Job 36 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Job 36 Short Summary:

Elihu continues his speech in Job 36. In this chapter, Elihu returned to a principle he spoke about previously, that God’s discipline was meant to be a corrective force. God used discipline and sometimes suffering to get the attention of sinners and call them to repentance. Elihu was certain that God would have restored Job, but the fact that He hadn’t was a clear indication to him that Job refused to repent.

Job 36 Bible Study

SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB

• Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan

• Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution

• Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.

• Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost

WHEN:

• The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).

• I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.

• Elihu – Elihu had been listening to the conversation between Job and his friends. He speaks and shares his opinions in chapters 32-37. He was the youngest of the group. His father was Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram (32:2).

WHERE:

• Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.

OUTLINE:

• ELIHU CONTINUES (36:1-33):

  • Elihu begins by restating God’s righteousness.

  • He said that God destroyed the wicked, exalted the righteous, and disciplined the proud to correct them.

  • In this chapter, Elihu returned to a principle he spoke about previously, that God’s discipline was meant to be a corrective force.

  • God used discipline and sometimes suffering to get the attention of sinners and call them to repentance.

  • According to Elihu, if a proud man heeded God’s discipline, he would live out his days in prosperity, but if he ignored God’s instruction, he would “perish by the sword and die without knowledge” (36:12).

  • The “godless in heart” would rather fighting against God than respond to His correction.

  • Elihu was certain that God would have restored Job, but the fact that He hadn’t was a clear indication to him that Job refused to repent.

  • He said that Job’s life was marked by judgement due to the wicked. That Job had chosen to go deeper into sin rather than to accept God’s chastisement.

  • Elihu encouraged Job to remember God’s great power and the fact that He was the master teacher. Job was not the teacher, therefore Elihu told him to accept what God was teaching him, and to stop spouting empty scoffing words.

  • Whether Job understood his punishment or not, he was told to accept it, because God’s ways are too great for men to comprehend.

  • Elihu illustrated this fact with the phenomenon of rain clouds and thunderstorms. Job and his contemporaries didn’t understand all the mysteries behind clouds, rain, and lightning, but they understood that they were a display of God’s power, and they announced His presence.

  • Elihu was suggesting that Job’s terrible circumstances were a lesson born out of God’s power and they announced God’s presence in disciplining Job.

APPLICATION

• Job and his companions didn’t know much about the science behind rainfall or thunder and lightning. They observed those things and admired God because of them.

• While we haven’t solved all their mysteries, we now know a lot more about the science behind thunderstorms and the water cycle.

• Does that steal glory from God? Does taking the mystery out of something through scientific discovery rob glory from God?

• Some people think so. They say that we use “God” to fill our gaps in knowledge until science comes along and enlightens us as to how things work.

• But I would argue that it doesn’t!

• People of the past looked at natural phenomenon with wonder and a sense of mystery that told them there was a Creator. They didn’t know how any of it worked but it was amazing to them.

• Only now, in the modern day, can men explain how these things happen, and the explanations have turned out to be incredible!

• The natural elements and processes of the world have turned out to be more complex than we ever imagined. Innovations in cellular, molecular, and atomic sciences have revealed that things we once thought were simple are actually intricately designed and multilayered.  

• They ancients got to admire God through the mystery of creation.

• Modern man gets to admire God through the complexity of creation.