How Critics Help
"Truly I am as your spokesman before God!"
— Elihu
When we suffer and ask "Why?" we need someone to help us. Our first need is for a comforter — someone who loves us, understands our pain and gives us the courage to go on. Then we need a counselor — someone who listens to us, talks to us, and leads us through our struggle with the question "Why?" And, on occasion, we need a counselor who is a critic — someone who still loves us, but dares to confront us with the truth so that we will be open to hear God speak. Even though the process is painful, critics who speak "the truth in love" (Eph. 4:15) can help us.
Verbal violence has driven Job deeper and deeper into a defensive position. To counter the hostility of his three friends, he has not only built up a wall of self-protection for his innocence but also launched an attack on God's justice that borders on blasphemy. The culmination comes when Job draws up a legalistic bill of particulars in which he defends himself against every known sin and challenges anyone, including God, to find him guilty:
Oh, that the Almighty would answer me,
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That my Prosecutor had written a book!
Surely I would carry it on my shoulder,
And bind it on me like a crown;
I would declare to Him the number of my steps;
Like a prince I would approach Him.
(Job 31:35-37, emphasis mine)
I admired Job until he spoke that last line. It is one thing for him to attest his innocence before God and man; it is quite another thing to swagger like a prince into the presence of God. Job comes dangerously close to assuming that his innocence makes him equal with God. Without question, in his efforts to justify himself before his friends and God, Job has built around himself an impregnable wall of defense. Even if God should speak, he could not hear Him!
The shock of suffering radicalizes our responses. Like Job, we cry out "Why?" in anger and despair. After these emotions subside, however, we see our suffering more objectively. But if we are in an environment where we have to defend ourselves as Job did, our responses become more and more radical. Violent action creates violent reaction. For instance, Job's three friends drive him to such rash and wordy statements in his own defense that they finally stop answering him. Likewise, Job's perception that God has become his silent, vengeful enemy causes him to attack his Friend and defend himself. So, whenever suffering is compounded by self-defense, there is the danger of taking a radical position as our point of no return. Our ego investment is too great.
Radical overcommitment is a danger whenever we invest ourselves in a cause. In our zeal to advance the cause, we are pushed farther and farther toward radical extremes until we cut off avenues for retreat or alternatives for change. During the tumultuous days of the early 1970s, I invited an outstanding Black professor to a teaching position at Seattle Pacific College. He met all the qualifications for the position — he had a contagious Christian testimony, an earned doctorate, and a reputation for masterful teaching. When the news of his pending appointment reached radical Black groups in the city, however, they pressured him to side with them. Consequently, he turned down the offer with the
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explanation that he could not be his own man in the political climate of the times. While not being an "Uncle Tom" by any measure, he refused to be pushed into a radical identity that would detract from his faith and his teaching. As he perceived it, to be a Black professor in an urban Christian college in the early 1970s was a "lose-lose" situation.
The same hazard holds for any cause which we fully embrace. Over the years, I have witnessed the radicalization of people on both the right and the left who are forced into positions from which they have no retreat. Whether it is racism and feminism on the left or inerrancy and pro-life on the right, the danger of radical overcommitment persists. Even good causes with noble motives can degenerate into "lose-lose" situations.
Job came to this "dead end," not only with his three friends, but also with God. To swagger like a prince into the presence of God and dare Him to charge you with sin is more than radical overcommitment; it is insufferable arrogance. Job no longer needs a comforter or a counselor — he needs an objective critic to tell him the truth. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar were right on one count — Job had become righteous in his own eyes (Job 32:1).
Enter Elihu, a young man who had witnessed the futile debate between Job and his friends and waited for his turn to speak. Elihu is angry — white hot with rage against both Job and his friends. Job aroused his wrath by trying to justify himself rather than God, but Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar equally raised his ire because they condemned Job without answer or cause. So, Elihu is cast into the role of a critic. In a succession of three speeches, he contradicts Job's argument, condemns his self-righteousness, and creates a climate in which God can speak. After each speech, he invites Job to answer him.
It is Job's turn to be silent. His defenses crumble as he hears an angry young man speak the truth with love and the "breath of the Almighty." Thanks to Elihu his critic, Job steps back from his argument, sees that he is wrong, and submits himself to the silence in which God can speak. Critics can help us by refuting our closed position, recommending creative options, and readying us for God's revelation.
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Refuting Our Closed Position
Critics can save or destroy us. Emerson called the critic an ". . . unpaid guardian of our souls." Another person, however, said of a critic, "I didn't think he touched me until I tried to shake my head." All of us know what he meant. We usually think of our critics as persons who "get an edge in wordwise" and lop off our heads.
According to Emerson's definition, Elihu qualifies as a critic. He serves as the "unpaid guardian" of Job's soul. How could this be when he is introduced as being so angry with God? What is the difference between his anger and the rage of Job's other three friends? In his own words, Elihu defines the difference. He is angry — so much so that he says his words are about to burst out of his belly ". . . like wine that has no vent . . ." (Job 32:19).
There is a time for anger. In his book, Creative Suffering, Paul Tournier devotes a full chapter to this subject. He notes, "Anger and acceptance are contradictory in theory, but in practice they hold hands like the dancers in a folk dance."1 To illustrate his point, Tournier repeats the story of an old Italian man who has been victimized time and time again by the cruelties of life. His loneliness is compounded by a language barrier. No one understands him; no one accepts him. Didier Duruz, a psychiatrist, hears his sad story, becomes angry for him and pounds the table muttering the words, "It's not fair. It's not fair." Tournier reports that the old man's eyes light up as he realizes that someone understands and accepts him for the first time.2
Elihu's anger does not alienate Job. In fact, his show of rage probably comes as welcome relief from the vague attempts of his three friends to remain cool, calm, and collected when their insides bubbled and boiled with anger. But make no mistake, the expression of anger may be no better than the repression of anger. Catharsis or "cleaning out" may be therapeutic for the angry person, but it often leaves the victims of that anger in shambles.
A person I know has a reputation for a hair-trigger temper. At the slightest provocation, he bursts upon people, vents his anger, and leaves his victims limp. Moments later, he
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nonchalantly returns as if nothing happened. The truth is that his anger is a weapon of intimidation used to demand his own way. Something more is required for expressive anger to dance hand-in-hand with honest acceptance of people.
In his own words, Elihu tells us how his anger will be tempered. He begins by claiming to speak with the "breath of the Almighty" (32:8). His choice of words to describe the "Spirit" within him is not accidental. The "breath of the Almighty" of which Elihu speaks is the same Spirit that breathes life into all of God's works — Creation, Incarnation, Resurrection, and Revelation. Notably, neither Job nor his friends ever made the same claim for any of their wordy speeches. To be sure, Elihu's claim is bold. Yet, as we follow his speeches, the evidence is on his side. He is a critic who speaks with the understanding of the Spirit of God.
As another check-and-balance of his anger, Elihu tells Job that he will speak with impartiality. During their debate, Job and his friends had chosen sides and pushed their arguments to radical extremes. Emotions ran so high that anyone who entered the debate would be pressed to take one side or the other. Elihu, however, prays that he might be freed from bias in his response:
Let me not, I pray, show partiality to anyone;
Nor let me flatter any man.
For I do not know how to flatter,
Else my Maker would soon take me away.
(Job 32:21-22)
In this prayer, we see another reason Elihu qualifies as a critic. His claim to impartiality is linked to his sense of responsibility to God. Only a person who has the mind of God's Spirit can speak this way. Elihu is not bragging about his skills in impartial debate; he is acknowledging his responsibility before God to speak without bias.
Impartiality can be cold and unfeeling, but Elihu claims another dimension of the Spirit that assures Job of fairness. Just before Elihu tells Job that he is wrong to assume he is pure and God is unjust, he identifies with him as a fallible human being:
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I also have been formed out of clay.
Surely no fear of me will terrify you,
Nor will my hand be heavy on you.
(Job 33:6b-7)
What a contrast with the attitude of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar! They assumed that they were superior to Job and argued from their lofty positions. Elihu, however, comes down to Job's level with compassion for his suffering, his shame, and even his rantings against God. Now we know why Job fought so ferociously with his wise and elderly friends but now is willing to listen to a brash and angry young man. He knows Elihu means it when he says that he identifies with him as a fallible human being. When genuine compassion is the attitude communicated by our critics, we will hear them out even though it hurts.
For any of us who are called to be critics for our friends in times of suffering, Elihu sets the standard. Only as we have the mind of the Spirit of God can we speak. But how will we know when we have His mind? A check-and-balance system is the answer. We will become emotionally involved with the person so that he or she will know of our acceptance, even if we are angry. We will speak impartially as the Spirit reminds us of our responsibility before God when we deal with the dignity, freedom, and future of another person whom He has created and whom He loves. And we will be able to identify with the suffering of that person because we too are fallible and finite human beings. Thus, in the critical balance of the Holy Spirit, we are qualified as critics when we are involved with the person, inspired by the Spirit, impartial in our argument, and identified with his humanity. Then and only then, do we dare say to a suffering soul who needs correction:
Truly I am as your spokesman before God.
(Job 33:6)
Many of us are willing to be God's spokesmen, but few of us are willing to accept the conditions. Yet, if we speak as critics without the mind of the Spirit, we compound the suffering of the person even if we speak the truth. Still worse,
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we fail to help the sufferer struggle with the question "Why?" on the way to healing. Job needs Elihu to refute the radical position he has taken on his own innocence and God's injustice. He will hear him because his attitude confirms his claim that he speaks with the "breath of the Almighty."
Recommending Creative Options
You have to be creative to survive around our house. Four children know how to search for creative options when it appears that we have come to a dead end. Not long ago, the whole family circled together at our round table in the kitchen and began to recall their life with Mom and Dad. One said, "I remember Mom fixing a big dinner and then trying to slow us down by saying, 'Let's all relax and enjoy ourselves.' " Another asked, "What about Dad?" "Oh, that's easy," our youngest son answered. "He always says to us, 'Let's look at the options.' " Creativity is the ability to look at the options when arguments are stalemated or decision-making is frustrated.
Elihu confronts Job with the fact that his radical claims for his own innocence and God's apparent injustice have brought him to a dead end.
Surely you have spoken in my hearing,
And I have heard the sound of your words, saying,
"I am pure, without transgression;
I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me.
Yet He finds occasions against me,
He counts me as His enemy;
He puts my feet in the stocks,
He watches all my paths."
(Job 33:8-11)
Wasting no words, Elihu refutes Job's position with surgical precision:
Look, in this you are not righteous.
I will answer you, for God is greater than man.
(Job 33:12)
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At this critical juncture, Elihu's sensitivity to Job's condition takes over. Avoiding the tactics of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, he does not immediately pursue the argument that will condemn Job and justify God. Rather, he suggests that Job look at some options not yet considered. The first option is this: God may be speaking to him in ways Job has not heard because he has insisted that God speak only one way — directly to him. Elihu reminds him of this alternative:
For God may speak in one way, or in another,
Yet man does not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night, . . .
Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction.
(Job 33:14-16)
Job is not alone in his selective deafness. Each of us brings a bias to our listening for the voice of God. For Job, a left-brained man of logical analysis, it is evidently a bias against the intuitions of the right-brain through which God also speaks. In fact, with just a touch of satire, Elihu suggests that God can speak through a vision in the night like the one which Eliphaz cited as the authority for his word of wisdom. By rejecting Eliphaz's argument, Job had also rejected a means of communication through which God may speak.
I am the first to confess my selective deafness in listening for the voice of God. I too am trained as a left-brained person who relies upon logical analysis for decision-making. My bias is aggravated by the fact that I grew up in a church where emotion overruled reason. Reacting against that background, I find it hard to hear the intuitive words of knowledge and prophecy that my charismatic friends speak of as the voice of God. My hearing is further hindered when a person speaks about a vision from God which reveals new truth or foretells the future.
When a long-time friend went on national television to tell of a vision from God with the promise of a great revival, my skepticism turned him off. Later, when his prediction did not come true with evidence as visible as his vision, my bias received reinforcement. At that moment, I needed Elihu to say to me, "God may speak in one way, or in
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another . . . in a dream, in a vision of the night." Who am I to demand that God speak my way? According to Scripture, I must test the spirits, but with an open rather than a closed mind. Like Job, I must consider the option of intuition as a means of God's instruction (Job 33:16).
Through the mind of the Spirit, Elihu has another option Job has not considered as a reason for his suffering. It is to reveal the promise of God's grace as seen from the depth of suffering when death is near:
If there is a messenger for him,
A mediator, one among a thousand,
To show man His uprightness,
Then He is gracious to him, and says,
"Deliver him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom."
(Job 33:23-24)
All the elements of redemption through Jesus Christ are contained in this sentence. He will come as the Mediator for those who suffer, the Ransom for those who sin, and the Deliverer for those who die. Job has built his case on the justice of God; Elihu reminds him that he has forgotten the grace of God. Through grace, Job is promised the return of his youthful joy (33:25), the restoration of his righteousness (33:26), and the redemption of his soul (33:28).
Grace has still another quality which Job has forgotten in his attack on the character of God. Elihu reminds him that God's justice does not work like a "cash register" in which sin is automatically punched in and punishment is instantly rung up. Through grace, God's patience intervenes between sin and punishment to woo and win us with His love:
Behold, God works all these things,
Twice, in fact, three times with a man,
To bring back his soul from the Pit,
That he might be enlightened with the light of life.
(Job 33:29-30)
On the keynote of grace, Elihu stops and invites Job to answer him. For the first time, this wise and righteous man is
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silent. Perhaps he is pondering the options that Elihu has presented. More likely, though, he realizes that God is speaking through Elihu and in His presence he is in "awe" — a biblical word of reverence that means, "I shut my mouth."
Refuting False Arguments
By showing an attitude of acceptance and creating a climate of teaching, Elihu has earned the right to refute Job's errors in his argument. At this point, many scholars disagree with Elihu. Because he appears to repeat the same tedious arguments advanced by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, in defense of God's justice and against Job's righteousness, these scholars conclude that he has no relevant role in the Book of Job. If Elihu's contentions (chapters 34 and 35) are read as sterile theology, the critical scholars are right. Elihu sounds just like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. But if the same arguments are read in the personalized context of Elihu's genuine concern for Job, they are indispensable to the Book.
Job's case is built on the foundation of his innocence. In his zeal to prove his case, he strikes out against the justice of God because he is treated no better than the wicked who deserve to suffer. Elihu divides the case into two parts. First, he deals with Job's thinly veiled charge that God is unjust. Like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, he quotes Job's position verbatim:
For Job has said, "I am righteous,
But God has taken away my justice;
Should I lie concerning my right?
My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression."
(Job 34:5-6)
Beware of critics who use quotes from the person whom they criticize. More often than not, either the words are twisted, the inflections are changed, or the context is forgotten. When this happens, antagonism between the contending parties is aggravated over the issue of accuracy. Communication breaks down and any hope of dealing with substance is
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lost. Communication theory, therefore, stresses the principle of qualifying quotations with the preface, "I think I hear you say . . . ." rather than bluntly stating, "You said . . . ." Elihu is not that gentle. Either as a credit to his listening during the long debate or to the climate of confidence that he created in the introduction to his speech, Elihu quotes Job and Job does not protest.
Elihu then goes for the jugular vein of Job's complaint. Although refusing to curse God and die, Job has teetered on the brink of blasphemy by implying the conclusion:
It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.
(Job 34:9)
The words sound familiar. Satan himself is the one who first snarled, "Does Job serve God for nought?" (Job 1:9). His question not only impugns the righteousness of Job but also demeans the character of God. For Job, it means that he is righteous only because God prospers him. For God, it means that He plays favorites. This is why Elihu is angry. Job has come within a hair's-breadth of proving Satan right. To preserve his own righteousness, he has attacked the justice of God.
Elihu fights fire with fire. In a no-nonsense discourse, he defends the character of a just God and appears to confirm the position taken by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar:
Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding:
Far be it from God to do wickedness,
And from the Almighty to commit iniquity.
For He repays man according to His work,
And makes man to find a reward according to his way.
(Job 34:10-11)
Elihu actually repeats the arguments of of Job's three friends in his defense of the justice of God. They too spoke the truth, but with the wrong attitude. Job also spoke this truth, but came to the wrong conclusion. In trying
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to deal with the contradiction of suffering even though he was innocent, Job chose to justify himself at the expense of God's character. Therefore, Elihu lays a charge on Job that is just as heavy, if no heavier, than the condemnation of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar:
"Job speaks without knowledge,
His words are without wisdom."
Oh, that Job were tried to the utmost,
Because His answers are like those of wicked men!
For he adds rebellion to his sin;
He claps his hands among us,
And multiplies his words against God.
(Job 34:35-37)
Once again, Elihu pauses and waits for Job to answer. Similar words had inflamed him when they were spoken by his three friends. But no answer comes. Job's silence is consent. He knows that Elihu speaks the truth with the "breath of the Almighty" in a climate of care — and with a tone of teaching. His critic is his help.
Job's case against God has another side. Not only has he questioned the justice of God; but he has justified himself. So, Elihu takes on the task of telling Job the truth for the second time by pointedly refuting the folly of Job's self-righteousness. Yet this time he is more cautious about starting his argument by quoting Job. Instead, he asks him a question that leads to a quotation:
Do you think this is right?
Do you say, "My righteousness is more than God's"?
For you say, "What advantage will it be to You?
What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?"
(Job 35:2-3)
Of course, Job would deny that his righteousness is more than God's. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had accused him of the same folly, but with their own self-justifying intent. Elihu, however, is able to objectify the issue by asking a probing question rather than making a damning declaration. So,
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for the first time, Job hears Elihu and understands the implications of his self-righteous position. He also hears himself violating his better judgment when he whines, "What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?"
We can't be too hard on Job. If we are honest, we will confess that we have asked the same question. Remember the man who questioned the justice of God because thieves had stolen his wife's jewels? He complained, "I work hard and try to live a good life . . . and then this happens." Somewhere in the life history of anyone who suffers, the same question is asked, "Why try to live righteously and still suffer?" Deep in our thoughts is the idea that sinners have more fun even though they will have to pay for it in the long run. If Satan has a favorite trap, this is it. Once he gets us to link righteousness with prosperity, he sets us up for disillusionment through suffering.
Elihu's answer to Job's questions is to ask other questions:
If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him?
Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?
If you are righteous, what do you give Him?
Or what does He receive from your hand?
(Job 35:6-8)
Job knows the answer. His sin or righteousness has no effect upon the character of God. He remains pure and holy no matter what human beings do. Our sin or righteousness, therefore, affects only the quality of our character and that of our culture. Intellectually, Job knew this truth, but he had refused to accept it emotionally. God is neither seduced nor blackmailed by our righteousness.
Elihu has still more to say about Job's self-righteousness. Along with all who suffer and are oppressed, Job wants relief by the power of God more than he wants reconciliation in the presence of God. In one of the most often-quoted passages in the Book of Job, Elihu puts his self-righteous friend in the company of all who suffer by asking a poignant question:
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Men cry out under a load of oppression;
they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.
But no one says, "Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
who teaches more to us than to the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?"
(Job 35:9-11)
In a word, Elihu is telling Job that God will not answer him as long as his pride stands in the way. Furthermore, Elihu reminds him that it is the height of folly for Job to assume he is justified because God has neither answered his demands nor punished him for his sins. The final indictment is severe.
. . . Job opens his mouth in vain;
He multiplies words without knowledge.
(Job 35:16)
It is quiet time again. Elihu pauses for Job's answer. Without question, the truth has stung him. To hear his own rash words and radical conclusions repeated by another voice helps him realize the error of his folly.
Elihu's tactic has continuing value. When I began my training as a hospital chaplain, the instructor insisted that his students preface their response to patients with the words "You feel . . . ." Not only did he want to teach us sensitivity to the patient's feelings, but he also wanted the patient to hear his or her own words of feeling, whether positive or negative. Presumably, this process encouraged the patient to work through the pain of negative feelings and then turn toward the healing of positive affirmation. Later, we learned that the theological faultline lay in the assumption that self-healing is possible through this process without the resources of God's redemption.
Job needs more than the refutation of his self-righteousness. His silence is its own testimony. His head is bowed in
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shame and he is burdened with guilt. Elihu realizes what the truth has done to Job and he knows that he cannot leave him in despair. So, as further proof that he speaks with the "breath of the Almighty," Elihu shifts from critic to comforter. He balances out his scathing indictments with the assurance that God is good and great.
Readying God's Entrance
Youthful critics sometimes forget that they have a responsibility for presenting constructive solutions to the problems they expose. During the rash and wordy years of the student protest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, campus newspapers were filled with caustic criticism of institutions and their leaders. Presidents' offices were trashed and their occupants driven to resignation. Time and time again, I met with campus leaders and newspaper editors to ask, "What constructive solutions do you have for the problems against which you protest?" Answers to the question usually came "off the wall" or fell into the category of shifting responsibility back to the administration. Especially in newspaper editorials, I responded to the writers by reminding them that freedom of the press includes responsibility for both critical comments and constructive solutions. In most cases, the message never got through. The fact that campus radicals either burned out early or joined the Establishment tends to prove they had no agenda beyond protest and criticism.
As conclusive proof that Elihu has the mind of the Spirit of God, his speeches move from refuting Job's self-righteousness to reminding his friend of God's goodness and greatness. In other words, he proposes a constructive solution for the critical indictment he has leveled against Job. The solution resides in the character of God. He is good:
Behold, God is mighty,
but despises no one;
He is mighty in strength of understanding.
He does not preserve the life of the wicked,
But gives justice to the oppressed.
(Job 36:5-6)
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Elihu is assuring Job that God's justice is tempered with mercy. Urgently, then, he pleads with Job to give up his attacks on the justice of God and turn away from the attitude of self-righteousness. Not by coincidence, Elihu avoids the word "repent" which Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had used as a weapon against Job. Instead, he urges him to choose affliction rather than iniquity if given no other choice (Job 36:21).
Elihu's words now take on wings. As he reflects on the goodness of God, he begins to sing:
Remember to magnify His work, Of which men have sung.
Job 36:24)
Nature joins him on the chorus. In the distance, he sees a rising storm with the rhythm of its rain and the thunder of its voice:
Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds,
The thunder from His canopy?
(Job 36:29)
His question prompts a powerful hymn to the greatness and the glory of God (37:1-13). In the elements of nature — thunder, rain, snow, ice, wind, and whirlwind — Elihu sees the hand of God at work bringing about HIs great and good purpose on earth:
He causes it to come, Whether for correction,
Or for His land, Or for mercy.
(Job 37:13)
God is not whimsical in the exercise of His power. He always has a purpose that is good — to correct us, to feed us,
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or to love us. As Elihu has spoken with the "breath of the Almighty," he sings with the Spirit of understanding.
Turning to Job with his new note of hope, Elihu says:
Listen to this, O Job;
Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.
Do you know when God dispatches them,
And causes the light of His cloud to shine?
Do you know how the clouds are balanced,
Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
(Job 37:14-16)
With this open question, Job is ready to hear the voice of God. Then, as quickly as the storm arose, it passes. The earth is silent, the air is clear, the sky is golden, and the stage is set for God to speak. Elihu has served the Spirit well. Beginning as an angry critic with the aim of defending the justice of God and condemning the self-righteousness of Job, he ends with a hymn of praise to the goodness and the glory of God — with Job standing still and ready to listen for the first time.
Stepping Aside for God
Think of Elihu as a forerunner who prepares the way for the coming of God. In this role he stands parallel with much of the prophetic tradition of John the Baptist. Both are remembered as angry young men who preached justice and repentance for a short time and then disappeared from the scene. Yet, the significance of their ministry draws the highest commendation from God. John the Baptist had the privilege of introducing Jesus to the world and baptizing Him with the seal of God's voice saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased." Then, with an uncanny sense of spiritual timing, John stepped aside with the joy of knowing that Jesus would increase as he decreased. Elihu plays a similar role in the spiritual drama of Job. He sets the stage for God to speak and introduces Him through the voice
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of thunder. But then without the drama of John's violent death, Elihu simply disappears from the scene. Yet, he receives the highest commendation of a prophet and a pastor when God begins to speak out of the whirlwind. There is no break between his voice and the voice of God. Like John the Baptist, Elihu decreases and God increases. He is our example of a critic who helps us.
