The School of Blessed Fetters Text: Job 36:5-15
Introduction: When God Gets Your Attention
We come now in the book of Job to the speeches of the young man, Elihu. For thirty-five chapters, Job has been locked in a miserable and circular debate with his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. These friends operate on a very tidy, but ultimately flat-footed, version of the covenant. They see Job’s immense suffering, and they conclude, with the unbending logic of a spreadsheet, that Job must have committed some immense, secret sin. They believe in cause and effect, which is right, but they apply it with a wooden literalism that leaves no room for the high mysteries of God’s providence. They are the kind of men who believe that if you can’t see the reason for something, there must not be one.
Job, for his part, knows he is not guilty in the way they charge, and so he rightly defends his integrity. But in the process, he begins to veer into self-righteousness, putting God in the dock and demanding an explanation. Both sides are stuck. The friends can’t explain suffering that isn’t direct, punitive justice, and Job can’t see past his own integrity to the sovereign goodness of a God who would allow such a thing.
Into this stalemate steps Elihu. He is younger, and he has waited respectfully for his elders to finish, but he is boiling over with a truer word. Elihu does not have the final word, that belongs to God alone, who will speak from the whirlwind. But Elihu elevates the conversation entirely. He moves it from the rigid categories of reward and punishment and into the realm of God’s sovereign, fatherly discipline. He introduces the central idea that affliction is not always punitive; it is often instructive. It is God’s schoolhouse. God is not just a judge; He is a teacher, and sometimes He uses very severe methods to get our attention. This is a truth our soft, therapeutic age cannot stomach. We believe all pain is pointless, a cosmic blunder to be medicated or litigated away. But Elihu teaches us that for the righteous, the cords of affliction are the very means by which God opens our ear.
The Text
Behold, God is mighty but does not reject; He is mighty in the power of His heart. He does not keep the wicked alive, But gives justice to the afflicted. He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous; But with kings on the throne He has seated them forever, and they are exalted. And if they are bound in fetters, And are caught in the cords of affliction, Then He declares to them their work And their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves. He opens their ear to discipline, And says that they return from wickedness. If they hear and serve Him, They will end their days in prosperity And their years in pleasures. But if they do not hear, they shall pass away by a weapon And they will breathe their last without knowledge. But the godless in heart lay up anger; They do not cry for help when He binds them. They die in youth, And their life perishes among the cult prostitutes. He delivers the afflicted in their affliction, And opens their ear in time of oppression.
(Job 36:5-15 LSB)
God's Just Character (v. 5-7)
Elihu begins not with Job's suffering, but with God's character. This is always the right place to start.
"Behold, God is mighty but does not reject; He is mighty in the power of His heart. He does not keep the wicked alive, But gives justice to the afflicted. He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous; But with kings on the throne He has seated them forever, and they are exalted." (Job 36:5-7)
The first thing to get straight is that God’s might is not the might of a tyrant. "God is mighty but does not reject." Our world thinks of raw power as inherently oppressive. But God's might is perfectly integrated with His character. He is "mighty in the power of His heart." This means His strength is not arbitrary; it is an expression of His wisdom, His justice, and His love. He is not a cosmic bully who throws His weight around. He is the foundation of all justice.
Because of this, His power operates with perfect moral distinction. He does not preserve the wicked indefinitely, but rather "gives justice to the afflicted." This world is not a random swirl of events. There is a moral grain to the universe, and God is the one who set it. He is actively involved. Crucially, "He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous." This is a direct comfort to Job and to all saints who feel abandoned in their trials. Your affliction does not mean God has forgotten you. It does not mean He has looked away. On the contrary, it may mean His gaze is fixed upon you most intently. His purpose for the righteous is not ruin, but exaltation. He seats them with kings on the throne. This is the trajectory of the righteous life, from affliction to glory, a pattern that will find its ultimate expression in Christ.
The Purpose of Pain (v. 8-10)
Here Elihu presents his central thesis: affliction as divine education.
"And if they are bound in fetters, And are caught in the cords of affliction, Then He declares to them their work And their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves. He opens their ear to discipline, And says that they return from wickedness." (Job 36:8-10 LSB)
Notice the subject: "they" refers to the righteous from the previous verse. If the righteous find themselves "bound in fetters," what is God doing? Job's friends said God was punishing them for some hidden crime. Elihu says God is teaching them. The affliction is a classroom. The suffering is a megaphone. When life is easy, our ears are often stopped up with the cotton of comfort and pride. But when the "cords of affliction" catch us, we are suddenly very attentive.
What does God teach? He "declares to them their work and their transgressions." This is not about some secret, damnable sin that Job's friends imagined. It is about the subtle pride that can grow in the heart of even a righteous man. The phrase "that they have magnified themselves" is key. Job was a righteous man, but in his prosperity, and even in his eloquent defense against his friends, a seed of self-regard was being watered. God uses affliction to expose this. He isn't trying to crush the righteous; He is trying to humble them. He "opens their ear to discipline." This is a gracious act. The fetters are a severe mercy, designed to make us listen, to call us back from the precipice of prideful wickedness.
The Two Responses (v. 11-14)
Discipline always presents a choice. It will either soften a heart or harden it. Elihu lays out the two paths with stark clarity.
"If they hear and serve Him, They will end their days in prosperity And their years in pleasures. But if they do not hear, they shall pass away by a weapon And they will breathe their last without knowledge." (Job 36:11-12 LSB)
The first path is humility and obedience. "If they hear and serve Him." If the righteous man accepts the discipline, learns the lesson, and repents of his self-magnification, the result is restoration and blessing. This isn't a mechanical formula for riches, but rather the principle that covenant faithfulness leads to life. God’s goal is always our good, and that good includes prosperity and pleasure, enjoyed with a humble heart.
But there is another path. "If they do not hear." If a man, even a righteous man, refuses the lesson and hardens his heart in the trial, the result is destruction. He will "pass away by a weapon" and "breathe his last without knowledge." He dies without having learned the most important thing God was trying to teach him. He wasted his suffering. This is a terrifying prospect. The same fire that melts gold will harden clay. The same affliction that drives one man to his knees in repentance will drive another to shake his fist at heaven.
Elihu then describes the inner posture of those who refuse to hear.
"But the godless in heart lay up anger; They do not cry for help when He binds them. They die in youth, And their life perishes among the cult prostitutes." (Job 36:13-14 LSB)
This is a profound psychological and spiritual insight. What do the godless do when afflicted? They "lay up anger." They store it. They nurse their grievances. They cultivate a bitter resentment against God for their circumstances. When God binds them with affliction, their pride prevents them from crying out for help. To cry for help is to admit need, to admit that God is God and you are not. The godless heart would rather be destroyed than do this. And so, their end is tragic and sordid. They "die in youth," their potential squandered, and their life "perishes among the cult prostitutes," a metaphor for a life given over to shameful, empty, and idolatrous pursuits. They trade the high calling of God for the gutter.
The Glorious Paradox (v. 15)
Elihu concludes this section with a magnificent summary of God's redemptive purpose in suffering.
"He delivers the afflicted in their affliction, And opens their ear in time of oppression." (Job 36:15 LSB)
Read that carefully. He does not say God delivers them from their affliction. He says He delivers them in their affliction. The affliction itself becomes the vehicle of deliverance. The oppression is the very tool God uses to open the ear. This is the logic of the gospel. God does not snap his fingers and teleport us out of our troubles. He gets down in the trouble with us and uses the trouble to save us from ourselves. The prison cell becomes a place of revelation. The hospital bed becomes a sanctuary. The financial ruin becomes the means of discovering true riches. God redeems our suffering by making it the very instrument of our sanctification. He doesn't waste a single tear.
Conclusion: The Open Ear
Elihu's wisdom sets the stage for God's appearance, but it also stands on its own as a vital piece of biblical truth. God is sovereign over your suffering, and if you are His, that suffering has a purpose. It is designed to get your attention, to humble your heart, and to open your ear to Him.
This pattern finds its ultimate fulfillment at the cross. Jesus Christ was the truly righteous one, the only one with no transgression to be shown, no pride to be rooted out. And yet He was "bound in fetters" and "caught in the cords of affliction" more than any man. Why? He was taking our place. He was entering the ultimate affliction in order to deliver us. On the cross, God used the greatest oppression to open the ears of a deaf world.
Therefore, when you find yourself in the cords of affliction, you are faced with the same choice Elihu lays out. Will you be like the godless, laying up anger and resentment in your heart? Will you refuse to cry out for help, insisting on your own understanding? If you do, your suffering will be wasted, and it will destroy you.
Or will you hear the voice of your Father? Will you allow the trial to do its work? Will you ask God to show you your transgressions, to reveal the ways you have magnified yourself? Will you let Him use this pressure to open your ear? If you do, you will find that He delivers you, not necessarily from the trial, but in the midst of it. He will turn your prison into a school, your pain into a pulpit, and your affliction into a deep and lasting deliverance.