Job 34:10 - 35:16 - God Never Does Wrong (Session 36)

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 34:10–35:16, Reasoning Through the Bible follows Elihu as he gives one of the clearest defenses of God’s justice in the entire book. While Job and his friends spent much of their time talking about themselves, Elihu turns the focus back to the Lord and insists on a foundational truth: God never does wrong. 

This session explores how God is both Creator and Sustainer, why He shows no partiality between rich and poor, why no human being can hide from His sight, and why He does not owe man an explanation on man’s terms. The passage also shows that if God were to withdraw His hand, all life would return to dust, which highlights His absolute sovereignty over creation and every human life. 

The study then moves into practical theology: why believers should ask God to reveal their own sin, why God’s grace means He owes us nothing, why suffering teaches us to wait, and why following God is not about health or wealth but about loving Him for who He is. It also addresses whether God hears empty, prideful prayers and why sincere repentance is different. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 34 explained 
•  Job 35 explained 
•  God never does wrong 
•  Creator and Sustainer 
•  no favoritism with God 
•  why God owes us nothing 
•  suffering and waiting on God 
•  does God hear every prayer 
•  pride, repentance, and grace 

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

Transcript

Welcome And Where We Are

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We go verse by verse and chapter by chapter, sometimes phrase by phrase, through the word of God. We've been reasoning our way through the book of Job, and we're at a section of the book where the man has showed up where he is really speaking for God, or at least at a minimum, speaking more godly things. And in contrast to Job and his three friends for most of the book, this man, Elihu, is speaking mostly about God. Job and his friends were speaking mostly about themselves and how God would treat them. Elihu is saying something very, very different. He is saying how God thinks and how God works even through the suffering. There's great lessons we can learn in these sections from our lives. And it's because of learning about God's character and about how God works with us. So if you have your copy of the Word of God, turn to the book of Job, chapter 34. We're going to start in verse 10. Steve, can you read down to verse 15?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil and from the Almighty to do wrong. For he repays a person for his work and lets things happen in correspondence to a man's behavior. God certainly will not act wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. Who gave him authority over the earth? And who has placed the whole world on him? If he would determine to do so, if he were to gather his spirit and his breath to himself, humanity would perish together and mankind would return to dust.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

In this

God Never Does Wrong

SPEAKER_00 2:01

section, Elihu is defending God and his character and what God is like. Elihu has been the one person in the whole book that has a more accurate view of God. As we mentioned, Job and his three friends really didn't have an accurate view of God or how he acted. And here we have somebody in Elihu that is explaining God's more accurate position. And God always does that. Whenever we get astray in our beliefs about God, God will always send a teacher. He will always send someone that will correct us. God always has a remnant. He is always working in the world. And no matter how far people get astray, he will always send the true message to give to his people. God cares about his people and he will not let them stray. Jesus said that he will leave the 90 and 9 to go get the one that has strayed. In this section, if we look at verse 12, God is not going to act wickedly, nor will he pervert justice. And the very next verse, no one gave God the authority over the earth. God was sovereign from the beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So again, verse 13, God was sovereign from the beginning. The next two verses, verse 14 and 15, if God were to pull back his spirit, then all life would turn to dust. God not only created the world, but he sustains it as well. He sustains human life. What keeps us going? It's the very hand of God. If he were to withdraw his hand, withdraw his spirit, every particle in the universe would fly apart and turn to dust. Job 34, 14 and 15 is saying something very similar to what is taught over in the New Testament in the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter 1 tells that Jesus is not only the creator of the world, but the sustainer. Verses 16 and 17 of Colossians 1 tell us Jesus created all things, and in him all things consist or hold together. Colossians 1 and Job 34 saying something very similar. If God were to withdraw his active hand of sustaining the universe and sustaining our lives, all creation would disintegrate. Steve, how grand and glorious is our God?

SPEAKER_01 4:34

He's really can't explain him or describe him. You just have to experience him. And we do that by having a relationship with him. And I think that that is something that is grand that here we have this creator who has decided to have a relationship with his creation to the point that he came in his son, Jesus Christ, to die for us and to be raised again to give us hope. So I think it's just a great thing that we have such a personal creator. He's not one that created everything and then stepped back and we're just out here doing our own thing. No, he is one that is actively involved in the life of his creation. It's just a wonderful thing, I think.

Creator And Sustainer Of All

SPEAKER_00 5:21

In the next verses, Elihu continues. I'm starting in verse 16. But if you have understanding, hear this. Listen to the sound of my words. Shall one who hates justice rule? And will you condemn the righteous, mighty one who says to a king, you worthless one, to nobles, you wicked one, who shows no partiality to the prominent, nor regards the rich as above the poor, since they are all the work of his hand. In a moment they die, and at midnight people are shaken and pass away, and the powerful are taken away without a hand. In those verses, Elihu is again explaining that God is in control. God is in control of kings and nobles, determining whether they are true or whether they are wicked or whether they rule or whether they don't rule. Verse 19: God shows no partiality to the rich nor the poor. All people are the work of God's hands. If God shows no partiality, we can then have no right to be biased against anyone because of their race or social status. If God makes all people equal, then we as humans have no right at all to look at someone because of race or their social status or anything like that and say, well, this person is better than the other. Such a great practical truth buried back here in the book of Job. Verse 20, the powerful will die suddenly. God takes away the rich and powerful as well as the poor and the weak.

No Favoritism With God

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Moving on, Steve, can you start at verse 21 and read down to verse 30?

SPEAKER_01 7:04

For his eyes are upon the ways of a person, and he sees all his steps. There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of injustice can hide themselves, for he does not need to consider a person further, that he should go before God in judgment. He breaks in pieces the mighty without investigation and sets others in their place. Therefore, he knows their deeds, and he overthrows them in the night, and they are crushed. He strikes them like the wicked in a public place, because they turned aside from following him and had no regard for any of his ways, so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and that he would hear the cry of the afflicted. When he keeps quiet, who can condemn? And then he hides his face, who then can look at him, that is, regarding both nation and a person, so that godless people would not rule nor be snares for the people.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Verse 21 there says, For his eyes, that's God's eyes, are upon the ways of a person, and he sees all his steps. That tells us that God knows about each person. He knows what we do and where we go and what we are like. He knows our thoughts. Remember, Jesus knew the thoughts of the people around him in the gospels. Throughout this section, Elihu's message is about the character and nature of God. God knows the things that people think, and he knows the things that we've hidden in the dark. My friend, we're not going to get away with what we think we're going to get away with. We can fool people, but you're not going to fool God. Elihu is less concerned about blaming Job or finding a cause for the suffering like the three friends were. Instead, Elihu is more concerned with explaining God and his nature. He tells us several things in this passage about the very nature of God. He knows the deeds of all people. He knows who has turned aside and who is not following his ways. The Lord is the one that's in charge. And I'm reminded in Revelation 3:7 says Jesus is the one with the key of David, and he is the one who will shut and no one can open, and open and no one can shut. Steve, who is in control and who is the wise one?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

God is always in control of all of this. We've mentioned that throughout all of Job. And again, as we've talked about many times, that's a way for us to keep our focus on what is going on. And Elihu here is kind of addressing Job's earlier complaint of God not hearing the pleas of the ones who are suffering. And Elihu is coming back and kind of parodying a little bit of what God's going to explain a little bit later. We talk a little bit about that hiddenness of God when we went through those earlier chapters where Job was making this claim. So again, we see Elihu is trying to focus Job on a teaching moment of what God is trying to do, possibly with Job, is to teach him something that's going to come out of this suffering that he's going through and keeping him focused on God himself rather than just focusing on Job and his affliction like his other friends did.

God Sees Every Hidden Step

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Continuing on in this section, if we look at verse 31, for has anyone said to God, I have endured punishment, I will not offend anymore. Teach me what I do not see. If I have done wrong, I will not do it again. Shall God repay on your terms because you have rejected his? For you must choose, and not I, therefore declare what you know. Elihu here says a very profound thing. He says in here, you did not come up and say, Teach me what I do not see. Elihu is bringing up this extremely obvious spiritual truth. All of them should pray to the Lord and ask him to reveal their own sin. Many chapters they've been arguing whether or not Job had sinned or not, and none of them stopped to ask God whether there was sin. All Christians can learn this lesson. We should pray to the Lord and ask him to reveal our sin. Should we not, Steve? Actually, it's a very dangerous prayer because he will reveal our sin.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

No, but that is a way that we keep a relationship with God is to ask and talk to him. We need to confess the sins that we know that we've done. And a tendency, I think, of people is to not always confess those sins that we know really are missing the mark with God. We have a tendency to justify them. But in reality, if we pray that, Lord, reveal to me any sins, what we're actually saying is I want to be aligned with you. I don't want to be disaligned from you. I want to know what it is that you want me to change my mind about, to repent of. I want to know what it is that you want me to confess to you so that you can cleanse me and put me back on the right track. So I think that possibly if we're not including those type of petitions to God to show us areas where we're falling short, is that maybe we're not having a full prayer life that we think that we should have.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Such great truths in this section of scripture. Look at verse 33. It says, There shall God repay on your terms because you have rejected his. What he's saying there is that if we reject God and his ways and reject his commands, how can we then turn around and say to him and ask him to reward us based on what we think is fair? If we're rejecting God's ways, how can we then go to him and say, Well, God, you're you're not fair, and I expect you to bless me because of what I think is fair. If we reject him, we have no right to go and demand that he accept us in our earthly, worldly values. Such great truth. Verse 35, Elihu comes to the same conclusion as God does in chapter 38. Later, Job speaks without knowledge. That's one of the first verses that God's going to say when he opens up in chapter 38, is that Job is speaking without knowledge. He is speaking without benefit of wisdom. Elihu seems to be explaining God's viewpoint in his speech. Neither Job nor his friends tries to correct Elihu. He is the one person at the end of the book that God does not correct. That

Pray To See Your Own Sin

SPEAKER_00 14:38

brings us to chapter 35. And in this, the last part of chapter 34, in the beginning part of 35, Elihu chastising Job's three friends, Elihu is saying that men accuse Job of speaking without knowledge. The friends are speaking up from a position of self-righteousness throughout most of this book. And in 35, 2, the three friends were guilty of thinking their righteousness is greater than God's. When we question what God is doing, we are saying that we are wiser and more righteous than God. So we're going to start in chapter 35, starting in verse 4 and reading down to verse 8.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

I will answer you and your friends with you. Look at the heavens and see and look at the clouds, they are higher than you. If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your wrongdoings are many, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness is for a man like yourself, and your righteousness is for a son of man.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Here, Elihu is telling great truths about the character of God and how we relate to God and his character. In verse 6, he is asking what effect our sin has against God. And the next verse, verse 7, he's asking, What does our righteousness add to God? God is already wrathful towards sin, and he's already loving towards righteousness. Therefore, our actions do not increase his wrath towards sin, nor increase his love towards righteousness. God already knew from eternity about all of our sin and all of our obedience. Therefore, our actions do not change God. Our actions do not change the nature of God, nor can we do things to make him more wrathful. If we could do things to make him more wrathful, then he would have had to have learned something based on what I, the I, the creature, did. He knew from all eternity what I would do and was already infinitely wrathful towards that. The same way about faith and repentance. He cannot increase in his love towards his children simply because he is already infinitely loving towards repentance and love.

God Owes Us Nothing

SPEAKER_00 17:08

So the this doctrine is called the impassability of God. We do not change God because he already knows everything and already is everything. So we did a special topic on that, on the nature of God. We would refer you to that. But Steve, if we cannot add anything to God by our actions, then for what reason does God reach out to us? In other words, here we are, fallible human creatures that according to this chapter of Job, our sin cannot really make God any more wrathful towards sin than he already is. And our righteousness can't reach up to God. So therefore, why? What is there in God of why he would reach down to us?

SPEAKER_01 17:52

And that question, Glenn, goes so well with these verses here that Elihu is saying God doesn't have any obligation to justify himself to Job. Therefore, it's logically inconsistent for Job to demand to be in a courtroom with him. It's it's inconsistent for Job to say, I want to go before God and plead my case, because Elihu's point is God doesn't owe him any type of an explanation. So I say that that's a great question in line with this, is because God's grace and mercy, he does do that of coming into our lives. He doesn't have to, he has no obligation to explain himself to us. Yet we see him consistently throughout the Hebrew scriptures over and over again coming into the life of the nation of Israel through his prophets, but through that, he's also showing himself to all the other nations. God, as I mentioned before, is a personable God. He's one that wants to interact and have a relationship with his creation. So I think it's just what you asked. God has no obligation to explain himself to us at all, yet through his grace, love, and mercy, he does come and interact with us, even to the point of sending his one and only son, Jesus Christ, so that we might have eternal life.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

I think that's really the key to this passage that we just read. God does not owe us anything. And the example that I want to bring up is this each of us live in a location. So we are under the laws of the town that we live in or the country we live in. We are expected to keep the laws of that city and that country. Well, let's say we go through a year or two in our life and we don't break any of the laws in our town. We keep all of the laws of our town and our nation. Well, the government has no obligation to come along and give us anything special because we obeyed the law. Just because we obeyed the law, well, that's just what you're expected to do. Now, if you break the law, they're gonna come and give you something special, namely going to prison. But if you're just obeying the law, the government doesn't owe you anything. They're not gonna come down and give you a special present because you've obeyed the law. That's just what's expected of you. Same thing with God. He doesn't owe us anything. So why does he come down and give us great gifts? It's because of his grace. It's because of his love. It's not because of anything in us that we can do anything that would earn his pleasure. It's all because of him and his grace and his love. There's nothing in us that's lovable, but there is something in God that makes him infinitely loving and infinitely desiring of a relationship with us. All the credit goes to him. If we live righteously, he does not owe us anything. Anything he gives us is because of his grace. The wonderful thing is that he does come down to creatures, even ones that have disobeyed the law, and he lavishes great presence on us. He is the one that is worthy.

Why Suffering Tests Our Faith

SPEAKER_00 21:10

So in this section of Job here, it's communicating that suffering is a way for God to do several things. One is a way for him to teach us to trust him. The suffering gives us a ability to trust him because now I can't trust myself. If I'm suffering, I can't trust my own physical abilities, my own characteristics, my own skill or my own money. I have to trust him. So it teaches us to trust the Lord, even in times of pain and suffering. It also is a way for God to prove that we are following him because of who he is, not because of what he does for us. If we're only here for good health and money, Then what happens if he takes it away? And that happens, Steve. I've seen people in churches that as long as life is nice, then they're faithful churchgoers and coming to Bible study, things like that. Let some pain and suffering come along. And suddenly they're a lot less interested in God. Or are they following him because of who he is, or are they following him because of the health and the wealth? So I think that's part of the lesson here, is it not?

SPEAKER_01 22:30

I think that is a great deal part of the lesson of Job. Job was blessed by God with his wealth that he had and the children that he had, which was a great thing in that type of economy that he lived in. Yet what was the challenge that Satan gave to God? Oh, yeah, well, he worships you because you've blessed him. And then the second time, well, yeah, sure, he worships you because you have blessed him with health. Inflict him and he will curse you. So that is a lesson. That is what God is trying to get across here as a main theme. That's why he offered up was to prove to Satan that Job was not just worshiping him because of the blessings that he had through his wealth and through the family that he had. He was worshiping God because he loved God. He loved worshiping God and wanted to have that relationship with him. That's really the whole point that God is proving to Satan. And we've seen Job go through his ups and downs throughout this suffering, but he has not cursed God. He has not lost his integrity. Yes, he's asked some questions as to what's going on, why it's going on. He's made some accusations that God is doing it to him and such as everything that we've talked about in the previous chapters, but he still has not cursed God. He has still not abandoned God. So we are seeing the very thing that God was going to show to Satan about Job, Job's integrity, and that he loves God. Therefore, Job should stand to us as a model figure for someone that we can emulate as to loving God in the great things that He has given us, but also sometimes in the valleys that we go through of the pain and suffering that we have in this life that we have in this fallen world and in these fallen bodies.

Empty Prayers And Pride

SPEAKER_00 24:30

The next part of chapter 35 gets into the topic of whether or not God hears the prayers of all people. I'm starting reading in verse 9, because of the multitude of oppressions, they cry out. They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty. But no one says, Where is God my Maker who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky? There they cry out, but he does not answer because of the pride of evil people. God will certainly not listen to an empty cry, nor will the Almighty regard it. How much less when you say you do not look at him? The case is before him, and you must wait for him. And now, because he has not avenged his anger, nor has he acknowledged wrongdoing well, so Job opens his mouth with empty words. He multiplies words without knowledge. So in this section, it's opening by pointing out that people complain when they're oppressed, but no one ever questions God and asks why he gave beauty and intelligence to people. They're quick to complain when they're suffering, but that no one is coming in asking God, why did you give me these great gifts? So, Stephen, verse 12, what reason does verse 12 give for why God might not respond to the cries of people?

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Elihu brings out the pride that a person has, and he's giving that as one reason why God doesn't positively answer the prayers that people are lifting up is because their motivation is one of pride. It's self-centered. It's not one of actually wanting to know what's going on, or one of maybe confessing the sins or the problems that they have that brought them into that condition. Their motives are completely wrong and they're prideful. And pride we see in scripture is a main factor that comes between us and God. It's the main factor that came between God and Satan. Satan rebelled against God because of the pride that Satan had. He wanted to be like God, and that brought about his fall. So pride is something that we should guard against and we should be aware of. Basically, if our motivation is always going to God for me, me, me, me, me, and it's not going to God in a worshipable way, then that's something that we should be aware of and that we should try to avoid.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Every now and then in religious circles, you'll hear somebody ask the question Well, does God hear the prayers of such and so people or people of different religions? Well, if we look at Job 35, 13 says this God certainly will not listen to an empty cry. And we've talked some about what that might mean. You know, sometimes if we just have very empty prayers, he might not listen for selfish things. But here's the question: Does God hear the prayers of people who ask him for things, but will then turn around and not submit to his ways nor follow his savior?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

I think God always hears prayers of everyone. The question really is: is God going to act on those prayers for the people that don't want to have anything to do with him, that don't love him, and that are praying in such a way that is really disrespectful of God, arrogantly prideful, that is maybe demanding God do certain things. So the question isn't, does he hear the prayers? The question is, is he going to act on them? And I think that scripture is clear that no, I don't think he's always going to act on the prayers of people who don't want to have anything to do with him, and in some ways are disrespectful. That being said, I do believe that he will act on the prayers of those people that were disrespectful, didn't want to have anything to do with them, but yet turn around and plead with him, ask for forgiveness, and then have truly repented, truly changed their mind about Jesus Christ, who he is, and God, and want to have a relationship with him. So in those instances, God definitely does act on those that are sincere to have a belief and faith in Jesus Christ. And the action he takes is to declare them righteous and then to give them a promise of eternal life.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

What God will listen to, it's what you just said, is the sincere prayer of repentance from a repentant sinner. He will always hear that. What we get into a big question is somebody that says, God, I'm not interested in Christian things and I don't want to learn anything about Christian things, but when I get in a jam, I'll I'll call on you. Well, that type of person really should not expect a lot of benefits from God. He already gives us great sunshine and rain and a great earth to live on, and he's given us his word. And when we turn our back on him and ignore him, then he's not a divine bellboy that's expected to come bring us things only when we want him. So then

Waiting For God’s Timing

SPEAKER_00 29:42

if we look at the last part of verse 14, says, quote, the case is before him and you must wait for him. So, Steve, do we have the right to go to God and insist on things with God, or must we wait?

SPEAKER_01 29:56

We should always wait because we are living on God's time, and his time is different than our time. We're very impatient people. We've always been that way. We think that we want answers now. Many times God's timing is wait. When we wait and see God's timing at work, then we will see many times the things that God wants us to have. I've mentioned before in my testimony, whenever I rededicated my life, I went through a three-year period of what I was not happy with the work environment that I was in, but yet I stayed because I had turned my life over to him to do what he wanted to do with it. And at the end of that three years, he put me into a position that took care of my family for the years to come, all the way through my retirement, and has provided stuff for me and my family as well through that. So God's timing is always the perfect timing. The question is, are we going to wait for God's timing or are we going to try and bring something about on our own initiative, which in my experience is really not always work out to something for our benefit?

SPEAKER_00 31:08

We find here that it is wise to wait. And if we've been looking at the previous sections of the book of Job, neither Job nor his friends were interested in waiting. They were always insisting, at least Job was always insisting, hey, God should come down here and answer my questions. And at one point, Job was even saying, I'm going to go knock on his door and he's going to get an earful from me. Well, he needed to learn to wait on God. That's the lesson here that Elihu gives. We need to wait on the Lord. What happens if we don't know how to wait? Well, don't worry. He'll teach you. He will do things to teach us how to wait on him. Job is a perfect example of learning how to wait on the Lord.

Closing And Next Passage Preview

SPEAKER_00 31:54

And with that, we'll have to wait till next time for the last part of Elihu's speech. If we come back next time, we're going to hear Elihu start to prepare us for when God shows up in chapter 38. But we still got a little bit more of this great teaching from this man that is telling us about God.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Thank you so much for watching and listening. And as always, may God bless you.