What to Make of Elihu’s Counsel to Job

I’ve spent the past several months reading the Bible cover-to-cover seeking to discern the Bible’s teaching on traumatic-suffering and embodied-souls. So far I’ve studied Genesis 1 to Psalms 150. I have over 400 pages of single-spaced typed notes.

I have eighty-five pages of notes on the Book of Job alone. As part of my study of Job, I’ve collated over four dozen examples of poor counseling from Job’s miserable counselors. I hope to summarize that material into a couple of blog posts at some point in the future.

Like others, I’ve wondered where Elihu (Job 32-37) fits into the picture. Is he a worthy model of a wise counselor? Or, is he a prime example of how not to counsel? Or, perhaps he is a mixture of both good/wise and bad/foolish counsel?

In Eric Ortlund’s book on Job, Piercing Leviathan, He notes that some commentators have assessed Elihu positively, while others have evaluated Elihu’s counsel negatively. Ortlund then lists about a dozen reasons why he sees Elihu’s counsel as unwise and unhelpful.

Christopher Ash, in his book, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross, notes that “almost every commentary is skeptical about Elihu, critical of his views, his tone, and his character. Such a widespread agreement among critics should not be lightly jettisoned…” (327). Yet Ash disagrees with the majority of commentators. He then lists about half-a-dozen reasons why he sees Elihu’s counsel as wise.

While I was preparing to write and post this blog, I saw a blog post by James Fields at the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors: Wise Counsel from Job’s Counselor, Elihu. As the title suggests, Fields provides a positive assessment of Elihu’s counseling, listing seven areas of fruitful counsel.

Interestingly, while God confronts Job’s three miserable counselors, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and while God affirms Job (Job 42-7-11), God ignores Elihu. God never mentions Elihu—for good or bad, as wise or foolish, as a positive or negative model of biblical soul care.

So what do we make of Elihu from a biblical counseling perspective? As we seek to answer that question, we want to do so through two important grids, perspectives, or lenses:

• Grid #1: What is the main message of Job?
• Grid #2: What is a comprehensive model of biblical counseling?

Grid #1: The Main Message of Job—How Do We See God in the Midst of Our Suffering?

I could write a book on Job, traumatic suffering, and our view of God. But this is a blog post, so I’ll seek to be succinct. Job is not just about Job. It is not just about suffering. It is not even just about God.

Job is about how we see God in the midst of our suffering. Job is about the lens through which we view God as we face suffering. Job is about facing suffering face-to-face with God our Sovereign Shepherd.

Job’s three unwise counselors spoke wrongly about God.

• They saw God as a Great Sovereign, but not as a Good Shepherd.
• They saw God as all-powerful, but not as all-loving.
• They saw God as just, but not as loving, gracious, compassionate, merciful, kind, giving, forgiving, and redeeming.
• They saw God as a harsh Judge, a cruel Tyrant, not as a forgiving and giving Father.
• They saw God as a works-oriented God, not as a grace-centered God.
• They mistook God’s shepherding for condemnation and judgment.
• They saw God as a petty, “tit-for-tat,” vindictive, childish God who only gives good to us when we are good; and always gives bad to us when we are bad. They saw God as being an immature child who says, “You hit me first; now I’ll get back at you!” “You started this; I’ll finish it!” “I do get mad, and I get even!”
• Because they misunderstood God, they misunderstood suffering. They said suffering is always caused by sinning. According to them, every sufferer is always suffering because of their direct personal sin.

In Job 38-42, God reveals Himself to Job in all His infinite fullness (view this post to see over forty biblical couplets of God’s Holy-Love). The God of Job, the God of the universe, is:

• Our God of Holy-Love.
• Our Shepherd-King.
• Our Sovereign Shepherd.
• Our Good Shepherd and Gracious Sovereign.
• Our Affectionate Sovereign.
• Our God of Holiness and Grace.
• Our God of Compassion and Justice.
• Our Infinite, Intimate God.

So our ultimate assessment of Elihu’s counsel must be based upon how well or how poorly Elihu’s view of God aligns with how God reveals Himself in the Book of Job.

Grid #2: A Comprehensive Model of Biblical Counseling—Sustaining, Healing, Reconciling, and Guiding 

In Gospel-Centered Counseling and in Gospel Conversations, I develop in detail a biblical and church history model of biblical counseling. Since this is a blog post, I can only provide the most basic outline of that approach here.

Comprehensive biblical counseling is not just the nouthetic confrontation of sin. Nor is it only the parakaletic comforting of the suffering. Biblical counseling involves:

• Sustaining for Suffering: Empathetic Comforting
• Healing in Suffering: Encouraging
• Reconciling for Sin: Exposing Sin and Grace
• Guiding in Sanctification: Empowering/Equipping

Comprehensive biblical counseling engages in these four aspects of historic Christian soul care—sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding—saints who face suffering and battle against sin on their sanctification journey.

So our ultimate assessment of Elihu’s counsel must be based upon how well or how poorly Elihu provides Job with comprehensive biblical soul care.

If Elihu Came to Us for Counseling Supervision 

Imagine if Elihu were coming to you or to me for counseling supervision. Imagine that he had manuscripted his counseling with Job. And imagine that you know Job’s background—as a righteous man (Job 1-2) who has suffered the traumatic loss of everything (Job 1-2) and who has spent days being told by his miserable counselors that it was God’s judgment on his sinfulness.

And imagine that you are supervising young counselor-in-training, Elihu, through the two grids we’ve just discussed—the grid of the main message of the Book of Job, and the grid of a comprehensive model of biblical counseling. How then does Elihu measure up as a biblical counselor using these two primary assessments?

While we may be able to find individual interactions that we could affirm, it would be my assessment as Elihu’s counseling supervisor that his overall approach falls short of wise, comprehensive biblical counseling. I will keep my focus on three big-picture issues with Elihu’s counseling.

Major Counseling Problem #1: Elihu Focuses Exclusively on Confronting Sin Without Also Ever Focusing on Comforting the Sufferer 

Picture yourself as Job’s counselor. Put yourself into Job’s situation, his story, his soul.

Job has lost every possession and his livelihood.

Job has lost his ten children all in one day.

Ten. Children. One. Day.

Job’s wife, his soul-mate, has told him to “Curse God and die!”

Job’s body if covered in oozing sores and pus-filled boils. He’s at death’s door and pleading for the door to open. He’s grieving. He’s suffering. He’s hurting.

You’ve sat by and watched for days while three men argued with Job—blaming him for the death of his ten children! Job is confused. He’s beaten down and beaten up because for days his “friends” have told him, “Job, you’re getting exactly what you deserved! You sinned and God is punishing you by killing your ten children and taking away your every possession and your health!”  

If you finally had a chance to speak, where would you start? Where would you focus? Would you ignore Job’s trauma? His suffering? His loss? His grief?

By my count, Elihu speaks approximately 2,700 words. According to speech experts, that would be about a twenty-minute speech. Of those 2,700 words, not one word is a word of compassionate comfort.

Not. One. Word.

Of those twenty minutes, not one second is a word of empathetic connection.

Not. One. Second.

Where does Elihu focus instead? Where does Elihu start? He is angry with Job’s three friends, not because they were miserable comforters speaking wrong about God and wrong about Job. No. He is angry because “they had found no way to refute Job” (32:3). And rather than giving Job his full attention, Elihu says he has given the three counselors his full attention and he is angry at them because “not one of you has proved Job wrong” (32:12).

If you were counseling a parent who lost ten children in one night, is this where you would start? Would you focus on showing this grieving man how wrong he is?

In contrast to Elihu, it is important to understand that God did not ignore Job’s suffering. Read Ortlund’s Piercing Leviathan and see how God’s discussion of the Behemoth and Leviathan was God’s revelation to Job that God is a caring, compassionate Sovereign Shepherd who understands, enters, and ultimately will defeat the chaos and evil of this fallen world.

Yes, biblical counseling confronts sin. No, biblical counseling does not ignore suffering—it does not ignore the suffering of a father who just lost ten children in one day.

Major Counseling Problem #2: Elihu Speaks Wrongly of Job 

Very much like Job’s three miserable counselors, Elihu’s diagnosis of Job is wrong. While God describes Job as blameless (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3), Elihu describes Job as to blame for his suffering, (Job 32:3, 12; 33:19, 27; 34:11, 22, 36-37; 35:14-16; 36:6-14, 21; 37:24).

Elihu explains to Job that Job’s suffering is a sign of God’s chastening him “on a bed of pain” (33:19). As Ortlund notes, both Elihu and Job’s friends “make sin central in the explanation of pain” (57). Ortlund continues, “Elihu never seems to be able to transcend the suffering-as-punishment framework the friends have already insisted on at such tiresome length” (57). And, “Elihu’s overall conclusion about Job is unavoidable: Job is under God’s judgment” (58).

Elihu seeks to justify God by falsely condemning Job, an image bearer of God who God has repeatedly said is blameless. Elihu interacts exclusively with Job as a sinner; he excludes any sustaining and healing interactions with Job as a sufferer.

Major Counseling Problem #3: Elihu Speaks Wrongly of God 

A biblical counselor speaking wrongly of God, of course, is the most problematic issue. The entire Book of Job revolves around wrong views of God. Job’s three friends consistently preach a false retributive theology.

“God does good to those who are good; God does bad to those who are bad. All suffering is a sign of personal sinning. God is not a God of grace; He is a God of works. We always earn His earthly blessings by good works and we always earn our suffering by our sinning.”

Sadly, Elihu follows this same retributive theology.

“He repays everyone for what they have done; he brings on them what their conduct deserves” (Job 34:11).

“But if people are bound in chains, held fast by cords of affliction, he tells them what they have done—that they have sinned arrogantly. He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil. If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment” (Job 36:8-11).

At best, Elihu is misapplying the principle of God’s justice by clearly implying that God is causing Job to suffer by repaying him for his sins. “Job, you received exactly what you deserved when your ten sons and daughters were killed by God!” At worst, Elihu is misinterpreting who God is and how He relates to His children.

Elihu has a monocle view of God.

Elihu views God exclusively through the lens of holiness, justice, judgment, sovereignty. Similar to Job’s three miserable counselors, Elihu’s God is sovereign and just, but he is not a good, gentle Shepherd or the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. Even when this God speaks, He does so only to terrify people with warnings of judgement for wrongdoings (Job 33:16-17).

In Summary 

In light of the main message of Job and in view of a comprehensive biblical model of counseling, we can conclude that:

Elihu was wrong about God, wrong about Job, and wrong to focus exclusively on confronting Job while never comforting Job.

Elihu’s God is Sovereign, but not a Shepherd. Elihu relates to Job only as a sinner, not a sufferer. Elihu’s counsel focuses only on nouthetic confrontation of sin, and never on parakaletic sustaining and healing in suffering.