(October 17, 2014)
Elihu
is an interesting character in Job. Of all the characters, he alone escapes the
criticism from the Lord at the end. Job
is criticized for asking in ignorance (not even understanding the question he
is asking). The other three elders are
criticized and called to sacrifice for their words. But Elihu is not – lending substantial weight
to the words that he is saying.
And in
that light, we see that his words are profound and important. He points out that when tragedy strikes, our
first question should not be “why me?”, but rather “where is my sin and how can
I repent?”. This is the case even with a
man such as Job – one upright in all things.
The
Lord does not idly cause us to suffer. Even
when our suffering is the natural consequence of the actions (or even the sins)
of others, the Lord is perfectly just and not a tear from our eyes will be
wasted. Joseph Smith was certainly
innocent of wrongdoing when he was imprisoned in Liberty Jail, and his captors
were unquestionably evil. And yet the
Lord promised Joseph that all of these things would work out for his good.
Elder Holland spoke of how that
happened. He spoke of Liberty Jail as a temple-prison, and the
changes that were brought about in Joseph (and the Church) as a result of his
imprisonment. Understanding that this
change constituted repentance (as does all change for the better), we can take
courage in our suffering to know that our pain is an invitation from the Lord
to repent.
We can,
as Elihu counsels, call upon the Lord to teach us that which we see not – those
defects in our individual characters that need repentance to be healed – and we
are then invited, as was Job, where we have done iniquity to do it no more.
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