Thursday, November 10, 2016

J16 11 10 ELIHU THE HERO





JOB 32—37

Did you realize that there was an unmentioned friend who sat and listened to the banter between the “three friends” and Job? He said nothing for the whole time that the banter went on. When the “three friends” finally quit talking because they saw that it was futile, this mysterious friend began to speak to the real issues of the situation:

5 But when he saw that the three men had nothing more to say, his anger was aroused.
6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said:
I am young in years,
and you are old;...”

He was young and felt that he had no business telling what he thought until the impasse happened. Then God had him speak up. It was time for some sensible interference with the older men. All four had gotten off track and he had wisdom to share to get them back to remembering who was really in charge, and who they really were in comparison.
Right now we could use an Elihu. We have all gone off the deep end in one way or another: mostly in that we believe that we were right and God was and is wrong. That will never happen; and it did not happen in this election: God is always right. Always.

11 I waited while you spoke,
I listened to your reasoning;
while you were searching for words,
12 I gave you my full attention.
But not one of you has proved Job wrong;
none of you has answered his arguments.

Since Job was righteous in the eyes of God, the friends accusation that he must have been seen as sinning, and was now being punished for it because he refused to repent, was as wrong and as off course as the rumors that Hilary was absolutely going to win this election.

But the continued harassment of his friends had worn Job down to wondering himself what he had done wrong to bring on this punishment and he tried proving how righteous he was.

In comes Elihu to the rescue. Speaking at the prompting of God, he began to show where each had gone wrong. And he did it by pointing out the characteristics of Almighty God. We must always remember exactly who He is if we wish to pass through our painful times.

Elihu was the first to speak sense into the issue, and Job reacted to his spiel with regrets and humility; but then the true Hero-God Almighty- sets the whole issue in perspective starting in chapter 38. And what a wonderful reminder to all of us that God is Almighty and He is always right; never wrong.

Election day I mostly avoided Facebook and kept my vow to stay away from the news because I knew the media would be puffing things up on Hilary's behalf and did not want to hear it.

The next morning I sneaked into Facebook and the first thing I saw was that Hilary was about to make make her concession speech. I got off, and stayed still to remember who my God is. I had let myself believe that Hilary actually had a chance to win. She did not. God did not want her to win. Period.

Now it is time for Christians to gather together to pray that God will make changes in and through President-Elect Trump: and that those who will be advising him will have wisdom in how they do that. Not because we are to be a great nation; but because millions of His children live here and we need to preserve His influence here where our families, friends and neighbors live.

Let us “Be still and know that [He] is God.”