Job 36

Job 36:1

GOD IS THE GREAT TEACHERElihu is defending God. He hasas all of us havea limited knowledge of God. We are dealing with an infinite God, and we don’t have all the answers. That is the difficulty for a great many people today. A man said to me, “I can’t believe.” I asked, “What is it that you can’t believe? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross and that He rose again?” Yes, he believed that. “Well,” I said, “then why can’t you trust Him?” “There is so much elsecreation, Jonah, Noah, and the miracles.” Also he had all kinds of personal problems. Then he challenged me, “You made the statement that we are unbelievers because of our sin, but I want to be a believer.” May I say that he is committing the real sin, and it is this: he is letting what he doesn’t know disturb him in what he does know. My friend, if you know enough to trust Christ, these other things will adjust themselves. Let me illustrate. As I write, I am sitting in a chair. Now there is a great deal about this chair that I do not know. To begin with, I don’t know who made it. I don’t even know the company that made it. I don’t know much about the materials in the chairwhat kind of wood it is, what kind of covering it has. I really know very little about this chair. But, friend, I know enough to sit down in it and trust myself to it. Do you know that Christ died for you? Do you know He rose again? All right, then trust Him as your Savior. These other doubts will take care of themselves in time, I can assure you. If it were necessary for me to know more about this chair, I think I could find out. But all I need to know is just enough to sit in it. I know very little about an airplane, and I am even fearful when I get on one, but I walk aboard, sit down, and trust myself to it. That is all God asks us to do when we trust Christ. Too many of us let what we don’t know disturb what we do know. Now Elihu is quite limited in knowledge, as we shall see.

Job 36:3

Paul said the same thing years later. He asked, “… Is there unrighteousness with God?” His answer was, “God forbid” (Rom_9:14). God is righteous in all that He is and does. Although Elihu is ascribing righteousness to God, he is also making it clear that God is so far removed from man that, actually, man cannot know Him. There is an element of truth in that, by the way. But what is it today that is separating us from God? Notice what Elihu is saying.

Job 36:4

That is, only God has perfect knowledge.

Job 36:5

The whole sense of what he is saying is simply that God is far removed from us. He is separated from us, and we cannot communicate with Him because He is so far from us. Elihu is wrong in that. And many folk today are wrong in that concept. Listen to the words of Isaiah concerning that which separates man from God. It is not because of distance. It is not because God is great and we are small. It is not because He is infinite and we are finite. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isa_59:2). He continues to describe their situation: “For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity” (Isa_59:3-4). God says these are the things that separate man from God. Today there is no reason for you and me to be separated from God. The sin question has been settled forever. There is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, and today we can come to God through Him. The great cry of Job was for someone to make a connection for him with God. Elihu came nearer to this than anyone else, but he didn’t make it. That is the reason God finally broke in on Job. Then Elihu states that God is the great Teacher.

Job 36:22

Elihu felt that he couldn’t communicate with Him, but he does say this: “No one can teach like God.” As you know, this was the thing that marked out the Lord Jesus Christ when He came to this earth. He was the greatest Teacher of all. Even His enemies said, “… Never man spake like this man” (Joh_7:46). The teaching of the Lord Jesus is the greatest teaching that the world has ever known right down to this present hour. It is a strange thing that people today who reject the Lord Jesus Christ still try to use His teachings. They talk about loving your neighbor. They talk about mercy. They talk about the Sermon on the Mount. You don’t hear them trying to foster the teachings of Plato or Aristotle even though they were smart boys. No, the Lord Jesus still stands as the greatest Teacher. Elihu asked, “Who teacheth like Him?”