Pastor's Column 10/20/2024

PASTOR’S COLUMN

“I thought, ‘Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom.’ But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding. It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right. Therefore I say: Listen to me; I too will tell you what I know.” Job 32:7-10, NIV                                

 “New Voices!”    

Some people receive snubs when they appear among others who are more readily accepted. There has been much debate over Elihu’s importance in the narrative of Job. He is not mentioned in the story when the three friends of Job (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) are introduced. It is much later in the story we see more of Elihu emerging on the scene, and we hear his voice. We know little about Elihu except he likely is a descendant of Abraham through Buz; but more significantly, he is much younger  than Job’s three other comforters. Little attention has been given to Elihu, and his age may be a factor. In a society where wisdom was regarded as the domain of older people, younger voices often were silenced. Perhaps the only real hurdle for Elihu was others who weaponized “their” age and “presumed wisdom” to silence a younger generation. Despite any reticence to what he had to say, Elihu confidently said, “I too will tell you what I know.” Elihu’s belief was that God often permits us to encounter suffering; only to eradicate and defeat such suffering to display His sovereignty. God lets us know; tragedy doesn’t have the last word. This was a different message from the conventional thinking of the others who believed all suffering was punishment for some wrong. Job’s three older friends believed Job did something “gravely wrong,” which was justification for his impervious suffering. Elihu’s thoughts were like those of another 34-year-old minister, who stood before his elders in 1963 to eulogize four young Black girls who were murdered when a racist group bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. While denouncing in the strongest language the evil act of the perpetrators, Dr. King said, “God is always able to ring some good out of evil.” God has a voice in every generation!