32 “Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Now listen to the crowd:
John 11:36-37 “So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”
They are all talking about an area where
Jesus presumably messed up and didn’t do what He should have.
(It is to accuse Jesus of not acting righteously as He should have)
Even down to that crowd where one man says, “Boy He sure loved Lazarus”
And another responds, “Well if He loved him so much why didn’t He heal him?”
That is the same way Job is talking and Elihu doesn’t like it.
He is challenging God’s track record of doing what is right.
He is in effect saying God didn’t do right by me after I did right by Him.
(2) “Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?”
And believe it or not, this is not an uncommon accusation.
Paul actually addressed this very issue in Romans 3.
TURN TO: ROMANS 3:1-8
• If you follow the flow of Romans, Paul has just dropped a bombshell on the religious community.
• He had them all cheering in Romans 1 when he talked about how idolaters and homosexuals and people of depravity are all under God’s wrath.
• The whole church house was crying “Amen!” and really getting into it.
• But in chapter 2 Paul lowered the boom.
(2:1) “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”
Then Paul commenced to telling these people how God was not partial and how God would judge the religious along with the wicked.
• He talked about how insignificant it was to hear the Law if you don’t do it.
• He talked about how pointless their circumcision was if it was only external.
• He talked about there being no value in Judaism unless you were a Jew inwardly.
Now bear in mind this message was given to
The most zealously religious people who ever lived.
They had regulations on their regulations.
They did everything over and over and over
In their mind all they did was the righteous requirements God had given.
And now Paul was telling them that in spite of all their religious devotion, they were still under the wrath of God.
The questions were obvious.
(1-2) “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.”
The value in having religion is not that religion makes you pleasing to God, but through your religion you are more exposed to the truth of God.
Going to church has no value regarding making you pleasing to God, but it does afford you the opportunity to hear the word of God which is extremely valuable.
(3-4) “What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”
This argument attacked God’s covenant with Abraham.
God said Abraham’s seed would be blessed, well if all Jews aren’t saved doesn’t that mean that God didn’t keep His promise?
No. God’s faithfulness isn’t the issue, Israel’s faithfulness was.
God is true regardless of those around Him.
That is what makes Him a qualified Judge.
AND THEN THE QUESTION AT HAND:
(5-6) “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?”
Paul acknowledge using a human argument here, it is this.
• If when we sin and are exposed as unrighteous, doesn’t that just
make God look that much more righteous?
Doesn’t the black felt make the diamond shine that much more?
And so the argument is that if my unrighteousness benefits God
By making Him look that much more righteous,
Isn’t He wrong for inflicting wrath on me?
See that is similar to Job’s argument.
If my life is benefiting God shouldn’t He be grateful instead of angry?
Paul says, “No”.
He must remain just whether you think it benefits Him or not,
This is what makes Him an acceptable Judge.
(7-8) “But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just.”
And here is the same argument.
If my false religion made God’s truth that much more evident then surely He shouldn’t judge me.
Paul very sarcastically says,
“Well why don’t we all just start sinning and make God look really good?”
Obviously that isn’t the way it works.
BUT YOU SEE THE ARGUMENT.
My life actually benefited God’s reputation,
So shouldn’t God repay me with good for helping Him out?
After all, if I help Him, but He won’t help me,
That makes me the good one, not God.
THIS IS WHY ELIHU IS ANGRY
Job has justified himself at God’s expense
And Job’s friends have been unable to address it.
The Issue
#2 THE ANSWER
Job 35:4-8
You can really feel Elihu’s continued frustration with the situation.
“I will answer you, and your friends with you.”
“Since no one here seems to be able
To address God’s righteousness accurately, let me.”
And Elihu starts with an object lesson:
(5) “Look at the heavens and see; and behold the clouds – they are higher than you.”
He asks Job and his friends to look up.
• Gaze into the sky.
• You see the clouds?
What is the main thing you should notice?
“they are higher than you.”
The implication is obvious.
How much higher than you do you suppose God is?
God is higher and greater than you.
Any notion that you would compare His righteousness to yours
Is absolutely absurd.
The only thing more absurd is that in your comparison you come out thinking that you, and not Him, are the righteous one.
And you think this all because you suppose that
You somehow benefited God and He failed to return the favor.
Well, let me set you straight.
1) YOUR SIN DOESN’T HURT GOD (6)
“If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him? And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him?”
The implied answer is NOTHING
• Do you really suppose that God’s entire plan for the redemption of humanity hinges upon your ability or your integrity?
• Do you picture God to be up in heaven nervously pacing, simply hoping that you won’t mess up His plan through your choices?
“Oh no, I sinned, there goes God’s chance at being successful.”
Not hardly!
Consider the days of Isaiah:
Isaiah 63:5 “I looked, and there was no one to help, And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; So My own arm brought salvation to Me, And My wrath upheld Me.”
The real mind-blowing reality of God is that His will
Is perfectly accomplished in spite of the stupid humanity does.
THINK ABOUT IT:
You have the devil who is seeking only to wreck God’s plan at every turn.
No incident more obvious than the plot to kill Jesus.
And yet God just used that to save the world.
You have sinners like Pharaoh who want to oppress God’s people.
And yet God just used that demonstrate His glory through the Exodus.
You have His children who make mistakes and fall into sin.
And yet God uses their mistakes to demonstrate His goodness.
Consider Paul:
1 Timothy 1:12-16 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”
You get the point.
• Your unfaithfulness does not nullify His faithfulness.
• Your mistakes do not thwart His plan.
• He is not dependent upon you.
Your sin doesn’t hurt Him
2) YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS DOESN’T BENEFIT HIM (7)
“If you are righteous, what do you give to Him, or what does He receive from your hand?”
And again the implied answer is NOTHING
There again, God has not hinged His entire plan on your abilities.
It was Him who gave you those abilities to begin with.
When Jesus came He DIDN’T RECRUIT movie stars or famous athletes
As though the most powerful among us
Would be more likely to accomplish His purposes.
God purposely chose the weak
So that He could demonstrate how little He needed our help.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
Your sin doesn’t hurt Him and your righteousness doesn’t help Him.
So who does it hurt?
Who does it help?
YOU
(8) “Your wickedness is for a man like yourself, and your righteousness if for a son of man.”
Your life is the one affected by your choices, not God’s.
Job has the arrogant idea that he has somehow benefitted God
And God has failed to compensate him.
Elihu says, NOT SO.
God is not unrighteous. He has not wronged you in the least.
The Issue, The Answer
#3 THE REBUKE
Job 35:9-16
The main issue for Job has still remained the same.
Job is upset because he feels that God has wronged him
And yet He still refuses to give an answer to Job.
Of course Elihu already mentioned how God was speaking to Job,
But Job still wanted a specific answer regarding his pain.
Elihu is about to explain why there has been no specific answer,
And he begins with a HYPOTHETICAL.
(9) “Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.”
This statement from Elihu is very telling.
Elihu reveals why the multitude of people pray.
According to Elihu most people pray for 1 reason.
“the multitude of oppressions”
You would figure that if all the prayers ever given
Were categorized according to what motivated them,
The prayers given in response to suffering would dominate the chart.
That is what Elihu says.
People are always crying out to God from the midst of their pain.
(10-11) “But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night, Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’”
They cry out when they are hurting,
But no one cries out with gratitude from the midst of their pain.
And those in pain (like Job) say,
“Why should we?” “What do we have to be grateful for?”
THAT HE CREATED YOU
“Where is God my Maker”
THAT HE SUSTAINS YOU
“Who gives songs in the night”
THAT HE HAS INSTRUCTED YOU
“Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth”
THAT HE HAS EXALTED YOU
“And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens”
Your pain may be intense, your suffering may be real,
But what is also real is that
• You still have life,
• God is still with you,
• God is using this to teach you,
• God has made you the pinnacle of His creation.
If you will remember this was a reality that blew David’s mind.
Psalms 8 “O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!”
It blew David’s mind that God would take such interest in man.
And that is what Elihu notices.
• God has done for man what He has done for no other creature, and even when man is in the midst of his pain, God has still not forsaken him.
• And yet, all man seems to do is complain to God in the midst of their pain and most of the time refuses to give Him any gratitude.
And let me just remind you here that a failure to give God gratitude simply for being God is one of the MOST HEINOUS SINS that man commits.
Romans 1:18-21 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
You know Romans 1 as the chapter that
Condemns homosexuality and idolatry and depravity.
But do you realize that all of those sins, at their core,
Arise from an ungrateful heart?
• Man is dissatisfied with God and ungrateful for all His benefits and so they turn
to other gods.
• Man is dissatisfied with God and ungrateful for all His benefits so they
exchange the natural for the unnatural; the intended for the unintended; God’s natural order for a fallen one. That is homosexuality.
• Man is dissatisfied with God and ungrateful for all His benefits so they
exchange the proper for the improper. They reject God’s proper order of children submitting to their parents, or of not being greedy, or arrogant, or any other basic concept of morality.
All of those heinous sins recorded in Romans 1 arise from a heart That refused to be grateful to God for all His benefits.
Psalms 103:1-5 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.”
Psalms 116:12-19 “What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me? I shall lift up the cup of salvation And call upon the name of the LORD. I shall pay my vows to the LORD, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His godly ones. O LORD, surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bonds. To You I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And call upon the name of the LORD. I shall pay my vows to the LORD, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people, In the courts of the LORD’S house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!”
Psalms 50:7-14 “Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, your God. “I do not reprove you for your sacrifices, And your burnt offerings are continually before Me. “I shall take no young bull out of your house Nor male goats out of your folds. “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. “I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine. “If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains. “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls Or drink the blood of male goats? “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High;”
You get the idea.
When we pray, even when in pain,
Our prayers should come with thanksgiving.
Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
But according to Elihu, in the midst of pain,
Man is anything but grateful to God.
They refuse to give God gratitude
SO…
(12-13) “There they cry out, but He does not answer Because of the pride of evil men. “Surely God will not listen to an empty cry, Nor will the Almighty regard it.”
Elihu calls their lack of gratitude “pride”
It is arrogance to expect only good from God
And to refuse to give Him thanks for all the good He has done.
And Elihu says that “God will not listen to an empty cry” like that “Nor will the Almighty regard it.”
That is just Elihu’s basic explanation.
THEN HE GETS TO THE REBUKE OF JOB.
God doesn’t listen to the ungrateful cry of people…
(14) “How much less when you say you do not behold Him, The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him!”
That is to say: God doesn’t listen to the ungrateful prayer, how much less when you come to Him angry that you have to wait and refusing to be patient?
We all understand the basic concept of having tact with people.
Let’s say you have your family physician.
• A doctor you’ve visited for years.
• And over the years they have helped you many times with many things.
• But today you come to their office and they are running late, so you bust in the door and say, “I want to see you and I want to see you now! I’m sick of waiting, don’t you know I’m in pain!”
Do you expect to get good treatment after that?
Well why would you expect that God
Would be motivated by such an approach?
Jesus told us that when we pray
We come in a spirit of gratitude and adoration before the throne of God.
Luke 11:1-2 “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.”
But I don’t see where you come to God arrogantly
Demanding that He do it for you right now!
And according to Elihu this is precisely what Job has done.
He was upset at God because he thinks God has wronged him
Since God hasn’t given an immediate answer, Job is impatient and angry.
And to make matters worse
(15-16) “And now, because He has not visited in His anger, Nor has He acknowledged transgression well, So Job opens his mouth emptily; He multiplies words without knowledge.”
Elihu tells Job that he has been wronging God in every way,
But because God DOESN’T INSTANTLY FIRE BACK in anger,
Job just keeps running off at the mouth.
“He multiples words without knowledge.”
And there again you understand why Elihu has arisen to speak.
• He has heard Job question God’s greatness
• He has heard Job question God’s justice
• He has heard Job question God’s righteousness
And he has seen Job grow quite impatient and belligerent,
And yet God has not stood to defend Himself in any way,
So Elihu is standing to defend God.
And you can hear his rebuke of Job.
God is righteous, He owes you nothing.
• You haven’t been as beneficial to Him as you think.
• He has however done wonderful things for you.
• Yet you have failed to be thankful for any of these things.
• Instead you approach Him in arrogance and impatience demanding more.
• And because He has not fired back at you for this, you just keep on rattling off.
THE MESSAGE?
STOP COMPLAINING, GOD IS RIGHTEOUS!
It’s a good point for us to remember.
We must get it through our minds that God owes us nothing.
It is not as though we have provided some benefit to us that causes Him to be indebted to us. He has not benefited from us, but we most certainly have benefited from Him.
That means that at the top of our list each and every day
Should be gratitude.
• Does that mean we can’t pray about our pain? No
• Does that mean we can’t ask for relief? No
We are told to present our requests to Him,
but we are told to do it “with thanksgiving”
But any time we allow ourselves to fall into the pity party that says,
“After all I’ve done for God, this is the way He treats me!”
Then we’ve veered way off the reservation.
God has not wronged you…ever
And yet you have wronged Him repeatedly
Make sure that in the midst of your hardship
You don’t get your wires crossed regarding this truth.
God NEVER deserves your rebuke,
But He CONTINUALLY deserves your thanks.
STOP COMPLAINING, GOD IS RIGHTEOUS!
