Job 36:5-12. Elihu tells Job that God does not despise anyone, He understands all. He does not keep the wicked alive, but He gives the afflicted their rights. He sets the righteous with kings upon thrones forever and they are exalted. If anyone is bound in fetters or caught in the cords of affliction, then God declares to them their transgressions and that they are behaving arrogantly. "He opens their ears for instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity. If they hearken and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity," but if they do not, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

This all sounds so right and yet we know that it is wrong! I have to admit that I think like Elihu a lot. I think that if we follow God's ways, if we love Him and truly try our best to serve Him, we will live good lives. We may not be rich or powerful, but He will give us everything we need to complete our days and prosperity. When trials come, I, like Elihu, often think of them as God trying to tell me something. He is allowing me to suffer because I have been behaving arrogantly, and I need to open my ears to his instruction and commands so that I can return from my iniquity, and often that is right! The truth of the matter is that Elihu sounds so right because he is right in very many circumstances. Often, what Elihu says is exactly what God is doing through our suffering. Very often I am being sinful or arrogant and God calls me back through my trials.

However, we know that the most righteous person who ever lived, Jesus Christ, suffered unspeakably while on earth. We also know that in the book of Job, Job has not done anything to merit this intense suffering he is going through. We know that God is allowing Satan to test Job. So we do know that there is suffering that is undeserved, we know it is not always God calling us back, sometimes it is God calling us to something more - to a participation in His Son's suffering, to a willing acceptance of it, in faith, so that we become like the sacrificial Lamb, too.

I'm getting two lessons here. First, when I encounter life's sufferings, I should examine myself and my actions and attitudes. It is very possible that I have been going wrong and that God is calling me to listen to His instructions and come back to Him. However, if I truly have not been sinning, I should accept the suffering as part of God's will, offer it up, and trust that he is doing good with it. Second, we should never judge someone else by their suffering. Job's friends all want to try to help him figure out what where he has gone wrong, but Job knows that he has not done anything wrong. His pain is only increased by his friends lecturing him! When others are suffering, the only thing that we should do is be there for them, willing to listen, and talk if they want to, but never offer unasked for advice or an exploration of where they could have gone wrong to get in the situation they are in!