Job 36:1-33 - God Speaks in Our Suffering (Session 37)

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 36, Reasoning Through the Bible follows Elihu as he shifts the focus away from man-centered thinking and back onto the character of God. While Job and his friends were often preoccupied with human suffering from a human angle, Elihu gives a different perspective: God speaks in our affliction and teaches us through suffering. 

This session explores why so much modern Bible teaching becomes overly focused on what people can get from God rather than who God is in His nature. Job 36 pushes in the opposite direction. Elihu speaks about God’s justice, power, mercy, wisdom, and greatness, and shows that true spiritual depth begins with theology proper — the study of God Himself. 

The episode also addresses the difference between outward religion and a renewed heart, why the Word of God renews the mind, how God delivers people in suffering rather than always from suffering, why the health and wealth gospel fails, and why no human being has grounds to judge God. The chapter closes with Elihu describing storms, rain, thunder, and lightning as testimonies to the greatness of the unsearchable God. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 36 explained 
•  God speaks in suffering 
•  theology proper 
•  God’s character and nature 
•  renewed heart and renewed mind 
•  the failure of the health and wealth gospel 
•  who are we to judge God 
•  what we can know about God 
•  God’s greatness in creation 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Is Bible Study About Us

SPEAKER_01 0:16

In our churches today, when we do Bible study, how much should we focus on ourselves and what we can get from God? And how much should we focus on God Himself and Him in His nature? Today we're going to find out because we're going to be in Job chapter 36. And there's a man here who's going to tell us about God, and he's going to tell us where we can find wisdom. And it's going to be in the person of the Lord God. Hi, my name is Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We have a ministry called Reasoning Through the Bible. We're in the last part of a talk from a man named Elihu, who has showed up here towards the end of the book, and he is giving us lessons about God. And we're going to see here a very different view of how we should approach human suffering, very different than Job and his three friends. Job and his three friends were focused on the human part of human suffering. Elihu is going to give us more of a divine perspective. So let's go ahead and dive

Job 36 And Elihu’s Claim

SPEAKER_01 1:23

in. Steve, can you read in Job chapter 36 the first 12 verses?

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Then Elihu continued and said, Wait for me a little, and I will show you that there is still more to be said on God's behalf. I will bring my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my maker, for truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. Behold, God is mighty but does not reject anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives justice to the afflicted. He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he has seated them forever, and they are exalted. And if they are bound in shackles and are caught in the snares of misery, then he declares to them their work and their wrongdoings, that they have been arrogant. He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from injustice. If they listen and serve him, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness. But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and will die without knowledge.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

In this section, Elihu is giving us more of God's perspective. Verse 2, he says, there is more to be said on God's behalf. The next verse, Elihu claims he's getting his knowledge from afar, which is from God. If you remember, one of Job's friends said he got revelation from a spooky vision in the middle of the night. The other one said he got his wisdom from the elders and the ancestors that were passed down in tradition. Well, Elihu here is claiming that his wisdom is not coming from himself, but he has wisdom that comes from afar, from God. He also says there is more to be said on God's behalf. So he is trying to give God's perspective. Elihu is trying to give Job some information from God and about God, which is very different from what the three friends were doing, which were trying to focus on Job.

Teaching That Starts With God

SPEAKER_01 3:34

And I think that brings up a question. Steve, you and I have seen many sermons in our day. I'd hate to add up all the sermons we've heard, but all of the times you be in church, we have pastors that are giving messages, and you and I have taught many messages. I think what we see in our churches nowadays is often very different from what Elihu is trying to do here. What Elihu is trying to do is to tell us not so much to correct Job and his friends. He's not trying to correct them or tell them how to live and what caused suffering and how do you live through this worldly life to prevent suffering? That's not what he's really doing. He's trying to give God's perspective. He's trying to give us things about God. And we're going to see in the rest of this chapter. There's a tremendous things about God's nature, about how God acts and what God is like. So, how many times do we hear sermons that are about how we should live? And how many times do we hear sermons about God and his nature? I guess where I'm going is why can't we just give a lesson in a church that is starts and ends with God and what God is like? I remember going through some teacher training years ago in my church, and the pastor was giving teacher training. And at the time he said, you can teach as deep as you want, just always end it with a practical application. And I was thinking at the time, and I still questioned, why can't I just teach about God's nature? Why can't I have a lesson that is solely about the holiness of God? And that's it. So how much is our teaching in our churches about us and what happens with us and for us and to us? And how much of it is about God and his nature and what he is like?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

What you're really talking about, Glenn, is for the people themselves when they are listening to God's word taught or being preached from the pulpit, for them to be able to look into it themselves and make application themselves. I had the same question you have, Glenn, as to always making application when we're teaching something for the people that are there in the room. Well, you and I don't always know what that person is going through in their life. And if we're always given an application, it might apply to the person that's there. It might not. And if it doesn't apply to them, then they walk away going, that was a nice lesson, but I didn't get anything out of it. I think by doing that always that we're robbing the people of actually studying the word of God on their own and coming away with it on their own application. Now, that doesn't mean that we can't make an application or that we can't apply what we're teaching and we shouldn't do that. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that it's not always the case that I think if we're just teaching God's word, that we're robbing the people of thinking for themselves and doing that exercise of pulling out of God's word the application of where they are in their life. Now that extends over to the pulpit. And I think that it's a sign of our times that we're in, that we generally have just morning services, at least in the evangelical churches that we're a part of and that we watch and we are aware of on the video feeds and listen to that in a general sense, it's Sunday morning only. There's not any Sunday evening service or midweek service like there was whenever we were younger. That's not for everything across the board, but for generally speaking, the larger churches that you have, you see that particular pattern. Well, what are we doing? I think we're robbing the people that are really hungering for God's word. And that doesn't mean that there aren't other activities and great things that those churches do. Not what I'm saying, we're just making a general statement that the way that our world has progressed to this time, it's not as thorough in teaching the applications of God like it used to, because we had Sunday evening and Wednesday night or midweek services where usually the deeper parts of scripture were taught. So again, it's not something that we're being negative about. We're just bringing it up in regards to teaching God's word and letting people reflect on it on these deeper meanings. Because general, the services in the morning have a gospel message tone to them, which is not bad. But when it's every single message, maybe it's a little bit shallow. The question is, then where do the people get their deeper teaching from God's word? That's a question. And maybe it's in small groups. Not everybody attends a small group, but yet they're still not hearing it from the pulpit, from the pastors in their churches at all times.

When Application Gets Too Thin

SPEAKER_01 8:44

My concern is that, yes, it is true that practical application of the Bible is fine. We should try to apply the Bible to our lives. There's uh all kinds of commands on how to apply scriptural principles to our lives. That's not really the question. The question is: should we constantly try to make the Bible teaching apply to modern life and what can happen to me in my life? Or should I focus a little more on what God's nature is like and teach doctrine in our churches? Practical application is fine, but look at what we have just as one example in this chapter, Job chapter 36. He's speaking here. God is first four perfect in knowledge. He is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive, gives justice to the afflicted, does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous. He puts kings on the thrones. He has seated them forever. He talks at great length here about nothing but the character and nature of God. God is mighty in power, he has mercy, he punishes the wicked and gives justice to the afflicted. He notices the righteous. He punishes the disobedient. He's telling us about God. And I think we need a little more of that, and perhaps a little bit less of I mean in our sermons and our lessons. In our churches today, I just submit that we focus a little much on what God can do for us rather than what God is like in and of himself, and that's it. Christians would benefit from doing what's called theology proper, which is the study of the nature and character of God. Let's move on before we get in more trouble. Starting

Godless At Heart And Real Faith

SPEAKER_01 10:39

at verse 13, Elihu continues his speech with this But the godless in heart nurture anger. They do not call for help when he binds them. They die in youth, and their life perishes amongst the cult prostitutes. He rescues the afflicted in their misery, and he opens their ears in time of oppression. Then indeed he induced you away from the mouth of distress, and instead of it a broad place with no constraint, and your table was full of rich food, but you were full of judgment on the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you. Beware that wrath does not entice you to mockery, and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. Will your cry for help keep you from distress or all the exertions of your strength? Do not long for the night when people vanish in their places. Be careful, do not turn to evil, for you preferred this to misery. In this section, the first part of it, verse 13 and 14, talk about what happens to the what it calls the godless of heart, godless in heart, that the people that do not reach out to God when trouble occurs. So, question, Steve, are there people who have an outward appearance of being godly, but inwardly it's what they call here godless in heart? Are there such people?

SPEAKER_00 12:02

There are people that don't want to have anything to do with God. So he's saying is don't be hypocritical. Don't cry to God for help because they don't want to have anything to do with God. You know, that's really the only person that we can turn to in many circumstances. We can't get ourselves out of many circumstances. God is the only one that we can turn to. So whenever we reject God wholly, that also means that we will not turn to God whenever we're seeking help. And I think that's something that we should do. Those people that don't want to have anything with God, then they need to think about that. Where are they going to go for hope and help?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

I know over in the Gospels, our Lord talks several times about people that are hypocritical, that have the outward appearance of godliness, but inwardly are far from it. So here's a question, not so much about identifying other people, but looking ourselves in the mirror. How do we make sure that we are true Christians and ensure we are not godless of heart? Because all of us, if we really look at ourselves, we find some dirt and sin inside of us. So we don't want to be godless in heart when we recognize we cannot be completely sinless. So how do we ensure we are true Christians and not godless in heart?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

I think it's what we've talked about throughout many of our sessions, through the various books that we've gone to, is to get to know God and who he is. And you do that through his scripture. So if you ignore his scripture and you don't study it and you don't want to have anything to do with it, then you're not going to know who God is. I think that many times people that don't want to have anything to do with God, they're missing out on the greatness of God. They're missing the whole point of their life by not understanding who God is. I think, Glenn, that if you go in and study the scripture and look at scripture, it becomes plain who God is and what he wants to do for us. And he also wants us to worship him. But again, as we've mentioned over and over again in all of our studies, God wants to have a relationship with his creation. And he's gone to great lengths in order to have the relationship and in also to redeem his creation so that they might have eternal life with him. We see the mercy, the grace, the love, all of that, along with his wrath and his judgment as well. But we get this clear picture of who God is through his scripture. And if we ignore his scripture, then I think that we don't get a full, complete picture of who God is. Thus, we're missing out on the great creator that we have.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

The reason I asked the question is because there are people out there that are doubting their own salvation. And I want to give them assurance. There was times where I doubted my salvation. And I think part of this is if we realize what Christianity really is and what it is not. Christianity is not a list of commands you're supposed to keep. It's also not a social club. Christianity is about God renewing our heart and giving us a new one. He doesn't want my old dirty life. He wants to give me a new life. How do we make sure that we have a clean heart? Ask the Lord to renew it. God has promised to do that. He promised to the nation Israel in Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26, he promised Israel to remove their heart of stone, give them a heart of flesh, and then cause them to keep his statutes. That's what he says there. So he promises us the same thing, to renew our hearts. It says in the New Testament, quote, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation in 2 Corinthians 5.17. It also says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind in Romans 12.2. These are all verses about renewing our thoughts and our heart. We get a renewed mind and a heart by learning the Bible, praying to God, trusting Him, spending time with Him. 1 Peter 1.23 says we are born again through the Word of God. So how do we get a renewed heart? We do it through the Word of God. And we do it through internalizing the Word of God and spending time with the Lord Jesus

God Speaks In Our Suffering

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Christ. Such a tremendous lesson back here in Job. In this chapter, verse 14 speaks of what happens to those who do not turn to God. They die in their youth like the male temple prostitutes. That's the term that's used here in the Hebrew. These male prostitutes that worked in these pagan temples as sexual objects. It's interesting to me that all the way back here in Job's day, and again, this is all the scholars, many of them hold this as one of the earliest books written. So this is thousands of years ago, way back in Job's day, they knew that the sexually transmitted diseases would cause people to die young. Our societies have not learned anything since Job's day because we still have a sexual disease problem today. And then moving on, verse 15, it says he rescues the afflicted in their misery, or some of the translations there say delivers them in their suffering and open their ears in times of oppression. Note here he is saying that God delivers them in their misery and not from their misery. He's saying that God speaks to us while we are in the suffering. And Steve, I take that to be one of the great lessons of the book of Job is that Job and his friends spent several chapters arguing about what caused the suffering. And here, Elihu is saying, you've got it wrong. The point here is that God will bless us in the suffering and not from the suffering.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Elihu is trying to make a general statement to Job. Job, God is trying to teach you something through this suffering that you're going through. That means that you should therefore keep your mind on God and who he is rather than blaming your affliction on him like Job did at certain parts in the earlier chapters. Elihu is resetting Job's mind to stay focused on God. And I think this is setting up the stage for whenever God comes in at the latter chapters to virtually say the same thing back to Job. So I think this is again, we've even said it in our teaching through this book, that same thing. By looking to God in midst of our affliction that we might be going through, we look past it to the area of where we're going to eventually be and the blessings that we're going to have there and what God has provided for us. That's what's going to help us through these types of affliction is to look past them and still glorify God because of the things that He has provided to us. Now, that goes for the people that are believers. Those are the ones that want to have a relationship. For the ones that don't want to have a relationship, it's a different story. You have nothing to look forward to. The things that you're looking past this life are really going to be worse than this life. So we plead with you as we do many times. Come to a relationship with Jesus Christ. Change your life. Look forward to something past this life and the things that He has offered to us through His plan of salvation, through His death, burial, and resurrection. Come to Jesus Christ. Your life will be changed, not only here, but also in the afterlife.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

This passage right here in Job chapter 36 is one of the reasons why we would reject the health and wealth gospel. It is not the case that the book of Job is teaching that God's greatest time of revealing truth to us is when we're rich and totally healthy. Matter of fact, just the opposite. If we look at verse 15, our God not only knows about people who are suffering, but speaks to them in their time of affliction. And it's a great lesson that we can learn things about God through the suffering. Psalm 119, verse 71 says, It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. We have a loving Lord who knows about our weaknesses and reaches down to us anyway. He knows we are weak, he knows we're fallible, he knows that our bodies break down, he knows that we go through these periods of time. And just like Job, the entire book of Job, we don't learn why. Sometimes there is a great tragedy and we never see a reason for it. But this passage is telling us that God can speak to us in that time and it can draw us closer to Him. He knows about our affliction, and we just need to trust Him. Verse 18 is warning Job to not turn to mockery and don't turn aside. Sometimes people, by all outward appearances, are faithful when times are good. But when suffering comes, they sometimes walk away from the church and walk away from the faith. This is a warning to us to not let suffering cause us to turn into a scoffer and turn aside from

Who Are We To Judge God

SPEAKER_01 21:36

the Lord. Then let's read this next section, starting in verse 22, says this Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? Who has appointed him his way? And who has said, You have done wrong? Remember that you are to exalt his work, of which people have sung. All people have seen it. Mankind looks at it from afar. Behold, God is Exalted and we do not know him. The number of his years is unsearchable. Verse 22 and 23, a lie who is driving home this point. Who is going to be the judge of God? Who is going to teach him something? Who is going to correct his ways? If anyone thinks they know better than God, they're going to be shocked when they finally meet him. Today we have skeptics running around the countryside criticizing God's actions and what he does in the Bible and how God treats the world. And they criticize how he handled the Canaanites. They criticize the details of God's law in the Old Testament. They criticize whether Jesus can be the only way to salvation. Verse 23 here in this passage says, Who can say to God, you have done wrong? To judge God, a person would have to have a universal standard of righteousness to judge God by. Therefore, anyone judging God is really making themselves out to be God. God says in 1 Corinthians 1.20, quote, Where is the wise person? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? It's a very foolish thing to second guess an all-wise God, somebody who has made the universe and sustains it. Steve, do we have any grounds to question God?

SPEAKER_00 23:29

We've mentioned this before that no, we don't have it because he is the one who has created us and created everything. He knows the beginning from the end, just like we know the end of this story because it's there for us to read. But in our own lives, we don't know specifically the end of our particular life in this body. We know that we're going to have an eternal life. We know we're going to have a glorified body, but we don't know the specifics. So without knowing the specifics, how is it that we're going to question God as to why certain things are going to happen? That's part of Elihu's point to Job. You don't know, Job, what's really going on. Therefore, you can't really demand an audience before God to ask him to explain himself to you as to what's going on. That's really the crux of what Elihu is mentioning to Job. And I think it's something that we should take away from this as well. We just don't know everything. And all we can know is who God is. We can keep our faith in him and know that he's going to provide for us in a good and just way, ultimately, in the end.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Verse 26 here says, Behold, God is exalted and we do not know him. So my question is then, what are the things that we can know about God? And what are the things that we cannot know about God? Well, we can know some things, like right here, he is exalted, he is high and lifted up. And we've already read several things in this chapter. He is creator, he is all-wise, he is all-powerful, he is all-loving, he provides for us. We can know those things about God. The first chapter of Romans says that we can look at creation and know some things about the invisible attributes of God. However, since he is infinite, this verse says here that we cannot know all things about God. We cannot plumb the depths of God. We cannot know all things about him because he is infinite and we are finite. It says at the end of that verse, the number of his years is unsearchable. So we have here a God that has revealed himself. We can know the things that he revealed about himself, and we can make some conclusions about that, but we will never know all things about him. He is totally unsearchable. He is wonderful. And the rest of this chapter tells us some really great things about him as a person. So that's really the flow in this part, and it's moving towards really the last part of the

Thunderstorms And The Unsearchable God

SPEAKER_01 26:09

whole book. Verse 26 says, the number of his years is unsearchable. And then he starts to talk about some grand things about God. Steve, can you start at verse 27 and read down to 33?

SPEAKER_00 26:22

For he draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from its celestial stream, which clouds pour down, they drip upon mankind abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thundering of his pavilion? Behold, he spreads his lightning about him, and he covers the depths of the sea. For by them he judges peoples, he gives food in abundance, he covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the target. Its thundering voice declares his presence, the livestock also concerning what is coming up. So, Steve, how great is our God? He's wonderful, he's gracious, he's merciful, he's just undescribable, like Elihu says he's unsearchable. That is a great thing about God. And if we have that positive outlook on him, we can understand how good he is. If we have a negative outlook, though, and are always looking dire upon our situations and looking at only the bad things in this world, then we'll have a negative view of God, and it's not the right view of God that we have. God is unsearchable, as Elihu says, we can't really know how great and awesome he is, but he is.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

We'll end on that high note for today, but come back next time because we're going to see some of the great things that God reveals about himself. And it is truly wonderful, one of the greatest passages in all the Word of God, where God describes what he does and what he is like. So tune in next time on Reasoning Through the Bible.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.