April 27, 2026
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Job? Here’s today’s reading:
Job 35 (NIV)
1 Then Elihu said:
2“Do you think this is just?
You say, ‘I am in the right, not God.’
3 Yet you ask him, ‘What profit is it to me,
and what do I gain by not sinning?’…..Continue Reading
I don’t remember Job saying “what do I gain by not sinning” and AI confirmed it (lol) and so he is a bit off base for his accusation here. And even if he inferred this from Job wondering why God has treated him this way in spite of him doing good, Elihu and the others could be more understanding of why Job would wonder that. Sin and righteousness matter more to us and others than it does to God. In other words, He is not changed by it, and yet he deals with us differently based on it because He seeks to foster righteousness in us and discourage sin because of the positive and negative effects to us and others. Elihu says correctly that Job has questioned whether God hears him and he is right to reenforce that He does. He sees all, hears all and cares about all and is always willing to help in our time of need. The way that translates to us , though, may be dependent on a lesson that God is teaching us….as is certainly true for why He has waited to respond to Job until the end.
Job 35
Elihu has a way of misunderstanding or misrepresenting Job’s words. Job does not cry to to God out of self righteousness because he thinks God is being unjust but rather Job knows God and expects Him to respond, he trusts him and is confident that God is a fair and just God that will make things right. Certainly many people who do not seek out God in the good times will cry out to God in their time of need or desperation. We cannot expect God to be on standby only in the times it is convenient for us. We should be seeking Him in the good times and the bad. We build our relationship and get to know Him in the good times so that when the bad times come, and they will come based on our sinful nature, we have an existing relationship of faith and trust in Him that becomes a comfort to us. I would not expect a stranger to be my shoulder to cry on, I go to a friend, someone I love and know loves me.
Job 35
That last verse would be more accurate if it said, “So Elihu continues to open his mouth with empty talk; without knowledge he multiplies words.”
Job 35
“If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?”
Job 35:7 NKJV
It is true that our righteousness is but filthy rags, however the argument isn’t that Job thinks he has anything to offer God, but rather he has not sinned as his friends accuse him, and his suffering is not God’s judgement on him for his sin.