Justification

 Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.
Job 32:2 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/job.32.2.ESV

The jury's out on Elihu. Some dismiss him as a young upstart, others applaud him for setting the stage for God's entrance onto the scene. I kind of sit on the fence about him- in my opinion it's not either/or but both/and.

Elihu does seem to be cut from the same cloth as Job's comforters. He couldn't seem to acknowledge that Job genuinely did have integrity. Just as Job's comforters seemed to get hot under the collar, Scripture repeatedly tells us that he 'burned with anger'.

When God bursts in and says 'who is this who darkens my counsel with words without knowledge', Elihu has just been speaking. So before we leap to the conclusion that Job (who responds) is being addressed, or his 'comforters', I think the most direct application is to Elihu.

If I was to fictionalise Elihu and fill in unknown blanks, I like to think that God cut him a bit of slack for his youthful ignorance. Furthermore, I trust he learnt from the encounter and speculate rather fancifully that maybe he even penned the book of Job (seeing as Job himself seemed ignorant of satan's involvement in the story). Maybe God filled in the blanks for Elihu and gave him the honour of penning Scripture.

'God Almighty, we pray that in our anger, we wouldn't sin. We ask that in our words we wouldn't betray ourselves to be ignorant and foolish. For Your eternal glory we pray, amen'

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