In the light of the depressing Earth-centered philosophy of that day, it is most significant. Job and his friends all believe that life ends at the grave. But here, in a moment that can only be inspired by the Spirit of God, Job sees One who will be on the earth redeeming him and his situation, and who will also be God Himself. Only the Christ can fulfill such a vision. Job declares that not only is the Redeemer coming, but that he, Job, will see this Redeemer after his death. In other words, a Spirit-prompted belief in life after death!
Job 23:10. Another great revelation?
I think so. All this time Job has been complaining of the way life has turned out. Yet by faith given by grace, I believe, Job suddenly is able to look ahead to a time when the suffering will be over. He correctly predicts what actually takes place at the end of his story.
Job 32-37, Elihu speaks. How is he different from the three friends? Does He speak truth?
The text makes it clear that Elihu was peeved with both Job and his friends. None had solved the problem, but everyone had stopped talking. Into this silence comes Elihu.
A good comment, I think, comes from a website called desiringgod.org:
“But the question plaguing Job is why the righteous suffer in the short run. So Elihu goes on in verse 8: [ch. 36]
“ ‘And if they [that is, the righteous] are bound in fetters and caught in the cords of affliction [so Elihu admits right away that the righteous are not always with kings on the throne; they do suffer], then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. He opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.’
“In other words the righteous are far from sinlessly perfect. There is much of the old nature left in them, and from time to time this old nature of pride breaks out in actual sinful behavior—as it did with Job when he accused God of being his enemy. This is what Job repents of at the end of the book.
“Elihu's teaching, then, is that affliction makes a righteous person sensitive to his remaining sinfulness and helps him hate it and renounce it. Suffering opens the ear of the righteous (v. 10). The psalmist said the same thing in Psalm 119:71, "It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." There are dimensions of godliness that the righteous can only learn through affliction.
“So the new slant that Elihu gives is that the suffering of the righteous is not the fire of destruction but the fire that refines the gold of their goodness. For the righteous it is not punitive but curative.”
I must add that some believe that Elihu does nothing but muddy the water, that he is egotistical, too young to be wise, etc. Study the six chapters of his speech to see the differences for yourself. Certainly his answer is the longest. And there is no rebuke from God recorded against Elihu. Looks like he was on to something.
Job 38-41, God speaks. He lets Job know that he must not contend with the Almighty. How is this different from the three friends? Were they not saying much of the same?
There was much overlapping of comments in the book. A very careful reading is necessary to decipher it all. The three friends were full of judgmental comments, but they offered no solution to Job’s problems. Hence Elihu’s anger. And hence God’s solution: full knowledge of who God is and who we are, and of lurking sins that need to be confessed. When Job got all of that he was brought to the point of repentance.
Job 42:8. Job speaks. What was it that Job said that God blessed here? His debate performance or his statement of repentance?
Since the Lord goes on for many chapters of self-disclosure to Job, we must understand, I think, that He was not pleased with Job’s mis-informed statements during the debate. That leaves, in my thinking, only his final statement of abject humility before God, not manifested by any of the debater friends, as the words which truly pleased the Lord.
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