Nothing “is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character.” —A.W. Tozer
Elihu doesn’t take long in coming to what we call the point! There are two points, actually. “Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words, saying, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me. Yet He finds occasions against me, He counts me as His enemy; He puts my feet in the stocks, He watches all my paths’” (Job 33:8-11). “I” and “He.” You have two serious problems, says Elihu, so let’s face them right away. You’re wrong in what you think about yourself, and wrong in what you think about God. That pretty well sums it up. Remarkable, isn’t it! We’ve lumbered through about 30 chapters of back-and-forth on Job’s dilemma and hardly made an inch of progress. Now in a few verses young Elihu lays bare the root and its sour fruit! If the choice is between either Job or God being righteous, no one should struggle with the answer. “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. For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it” (vv 12-14). My professor would become irate when a student would ask, “Are you trying to say this?” “I’m not trying to say anything,” he’d bark. “I said it. You’re trying to understand it!” This is Elihu’s point. If Job and his friends don’t understand something about the Lord or what He says, the problem is entirely on their part. God may use “a dream,…a vision” (v 15), or anything He likes, but His purpose is for our good, “in order to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, He keeps back his soul from the Pit, and his life from perishing” (vv 17-18). He’s out to help us, not hurt us!