The Unvented Wine of True Wisdom Text: Job 32:6-22
Introduction: The Bankruptcy of Human Wisdom
We have arrived at a dramatic turning point in the book of Job. For thirty-one chapters, we have been spectators at a theological wrestling match of the highest order. Job, a man stripped of everything but his own integrity, has been grappling in the dark with God. His three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, have come to "comfort" him, but their comfort has been the equivalent of pouring salt into his wounds with a trowel. They are representatives of a tidy, mechanical, and ultimately godless system of wisdom. Their central thesis is simple: God is just, you are suffering, therefore you have sinned grievously. It is a clean syllogism, and it is dead wrong.
They represent the wisdom of this world. It is the wisdom of the established, the respected, the credentialed. It is the wisdom that says, "We've been around a long time, we've seen a few things, and this is how the world works." Their arguments are not entirely false; the problem is that they are right woodenly. They take a general principle, that God blesses the righteous and curses the wicked, and they hammer it down onto Job's life like a railroad spike, regardless of the facts on the ground. They are attempting to fit God into their system, rather than submitting their system to God. And so, after a marathon of circular reasoning, they have fallen silent. They have run out of arguments. Their wisdom has proven bankrupt.
Into this stalemate, this exhausted silence, steps a new voice. A young man named Elihu, who has been listening quietly this whole time, finally speaks. And his entrance is a disruption. He is a rebuke to the idea that wisdom is automatically conferred by gray hair. He is a challenge to the established order. He is about to demonstrate that true wisdom is not a product of long years, but a gift of the Holy Spirit. Elihu is here to clear the ground, to sweep away the rubble of humanistic reasoning, so that God Himself can speak. He is not just another friend with another theory; he is a forerunner, preparing the way of the Lord.
This chapter is a profound statement on the nature of true spiritual authority. It is a declaration that revelation trumps tradition, and that the breath of the Almighty is more potent than the breath of many years. In our own day, when we are constantly told to defer to the "experts" and the "settled science" of a rebellious age, Elihu's intervention is a necessary and bracing word.
The Text
So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, “I am young in years and you are old; Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you my knowledge. I thought age should speak, And increased years should make wisdom known. But it is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding. The abundant in years may not be wise, Nor may elders understand justice. So I say, ‘Listen to me, I too will tell my knowledge.’ “Behold, I waited for your words, I gave ear to your reasonings, While you searched out what to say. I even carefully considered you; And behold, there was no one who reproved Job, Not one of you who answered his words. Lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom; God will drive him away, not man.’ Now he has not arranged his words against me, Nor will I respond to him with your words. “They are dismayed; they no longer answer; Words have moved away from them. Shall I wait, because they do not speak, Because they stand still and no longer answer? I myself will also answer my share; I also will tell my knowledge. For I am full of words; The spirit within my belly presses me. Behold, my belly is like unvented wine, not opened; Like new wineskins it is about to burst. Let me speak that I may get relief; Let me open my lips and answer. Let me now be partial to no one, Nor flatter any man. For I do not know how to flatter, Else my Maker would soon carry me away.
(Job 32:6-22 LSB)
Revelation Over Tradition (v. 6-10)
Elihu begins his speech by acknowledging the cultural propriety of deference to one's elders. He understands the rules.
"I am young in years and you are old; Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you my knowledge. I thought age should speak, And increased years should make wisdom known." (Job 32:6-7)
This is not false humility; it is genuine respect for a created ordinance. The fifth commandment stands behind this sentiment. All things being equal, age and experience ought to bring wisdom. We should honor our elders. Elihu is not a brash, arrogant upstart who despises tradition. He has waited. He has listened patiently. He has given the old guard every opportunity to speak rightly, and he has done so out of a right and proper sense of his place.
But all things are not equal here. The ordinance of honoring elders is not an absolute that trumps the revealed truth of God. When the elders get it profoundly wrong, when their wisdom becomes a tool to beat down the afflicted and misrepresent God, then a higher principle comes into play. Elihu pivots from what he "thought" to what "is."
"But it is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding. The abundant in years may not be wise, Nor may elders understand justice. So I say, ‘Listen to me, I too will tell my knowledge.’" (Job 32:8-10)
This is the foundational presupposition of Elihu's entire discourse. Wisdom is not generated from below; it is given from above. It is not a natural byproduct of accumulating birthdays. It is a supernatural gift. The "breath of the Almighty" here is the same concept as the Spirit of God who hovered over the waters in creation. It is the life-giving, illuminating power of God Himself. Man does not become wise by simple observation or long experience, because our fallen minds are darkened. We need God to breathe on us. We need revelation.
This is a direct contradiction to the world's way of thinking. The world believes wisdom is found in universities, in peer-reviewed journals, in the halls of government, in the gray hairs of the tenured. But the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You can have a Ph.D. and be a fool. You can be a respected elder and misunderstand justice entirely. Elihu, because he understands this, is now compelled to speak. His authority comes not from his age, but from his source. He is claiming to have a word from God, and so he demands a hearing.
The Failure of Man's Best Efforts (v. 11-14)
Elihu now turns his attention to the manifest failure of the three friends. He has done his due diligence.
"Behold, I waited for your words, I gave ear to your reasonings, While you searched out what to say. I even carefully considered you; And behold, there was no one who reproved Job, Not one of you who answered his words." (Job 32:11-12)
He is saying, "I gave you your shot. I listened to your best arguments, your most profound insights, your most carefully crafted speeches." And what was the result? Total failure. They did not reprove Job. That is, they did not successfully convict him of his actual sin, which was not the secret wickedness they imagined, but rather the sin of self-justification before God. And they did not answer his words. They did not address his genuine anguish or his theological dilemma. They simply talked past him, imposing their rigid system upon his reality.
Elihu then exposes the pride that would result if their approach had succeeded.
"Lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom; God will drive him away, not man.’" (Job 32:13)
This is a crucial insight. If the three friends had managed to argue Job into submission, they would have concluded that their human wisdom was sufficient. They would have patted themselves on the back and said, "See? Our system works. We figured it out." They would have taken the credit. But Elihu understands that Job's case is so extreme that only a direct intervention from God can resolve it. This is not a problem that can be solved by a committee of wise men. God must get the glory, and He will not get it through the failed syllogisms of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
Therefore, Elihu sets himself apart from them entirely. "Now he has not arranged his words against me, Nor will I respond to him with your words" (v. 14). He is wiping the slate clean. He is not joining their team. He is not offering a fourth variation on their theme. He is starting from a different foundation altogether. His argument will not be their argument, because his source is not their source.
The Divine Compulsion to Speak (v. 15-22)
The scene shifts. The three friends are now silent, not because they are convinced, but because they are stumped. They are "dismayed," and words have "moved away from them." Their intellectual well has run dry.
"Shall I wait, because they do not speak, Because they stand still and no longer answer? I myself will also answer my share; I also will tell my knowledge." (Job 32:16-17)
The silence of failed human wisdom is the cue for divinely-inspired wisdom to speak. Elihu's patience has reached its appointed end. Now he must speak, and he describes this compulsion with a series of powerful metaphors.
"For I am full of words; The spirit within my belly presses me. Behold, my belly is like unvented wine, not opened; Like new wineskins it is about to burst." (Job 32:18-19)
This is not the picture of an arrogant man who just loves to hear himself talk. This is the language of prophetic urgency. Jeremiah described the word of the Lord as a "burning fire shut up in my bones" (Jer. 20:9). Elihu feels a divine pressure from within. The truth he has been given is not a static set of propositions; it is a living, fermenting reality. It is like new wine, full of life and expansive energy, poured into a new wineskin. It cannot be contained. It must be spoken, or it will burst the vessel.
This is the opposite of the stale, dead traditionalism of the three friends. Their words were like old, flat wine. Elihu's words are effervescent, dangerous, and alive. And so he must speak, not for his own ego, but for his own relief. "Let me speak that I may get relief; Let me open my lips and answer" (v. 20).
He concludes with a solemn vow of impartiality, which is the necessary condition for speaking God's truth.
"Let me now be partial to no one, Nor flatter any man. For I do not know how to flatter, Else my Maker would soon carry me away." (Job 32:21-22)
Elihu recognizes that his ultimate accountability is to God, his Maker. The three friends were partial to their system. They were more concerned with defending their tradition than with speaking truth to their friend. Job has been partial to himself, more concerned with defending his own righteousness than with submitting to God. Elihu pledges to be partial to neither. He will not flatter the rich and respected friends, nor will he cater to Job's wounded pride. He knows that to flatter man is to invite the judgment of God. A man who fears God cannot afford to fear men. This is the mark of a true prophet. He is not looking for approval from his audience; he is looking for the "well done" of his Maker.
The Forerunner and the Word
So what are we to make of this zealous young man? Elihu is a crucial figure in the architecture of this book. He is a transitional character. He functions as a forerunner, preparing the way for the appearance of God in the whirlwind. He is not God, but he is sent from God. He is not the final Word, but he speaks a true word that makes the final Word intelligible.
The three friends represent the bankruptcy of wisdom derived from tradition and observation. Job, in his agony, represents the bankruptcy of wisdom derived from personal experience and integrity. Both have reached a dead end. They are all stuck. Elihu enters as the representative of a third way: wisdom that comes by divine revelation, breathed out by the Almighty.
He rebukes the friends for misrepresenting God's justice, and he is about to rebuke Job for questioning God's goodness. He is clearing away the false assumptions of both sides. He is demonstrating that you cannot put God in the dock. You cannot judge God by your circumstances, and you cannot confine God to your theological systems. You must be silent before Him and listen.
In this, Elihu is a signpost pointing to a greater reality. The whole world, like Job and his friends, is locked in a dead-end argument. The humanists, the moralists, the philosophers, they have all had their say, and they have all fallen silent, dismayed. Their systems are bankrupt. And into this silence, God has spoken His final Word. Not through a prophet in the land of Uz, but through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the one whose belly was full of the new wine of the kingdom. He is the one who did not defer to the corrupt traditions of the elders. He is the one who spoke with an authority that was not His own, but His Father's. He is the one who did not flatter any man, but feared His Maker alone. And He is the one who brings true relief, not just by speaking, but by being the Word made flesh. He came to silence all human wisdom, to answer all our agonized questions, not with a proposition, but with Himself. He is the wisdom of God, and in Him, the breath of the Almighty has not just given understanding; it has given life itself.