Hi Mike,

I noticed this scripture while reviewing Elihu’s comments to Job. It reads somewhat different in other translations, but if the NIV is correct in its expression, it seems to be supporting God’s intention to judge all of his creatures with mercy and not according to their sins. This is the way Job 34:31-33 reads in the NIV:

Suppose a man says to God, ‘I am guilty but will offend no more. Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do so again.’ Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I; so tell me what you know.

What is your take on this?
J____

Hi J____,
Thanks for your question. You ask:

This is the way Job 34:31-33 reads in the NIV:
Suppose a man says to God, ‘I am guilty but will offend no more. Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do so again.’ Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I; so tell me what you know.
What is your take on this?”

Elihu, I think you know, is the youngest of Job’s four “comforters.” He is the only one who God did not rebuke for his words to Job.

Job 42:7  And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. [ After God’s words with Job}.
Job 42:8  Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you [ after your] folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
Job 42:9  So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar laid all the blame for Job’s problems upon Job’s sins. Elihu is not rebuked by the Lord. Not one of these men, nor Job himself, acknowledged the sovereignty of God over both good and evil in the lives of all men. Elihu alone made that connection.

Job 34:29  When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only:

When God “hides his face” it is an act “against a nation or a man,” and it will bring evil against that nation or man. If on the other hand “He give quietness, who then can make trouble?” Elihu understood the sovereignty of God and while he acknowledged that he, too, was merely clay, Elihu also acknowledged that he was actually speaking in God’s stead.

Job 33:6  Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay.
Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

God had revealed to Elihu alone, of these four comforters, that all that was taking place in Job’s life was for Job’s (and our) benefit. Elihu knew that God was working with Job, and he knew that God had given him words for both Job and Job’s accusers. While the other comforters merely insinuated that Job must have committed some heinous hidden sin during the time he was living such a charmed life, Elihu made no such insinuations, and showed Job exactly and specifically what his sins were and the sins of his accusers. Elihu had been made to understand that God’s plan does not depend upon our understanding of that plan. Nor are His actions dictated by our lack of understanding of His sovereignty. Elihu actually spoke in God’s stead. So he asks Job:

Job 34:31  Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more:
Job 34:32  That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.
Job 34:33  Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.

Your translation is much clearer:

Job 34:31-33 Suppose a man says to God, ‘I am guilty but will offend no more. Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do so again.’ Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I; so tell me what you know.

Elihu was speaking in God’s stead asking Job if he really believed that he could expect to lay down the terms on which God would come to Job and repent for the way He had treated Job. Job had made it quite clear to everyone that he had no intention of repenting of anything, and that God had “taken away Job’s judgment.” Job had vowed to maintain his own integrity with his dying breath:

Job 27:2  As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Job 27:3  All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Job 27:4  My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

God had not “taken away” Job’s judgment. He was in the very process of judging Job, and Job had no integrity of his own, and his righteousnesses were as filthy rags in God’s nostrils.

So Elihu tells Job:

Job 34:35  Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom.
Job 34:36  My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers for wicked men.
Job 34:37  For he addeth rebellion unto his sin, he clappeth his hands among us, and multiplieth his words against God.
Job 35:1  Elihu spake moreover, and said,
Job 35:2  Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?
Job 35:3  For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
Job 35:4  I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
Job 35:5  Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds [ which] are higher than thou.
Job 35:6  If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
Job 35:7  If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?
Job 35:8  Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.

God, speaking through Elihu, has Job’s friends and all of us, to know that when we sin we do not hurt God, and when we do righteously, we have given nothing to God. Whether we sin or whether we do righteously, we are doing nothing more or less that what God has created us to perform:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

It is the proud man like Job, who credits himself with either his own sins or his own righteousness. Neither one is of ourselves and neither make us any better or worse than any other man on earth. It is God alone who works all things after the counsel of His own will, and anyone who thinks that he is responsible for either his righteousness or his sins is in the same position Job was in when God had hedged Satan out of his life.

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [ how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Are our sins of us, or are they not? What does “It is no more I that do it” mean? Job and His three friends thought that both their sins and their righteous deeds were of themselves. Job and his three friends had a big lesson to learn, and we are all Job in our own appointed time.

Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Act 17:28  For in him we [ Pagan Athenians] live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we [ Pagan Athenians] are also his offspring.

As hard as it is to understand or believe, the Truth is that even the “first Adam” is God’s “offspring,” and serves a vital function in the revelation of the “last Adam,” because we cannot be the last Adam until we have been the first Adam.

Luk 3:38  Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

All things are of Him, and this is what Elihu was given to reveal to Job and his friends and to us all.

Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

That sounds a whole lot like Elihu’s words in the first verses of Job 35:

Job 35:6  If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
Job 35:7  If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?

What does God say about all these words of Elihu? Here is just a taste of what God says. He certainly did have Elihu speaking in His stead. These are just a few of God’s own words to Job:

Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

I have said enough. I hope this helps to make clear what Elihu meant when he asked Job:

Suppose a man says to God, ‘I am guilty but will offend no more. Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do so again.’ Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I; so tell me what you know.

Asking God to teach you is worthless if it is not accompanied with godly repentance, which acknowledges that God owes us nothing, and we owe Him everything.
The total sovereignty of God is the main lesson of the book of Job. It is He who is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

Your brother in Christ.
Mike