The Deafening Pride of an Unanswered Cry Text: Job 35:9-16
Introduction: The Right Kind of Complaint
We come now to the discourse of Elihu, the young man who waited patiently while Job and his three friends went round and round the mulberry bush. And now that he has the floor, he brings a necessary course correction. The book of Job is a master class in the theology of suffering, but it is also a lesson in how to complain. That might sound strange to our modern, pious ears, which often equate faith with a refusal to ever question or lament. But the Bible is not so fragile. The Psalms are filled with raw, honest complaints to God. The difference between a righteous complaint and a sinful one is not the volume, but the direction. A righteous man complains to God. A sinful man complains about God.
Job has been toeing this line, and at times, he has stumbled over to the wrong side of it. His friends, in their stilted and formal orthodoxy, have offered him stones for bread. They have defended God with bad arguments, which is no defense at all. Elihu now steps in to diagnose a central problem, not just with Job's comforters, but with the cries of suffering men everywhere. The world is full of noise. It is filled with the groans of the oppressed, the cries for help, the shouts of injustice. And yet, so much of it is just that, noise. It is sound and fury, signifying nothing, because it is godless noise.
Elihu's point here is sharp and penetrating. It is not enough to cry out because you are in pain. The question is, who are you crying out to? And what is the posture of your heart as you cry? Many people treat God like a cosmic 911 operator. They ignore Him for years, live in proud autonomy, and then, when the house is on fire, they pick up the emergency phone and expect instant service. Elihu tells us that God is not obligated to answer such cries. He is not a genie, and suffering is not a magic lamp. The issue is pride. The pride of evil men is the cotton they stuff in their own ears. They cry out from their pain, but their pride prevents them from crying out to their Maker in humility. And so, they hear only the echo of their own empty shouts.
This passage forces us to examine the nature of our own prayers, especially in times of trial. Are they the humble petitions of a creature to his Maker, or the indignant demands of a rebel who feels his privileges have been violated? The answer makes all the difference.
The Text
"Because of many oppressions they cry out; They cry for help because of the arm of many oppressors. But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs of praise in the night, Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’ There they cry out, but He does not answer Because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not listen to an empty cry, Nor will the Almighty perceive it. How much less when you say you do not perceive Him, The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him! And now, because He has not visited in His anger, Nor has He acknowledged transgression well, So Job opens his mouth vainly; He multiplies words without knowledge.”
(Job 35:9-16 LSB)
The Godless Cry of the Oppressed (vv. 9-11)
Elihu begins by describing a common scene, one we see on the news every night.
"Because of many oppressions they cry out; They cry for help because of the arm of many oppressors. But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs of praise in the night, Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’" (Job 35:9-11)
The world is full of oppression. This is not in dispute. Men with power, the "arm of many oppressors," crush those who are weaker. And the natural response is to "cry out." This is the raw, animal response to pain. A dog yelps when you step on its tail. A man cries out when the boot is on his neck. But Elihu's point is that this cry, in itself, has no spiritual value. It is just a reflex.
The fatal omission is found in verse 10. "But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker...'" Their cry is horizontal. They cry out against their oppressors. They cry for a change in circumstances. They might cry for "justice," but what they mean is "relief." They are not seeking God. Their suffering has not driven them to their Creator; it has simply made them miserable. They want out of the pain, but they do not want God.
And look at the description of God they are missing. He is first, "my Maker." This is the foundational truth. He created you, He owns you, and your life only makes sense in relation to Him. To cry out in your suffering without acknowledging your Maker is like a pot complaining about the heat of the kiln without any reference to the potter. It is absurd.
Second, He is the one "Who gives songs of praise in the night." This is a staggering statement. God does not just give relief from the night; He gives songs in the night. The night here is a metaphor for suffering, darkness, and trial. A pagan cries because of the night. A Christian is given a song in the midst of it. Think of Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail, backs bleeding, feet in stocks, singing hymns at midnight (Acts 16:25). That is a supernatural gift. The unregenerate man has no category for this. His only settings are "happy when things are good" and "miserable when things are bad." But God gives His people a third option: joyful defiance in the face of suffering, a song that declares His goodness even when circumstances scream the opposite. This is a uniquely Christian grace.
Third, He is the one "Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth." God has given man a capacity for reason and revelation that elevates him far above the animal kingdom. A beast simply endures its suffering. It has no ability to process it, to find meaning in it, or to learn from it. But God uses suffering to teach His children wisdom. He disciplines those He loves. For the unbeliever, suffering is just dumb, brute pain. For the believer, it is a classroom. But the oppressed Elihu describes here are not looking for a lesson. They are acting like beasts, reacting only to the stimulus of pain, not seeking the wisdom of their teacher.
The Pride that Mutes God (vv. 12-13)
Elihu now explains why these cries fall on deaf ears.
"There they cry out, but He does not answer Because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not listen to an empty cry, Nor will the Almighty perceive it." (Job 35:12-13)
Here is the diagnosis. The reason for the divine silence is not divine indifference. It is human pride. They are crying, but they are not repenting. They are demanding, but they are not submitting. Their cry is "empty", it is vain, hollow, without the substance of faith and humility. It is a cry born of self-pity, not of a broken and contrite heart.
Pride is the great insulator. It cuts a man off from God. The proud man, even in his suffering, remains the center of his own universe. His cry for help is ultimately a demand that the universe be rearranged for his comfort. He does not say, "Thy will be done." He says, "My will be done, and fix this mess." He wants God as a servant, not as a sovereign. James tells us plainly, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). If you are crying out in pride, you are literally putting God in a position where His own character requires Him to resist you. Your cry for help is actually an act of war.
Elihu says the Almighty will not "perceive" such a cry. This does not mean God is unaware of it. God is omniscient. It means He will not regard it, He will not give it His favorable attention. It is like a judge who refuses to hear a case that is brought improperly. The paperwork is out of order. The cry of the proud is procedurally defective. It is addressed to the wrong court, in the wrong spirit, with the wrong plea. It is an empty noise, and God does not deal in emptiness.
The Necessity of Waiting (vv. 14-15)
Now, Elihu turns his attention more directly to Job, applying this general principle to his specific case.
"How much less when you say you do not perceive Him, The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him! And now, because He has not visited in His anger, Nor has He acknowledged transgression well," (Job 35:14-15)
Elihu is telling Job, "If God doesn't listen to the empty cries of the generically wicked, how much less will He respond to you when you, a man who knows better, claim that you cannot see Him at work?" Job's complaint has been that God is silent, that He has hidden His face. Elihu reframes this. He says, "The case is before Him." God has not forgotten you. He is the judge, and your situation is on His docket. Your job is not to demand an immediate verdict. Your job is to "wait for Him."
This is a central discipline of the Christian life. Waiting. We are a people of the promise, and promises require waiting. We wait for the return of Christ. We wait for the resurrection of the body. And in our personal trials, we must learn to wait for God's deliverance in God's time. This is not a passive, empty waiting. It is an active, faith-filled waiting. It is the posture of a man who trusts the judge, even when the court is in recess.
Elihu adds a fascinating point in verse 15. He suggests that Job should be thankful that God has not visited in His anger. Job has been demanding an audience with God, a showdown. Elihu is saying, "You do not want that. God's patience, His seeming inaction, is actually a mercy." If God were to deal with you strictly according to your foolish words, it would not go well for you. The fact that God has not "acknowledged transgression well" means He has been patient with Job's sinful complaints. God's silence is a form of longsuffering.
The Folly of Empty Words (v. 16)
The conclusion of the matter is a sharp rebuke of Job's rhetoric.
"So Job opens his mouth vainly; He multiplies words without knowledge.” (Job 35:16)
Because Job has failed to understand these things, the pride inherent in demanding answers, the mercy in God's apparent silence, the necessity of waiting, his magnificent, poetic speeches are ultimately "vain." They are empty. He "multiplies words without knowledge." Job is a brilliant man. His words are eloquent. But eloquence without humility is just hot air. Knowledge, in the biblical sense, is not about accumulating data. It is about submission to the God who is the source of all truth.
This is a warning for all of us, especially those who are gifted with words. It is possible to have a high theological vocabulary and a heart full of pride. It is possible to argue circles around your opponents and still be multiplying words without knowledge. True knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord. It begins with the humble acknowledgment that He is the Maker, and we are the thing made. Without that foundation, all our words, no matter how clever, are just empty noise in a godless world.
Conclusion: From Empty Cries to Midnight Songs
So what is the takeaway? Elihu provides us with a diagnostic tool for our own hearts in the midst of suffering. When you are in the night, what comes out of your mouth? Is it the empty, horizontal cry of the beast, demanding relief? Or is it the vertical, humble cry of a child to his Maker?
The world cries out and gets no answer because of its pride. The Christian is called to a different way. We are to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt us (1 Peter 5:6). We are to cast our anxieties on Him, because He cares for us. Our suffering is not pointless. It is a tool in the hand of our Maker to teach us wisdom, to chip away our pride, and to conform us to the image of His Son, the ultimate suffering servant.
If your prayers feel unanswered, the first place to look is not at God's faithfulness, but at your own pride. Are you saying, "Where is God my Maker?" Are you asking Him for a song in the night? A song is not a denial of the darkness. A song is a declaration of faith in the middle of the darkness. It is a weapon. It is a confession that He is God, and you are not. It is a refusal to let circumstances have the last word.
God does not promise to answer every demand for information. He does not promise a life free from the night. But He does promise to give grace to the humble. He does promise to be with us in the valley. And He promises to give songs in the night. Let us therefore abandon our vain and empty words, and learn to sing the songs He provides, until the morning comes, and all the shadows flee away.