“But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.”
~ Job 32:8
Hi James and Ellen,
How often have you pulled an Elihu? To pull an Elihu is to keep your mouth shut – even though you know that what you want to say has legitimacy, because you are a kid compared to a guy or gal who is railing against you or against another guy, gal or kid. To pull an Elihu is to let the Eliphazes, Bildads and Zophars in life do their false accusations while you keep your mouth shut in deference to their age. To pull an Elihu is to let the Jobs in life suffer from the verbal condemnations thrown at them by guys and gals who call themselves friends of the Jobs while you keep your mouth shut even though you are disconcerted by what you really think are reprehensible responses made by the Jobs. To pull an Elihu is to honestly believe that you have God’s answers for the Jobs on planet Earth. To pull an Elihu is to actually believe that you can more effectively communicate truth than any guy or gal who is older than you. To pull an Elihu is to first stand on life’s sideline to listen to the frustrated bantering between older disputing ‘friends’ as they attempt to try to coerce each other with ‘I am right’ and ‘you are wrong’. To pull an Elihu is that when you do finally say something, that what you say – even though what you say may mostly be on target, comes out of your mouth sounding like a self-promoting soliloquy or self-edifying speech. To pull an Elihu is when you really cannot stand it anymore – you just know that you will just burst open like a new wineskin filled with wine, if you do not open your mouth to blurt out your pent up ‘knowledge’ which you are absolutely sure will fit the moment and which will bring resolution to what a guy, gal or kid is adversely going through.
Job 32 has Elihu deciding that he just had to enter into the discourse fray that Job had been having to tolerate from Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar – who were three guys who considered themselves being Job’s good friends. Elihu admits to being younger than Job and the three ‘we are right’ guys. Job pushed Elihu’s hot button when Job claimed his innocence even though it seemed to Elihu that God was horrifically doing a number on Job’s life because of an indiscretion or indiscretions that Job had committed. Elihu was convinced that Job’s justification before God as to how he had been living his life was – in reality, belittling God. Elihu had become angry with what he perceived to be Job’s self-righteous responses to the three guys who considered themselves to be Job’s friend. Elihu had become also annoyed with the three counselors – Job’s so-called friends, for their inability to prove that Job was wrong in what Job was saying. Because Job’s three so-called friends could not refute any of Job’s responses to them, Elihu communicates thinking that the three guys are actually condemning God for the suffering that Job was experiencing. In Elihu’s egotistical attempt to tell Job that he first needed to confess and clear up the issues and/or sins that had brought about God’s wrath on him before God would release him from the severe, punishing sufferings that he was having to bear, Elihu arrogantly used what Job said in his responses to his three so-called friends in/as his lawyerly diatribe against Job’s defense. Elihu – in verse 8, does communicate that he had a head knowledge understanding of God when he said, “But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.”
Even though your grandmaa and grandpaa are getting old, your grandmaa and grandpaa are now in ministry positions or roles with a mission agency called Adventures in Missions that has a primary focus on helping in the spiritual transformation or formation of the life of each Christ-follower guy and gal who is accepted as a participant on any of the short term ministry teams that Adventures in Missions facilitates. While the young guys and gals who have been accepted to be on Adventures in Missions short term ministry teams, Ambassador teams – which is the program that your Uncle Chris now oversees, gap year teams and World Race teams, are at their assigned ministry sites, the primary responsibility of each program or team leader or leaders is or are to through teaching, modeling, mentoring and discipleship infuse the Good News truths into the lives of each one of his, her or their assigned team members. Young Christ-follower guys and gals today are God’s point torchbearers on planet Earth. Your grandmaa and grandpaa feel very blessed to have been divinely led by God to be resources for these young guys and gals as they assimilate and internalize God’s absolute truths that are found in God’s Word – which is the Bible. Your grandpaa has come to realize that young guys and gals today very much appreciate having an old geezer like your grandpaa around – just as long as your grandpaa is not expecting them to follow through on any of his expectations. When your grandpaa went about two months ago with the September 2007 World Race team to Thailand, your grandpaa asked the four September 2007 World Race squad leaders to please block off a morning, an afternoon or an evening from being involved in a programmed activity because your grandpaa really wanted each squad to make sure that they had a block of ‘apart’ time every day to be briefed of what was going to happen that day or the next day, to celebrate what had happened that day or the day before and then to have a divine time where a team member would be able to share what God was teaching him or her. Your grandpaa could not believe it when one of the squad leaders – who is a very sweet young gal, agreed with her host the first day to fill each one of the three blocks of time with programmed ministries. Your grandpaa is okay with young guys and gals today believing that they are Elihus but . . . being obedient to God should lead a Christ-follower guy, gal or kid to want to heed experience driven advise.
Job 32 (870)