Job 35:6. "If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?" This is Job's friend Elihu speaking. He has come, with Job's other friends, to talk to Job in Job's misery. Each of Job's friends is hurtful and unhelpful to Job. Each is certain, in his own way, that Job must have done something wrong to be deserving of the state he is in. But Job's friends' discourses are very helpful to us; they show us how mistaken and hurtful we can be when we apply our limited understanding of God as if it was complete.

Each of Job's friends has an understanding of God that is correct, but limited. They do not have the full picture of God (none of us do!), but they apply their limited understanding as if it was complete, and this leads them to hurt Job further, and paint a picture of God that has elements of truth, but is incorrect and hurtful. Prior to this verse, Elihu has just set forth his understanding of God. He sees God as so mighty, so above man, as to be somewhat detached - meting out justice almost as a science, rather than with love and compassion. He says "the Almighty will not pervert justice" (Job 34:12) and "He shatters the mighty without investigation" (Job 34:24). From this understanding of God as a completely impartial arbiter of justice, Elihu concludes that God would not be permitting Job's suffering unless Job had done something to deserve it, otherwise God would be perverting justice, which He would never do. Job's protestations to the contrary, to Elihu, are simply adding further transgressions to Job's sin: "Job speaks without understanding ... he adds rebellion to his sin." (Job 34:35,37). In this verse, and the ones that follow, Elihu is trying to show Job that God is not diminished by Job's sin, nor would he be increased by Job's righteousness (Job 35:7). It seems Elihu thinks we are essentially meaningless to God, we are simply creatures He must reward and punish in order to accomplish justice.

This is a way of thinking that we can fall into sometimes. God can seem so remote and uncaring, especially when we are suffering and we do not understand why. Our prayers seem to go unanswered, and we can start to think we must have done something terribly wrong to deserve this. But, while God is all just, he is also all loving. His justice is always a manifestation of His love. We do mean something to God, we mean a lot to Him. When we sin, we do not "accomplish" anything against Him, as Elihu who points out, but we hurt ourselves and that hurts Him, because He loves us - just look at Jesus, especially His agony in the garden. And when we are righteous, we do not add to God's righteousness, but we please Him, again, because He loves us, and our righteousness brings us closer to Him and to eternal life with Him.

God will eventually come and speak to Job, not to explain Himself, but because He loves Job and wants Job to understand that He is always with him, even in the depths of what seems like unjust suffering. He is always with us, as well, loving us through all of our trials, and accomplishing good and, yes, justice, even when we do not see it. We simply have to trust Him, a trust that is born of knowing His love for us.