Job 36:1-16: a reflection

1Elihu also continued, and said, 2“Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf. 3I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. 4For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you. 5“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding. 6He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted. 7He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted. 8If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions, 9then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly. 10He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity. 11If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. 12But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge. 13“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them. 14They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean. 15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression. 16Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.

Elihu, speaking of God's dealings with people, says something worth pausing over: that God uses affliction to instruct and turn people from pride. He opens their ears to instruction, Elihu says, and commands that they return from iniquity. And again: he delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in adversity. Affliction, in Elihu's telling, is not merely something to endure, but something God can use to open our ears, to teach us, to turn us from pride and back to himself.

Notice the purpose Elihu sees in affliction: that God uses it to open the ear. He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in adversity. There is something about hardship that can open us to God in a way that ease does not; adversity can make us listen when prosperity left us deaf. God can use the very affliction we would avoid to teach us, to turn us from pride, to open our ears to instruction we would not otherwise have heard. Affliction, in his hand, becomes a teacher.

That is a truth worth holding in our own afflictions. We naturally want only to escape hardship; but Elihu reminds us that God can use affliction to open our ears, to teach us what we would not learn in ease, to turn us from pride. The adversity we would avoid may be the very thing God uses to reach us. When affliction comes, do not only ask how to escape it; ask what God may be using it to teach you, what he may be opening your ears to hear. Let adversity open your ear to God, as Elihu says it can, rather than merely enduring or escaping it. God delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens the ear in adversity; let your afflictions teach you, turning you from pride and opening your ears to God, rather than passing through them having learned nothing.

Lord, Elihu says that you use affliction to instruct and turn people from pride: you open their ears to instruction, and deliver the afflicted by their affliction, opening the ear in adversity. Help me hold that truth in my own afflictions. I naturally want only to escape hardship; but Elihu reminds me that you can use affliction to open my ears, to teach me what I would not learn in ease, to turn me from pride. There is something about hardship that can open me to you in a way that ease does not; adversity can make me listen when prosperity left me deaf. The adversity I would avoid may be the very thing you use to reach me. When affliction comes, keep me from only asking how to escape it; help me ask what you may be using it to teach me, what you may be opening my ears to hear. Let adversity open my ear to you, as Elihu says it can, rather than my merely enduring or escaping it. You deliver the afflicted by their affliction, and open the ear in adversity; let my afflictions teach me, turning me from pride and opening my ears to you, rather than my passing through them having learned nothing. Open my ears through what I suffer, Lord.