You are not righteous

You are not righteous

"Look, in this you are not righteous. I will answer you, For God is greater than man. Why do you contend with Him? For He does not give an accounting of any of His words. - Job 33v1-2

So far the story of Job has been a tale of a Job’s deep abiding faith in God. The theme of raw faith pops up over and over. But it is also the story of a real man facing real problems. It is a story of his friends trying to figure out what Job is doing wrong and of Job relating his own righteous behaviour. They are going around in circles and getting nowhere.

Finally the young man Elihu speaks out. He seems to have an understanding that the others don’t.

The problem is that these guys were trying to figure God out by their standards. ‘In this debate you are not righteous,’ Elihu says, ‘God is greater than man. Why are you contending with Him? He doesn’t have to answer you!’

Job may have been God’s pride and joy. He may have feared God and shunned evil. But in all of that he could not claim to be righteous because he was arguing with God. A truly righteous man may not understand all that God is doing and he may ask God what is going on, but he cannot accuse God of being unjust. Job’s friends had been telling him that he must have done something wrong. Job went through his life and could not find anything, They are forgot that God was working and He is not accountable to man.

Praying and asking for wisdom in trials is one thing. Trying to figure God out is quite another.