Job 35:8 – Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.

Job 35:9 – By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.

Job 35:10 – But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;

Job 35:11 – Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?

Job 35:12 – There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.

Job 35:13 – Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.

Job 35:14 – Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.

Job 35:15 – But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:

Hello readers, hope you’re having a great weekend! It’s a beautiful sunny day today! For this blog I will be talking about something else I noticed in the book of Job. This is Elihu speaking to Job. And Elihu made a lot of sense. I was at a freedom rally yesterday in Adelaide, South Australia. People have been protesting across the country weekend after weekend because the government has been very heavy handed with their vaccination mandates. In my country, it’s been a case of “no jab, no job”. Our government has been very oppressive, Job was very oppressed on all fronts, and Elihu pointed us to what is often missing from and wrong with our cry during oppression.

There are many aspects of the covid and vaccine mandates situation that I could discuss, and which I have discussed in other blogs, but today I really just want to think about our response to oppression. It is a fact that people globally are being oppressed. They were before covid, and even more are during covid. God lets oppression come into our lives, he uses oppression, although he is not the oppressor. Man has brought oppression on himself and others through his sin, oppression is part of living in a sin cursed world. But what do we do in that oppression? What is our cry really about, what are we crying out for, who is our cry really to? Elihu was pointing Job to what’s missing from our cry during our oppression.

It is impossible to read the Bible and not see God using oppression from oppressors to draw his people back to himself who had rebelled against him. And we are in that same place in our nation’s history. Before covid, yes a time before covid existed, our nation was going strongly away from God. Oh we still had religion and we still had remnants of truth, but our nation was departing from the Bible in just about every sphere of consciousness, society and life. And as I’ve seen the protests, many who are just normal people who have lost jobs or been affected by the lunacy and craziness of our government, I have seen one thing missing.. which is what Elihu saw was missing. Hey Job, God isn’t the problem, God is your solution, but something is wrong with your cry. Job had been complaining, Job had entered into self justifying, but what Job really needed to do was cry out to God rather than question God.

There were “Jesus” banners and signs with verses at the protest yesterday. But the truth is, most people are not turning to God in the oppression. And that, I believe, is what is missing in all this. For such a great cry, repentance toward God is missing. People are oppressed, but still by and large they are not turning to God. Job needed God, and we need God. Elihu was seeking to help Job to find God, because God would speak to him shortly, but God wasn’t found in pride, but in brokenness, humility and patience.

Job was being oppressed by something and someone mightier than he, Satan was on his case, and likewise this whole covid thing is way out of our control and out of our power to do something about it. That’s why the streets are full of people weekend after weekend. They’ve come out to cry out. It’s a cry of those marching, but what is that cry? It’s not yet a cry to God, it’s a cry to government, it’s a cry for freedom, it’s a cry of pain and anger… but it’s not a cry to God for help, it’s not a cry of people who have turned back to the Lord.

There has been a cry, there has been a very great cry, and a cry of increasing magnitude in our country. People have turned out all over the country in the cities to cry out about the oppression of their government. But while many are crying out, who are they crying to? You see, people are still hard towards God, and people are still proud. And that’s why there is no answer and no deliverance as yet. Maybe deliverance will come soon of sorts, but the true deliverance we need comes from repentance toward God. That is what heals our land ultimately.

God is definitely using covid to sort the people of my country out, and I have no doubt, people all over the world. Instead of crying out to a government that can’t stand us, instead of crying out to corrupt politicians and bought out bureaucrats, instead of crying out to those who won’t hear and won’t help… why don’t we cry out to God? Elihu said, for all the oppression of man oppressing man… NONE saith… where is God my maker? Maybe God has brought some oppression into your life, and guess what, he can take that away. But in that, what is your cry? Are you seeking God your maker?

So today my thought is quite simple. What is my cry really? Many people cry and cry out, and they are, but none of their cry is toward God, none of their cry is toward God in repentance and faith. And that is what is missing. There are very few people who are directing their cry to the Lord. But what I will say is, at these rallies there has been an acknowledgment of God, and there has been Jesus is Lord signs… and that is encouraging. And while people think they who are once again putting Jesus’ name in the public sphere are nuts and crazy and stupid, really, on a personal and national level, they and a return to God is the only hope for this nation.

Elihu was talking to a man who was going through a very tough time. And he’s saying, Job, God only hears a certain kind of cry, a cry to him. And by a cry to him, I don’t mean a cry of, God ease my oppression so I can go back to my sinful lifestyle. I’m talking about, and I believe Elihu was talking about a cry of repentance towards God. God you’re right. When you’re acknowledging your maker, you are saying God you are more right than me, more just than me, more holy than me.

How can we love our sin and then we experience the oppression that comes and has come from disobeying God and cry out to God demanding he deliver us when we have no heart or mind toward returning to him? It’s time to acknowledge we have created our own mess. For decades we’ve been turning away from God’s word, and now we reap some of what we’ve sown with an oppressive ungodly government… and we cry out… but we still refuse to cry out to God, to seek his face.

God will answer the person that says where is God my maker? People don’t even believe God is their maker. They’re “self made” remember. There is no acknowledgment of the need for God, of the superiority of God, of the righteousness of God… all things Elihu was pointing Job to. God is not answering not because he isn’t just, but because he is just. He’s way higher than we, he’s way more right than we, because his is Right.

Why has our society gone so mental and crazy? Why is all logic and rationality and morality gone? Because we abandoned God. We know that he is the source of truth, wisdom and knowledge. Elihu said it, cry to him and he will teach you and give you wisdom. We were made to be so much higher than just a mindless animalistic pleasure seeking and lust gratifying life. But when we rejected light, the light of Christ, we have become a people in darkness. We know not at what we stumble, just as Jesus said. It is mind numbing what is going on in my country. And a cry has gone up, it’s a cry of pain, it’s a cry of being oppressed, it’s a cry of discontentment, but it’s a cry that still has not yet lost it’s pride in it. That’s our problem.

God is just. God is right. God is truth. God is our maker. And we need to turn to him. And we can have songs in our night. And you know what Elihu is saying to Job? God is still giving us less than we deserve. Truthfully, we haven’t got it as bad as we could get it or probably deserve it in our nation. And God will still hear us, he’s willing to hear, he’s willing to save, but maybe he’s going to leave the oppression longer and that may be the kindest thing he can do for us, because when the going has been good, we’ve shown just what we really think of him.

In our march, we are crying for our rights. But who we should be crying to is God who is right. In our march we are crying about our problem, instead of confessing to God that we have been the problem. In our march we are crying to man, rather than crying to God.  This world is full of oppression, and it always has been. Crying out in pain is not enough, we must cry to God and acknowledge he for who he is, and we for who we are. That’s where deliverance starts. Elihu said “therefore trust thou in him”. Can we do that? Can we stop justifying ourselves and start justifying God again, because it is he who is Just and Faithful and True.

Ultimately this whole issue of covid is about sin, just as Elihu said Job had said earlier in this same chapter “What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?”. There’s plenty of profit  to being cleansed from sin and clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That’s what this life is about and do not forget it. In this whole issue of covid, it is all about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, God wants to turn people to Jesus Christ, and Christ is the most eternal and important need people have, and most of the time it takes oppression for people to get saved. So let’s make sure we keep Christ central to this entire issue, because salvation is still the most important need of man, and the cry of repentance and salvation is the one that God will hear and will not refuse.

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