In Job, chapter thirty-five, verse six, Elihu believed that God is so detached from us, as in verse five, that our sins or righteousness do not affect Him. Elihu’s perception is wrong.
Elihu reproves Job for justifying himself more than God and calls his attention to the heavens. They are far above us, and God is far above them; how much then is he out of the reach, either of our sins or our services! We have no reason to complain if we do not do what we expect but be thankful that we have better than we deserve.
The Bible reveals that God is without emotion. He is capable of feeling hurt when men or women reject His love. When they turn against Him and sin, He is deeply grieved, as in Genesis six, verse six, Psalms seventy-eight, verse forty, Luke nineteen, verses forty-one through forty-four, and Ephesians four, verse thirty.
On the other hand, when God’s people sincerely follow Him in love, obedience, and loyalty, He is pleased, as in Second Corinthians nine, verse seven. God cares for people with deep feelings, gathering them in His arms like a shepherd, as in Isaiah forty, verse eleven, and loving them with a tenderness greater than a mother, as in Isaiah forty-nine, verse fifteen. The marvelous expression of God’s lovingkindness recorded by Isaiah: “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: In his love and his pity he redeemed them; And he bore them, and carried them all the days of old,” as in Isaiah sixty-three, verse nine, Isaiah fifty-three, and Hebrews four, verse fourteen through fifteen.
Sin is expressly said to be against God, as in Psalms fifty-one, verse four; it is contrary to his nature, as any opposites can be to each other: it is against his law, a breach and violation of it; and so against His supreme legislative power and authority, and a contempt of it; it is what he is angry with and is provoked by, being what He hates and despises, and is abominable in His sight. But then he cannot be supposed to be so affected with it to be ruffled and discomposed, or his peace be disturbed, and his happiness in the least broke in upon; for affections are only attributed to him after the manner of men; much less is he so affected as to be hurt or in danger of being destroyed, nor even of being dethroned: men can no more reach him by any hostile action of theirs, such as sin is, than they can the sun and stop its course, lessen its light or pluck it from its orbit.