Job 32:01 Far Enough! Jobs Friends Did Not Go Far Enough! 2025 02 17

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Transcript

Welcome to the InAllWisdom Podcast,

A Daily Podcast dedicated to wisdom for life.

I am Jim Donnelly, your host.

I have completed a commentary on

The book of Ecclesiastes, all 222 verses.

Ecclesiastes Amplified: A Collection of Wise Words 

We have set the publication date for 2025.

In the meantime, I am working on the book of Job, 

all forty-two chapters, all one thousand and seventy verses.

My book title prompts a different approach: 

Title: Job Is A True Story – Spoken By Yahweh, Written By Solomon 

With this subtitle:

In order for you “To know wisdom and discipline, to understand the sayings of understanding.” 

Please stay tuned to today’s insightful Podcast.

For sure you will learn something new about the book of Job!

The title of today’s Podcast is: “Job’s Friends Did Not Go Far Enough” 

Before we confront ourselves with the possibility that Job’s friends may only have hung in there for three days, before they packed up and were ready to go back to their homes; allow me to read Job chapter thirty-two. 

It is twenty-two verses long. 

Each time I deliver a Podcast, I read the related chapter of Job. 

This helps many readers who may know nothing about the book. 

And others who know some things may better understand the book of Job.

I use a different translation each month. To help us all hear and better understand, the longest story in the entire Bible. 

A story intended to bring the reader to a knowledge of wisdom and discipline, to bring readers to an understanding of the sayings of understanding.  

Today I read from the Legacy Standard Bible. (See endnote on this new English translation). 

The Book of JOB

CHAPTER 32

                1             Then these three men ceased answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. 

                2             But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned; against Job his anger burned because he was proving himself righteous cbefore God. 

                3             And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. 

                4             Now Elihu had waited with his words for Job because they were years older than he. 

                5             Then Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, so his anger burned. 

                6             So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, 

“I am young in years and you are old; 

Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you my knowledge. 

                7             “I thought aage should speak, 

And increased years should make wisdom known. 

                8             “But it is a spirit in man, 

And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding. 

                9             “The abundant in years may not be wise, 

Nor may elders understand justice. 

                10           “So I say, ‘Listen to me, 

I too will tell my knowledge.’ 

                11           “Behold, I waited for your words, 

I gave ear to your reasonings, 

While you searched out what to say. 

                12           “I even carefully considered you; 

And behold, there was no one who reproved Job, 

Not one of you who answered his words. 

                13           “Lest you say, 

‘We have found wisdom; 

God will drive him away, not man.’ 

                14           “Now he has not arranged his words against me, 

Nor will I respond to him with your words. 

                15           “They are dismayed; they no longer answer; 

Words have moved away from them. 

                16           “Shall I wait, because they do not speak, 

Because they stand still and no longer answer? 

                17           “I myself will also answer my share; 

I also will tell my knowledge. 

                18           “For I am full of words; 

The spirit within my belly presses me. 

                19           “Behold, my belly is like unvented wine, not opened; 

Like new wineskins it is about to burst. 

                20           “Let me speak that I may get relief; 

Let me open my lips and answer. 

                21           “Let me now be partial to no one, 

Nor flatter any man. 

                22           “For I do not know how to flatter, 

Else my Maker would soon carry me away.”  

Legacy Standard Bible (Job 32). (2022). Three Sixteen Publishing.

Today’s Podcast is titled:

“Job’s Friends Did Not Go Far Enough”

The spiritual terrain, plotted with error, was familiar to Job’s three friends; it included the regions of Sabbath, Witness, and Righteousness. These three regions of the Hebrew mind, come into focus here in Job 32. The instructions in Torah about Sabbath, Witness, and Righteousness are part of the Bio that is used by the Author to introduce Elihu. Because there was possible error at every turn; navigating through the valleys and mountains of life necessarily included thinking through Sabbath, Witness and Righteousness.

Well, let’s ponder that a bit.

First up is the idea of working and Sabbath rest:

To a Hebrew reading Job 32:1, a blink of the eye would have yielded a clear understanding of “ceasing” to answer. Because the very first word of Job chapter 32 is “Shabbat” (Sabbath). It is the root of the Hebrew word translated: “They rested”. The only other occurrence in the Hebrew Bible of this exact Hebrew word form, is also, the first word of Hebrew sentence translated: “So the people [they] rested on the seventh day.” (Exodus 16:30, NASB). 

What is more, “Three” is the second word of Job chapter 32. “Three” is written nineteen times in Torah (Moses’ writings). Fifteen of them occur with the word “days”. “Three days” was an embedded phrase in the minds of the followers of God in Job ‘s time, (see, Genesis 30:36; 40:12, 13, 18, 19; 42:17; Exodus 3:18; 5:3; 8:23; 10:22, 23; 15:22; Numbers 10:33 (2x); and 33:8. 

Job 32:1 literally begins: “They rested three . . . “.  So, the immediate reaction of a Hebrew reader or hearer of the first two words of Job chapter 32 may have been something like this: ‘that can’t happen or should not happen, we are to work three more days’. 

So, Sabbath instruction, working six days is first up in setting the tone for Elihu. “Sabbath” and “Three” cannot be separated from each other in the mind of the Hebrew readers and hearer of Job chapter 32. 

Even though they knew the rest of the sentence, they would still have related “three” to “six days of work and then Sabbath rest”, Their conclusion would have been rounded out this way: The three friends should have worked six days a week until they successfully protected God’s glory from Job’s shout-outs.

Second, is the idea of “answering [testifying, witnessing]” for or against.

The situation of someone who “ceased . . .  from answering” would have immediately brought to mind another Torah instruction: “If a malicious witness rises up against a man (lit. to testify against) to accuse him of wrongdoing [rebellion]” (Deuteronomy 19:15). 

This was very familiar language because it is tied to the commandment: “You shall not bear false witness [testimony or answering] against your neighbor.” (Deuteronomy 5:20, NASB). 

Perhaps their reaction would have been something like this: ‘Why did they stop testifying against Job?; they should have kept working and finished the task as a faithful witness [bearing true testimony about God] and Job until Job repented.’ 

Third, because “He was righteous in his eyes”:

Job had a stellar evaluation from God: “The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” (Job 1:8, NASB).  

Job stood above the crowd when it came to fearing God and turning away from evil. No one else was on the platform with him. 

However, thoughts of self-righteousness were just around the corner, readied to ambush him, to take him down, and so they did. 

So first up in Job chapter 32 is the Glory of God, not Elihu. The reader must understand this sequence, it is God who is to be glorified above all else. Elihu’s name means: “He is my God”.

So, there we have it, God is front and center in Elihu’s name, and we will learn that God is front and center in Elihu’s life.

And God is front and center for all humankind. God alone should have first place in our lives.

But the journey through life is often difficult, Endurance is required for the trek. In every stage of life, “the process often seems long, and we lose our song in the night” (I have been blessed by those words dozens, and dozens of times. They are in a song that Steve Green sings, ‘He who began a good work in you”. 

Job’s friends rested, they “threw in the towel”, they “gave-up”, they should have “carried-on”; they should have meditated more on what Yahweh had said; instead, they rolled up their misunderstood scroll of truth and went home.

We have come to the end of today’s InAllWisdom Podcast. A Daily Podcast dedicated 

to wisdom for life. Thank you for listening! 

Please join me again for another interesting episode about Wisdom for Life. 

Until he COMES ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory, I give this blessing that was given to Israel: “… Yahweh bless you, and keep you; Yahweh make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; Yahweh lift up His face on you, And give you peace… “ (Numbers 6:22-27, LSB).