The Living Bible (169 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Elihu continued:
2
“Listen to me, you wise men.
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We can choose the sounds we want to listen to; we can choose the taste we want in food,
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and we should choose to follow what is right. But first of all we must define among ourselves what is good.
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For Job has said, ‘I am innocent, but God says I’m not.
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I am called a liar, even though I am innocent. I am horribly punished, even though I have not sinned.’
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“Who else is as arrogant as Job? He must have spent much time with evil men,
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for he said, ‘Why waste time trying to please God?’
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“Listen to me, you with understanding. Surely everyone knows that
God doesn’t sin!
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Rather, he punishes the sinners.
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There is no truer statement than this:
God is never wicked or unjust.
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He alone has authority over the earth and dispenses justice for the world.
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If God were to withdraw his Spirit,
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all life would disappear and mankind would turn again to dust.
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“Listen now and try to understand.
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Could God govern if he hated justice? Are you going to condemn the Almighty Judge?
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Are you going to condemn this God who says to kings and nobles, ‘You are wicked and unjust’?
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For he doesn’t care how great a man may be, and doesn’t pay any more attention to the rich than to the poor. He made them all.
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In a moment they die, and at midnight great and small shall suddenly pass away, removed by no human hand.
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“For God carefully watches the goings on of all mankind; he sees them all.
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No darkness is thick enough to hide evil men from his eyes,
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so there is no need to wait for some great crime before a man is called before God in judgment.
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Without making a big issue over it, God simply shatters the greatest of men and puts others in their places.
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He watches what they do and in a single night he overturns them, destroying them,
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or openly strikes them down as wicked men.
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For they turned aside from following him,
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causing the cry of the poor to come to the attention of God. Yes, he hears the cries of those being oppressed.
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Yet when he chooses not to speak, who can criticize? Again, he may prevent a vile man from ruling, thus saving a nation from ruin, and he can depose an entire nation just as easily.
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“Why don’t people exclaim to their God, ‘We have sinned, but we will stop,’
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or ‘We know not what evil we have done; only tell us, and we will cease at once’?
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“Must God tailor his justice to your demands? Must he change the order of the universe to suit your whims? The answer must be obvious even to you!
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Anyone even half bright will agree with me that you, Job, are speaking like a fool.
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You should be given the maximum penalty for the wicked way you have talked about God.
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For now you have added rebellion, arrogance, and blasphemy to your other sins.”
Elihu continued:
2-3
“Do you think it is right for you to claim, ‘I haven’t sinned, but I’m no better off before God than if I had’?
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“I will answer you and all your friends too.
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Look up there into the sky, high above you.
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If you sin, does that shake the heavens and knock God from his throne? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have upon him?
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Or if you are good, is this some great gift to him?
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Your sins may hurt another man, or your good deeds may profit him.
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The oppressed may shriek beneath their wrongs and groan beneath the power of the rich; yet none of them cry to God, asking, ‘Where is God my Maker who gives songs in the night
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and makes us a little wiser than the animals and birds?’
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“But when anyone does cry out this question to him, he never replies by instant punishment of the tyrants.
*
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But it is false to say he doesn’t hear those cries;
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and it is even more false to say that he doesn’t see what is going on. He
does
bring about justice at last if you will only wait. But do you cry out against him because he does not instantly respond in anger?
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Job, you have spoken like a fool.”
Elihu continued:
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“Let me go on and I will show you the truth of what I am saying. For I have not finished defending God!
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I will give you many illustrations of the righteousness of my Maker.
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I am telling you the honest truth, for I am a man of well-rounded knowledge.
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“God is almighty and yet does not despise anyone! And he is perfect in his understanding.
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He does not reward the wicked with his blessings, but gives them their full share of punishment.
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He does not ignore the good men but honors them by placing them upon eternal, kingly thrones.
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If troubles come upon them and they are enslaved and afflicted,
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then he takes the trouble to point out to them the reason, what they have done that is wrong, or how they have behaved proudly.
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He helps them hear his instruction to turn away from their sin.
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“If they listen and obey him, then they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives.
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If they won’t listen to him, they shall perish in battle and die because of their lack of good sense.
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But the godless reap his anger. They do not even return to him when he punishes them.
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They die young after lives of dissipation and depravity.
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He delivers by distress! This makes them listen to him!
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“How he wanted to lure you away from danger into a wide and pleasant valley and to prosper you there.
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But you are too preoccupied with your imagined grievances against others.
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Watch out! Don’t let your anger at others lead you into scoffing at God! Don’t let your suffering embitter you at the only one who can deliver you.
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Do you really think that if you shout loudly enough against God, he will be ashamed and repent? Will this put an end to your chastisement?
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“Do not desire the nighttime, with its opportunities for crime.
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Turn back from evil, for it was to prevent you from getting into a life of evil that God sent this suffering.
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“Look, God is all-powerful. Who is a teacher like him?
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Who can say that what he does is absurd or evil?
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Instead, glorify him for his mighty works for which he is so famous.
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Everyone has seen these things from a distance.
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“God is so great that we cannot begin to know him. No one can begin to understand eternity.
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He draws up the water vapor and then distills it into rain,
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which the skies pour down.
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Can anyone really understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunders within?
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See how he spreads the lightning around him, and blankets the tops of the mountains.
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By his fantastic powers in nature he punishes or blesses the people, giving them food in abundance.
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He fills his hands with lightning bolts. He hurls each at its target.
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We feel his presence in the thunder. Even the cattle know when a storm is coming.