Les Calvary: Look Up
One Year Bible (Aug. 30)
Job 34:1-36:33
“Les Calvary’: LOOK UP!
Abraham Lincoln was once asked what his favorite hymn was…
“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on…” (The Battle Hymn of the Republic)
These words were penned by Julia Ward Howe after visiting with the Union Troops in the thick of the Civil War. She was so inspired that she wrote this well-known hymn.
“Glory, glory Hallelujah…His truth is marching on.”
In the midst of suffering, the people were following LIncoln’s leadership and were “Looking Up”!
Throughout all of this suffering, war, and death, Lincoln never knew how esteemed he was in the hearts of people and to God. He died not really knowing but he was not focused on himself.
This is the exact spot that Job is in as we begin our reading today. He knows that he is on the threshold of death and all he can hear is condemnation. He is remembering God and trying to “Look Up”...He knows that his REDEEMER LIVES and that he will see God!
We have read the beginning of the book of Job and know how highly God thinks of Job. “Have you seen my servant, Job?”
God is very pleased with this man who is dear to his heart, but Job has no idea because he can not go near God in the midst of his suffering. He has no advocate or mediator to approach The Father for him.
In the first half of the book of Job, all of their eyes were “LOOKING AROUND” at all of the sorrow and “LOOKING BACK” at the Law.
No one was “LOOKING UP”... Then comes Job’s famous prophetic words in Job 19t, “I know that my Redeemer lives” the entire book is shifting. UPWARD.
Seemingly out of nowhere, we meet “Enlightening Eliju”.
He is not one of the three friends and is a younger man. He has been sitting there listening to all of this back and forth, back and forth… In fact, there have been THREE ROUNDS and finally, it is SILENT…but the silence isn’t golden.
Job won’t bend or break and his three friends won’t give him a break. Out of courtesy to age and wisdom, Eliju has politely waited his turn. Now, he has “Had it up to here”! In fact, the passage begins by telling us that he is good and mad. I get it; Don’t you?
These three ol’ boys have been getting on my nerves for quite a few chapters now. I am pretty sure that I would have been tempted to butt in…but Eliju waited and waited. And now, it is his turn at the “Podium of Pain”.
I am warning you. This guy is just “warming up”... He is going to give THREE LONG SPEECHES as a very long monologue. Perhaps in honor of the “THREE LONG WINDBAGS!
So, Who, Who, Who is Eli-WHO????
He kind of reminds me of a John the Baptist, interestingly enough.
Eliju’s name means “My God is HE”, and that is exactly what he does in this situation. He points all four men to the WHO… God!
He is angry when he begins his speech. He had listened the entire time to all THREE ROUNDS of speeches by the THREE AMIGOS and he had listened to all of Job’s defenses.
Eliju was weary of listening to Job defend himself instead of defending his perfect, just God!
His approach is different than the other three. He tries to convince Job that he must become humble and teachable and patient.
Enlightening Eliju sees that Job is sinning in the suffering, not by cursing God but by demanding his cause be answered by God. He has come to feel “Entitled” to answers for his suffering and is demanding a trial and that God answer him.
He is also not pleased with The Three Amigos who have turned to false accusations against Job rather than guiding his eyes back on God where they belong. They were not only miserable comforters but were also miserable representatives of God. None of them had been able to refute Job at all; they had only made things worse. The enemy of God has a way of using the weaknesses of those close to us to try and provoke us to sin in our weakest times.
Elihu highlights the greatness and power of God and how it is beyond our comprehension. We do not call HIM into question, HE calls us…Look at his interesting words in Job 32:19, “I am like a cask of wine without a vent, like a new wineskin ready to burst.”
In Mark 2:22 Jesus, himself, uses a metaphor saying that “no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wine will burst…”
He was talking about the OT Law vs. the fulfillment of the law through GRACE. Whenever God is about to do a NEW THING, He invites them to LOOK UP!
“Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord… His Truth is Marching on”!
