Job 32:1-34:37 - The unknown youngster

Suddenly we get a new character in the drama.
Elihu, "He is my God", son of Barakel, "God blesses"

He gives a nod to the older gentlemen, claiming to have remained silent out of respect for their seniority, then he launches.
It is easy to just read through this almost skimming over the surface because it sounds so much like what has gone on for most of the previous chapters. But if you skim ahead to the end of the book ( My wife does that all the time ) you find that while God is not pleased with the other three friends He doesn't have anything bad to say about Elihu. That alone makes him interesting.

So what is different about Elihu's argument?

The previous quadrilog (Conversation between 4 people) has been mainly comprised of Job complaining of his uprightness and his three 'friends' arguing he must have unconfessed, hidden, ongoing, secret sin. In truth neither party has caused the other to budge a single inch.
Job has been crying out for the opportunity to present his case before God.

Elihu doesn't try to convince Job that he MUST have sinned as the others have done. Instead he argues God's character. (Keep that in mind when God shows up in a day or two.)

It seems to me that perhaps Job has been arguing his innocence based on man's economy. "I've done what was required of me."
Where Elihu is making an argument based on God's economic scale. "You may have done what was required of you but how can you even begin to question God when you KNOW that, beyond all temporary circumstance, He is just?"
It could almost be argued that Elihu is saying that ALL men deserve death but that if they have a mediator between themselves and God then they are renewed and God hears their prayers. (33:12-26)

I almost wonder if this is one of those hidden nuggets in the bible that explicitly foreshadows the need for Christ's intervention on man's behalf.