Job 35:1-16
God on Listening
1 Then Elihu said:
2 “Do you think this is just?
You say, ‘I am in the right, not God.’
3 Yet you ask him, ‘What profit is it to me,
and what do I gain by not sinning?’
4 “I would like to reply to you
and to your friends with you.
5 Look up at the heavens and see;
gaze at the clouds so high above you.
6 If you sin, how does that affect him?
If your sins are many, what does that do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him,
or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself,
and your righteousness only other people.
9 “People cry out under a load of oppression;
they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than he teaches the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds in the sky?’
12 He does not answer when people cry out
because of the arrogance of the wicked.
13 Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea;
the Almighty pays no attention to it.
14 How much less, then, will he listen
when you say that you do not see him,
that your case is before him
and you must wait for him,
15 and further, that his anger never punishes
and he does not take the least notice of wickedness.
16 So Job opens his mouth with empty talk;
without knowledge he multiplies words.”
Job is suffering and wants God near him to comfort him and answer his questions on his suffering...Job's friend Elihu speaks to Job and tries to explain the reason why God is not listening to him...Elihu tells us that God is far up in the heavens...When we look up and gaze at the clouds they are far from us...Elihu tells us that God is far away...He is in the clouds, away from us...Even when we are righteous, what can we offer or give Him...Men cry out, to God, why do you let the innocent suffer?...But as they cry out in their suffering, the one suffering does not quite get around to trusting the love, the justice, and goodness of our Creator...Man's arrogance has kept our God in silence...Our arrogance and wickedness keeps Him from answering us...
We know in the end God tells Job and his friends that they (Job's friends) did not speak what is right about Him...God does listen...He knows we are sinners...He knows we are wicked...That is why He sent His Son for us...God loves us...God sent Jesus to earth, to find sinners...Jesus tells us that it is not the righteous He came for, but the sinner (Mark 2:17)...
What I think we don't realize is that God answers many of our prayers, if not all of them...But we want Him to answers all our prayers now or today...The sooner He answers our prayers, the better...A year later from your prayer, do you remember that prayer...There will be some prayers you remember, because of the situation we are in, and the intensity of that situation...The intensity is what makes us remember, and maybe it is not the prayer that makes us remember the situation first and then our prayer...We pray in times of severe trouble and suffering sometimes because we cannot help the situation and only our Father can (help us in that intense situation, we are in)...
God is listening to us...He will do what is right because He understands all things, and has the answer for every question...God will answer our prayers in His time...We must learn and then understand that God is in heaven far away...But He is also with us in the Holy Spirit...God far transcends human knowledge and wisdom...Man is limited...God is eternal...God does listen to our prayers...Elihu was wrong, God does listen and even though He is in heaven, He is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:27)...When we get on our knees and pray, Jesus is right there with us on His knees praying with us...