Interlude
Interlude
With all his verbosity and lack of humility, Elihu did say some good things that Job needed to hear. Elihu’s use of rhetorical questions in Job 37:14–18 prepared Job for the series of questions Jehovah would ask him in Job 38—41. Unlike the three friends, Elihu assessed Job’s problem accurately: Job’s actions may have been right—he was not the sinner his three friends described him to be—but his attitude was wrong. He was not the “saint” Job saw himself to be. Job was slowly moving toward a defiant, self-righteous attitude that was not at all healthy. It was this know-it-all attitude that God exposed and destroyed when He appeared to Job and questioned him.
So, even though God said nothing about Elihu, the man did have a helpful ministry to Job. Unfortunately, Job wouldn’t accept it.