Job Chapter 34

Righteousness without Empathy

Elihu makes me want to apologize to Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar. For all their faults, they were trying to help. They are bad at it, but they meant well. By contrast, Elihu jumps in, misinterprets everything and calls Job a sinner. He's “defending G-d”, even as he also reminds everyone that G-d is all powerful. If G-d can bring down kings and raise up the impoverished, why does he need Elihu?

We've got four more Elihu chapters of him and the visceral disgust from the previous two chapters aren't sustainable. I can't churn out the same article indefinitely. I'm not Jeff Tiedrich. Reading Tiedrich calling Trump a poopyhead every day gets boring after a few months. Imagine how bored he must be writing them.

Since we're stuck with Elihu, we need a different approach.

It's easy to be disgusted with Elihu because we have all been Elihu. You may not have harassed a man who lost everything but you have been self-righteous. You've been cruel. Remember your nastiest moments, the memories that haunt you, that keep you up and fill you with shame. Chances are. At the time, you were absolutely certain. You were right. They were wrong. You didn't need to care about their feelings. You had no interest in understanding them. You were so right that you hurt people, probably damaged relationships permanently.

No one is born with empathy. If someone claims to be an empath, run away. Empathy is a skill learned through mistakes and practice. Elihu has no empathy because he sees no reason for it. He's defending G-d, after all. He calls Job a sinner. He heard Job speaking and he doesn't care why. If he had a Facebook, he would use that laughing reaction on obituaries. He's every Facebook user who posts a homophobic sermon in the comments of a man mourning his husband or an anti-Trump meme on a Trump voter worried about his missing cat.

We want to blame the internet for vicious behavior, but Jerry Falwell didn't need Facebook to spread the word that AIDS is his god's punishment. Howard Stern could play Selena songs with gunshots after her murder and his audience laughed. If your brother gets drunk and dies driving his car into a wall, someone is going to tell you that he deserved it.

When I was 12, my mom made me go to confirmation classes at a local church. I was nominally Lutheran and she had made a promise to G-d. It was time. In another era, North Heights would be a mega-church. Wednesday confirmation classes began with a large group hosting dozens of middle school kids and their parents. On the first night, my mom wanted me to sit next to her. I wanted to sit with anyone else. I felt trapped. I tried pulling away. Mom got upset. I didn't care. One thing led to another and Mom was crying and yelling at me in the hallway.

Then some woman that Mom had known from years ago saw her and called her out. Called her a sinner; said this is what she gets. At the time, I had little sympathy for Mom. Mom was a difficult woman with untreated bipolar depression; she expected me to take care of her long before I could take care of myself. She had no sense of boundaries. I spent my adolescence fighting for independence. That woman saw Mom practically having a breakdown and passed judgment. She couldn't resist making it worse.

Seriously fuck that nosy bitch.

She wasn't the only Elihu in that place. North Heights was a disaster of rightwing Christian ideology. Any Wednesday could bring a bogus faith healing, a report on Elijah, the main youth pastor acting all college professors are Kevin Sorbo from God's Not Dead, and personal prayers. I once thanked G-d for heavy metal music. That got a lecture on backwards messages. Yes. Young people think they know everything. Often this begins with a volunteer religious teacher lecturing them on perils of dyslexic Satan worshipers.

Definitely Elihu would have loved the one girl who talked about how her friends didn't want to talk about G-d, but promised to persist with the G-d talk. However, we find Elihu in every faith and every group.

If you think that only other people can be cruelly self-righteous, then you have learned nothing. Elihu is a nasty young man who loves to berate others. He thinks that he's the most virtuous man. Why else would he try to bully Job into submission?

At some point in your life, you too have been Elihu – long on speeches, bereft of empathy. When reading Elihu's tedious sermons, it's best to remember that.

Next Chapter – Oh Fuck. More Elihu.

Ok. I have some work this week, but I’m utterly broke right now so please either get a paid subscription or donate to my gofundme.

If you like to read more Bible stuff, buy a copy of King David and the Spiders from Mars.

Here’s another article on Elihu. He’s much more diplomatic than I am. Apparently Ministers don’t call Biblical characters assholes nearly as often.

Job Chapter 33 ————— Job Chapter 35