Week 9 - Elihu Speaks Again - Job 36-37

This is his fourth speech.  This is notable because the others spoke three times (except for Zophar who could not respond to Job’s call for an indictment of himself by God).  This speech was added (yāsap̄).  Speeches 2 and 3 were instead introduced with the word “said” ('āmar).  This could have been seen as arrogant.

Job 36:1

And Elihu continued, and said:

But what also should be noted it that Job did not respond to any of Elihu's discourses.  They rang true and they could not be argued.

Elihu explains that on earth God executes justice and instructs through government.

Job 36:6-7

He does not keep the wicked alive,

    but gives the afflicted their right.

He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,

    but with kings on the throne

    he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

Those that do not follow His instruction through them receive just punishment.

Job 36:12
But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword

    and die without knowledge.

Elihu continues to explain that Job had followed God's instruction and was put in a special spot.

Job 36:16 

He also allured you out of distress

    into a broad place where there was no cramping,

    and what was set on your table was full of fatness. 

But this calamity caused Job to become judgmental.  

Job 36:17-18

“But you are full of the judgment on the wicked;

    judgment and justice seize you.

Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing,

    and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.

It is an easy temptation to take pride in quality of our doctrine, the excellence of our pulpit, and the height of our church's spire.  But with Job that pride turned to judgement, when his efforts did not protect him from this calamity.  This was the sin of Job.

Then Elihu goes on to explain that God teaches through nature.

Job 36:22-23

Behold, God is exalted in his power;

    who is a teacher like him?

Who has prescribed for him his way,

    or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?

Through it God demonstrates his power and the weakness of all others.

Job 37:6-8

For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’

    likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.

He seals up the hand of every man,

    that all men whom he made may know it.

Then the beasts go into their lairs,

    and remain in their dens. 

 And the lesson in all this is:

Job 37:13

Whether for correction or for his land

    or for love, he causes it to happen.

Turning then to Job, Elihu challenges him to speak, because Elihu himself would not want to be put on the stand.

Job 37:19-20

Teach us what we shall say to him;

    we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.

Shall it be told him that I would speak?

    Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?

 The Judge is about to enter the courtroom.

Week 8 - Elihu Speaks - Job 32-35

A younger man by the name of Elihu has been listening to this dialog.  He has been patient, because of his age (Job 32:6), to the point of almost bursting.  

Job 32:19-20

Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent;

    like new wineskins ready to burst.

I must speak, that I may find relief;

    I must open my lips and answer.

And to claim his place in the conversation, he alludes to how a potter makes a series of dishes.

Job 33:6

Behold, I am toward God as you are;

    I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.

But as Elihu joins the conversation he says something very different, in this first discourse, because he does understand that God is indeed the potter (Romans 9:1-29).  While Eliphas, Bildad, and Zophar argue that if Job does something, then God will do something, Elihu asserts that because of God's immenseness, the opposite is true.

Job 33:12

“Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you,

    for God is greater than man.

He explains the "If God, then man" paradigm in a clear Ordo Salutis (order of salvation):

Job 33:23-28

If there be for him an angel,

    a mediator, one of the thousand,

    to declare to man what is right for him,

and he is merciful to him, and says,

    ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;

    I have found a ransom;

let his flesh become fresh with youth;

    let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;

then man[a] prays to God, and he accepts him;

    he sees his face with a shout of joy,

and he restores to man his righteousness.

    He sings before men and says:

‘I sinned and perverted what was right,

    and it was not repaid to me.

He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,

    and my life shall look upon the light.’

Then in a second discourse he turns first to his companions and asks them to reexamine their arguments.  He does so by egregiously misquoting Job twice (Job 34:5-6 vs Job 13:26 and Job 5:9 vs Job 9:22) as they seem to have done in their arguments.  

He goes on to explain that Job's calamity and God's sovereign withdrawal of blessing are not connected.

Job 34:29

When he is quiet, who can condemn?

    When he hides his face, who can behold him,

    whether it be a nation or a man?

Then he turns to Job and challenges him for placing himself on equal footing with God.  Others are more penitent.

Job 34:31-33

“For has anyone said to God,

    ‘I have borne punishment; I will not offend any more;

teach me what I do not see;

    if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?

Will he then make repayment to suit you,

    because you reject it?

For you must choose, and not I;

    therefore declare what you know.

Then in a third discourse, Elihu explains to Job his place in the enormity of creation.  He simply does not have an impact on God.

Job 35:5-7

Look at the heavens, and see;

    and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?

    And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

If you are righteous, what do you give to him?

    Or what does he receive from your hand?

And he goes on to assert that God does not in fact have to take up Job's case.

Job 35:13-14

Surely God does not hear an empty cry,

    nor does the Almighty regard it.

How much less when you say that you do not see him,

    that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!

In all of this Job does not respond.  There is a truth about it that was not present in the discourses of the earlier speakers. 

Week 7 - Way of the Upright - Job 25-31

Bildad, the second of Job's three friends came to an unsettling conclusion in what is the shortest chapter of Job (Job 25).

Previously Bildad had argued that receiving a pardon from God was impossible because it would pervert the justice of God.  And he argued that it would unleash the constraints on wickedness because the fear of death and judgement would be removed.  But when confronted with the enormity of God and his creation, he became downcast and his arguments became a simple question.

Job 25:4a

How then can man be in the right before God?

Job's responds in agreement.  Yes, agreement.  Man cannot make himself right before God.  But confident in his Redeemer (Job 19:24-26) he will not follow the way of the fool.  Even though calamity has struck him, seemingly in response to his foolish wife's advice (Job 2:9), Job declares:

Job 27:6

I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;

    my heart does not reproach me for any of my days. 

With that backdrop Job then extols man’s efforts and accomplishments, but ultimately finds them outweighed by wisdom, which rather than being purchased must be found.  God’s accomplishments seen in nature leads Job to the ultimate conclusion that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Job 28:28

And he said to man,

‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,

    and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Resolute and ready for trial, Job asks God to indict him.

Job 31:35 

Oh, that I had one to hear me!

    (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)

    Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!

Then not only Bildad is without an argument, but Zophar who would be next to speak, does not.

Job 32:1 

So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

A fourth friend, who has been waiting patiently to speak is about to burst.  We will hear from him next week. 

Pop’s Letter

Recently we downsized. It is that inevitable process as children leave the nest. To prepare we had to go through box after box of the prior generation’s keepsakes. At the beginning it was a struggle. Each item was a decision. What to keep and what to toss.  The digital age has made it easier. Scanning software from Google or a quick picture makes the memory permanent. 

Then one gets into a rhythm and knows instinctively what is important and what is not. What tells the story of the lost one and what is simply clutter.  What started to surface was a pattern.  While the pictures were nice, the letters were important. 

This made me realize that the crucial art of letter writing had died and that few emails will survive to the next generation.  

So a solution became a passion. Many of the letters I found were airmail. They were on a stationary that was the envelope. To save weight very thin paper folded to make its own envelope. If we could reproduce this technique with simple 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper and if we could make it available electronically, letter writing could once again be easy and fun.

A quick search on the internet found a great group of people, the Envelope and Letter Fold Association.  They pointed me to something called the scoop envelope on the ELFA page by Paula Versnick.  

With a bit of work, the following template is now ready for use:

Folding Envelope

The instructions are simple.  

Print it out, write your letter on the back, then fold it so that the blue lines are on the outside and the red ones are on the inside. Then you are ready for the address and the stamp. No need to take it to the post office.  Place it in your mailbox, flip up that red flag (yes, that is what it is for!), and the mail carrier will pick it up.

For those that like more complex instructions, try these:

1. If you start with the blue lines that go all the way from one edge of the paper to the other, I have found it easier. I start with the top corners and then do that longest fold across the top, then the two sides. 
2. This should get you to the place where only blue lines are on one side and red ones are on the other. Place the blue side down on the table, then fold on the red lines of the two triangles to make the scoops.  
3. Fold the bottom edge over at the red line, then insert the bottom corners into the scoops, crease, and seal with a bit of tape. 

If you needed a second page for your letter, fold it separate from the envelope.  

1. First fold it in half as your normally would, by bringing the bottom edge to meet the top edge.  That makes a 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch rectangle.  
2. Then fold it in thirds by bringing the right edge 2/3 of way across and then bring the left edge all the way across to meet the crease.  
3. That should make a 3 by 5 1/2 inch rectangle that fits nicely in the envelope, which itself is 3 1/2 by a little more than 5 1/2 inch wide.  Nice how that works out. 

Special Instructions for Grandparents

Print two envelopes.  Write a letter to a grandchild on one.  Put a stamp on both.  Then fold the blank envelope as a second page (see above) inside your letter.  With some help from mom or dad, the grandchild may refold it and send back a letter of their own!  Great fun.

Special Instructions for Geeks

Get GoodNotes and import the stationary as a landscape template.  Create your envelope from the new template and address it before you print it.   

Then write your letter using a portrait template and print it on the back of the envelope!  You can easily add digital pictures and QR codes to mix modern and vintage.

It is my hope that letters will once again become a treasured thing.