Job 35:1 - Meaning and Application

We have here the bad words Elihu charges Job with, in Job 35:2-3. To show that these words were wrong, he appeals to Job himself and to his own calm judgment: “Think about whether this is right.” Elihu is confident that his correction is just, because he can leave the matter to Job’s own conscience. People who have truth and fairness on their side will, in time, find that conscience agrees with them.

This also shows that Elihu thought well of Job. He believed Job was better than he was speaking, and that when Job saw his mistake, he would not keep defending it. When we have spoken in a hurry and said what is not right, we should admit it once our later thoughts show the error. Elihu reproves Job for two things. First, Job seemed to justify himself more than God, which was what had first stirred Elihu’s anger (Job 32:2). In effect, Job had said, “My righteousness is more than God’s,” as if he had done more for God than God had done for him. That would mean Job thought his service had been underpaid and his sins punished too severely, which is a very wrong thought for anyone to hold, much less to speak aloud.

When Job pressed so hard on his own innocence and on the severity of God’s dealings with him, he was, in effect, saying, “My righteousness is more than God’s.” Yet even if we are very good and suffer greatly, we are still the ones with fault, not God. Second, Elihu says Job was wrongly disowning the benefits of religion because of his suffering: “What profit shall I have if I am cleansed from my sin?” (Job 35:3). He takes this from Job’s words in Job 9:30-31, where Job said that even if he washed his hands clean, God would still plunge him into the ditch, and from Job 10:15, where Job said that if he were wicked, woe would be his, but if righteous, it seemed to make no difference.

The psalmist was also tempted this way when he compared his troubles with the ease of the wicked and said, “Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain” (Psalm 73:13). If Job said such a thing, he would again be implying that his righteousness was more than God’s (Job 35:9), because if religion brought him no benefit, then God was the one who gained from Job, not Job from God. Still, it was not fair to lay this charge on Job in that way. Job had spoken those words only as the words of wicked, prosperous sinners (Job 21:15), asking, “What profit should we have if we pray to him?” and he had at once rejected such talk: “The counsel of the wicked is far from me” (Job 21:16). It is not fair argument to pin on a man the consequences of opinions he has plainly refused.

Elihu then gives his answer, in Job 35:4: “I will answer you, and your companions with you.” That is, he means to answer Job, all who agree with Job, and all who speak as Job speaks. He says he has a reply that will silence them all. To do this, he returns to his main point from Job 33:12, that God is greater than man. This truth, if used rightly, serves many good purposes, especially this one: God is debtor to no one. The greatest person can owe something to the least, but the distance between God and man is so vast that God can never receive any benefit from us. So he cannot be under obligation to us. If he is bound by his own promise, that is only because of his own will and faithfulness.

No one can challenge that claim, as Romans 11:35 says: “Who has first given to God, that he should be repaid?” Why should we demand profit from religion as a debt, as Job seemed to do, when the God we serve does not gain by our service? Elihu does not need to prove that God is above man, since everyone agrees to that. Instead, he wants to press the truth on Job and on us by pointing to the height of the heavens and the clouds (Job 35:5). They are far above us, and God is far above them. How then could our sins reach him, or our services enrich him? “Look at the heavens and see the clouds.” God made man upright and gave him a mind to look upward.

Idolaters looked up and worshiped the sun, moon, and stars, the armies of heaven. We also must look up, but to worship the Lord who made those heavenly bodies. The heavens are higher than we are, but God is infinitely above them. “His glory is above the heavens” (Psalm 8:1), and “the knowledge of him is higher than the heavens” (Job 11:8). From this Elihu concludes that God is not really affected one way or the other by what we do. Men may help or harm each other. Your wickedness may hurt someone like yourself, perhaps in outward matters. A wicked person may wound, rob, or slander a neighbor, or even lead him into sin and damage his soul.

In the same way, your righteousness, your justice, generosity, wisdom, and devotion may help another human being. Our goodness reaches the saints on the earth (Psalm 16:3). Toward people like ourselves, we can do either injury or kindness. In both cases, the Lord and Judge of all will take notice. He will reward those who do good to their fellow creatures and punish those who do harm.

But Elihu firmly denies that God can be harmed or helped by anything anyone does, even the greatest person on earth. The sins of the worst sinners do God no damage (Job 35:6). If you sin on purpose against him, even if your sins keep piling up again and again, what do you really do against him? This is a challenge to proud human nature, and it dares the boldest sinner to do his worst. It shows the greatness and glory of God that even his strongest enemies cannot truly injure him.

Sin is said to be against God because the sinner means it that way, and because God counts it as an offense against his honor. Still, it cannot really do anything against him. The evil intent of sinners is weak and powerless. It cannot destroy God’s being or his perfect nature. It cannot throw him from his throne or shake his rule. It cannot disturb his peace, break his plans, or take away from his glory. Job was therefore speaking badly when he asked, “What profit is it that I am cleansed from my sin?” God did not gain from Job’s reform, and if Job did not gain by it, who would?

The services of even the best saints are no profit to God either (Job 35:7). “If you are righteous, what do you give him?” He does not need our service. If work had to be done for him, he has better hands than ours to do it. Our religion adds nothing to his happiness.

He is so far from needing us that we are the ones who owe him everything. We owe him for making us righteous, that is, right with him, and for accepting our righteousness. Because of that, we can demand nothing from him. We have no reason to complain if we do not get what we expect. Instead, we should be thankful that he gives us better than we deserve.