Elihu
There are many people that create a lasting impression and impact on my life, but there is one that stands out from others, my Nanny. Nanny was my mother’s mother and I spent a large amount of my life with her in general and traveling with her to numerous church events and functions. I started to travel with her at the age of seven or eight. Around this time, she broke her foot at a grocery store and this led her to need more assistance than before. The broken foot was complicated by diabetes, created this new relationship and companionship that would shape me into the person I am today. I would accompany her because her health had started to fail and she would need assistance with getting around.
During these trips and church meetings, I would be surrounded with seasoned individuals who were my grandmother’s peers: Pastors, Pastor wives, Missionaries, Church Stewards, and many others that were influential in the church. I had the fortune to be in presence of these powerful and spirit-filled conversations, meetings, and prayers. This was really a great experience for me. I was granted access to wisdom and knowledge that I was not aware of at the time. I had the chance to absorb my osmosis countless years of prayer, praise, downfall, turmoil, pickups, and glorifying that I am just now able to fully understand and grasp.
In the book of Job, which is the one of the oldest books of the Bible, we are able to have a window into the question of the goodness and providential aspects of God. To recap the book of Job: Job has 10 children, many camels, sheep, oxen, and servants. He is a wealthy and righteous man in the eyes of God. Within a day’s span, he losses everything (all of his possession and his health) and became dismayed and disheartened. In the midst of this his wife tells him that he is foolish to continue to keep hope in God. Then his three of his closest friends (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite) comes and attempts to console him. The friends sit with him for seven days in silence. Throughout the entire book if Job, these friends are trying to compel Job, that he has done something wrong and deserves the misfortune that has fallen him. But after 30 chapters, we have this younger individual that starts to speak, Elihu. Elihu brings wisdom to the group and gives insight into the mysteries that God has revealed to him. Elihu shows that God is just and there are somethings that cannot be explained by man, but only with the Spirit. It is this new realization that allows Job to be ready for his revelation that God presents himself.
As I read this, I could imagine, my grandmother and three of her close friends in a grand debate about the circumstances that they are going through. Then in the midst of the hours long discussion, my youngest daughter, Nadya who is five, comes in a delivers some wisdom that completely changes their mindset and their understanding of God. The main point of Elihu in the story is to show: Wisdom is not given by age, Wisdom is a gift, and Wisdom has to be used with discretion.
- Wisdom is not given by age.
- Many times in our society, we believe that the older a person is the wiser this person.This passage shows that it is not the age or length of time here that predisposes us to wisdom, but it is the Spirit of God that reveals the mysteries that He holds. Elihu was much younger than the other individuals, but has been given this insight.
- Wisdom is a gift
- Wisdom cannot be earned or bargained for, it is something that is only given and sustained by God. I have seen many wise persons that have been able to accomplish many things, then health or circumstances happen and the wisdom that they possessed is not accessible. It is a gift and needs to be cherished.
- Wisdom has to be used with discretion and humility.
- Until I slowed down and re-read this passage, I was unaware of the presence of Elihu. I though he was one of the other three with a different name. He remained observant and thoughtful, until the right time. He could have come in at any time, but his time was patience in practice. Wisdom is not to be given with haste, “ Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” Proverbs 17: 28