Elihu: Whose God is Jehovah

This year I thought I'd change up my BREAD reading by using a chronological reading plan and an Amplified Bible. First, it was cool to find out that Job's life exsisted between Noah and Abraham's time. In addition to that, God opened my eyes to something I hadn't really paid attention to in the past. I've read the Book of Job quite a few times but never realized that in Job 42:7 God only rebukes Eliphaz and two of his friends...there were four friends "comforting" Job. Every other time I read Job I came away with two things: 1) Job's friends were jerks, 2) God is a deliverer. This time though, my curiousity was piqued as to why Elihu escaped God's rebuke, so I took the time to reread each friend's discourse. In summary this is what I came up with:

                      Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar were saying God doesn't trust His people, doesn't bother
                      to cheer His angels, doesn't trust His angels and is causing all of Job's calamity.

                     Elihu basically said: "How can you speak of God that way? My spirit cannot sit idle
                    and let this go on! God works to bring His people out of the pit. He speaks to His people
                   through dreams and visions, but His people don't listen. He is no respecter of persons
                   and helps the needy and afflicted. Compared to God we are all sinners, yet God takes
                   the time to show us the error of our ways so we can correct them and become
                   righteous."

I'm disappointed in the way the seasoned saints of God described God as a hard God, ready to punish and exact vengence on His people, as if He was a God far removed from feeling compassion for us...which is the total opposite of what His Word says! Maybe their hearts became hardened from the many trials they endured instead of using their trials to become closer to their Creator. It should have been Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar schooling Elihu on the characteristics of God, but Elihu stepped up and schooled all of them!

Three things I came away with:

1) Don't assume a trial is punishment from God. In the book "Sifted", author Wayne Corderio teaches that God uses times of trial to bring us back into dependence on Him instead of ourselves.

2) Don't be so quick to offer answers to those who come to you wondering why they are going through a trial. Truth is, just as Elihu said in Job 37:23 "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out..." We don't know why someone else goes through what they are going through and throwing specutlations out there, as Job's friends had, can cause more harm than good. We just need to be that steady rock of a friend with a shoulder to cry on, a ready ear to listen, and arms to wrap them in comfort...God alone holds the answers and it is God they should seek for answers.

3) Elihu's name means: "Whose God is Jehovah" or "He is my God Himself", depending on which dictionary you read. Elihu couldn't just sit back and let untruths be spouted off about his God. Let it be our desire to be as bold as Elihu when it comes to witnessing about our one-true God! This world needs to know Who God really is!