Elihu Rethinks Justice

Synopsis     Job 34:21-35:15     7/16/2021 

In his rebuke, Elihu reminded Job that no one knows their day of judgement. God simply acts as He does. This is because, God is not dependent. 

In this way, Elihu sets up the argument that God is altogether self-sufficient. He neither lacks anything nor can anything be added to His perfection. 

So, it follows that any conversation concerning justice with God has to be understood differently. Since Job’s righteousness doesn’t benefit the self-sufficient Creator, and since his sin doesn’t diminish the self-sufficient Creator, there is no transaction. And, if there is no transaction, then there can be no injustice. 

Elihu Rethinks Justice 

God doesn’t owe Job a pleasant life simply because he’s been sinless. And, in fact, this kind of thinking is a kind of sin. It is a privation of the right way Job might have understood his circumstances.  

Of course, the pain and suffering brought him to this point of revelation. Without it, the question may never have come up. Job’s (and my) need provoked God’s revelation. 

Justice and Jesus 

Jesus is God. And God is self-sufficient. So, Jesus is self-sufficient. Thus, I add nothing to His sufficiency and I can do nothing to diminish His perfection.  

And yet He loves me. 

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,”^* says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.” Rev 1:8