Job 36 Devotional

A Teacher Like No Other

Elihu continues: God is mighty but despises no one (36:5). When people are bound in affliction, he shows them what they have done and opens their ears to instruction (36:8-10). He rescues the afflicted through their affliction (36:15). Then Elihu turns to praise. Who teaches like God (36:22)? He draws up drops of water and pours them down as rain, spreads the clouds, and sends the lightning to its mark (36:27-32).

Elihu also tells Job he is under the judgment due the wicked (36:17), though the opening chapters show that Job's suffering did not begin as punishment. Still, the idea that God can teach through suffering appears elsewhere in Scripture. A psalmist looks back on his affliction as good, because through it he learned God's ways (Psalm 119:71). That is not a formula for explaining someone else's pain. But it means suffering is never beyond God's power to teach. The one who teaches like no other can use even hard days to open our ears.

To think about: Looking back, has God used a hard season to teach you something, and how might that shape how you face this one?