As we proceed further into the chapter, we are made aware of a fifth individual, one who, up until this moment, had watched and heard the interaction between Job and his three friends but had remained silent.
We are informed
that he is Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, and by
all accounts, he was an angry young man. His wrath was aroused against Job,
against Job’s three friends, and as any youthful hubris is likely to do, he
thought he knew better than everyone and proceeded to set them straight. He’d
held his tongue up until this point. Perhaps his parents had taught him to
respect his elders, and although he’d been present for the back and forth
between Job and his three friends, and managed to hold his tongue and not
speak, that time had come and gone, and now he would give them a piece of his
mind.
His wrath was
aroused against Job because he viewed Job’s discourse as justifying himself
rather than God, and against his three friends because they found no answer,
yet condemned Job. Young Elihu was an island unto himself and had convinced
himself that he knew better than everyone, and he’d prove it.
Evidently, it’s
not just this generation of young people who think they know better than those
with decades under their belt. It’s not a new malady, it seems, but something
that has been around for thousands upon thousands of years.
The first words
out of Elihu’s mouth could readily be seen as an insult to the other four men,
calling them very old, rather than wise or experienced. If you have children of
a certain age, you’ve likely had at least one such conversation wherein the
things they said revealed a lack of practical life experience. When we were
children, we all thought as children. Tragically, even though fully grown, some
men still think as children, but generally speaking, the way of things ought to
be that the grayer your temples, the greater the wisdom you possess.
There are no
substitutes for some things. While you can substitute sugar for Splenda or
coffee for tea, there are no substitutes for lived experience, and the wise
among us tend to learn from the mistakes of others instead of making the same
mistakes themselves.
There are
countless examples in which the good advice parents gave their children was
summarily ignored, only for the very same children to come back years later and
grudgingly admit that their parents were right. Perhaps the face tattoo wasn’t
the best idea. Perhaps mom and dad were right, and gainful employment did have
its benefits, like not starving, after all.
Job 32:10-14,
“Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me, I also will declare my opinion.’ Indeed I
waited for your words, I listened to your reasonings, while you searched out
what to say. I paid close attention to you; and surely not one of you convinced
Job, or answered his words – lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom’; God will
vanquish him, not man. Now he has not directed his words against me; so I will
not answer him with your words.”
No one asked it
of me, but I will, nevertheless, give my opinion, and you have no choice but to
listen to me. Although the Word does not go into detail about who this young
man was, other than that he was from the family of Ram and the son of Barachel
the Buzite, it seems he thought highly of himself and was not shy about it.
It’s one of the things the household of faith contends with more and more these
days, because everyone not only has an opinion about everything, but they feel
it is within their right to voice said opinion, and insist that everyone
listen.
It’s one of the
reasons we have strayed so far from Biblical truth that we now require a
roadmap just to get back to its general vicinity. It may deflate some egos, but
when it comes to Biblical truth and what the Word of God says, your opinion is
irrelevant. I know, but I’m me, and I’m important, and people should listen to
everything I have to say, even if it contradicts Scripture itself.
As I heard a
young man ask the cashier at the local grocery store when she denied his
coupons because they’d expired, “Who you is? Who do you think you is?”
We have foregone
discipleship, seasoning, maturing, studying, learning, and growing, because
those things take too long, and we have a five-year plan for our ministry. I
got saved on a Wednesday, and started teaching the Word on a Sunday, even
though the first time I ever cracked open a Bible was the previous Thursday,
but listen to me, and I also will declare my opinion!
Then they start
playing their own version of “Did God really say?” with scripture that is
obvious and unambiguously declares what God said, because in order to stand
out, you have to put a new spin on the old text, and in order to do that, you
must go beyond the bounds of what it states.
Now that you’re
old, you just have a problem with young people in ministry. Not so, but I do
take issue with brash young people in ministry who attempt to twist the Word of
God to fit their reimagined version of what they think Christianity should be
instead of what the Bible says it is. Being loud doesn’t make you right; it
just makes you loud.
Speaking of
things that can’t be substituted, discipleship is one of those things, at least
if the desire of your heart is authentic ministry and not just a get-rich-quick
scheme you’ve dreamed up. Who one chooses as their mentor in spiritual matters
tells me everything I need to know about the true desire of their heart. There
are those who follow after Christ, laying aside their plans, dreams,
aspirations, and desires in the process; then there are those who pretend to
follow Him to fulfill their plans, dreams, aspirations, and desires. One will
lead to a humble, well-lived, obedient, and Biblical life. In contrast, the
other will lead to compromise, because being Biblical will never draw the
crowds that being worldly will, and if the heart is set on the things of this
world, then every decision will focus toward that end.
The worst thing
the young can do is seek to be discipled by flash over substance, unless what
they really want is to mirror the flash, without regard for what the Bible says
a bishop, elder, or teacher of the Word ought to be. We’ve seen the
consequences of these choices time and again, and we’re just getting started.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
