Who was Elihu?

If you read my previous post on literary shaping in the Bible, you know that some books of the Bible show evidence of having a purposeful literary shaping. Or at least, you know that I think that.

The book of Job moves along with Job’s complaint, a friend’s response. Lather, rinse, repeat. That’s a particular literary formality. Job makes a final complaint. And then …

And then we get to the monologue of Elihu.

Elihu wasn’t one of Job’s “original” friends. By that, I mean that he was not one of the three who came to comfort him at the end of chapter 2. Those 3 were specifically rebuked by God in chapter 42. But not Elihu. Why?

My opinion is this: Elihu represents the way Job thought as a young man, full of grand ideas about God, many of which were true. If I am right, then through Elihu’s mouth, we learn that Job thought that God would reward his obedience with prosperity, or at least by preventing destitution. Before the hammer fell on him, Job thought that his prosperity was the only sign of God’s favor. But Job was subjected to soul-crushing hardship.

So Elihu wasn’t rebuked directly by God because Job’s condition was Elihu’s rebuke.

But like the Psalmist in Psalm 119:67 — perhaps even giving the idea to the psalmist who fleshed it out under the guidance of the Holy Spirit — Job finds meaning in God’s rebuke, even after his world crashes in on him.

One other observation: Like Jesus, Job learned obedience in what he suffered (Hebrews 5:8). In this way, Job forecasts our savior. And as Jesus told us in Matthew 5, even being scorned and persecuted by others can be a sign of God’s favor.

What do you think?