I have always had a problem with the book of Job. I read it many times, and like Job himself, I heard it with my ears but did not see it with my eyes. Then the Lord opened it to me, and I want to share what I saw.
We all know the setup. Job was upright. He feared God and turned away from evil. God Himself called him a perfect and upright man. Job was a priest who offered sacrifices for his children, and he was respected in the city. Then in a single day, everything fell apart.
Three friends came to help. Their names tell the story. Eliphaz basically told Job he had not sown enough, that he had plowed iniquity and would reap the same. Bildad accused him of confusing good and evil. Zophar, who came from a place known for wisdom, told Job his doctrine was wrong. Different angles, same conclusion. There must be hidden sin somewhere.
Does that sound familiar? When someone is going through something hard, how quickly do we decide they must have done something wrong? We search for sin. We offer formulas. We try to explain what only God can explain.
But there was a fourth man in the story, and almost nobody preaches about him. His name was Elihu.
Elihu was young. He waited respectfully while the older men talked. When they ran out of answers, he finally spoke, and his first words were striking. Great men are not always wise, neither do the aged understand judgment. You can be intellectually smart and still miss the heart of God. You can quote Scripture all day and still not understand what He is doing.
Then Elihu named the real problem. His wrath was kindled against Job because Job justified himself rather than God. And his wrath was kindled against the three friends because they had found no answer, yet they condemned Job.
Look at that carefully. Elihu did not say Job was a secret sinner. He said Job was looking in the wrong direction. Job spent chapter after chapter defending his record. I helped the poor. I cared for widows. Weigh me in the balance. He was so busy justifying himself that he forgot to justify God.
Justifying God means saying, I do not understand this, but God is God. He is just. He is right. He is in this somewhere, even when the heavens feel closed. It means refusing to make your own righteousness the center of the conversation.
This is hard for us, because we want answers. We want a reason. But sometimes the most faithful thing you can say is, I do not know. Give me a day or two with God. Sometimes things are not the devil and not a lesson. Sometimes things are just life, and that is exactly where faith does its best work.
I will tell you something I have learned over many years of ministry. People do not need us to have every answer. They need us to point them to the One who does. The most loving thing you can do for someone in a hard season is to pray before you diagnose, sit with them before you speak, and remind them that God has not left the room. That is what Elihu did. He refused to condemn Job, and he refused to excuse him. He pointed him back to God.
When Job finally stopped defending himself, everything changed. He said, I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee. And God restored him.
So if you are in a season you do not understand, stop building your defense. Stop searching for the hidden sin behind every hard day. Turn your eyes toward God and let Him be God. That is where understanding begins.
Dr. Connie Williams is the founder of Connie Williams Ministries, Inc., a prophetic teaching and coaching ministry of over 35 years. Join the prophetic community at https://community.drconniewilliams.org
