Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 33:1
Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words.
1. Elihu, unlike the other speakers, addresses Job by name.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 7. Introductory appeal to Job to listen to Elihu, who will speak in all honesty, and who being a man like Job himself may be argued with.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherefore, Job, I pray thee – In the next chapter he addresses the three friends of Job. This is addressed particularly to him.
My speeches – Hebrew, my words – millah. This is the usual word in the Aramaen languages to express a saying or discourse, though in Hebrew it is only a poetic form. The meaning is, not that he would address separate speeches, or distinct discourses, to Job, but that he called on him to attend to what he had to say.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 33:1-7
Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches.
Personal applications of truth
Here is the great failure in the case of the three friends and Elihu: they speak broad generalities; they are sure the doctrine is right. With these, as mere utterances, we have no fault to find; but where was the wisdom which could apply the doctrine to the individual case? Where the holy skill that could touch the wound without aggravating it? Where that learned and eloquent tongue that could speak a word in season to him that is weary, and speak as if he were singing? Who could utter himself without making any noise; who could declare a judgment without perpetrating a violence? Such condolence is the very balm of heaven, but such comfort was never associated with bald generalities, rough, vague statements of truths, however profound; such condolence, such solace, can only be applied out of the heart that has itself become rich in experience, and learned through many a long school day to suffer and be strong. Common places, however profound and beautiful, cannot touch the agony of life. By common places is here meant statements which may for their truthfulness pass without challenge; they have become amongst the established truths of the world; they are accepted; the Church listens to them as to falling rain; they excite no surprise; they come and operate as by a gracious necessity. But what we want is particular application, study of every individual case; each heart has its own history, each spirit knows its own want. So, in listening to great broad declarations from the pulpit, we must each receive these declarations according to our individual need: they cease to be merely general when they become definitely and personally applied. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXXIII
Elihu offers himself in God’s stead to reason with Job in
meekness and sincerity, 1-7.
Charges Job with irreverent expressions, 8-12.
Vindicates the providence of God, and shows the various methods
which he uses to bring sinners to himself:-By dreams and
visions, 13-15;
by secret inspirations, 16-18;
by afflictions, 19-22;
by messengers of righteousness, 23;
and by the great atonement, 24.
How and from what God redeems men, and the blessings which he
communicates, 25-30.
Job is exhorted to listen attentively to Elihu’s teaching,
31-33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIII
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Perceiving the error Jobs friends, and that by their violent and opprobrious speeches they has exasperated Jobs mind, and thereby hindered the success of their discourses, he applies himself to him in milder ways, and treats him kindly, thereby to gain his attention and affection, that his words might have more acceptance with him.
Hearken to all my words; not only to what may please thee, but also to what may convince and reprove thee.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches,…. In the preceding chapter, Elihu directed his discourse to the three friends of Job chiefly, here to Job himself, and that by name; which none of his friends in all their discourses ever used; and in an humble suppliant manner entreats his attention to what he was about to deliver, and that for reasons which his address to his friends could furnish him with; and hence begins his speech with “wherefore”, seeing he took not the part of his three friends, but blamed them; and because he had the Spirit of God in him, and was full of matter, and uneasy until he had vented it; and which he proposed to deliver in a plain and faithful manner, with sincerity and without flattery; on all which accounts be beseeches him to give him a diligent and attentive hearing:
and hearken to all my words; not to some of them only, but to all; he bespeaks his candid and constant attention, that he would hear him out, all that he had to say, with patience, and without interruption; and then judge of the truth, force, and pertinency of them; which he would not so well be able to do, unless he heard them all; for sometimes the proof, the evidence, and demonstration of a thing depends not on a single argument, but upon many put together; each of them alone being insufficient, at least may appear so, when all considered together give full satisfaction.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 But nevertheless, O Job, hear my speeches,
And hearken to all my words.
2 Behold now, I have opened my mouth,
My tongue speaketh in my palate.
3 Sincere as my heart are my utterances,
And knowledge that is pure my lips declare.
The issue of the impartial discussion which Elihu designs to effect, is subject to this one condition, that Job listens to it, and observes not merely this or that, but the whole of its connected contents; and in this sense , which is used just as in Job 1:11; Job 11:5; Job 12:7; Job 13:4; Job 14:18; Job 17:10, in the signification verumtamen , stands at the head of this new turn in his speech. Elihu addresses Job, as none of the previous speakers have done, by name. With (as Job 13:18), he directs Job’s observation to that which he is about to say: he has already opened his mouth, his tongue is already in motion, – circumstantial statement, which solemnly inaugurate what follows with a consciousness of its importance. Job has felt the absence of , Job 6:25, in the speeches of the three; but Elihu can at the outset ensure his word being “the sincerity of his heart,” i.e., altogether heartily well meant: and – thus it would be to be translated according to the accentuation – the knowledge of my lips, they (my lips) utter purely. But “the knowledge of the lips” is a notion that seems strange with this translation, and is hardly intended thus adverbially. , contrary to the accentuation, is either taken as the accusative of the obj., and as the acc. of the predicate ( masc. as Pro 2:10; Pro 14:6): knowledge my lips utter pure; or interpreted, if one is not willing to depart from the accentuation, with Seb. Schmid: scientiam labiorum meorum quod attinet (the knowledge proceeding from my lips), puram loquentur sc. labia mea . The notions of purity and choice coincide in (comp. Arab. ibtarra , to separate one’s self; asfa , to prove one’s self pure, and to select). The perff., Job 33:2, describe what is begun, and so, as relatively past, extending into the present.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Address of Elihu. | B. C. 1520. |
1 Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words. 2 Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth. 3 My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly. 4 The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. 5 If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. 6 Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay. 7 Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.
Several arguments Elihu here uses to persuade Job not only to give him a patient hearing, but to believe that he designed him a good office, and to take it kindly, and be willing to receive the instructions he was now about to give him. Let Job consider, 1. That Elihu does not join with his three friends against him. He has, in the foregoing chapter, declared his dislike of their proceedings, disclaimed their hypothesis, and quite set aside the method they took of healing Job. “Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speech, v. 1. They were all in the same song, all spoke in the same strain; but I am trying a new say, therefore hearken to all my words, and not to some of them only;” for we cannot judge of a discourse unless we take it entire and hearken to it all. 2. That he intended to make a solemn business of it, not to put in a word by the by, or give a short repartee, to show his wit: after long silence he opened his mouth (v. 2), with deliberation and design. Upon mature consideration he had already begun to speak, and was prepared to go on if Job would encourage him by his attention. 3. That he was resolved to speak as he thought and not otherwise (v. 3): “My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart, the genuine product of my convictions and sentiments.” There was reason to suspect that Job’s three friends did not think, in their consciences, that Job was so bad a man as they had in their discourses, merely for the support of their hypothesis, represented him to be; and that was not fair. It is a base thing to condemn those with our tongues, to serve a turn, whom at the same time we cannot but in our consciences think well of. Elihu is an honest man, and scorns to do so. 4. That what he said should be easy, and not dark and hard to be understood: My lips shall utterly knowledge clearly. Job shall readily comprehend his meaning, and perceive what he aims at. Those that speak of the things of God should carefully avoid all obscurity and perplexedness both of notion and expression, and speak as plainly and clearly as they can; for by that it will appear that they do themselves understand what they speak of, that they mean honestly, and design the edification of those they speak to. 5. That he would, in his discourse, make the best use he could of the reason and understanding God had given him, that life, that rational soul which he received from the Spirit of God and the breath of the Almighty, v. 4. He owns himself unfit to enter into the lists with his seniors, yet he desires they will not despise his youth, for that he is God’s workmanship as well as they, made by the same hand, endued with the same noble powers and faculties, and designed for the same great end; and therefore why may not the God that made him make use of his as an instrument of good to Job? With this consideration also we should quicken ourselves (and perhaps Elihu made that use of it) to do good in our places according to our capacity. God has made us, and given us life, and therefore we should study to use our life to some good purpose, to spend it in glorifying God and serving our generation according to his will, that we may answer the end of our creation and it may not be said that we were made in vain. 6. That he would be very willing to hear what Job could object against what he had to say (v. 5): “If thou canst, answer me. If thou hast so much strength and spirit left thee, and art not quite spent with the distemper and the dispute, set thy words in order, and they shall have their due consideration.” Those that can speak reason will hear reason. 7. That he had often wished for one that would appear for God, with whom he might freely expostulate, and to whom, as arbitrator, he might refer the matter, and such a one Elihu would be (v. 6): I am, according to thy wish, in God’s stead. How pathetically had Job wished (ch. xvi. 21), O that one might plead for a man with God! and (ch. xxii. 3), O that I knew where I might find him! Only he would make it his bargain that his dread should not make him afraid, ch. xiii. 21. “Now,” says Elihu, “look upon me, for this once, as in God’s stead. I will undertake to plead his cause with thee and to show thee wherein thou hast affronted him and what he has against thee; and what appeals or complaints thou hast to make to God make them to me.” 8. That he was not an unequal match for him: “I also am formed out of the clay. I also, as well as the first man (Gen. ii. 7), I also as well as thou.” Job had urged this with God as a reason why he should not bear hard upon him (ch. x. 9), Remember that thou hast made me as the clay. “I,” says Elihu, “am formed out of the clay as well as thou,” formed of the same clay, so some read it. It is good for us all to consider that we are formed out of the clay; and well for us it is that those who are to us in God’s stead are so, that he speaks to us by men like ourselves, according to Israel’s wish upon a full trial, Deut. v. 24. God has wisely deposited the treasure in earthen vessels like ourselves, 2 Cor. iv. 7. 9. That he would have no reason to be frightened at the assault he made upon him (v. 7): “My terror shall not make thee afraid,” (1.) “As thy friends have done with their arguings. I will not reproach thee as they have done, nor draw up such a heavy charge against thee, Nor,” (2.) “As God would do if he should appear to reason with thee. I stand upon the same level with thee, and am made of the same mould, and therefore cannot impose that terror upon thee which thou mayest justly dread from the appearance of the divine Majesty.” If we would rightly convince men, it must be by reason, not by terror, by fair arguing, not by a heavy hand.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB – CHAPTER 33
ELIHU’S ADDRESS TO JOB BEGINS
Verses 1-33:
Verses 1, 2 begin Elihu’s direct address to Job, as ch. 32 relates his direct address to Job’s three friends from afar. He appeals to Job to hear or give respectful attention to his “speeches,” and all his words; that is he asked Job to hear him out, indicating what he had to say would be a bit lengthy. He states that having opened his mouth or palate, the discerner of taste, he has now begun a discerning address, one with discriminating content, Job 6:30; Job 12:11.
Verse 3 recounts Elihu’s resolve that in this discriminating address his words would come from honest sincerity of his heart, toward convictions, and words his lips spoke could be clearly understood; not distorting the truth, through passion and prejudice, as Job’s friends had done, Job 13:4-5.
Verse 4 attributes the life and soul of Elihu to the creation and sustaining power and goodness of Almighty God, Gen 2:7; Act 17:28; Psa 33:6; 1Co 15:45.
Verse 5, 6 add that if Job can answer him, to stand up before him, as in a court of justice, Job 30:20. He declares that he is a man of the clay, a mortal man, Psa 51:11-12; Gen 2:7. He is what Job had wished for, Job 9:32; Job 13:3; Job 20:22.
Verse 7 asks Job not to let Elihu’s terror or fear make him afraid, for him to be at ease, not upset by what he had to say to him. Elihu promised to refrain from laying his hand of condemnation heavily on Job, alluding to Job’s words, Job 13:21; Psa 88:16.
Verse 8 declares that Elihu had listened understandingly to Job’s laments and complaints. He too had heard Job repeatedly deny that sin existed in his life, that is any particular or wicked sin, Job 9:17; Job 10:7; Job 11:4; Job 16:1; Job 23:10-11; Job 27:5; Job 29:14; Job 31:1.
Verses 9-11 recount Job’s claim of innocence of any sin; Yet, he charged that the Lord God found occasion to count him as an enemy, had put his feet in stocks, and continually marked his paths, or watched him as cited in references on verse 8 above. He had complained that the Lord had found “occasion” against him, Job 13:24; and held his feet in stocks, so that he could not walk, Job 13:2; Job 14:16; Job 31:4.
Verse 12 asserts that in this, Elihu declares Job is not just in such charges before or against God, Ecc 7:20. For he declared “God is greater than man.” He concludes therefore that every man must have sin, even if not an hypocrite for which, tho he is a righteous man, God may justly afflict him, Heb 12:5-6; Rom 8:28; Heb 4:15; 1Co 10:13.
Verse 13 Inquires just why Job strove against God, for He was responsible to no one for his actions, nor did he have to give account to anyone for anything that he chose to do, Isa 45:9; Rom 11:33. See also Isa 29:16; Jer 18:6; Rom 9:20.
Verse 14 declares that God will speak a word of warning once, or even twice before sending some judgment or calamity, yet men would often not perceive it, as he inferred Job had failed to do, Joh 15:12; Psa 62:11; Isa 28:10; Isa 28:13. Ellhu’s Inference is that in and with all his prosperity Job had failed to get some message from God, which in his calamity he might eventually grasp.
Verses 15,18 add that in slumbering or light sleep, as opposed to deep sleep, in a night vision, God often opened the ears of men, got their attention, opening their ears and seals to them a message of warning, a warning of some judgment that is certain to come, Job 37:7; Job 36:10. Even as He warned Belshazzar with the hand or fingerwriting upon the wall, in the midst of an inebriated feast, Dan 5:5-30.
Verse 17 asserts that such sealing of instructions in calamity is for the Divine purpose of removing man from a life of personal pride or self-righteousness. He was to rescue himself, Elihu felt, from a, possible pit of pride, by humbling himself without complaint under his afflictions, in order to be delivered from them, 1Sa 20:19; Job 17:11; Luk 18:14.
Verses 18, 19 affirm that the one who accepts chastening from the Lord by means of pain that go to the bone, upon his bed, as Job was, holds back his soul or life from perishing or death. Thus he argued that Job’s suffering would work good to him if he were a righteous man, Job 36:10; Deu 8:5; Rev 3:9. David confessed that there was “no rest in his bones” because of his sins, Psa 38:3. Yet, not all suffering is the result of great sins, Joh 9:2-3; Joh 11:4; 1Pe 4:12-16.
Verses 20, 21 state that one sealed for chastening or judgment for attitude or deeds of sin in his life often abhors, or is sickened by, bread and even dainty meats or the finest of foods, as described Psa 107:18. Such sometimes continues until his flesh is dried up, emaciated, or eaten away until the bones come through the skin, Elihu declared; Thus they came near the gates of death, Ecc 12:5; Psa 102:5.
Verse 22 explains that such a person’s soul draws near to the grave, and his life’s end draws near the destroyers, the angels of death, commissioned by the Lord to take care of the soul of each, 2Sa 24:16; Psa 78:49; Job 30:17; Psa 34:7.
Verses 23, 24 add that if there be a messenger angel with him that approacheth death, an interpreter, one among a thousand to show to man his uprightness; Elihu claimed to be such a messenger from God, Job 32:8; Job 33:6; He was there to defend God’s righteousness in sending affliction on Job. Job was to accept it, he contended. Jesus is that true “one In a thousand,” friend in such an hour, Son 5:10. Jesus Christ “the messenger of the covenant” is that messenger of the redeemed, Mal 3:1. This true messenger is gracious to him, even delivering him through his afflictions, Rom 3:21; Mat 20:28; 2Co 5:19. He will ransom or deliver man from the grave-pit, to a glorified body, if he has been redeemed, Rom 8:11; 1Co 15:51-58; 1Jn 3:1-2; Joh 5:28-29; Exo 21:30.
Verse 25 prophesies that when one, either Job or another, has been restored to God’s favor, through whatever testing he has undergone he will find temporal revival, as well as assurance of eternal regeneration. Tho Elihu spoke more directly of the temporal relief he would receive, 1Pe 1:10-12. The phrase of prophecy “his flesh shall be fresher than a child’s” alludes to a similar one used of Naaman when healed of his leprosy, 2Kg 5:14.
Verse 26 adds that the dying, putrefying carcass of man, as described v. 19-22, such as Job, should entreat God in prayer, earnestly, and He would be gracious to him. He would no longer pray to Him in vain as he had, Job 23:3; Job 23:8-9; Job 2 Kg 20:2-5; Act 9:11. This is especially true of the redeemed in Jesus Christ, as certified Joh 16:23-27. He shall, in such earnest prayer, then see the face of the Lord turned favorably upon his needs, with delight or joy, Joh 16:21-22. He too shall see Him eternally, Psa 17:15; Joh 17:24; God’s righteousness is magnified in the penitent believer’s salvation, and the humble believer’s prayers of repentance and obedience to the Master, Psa 51:4; Isa 45:24; Isa 46:13.
Verses 27, 28 explain that God looks continuously upon man, and that if any (a single one) says, “I have sinned, perverted that which was right, and it profiteth me nothing,” God will deliver his soul (whole life) from going to the grave-pit, for such sins, and his life shall “see the light,” Psa 51:12; Psa 66:16; Pro 25:20. Job had “perverted” the character of God, in public lamentation that He was afflicting him unjustly. For this he needed to pray and find deliverance from his afflictions and approaching death and walk again in the “light of the living,” as witnessed Ecc 11:7.
Verses 29, 30 recount Elihu’s declaration that all these things, afflictions, God continually or repeatedly works with or sends upon men to bring his soul (whole life’s usefulness) back from the pit. By visions, by afflictions, and by the messenger, Elihu had certified God sought to ransom him from the grave-pit for further joy and usefulness in life, as alluded to 1) v. 14; 2) v.15-17; 3) v.19-23 above. See also Psa 106:13; Psa 118:17-18.
Verses 31-33 further recount Elihu’s direct word to Job, by name, to “mark well, hold his peace, and heed” what he was about to declare to and concerning him and his welfare. Then, before he proceeded to speak further, he stated to Job that if he had anything to say, just interrupt him, and say it; For he assured Job that he wanted to do him justice, not take advantage of him, a thing he evidently felt Job’s three former feigned friends had done. He wanted to declare Job to be innocent, if he could consistently do so, he declared. Then, verse 33, he assured Job, that if he had no defensive reply to anything he had already said, he desired him to hold his peace, keep quiet, hear him out in another speech, and he would “teach him wisdom,” a thing he could not do. For wisdom comes as a gift from God. One may teach about wisdom, but not teach one wisdom per se, or absolutely, for “The Lord giveth wisdom,” Pro 2:6; and “if any lack” or have a famine of wisdom, he may have by “asking” of God, who doles it out liberally, without scolding or chiding His children, as certified, Jas 1:5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
ELIHUS FIRST SPEECH
Elihu addresses himself to Job on the subject of Gods afflictive dispensations. Afflictions often disciplinary chastisements.
I. He bespeaks Jobs careful attention to all that he has to advance
Job. 33:1.Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, near my speeches and hearken to all my words. Elihu speaks as one that had much to say. His speech, or perhaps rather speeches, much the longest of any in the controversy. Probably two speeches, separated by a pause or interval of silence (ch. Job. 35:1; Job. 36:1). His statementI am full of matter, confirmed by the fact. His speeches, in this respect, perhaps in accordance with his age. Youthful speakers often wordy. The work of time and experience to learn to prune down our discourses and avoid multiplying words Elihu makes good his promise not to give flattering titles. Addresses Job by his plain name. A king of Spain complained that he lacked one who would speak plainly and faithfully to him without flattery and partiality. Elihu speaks with courtesy and respect as well as earnestness,I pray thee. Be courteous,a New Testament precept, to be especially remembered by all who endeavour to persuade others. Paul, an example of courtesy to his hearers. Often, like Elihu, employs the language of entreaty (Rom. 12:1; Eph. 3:4). A duty to give serious attention to all that an earnest and enlightened preacher has to say; still more that the inspired Word itself teaches (Deu. 5:27; Act. 10:35). Men not to listen to only as much as pleases them, or accords with their own views.
Elihu bespeaks attention on the ground
1. Of his own earnestness, and purpose to enter fully and intelligently into the subject. Job. 33:2Behold, now I have opened my mouth; my tongue hath spoken (or speaketh) in my mouth, (margin, in or with my palate; the palate, or roof of the mouth, used in articulate speech; perhaps referring to the distinctness with which it was his purpose to speak on the subject in hand). The expression: I have opened my mouth, an Oriental one, indicating
(1) The setting of oneself to deliver a weighty and important discourse. Said of Jesus (Mat. 5:2).
(2) Fulness of matter and readiness of utterance, as if the words were waiting for egress, and flowed forth spontaneously. Pauls request for the Churchs prayers, that utterance (freeness of speech) might be given him, that he might open his mouth boldly, as he ought to speak (Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:3).
2. Of his sincerity in what he says, as well as the clearness with which he will speak. Job. 33:3.My words shall be of (or from) the uprightness (or sincerity) of my heart; and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly, (or they, i.e., his words, shall utter the sentiments of my lips purelysincerely, clearly, and correctly). Elihu, anxious to appear to Job and the rest
(1) As unprejudiced and sincerepoints in which the three friends had appeared to him to fail. Their views one-sided, and their minds prejudiced against Job on account of his extraordinary afflictions. Not always easy, though in the highest degree important, for a speaker to divest himself of prejudice, partiality and passion, and to be pure and sincere in his motives. Truth to be spoken without gall or guile. Speaking the truth (literally, truthing it) in love. Truth often distorted through passion and prejudice.
(2) As expressing his views simply and distinctly. Using plain language, and uttering exactly what he thinks, without fear or favour, mistiness or circumlocution. Plainness, simplicity and directness, important in every teacher of Divine truth. All our learning necessary to make things plain.Archbishop Ussher. Paul again an example to preachers,We use great plainness of speech (2Co. 3:12). The vision to be made plain, that he may run [at once for escape] that readeth it, (Hab. 2:2).
(3) As uttering what is true and correct on the subject. Shall utter knowledgenot fancies but facts, not mere opinions but truth. What Elihu promised he appears to have performed. No fault found at last by the Almighty with any of his utterances, as in the case of the three friends. A religious teacher to employ the greatest possible care, both by prayer and study, to have his discourses and instructions strictly in accordance with revealed truth and the circumstances of the case. If any speak, let him speak as the oracles of God (1Pe. 4:11). Care to be taken that the Word of God be not corrupted or adulterated (2Co. 2:17). Preachers to utter not merely what they have heard or read, but what they know (Joh. 3:11; Act. 4:20).
3. Of his equality with Job as a creature of God. Job. 33:4-7The Spirit of God (either the Divine power, corresponding with breath in the next clause; or, the Divine person so spoken of throughout the Scriptures) hath made me [in connection with thyself], and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life (as to Adam and all his children, Gen. 2:7). If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order (produce and exhibit thy arguments) before me; stand up [as an opponent against what I have to say]. Behold, I am according to thy wish (or, mouth,referring to Jobs words, chap. Job. 9:34-35; Job. 13:21, &c.; or simply, like thee) in Gods stead (or, for God, i.e., to plead in his name; or, in relation to God, i.e., as his creature); I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror (or overpowering majesty) shall not make thee afraid; neither shall my hand (or power as of a superior being) be heavy upon thee. Elihu, conscious of having no advantage over Job from his position, wishes him to listen at ease, and to answer with freedom. Those engaged in a discussion, to be able to speak on equal grounds and without fear from the authority and power of each other. He must be confessed the better scholar who has thirty legions at his command,Phavorinus the philosopher, in reference to Adrian the Emperor. Observe:
(1) A sign of weakness in dealing with an opponent, to take undue advantage either of learning or position.
(2) The wisdom and kindness of God, first in revealing Himself by one who became a partaker of our own nature, and then of employing not angels but men in the ministry of reconciliation. Elihu possibly designed by the Holy Ghost to be a representative and type both of Christ and His Apostles, as well as of all faithful preachers of the Gospel.
(3) The record of mans creation as found in the Bible, well known in the days of the writer of the Book.
(4) The Holy Ghost probably known as a distinct person. Personality apparently here ascribed to Him. So in Gen. 1:2. Probably also in Gen. 6:3. The breath or wind a Scriptural symbol of the Spirit, as proceeding from God, and mighty in His operation (Eze. 37:9-14; Joh. 3:8; Act. 2:2-4). A plurity of persons recognized in the one Divine Creator (Gen. 1:26; so Job. 35:10my Maker, Hebrew, my makers; so Isa. 54:5).
(5) The specialty in mans creation here referred to, such as to render him an intelligent being, capable of reasoning and uttering important truth.
II. States his complaint against Job (Job. 33:8-11). His complaint not against Jobs former life, but his present language. Job. 33:8.Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words. Elihu, till now, only an attentive listener. The best listener likely to be not the worst speaker. Swift to hear, slow to speak. Reference made by Elihu to such passages as chap. Job. 9:17; Job. 9:30; Job. 10:7, &c. The grounds of his complaint in reference to Jobs language
1. His maintaining his sinlessness. Job. 33:9.Saying, surely I am clean, without transgression; I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me. Given as the substance of Jobs statements, rather than his exact language. Perhaps a mistaken or exaggerated representation of it. Yet according to the impression made by Jobs speeches on the mind of a bystander. His expressions often rash, unguarded, and extreme. At times seemed to say all that is here imputed to him, although not intending it in the sense in which Elihu understood it. His intention probably only to maintain that he was not conscious of living in the known breach of any of Gods laws, as he was suspected of doing, and that he was free from any such crime as to deserve, above others, the awful calamities with which he had been visited. Observe
(1) Easy, under strong feeling, to utter unguarded language, capable of being misunderstood.
(2) Our duty to put the most charitable construction on the words of a good man, uttered at a time of suffering and excitement.
(3) Jobs error, that he maintained too vehemently his own innocence, and was more careful to vindicate himself than justify God. Personal depravity and imperfection the lesson he had yet to learn.
2. His charging God. Job. 33:10-11. Job seemed to charge God
(1) With fickleness and unkindness. Job. 33:10.Behold, he findeth occasions (quarrels or breaches of friendship, Num. 21:34) against me; he counteth me for his enemy. Reference to Jobs language in such places as chap. Job. 9:17; Job. 13:24; Job. 16:9; Job. 19:11; Job. 31:21. Gods former friendship and regard viewed by Job as now changed without cause into enmity. A grievous mistake and reflection on the Divine character. Gods love unchangeable (Jer. 13:3; Joh. 13:1). His face may change, but not His heart (Isa. 54:7-10). God may seem to count a man His enemy, whom He really regards as His friend. Love and hatred on the part of God not to be always gathered from His external dealings. Often the greatest love where there appears the greatest want of it. You only have I known; therefore, &c. On the other hand, often the greatest anger where there appears none. ObserveThe pride of the natural heart leading to vehement vindication of ourselves, may easily, in the darkness and confusion of our spirit under trouble, lead also to language reflecting on our Maker and His procedure.
(2) With treating Him unjustly as a criminal. Job. 33:11.He putteth my feet in the stocks (or clog,either as a punishment or a means of preventing escape). Jobs actual language (chap. Job. 13:27). The child sometimes placed under temporary confinement while the servant or slave goes at large.
(3) With acting towards Him with undue severity and strictness. Job. 33:11.He marketh all my paths (as if watching for the least offence, in order to punish it). So Job seemed to say (chap. Job. 13:17; Job. 14:16; Job. 31:4). The flesh in a tried believer, constantly liable to mistakes in regard to God and His dealings. God, for Christs sake, forgets, instead of marking, the offences of those who take hold of His covenant (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12; Heb. 10:17). Casts them behind His back, and into the depths of the sea (Isa. 38:17; Mic. 7:19). Forgets the evil deeds of His faithful though imperfect servants, but remembers their good ones (Mat. 25:35-40; Heb. 6:10). Treasures up their tears, but blots out their transgressions (Psa. 56:8; Isa. 43:25).
III. Condemns Job for such sentiments. Job. 33:12.Behold, in this thou art not just. Job neither
(1) Correct in judging according to the facts of the case; nor
(2) Just in his views regarding God. A man may be ordinarily just towards his fellow-men when he is very unjust towards God. Improper sentiments in regard to God and His dealings are injustice towards our Maker. This injustice charged upon Job rather than any iniquity in his past life.Elihu gives his reasons for condemning Job for his language. I will answer thee. Our speech to be with grace, seasoned with salt [or wisdom], that we may know how we ought to answer every man (Col. 4:6.) Every one shall kiss his lips who giveth a right answer. Elihus main reasons for mans silent submission and acquiescence in all the Divine procedure
1. Gods greatness in comparison with man. Job. 33:12.God is greater than man. God greater than man in wisdom, power, and justice. Greater than man as his Maker, Ruler, and Judge. The natural inference from thisman, even the greatest and best, is not to strive with God. Why dost thou strive against Him?quarrelling with and disputing against His procedure (Isa. 45:9). Gods greatness above man sufficient to exclude all murmurs and complaints, as
(1) God is not to be required to give an account of his procedure to any of his creatures. Job. 33:13.For (or because) he giveth not account of any of his matters (or dealings). The reason why Job should have refrained from the sentiments he had uttered in regard to God, and why neither he nor any one ought to strive against Him. God a sovereign who acts according to His own will, though never but in infinite wisdom, rectitude, and holiness. Monstrous presumption to think that the Creator is to be called to His creatures bar to answer for what He does (Psa. 115:3; Dan. 4:35). God too great to stoop to defend His procedure against the cavils of rebellious worms. This the scope of Jehovahs own answer to Job afterwards.
(2) God is not to be comprehended by His short-sighted creatures. Folly and presumption for man to think he is able to comprehend Gods dealings, except as He is pleased to reveal and explain them. Hence the weakness and wickedness of censuring them.
As if upon a full-proportioned dome,
On swelling columns beaved, the pride of art!
A critic fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads
An inch around, with blind presumption bold
Should dare to tax the structure of the whole.
2. God employs sufficient means for mans instruction, which are yet unheeded. Job. 33:14.For God speaketh (in order to mans instruction and direction) once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth (or regardeth) it not. Man does not perish from want of means on Gods part for his preservation, but from inattention to them on his own. Not left without sufficient light for his guidance, were the light improved. God unwearied in His instructions to men. Means employed apart from a written revelation of His will. Some of these specified. Job. 33:15.In a dream (as in the earlier periods of the world), in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed (a state between sleeping and waking); then He openeth the ears of men (communicates His will), and sealeth their instruction (impressing it upon their hearts as with a seal, or secretly conveying their instruction as in a sealed document), that he may withdraw man from his purpose (or intended work, as Abimelech, Gen. 20:6; Laban, Gen. 31:24; Balaam, Num. 22:12; Num. 22:20; Num. 22:31), and hide pride from man (by keeping him back from it). He [by these means when meekly and attentively received] keepeth back his soul from the pit (grave or corruption,emblem of future punishment), and his life from perishing by the sword [of Divine judgment]. Thus God employs sufficient means of instruction to supply mans necessity though not to gratify his curiosity. Means still more abundantly employed in connection with inspired prophecy and a written revelation (Psa. 147:19-20; Isa. 28:13; Heb. 1:1). These means often unheeded by man(l) Through indifference and sloth;
(2) Through worldliness and love of sin. A sufficient reason why Job and other sufferers should refrain from murmurs and complaints. Man is in a state of disobedience. God, in the exercise of mercy and compassion, employs means for his recovery, but often, through mans waywardness, without effect. No just cause for striving against Him. God only kind to man, till compelled to be severe. At first uses gentle means for his restoration. Only from necessity employs more painful ones, and still from kindness to man. Acts towards men not merely as a governor but as a father. His eve constantly upon them for their good. His object in his admonitions to men
First: To withdraw man from his purpose or work. Sin properly mans work. The thoughts of the imaginations of mans heart only evil from his youth (Gen. 6:5; Gen. 8:21). God made man upright, but he hath sought out many inventions (Ecc. 7:29.) Mans purposes and doings often such as if carried out would be ruinous both to themselves and others. Men kept back by God from many sins which they would otherwise commit.
Second: To hide pride from man. Pride fallen mans besetting sin. Exemplified in the building of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:4); in Pharaoh,Who is the Lord? &c.; in Sennacherib,By the strength of my hand I have done it (Isa. 10:13); in Nebuchadnezzar,Is not this great Babylon which I have built? in Herod, eaten up of worms, because be gave not God the glory (Act. 12:23); even in good Hezekiah,his heart was lifted up (2Ch. 32:5). Pride at once the subtlest and most hateful of sins. Robs God of His glory and man of his peace. Founded on a lie, that we are something when we are nothing. Loathsome in a creature hitherto unfallen, monstrous in one already fallen. Insinuates itself into mans best actions and holiest feelings. Often the fly in the pot of ointment. Can array itself in the garb of humility. Lowliness often made young ambitions ladder. Possible to be proud of ones humility. Such a thing as spiritual pride. The sin of the Pharisee. The most loathsome of all the forms of pride. Doubtful if there can be such a thing as a just pride. To be elated with pride the next step to falling into the condemnation of the devil (1Ti. 3:6). Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Gods aim to keep Israel back from pride (Deu. 8:11-18). The sin that banished the angels from heaven and our parents from paradise.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition.
By that sin fell the angels: how can man then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?
God hides pride from men
(1) By showing the hatefulness of it;
(2) By discovering the consequences of it;
(3) By removing the occasions of and temptations to it. Afflictions and trials often sent to keep men humble, and mercies withheld or removed which might prove the occasion of pride. True humility a fruit of the Spirit and a feature of the new man in Christ. To be learned at the feet of Jesus and in the shadow of His cross. Christ the only example of perfect humility (Mat. 21:29; Php. 2:5-8.)
Third: To save men from the consequences of transgression,to keep back their soul from the pit. Sins consequences, the pit of the grave, and that of which it is the emblem, the bottomless pit (Rev. 9:1). Death, in its full extent, the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23; Gen. 2:17; Jas. 1:15). Some sins lead directly to temporal death; all sin to death eternal. Man composed of body and soul. The penalty of sin extends to both. The soul that sinneth it shall die. A first and second death (Rev. 2:11). The former the shadow, the latter the substance. The first death, mans separation from the light of this world; the second, his separation for ever from the light and glory and blessedness of the next. The first, to a believer in Christ, bereft of its sting and converted into a blessing; the second, only remediless unmitigated woe. The latter a necessity as well as righteous sentence. Sin its own misery and punishment. No peace possible to the wicked. Without holiness no man see the Lord. Gods great object to save men from eternal death, and from sin which is its cause. Hence the giving up of His own Son as mans substitute. Die man or justice must, unless, &c. Christ made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities (Isa. 53:11; 2Co. 5:21).
Perhaps another reason for mans acquiescence in Gods procedure intimated in Job. 33:14. God speaketh (decreeth or purposeth) once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not (or, but twice, or a second time, HeGod Himselfdoes not consider it, so as to alter or improve it.) Gods purposes founded on infinite wisdom and holiness, and therefore unchangeable.
IV. Passes to personal affliction as a means employed for mans benefit. Job. 33:19-22.He (man in general, or the man whose spiritual benefit God is aiming at) is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain (or, and with incessant racking of his bones Psa. 38:3; Isa. 38:13); so that his life (or appetite) abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat (Heb., meat of desire, or meat otherwise desirable). His flesh is consumed (or pines) away, that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out (or, his bones are wasted away [so that] they are not seen), yea, his soul draweth near to the grave, and his life to the destroyers (the bands or pains of death as Act. 2:24; things causing death, as the Latin Vulgate; or simply, death itself, Hades or the invisible world, as the Septuagint or Greek version; or perhaps the angel of deathhim that hath the power of death (Heb. 2:14). Observe
1. Affliction the result of sin. Affliction in general the consequence of the first transgression. Individual cases of affliction often the chastening for some particular offence. Thus the leprosy of Miriam, Gehazi, and King Azariah; the plague in Israels camp in the Wilderness; the emerods of the Ashdodites; the disease of Herod. Diseases threatened to Israel as the consequence of disobedience (Lev. 26:16; Deu. 28:60) Sickness and disease also the disciplinary consequence of sin in the New Testament. Distinctly stated in 1Co. 11:30; implied in Jas. 5:15.
2. Affliction of the body one of Gods remedial measures for the welfare of the soul. Diseases His servants. His to bring down to the grave. Diseases His rebuke for iniquity. In His hand as the Creator and Ruler of the universe. Employed by Him as a father, under a dispensation of mercy, for the benefit of His children. A testimony that God is gracious and has purposes of mercy in reference to man. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. He that spareth the rod hateth the child (Pro. 13:24). Affliction no less employed by God as a fatherly chastisement because coming through secondary or natural causes. The causes themselves in His hand as well as the effects they are to produce. A part of His providential plan and government of the world He has made and cares for. His to bring the causes of disease to bear on the individual and in such a way as to produce the end. The Shunamites child goes out to the reapers, and returns home with a sunstroke fand dies. Of Gods ordering that the child was there, and that the sunstroke should happen and produce the effect which it did, while other children escaped. Diseases induced in a thousand ways, when apparently, but for the most trifling circumstance, they might have been avoided. The effect of a cause in producing disease dependent upon various circumstances, the same cause often operating differently indifferent cases. The circumstance determining the effect, in Gods hands. This no reason why care is not to be exercised in order to avoid disease and prolong health in ourselves and others. Such care enjoined as a duty. Do thyself no harm. Thou shalt not kill.
3. Afflictions thus often made blessings. But for a dispensation of mercy through the provision of a Saviour, disease only a penalty and part of the curse entailed by transgression. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. In the economy of grace, the very curse converted into a means of blessing. Blessing connected in the Bible with chastening (Psa. 94:10; Job. 5:17). Corrections of instruction the way of life (Pro. 6:23). Designed in mercy, not to ruin but to restore. Mercy, when an affliction is a correction, not an execution.Brooks. Affliction, as a correction, designed
(1) To arrest the sinner in his sinful career;
(2) To subdue pride;
(3) To lead to thought; The prodigal came to himself, and said, &c.;
(4) To exhibit the emptiness and unsatisfying nature of a present world;
(5) To bring to view death, judgment and eternity;
(6) To bring sin to remembrance as the cause of suffering,Father, I have sinned, &c.;
(7) To give us to realize God as our Governor and Judge, on whom we are dependant and to whom we are amenable as His creatures;
(8) Thus to bring to repentance.
Chastening the theology of Christians.Luther. The workshop of the virtues.Ambrose. The treasury of all blessings.Brentius. King Alfred prayed that God would frequently send him sickness. Man often like the top that moves only when it is whipped.Brooks. Davids experience, that of most: Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have learned to keep thy law. Affliction a bitter but salutary drug in the hands of a heavenly father. The digging about the tree to render it fruitful instead of cutting it down. Manassehs iron chain better to him than his golden crown.
V. Describes the means and result of sanctified affliction. Job. 33:23-28.If there be a messenger with him (either divine, angelical, or human; here probably the last, as Hag. 1:13; Mal. 2:7; Ecc. 5:6; Rev. 1:20; same word usually rendered angel, and applied both to Christ and His ministers; here, one sent or employed by God for the patients spiritual benefit); an interpreter (one able to explain the meaning of the affliction and the way of improving it, probably a human spiritual teacher or enlightened friend, without excluding either the Great Teacher,the Messenger of the covenant, who alone teaches to profit, or the Holy Spirit employed by Him and the Father, whose office it is to reprove [or convince] the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment), one among a thousand (of rare intelligence, fidelity, and skill, Ecc. 7:28); to shew unto man (here the afflicted person) his uprightness (either
(1) what he should have done, but which he has failed to do; or
(2) his duty in his present circumstances; or rather
(3) what may now restore him to a state of uprightness and acceptance with God, viz., repentance and faith in Him in whom, as our propitiation and substitute, we have righteousness and strength, Isa. 45:24. Then (when these means have been employed and have operated successfully on the sick mans mind and heart in bringing him to humiliation, repentance, and faith) He is gracious (or favourable) unto him (has mercy upon him so as to pardon his sin and probably deliver him from his affliction, Jas. 5:15-16), and saith (decrees or commandsperhaps to an angel who may have the power given him to remove the disease, as Joh. 5:4, or to Satan, who had the power of death committed to him, Heb. 2:14): Deliver from going down to the pit (in the first instance, the grave, but probably including the idea of the bottomless pit (Rev. 9:1), of which it was the symbol); I have found (provided or accepted) a ransom (what makes satisfaction for his sin, so that I can righteously forgive and restore him,the great atonement, now laid hold of by the sick man in repentance and faith). His flesh (as one of the results of his repentance and faith) shall be fresher, or more tender, than a childs (as in the case of Naaman when healed of his leprosy, 2Ki. 5:14). He shall return to the days of his youth (as Psa. 103:5). He shall (as a second result of his repentance and faith, and the fruit of his sanctified affliction) pray unto God, and He will be favourable unto him (shall have both access to and acceptance with God); he shall see His face with joy (rejoice in the Divine favour and fellowshipa third and still more blessed result): for (in confirmation of these statements as to the results of sanctified affliction) He will render unto man His righteousness (will deal faithfully with him according to his conduct; in this case according to his repentance and faith; or, will restore to the sick man, on his repentance and faith, the righteousness which he lost by the Fall, but which is recovered in Jesus Christ the Second Adam, and given to the penitent believer). He looketh upon men (as the Omniscient Father and Ruler, as Psa. 14:2), and if any say (or as margin: He [the sick man, as a further result and evidence of sanctified affliction] shall look upon men and say [in confession and thanksgiving]; or, perhaps rather: he shall sing [in praise of God, who has been so gracious to him] among or before men, and say): I have sinned and perverted that which was right (transgressed Gods righteous laws), and it profited me not (or, and He has not requited me according to my deserts); He will deliver his soul (or as margin, He hath delivered my soul) from going into the pit, and his life (margin, my life) shall see the light [both of this world and the next]. The passage indicates, in regard to
Sanctified Affliction
First, the MEANS through which it is effected, viz.: spiritual teaching. Job. 33:23.If there be a messenger with him, &c. Spiritual teaching always necessary to the improvement of affliction. Ordinarily through a human teacher; always through a Divine one (Psa. 94:10). Something necessary to be shown to the patient. To show unto man, &c. Observe
1. Affliction in itself not a blessing. The blessing dependant on other things connected with it. Depends on the manner in which it works and in which the patient is inwardly exercised by it. Worketh the peaceable fruits of righteousness in them that are exercised thereby (Heb. 12:11). Spiritual teaching necessary in order to this. Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord; and teachest him out of Thy law (Psa. 94:10). Affliction may either soften or harden; as fire softens wax and hardens clay.
2. The exhibition of Divine truth to the patient necessary to the improvement of his affliction. Not only prayer to be made for him and with him, but suitable truth to be presented to him. Implied in the term interpreter. His office to show to the sick man. The spiritual teacher at least as necessary to the patient as the physician. Truth to be exhibited for his mind, as well as medicine for his body.
3. The spiritual teaching usually through human instrumentality. The Divine Teacher absolutely necessary; a human teacher usually the instrument. The New Testament rule (Jas. 5:14). Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the Church,who are required to be apt to teach, and of whom at least some labour in the word and doctrine (1Ti. 3:2; 1Ti. 5:17). Therefore not only to pray with the sick man, but to instruct him.
4. Great skill and fidelity required on the part of ministers and others in healing the sick. One among a thousand. Easier to preach to a thousand hearers than to minister wisely and faithfully to one sick-bed. Study and prayer necessary for the bed-room as well as the pulpit.
5. The part of the visitor of the sick to show to the patient his uprightnessthe personal righteousness in which he has failed, the imputed righteousness which he may yet obtain, and which he is now to seek, receive, and rejoice in, and the present duty required of him, viz., humiliation, repentance, and faith in the provided sacrifice. Hence the visitors need of knowledge both of the law and of the Gospel; of sin and the way of salvation from it. By the law is the knowledge of sin; by the Gospel the knowledge of salvation. The visitor to be able to point the patient to the Saviour as Gods way of righteousness for the sinnerthe end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. 10:4), and made righteousness to all who are in him (1Co. 1:30).
Second, the RESULTS of sanctified affliction, or of repentance and faith on the part of the patient. Job. 33:24.Then, &c. The results varied and precious. Chiefly spiritual, in the patients mind and soul; partly and frequently also in his body.
1. Experience of the Divine mercy and forgiveness.Then he is gracious unto him. God, as a righteous and holy God, able only to exercise forgiving grace and mercy in certain circumstances and on certain conditions. Then He is gracious to him,when these things have taken place. The gracious inclination and purpose already there; the outlet or manifestation of it prevented till the patients repentance and faith. Mercy provides the means for its own outflow to sinners. Repentance and faith necessary to the experience of pardoning mercy; but even these of mercys own providing (Act. 3:19; Act. 5:31).
2. Deliverance.Deliver from going down to the pit. This deliverance probably twofoldthe one a picture of the other.
(1) Deliverance from temporal or physical death, which seemed impending.
(2) More especially, deliverance from eternal death,the object of the chastening. The death, which is the consequence and wages of sin, now averted in the patients repentance and faith. Hence the ground of this deliveranceI have found a ransom. In regard to the
Ransom
Observe
1. The meaning and application of the term. In Hebrew, literally a covering. Hence something to cover transgression; a ground of pardon (Psa. 32:1). An atonement, or what satisfies justice, and makes it righteous to forgive transgressors. The name given to the mercy-seat or lid of the ark in the Holy of Holies; called also in the New Testament the Propitiation, from the atonement made on it by the sprinkled blood of the sacrifices (Lev. 16:14). Hence also, anything done, suffered, or paid as an atonement or ground of deliverance. Thus the intercession of Moses for Israel (Exo. 32:20); and the censer taken into the camp by the zeal of Phinehas (Num. 25:13). The price paid for the redemption of a captive. Egypt given for Israels ransom (Isa. 43:3). The ransom, in reference to men, whatever God may please in His wisdom and goodness to appoint. Appointed according to the nature of the case and the deliverance afforded. Repentance and amendment on the part of a nation, made a ground of forgiveness and deliverance from threatened punishment. Thus Nineveh saved from predicted destruction. The existence of one truly righteous man in Jerusalem, in the days of Jeremiah, a ground of forgiveness to the whole city (Jer. 5:1). So the existence of ten righteous men in Sodom. Ahabs humiliation the ground of the deliverance of himself and the kingdom from threatened punishment during his own life-time (1Ki. 21:29). Confession of sin, with the prayer of faith on the part of the sick, made in the New Testament the more immediate ground of forgiveness, and consequent restoration to health (Jas. 5:15-16). Christs death the only ransom-price of a sinners deliverance from eternal death (Mat. 20:28).
2. The actual ransom in the text. As the ground of the sick mans deliverance from eternal death, the ransom that provided by God Himself for the purposethe death of His own Son as a substitute for sinnersto be exhibited in our time (1Ti. 2:6). That death typified and held forth as the ransom for sinners and the ground of their forgiveness and deliverance from death eternal, in the sacrifices slain and offered up in the patriarchal and Levitical age (Lev. 17:11). That death a full satisfaction to Divine justice for the sins of the world (1Jn. 2:2). Through it, God able to be just while justifying the ungodly who believe in it (Rom. 3:25-26). Without shedding of blood no remission (Heb. 9:22). The significance of sacrifices as typifying this ground of forgiveness understood by Job (chap. Job. 1:5; Job. 42:8).
3. This ransom found or provided by God Himself. God so loved the world that He gave his only-begotten Son (Joh. 3:16; Rom. 8:32). The ransom found in His own bosom (Joh. 1:18). The deliverance of the sick man the result of this ransom appropriated by and applied to him on his repentance and faith. That repentance and faith the ground or occasion of his deliverance from temporal death; the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the ground of his deliverance from death eternal (1Pe. 1:20). Impossible for any but God to provide such a ransom. Man unable to provide a ransom for his brother even from death temporal (Psa. 49:7-9). Christ slain as the Ransom, the power and the wisdom of God (1Co. 1:23-24). The words in the text the language of joy,I have found, &c. God delighteth in mercy. Hence rejoices in finding a righteous way for its exercise. The father rejoices over the return of his prodigal or long-lost child, and the means of securing it. Similar language employed in reference to David as the type of Messiah (Psa. 89:19-20).
3. Restoration to health, among the results of sanctified affliction. Job. 33:25.His flesh shall be fresher, &c. This probably included in the command: Deliver from going down to the pit. The power to deliver from temporal death and to restore from the brink of the grave, in the hand of the Almighty. The command needs only to be given or power put forth. The Divine command as effectual in restoring to life and health as at the creation in producing light: Let there be light, and there was light. The centurions faith in regard to Jesus as the Son of God: Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. Diseases Gods servants, to come and go at His bidding. The lepers faith: Lord, if thou will, thou canst make me clean. All nature, visible and invisible, under the Divine control. The command or will of Jehovah obeyed through-all the material universe. He spake and it was done. Recovery from sickness dependant not on the skill of the physician, but on the will of the Almighty. Till God says: Deliver from going down, &c, all remedies fruitless. When He speaks the word, the simplest becomes effectual. A plaster of figs laid on Hezekiahs boil at the prophets prescription, the means, at Gods will, of saving the kings life (Isa. 38:21). The power of
Healing the Sick,
claimed by God in regard to Israel (Exo. 25:26; Exo. 23:25; Deu. 7:15). Ascribed to Him in regard to men in general (Psa. 103:3; Psa. 107:20). Exercised by Christ as a proof of His Divinity and Divine mission as the Messiah (Luk. 7:20-22). The same power communicated by Him to the Apostles as credentials of their Divine commission and of the truth of their doctrine (Mar. 3:15). The power communicated also to the seventy (Luk. 10:9); and promised to believers in general (Mar. 16:18). Continued in the New Testament Church as one of the spiritual gifts (1Co. 12:9; 1Co. 12:28). Exercised through the elders of the Church in connection with the prayer of faith and anointing with oil (Jas. 5:14-16). Healing still imparted in the Church in answer to believing prayer. The institution at Mannedorf, in Switzerland, an evidence. The healing in the text in connection with repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The affliction sent on account of sin and with a view to the individuals repentance and salvation, most likely to be removed when, and only when, the end has been secured. Repentance and faith, followed by forgiveness and peace with God, even on natural grounds among the most likely means of restoration to health. Sin being the cause of sickness, natural that the removal of the cause should be followed by the removal of the effect. Thus forgiveness of sin followed by restoration to health (Jas. 5:15-16; Mat. 9:2-6; Psa. 103:3). Hezekiah restored to health when God cast all his sins behind his back (Isa. 28:17).
4. Access to God and acceptance with Him in prayer, a FOURTH result of sanctified affliction. Job. 33:26.. He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him.
Prayer
the natural and necessary consequence of a graciously awakened conscience, of submistion to God, of repentance, and of faith in the Divine mercy. The testimony concerning penitent Saul in Damascus: Behold he prayeth. The prayer of the awakened and penitent sick man at least as much for forgiveness of sin as for restoration to health. With sanctified affliction, prayer becomes his vital breath. The penitent and believing unable to live without prayer. Prayer the happy privilege of the child of God. A precious mercy in itself, as well as the means of obtaining more. Accepted prayer the result of the Spirit of adoption, crying Abba Father, and of the Spirit of grace and supplication making intercession within us (Rom. 8:15; Rom. 8:26; Zec. 12:10). A heart to pray not always present with the need of prayer. Prayer, though made, not always accepted (Pro. 1:28; Isa. 1:15). In sanctified affliction, prayer not only made but accepted: He will be favourable unto him. Prayer only accepted when offered in penitence and faith. Believing prayer the channel for the best of all favours. The key that opens the cabinet of God and unlocks the treasures of heaven. Gods favour, the fountain of all blessing, experienced through believing prayer. The Divine invitation: Seek ye my face. His face, or favour, not sought in vain (Psa. 28:8; Psa. 24:6; Isa. 45:19). A mercy to be able to pray; a still greater one to have our prayer answered. A praying heart both preceded and followed by Divine mercy.
5. Reconciliation with and joy in God. He shall see his face with joy. So the penitent prodigal in respect to his father (Luk. 14:22-24). Reconciliation with God the sinners greatest blessing. The object aimed at by God in the gift and sacrifice of His Son (2Co. 5:18-19; Act. 10:36; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20-22). Aimed at in his chastenings (Hos. 2:6-7; Hos. 2:11-20). Reconciliation with and joy in God the fruit of faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1; Rom. 5:11). The spiritual healing of the penitent patient (Mat. 5:8). A foretaste of heaven thus enjoyed as the result of sanctified affliction (Rev. 22:4; Psa. 17:15). The sight of Gods reconciled face here is heaven before coming to itChrysostom. No joy like that of seeing the reconciled face of God in Jesus Christ.
6. Confession of sin, and praise to God for pardoning and restoring mercy, a SIXTH result of sanctified affliction. Job. 33:27.He looketh upon men, and if any say, &c.; he will deliver his soul, &c. Probably better according to the Margin: He (i.e., the sick man now restored) shall look upon men and say, &c.; he (God) hath delivered my soul, &c.
(1) Confession of sin: I have sinned. A result and evidence of sanctified affliction. The language of the penitent prodigal (Luk. 15:21). Confession of sin made in respect to (i.) Its iniquity and turpitude: I have perverted that which was right. Observe(a) Gods will concerning us and his law given to us, only what is right. (b) All sin a perverting of what is right. Sin an opposition to Gods holy will and righteous law. (ii.) Its hurtful consequences: And it profited me not; or, he hath not rewarded me accordingly. No profit in sin. Its promises delusions. Its pleasures but for a season. No profit in gaining the world and losing the soul. Not only no profit in sin, but absolute loss. Its fruit shame, its end death (Rom. 6:21). An ill exchance for the path of obedience (Hos. 2:7). The righteous desert of sin eternal death (Rom. 6:23). Sin an ill paymaster that sends all his servants away weeping.Trapp. Observe(i.) Confession of sin an evidence of genuine repentance. Such confession made not feignedly, as by Saul (1Sa. 15:24); nor forcedly, as by Pharaoh (Exo. 10:16), and by Achan (Jos. 7:20); nor despairingly, as by Judas Iscariot (Mat. 27:4); but sincerely, freely, and hopefully, as by David (Psa. 51:3-4; Psa. 51:12-14. (ii.) Confession of sin an accompaniment of pardoning mercy. Preceding it (Psa. 32:5; 1Jn. 1:9; Pro. 28:13). Following it (Eze. 16:63).
(2) Praise for pardoning and restoring mercy. Margin: He shall look on men and say, &c, or, He shall sing among men, &c. Examples: Hezekiah (Isa. 38:19-20); David (Psa. 30:1-12). Praise, Gods due for mercies received (Psa. 50:23; Psa. 116:12-13). Mercies doubly sweet when accompanied with a grateful heart and thanksgiving to their gracious Author.
VI. Re-asserts these gracious dealings of Divine Providence. Job. 33:29-30.Lo (the fact worthy of careful notice, both from its truth and preciousness), all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit (the grave, and that state in eternity of which it is the symbol), to be enlightened with the light of the living (made glad with the joy of those who are truly and spiritually alive). The things referred to, Gods chastening men for sin by bringing them to the verge of the grave, and then restoring and blessing them upon repentance. Observe
1. The frequency of such dispensations,Oftentimes. Not always. All not visited alike with chastening and affliction. God sovereign in his dealings. But often. Multitudes thus graciously visited. God merciful and gracious. Intent on mans welfare. Chastenings a greater proof of his love than the want of them (Rev. 3:19). An ill sign for a man when God will not spend a rod upon him.Brooks.
2. The object of them,To bring back his soul, &c. Gods object in chastening men, their present and eternal welfare. He [chastens] for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness (Heb. 12:6; Heb. 12:11). This is all the fruit to take away his sin (Isa. 27:9). Man by nature in a state of darkness and of death. Gods object in affliction to deliver him out of it. Brings his body to the verge of the grave to save his soul from going to a deeper pit. Danger of temporal death made a means of deliverance from death spiritual and eternal. The true penitent, one who was dead, but is alive again (Luk. 15:32). Life only in the favour and image of God. Heaven rather than earth the place of the living (Mat. 20:32).
VII. Invites Job to reply, and urges attention to his further remarks
Job. 33:31-33.Mark well, O Job; hearken unto me: hold thy peace and I will speak. If thou hast anything to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee (or thy justification or righteousness). If not, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom. Observe
1. Opportunity to be given to reply or object to our statements. The benefit of inquiry or after-meetings in connection with special or missionary services.
2. In the absence of objection or reply, respectful attention the more to be expected.
3. Hearers to be convinced that we speak from a simple desire for their own benefit. The desire of the preacher of the Gospel, the justification of the hearers through their acceptance of Jesus as the Lord their Righteousness (Jer. 23:6). Christ the way of a sinners justification. The way provided by God, and the only way. The end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. 10:4).
4. The hearers character and case to be viewed in the most favourable light that truth admits of. The contrary the case with Jobs three friends. Hence Jobs irritation rather than conviction. Elihu takes up a contrary position, and Job is silent.
5. True wisdom, to understand the character and dealings of God, and to act in humble submission to Him under those dealings. This wisdom taught by Elihu, and ultimately learned by the patriarch.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B.
THE WORD FROM OUTSIDEGOD HAS ALREADY SPOKEN. (Job. 33:1-33)
1.
A mortal himself, formed by Gods spirit, yet he will answer Job. (Job. 33:1-7)
TEXT 33:17
33 Howbeit, Job, I pray thee, hear my speech,
And hearken to all my words.
2 Behold now, I have opened my month;
My tongue hath spoken In my mouth.
3 My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart;
And that which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.
4 The Spirit of God hath made me,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth me life.
5 If thou canst, answer thou me;
Set thy words in order before me, stand forth.
6 Behold, I am toward God even as thou art:
I also am formed out of the clay.
7 Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid,
Neither shall my pressure be heavy upon thee.
COMMENT 33:17
Job. 33:1Elihu has called our attention to his wisdom, impartiality, and competence requisite for his present task of subduing Jobs rebellious spirit. Here for the first time in the dialogue Job is addressed by nameJob. 34:5; Job. 34:7; Job. 34:35 ff; and Job. 35:16. This familiarity is more to be attributed to Elihus temperament than his close ties with Job, though he could be a blood relative of JobsJob. 32:2. He summons Job in Job. 33:1-7, and he sarcastically refers to Jobs complaint against GodJob. 9:17; Job. 9:34. He quotes two of Jobs claims: (1) that he is innocentJob. 9:21; Job. 10:7; Job. 16:17; Job. 23:10-12; Job. 27:5; Job 31; and (2) that God is his enemyJob. 10:17; Job. 13:24; Job. 13:27; and Job. 19:11. Elihu deals with each of these in the structure of chapter 33. The banality of his speech is self-evident.
Job. 33:2The boundlessness of Elihus self-evaluation make him a master of banality. His speech is statedly redundant.
Job. 33:3Job had asked that his friends be sincere; Elihu now declares that Job is going to get the ultimate expression of sincerity, but from him. This first line is without a verb, but the A. V. inserts shall utter. The meaning of the first line is that Elihus righteousness is exposed by his words. In the second line Elihu is giving Job assurance of his brilliancecompare Job. 6:25 a; Deu. 9:5; Psa. 119:7; and 1Ch. 29:17.
Job. 33:4He, like Job, is a human being. Both share in Gods spirit, which gives life. Verbally, at least, he humbly acknowledges that he has a special endowment from God. He is inspired by God to speak; thus his words are not only sincere, they are of special value. Perhaps he claimed a charismatic gift of wisdom which was lacking in Jobs illustrious friends.
Job. 33:5Though there is no equivalent to words in the text, the verb means to set in order, i.e., get ready to answer my chargesJob. 32:14; 1Sa. 17:8take your stand. Prepare (A. V. in order before me) has no expressed object, but the object may be wordsJob. 32:14; or caseJob. 13:18; Job. 23:4, or battle as is generally the case. Take your stand is used in military sense in 1Sa. 17:16; 2Sa. 23:12; and in legal sense in Job. 1:6.
Job. 33:6In relation to God (A. V. toward God) Elihu, like Job, is human. Elihus advantage over Job is not in this respect. He is only a mortal whom Job need not fear. The second line is translated by Blommerde as from clay I too have been pinched off, even as you are (Heb. kepikalike your mouth, i.e., like you). The metaphorical use of pehmouth to express relationship is well supported in the Old Testament.[332] Elihu was formed (qrs- nipped) from clay, like Job.
[332] See E. Dhorme, LEmploi Metaphorique des noms de parties du corps en hebreu et en akkadien (Paris, 1923), p. 85.
Job. 33:7Elihu here alludes to Jobs charges that God intimidated with violenceJob. 9:34; Job. 13:21. With clever irony, Elihu assures Job that he need not make this same charge now, because his opponent is also a man. The word rendered pressure occurs only here, and need not be emended out of the text because of its rarity.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXXIII.
(1) Wherefore, Job, I pray thee.He begins by professing his sincerity and integrity; and with reference to Jobs expressed desire to find an umpire (Job. 9:33), and one who would maintain his right with God (Job. 16:21), he declares that he is ready to do so, and that he is, like Job, made out of the clay, and consequently disposed to deal favourably with him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. That Job asseverates his innocence, and thus implicates God in a charge of indifference towards the upright. For answer see next page.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 33:4 The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Job 33:4
Job 33:14 For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Job 33:14
Job 33:14 means that no matter how often God speaks, His words are beyond our human reasoning.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Elihu Challenges Job and Questions his Innocence
v. 1. Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, v. 2. Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth. v. 3. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart, v. 4. The Spirit of God hath made me, v. 5. If thou canst answer me, v. 6. Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead, v. 7. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, v. 8. Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, v. 9. I am clean without transgression, v. 10. Behold, He findeth occasions, v. 11. He putteth my feet in the stocks; He marketh all my paths,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Job 33:1-33
In this chapter Elihu, turning away from the “comforters,” proceeds to address Job himself, offering to reason out the matter in dispute with him, in God’s stead. After a brief exordium (verses 1-7), he takes exception
(1) to Job’s self-assertion (verses 8, 9); and
(2) to his charges against God (verses 10-13),
which (he says) are unjust. He next brings forward his theory of God-inflicted sufferings being, in the main, chastisements proceeding from a loving purpose, intended to purify, to strengthen, to purge out faults, to “save from the pit,” to improve, and to enlighten (verses 14-24). He points out in what spirit chastisement should be received (verses 25-30); and concludes with a recommendation to Job to remain silent, and hear him out, while at the same time he expresses a willingness to listen to what Job has to say, if he has objections to offer (verses 31-33).
Job 33:1
Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches; rather, howbeit, Job, I pray thee, hear my speech (see the Revised Version); i.e. “However you regard me personally, hear what I have to say.” And hearken to all my words. Give me your full attention; do not suffer aught that I say to escape you. Elihu has a deep conviction of the importance of what he is about to utter (comp. Job 32:8, Job 32:10, Job 32:17).
Job 33:2
Behold, now I have opened my mouth. (On the solemnity of the phrase, “opened my mouth,” see the comment upon Job 3:1.) My tongue hath spoken in my mouth; literally, in my palate (comp. Job 6:30). Each word has been, as it were, tasted; that is, seriously considered and examined beforehand. My remarks will not be crude, extempore remarks; so may they be the better worth attending to.
Job 33:3
My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart. Moreover, whatever I say will be said with entire sincerity. My heart is upright, and I shall speak “from the uprightness of my heart,” without pretence, deception, or concealment of any kind. And my lips shall utter knowledge clearly. I shall say only what I know‘ and shall endeavour to say it simply and clearly, so that no one can mistake my meaning.
Job 33:4
The Spirit of God hath made me. This is assigned as the main reason why Job should give his best attention to Elihu’s words. Elihu claims to be quickened and informed by the Divine Spirit which was once breathed into man (Gen 2:7), whereby man became a living soul (comp. Job 32:8). And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life; or, quiekened meoriginated and preserved my life. Elihu does not, however, claim that his words are actually inspired, or that he has a message to Job from the Almighty.
Job 33:5
If thou canst answer me; rather, if thou canst‘ answer thou me (see the Revised Version). Set thy words in order before me, stand up (comp. Job 23:4).
Job 33:6
Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead; i.e. I am the antagonist for whom thou hast asked (Job 9:33; Job 13:19), ready to enter into controversy with thee, instead of God. I am thine equal, a creature like thyself. I also am formed out of the clay (comp. Gen 2:7). Therefore
Job 33:7
My terror shall not make thee afraid. Thou canst feel no alarm at me; I cannot terrify thee, as God would (Job 6:4; Job 7:14; Job 9:34. etc.). Neither shall my hand (literally, my pack-saddle) be heavy upon thee. Thou wilt not feel my presence a burden, or be crushed under the weight of my words.
Job 33:8-12
His exordium over, Elihu proceeds to point out what he blames in Job’s discourses, and at present notices two departures from truth and right only. Job, he says, asserts his absolute innocence (verse 9); he also maintains that God deals with him harshly, as an enemy (verses 10, 11). Neither assertion is justifiable.
Job 33:8
Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying. Elihu does not quote exactly what Job had said. He probably intended to be perfectly fair and just, but in reality he greatly overstates the truth. Job had never said the words he ascribes to him in verse 9; at best they are an inference, or deduction, from what he had said. And he had said a great deal on the other side, which Elihu overlooks (see the comment on verse 9).
Job 33:9
I am clean without transgression, I am innocent. Job had not said that he was “clean,” or “without transgression,” or “innocent.” With respect to “cleanness,” he had observed, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one,” implying that all men were unclean (see Job 14:4). Concerning ,’transgressions,” he had declared, “I have sinned Why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity?” (Job 7:20, Job 7:21); and again, “Thou makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth” (Job 13:26). Further, he had asked to be told the number of his iniquities and sins (Job 13:23), and declared that God kept his transgressions and iniquities sewn up and sealed in a bag (Job 14:17). With regard to “innocence,” the only observation that he had made was, “I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent” (Job 9:28). What he had really asserted was his uprightness, his integrity, his “righteousness” (Job 12:4 : Job 16:17; Job 23:7; Job 27:5, Job 27:6; Job 31:5-40). And these are exactly what God bore witness to (Job 1:8; Job 2:3). It is plain, then, that Elihu overstated his ease, and, whatever his intentions were, was practically almost as unfair to Job as the “comforters.” Neither is there iniquity in me. Nor had Job said this. He had frequently acknowledged the contrary (see Job 7:21; Job 13:26; Job 14:17).
Job 33:10
Behold, he findeth occasions against me. This charge may perhaps be justified by reference to Job’s complaints in Job 7:17-19 and Job 10:3-6; but the exact words are not Job’s. He counteth me for his enemy. Certainly, Job had said this more than ones (see Job 16:9; Job 19:1-29. l 1). But he cannot really have believed it, or his trust in God must have failed. The fact that to the last he clung to God, appealed to him, hoped to receive judgment from him (Job 31:2, Job 31:6, Job 31:28, Job 31:35-37), is proof sufficient that he knew God was not really alienated from him, but would in the end acknowledge him and vindicate his character.
Job 33:11
He putteth my feet in the stocks. A reference to Job’s words in Job 13:27. He marketh all my paths (comp. Job 31:4, and Job 7:17-19).
Job 33:12
Behold, in this thou art not just. It would certainly not have been a just charge to make against God, that he counted Job as an enemy; and, so far as Job’s statements go, it must be admitted that he had laid himself open to Elihu’s rebuke. But it is no logical “answer” to Job’s charge to say, in reply to it, I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Might does not constitute right, and it is a poor way of justifying God to urge that he is all-powerful, and may do what he likes. So Cambyses was justified in his worst acts by the royal judges (Herod; 3:31); and so in an absolute monarchy it is always possible to justify the extremest acts of tyranny. Certainly God cannot act unjustly; but this is not because his doing a thing makes it right, but because his justice, is a law to his will, and he never wills to do anything that he has not previously seen to be just (see Cudworth’s ‘Immutable Morality,’ which deserves the careful study, not alone of moralists, but also of theologians).
Job 33:13
Why dost thou strive against him? Why dost thou insist on taking the attitude of one who contends with God, who would fain enter into a controversy with him, and force him to plead in his own defence? It is not alone his omnipotence that makes such conduct folly, but his remoteness, his inaccessibility. He cannot be forced to make answer; it is not his wont to do so; he giveth not account of any of his matters. It is presumptuous to suppose that God will condescend to reveal himself from heaven and make answer to thy overbold challenges.
Job 33:14
For God speaketh once, yea twice. God has his own ways of speaking to man, which are not those that Job has been expecting. He speaks silently and secretly, not in thunders and lightnings, as at Sinai (Exo 19:16-20), not by extraordinary theophanies, but nevertheless quite as effectually. Yet man perceiveth it not. Man often does net recognize God’s action in this silent teaching of his. Man wants something more startling, more sensational. In our Lord’s time, the Jews demanded “a sign””a sign from heaven;” but no sign of the kind was given them. Job now did not understand that God, whom he called upon to answer him (Job 10:2; Job 13:22; Job 23:5, etc.), was already speaking to him in various waysby his judgments, by thoughts suggested inwardly to his heart, by the dreams and visions whereof he complained (Job 7:14).
Job 33:15
In a dream, in a vision of the sight. So God spoke to Abimelech (Gen 20:3-7), to Jacob (Gen 31:11), to Laban (Gen 31:24), to Joseph (Gen 38:5, Gen 38:9), to the Pharaoh whom Joseph served (Gen 41:1-7), to Solomon (1Ki 3:5), to Daniel (Dan 2:19), to Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 2:28; Dan 4:5-18), and to many others. Sometimes men recognized such visions as Divine communications; but sometimes, probably quite as often, they regarded them as mere dreams, fancies, phantasies, unworthy of any attention. Elihu seems to hold that Divine visions came only when deep sleep falleth upon men; and similarly Eliphaz, in Job 4:13. This method of revelation seems to belong especially to the more primitive times, and the earlier stages of God’s dealings with men. In the New Testament dreams scarcely form any part of the economy of grace. In slumberings upon the bed. A pleonastic addition, which must not be regarded as diminishing from the force of the precedent clause.
Job 33:16
Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction. At such times, Elihu holds, God gives men spiritual wisdom, instructs them, makes them understand his dealings with them and his purposes with respect to them. If Job is perplexed concerning the Almighty’s ways with himself, and desires explanations, let him have his ear open to the Divine teaching on such occasions, and seriously lay it to heart. He will thus, it may be, find his perplexity diminished.
Job 33:17
That he (i.e. God) may withdraw man from his purpose; literally, from his work, assumed to be a wrongful work. Elihu regards the Divine teaching through visions as intended to elevate and purify men. Sometimes God so works upon them as to make them abandon an evil course on which they had entered. Sometimes his object is to save them from indulgence in an evil temper into which, without his help, they might have fallen. In this latter case he may occasionally hide pride from man. Elihu, perhaps, thinks that Job is unduly proud of his integrity.
Job 33:18
He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. By these interpositions God may even save a man from utter ruin, when, but for them, he would have rushed upon it. He may cause a person -to give up designs or enterprises which would have brought him into danger, and perhaps led to his being slain with the sword.
Job 33:19
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed. God also speaks to men, secretly and silently, in another way, viz. through chastisements. He afflicts the strong man with a grievous sickness, causes him to take to his bed, racks him with pain there, and wrings the multitude of his bones with strong pain. But here again his purpose is kind and loving.
Job 33:20
Be that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. Eating and drinking are detestable to the man who is stretched on a bed of sickness (comp. Psa 107:18, “Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death”). The chains that bind to earth fall off, and the soul is left open to loftier influences.
Job 33:21
His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; literally, from the sight; but the Authorized Version gives probably the correct meaning. And his bones that were not seen stick out. These are general features of a wasting illness. Such illness gives the sufferer time to review thoroughly his life and cow duct, and see to it “if there be any way of wickedness in him,” or any particular form of sin to which he is tempted.
Job 33:22
Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. “The destroyers” are probably the angels to whom the task is assigned of ultimately inflicting death, if minor chastisements prove insufficient.
Job 33:23
If there be a messenger with him; rather, an angel (see the Revised Version). It is generally supposed that “the angel of the covenant” is meant, and that the whole passage is Messianic; but much obscurity hangs over it. The Jews certainly understand it Messianically, since they read it on the great Day of Atonement, and use in their liturgies the prayer, “Raise up for us the righteous Interpreter; say, I have found a ransom.” Elihu’s knowledge of an Interpreter, or Mediator, one among a thousand, who should deliver the afflicted man from going down to the pit, and find a ransom for him (Job 33:24), is certainly very surprising; and we can scarcely imagine that he understood the full force of his words; but it cannot be right to denude them of their natural signification Elihu certainly did not mean to speak of himself as an “angel-interpreter, one among a thousand;” and it is not probable that he intends a reference to any merely human helper. To show unto man. his uprightness; either “to show to a man what it is right for him to do,” or “to indicate to a man in what true righteousness consists.”
Job 33:24
Then he is gracious unto him; and saith. Some interpret, “Then he (i.e. God) is gracious unto him, and he (i.e. the angel) saith. Others make God the subject of both clauses. But the angel is the natural subject. Deliver him from going down to the pit. The mediating angel thus addresses God, and adds, I have found a ransom, leaving the nature of the ransom unexplained. Some notion of ransom, or atonemeat, underlay the whole idea of sacrifice, which appears to have been universally practised from the remotest times, by the Oriental nations.
Job 33:25
His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s. The chastisement having done its work, and the sufferer being delivered from death by the mediating angel, a restoration to health follows. The recovery of “flesh fresher than a child’s” stands as the natural antithesis to Job’s leprosy. He shall return to the days of his youth. Youthful strength, youthful vigour, youthful feelings, shall come back to him. He shall be once more as he was in the days of his prime.
Job 33:26
He shall pray unto God, and he (i.e. God) will be favourable unto him, Being restored to God’s favour, he will once more be able to address him in “effectual fervent prayer,” and obtain whatever he desires of him. And he shall see his face with joy. God’s face shall no longer be a terror to him, but he shall look upon it with joy and gladness. For he (i.e. God, will render unto man his righteousness. That is, will both account and make him righteousboth justify and sanctify him.
Job 33:27
He looketh upon men; rather, he (i.e. the restored penitent) singeth before men. He is jubilant, and confesses his former offences with a light heart, feeling that now he is pardoned and restored to God’s favour. And if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right. This is altogether a mistranslation. The construction of the Hebrew is simple enough, and runs thus: And he (the penitent) saith, I have sinned and perverted that which was right. And it profited me not; i.e. “I gained nothing by my transgressionsthey brought me us advantage.” Compare St. Paul’s inquiry (Rom 6:21), “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” Some, however, translate, “And it was not requited to me,” which also gives a good meaning
Job 33:28
He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light; rather, as in the margin, he hath delivered my soul from going into the pit (comp. Job 33:24), and my life shall see the light. The restored penitent is still speaking.
Job 33:29
Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes (literally, twice and thrice) with man. Elihu, from this point to the end of the chapter, speaks in his own person. God, he says, thus works with man, through visions or through chastisements oftentimesnot in the latter case, taking vengeance on them for their sins, but graciously leading them on to a better mind and a higher spiritual condition. This is part of God’s ordinary moral government, and Job has no need to suppose himself exceptionally dealt with. Elihu has reason on his side in all this, and his words may have given Job some comfort. But they did not exactly fit Job’s ease. Elihu, unless supernaturally enlightened, could not possibly penetrate into the special circumstances of Job’s trial. He could only try to bring his case under general laws, of which it was not an illustration; and so, though well-meant and probably of some service, his argument was no complete answer to Job’s difficulties.
Job 33:30
To bring back his soul from the pit. For discipline and correction, not for vengeancein love and not in anger (comp. Heb 12:5-11, where the doctrine is set forth fully). To be enlightened with the light of the living; or, that he may be enlightened. This is God’s purpose, ordinarily, in afflicting men; or, at any rate, a part of his purpose He aims at enlightening their understandings, and so enabling them to comprehend his ways, and clearly see the path which it is their true wisdom to walk in.
Job 33:31
Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me; i.e. “Mark well what I say. Note it, and lay it up in thy heart.” Hold thy peace, and I will speak. It may be conjectured that Job at this point showed some inclination to break silence and answer Elihu. But Elihu thought that he had a great deal more to say, which was of importance, and wished not to be interrupted. He therefore checked Job’s utterance. Then, fearing lest he had gone too far, he made the concession of the next verse.
Job 33:32
If thou hast anything to say, answer me. Nevertheless, i.e; if there is really anything that thou wouldst fain urge on thine own behalf at this point, speakI am ready to hearfor I dare to justify thee; i.e. “I am anxious, if possible, or so far as possible, to defend and justify thy conduct.” Then, probably, Elihu made a pause, to allow of Job’s speaking; but, as the patriarch kept silence, he continued.
Job 33:33
If not, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom. Elihu is certainly quite sufficiently impressed with the sense of his intellectual capacity. Job’s silence may have been meant as a sort of tacit rebuke to him. Considering his youth (Job 32:6), there is something of arrogance in the whole tone of his address, and especially in his notion that he could “teach Job wisdom.“ It is significant that neither now, when expressly invited to reply, nor at any subsequent point of the discourse, nor even at its close, does Job condescend to make any answer at all to Elihu’s speech.
HOMILETICS
Job 33:1-13
Elihu’s first address to Job: 1. An exposure of Job’s sin.
I. ELIHU BESPEAKS JOB‘S ATTENTION. This he does on four distinct grounds.
1. That what he was about to say had been deliberately, thoroughly, and impartially weighed. (Verse 2.) He was not about to open his mouth at random or under any feeling of excitement, but after having tasted every word, as it were, in his palatea metaphor suggestive of the wise discrimination with which both his thoughts had been prepared and his language selected. “A fool’s mouth poureth forth foolishness: but the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright” (Pro 15:2). The conduct of Elihu is worthy of imitation by all, but especially by preachers of the gospel, who should never speak on sacred things without long, wise, painful, prayerful premeditation and preparation.
2. That what he was about to say would be uttered with the utmost sincerity. (Verse 3.) The harangues of the friends had been conspicuously lacking in words of uprightness (Job 6:25). Elihu’s orations should be the uprightness of his heart.
(1) They should be pure and unmixed truth, not fancies or speculations, ancient maxims or wise apothegms, such as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had dealt in, but ascertained facts, established doctrines, verified experiences.
(2) They should be clearly and simply stated, without any adventitious mixture of rhetoric or eloquence, without any meretricious graces of language or ornaments of diction that would only serve to hide the truth which they pretended to convey.
(3) They should be honestly and honourably meant, not advanced simply for the sake of argument, or in order to exhibit the speaker’s skill, and still less with any sinister purpose as regards the hearer, but as believed to have a direct and important bearing on the subject in hand. The determination of Elihu again deserves the earnest study of Christian ministers, who, in the prosecution of their sacred callings, should remember to set forth the pare and unadulterated truth of God, like St. Paul (1Co 2:2), like St. Peter (1Pe 4:11), and to do so with “great plainness of speech” (2Co 3:12), never seeking to exalt self (1Co 2:1-5; 1Co 9:16) or to please men (Gal 5:11; i Thessalonians Gal 2:4), but always to glorify God (1Co 10:31) and edify the hearer (1Co 14:3; 2Co 13:10).
3. That what be was about to say was, in a certain sense, an inspiration of the Almighty. (Verse 4.) To redeem the language from a charge of superfluity, if not of presumption, it must he held that Elihu here claims to be the subject of a Divine afflatus, which so excited within his breast the convictions he then possessed that they were completely irrepressible. Once more Elihu stands forth as a pattern to the messengers of Christ, who, though not perhaps inspired exactly as Elihu was, are yet dependent on that same Spirit’s teaching for a perfect understanding of what through the prophets and apostles has been revealed (1Co 2:9, 1Co 2:10; Joh 16:13-15), and who should aim, in addressing their fellow-creatures on Divine things, to have their hearts illumined, excited, and warmed by the light, fire, and heat of the Holy Ghost. That preacher most nearly approaches the ideal of a genuine gospel minister who can in a measure adopt Elihu’s words, and describe himself as moved by the Spirit of God, enlightened and set on fire by the breath of the Almighty.
II. ELIHU CHALLENGES JOB‘S REFUTATION. Job had frequently asserted that he could triumphantly repel any charges that might be brought against him (Job 13:22; Job 23:4-7; Job 31:35-37). Accordingly Elihu requests him to prepare such a vindication of himself as he had spoken of. On the supposition that Job was right, such a task should not be difficult.
1. Elihu was the sort of antagonist whom Job had desired to meet. (Verse 6.) Job had urged that his invisible opponent was not a man like himself (Job 9:32), and had craved the intervention of a daysman who might lay his hand upon both (Job 9:33). In reply, Elihu says, “Behold, I am according to thy mouth to [‘of,’ ‘for,’ or ‘by’] God,” meaning either
(1) I am according to thy wish unto, i.e. for or instead of God (Authorized Version); or
(2) I am like thee (sc. created) by God (Gesenius), or what appears preferable, I am as thou art unto God, i.e. I stand to him in the same relation as thou dostI, like thyself, am his creature (Carey); or I, like thee, belong to God (Delitzsch), i.e.. I am a human being like thyself, fashioned by the hand of God, nipped off from the clay as when a potter nips off a piece of clay from the larger lump to construct of it a vessel or a human figure. Elihu’s language in a striking manner recalls the Mosaic account of the creation of man (Gen 2:7).
2. There was nothing about Elihu to intimidate Job or prevent him from replying if he could. “Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee;” literally, “and my burden, pressure, or load upon thee shall not be heavy.” Job would have nothing to overpower or discourage him in making the fullest statement of his case; he would feel himself to be dealing with an equal, with one who would scorn, even if he could, to take undue advantage of his opponent. In Elihu we seem to see a type, or at least a resemblance, of the Man Christ Jesus, who, endowed with the Holy Ghost without measure, has become the Mediator and the Judge of men.
III. ELIHU DECLARES JOB‘S OFFENCE.
1. That Job justified himself. He had said, “I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me” (verse 9). That Elihu does not greatly misrepresent the patriarch may be proved by comparison of the statements here made with Job’s utterances previously recorded (Job 9:21; Job 10:7; Job 12:4; Job 16:7). But Elihu, it is said, does not sufficiently allow for certain other declarations in which Job admits a consciousness of natural sinfulness (Job 9:2; Job 14:4). The object of Elihu, however, was not to indicate the portions of Job’s addresses and appeals that were doctrinally and practically correct, but to point out where Job had overstepped the bounds of rectitude and truth; and this he does by citing what he regards as the substance of Job’s own utterances, as language that even a justified sinner conscious of his own integrity and moral purity should be chary in adopting, and should never be over-vehement in maintaining.
2. That Job condemned God. Under this head Elihu refers to the ipsissima verba of the patriarch. Infinitely jealous of his own reputation, Job had been fearfully reckless with regard to God’s. Resenting with a fierce indignation the faintest whisper that might be breathed against himself, he did not hesitate to impeach the Almighty of harshness, saying, “Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy. He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my paths,” language taken directly from the lips of Job (Job 10:13-17; Job 13:24-27; Job 19:11; Job 30:21).
IV. ELIHU EXHIBITS JOB‘S ERROR. Probably the mere reproduction of Job’s words was enough to convince him of their impropriety. In addition, he is reminded of the superhuman greatness of God, in which, as in a mirror, he may behold the fallacy of all that he has maintained.
1. The mistake of concluding that he himself was righteous. “Behold, in this thou art not just,” i.e. thou art not right in supposing thyself to be clean and free from transgression, because, even though thy heart condemn thee not, God is greater than thy heart, and knoweth all things (1Jn 3:20). “Even when we have confidence before God respecting our own integrity, our confidence may be misplaced, and our own hearts may have deceived us’ (Fry). Cf. the language of St. Paul (1Co 4:4).
2. The foolishness of thinking God regarded him as an enemy. The exalted character and infinite power, not to say immeasurable grace, of God should have delivered him from any such misconception. Had Job adequately reflected on the Divine greatness, he would never have suffered himself to think, far less to speak, of God as an unkind Adversary and ever-vigilant Assailant.
3. The absurdity of expecting God to respond to his interrogations. God is too exalted, too lofty and glorious a being, to be questioned by man. Hence Elihu offers himself to answer Job in God’s stead. Hence also preposterous is the delusion of thinking to contend with him in any court of justice, since “he giveth not account of any of his matters.”
Learn:
1. That if Elihu was deserving of Job’s attention, much more is Christ deserving of ours.
2. That Christ’s humanity affords to sinful men the greatest encouragement to approach his throne without fear.
3. That they who come to plead with Christ must be prepared to acknowledge their offences.
4. That Christ is well informed concerning all the transgressions of those for whom he intercedes.
5. That one of the greatest mistakes a human soul can commit is to say that God regards him as an enemy.
6. That the deepest folly a finite creature can perpetrate is to strive against God.
7. That the highest tribunal before which any of God’s actions can be brought is his own just, holy, and loving Godhead.
Job 33:14-33
Elihu’s first address to Job: 2. The philosophy of Divine instruction.
I. THE METHODS OF DIVINE INSTRUCTION.
1. Through the medium of dreams. The dreams, or visions, referred to were supernatural revelations in early times imparted to men, when the spirit, probably wrapt in meditation on Divine things, was cast into a deep sleep, such as fell on Adam at the creation of Eve (Gen 2:21). That nocturnal dreams usually find their psychological basis in the mental idiosyncrasies of the individual, and in large degree borrow their shapes and colours from the phenomena of waking existence, is no proof that God may not sometimes have employed them, and may not still employ them, as channels for imparting instruction to men. That they were so employed in early times, not only for instructing heathens like Abimelech (Gen 20:6), Laban (Gen 31:24), Pharaoh (Gen 41:1), and Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:5), but also saints like Abraham (Gen 15:12), Jacob (Gen 31:10), Joseph (Gen 37:5), Eliphaz (Job 4:13), and Joseph the husband of Mary (Mat 1:20), is explicitly declared in Scripture. That men cannot readily distinguish between such dreams and visions as are the creations of their own excited imaginations, and such as are sent from above, does not demonstrate the impossibility of God still in the same supernatural fashion “opening the ears of men, and sealing instruction upon their souls.”
2. Through the instrumentality of affliction. The sufferer described by Elihu passes through an experience similar to Job’s. The disease which assails him has many of the characteristics of elephantiasis.
(1) Painful. “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed” (verse 19), which pain, if we may take advantage of the various readings and translations of the following clause, is represented as sudden, “while the multitude of his limbs is still vigorous” (Ewald); universal, “and the multitude of his limbs with strong pain” (Authorized Version); vehement, “so that he writheth in great agony” (Cox); and incessant, “and with the unceasing conflict of his limbs” (Delitzsch); or, “and the contest never resteth in his bones” (Umbreit); or, “and the racking of his bones is incessant” (Fry).
(2) Nauseating. “So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat;” literally, “meat of desire” (verse 20). The case of IsaActs (Gen 27:4) was exceptional. Loss of appetite and nausea are usual concomitants of a weak and sickly condition of body.
(3) Wasting. “His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen”literally, “out of sight,” which may also signify “from comeliness, so that it becomes unsightly “(Delitzsch)”and his bones that were not seen stick out” (verse 21); or, according to another reading, “his bones waste away and disappear” ( Speaker’s Commentary ), i.e. they lose their beautiful form, till eventually he becomes little better than a fleshless, bloodless, marrowless, emaciated skeleton.
(4) Destroying. “Yea, his soul draweth near to the grave, and his life to the destroyers” (verse 22); either to those angels whom God commissions to slay man when he continues impenitent, or to those destructive agencies which God employs to terminate the vital functions.
3. Through the friendly offices of an interpreter. The word “interpreter” has obviously in this place the sense of “internuncius,” i.e. ambassador, or representative, who communicates the will of a superior, and indicates the special office entrusted to the “messenger” alluded to by Elihu as that of authoritatively making known, as a Heaven-commissioned teacher or prophet, the will of God. Diversity of view prevails as to whether the messenger to whom this task is deputed should be regarded as human, angelic, or Divine (vide Exposition), as a teacher, prophet, or minister like Elihu, a superhuman angelic being, or the angel of the Presence, the Messenger of the covenant. Against the first, there can be no insuperable objection; only it is obvious that in this case Elihu cannot refer to himself without extraordinary self-conceit, since he characterizes the messenger whom the sick man requires as meditator as “one of a thousand,” i.e. not one of many, bat one without an equal, one possessed of pre-eminent gifts of insight and teaching. Nor is it impossible that Elihu, remembering the language of Eliphaz (Job 4:18), may have been thinking of an angelic helper; only the qualifying clause,” one of a thousand,” determines that one to be the Angel of Jehovah, who alone among the myriad hosts of angels stands without a peer. That a young Arabian prophet of Aramaean extraction should be familiar with the angel-interpreter is no more remarkable than that the Angel of the Lord should be known to the patriarchs.
II. THE PURPOSES OF DIVINE INSTRUCTION.
1. To deter man from sin. In particular the withdrawing of man from his purpose (verse 17), literally, from his work, generally in an evil sense, is exhibited as the specific object aimed at by God’s supernatural warnings to the soul, as e.g. in the cases of Abimelech (Gen 20:6) and Laban (Gen 31:24); but none the less is affliction designed to exercise on wicked men a deterrent influence, restraining them from sin, as in the cases of Pharaoh (Exo 7:16) and Manasseh (2Ch 33:12); while the third method of instruction referred to, that of spiritual enlightenment (whether human or Divine as to its agency,) distinctly contemplates as its aim, among other things, the subjugation of evil impulses in the soul, and the obliteration of evil deeds from the life, of man (Joh 15:3; Joh 17:17; i Thessalonians Joh 2:13; 2Ti 3:16).
2. To withdraw man from pride. Pride is the homage which a human soul pays to itself, the arrogant assumption by self of that worship which is due to God. The great sin to which man in innocence was tempted by the devil (Gen 3:5), it has ever since been a characteristic of the fallen heart (Psa 10:2), which, seemingly oblivious of its weakness, is always looking out for symptoms of its power, styling itself a geber, “a strong one,” a valiant hero, when in reality it is an enosh, “a frail and feeble creature” (cf. the Laodicean Christians). Besides being extremely foolish in itself, and infinitely dangerous to the subject of it, such a disposition and mind is intensely hateful to God (Psa 101:5; Pro 8:13; Isa 13:11; Jer 50:31; 1Co 1:29; Jas 4:6), who, by the threefold ministry above specified, aims at its complete extirpation from the human heartfirst checking its outward manifestations by providential warnings, supernatural or otherwise, as in the cases of Hagar (Gen 16:9), Miriam and Aaron (Num 12:2-10), David (2Sa 24:10), and Hezekiah (2Ki 20:13; 2Ch 30:1-27, 2Ch 1:1-17 :31); then striking at its inward roots by the sharp axe of affliction, as he did with Pharaoh (Exo 7:1-25; et seq.), Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:30-34), Sennacherib (2Ki 18:19-35); and finally, by the personal example and teaching of Christ (Mat 11:29) casting it out, and hiding it, from the souls of those in whom such affliction is sanctified.
3. To deliver man from ignorance. More specifically is this declared to be the’ object contemplated by the “Maleach Malitz.” Sinful man is pre-eminently in darkness concerning “his uprightness;” i.e. either God’s rectitude and justice in dealing with individuals (Carey), or, what seems preferable, man’s right course to be followed (cf. 1Sa 6:12; Pro 14:2)the path which he ought to pursue when lying under God’s chastening hand; “in one word, the way of salvation, which he must take in order to get free of sin and death, the way, viz; of repentance and of faith” (Delitzsch, Good, Fry, Cox, and others). In large measure this absence of moral and spiritual enlightenment as to the way of salvation accounts for man’s hardness and impenitence of heart. Consequently, the Divine administration has provided for bringing the needful illumination to man’s benighted soul by means of a special Angel-Interpreter (first Christ, then the Holy Ghost, and, under them, the angels or ministers of the Churches); and the time selected for sending in a flood of heavenly light upon man’s darkened understanding is the season of affliction, when, his pride having been laid low, his heart has become soft and amenable to instruction.
4. To save man from death. It is unreasonable to insist that Elihu knew nothing of a spiritual deliverance of the soul from condemnation and everlasting death, and that his language (verses 18, 24, 30) about the pit must be confined exclusively to the grave. On the other hand, it would be equally preposterous to deny that Elihu does hero allude to the temporal and physical recovery of a sick man as the result of accepting with penitence and faith the teaching of the Angel-Interpreter; as e.g. in the case of Hezekiah, to whom Isaiah acted in the capacity of a “Maleach, Malitz,” and who, in answer to his prayers and tears, was restored to health (Isa 38:5), and as in early Christian times the invalid who called for the elders of the Church and listened to their instructions was directed to hope that in response to the prayer of faith God would raise him up (Jas 5:14, Jas 5:15). The probability is that both forms of deliverance were in the contemplation of Elihu:
(1) of the sinful man’s soul from the pit of condemnation of which David sings (Psa 40:2), and
(2) of the sick man’s body from the pit of corruption into which Hezekiah looked (Isa 38:18)the latter being the consequence as well as the sign of the former.
III. THE RESULTS OF DIVINE INSTRUCTION.
1. Emancipation. When the purpose aimed at by the Divine warnings, afflictions, and teachings is accomplished, the penitent is liberated like a captive from his bondage, like a prisoner from his confinement, this being in all probability the import of the word translated “deliver,” which occurs nowhere else; and this emancipation of the chastened soul is minutely depicted by the speaker.
(1) Its primal source is the grace of God (verse 24). To the true penitent God is pitifully inclined, regarding him with tender mercy and foraying love; and in this Divine emotion towards man all redemption has its rise (Psa 3:8; Psa 68:19, Psa 68:20; Psa 86:15; Isa 45:21; Eph 2:5, Eph 2:8; Tit 2:11). Not that God either can or will pardon any on the ground simply of their penitence, without the intervention of an atonement; but that, wherever genuine contrition exists, there God is merciful and gracious (Psa 51:17; Isa 57:15), while he neither is nor can be forgiving and benignant towards the impenitent and rebellious (Isa 1:20).
(2) Its essential nature is deliverance; both physical and spiritual, both temporal and eternal (vide supra), the latter being symbolized by the former, the recovery of the soul to God’s favour and fellowship by the restoration of the body to health and vigour. The sick man, who has been reduced by disease to a thin, feeble, emaciated, transparent skeleton, begins to put on flesh till his well-covered bones become fat and plump, as if he had returned to the days of his youth like Naaman the Syrian (2Ki 5:14); and in this is vouchsafed to him a visible token of God’s returning favour.
(3) Its meritorious ground is the ransom or redemption-price paid for getting free from captivity or death (Exo 21:30; Exo 30:12; Isa 42:3), that ransom being not the repentance (Hofmann, Carey) or the sufferings (Umbreit) of the chastened one, but the mediatorship of the Angel (Delitzsch, Cook, Fry)a thought in which “we readily recognize a presage of the mystery unveiled in the New Testament, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” To pronounce such a doctrine in the mouth of Elihu “an anachronism,” is to forget the protevangel of Eden (Gen 3:15), and to gratuitously assume that outside the line of the chosen family in patriarchal times faith in this sublime gospel had become entirely extinct. To affirm that such an anachronism (so-called) is “rebuked by the plain and obvious sense of the passage itself, and of the meaning and intention of the chapter in general” (Cox), is to demonstrate that one has failed to distinctly grasp the scope and purpose both of this particular section and of Elihu’s interlocution as a whole. If Elihu spoke by inspiration, why should not the Spirit of Christ which was in him (1Pe 1:11) have testified beforehand of the work of him who, when he came to earth, was to give his life a ransom for many (Mat 20:28), and all the more that the finding of such a ransom was a work transcending human ability, and requiring as is here declared the intervention of God himself?
2. Acceptation. As a next result of Divine teaching, of accepted warnings, sanctified afflictions, improved instructions, the subdued penitent, now admitted into the Divine favour, receives a recompense for his righteousness, i.e. a gracious reward for his having turned to God in contrition (cf. Isa 64:5), and for his upright conversation generally, or is henceforth regarded and treated as a righteous or justified person; the treatment accorded to him and the reward bestowed upon him being the same, and comprised in three inestimable privileges.
(1) Free access, to God’s throne. “He shall pray unto God (verse 26). Prayer is the language of the newborn spirit (Act 9:11); a necessary characteristic of God’s children (Rom 8:15); the imperative duty of all men (Psa 62:8; Isa 65:6; Luk 18:1-43 :l); and a special privilege of believers (Eph 2:18; Heb 4:16; Heb 10:22). The pardoned slither enjoys the fullest liberty to address God in prayer when, where, and how he will (Php 4:6; 1Th 5:17), provided always, of course, he does so in faith (Heb 11:6), in the Name of Jesus Christ (Joh 14:13, Joh 14:14), and for things agreeable to God’s will (1Jn 5:14).
(2) Certain enjoyment of God’s favour. “He,” i.e. God, “will be favourable unto him” and to his petitions. God never says to any of the seed of Jacob, “Seek ye me in vain” (Isa 45:19), but, on the contrary, expressly engages to fulfil the desires of them that fear him (Psa 81:10; Psa 91:15; Isa 65:24; Jer 29:12; Zec 13:9; Mat 7:7; Joh 16:23; 1Jn 5:14). “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight n (Pro 15:8). “The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous” (Pro 15:29). Greater encouragement to “continue instant in prayer” can scarcely be imagined.
(3) Filial joy in God’s presence. “He,” i.e. the pardoned sinner, “shall see his,” i.e. God’s “face with joy.” Now by faith coming before him as a happy child exulting in a father’s love (Eph 2:18); and hereafter in heaven when as one of the glorified he shall stand before the throne (Psa 17:15; Rev 22:4).
3. Jubilation. Like Hezekiah (Isa 38:20) and like David (Psa 40:3; Psa 104:33), the recovered sick man and accepted penitent breaks forth into singing. “He chanteth unto men and saith” (verse 27), the burden of his anthem being:
(1) A humble acknowledgment of sin. “I had sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it was not requited unto me.” Confession of sin, though indispensable to forgiveness (Leveticus 26:40-42; Jos 7:19; Pro 28:13; Psa 32:5; Hos 5:15; Luk 18:13; 1Jn 1:9), is never so frank, full, or fervent before conversion as after it. The justified sinner sees more clearly than the newly awakened penitent the exceeding heinousness of sin, realizes more acutely the greatness of his own personal guilt, and appreciates more highly the Divine clemency in passing by the transgression he might justly have visited with condign punishment.
(2) A hearty acknowledgment of grace. Not only does he magnify the Divine clemency in not requiting to him his evil deeds, but he extols the Divine loving-kindness in delivering his guilty soul from condemnation and death. “He hath delivered my soul from going down into the pit, and my life rejoiceth in the light.” Cf. David’s anthem (Psa 103:1-5).
Learn:
1. The extreme anxiety with which God seeks man’s instruction.
2. The natural insensibility of man to Divine teaching.
3. The efficiency with which God can seal instruction on the human heart.
4. The indebtedness of wicked men to God’s restraining grace.
5. The folly as well as sin of indulging in pride.
6. The inevitableness of man’s destruction unless God interposes to save.
7. The beneficent design of affliction.
8. The facility with which God can destroy the pleasantness of life, and conduct even the strong man to the grave.
9. The infinite mercy of God in providing man with an Angel-Interpreter and a ransom.
10. The impossibility of any man escaping the pit unless God says, “Deliver.”
11. The blessedness of the man whose sins are pardoned, and whose transgression is covered.
12. The obligation lying on all saints to declare what great things God hath done for their souls.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Job 33:8-33
Elihu’s first discourse: the guilt of man in the sight of God.
I. JOB‘S CONFIDENCE IN HAS INNOCENTS CENSURED. (Job 33:8-11.) Elihu gathers up in brief some of those sayings of Job which had shocked his ear and scandalized his spiritual conscience. Job had asserted his own purity, and had accused God of enmity against his person (compare Job’s words, Job 9:21; Job 10:7; Job 16:17; Job 23:10; Job 27:5, Job 27:6; Job 10:13, seq.; Job 19:11; Job 30:21).
II. THE TRUE RELATIONS OF MAN TO GOD SET FORTH. (Verses 12-30.) By many intimations of inward and outward experience God seeks to warn man and to bring him to himself He is no Being of passions such as Job represents him; “higher than a mortal,” it is no part of his nature to crush in anger and revenge a defenceless creature. Nor is he dumb, voiceless, cold to his creatures’ cries and appeals, as Job thinks. He speaks again and again; but the fault is in the deafness and dulness of the listener (verses 12-14). Some medes of Divine instruction are then described.
1. The voice of conscience in dreams. (Verses 15-18.) The ear is opened; the sensuous nature is stilled, the imagination is kindled into life; memory unlocks her stores; the past suggests the future; and thus hints and warnings are” stamped upon the instruction” of the soul. These are not merely facts of a past age of the world. If the Divine instruction by dreams was ever real, it is real still. The study of the physiology and psychology of our dream-life may yield a fund of interest of a directly religious kind to all who believe our nature to be in immediate intercourse with the unseen and the Divine. We are still warded and comforted of God in dreams. The purpose of these communications is to restrain man from evil; to hide pride from him, that is, so that he ceases to indulge it; to keep back his soul from the grave; to warn him against death and all that is deadlyagainst the sudden oncoming of the fatal blow. Whatever view be taken of the subject of special visions and communications from the other world, it is open to us all to observe how in our physical constitution we are never without warnings, forebodings, timely hints, of coming pain and disease; how in our moral constitution in like manner coming events of retribution cast their shadows before, and rouse us from the stupor of guilt and shame. A kindly voice is ever calling us in these ways to flee from the wrath that is to come.
2. Severe sickness as the visitation of God. (Verses 19-22.) Buffering is felt to be chastisement. When all the frame is unstrung, when the sweet sense of life turns to loathing, and the body wastes away, and death draws near, then man feels his dependence on a higher power; then often for the first time learns to pray, to believe in God, and to feel his nearness and his goodness. No doubt there was much of superstition in ancient times with regard to supposing suffering to be a direct visitation of the anger of God. But while we get rid of the superstition, let us preserve the truth of which it is a distortionthat in this mixed constitution of ours the proper effect of pain is to lead the mind to the Author of all that we both enjoy and suffer. “In some constitutions affliction seems peculiarly necessary as a hint of God. Some trees will not thrive unless their roots be laid bare; or unless, besides pruning, their bodies be gashed and sliced. Others that are too luxuriant need their blossoms to be pulled off, or they will yield nothing. Rank corn, if it be not timely eaten down, may yield something to the barn, but little to the granary. Every man can say he thanks God for ease; but for me, I bless God for my troubles” (Bishop Hall).
3. The ministry of angels. (Verses 23-28.) Literally in the last verse the “destroyers” are the “angels of death,” sent upon their fatal errand by the Almighty. In contrast we have now the mention of the good, delivering angel who brings release from the doom. The ministering angel draws near to the penitent sufferer in compassion, and says, “Relieve him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom? In the forms of the poetical imagination, an unexpected recovery from deadly sickness is thus described. Then returning health covers his flesh again with the bloom of youth; the sorrow vanishes from his mind; it is once more summer in the soul. He prays to the Almighty, and is graciously heard and accepted; he basks in the sunshine of God’s countenance; and the lost peace is restored to the purified conscience. And the heart breaks out into singing, for a new song is put into the restored one’s moutha song of praise to God. And this is its burden: “I had sinned and perverted right; but it was not requited to me; he redeemed my soul, that I might not go into the grave, and my life sees his pleasure in the light” (comp. Isa 22:23, seq.; Isa 51:17). Such is the portion of the man who hears the rod, and who has appointed it; who bows beneath affliction only to rise to s purer height of spiritual joy. His sins are pardoned, his good endeavours accepted, his crosses sanctified, his prayers heard; everything that he has is a blessing to him, everything that he suffers an advantage.
CONCLUSION. (Verses 31-33.) These are the dealings of God with man; this the purport of all his afflictions. Experience seals the truth. Let Job or any other gainsay or refute it if he will or can! But rather this strong deep personal conviction of Elihu will vibrate and awake a response in the sufferer’s heart. There is a contagion in true faith. Oh for the victory that overcomes the world! Once realize God to be our God, our Refuge and Strength, our present Help in trouble, and earth or hell in vain labour to make us other than blessed.J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN
Job 33:1 -38,
The Divine correction.
In the self-assurance of his competency to give wisdom to Job, and to correct his errors and to solve the mystery of his affliction, Elihu continues his speech and invites reply. “If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up.” He makes his accusation against Job that he has not only affirmed his own innocence, but that he has also made charges against God. He then proceeds to vindicate the purposes of God in human affliction. “God speaketh once, yea twice;” the error is on man’s part, who “perceiveth it not.” He gives a view of the Divine corrections.
I. AS TO THEIR METHOD. The God that “is greater than man,” who worketh secretly and “giveth not account of any of his matters,” giveth instruction:
1. In a dream, in the visions of the night; opening the ears of men, and sealing their instruction.
2. By the severities of affliction; when man is “chastened with pain upon his bed.” This is applicable to Job; and the former may have been mentioned gently to introduce this.
II. AS TO THEIR PURPOSE. This is always gracious. It is to save from impending danger, and to lead in safe and good ways.
1. To restrain man from evil paths. “To withdraw him from his purpose.”
2. To hide pride from man. To bring down the high looks of the self-complacent and the wicked.
3. To save from untimely death, and from the weapons of destructive violence. To keep “his life from perishing by the sword.” Sin tends to death both by natural causes and by violence. Then Elihu views these corrections
III. IN THEIR HAPPY RESULT.
(1) Should the mediating Counsellor be near, and the way of life, the right waythe way of righteousnessbe pointed out; and
(2) the smitten one return with repentance, saying, “I have sinned, and perverted that which was right;” and
(3) lifting up his voice “pray unto God;” then
(4) shall the Divine deliverance come:
(a) in an expression of the Divine forbearance;
(b) in admission to the Divine favour”he shall see his face with joy;”
(c) in a gracious restoration, delivering “his soul from going into the pit'” and bringing him to rejoice in the light.
This is the Divine response to repentance which Elihu urges upon Job. Happy is every smitten one who, returning to God, finds a ransom price paid for his soul, and rejoices in a deliverance which restores to him the days of his youth, when “his very flesh becometh fresher than a child’s.”R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 33:4
The inspiration of creation.
Elihu assures Job that he is a man, made by God, and by his very creation having the Spirit of God in him. There is some pretentiousness in the manner of Elihu. Yet what he says is important, because it is not true of him alone, but of every man.
I. MAN IS MADE BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
1. His origin is outside himself. Whatever man can do for himself, he certainly cannot make himself. When we come back to the question of origins, the most self-reliant person must confess that he could not have caused his own being.
2. His origin is from God. Man derives his life originally from the First Cause of the whole series of living creatures. Whether man was created immediately out of the dust of the earth, or, as evolutionists teach, mediately, through other creatures, he in common with all things living derives his being from the great Parent of nature. Evolution does not destroy creation; it only describes the process, and throws back the time of the beginning of creation.
3. His origin is in the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God at first brooded over the face of the waters (Gen 1:2). When man appeared God breathed into him the spirit of life (Gen 2:7). The Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of life. In his spiritual nature man is especially related to the Spirit of God. He is a spark from the eternal Sun.
4. His very existence is maintained by the Spirit of God. Man lives only because God lives in him. By nature his life is an inspiration from heaven. At any moment, if God were to withdraw, man would perish. “In him we five, and move, and have our being.” Thus not only the original creation, but also the present life, should be regarded as inspired by God.
II. THE INSPIRATION OF CREATION IS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE.
1. The Maker may be known by his work. All creation reveals God; but man, the highest creature, most fully expresses the Divine. To us there can be no higher revelation of God than that which is made through a perfect man. Therefore the incarnation of Christ is our most complete vision of the Father. But all men are in a measure revealers of the hand that made them.
2. The spiritual nature of man is a type of God. All nature reveals God; suns and stars, trees and flowers, birds, beasts, and fishes, give lemons of the Divine; but they do so through their material structures. Man reveals God in the constitution of his spiritual nature. He is not merely the building that sets forth the ideas of the Architect; he is the child, himself made in the image of the Father. His spiritual nature is essentially like God. who is Spirit. Thus he is made in the image of God.
3. The indwelling of the Spirit of God is a permanent revelation of God. God not only makes himself known by what he has done, he is daily revealing himself by his present life in our midst. Nature is not like a fossil that shows in its dead lineaments the traces of an old-world life; she is a mirror of the Divine activity. Our own souls are witnessing to God by their vitality. The dwelling of God within us is a continuous proof that he lives, that he works, that he loves. We know what God is now by what God is now doing in our hearts and lives.W. F. A
Job 33:6, Job 33:7
The human mediator.
Elihu declares that his attitude towards God is just the same as Job’s. He stands like Job in respect of God. He is a mortal man formed out of the clay. Then, though Job dreads the awful, invisible God, he may listen to a fellow-creature without fear. If he cannot find God in the darkness, he may be cheered and strengthened by feeling the presence of a brother-man. He may take his lessons from Elihu quite simply and naturally as from one like himself. In these ideas Elihu shadows forth what may be perfectly realized in Christ. It was a mark of Elihu’s confident vanity for him to speak as he did. But his words, somewhat superfluous as regards himself, set him forth in a striking light as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I. WE NEED HUMAN SYMPATHY IN RELIGION. Although man is made in the image of God, and although his very life is a constant inspiration, and depends on the presence and power of God, still God is invisible, God is great, God is an infinite Spirit. The soul of man hungers for brotherly sympathy. We all want to feel the fellowship of one who is like ourselves.
1. That we may understand aright. We cannot understand a being of a different species from ourselves. We cannot even comprehend the meaning of our own dog when he looks up at us with pathetic eyes, for we are of another species.
2. That our affections may be awakened. We most naturally love one who is kindred to ourselves. The difficulty of loving God is to perceive that there is that in him which is akin to our own natures. When he appears strange to us we shrink from him; we cannot reach out to him in confidence and joyous emotion.
II. CHRIST BRINGS US HUMAN SYMPATHY IN RELIGION. We must not think of him as standing half-way between us and God. Such a Christ would be a monstrous beingneither one with us nor one with God. United with the Father on the Divine side. our Lord is a perfect Man on the human side.
1. He is intelligible to us. We can see him, hear him, understand him. And he has told us that when we see him we see the Father (Joh 14:9).
2. He wires our heart‘s affections. His kinship makes this possible; his brotherly love makes it actual; his great work and death for us perfect his hold upon us. Thus our hearts are drawn out to God by the sympathy of Christ.
III. MEN SHOULD SHOW HUMAN SYMPATHY IN RELIGION. What Elihu aimed at, what Christ realized, that is the ideal for us. Without the ostentation of the young Buzite, we are called upon to remember our human nature when we try to help our fellow-men in religious as well as in others matters. There is a sort of sanctimonious spirituality which ignores humanity. This is disgusting to men, and it is the cause of much popular aversion to religion. We cannot help our fellow-men till we recollect we are human like themfrail, fallible, mortal; nay, sinful, fallen, ourselves needing a Saviour. Brotherly sympathy is the first essential for helpful religious influence.W.F.A.
Job 33:14-17
Divine voices.
I. THE ADVENT OF THE DIVINE VOICES. Elihu reminds us of Eliphaz, yet with a difference. Both men believe in superhuman influences, in God-sent messages, But Eliphaz tells of a stately vision, an awful and overwhelming apparition; Elihu, on the other hand, is satisfied with dream-voices. God approaches man in various ways. The most awe-inspiring is not necessarily the most instructive. Dreams have been continually recognized among the channels of Divine communication, e.g. the stories of Joseph and Daniel and the prediction of Joel (Joe 2:28). It is very easy to misinterpret a dream, and to attribute to a Divine impulse what only springs from the vagaries of one’s own fancy. We need some assurance that the voices are from God. Now, the test is in their character. All holy thoughts proceed from God, and none that are unholy. When we are visited by a holy thought, whether in sleep or in waking hours, we may rejoice with gratitude to know that God has spoken to us.
II. THE REPETITION OF THE DIVINE VOICES. “God speaketh once, yea twice.” Pharaoh’s dreams were repeated (Gen 41:32). Joseph’s different dreams reiterated the same message (Gen 37:9). Prophet followed prophet with warning and promise for Israel. The new Christian voice followed the old Jewish voice. God is speaking now, sending one message after another in his providence. We have all heard from God more than once. His was the Voice that instilled the first eager desires for goodness in childhood, and his the voice that pleaded amid the passionate enthusiasms of youth. It has sounded in our ears repeatedly among the varied scenes of life warning against sin, and calling to Christian service. It is repeated whenever the Bible is read, whenever Divine truth is preached, whenever conscience is aroused.
III. THE RECEPTION OF THE DIVINE VOICES. Too often they are unheeded. “Man perceiveth it not.” A mood of spiritual dulness may let the voices pass unheard. But this is not a natural condition. The little child is not thus deaf.
“Heaven lies about us in our infancy.”
Later years deaden our perceptions, not indeed by the simple wear and tear of life, but by the evil things that are engendered. Distracting worldliness and sin, the deadliest foes to the heavenly voices, make us careless of the messages from God.
IV. THE PURPOSE OF THE DIVINE VOICES. They are to guide and save. “To withdraw man from his purpose,” when that purpose is evil or dangerous. “To hide pride from man,” i.e. to save man from his pride. Thus the voices are warning and deterrent. They remind us of the “demon” of Socrates, which, he said, told him when he was not to do something, but did not prompt him to do anything. We know that God inspires for action, that heavenly voices summon to toil and battle. Yet perhaps we may perceive that the inner voice is more often a restraining than a stimulating voice. For the stimulus we look to the living Christ. Yet the restraint is sent in mercy. God warns, that he may save.W.F.A.
Job 33:19-22
Chastisement.
Elihu now approaches his own special and new contribution to the great controversy. God addresses man in various ways. First he speaks with the still, small inner voice of conscience. But when the repetition of this voice is unheeded he proceeds by another method, and calls attention through the rousing voice of chastisement.
I. SUFFERING IS CHASTISEMENT. As he elaborates his thought we see what Elihu is making clear. Suffering is not the vindictive punishment of sin; nor is it the work of a malignant or even of an indifferent being. It is sent by God for the wholesome discipline of his children. No doubt this discipline is often rendered necessary by sin, and when it is so chastisement is virtually punishment; but even then it is punishment with a merciful end. It is the rod that corrects, not the gallows that ends a career without hope. It looks forward to better things; it is directly designed to help and bless and save. But often it is not connected with sin. It is the wholesome discipline that seasons the soldier with hardship.
II. CHASTISEMENT IS A DIVINE MESSENGER. The poor sufferer, “chastened also with pain upon his bed,” is not deserted by God. He is tempted to look upon his trouble as a proof that God has left him, if it is not a sign that God has become his Enemy. But both ideas are wrong. God is neither inimical nor negligent. The very suffering is a sign of God’s present care. It is a process by means of which he is bettering his child. Therefore it is a message of mercy. Yet it is not always possible to discern the mercy in the message. Still, the message is not fruitless. Perhaps there was a danger of too much self-confidence; pride was creeping in; success was lifting up the soul to dangerous heights. Then the chastisement came to cast down and humble. At first this seemed harsh and hurtful. But on reflection it is seen to be the very thing needful for saving the better life and refining it.
III. THE SUFFERING OF CHASTISEMENT SHOULD DRIVE US TO GOD. Perhaps we would not heed him in the cheerful hours. Now we need him. The voices that were drowned in the noisy scenes of pleasure may steal into our ears in the lonely watches of pain. Thus we learn to trust in the darkness.
“Lord, in thy sky of blue
No stain of cloud appears
Gone all my faithless fears,
Only thy love seems true.
Help me to thank thee, then, I pray;
Walk in the light and cheerfully obey.
“Lord, when I look on high,
Clouds only meet my sight;
Fears deepen with the night:
But yet it is thy sky.
Help me to trust thee, then, I pray;
Wait in the dark and tearfully obey.”
W.F.A.
Job 33:23-26
The messenger and the ransom.
Elihu shows that God has three ways of speaking to manby inward voices (Job 33:14-18), by the experience of chastisement (Job 33:19-22), and now lastly by a living messenger (Job 33:23-26).
I. GOD SPEAKS BY A MESSENGER. It is a question whether we should understand the word rendered “messenger” in the usual sense attached to it, i.e, as standing for “angel.” God has spoken through angel-messengers from the days of Abraham. But any one charged with a Divine message becomes God’s angel to those to whom he delivers it. Every prophet is God’s messenger, one who speaks for God. The apostle is one sent forth by Christ. Angels, prophets, apostlesthey are all, so far, the same. They are God’s missionaries. Christ is once called an Apostle (Heb 3:1), because he too was sent forth by his Father (1Jn 4:14). Our Lord’s mission on earth was to bring the new message of salvation from heaven, and to make it a real and living thing among men. Every true follower of Christ is called to be a messenger from God to his fellow-men. People will listen to the human voice when they are deaf to the pleadings of conscience and blind to the teachings of experience. The true preacher is God’s messenger. “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2Co 5:20).
II. GOD‘S MESSENGER BRINGS A RANSOM. It is contrary to the whole course of historical revelation, which develops truth by slow degrees, to suppose that the ransom intended by Elihu was the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. Such an anachronism implies an entire lack of perspective in the view of the interpreter. Nevertheless, the essential ideas of a ransom are here brought forward.
1. Deliverance. It is the duty of God’s messenger to preach “deliverance to the captives.” He is more than a revealer of truth; he is a herald of salvation.
2. A costly method. Elihu may have no conception of the price of redemption. Yet he perceives more or less dimly that some ransom must be paid. We have a much clearer view of the subject, because we can read it in the light of history. We now know that our deliverance is effected through the death of Christ. “The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many” (Mat 20:28).
III. THE DIVINE RANSOM SECURES A GLAD WELCOME FROM GOD. The message may seem to come in stern tones of anger, following a John the Baptist preparation of chastisement. Yet it is a gospel. Job 33:26 paints a glowing picture of the redeemed man.
1. Acceptable prayer. Until he was ransomed his prayer seemed to be in vain. Now God hears it with favour.
2. The beatific vision. “He shall see his face with joy.” Reconciled to God, he rejoices in communion with God.
3. Restoration of righteousness. “He restoreth unto man his uprightness.” This is the grand human result of redemption. Deliverance from doom is not enough, is not the chief end. The restoration of the broken and defiled image of God to its original, or more than its original, beauty is the great outcome Of the redeeming work of Christ.W.F.A.
Job 33:27-30
The restored penitent.
I. THE CONDITION OF RESTORATION. The redeemed man is represented as chanting a grateful psalm in recognition of his merciful deliverance. In this psalm he both acknowledges his guilt and recognizes that he has not been treated as he deserves. Guilt is a fact to be first of all owned. There is no forgiveness without confession. Even when a man is forgiven, though God may put aside his guilt, the man cannot do so. The thought of what he has been delivered from heightens his gratitude while it deepens his humility.
II. THE STATE OF RECOVERY. It is deliverance from death”the pit.” Death is the natural penalty of sin. But when God forgives and restorers he does more than remit the penalty. Salvation is far more than this negative blessing. The sin has already poisoned the life of the sinner. Already he is “dead in trespasses and sins.” Therefore he needs the gift of life. Now, this positive boon comes with the great restoration of souls in redemption. God, who first gave natural life, now gives spiritual life. Thus the blessing is internal and personal. It is not a change of the soul’s estate, but a regeneration of the soul itself.
III. THE SOURCE OF REDEMPTION. God himself brings about the new, happy condition of the restored penitent. He could not restore himself; no creature in the universe could give him what he needs. For the evil was death, and the requirement was a gift of life. Only he who first created life, and who ever lives in all his creatures, can renew life. Regeneration implies a Divine energy. Those forms of religion which are satisfied with man as he is may dispense with any very marked activity on God’s side in religion; but when the ruin of man is acknowledged, the chief element in religion must be, not man’s devotion, but God’s salvation. Now, this is what we see in the Bible. There man appears in his sinfulness and helplessness, utterly unfit for heaven, or even for earthly life in its beauty and fruitfulness, and there God is seen as the mighty Deliverer coming to the rescale of his helpless child.
IV. THE METHOD OF RENEWAL. Elihu has spoken of the Divine voices, the experience of chastisement, and the personal messenger. By these means God reaches man. What else is done is not so fully seen here as in the later revelation of the New Testament, in which we discover the cross of Christ as the root of man’s new life. But throughout God’s dealings with man in all ages it has been apparent that there are various processes of spiritual experience through which God leads returning penitents. Therefore, if the present process is dark and mysterious and even painful, we have great encouragements for submitting to it with more than patient faith, with joyous hope, looking to the end which is, “to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.”W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAP. XXXIII.
Elihu offereth himself in God’s stead to reason with Job, in meekness and sincerity. He excuseth God from giving man an account of his ways, by his greatness; and inciteth Job to attention.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 33:1. Wherefore, Job, I pray thee See the note on the first verse of the preceding chapter.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The Second Stage of the Disentanglement
Job 33-37
Elihus Discourses, devoted to proving that there can be really no undeserved suffering, that on the contrary the sufferings decreed for those who are apparently righteous are dispensations of divine love, designed to purify and to sanctify them through chastisement: The first half of the positive solution of the problem
INTRODUCTION: ELIHUS APPEARANCE, AND THE EXORDIUM OF HIS DISCOURSE, GIVING THE REASONS FOR HIS SPEAKING
Job 32:1 to Job 33:7
1. Elihus appearance (related in prose)
Job 32:1-6 a
1So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Earn; against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. 3Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job 4 Now Elihu had waitedtill Job had spoken, because they were elder than he. 5When Elihu saw that therewas no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled. 6And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said:
2. An explanation addressed to the previous speakers, showing why he had taken part in their controversy: Job 32:6-10
6b I am young, and ye are very old;
wherefore I was afraid,
and durst not show you mine opinion.
7I said, Days should speak,
and multitude of years should teach wisdom.
8But there is a spirit in man;
and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
9Great men are not always wise;
neither do the aged understand judgment.
10Therefore I said, Hearken to me;
I also will show mine opinion.
3. Setting forth that he was justified in taking part, because the friends had showed, and still showed themselves unable to refute Job: Job 32:11-22
11Behold, I waited for your words;
I gave ear to your reasons,
whilst ye searched out what to say.
12Yea, I attended unto you,
and behold, there was none of you that convinced Job,
or that answered his words.
13Lest ye should say: We have found out wisdom:
God thrusteth him down, not man.
14Now he hath not directed his words against me;
neither will I answer him with your speeches.
15They were amazed, they answered no more:
they left off speaking.
16When I had waited (for they spake not,
but stood still, and answered no more);
17I said, I will answer also my part,
I also will show mine opinion.
18For I am full of matter,
the spirit within me constraineth me.
19Behold, ray belly is as wine which hath no vent,
it is ready to burst like new bottles.
20I will speak, that I may be refreshed:
I will open my lips and answer.
21Let me not, I pray you, accept any mans person,
neither let me give flattering titles unto man.
22For I know not to give flattering titles:
in so doing my Maker would soon take me away.
4. A special appeal to Job to listen calmly to him [Elihu], as a mild judge of his guilt and weakness: Job 33:1-7
1Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches,
and hearken to all my words.
2Behold, now I have opened my mouth,
my tongue hath spoken in my mouth.
3My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart;
and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.
4The Spirit of God hath made me,
and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
5If thou canst answer me,
set thy words in order before me, stand up.
6Behold, I am according to thy wish in Gods stead:
I also am formed out of the clay.
7Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid,
neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.
FIRST DISCOURSE; OF MANS GUILT BEFORE GOD
Job 33:8-33
a. Preparatory: Reproof of Jobs confidence in his entire innocence: Job 33:8-11
8Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing,
and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying:
9I am clean without transgression,
I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.
10Behold, He findeth occasions against me,
He counteth me for His enemy:
11He putteth my feet in the stocks,
He marketh all my paths.
b. Didactic discussion of the true relation of sinful men to God, who seeks to warn and to save them by manifold dispensations and communications from above; Job 33:12-30
12Behold, in this thou art not just:
I will answer thee, that God is greater than man.
13Why dost thou strive against Him?
for He giveth not account of any of His matters.
14For God speaketh once, yea twice,
yet man perceiveth it not.
15In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falleth upon men,
in slumberings upon the bed;
16then He openeth the ears of men,
and sealeth their instruction,
17that He may withdraw man from his purpose,
and hide pride from man.
18He keepeth back his soul from the pit,
and his life from perishing by the sword.
19He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,
and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:
20so that his life abhorreth bread,
and his soul dainty meat.
21His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen;
and his bones that were not seen stick out.
22Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave,
and his life to the destroyers.
23If there be a messenger with him,
an interpreter, one among a thousand,
to show unto man his uprightness;
24then He is gracious unto him, and saith,
Deliver him from going down to the pit:
I have found a ransom.
25His flesh shall be fresher than a childs;
he shall return to the days of his youth:
26he shall pray unto God, and He will be favorable unto him;
and he shall see His face with joy;
for He will render unto man His righteousness.
27He looketh upon men, and if any say,
I have sinned, and perverted that which was right,
and it profited me not;
28He will deliver his soul from going into the pit,
and his life shall see the light.
29Lo, all these things worketh God
oftentimes with man,
30to bring back his soul from the pit,
to be enlightened with the light of the living.
c. Conclusion; Calling upon Job to give an attentive hearing to the discourses by which he would further instruct him: Job 33:31-33
31Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me;
hold thy peace, and I will speak.
32If thou hast anything to say, answer me:
speak, for I desire to justify thee.
33If not, hearken unto me:
hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. On the general subject of the genuineness of Elihus discourses, comp. Introd., 10, as well as below, Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks.The circumstantiality of the twofold introduction to these discoursesfirst that of the author in prose, then the self-introduction of Elihu (Job 32:6 bJob 33:7) which latter again consists of three subdivisionsis to be explained by the fact that in Elihu there was to be introduced the representative of a new stand-point, which had not yet received its statement, differing as it did from that of all the former speakers. For neither Jobs one-sided denial of his guilt nor the blunt and rough way in which he had been attacked, satisfies this new speaker. He appears to speak for and against Job, whose better self he in some measure represents (comp. Victor Andre, p. 139); hence the three stages of his self-introduction: (1) the captatio benevolenti with which he begins; or the apology for his youth addressed to all the former speakers (Job 32:6 b10); (2) the reprimand administered to the three friends, as having shown themselves incompetent to refute Job (Job 32:11-22);and (3) the appeal to Job to give a hearing to his instructions (Job 33:1-7) an appeal full of earnest admonition and loving encouragement. The last of these divisions provides a direct transition to the first of Elihus discourses proper (Job 33:8-33), in which he sets forth the foundation of Jobs sufferingthe universal sinfulness and guilt of men before God, this discourse again occupying three divisions, of which the middle, being the longest (Job 32:12-22), contains the proper didactic exposition of the subject, while the first, by citing the propositions of Job which are to be refuted, prepares the way for the discussion; and the third furnishes, together with a practical conclusion, the transition to the didactic discourse which follows. The most of these divisions are at the same time coincident each with a single strophe, except that the long middle sections (Job 32:11-22 and Job 33:12-30) are subdivided into several strophes, the former into two, the latter into four, together with a short epiphonema of two verses (Job 32:2930).
2. Introduction in prose (although with poetic accentscomp. above, 3, p. 264) [the poetic mode of accentuation retained, because a change in the middle of the book, and especially in a piece of such small compass appeared awkward,: Del.] Job 32:1-6 a.Then the three men ceased to answer Job. This notification occurs first here, not after Job 26. or Job 28., because it was only through the last monologues of Job that the defeat of the three opponents became complete.Because he was righteous in his own eyes;i. e., because he would not admit that his suffering was in any degree whatever the consequence of his guilt; a statement which refers back in particular to the contents of Job 31.
Job 32:2. Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel, etc., which is written below without the final (Job 32:4; Job 35:1) signifiesmy God is he, and appears also as an Israelitish name (1Sa 1:1; 1Ch 12:20). The Elihu of our passage is a Nahorite, of the tribe of Buz (), who in Gen 22:21 is mentioned as the brother of Uz, and the second son of Nahor, and whose tribe, according to Jer 25:23, like Dedan and Tema, belonged to the inhabitants of the Arabian desert. The family of Ram is mentioned only here. The identification of the name with is inadmissible, for is simply the name of a family, not of a people. The Aramaic origin of the Buzites, according to the above description, admits indeed of no doubt, and the same may be said respecting the poets purpose in that connection to impart an Aramaic coloring to Elihus discourses. Lightfoot and Rosenmller curiously imagine that under the character of Elihu the poet has concealed himself, and that this explains the particularity with which, in opposition to what is characteristic of the book elsewhere, he describes the origin of the new speaker. This detailed account of Elihus genealogy is undoubtedly a little singular, but it may be satisfactorily explained by the poets desire to represent him as a kinsman of the same race with Job, or it may be his desire to distinguish between him and some other well-known person of the name. In respect to the question whether Elihus position is that of one not simply near to the Abrahamitic revelation, but of one standing within the pale of it (as Vilmar thinks, l. c.), nothing definite can be established from the genealogical statement before us.Respecting the name (instead of which some MSS. write , with a latent Daghesh). It signifiesmay God-bless! and is thus distinguished as an imperative formation from the indicative of the specifically Israelitish name (Jehovah blesseth).Because he declared himself righteous before God. instead of the Hiph. which, is elsewhere more common in this signification, occurs again Job 33:32, and often in Jerem. and Ezek., not more than God, at the expense of God (Ew., Delitz.) [E. V., Con., Nov., Carey, Words., etc.], but before, accordingly as in Job 4:17. The comparison of the passage in Job 40:8 is scarcely sufficient to confirm the former rendering.
Job 32:3 states how far the conduct of the three friends had caused Elihus discontent:because they found no answer, and still condemned Job. Sotaking in adversativelymay the words be rendered with the greatest probability (so Hirzel, Ewald) [E. V., Noy., Con., Carey, Rodwell, Elz., Schlottm., Renan]. For the fact that the friends had condemned Job notwithstanding their inability to answer him aggravates the guilt of the three in Eliuns eyes; and that he really attributed to them double guilt, as compared with Job, is evident from the passage which follows, and which involves more rigid censure of the friends (Job 32:11 seq. ; 15 seq.) than of Job (comp. also Job 32:5). With this interpretation agrees essentially that of Delitzsch and Kamphausen: because they, from their inability to answer him, condemned him. [The fut. consec. describes the condemnation as the result of their inability to hit upon the right answer; it was a miserable expedient to which they had recourse. Del.]. The language admits still further of the explanation of Hahn and Dillmann (with the influence of the negation extended to the second member): because they did not find an answer, and (consequently) did not, condemn him [i.e., secure his condemnation, by stripping him of his self-righteousness]. The opinion of the Masoretes, that in this passage we have one of the 18Tiqquney Sopherim (comp. on Job 7:20), according to which we should read instead of , is refuted by Job 40:8, where it is not the friends, but Job, who is said to have shown himself to be one who had condemned God.
Job 32:4. But Elihu had waited for Job with words. pluperf., comp. Ewald, 135, a; i. e., he had waited until Jobs speeches were ended, until he had spoken his last word in the controversy, the reason being:because they were older than he in days (, as in Job 30:1, and below Job 32:6), i. e., because he was the youngest of all,younger than all the former speakers.
3. First section of Elihus introduction: captatio benevolenti, addressed to all the former speakers: Job 32:6 b10.Young am I in days, and ye are hoary ( as in Job 12:12; Job 15:10; Job 29:8); therefore I was afraid and feared. in Heb. elsewhere to crawl, here in the sense of fearing, customary in Aramaic, but not met with elsewhere in the O. T. [Carey: I did slink]. Also for is an expression peculiar to the Aramaizing constructions of Elihus language (comp. again Job 32:10; Job 32:17; Job 36:3; Job 37:16), while on the contrary to declare, to communicate, occurs else-where in our book. [It becomes manifest even here that the Elihu section has in part a peculiar use of the language. Del.].
Job 32:7. Respecting the plur. with , comp. Job 21:21.
Job 32:8. Still the spirit it is in mortal man which gives them understanding. verum, only here by Elihu, instead of , which is elsewhere customary in this sense. The subjects and have for their common predicate with at the close of the second member as a relative clause of closer specification. The spirit in man is the principle of his life and thought wrought into him by the Spirit of God; here, as also in Job 27:3; Job 33:4; Job 34:14, identical with the breath of the Almighty, the Divine creative breath (Gen 2:7); comp. also Ecc 12:7. [Noyes happily quotes the following from Milton, in the preface to his Reason of Church Government, urged against Prelaty: And if any man think I undertake a task too difficult for my years, I trust, through the supreme enlightening assistance, far otherwise; for my years, be they few or many, what imports it? So they bring reason, let that be looked on]. is used collectively, as is evident from the plur. suffix in b referring to it.
Job 32:9. Not the aged are wise; lit. not the great () [grandvi], i. e., great in years, comp. the of the LXX., also Gen 25:23; and , small = young, above (Job 32:6 b).
Job 32:10. Therefore I say: Hearken to me!The Imperfect singular, , is used distributively, applying to each individual of those who are summoned to hear, (not referring specially to Job, to whom Elihu does not address himself until below in Job 33:1 seq.). The ancient versions, except the Targ., as well as some MSS. read an emendation to relieve the difficulty [arising from El.s addressing the friends in the plur. in the next verse]. I also will declare my knowledge (comp. Job 32:6, b). [Rather, more modestlyI will declare my knowledge, even I. Words.]. Respecting the appearance of vain self-praise, of which Elihu is guilty in consequence of these and the preceding expressions, comp. below Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 2.
4. Second section of Elihus introduction: Showing his claims to speak, in contrast with the friends, as the feeble and incompetent opponents of Job: Job 32:11-22.a. Address to the friends touching their lack of skill in refuting Job. Behold, I waited for your words; or for words from you. are not the words actually uttered by them (Stick., Hahn, Schlott.), but those for which Elihu had waited in vain, expecting that they would produce them, more particularly explained in b as being their words of intelligence, speeches full of wisdom (). The construction of , contracted form for ) with shows clearly enough that the object of the hearkening or listening was wholly in expectation. Until ye might find out replies. , a second parallel term to , can denote here only words from the friends, suited to refute Job, such words as they had shown themselves unable to search out, or to think out. ().
Job 32:12. And unto you I gave heed.means here ; or it may mean giving heed until they should produce a real confutation of Job. [Carey translates the three times it occurs in Job 32:10-11 to the utmost ofperhaps a little too artificially. It does however express more emphatically than the simple the act of close attention.E.].
Job 32:13. That ye may not say; or since ye do not say, etc.Respecting the dissuasive particle that not, comp. Ew., 337, b. We found wisdom (i. e., with Job): God can smite him, not man.That is, we have come upon such superior wisdom in Job that only God can drive him out of the field (discutere, dispellere, used elsewhere of the chasing of chaff, straw, smokecomp. Psa 1:4; Psa 68:3 [2]) [chosen here with great propriety, because after every answer from the three Job showed himself again in the arena. Dillm.]. Only this explanation, adopted by most moderns, gives a meaning that is intelligent, and suited to the context, not that of the ancient commentators (also more recently of Rosenmller, Arnheim, Welte, etc.): Only do not say we have brought up against him true wisdom, to wit: that God Himself contends against, and routs him out of the-field (by the severe sufferings which He has decreed for him [and so substantially Lee, Bernard. According to another explanation the second member is spoken by Elihu, not the friends, the general meaning being: Ye have been silenced, lest ye should become proud and boast of your wisdom, and that his defeat may come visibly from God and not from men. So Good, Wordsworth, Carey, Wemyss, Rodwell, Barnes, most of whom make the first member dependent on the second; e. g. Rodwell: Lest ye should sayWe hare found out wisdom,El, not man, shall vanquish him.Schlottmann explains: Say not: We have found wisdom, i. e. we for our part have not erred, we have hit the exact truth, but God must smite him, not man, i. e. Job is so obstinate that the most exhaustive proofs of our doctrine fail to affect him, wherefore God only can convict him of his error.]
Job 32:14. For he bath not arrayed words against me;i. e. he has produced no argument which actually convinces me of his innocence, sensu forensi as in Job 13:18; Job 23:4, The whole verse introduced by with a fin. verb following, forms a clause subordinate to that which precedes, like Job 13:3 (comp. Ewald, 341, a).
b. A declaration respecting the unavoidable necessity of his taking part in the colloquy, the friends although still referred to being spoken of in the third person.
Job 32:15. They are confounded, they answer no more, or without answering again (comp. Ewald, 849, a), words are fled away from them, i.e. have deserted them; here accordingly intransitive; to depart, to wander away, like Gen 12:8; Gen 26:22, not transitive, as in Job 9:5 (against Hirzel).
Job 32:16. And should I (still) await, because they speak not?This interrogative rendering of the Perf. consec. is the only one that yields a suitable meaning, not the affirmative, which used to be the prevalent one, and I waited, because, etc., by which the verse would express a quite unendurable tautology with Job 32:11-12.
Job 32:17. So then I also will answer my part, i.e. what comes to my part (comp. Job 15:2; Pro 18:23); I will in like manner throw the weight of my opinion into the scales. [Elihu speaks more in the scholastic tone of controversy than the three. Delitzsch. The twice repeated is far from implying conceit or arrogance on the part of the speaker. It is possible indeed to explain it, with Barnes, even I, notwithstanding my youth and inexperience, in the tone of modest self-depreciation. More probably however it indicates rather the independent, individual position of the speaker, differing as it did from the rest, as we should sayon my part. In any case, as Schultens remarks: jucunda et decora formula; scire meumquantum mihi quidem sciere, et percipere datum. Frustra sunt, qui hc ad arrogantiam detorquent. E.] The Fut. Hiph., , expresses as e. g.Eccles. v. 19 (see on the passage); Hos 2:23, etc., the strengthened sense of Kal: to make answer, to put in a reply. Ewald renders quite too artificially: so then I also plough my field ( Hiph. from the other root , to be sunk), which would be proverbial forI also begin my speech.
Job 32:18 seq. describe the powerful inward impulse to speak, which Elihu discovers is himself, and which makes it impossible for him to be silent. The spirit (Job 32:8) constraineth me in my inward part; lit. the spirit of my inward part, of my belly (), comp. Job 15:2; Job 15:35. Respecting the scriptio defectiva, in a, comp. on Job 1:21.
Job 32:19. Behold, my interior is like wine which is not opened, i. e. to which there is no vent, so that it threatens to burst its vessel. It is of course new, fresh wine that is intended, as in the parallel New Testament passages, which refer to this place, Mat 9:17; Luk 5:39, which show moreover that the new bottles in b can be none other than such as are filled with new wine, so that the attribute new denotes not the firmness of the material of the bottles, but rather the age and the quality of their contents. Furthermore, is neither a relative clause to (Hirzel) [Ges., Con.], nor an adverbial subordinate clausewhen it will burst,but the direct predicate of , which indeed is feminine, but here with the passive, is treated as the grammatical object; comp. Job 22:9. The LXX. read , and rendered the preceding in the sense of bellows: . The figure thus arising is not unsuitable; still, according to the preceding explanation, there is no sufficient ground for departing from the Masoretic reading. On Job 32:21 comp. Job 13:8. [The distinction between and is not to be overlooked; the former expressing the subjective wish, or purpose; the latter the objective fact. E.].
Job 32:22 gives the reason for that which is declared in Job 32:21, b:For I know not how to flatter. is logically subordinate to the preceding , and is used accordingly for the Inf. , or for ; comp. Ewald, 285, cOtherwise my Maker would speedily snatch me away; lit. lift me up; [which seems designedly to harmonize with Delitzsch, and perhaps involves a play on , Job 32:21; Dillmann], an expression derived from a stormy wind; comp, Job 27:21; 2Ki 2:16. The Imperf. here with a modal force [= would, or might]; comp. Ewald, 136, f.
5. Third section of Elihus Introduction: Calling on Job to listen calmly to the discourses of instruction and admonition which follow: Job 33:1-7.
Job 33:1. Nevertheless hear now, O Job, my discourses. interruptive, and introducing to something new, like verumtamen; com. Job 1:11; Job 11:5; Job 12:7; Job 14:18 and often. The particular address to Job by name, which it is true occurs only in the mouth of Elihu (besides here again in Job 33:31 and Job 37:14), has nothing in it that is especially surprising, seeing that in every case it serves as a special summons to Job, in distinction from the three friends.
Job 33:2. The circumstantiality with which Elihu announces here the beginning of his discourse is by no means without significance. It is designed to call attention to the importance of that which he has to say to him, and it may be compared in this respect with introductory formulas of the New Testament, such as Mat 5:2; Act 10:34; and especially 2Co 6:11. [My tongue hath begun to speak, lit. my tongue hath spoken in my palate (the latter word a synecdoche). The Pret. denotes here the present, but as an act reaching over into the present out of the past. This, we have judged, called for the free translation which we have given. Schlottm.]
Job 33:3. My words are the uprightness of my heart; they are the honest open expression of the thought of my heart, precisely that therefore which Job had so painfully missed in the three friends (see Job 6:25).And the knowledge of my lipsthey declare it purely.The knowledge of my lips is either prefixed as casus absolutus, and as touching the knowledge of my lipsthey speak it purely; or as the object: and what my lips know, that, etc. can be a predicate accusative [and knowledge that is pure my lips declare], referring to , which is elsewhere also used in the masculine (e. g.Pro 2:10; Pro 14:6); but it can just as well be taken adverbially (comp. Ewald, 279, a).
Job 33:4. The Spirit of God hath made me, etc.The object of this appeal to the derivation of Elihus spirit from Gods Spirit must be essentially the same with that of the similar utterance in Job 32:8. It is not a special, nor an altogether wonderful, prophetic inspiration that Elihu here asserts for himself; he simply claims that it is a universal human wisdom residing in his spirit by virtue of his innate dignity as a man, on the basis of which he here applies himself to instruct Job. It is, so to speak, the humanistic, the genuine original and unperverted human character of his knowledge and experimental wisdom, to which Elihu appeals, when, as a young man, he presents himself to the more aged Job as his instructor. It is to this genuinely human character of his wisdom that he calls attention, both in this passage, where he emphasizes the divine origin of his spiritual life (Job 33:4-5), and in the following, where he sets forth his participation in the material part of mans nature, in his earthly human corporeity (Job 33:6 seq.). The older Church exegesis readily availed itself of this verse as an argument for the divine trinity, on the ground that it mentions (1) Deus omnipotens: (2) Spiritus Dei (= Sapientia s. Filius); and (3) Spiraculum Dei (= Sp. Sanctus). So e. g. Cocceius on the passage; approximately also Starke.
Job 33:5. If thou canst, then answer me ( as in Job 32:14), draw up against me ( scil. , see Job 32:14; , lit. before me, here against me), take thy stand, viz. for the controversy, take thy post; the same expression used 1Sa 17:16 of Goliaths putting himself in a military attitude, and challenging the Israelites to combat.[The very ring of the words in Heb. has in them the tone of haughty defiance. Schlottmann.]
Job 33:6. Behold, I am Gods, as thou art;i. e., I stand no nearer to him; I am, like thee, His creature. [The here may be either the of possession, dependence, according to the explanation just given (comp. , Job 12:16); or the of relation: I am like thee in relation to God. In our relation to Him we are both equal. The rendering of E. V., Bernard, Barnes: Behold, I am according to thy wish in Gods stead, is much less suitable to the connection, and less in harmony with Elihus claims.E.]Out of clay was I also formed: lit. out of clay was I also cut off, nipped off (Del.). The verb (lit. to nip, to pinch), which forcibly and onomatopoetically describes the action of the potter in forming his vessels, is found in Pual only here. Comp. Job 10:9, and the parallel passages there cited.
Job 33:7. Behold, my terror will not affright thee:i. e. in view of this my genuinely human and earthly character, thou needest not fear an unequal contest with me, as would be the case against God, whom thou didst pray, that His majesty might not terrify thee. The passage contains an unmistakable allusion to Job 9:34; Job 13:21,to the latter passage also by means of the hapax legom. , pressure, weight, which appears here in place of the like-sounding , which is there used. The LXX. ( ) [E. V. my hand] read also in the present passage, but disregard in so doing the Hebrew usage, which is wont everywhere else to connect the verb with , not .
6. The first speech of Elihu.a. Reference to Jobs objectionable language, in which he maintains his entire innocence in opposition to God, his hostile persecutor: Job 33:8-11.Surely, thou hast said in mine hearing, etc.The restrictive rendering of = only [not otherwise than] (Ewald, Hahn, Dillmann, etc.) is less suitable here than the affirmative: verily, surely (Rosenm., Hirzel, Umbreit, Delitzschin general most of the moderns) [and so E. V.: To say anything of another is in Hebrew equivalent to saying it not secretly, and so as to be liable to misconstruction, but aloud and distinctly. Del.].
Job 33:9-11. A collection of several objectionable utterances by Job, which are cited in part literally, in part according to the sense, and with the refutation of which ail that follows to the close of these discourses is occupied, so that these three verses contain to some extent the common theme of all the four discourses of Elihu (comp. below on Job 35:1).Pure am I, without ( as in Job 31:39) wickedness. Comp. Job 9:21; Job 10:7; Job 16:17; Job 23:10; Job 27:5 seq. The word (lit. tersus, lotus, rubbed down smooth, grown fine) used here in b as a synonym of , was not used by Job, and occurs only here. The same may be said of , oppositions, hostilities, alienations (comp. Num 14:34) in Job 33:10 a, with which are to be compared utterances of Job like those in Job 10:13 seq.; Job 19:11; Job 30:21. In regard to Job 33:10 b comp. Job 13:24; and with Job 33:11 comp. Job 13:27, which passage Elihu quotes with literal accuracy, doubtless because he had taken particular offense at this accusation of God as Jobs jailer and most crafty watcher.
7. Continuation.b. Didactic exhibition of the true relation of sinful men to God, who seeks to turn them to Himself by manifold dispensations and communications, to wit: a. By the voice of conscience in dreams; Job 33:12-18.Behold, in this thou art not right, I answer thee (not: I will answer thee, Hirzel [E. V.], etc.). , accus. of nearer definition to refers to the citations from Jobs speeches in Job 33:9-11. Respecting in the signification to be right, comp. Job 11:2. The second member gives the reason for this assertion that Job, with his suspicions of Gods greatness and love, was in the wrong: for Eloah is greater than mortal man, will not therefore after the manner of man, play the part of a hateful or vindictive persecutor of feeble creatures. [Del. explains: God is too exalted to enter into a defence of Himself against such vain-glorying interwoven with accusations against Him. And for this reason Elihu will enter the lists for God. But a deeper and more satisfactory meaning is obtained by the explanation in the Commentary. God is too great to be actuated by the petty malignities which Job had imputed to Him. Job was wrong; God is just, because He is great. E. V. and several commentators connect with what follows, either rendering that, or for with Delitzschs explanation. But the Masoretic accentuation connects it with what precedes, and this harmonizes better with the poetic rhythm of the verse, and with the weight of thought in b.E.]
Job 33:13. Why hast thou contended ( instead of , Gesenius, 73 [ 72], 1) against Him?Such striving or murmuring against God on the part of Job had found expression, e. g., in Job 7:20; Job 10:18; Job 13:24 seq.The second member declares the ground or contents of this contention against God to be: that [for] He gives account of none of His doings; lit. that He answers not ( as in Job 32:12; Job 40:2; Job 9:3) all His words (or matters, ). So correctly Gesenius, Umbreit, Vaih., Delitzsch [E. V., Con., Words., Rod., Elz., Bar., Renan], etc., while the explanations of other moderns vary widely, e. g. to all his (mans) words giveth He no answer (Hirzel, Heiligst., Hahn) [Carey on the contrary: since to none of His words doth man answer, i. e. man is deaf when God speaks]; or that all his words to Him (suffix in referring to the object) He easily answers (Stickel, and similarly Welte): or with not a single word does He answer (Schlottmann, Kamph.); or that He makes no answer to all thy words (Dillmann, changing to ), etc.
Job 33:14. For (on the other hand) God speaketh once and twice;i. e. many times, often, repeatedly; comp. Job 40:5; also Job 5:19. Those commentators who explain: in many ways (Arnh., Hirz., Stick., Del., etc.) make too much of the simple form of enumeration used; it is only the of the divine revelation, and not of also its , which is here spoken of. Respecting the before and , comp. besides Job 40:5, also Psa 62:12 [11]. The subj. of the follg. , which the Masoretic accentuation also separates from what goes before, cannot be God again, but only man, used indefinitely; hence one perceiveth it not ( with a neut. suffix, in the general meaning of observing, perceiving, precisely as in Job 35:13). This short clause stands accordingly in a limitative, or an adversative relation to the preceding thought: only man observes it not, or yet man, etc. [E. V.]. It is possible also to render it as a circumstantial clause: without any one observing it (Schlottm.). [Gods speech is unnoticed, not recognized by the senses, understood only by the susceptible feelings. Schlottmann.] The explanation of this verse by Schultens, Ewald and Vaihinger is peculiar (comp. the Vulg. and Pesh.): for God speaks onceHe does not glance at it a second time [i. e. to reconsider or change what He has once said]. Against this is (1) the Masoretic accentuation; (2) the connection with Job 33:15 seq., which would there stand quite torn apart; (3) the fact that cannot signify revidere (it would in that case have to be changed into ).
Job 33:15 seq. now mentionif not several kinds (Hirzel, Schlottm., Del.)at least several examples of impressive communications from God to men, or, according to the language used in Job 33:14, of speeches by God. The first instance mentioned is that of revelation by dreams, Job 33:15-18, which Elihu describes in language which is a close, and in part a literal copy of that of Eliphaz (Job 4:12-16). The statement prefixed of time and circumstance (Job 33:15) is almost literally the same as Job 4:13 (see on the passage).
Job 33:16. Then opens He the ear of men;i. e. He opens their understanding for His confidential communications; the same phrase in Job 36:10; Job 36:15; 1Sa 9:15, and oftenAnd presses a seal upon their instruction (, an alternate form of , found only here); i. e. He impresses upon them all the more deeply the earnest admonitions and warnings which He administers to them by all the various experiences of life (not particularly by painful diseases as Ewald, Hahn, and Dillmann explain, on the strength of Job 33:19 seq.); He assures them by such dreams and visions that they are to recognize such serious dispensations of life as coming from Him, as rules of His divine agency in educating men; comp. Job 36:10. Note how according to this Elihu regards every man as being continually subject to the operations of a divine discipline. As to with (different from with , Job 9:7), comp. Job 37:7. Several of the ancient versions (LXX., Aqu., Pesh.) and Luther translate as though they had read , He terrifies them.
Job 33:17-18. The aim of this nocturnal opening of the ear, and sealing of the divine instruction.In order to withdraw man from transgression.So according to the improved reading (Hirz., Del., Dillm., etc.), which is sufficiently attested by the [of the LXX.]. According to the common reading , man must be regarded as subj. of : that he may put away evil-doing. In respect to , facinus, comp. e. g.1Sa 20:19.And to hide pride from man; so that he does not see it, and so remains preserved from it (Hirzel, etc.), or: so that he becomes unaccustomed to it (Del.). Concerning the syncopated form , see on Job 22:29. It is unnecessary to amend the verb to to cause to disappear (Dillmann), or to , to set aside, to remove (Bttcher).
Job 33:18. To keep back his soul from the grave, i.e. to preserve him from death; comp. Psa 16:10; Psa 30:4 [3], 10 [9].And his life ( always with Elihu, equivalent to elsewhere; comp. Job 33:20; Job 33:22; Job 33:28) from perishing by the dart.So (with Dillmann) [E. V. by the sword, but rather means missile] are we to understand the phrase , which occurs only here and Job 36:12 (comp. in Job 34:20). The common explanation: to precipitate ones self into [or upon] the dart (iruere in telum) is not so natural, and is not confirmed by the expression in Job 33:28, which, although of similar sound, is essentially different in signification (against Hirzel, Delitzsch, etc.). [Here everything in thought and expression is peculiar. Del.]
8. Continuation. The second instance of the divine visitation; . By grievous painful disease: Job 33:19-22. Ewald, Hahn, Dillmann, groundlessly endeavor to treat this new instance as only a special expansion of that which precedes, because that already in Job 33:16 reference is made to severe suffering on the part of him to whom God addresses His dream-revelationan inadmissible forcing of the meaning of in that passage, and at the same time disproved by the at the beginning of the present verse, which is a connective, introducing a new thought, not an explicative particle, referring back to , from which it is much too far removed.He is chastised also with pains on his bed, while the strife in his bones goes on continually.So according to the Kthibh = strife, contest [admirably describing disease as a disturbance of the equilibrium of the powers: Del.], and in accordance with the correct rendering of (=, comp. Job 32:18) as predicate, not as the attribute of (and by the continual conflict, etc.), for the latter rendering (Hirzel, Vaih., Del.) is forbidden by the absence of the article before , Following the Kri, , which is supported by the ancient versions, and several MSS., we should have to explain (with Ewald, Dillmann, etc.): while the multitude of his limbs is still vigorous throughout (comp. Job 12:19; Job 20:11). [E. V.: and the multitude of his bones with strong (or unceasing) pain. So Aben-Ezra, Junius, Tremellius, Arn. (Vulg.: et omnia ossa ejus marcescere facit), but the construction of is unnatural.]
Job 33:20. And his life makes bread a loathing. causative Piel of the verb , not found elsewhere in the Hebrew, which, according to the Arabic, signifies to stink; hence to cause to stink, to excite loathing (not as intensive of Kal, to be disgusted, as Rosenm., Umbr., Vaih., Hahn, etc., explain it). again is here not = craving, hunger, any more than the parallel in b, but as always with Elihu: life, vital energy. Schlottmann truly remarks: It expresses very vividly the thought that the proper vital power, the proper , when it is consumed by disease, gives one a loathing for that which it otherwise likes as being a necessary condition of its own existence.
Job 33:21. So that his flesh consumes away ( abbreviated for , comp. Ew. 233, a) that it cannot be seen, lit. away from seeing, or away from sightliness. Comp. in respect to (pausal form for ) 1Sa 16:12; Isa 52:14; Isa 53:2.And his wasted limbs are scarcely to be seen any more (or are become invisible). So following the Kthibh , which according to the Hebrew root, , to be bare, expresses the notion of bareness, meagreness (scarcely as Gesen., Hirz., Del., etc. think, that of rottenness, putrefaction, after the Aram.), and in connection with the genitive produces the collective notion: the wasting of his members = his wasted members, with which the plur. predicate, , agree perfectly well (comp. the similar constructions with or above, Job 32:7; Job 15:20; Job 21:21, and often). The Kri , and are made bare, owes its origin to the attention being fixed on this incorrectly understood plural . [After and before the Perf. with is out of place. Dillm.] In respect to the pointing , with Dagh. in , comp. Delitzsch on the passage, and Ewald, 21, e. [Green, 121, 1, who, however, inclines to regard it as Mappik. In either case its function is to indicate the guttural quality of , here to be carefully observed, to give strength to the description.E.]
Job 33:22. On a comp. Job 33:18.And his life to the angels of death, lit. the slayers, or destroyers (), by which are intended not only mortal pains (Rosenm., Schlottmann) [Barnes, Carey], but, according to Psa 78:49; 2Sa 24:16; 1Ch 21:15, angelic powers sent from God, and commissioned to destroy men. [The former explanation does not commend itself, because the Elihu section has a strong angelological coloring in common with the book of Job. Del.]
9. Continuation. The third instance of the divine visitation: . By sending a mediating angel as a deliverer out of distress, and so by a wonderful removal of the painful disease and danger of death just described: Job 33:23-28.If then there is for him [, for, better than with him] an angel, a mediator ( here otherwise than in Job 16:20, where it was used in malem partem), one of thousands, to declare to man his duty (lit. his uprightness, his right way, comp. Pro 14:2).Oecolampad., Schult,, Schnurr., Bouil., Eichh., Rosenm., Welte, v. Hofmann [Noyes, Barnes, Carey] understand by the a human interpreter of the will of God, a prophet, or teacher of true wisdom, such as Job had before himself in Elihu. But the ancient reference to an angel (comp. Job 4:18) to which the majority of moderns also adhere, is supported by the following considerations. (1) The mention, just before, of the angel of death, to which manifestly there is now about to be introduced a contrast. (2) The contrast with in c, as well as the office of delivering from death, with which, according to Job 33:23, the is invested. (3) His being called one of a thousand, which would scarcely characterize him as a man of an extraordinary sort, such as can scarcely be met with as one among a thousand, but rather as belonging to the innumerable hosts of heavena description, accordingly, which is to be understood not according to Ecc 7:28, but according to Dan 7:10; Psa 68:18 [17]. The latter designation, moreover, makes it impossible to regard this mediating or interpreting angel (comp. Gen 42:23; Isa 43:27; 2Ch 32:31) as an angel of peculiarly high rank, as e. g. the Malak-Jehovah of the Pentateuch, or as the Angel of the Presence, or the Metathron of the later Jewish literature, as Schlottmann and Del. [Lee, Wordsw., Canon Cook in Smiths Bib. Dic.] think; for the force of the clause is simply to put this one messenger of God on an equality with many others, whom God might in like manner entrust with such a commission, not to exalt him above them. The Messianic meaning, which many expositors attribute to the verse (even among those who understand the of a human messenger of God, e. g. Schultens, Velthusen, J. D. Michaelis, also J. Pye Smith, Script. Testimony to the Messiah, I. 307, the last indeed only tentatively, and without definitely deciding the question), is accordingly in any case very indirect and general. Moreover a special Christological vaticinium of the kind which the majority of the older exegetes maintained (comp. especially J. D. Michaelis: De angelo interprete, Hal. 1707), would scarcely seem appropriate in the mouth of an extra-Israelitish sage of the patriarchal era, any more than that celebrated verse of the dipus Coloneus of Sophocles:
One soul, in my opinion, for ten thousand will suffice
To make atonement, if with kindly feelings it draws nigh,
could be understood as Messianic otherwise than very remotely (comp. Luthardt, Apolog. Vortrge ii. 224).
[In the extra-Israelitish world a far more developed doctrine of angels and demons is everywhere found than in Israel, which is to be understood not only subjectively, but also objectively; and within the patriarchal history after Genesis 16. that () appears, who is instrumental in effecting the progress of the history of redemption, and has so much the appearance of the God of revelation, that He even calls Himself God, and is called God. He it is whom Jacob means, when (Gen 48:15 seq.), blessing Joseph, he distinguishes God the Invisible, God the Shepherd, i.e. Leader and Ruler, and the Angel who delivered () me from all evil; it is the Angel who, according to Psa 34:8, encampeth round about them that fear God, and delivereth them; the Angel of the Presence, whom Isaiah in the Thephilla, 63:7 seq., places beside Jehovah and His Holy Spirit as a third hypostasis. Taking up this perception, Elihu demands for the deliverance of man from the death which he has incurred by his sins, a superhuman angelic mediator. The Angel of Jehovah of primeval history is the oldest prefigurement in the history of redemption of the future incarnation, without which the Old Testament history would be a confused quodlibet of premises and radii, without a conclusion and a centre; and the angelic form is accordingly the oldest form which the hope of a deliverer assumes, and to which it recurs, in conformity to the law of the circular connection between the beginning and the end, in Mal 3:1. Delitzsch.See further Remarks on Job 33:24.]
Job 33:24 is not the apodosis to the preceding verse (Hirzel, Hahn, Delitzsch, Kamphausen) [E. V., Con., Noyes, Renan, Rodwell], for Gods commission to the angel: Deliver him, etc.belongs as yet to the preliminary conditions of the deliverance, which is first described in Job 33:25. The conditional particle of the preceding verse accordingly extends its influence over the present verse: and (if) He hath mercy on him, and saith, etc.,This divine commission presupposes that the sorely afflicted one has truly repented, and laid to heart the salutary teachings of the angel. It is unnecessary with Schlottmann to take the angel as the subject of this brief clause, for the reason that the exercise of mercy cannot be the function of an angel.Deliver him from going down into the pit (comp. Job 33:18 a), I have found a ransom, viz. for him. [One is here reminded of Heb 9:12, . Del.] By this is meant the intercession of the mediating angel, who had preached repentance, not in vain, to the sick one, and had therefore appeared before God, interceding in his behalf. Instead of (from a root , liberare, which is not elsewhere found, and which is hardly intelligible), it would seem natural to read either or (from = ); some MSS. show , solve eum, which, however, would be suitable only in case the angel addressed were the angel of death. [ according to its primary notion is not a covering = making good, more readily a covering = cancelling (from , Talmud, to wipe out, away), but, as the usual combination with shows, a covering of sin and guilt before wrath, punishment, or execution on account of guilt, and in this sense , a means of getting free, ransom-money. The connection is satisfied if the repentance of the chastened one (thus e. g. also von Hofm.) is understood by this ransom, or better, his affliction, inasmuch as it has brought him to repentance. But wherefore should the mediatorship of the angel be excluded from the notion of the ? Just this mediatorship is meant, inasmuch as it puts to right him who by his sins had worked death, i.e. places him in a condition in which no further hindrance stands in the way of the divine pardon. If we connect the mediating angel, like the angel of Jehovah of the primeval history with God Himself, as then the logos of this mediating angel to man can be Gods own logos communicated by him, and he therefore as , Gods speaker (if we consider Elihus discourse in the light of the New Testament), can be the divine Logos himself, we shall here readily recognize a passage of the mystery which is unveiled in the New Testament: God was in Christ, and reconciled the world unto Himself. A presage of this mystery, flashing through the darkness, we have already read in Job 17:3 (comp. Job 16:21; and, on the other hand, in order to see how this anticipation is kindled by the thought of the opposite, Job 9:33). The presage which meets us here is like another in Psalms 107.a Psalm which has many points of coincidence with the book of Jobwhere in Job 33:20 we find: He sent His word, and healed them. At any rate Elihu expresses it as a postulate, that the deliverance of man can be effected only by a superhuman being, as it is in reality accomplished by the man who is at the same time, and from all eternity the Lord of the angels of light. Delitzsch.
In addition to the suggestions which may be found in the two extracts from Delitzsch, given above in favor of explaining the of this passage in the higher sense of the O. T. , the following considerations may be urged:
1. To understand the words of an ordinary angel furnishes no adequate explanation of the description here given of him. Especially is it difficult to understand on this theory why he should be spoken of as one out of a thousand. Is it (a) simply as a rhetorical amplification of the word angelone of the innumerable hosts of heaven? (Renan). But this would be here a meaningless rhetorical flourish. What has his being one of a countless angelic company to do with the function here assigned to him? Is it (b) as a more precise definition of the Malakah, to indicate that he is an angelic, or celestial messenger? (Dillmann). But that would have been expressed in more definite language. Is it (c) restrictivebut one among a thousand? (Rodwell). Apart from the obscurity of the language to express such a thought, it is difficult to see the force of such a restriction. Not to indicate any unwillingness on the part of the angels in general, for that would be nothing to the purpose. It could only serve to magnify Gods willingness to be graciouslet but one mediator appear, and God will have mercy. But to this there are several decisive objections. (1) It is against the proper view of the connection, according to which Job 33:24 is not the consequent, but a part of the conditional antecedent. (2) It seems to be founded on the opinion that means an intercessor (so Rodwellinterceding angel), whereas he is Gods representative, not mans. (3) It lies outside the scope of the passage. The sufferer has in the verses immediately preceding been brought to the verge of the grave. But all at once a glorious possibility presents itselfa Messenger from God, to show the sufferer the way of right, mercifully commissioned to deliver him, and lo! he is rescued, his youth renewed, and he beholds the face of God in joy] To interject the thought that such a messenger would be only one of a thousand like himself, would be confusing and weakening. The same objection would apply still more forcibly if we should take it to mean (d) any one of a thousand.
But Job 2 : understood of a of high rank, the words are significant. They indicate dignity, superiority.1 He is One out of, or above ( combining its local and comparative force) a thousand, or thousands, or the thousand. Good explains: one of the supreme chyliad, the preeminent thousand that shine at the top of the empyreal hierarchy, possessed of transcendent and exclusive powers, and confined to functions of the highest importance. Granting that this explanation of is problematical, it may still be said that whether we take it indefinitely for a thousand or collectively for thousands, i.e. all the angels, the phraseoneout of a thousandmost naturally suggests rareness, pre-eminence. And this view of it accords with the rest of the description.
(1) The term , in such a connection, would naturally convey the idea of dignity. He is an ambassador, internuncius (see 2Ch 32:31), an angelic envoy endowed with an extraordinary commissioncertainly not here, as the context shows, the mere mouthpiece of another (as in Gen 42:23).
(2) His functionto show to man the right way (his rightness, his true life)suggests at once the Prophet foretold by Moses (Deu 18:15 seq.), one who should interpretdeclaremore clearly than mere man could the will of God by which man is to be saved.
(3) His remedial commission, it will be seen, is extraordinary: (a) In its origin, in the special, solemn, formal manner in which he is invested with it. (b) In its natureinvolving as it does deliverance from the pit, and the completion of mans ransoma word used again by Elihu (Job 36:18) in the most solemn connection with reference to deliverance from the most terrible of destinies (comp. also Psa 49:8, and the use of the cognates , and , as significant of the expiation of sin): (c) In its resultsespecially as embracing reconciliation with God (Job 33:26).
3. Add that the idea of Divine Grace, as developed so remarkably in Job 33:26-27, comes into more fitting connection with such an interpretation of the passage as involves an evangelic anticipation of the revelation of grace in Christ, the great .
4. The passage is not indeed to be constrained into a complete exposition of Christs mediatorial office. Here, as elsewhere in our book, the truth is fragmentary, obscure, a prophetic hint, little more than the yearning after a possibility. This consideration however would all the more seem to put it in the category of such passages as Job 14:14 seq.; Job 17:3; Job 19:25 seq. It is a hypothesis, hanging on an Ifbut it is an If, the answer to which is the Amen of the Gospel.
If, as shown above, the language itself points in the highest direction here indicated, we are still further justified in taking that direction by the position which must be accorded to Elihus discourses in the book. Assuming here their genuineness, they must be regarded as a part of the solution of the problem. So regarded, it would seem strange if they did not once show us those heights of aspiration and faith, of which Jobs words have already given us such wonderful glimpses. On the other hand, it should not seem to us strange that the young sage, the precursor of Jehovah, in the disentanglement of the books mystery, whose especial mission in the book it is to throw the light of inspired thought on the mystery, should reflect upon it some rays from the mediatorial cross. E.].
Job 33:25. Apodosis to Job 33:23 seq.: (then) his flesh swells with the vigor of youth. In respect to the Perf. quadril. to be over-juicy, to swell, comp. Ewald, 131, g [Green, 180, a]. [peculiar to the Elihu section] here and in Job 36:14, instead of the customary . The before this word is used not comparatively, but causally, as the parallel thought in b shows.
Job 33:26. If he prayeth to Eloah, He accepteth him graciously (comp. Job 22:27), and causeth him to behold His face with rejoicing, or: so that he sees His face with rejoicing: both renderings are equally possible, according as we render as imper. Kal, or Hiph. The rendering of Umbreit and Ewald, however, is inappropriate: and He cause his face to look upon joy, because already signifies of itself, to see joy (see Job 33:28 b).And He gives back again to man his righteousness, which he had lost; not requites to man his uprightness, as Delitzsch (after Luther) translates, for Job 33:27 b does not agree with this. Moreover to express this idea of the recompense of upright actions, we should rather expect to find . The idea of a righteousness in the rescued sinner, restored to him by God as a free gift, is peculiar to Elihu. It at least retires quite into the background in the descriptions, otherwise quite similar, of the three friends, such as Job 5:19 seq.; Job 8:21; Job 11:15 seq.; Job 22:23 seq., and thus characterizes Elihus religious and ethical views as more free from legal narrowness and externality.
Job 33:27. He singeth to man, and saith., abbreviated Imperf. from = (comp. Job 36:24). , lit. to men, addressed to them; comp. Pro 25:20. As to the thought, however, comp. Psa 22:23 [Psa 22:22] seq.; Psa 51:14, and often. The song of thanksgiving chanted by the redeemed and justified one [a psalm in nuce, Del.] now begins, and extends to the end of the following verse.Still it was not recompensed to me; lit. it was not made equal to me, non quatum est mihi (, neuter or impersonal) [E. V.: and it profited me not (Syr., Targ.) is a legitimate rendering of the Heb., but is far less appropriate to the connection. It misses entirely the recognition of grace, in that he had not received the just recompense of his sins. The rendering of the first part of the verse is also more forced, and less satisfactory, when is rendered: He looketh, and : and if any say: against which may still further be urged the Vav. consec. here, and the Perf. , and the Kthibh in 28a.E.].
Job 33:28. He hath redeemed my soul (read with the Kthibh , for the eucharistic discourse of the redeemed one is still continued here), from going down into the pit (comp. Job 33:18), and my life shall enjoy seeing the light;i.e. the light of this world (Joh 11:9), which, as the upper world, stands here in contrast with the gloomy grave, and so also in Job 33:30; comp. Job 3:16; Job 3:20. Delitzsch,, against the context, and with an interpolation of thought: in the light of the divine (countenance, in the gracious presence of God.
10. Conclusion: first of all (Job 33:29-30) of the second chief divisionteaching the gracious and righteous dispensations of God in educating His human children; and then (Job 33:31-33) of the whole discoursethe last sentence being a summons to Job to bear attentively the discourses of instruction which follow.Behold, all this God doesreferring back to all of which he has spoken from Job 33:14 on, with a recurrence in particular of the idea of repeatedness found also in that passage, for this is what is expressed there by and , here by bis terquean expression which on account of the lack of the between the two adverbs of time, the ancient versions misunderstood, and so read as though it were [three times; E. V. more indefinitely oftentimes].
Job 33:30. On a comp. Job 33:18; on b, Job 33:28, and Ps. 56:14 [Psa 56:13]. [ here for the fifth time in this speech, without being anywhere interchanged with or another synonym, which is remarkable. Del.] , syncopated form of the Inf. Niphal, instead of [Gr., 159, 2], that he may be lighted, or enlightened with the light of life (in contrast with the darkness of death, with which he had already been overshadowed.
Job 33:31. Attend, O Job, and hearken to me.This can scarcely be regarded as a summons to ponder quietly on what he had heard (Del.), but rather to listen to what he had further to communicate, as b incontrovertibly proves.
Job 33:32. If (however) thou hast words, then reply to me (comp. Job 33:5); speak, for I desire thy justification, i.e. not that thou shouldst justify thyself (Hirzel), but that thou mayest stand vindicated, I wish to see thee declared righteous (comp. Job 32:2, with Job 33:26 c). Here also again the normal evangelical notion of justification, in contrast with all false self-justification, is expressed by Elihu.
Job 33:33. If not ( , to wit , comp. Gen 30:1), then do thou hear me. emphatic: thou on thy part.Be silent (as in Job 33:31 b), and I will teach thee wisdom. here instead of the several times used in the introduction (comp. Job 32:6 b, 10, 17; Job 33:3). , to teach, as in Job 15:5
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Partly on the ground of Elihus circumstantial self-introduction in Job 32:6 to Job 33:7, partly on the ground of the first discourse of admonition and instruction which immediately follows, very unfavorable judgments o have from ancient times down to our own been delivered in respect to the person and the religious and ethical stand-point of this speaker. Following the example of Jerome,2 Gregory the Great, at the close of his exposition of the first discourse, describes Elihu as an arrogans, who dum vera ac mystica, loquitur, subito per tumor em cordis qudam inania ac superba permiscet. The Venerable Bede even identifies him with the false prophet (ariolus) Balaam.3 following perhaps the guidance of the Rabbis, for in the Talmud and Midrash the same worthless conceit recurs (as in like manner it seems to be an anonymous Jewish writer, who recently [in Bernsteins Analecten, Vol. III., under the title, Der Satan als Irrgeist und Engel des Lichts] has made the attempt to represent Elihu as Satan in disguise). Olympiodorus judges him more favorably, but is still of opinion that he has not done full justice to Job, the truly pious and holy man, and is for that same reason at last neither praised nor blamed by God (Catena in Job, ed. Lond. p. 484). Most of the Jesuit commentators in modern times regard Elihu as an empty, puffed up boaster, whom God rightly ignores, and whose hatred against Job is to be explained from his near relationship to him, his Nahorite descent; so e. g. Escobai (Comment. in Biblia, Tom. IV., p. 94, 125); while other Roman Catholic exegetes, e. g. the Capuchin Volducius (Comment. Tom. II., p. 445 seq.) adjudge him to be in the right, so far as all that is essential is concerned.Among Protestant commentators Luther, so far as may be gathered from various scattered intimations, partly from his translation of chs. 3237., partly from his Introduction to the book of Job, and other expressions on the subject, seems to have put Elihus discourses, as respects their theological value and contents, on the same plane with those of the three friends. Vict. Strigel renders a decidedly unfavorable verdict upon them, Elihu being to him an exemplum ambitiosi oratoris, qui plenus sit ostentatione et audacia insinuata in mente. Herder calls Elihus speech, in comparison with the majestic thunder-speech of the Creator, the weak, rambling talk of a boy, and says: Elihu, a young prophet, intemperate, bold, alone wise, draws fine pictures, without end or aim; hence no one answers him, and he stands there as a mere shadow (Vom Geist der Ebr. Psie, p. 101, 142). Umbreits language is similar, only yet stronger. Elihus appearance he describes as the uncalled-for stumbling in of a conceited young philosopher into the conflict that is already properly ended, and the silent contempt with which he is allowed to speak is the merited reward of a babbler (Komment., 2d Ed., p. XXV seq.). In like manner Wohlfarth, who says that Elihu is a vain-glorious conceited boaster, as it were a spiritual Goliath! M. Sachs (Stud. u. Kritiken, 1834, IV. p. 416 seq.), and A. Hahn, who (Komment. p. 18) calls him a most conceited and arrogant young man, who with all his undeniable scientific knowledge is boastful and officious [Noyes, who calls him forward], and this in accordance with the purpose of the poet, who represents him as such a character intentionally. The judgment of those who oppose the genuineness of the Elihu-episode is naturally to some extent unfavorable. See a number of such expressions collected together out of de Wettes Introduction, in Umbreit (l. c.); also Eichhorn in Schlottmann, p. 54; v. Hofmann in Delitzsch (II., 240); and very recently Dillmanns closing opinion in respect to Elihus self-introduction (p. 297): The impression which this long introductory discourse makes on the reader is not favorable; Elihus self-praise, and his verbose vaunting of that which he is about to do, is somewhat unseemly, etc. So also what he says of the first discourse (p. 304)that Elihus representation of the suffering of Job as a means of discipline and improvement employed by God exhibits throughout nothing new, that it is precisely the same method of explanation as that which the three friends had adopted in the beginning of the controversy, which Eliphaz especially, in Job 5:17 seq., had sharply and clearly expressed. and which Job would have been perfectly justified in rejecting as unacceptable.
To these unfavorable judgments respecting the character of their speaker there may indeed be opposed, a number equally large of such as are favorable, which, finding their principal support as well in Job 32. and 33. see in Elihu a direct forerunner, not only on the negative, but also on the positive side, of the final decision of the controversy by Jehovah. So already Augustine, according to whom Elihu ut primas partes modesti habuit ita et sapienti; Chrysostom, who represents him in two respectsin respect of his speech, and of his silenceas an eloquent witness to true Wisdom 4 subsequently Thomas Aquinas (Opp. Tom. I., p. 137, 184, ed. Venet.), Brentius, Oecolampadius, Calvin, Pareau (see the passage quoted out of his commentary above in the Introduction 10, Rem.) Cocceius, Sebastian Schmidt, Starke, [Schultens, Lightfoot, Bp. Patrick, Matt. Henry], etc.; and quite recently in particular Schlottmann, Rbiger (Del. Jobi sent, primaria), Hengstenberg, Vlk, and the greater part of those who advocate the genuineness of these discourses [to whom may be added some even of the opponents of their genuineness, such as Davidson, Introd. II., pp. 210213; Delitzsch II., 239 seq.]. We must declare ourselves decidedly in favor of the latter estimate of the value and import of this section, although it seems to us a one-sided, or at least an incautious statement to say that it is (according to Hengstenbergs Vortrage ber das Buch Hiob, p. 27) the throbbing heart of the whole poem, or that (according to v. Gerlach, A. T. III., 86) these discourses give us the true intent of the whole, the views of the author himself, or that Elihu, unlike the three friends, is introduced as standing within the pale of the Abrahamitic revelation (so Vilmar, see above on Job 32:2). It is certainly the poets intention that Elihu should be regarded as a factor needing to be corrected or to be supplemented by the entire colloquy, otherwise he would not actually furnish such very important supplementary additions as are found in Jehovahs discourses, and the final action in the epilogue. But he does unquestionably represent him as a speaker who approaches very closely the complete Divine truth, nearer than any one of the preceding speakers. This is seen at the outset, in the way he introduces himself in these two chapters, and lays down the foundation of the didactic discussion which follows.
2. Respecting the point, that in Elihus self-introduction, as well as in the poets introduction which precedes it (Job 32:2-6), there is nothing that is unbecoming, nothing that justifies the charge of vanity, or an overweening self-conceit, or idle loquacity against Elihu, see above Introduction 10, ad, 6 and 7 seq. Here attention is specially called to the fact that the frequency and confidence with which he puts forth his knowledge (Job 32:6 b, 10, 17; Job 33:3) was indispensable, inasmuch as it was precisely on this intellectual possession of the speaker that his right to make his appearance along with those men so much older than himself rested, inasmuch indeed as, if he had not been endowed with an extraordinary fullness of knowledge and wisdom, he could not have escaped the reproach of impudent self-intrusion, or shameless arrogance. The reader is still further reminded there that the humility and modesty of Elihu appear not only in the fact that as the youngest he had hitherto been silent, but also in the fact that at the close of his self-introduction he solemnly declares (Job 33:4-7) that it is his purpose to address himself to Job as man to man, as the medium accordingly of a wisdom which is purely human, and which by no means denies its earthly originnot as though he were about presumptuously to communicate a divine revelation which should confound or terrify him, in short not as a preacher of repentance, or a prophet, thundering upon him from above (see the Exegetical Remarks on the above passages.)
3. This same purely human, and for that reason mild and humane impress stamps itself on the beginning of his didactic expositions in the first discourse. Elihu here exhibits himself as far less of a legalist than the three censurers of Job who have preceded him. He certainly does maintain against Job that his assertion that he is altogether pure and innocent, and his other assertion, that God is cruelly persecuting him, are without justification and presumptuous (Job 33:12 seq.). But instead of at once proceeding to threaten him with Gods direst punishments for his conduct, or setting before his eyes that terrible picture of the irretrievable destruction of obstinate evil-doers, which was the favorite theme of the descriptions of his predecessors, he assumes an incomparably gentler, more comforting, more affectionate tone. He puts in the foregroundherein proving himself to be a genuine teacher of wisdom, an apostle of the real Divine wisdom revealed in the New Testamentthe idea of the (Job 33:16), i. e. of chastisement, of Gods discipline, strict and yet mild as that of a father, attributes to Jobs grievous suffering essentially the significance which is conferred upon it by such a disciplinary standard (such purifying suffering in the way of temptation, in contrast with suffering merely in the way of trial 5), and in a friendly way points out to Job how near God is to him in the midst of his misery, and how little reason he has to doubt His help and deliverance. He then describes this deliverance itself, on the one side as depending on the intervention of a superhuman mediating angel, commissioned to declare to him the merciful and gracious will of God (Job 33:23 seq.), on the other side as immediately followed by the gracious restoration of his former righteousness, a justification (Job 33:26 c; Job 33:32) which is to be viewed as forgiveness, or a solemn readmission to the position of a child of God. In both these utterances respecting the deliverance hypothetically promised to Job, Elihu approximates most remarkably the fundamental features of the New Testament revelation of salvation. For his idea of justification differs from the evangelical Pauline idea only in the absence of a direct reference to the crucified and risen Redeemer as the ground of the (causa meritoria justificationis). His supposition that God would send one of His thousands of angels, as a mediating power, to a sorely tried and chastised mortal, to rescue and convert him, and to instruct him concerning the way of salvation, and so to facilitate his redemption and restoration to the energy and joy of a new life, comes in contact indeed only remotely with the Messianic idea. For certain as it is that the mediatorial angel of salvation is put essentially on an equality with the angel of disease and death mentioned just before, not exalted above him (comp. Job 33:22 b, with Mat 8:9, and parallel passages), so certain is it that the passage is related only indirectly to the idea and fact of the Gospel revelation of the divine-human mediator, Jesus Christ. It does nevertheless unquestionably stand in a certain typical and prophetic relation to the New Testament ideas of the Messiah. This is made certain by the fact that the commission with which the mediatorial messenger from God is entrusted is not of a physical, external and medicinal character, but before all redemptive in the religious and ethical sense, and also by the fact that the messenger whom Elihu supposes to be entrusted with the execution of this divine commission is not an earthly and human, but a heavenly, superhuman being (comp. the Exeget. Rem. on Job 33:23). In more than one respect accordingly does this speaker, even in this his first didactic exposition, show his superiority to the three friends. He reveals a higher calling, and shows incomparably greater skill than they in producing an enlightening, ennobling and elevating influence on the mind of Job, longing as he does for heavenly comfort; and he proves himself to be in truth the most advanced, the most richly furnished, intellectually the largest possessor of the human Chokmah among the four who successively encounter Job as human comforters and teachers of wisdom. Comp. Starkes remarks: Elihu sees much deeper into the mystery of affliction than the three former friends. He is much more discreet and reasonable in his intercourse with Job than the others; he does not make him out a hypocrite, or one who is evidently ungodly, but he shows how by affliction God would purge him of all reliance on his own righteousness, and simply point him to the righteousness of the Messiah. What he says so beautifully Job 33:23 in respect to the intercession of the mediator, and the whole context clearly show this to be his purpose.
4. In a homiletic respect, it is of course the second half of the section here embraced by us, or Job 33:8-33, that furnishes by far the richest and most fruitful material. Here Elihu, the Aramaic sage of the patriarchal age, presents himself as the proclaimer of truths which show many points of contact with those of the New Testament system of redemption, and which justify us in regarding him as an unconscious prophet of Christ, if not of His person, at least of His work. Much that is stimulating may nevertheless be derived even from the first introductory half, especially when we take, as our highest point of observation, the circumstance that Elihu there desires to apologize for his youth, and for that reason sets forth so much in detail the necessity for his speaking. The basis for such reflections might be found in some such parallel as ElihuJeremiahTimothy (comp. Jer 1:6; 1Ti 4:12).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Particular Passages
Job 32:2 seq. Zeyss: It is not wrong to show wrath against evil, especially where Gods honor is concerned. But we must take particular care that such a holy fire of righteous anger be not mixed with the strange fire of earthly affections. Eph 4:26.
Job 32:6 seq. Cocceius: The man who is about to plant seed in his field, first weeds out noxious herbs, and ploughs thoroughly the surface of the soil. He who expects to instil his own arguments into the mind of another, must first mollify it, and free it of suspicion, in order that afterwards it may receive more eagerly that which is to be communicated. The obstacles in the way of Elihu seemed to be the suspicion of arrogance on his part, and his age, and also the authority of the friends, and their opinion concerning themselves. He attacks the first obstacle in these verses, etc.Jo. Lange: In true wisdom, that which is of importance isnot age, butthe illumination of the Holy Spirit. If young people have a clear perception of divine things, those who are older need not be ashamed to hear them, and to learn from them.V. Gerlach: The illumination of the Holy Ghost is not confined to old age. This very saying (Job 32:9) shows that we must not take offence at the apparent boastfulness of Elihus words, seeing that he gives the glory not to himself, but to God. The vivid, copious, oriental style gives to the discourse a different look in the eyes of the less ardent inhabitants of the West, from what it had in its own fatherland.
Job 32:18 seq. Starke: The man whose heart is full, his mouth runs over. Let a man therefore store up goodly treasure in his heart, and he will speak that which is good and useful.Dost thou find in thyself a strong impulse to say or do something, first search well to see whether it proceeds from a good or an evil spirit (Rom 8:14).V. Gerlach: At the close he repeats the assurance that although he presumes to speak, and to rebuke the aged, he nevertheless feels himself under a divine compulsion, and can therefore have in view only the glory of God, not that of any man whatsoever.
Job 33:4-7. Brentius: This is a most potent reason why one should not despise another, nor treat him scornfully. For we have all been made by the same God, through the same Word, in the same Spirit; we have earth, water, air, heaven, as our common heritage. But if you look at Christians, they have a still closer bond uniting them together; for in Ephesians 4. it is said: There is one body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, etc.; and in Romans 14.: Destroy not thy brother, for whom Christ died. If therefore this idea were treasured up deep in our faith, it would without difficulty restrain us from wronging, despising or slandering our brethren, if we verily believed that our brother is of such dignity that Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, for his sake descended from heaven, and poured out His blood.
Job 33:15 seq. Oecolampadius: It behooved that this way (that of an by dreams) should have been the first and most familiar to us, so that written communications would have been superfluous, the Holy Spirit writing on our hearts. But after that we had turned aside from God to the vanity of this world, it is one of the rarest things known. Philosophers, ignoring both the dignity of man and the harm wrought by sin, have decided that man can acquire knowledge only through the teaching of the senses; for which reason they also deride the gift of . Elihu seems to have spoken not of ordinary dreams, but of such as visited Abimelech and Laban.Zeyss: After that God had at sundry times and in divers manners spoken to the fathers, by revelations, visions, and dreams, etc., as well as by the prophets, He hath at last spoken to us by His Son. He therefore who values his own happiness, and would escape destruction, let him believe and obey, the Word of God.v. Gerlach: A sufferer, who lives in fellowship with God, receives from Him in dreams of the night (and in many such ways), instructive intimations respecting the divine purposes in his calamities; he thus learns to understand aright what God would say to him in such ways. Elihu intimates here (especially in Job 33:16) that Job might have received divine communications, without observing them.
Job 33:23 seq. Cocceius: This passage makes evident to us the faith of the Ancient Church touching the Mediator. These things indeed are spoken by Elihu, in accordance with the condition of those times, ; but they are nevertheless in such exact accordance with the predictions of the prophets, and the declarations of the Apostles, that unless it be supposed that the Holy Spirit wished to lead the men of old somewhere else than towards the mystery of the Gospel, and to teach something else than the same forms of speech would convey in later times, there is not the slightest doubt that this is the true meaning of these words of Elihu, which had proceeded from the Spirit of God, and which were understood by himself in accordance with his own standard. Neither indeed was there anything which Elihu could more readily or suitably impress upon Job. For although Job had clearly enough professed faith in a Mediator, especially in Job 19. (?) he had nevertheless not so evidently touched upon the doctrine concerning Christs merits and satisfaction, nor had he in his discussions either considered this usefulness of affliction, which Elihu sets forth, or magnified it in proportion to its worth.Starke: see above [Doctrinal, etc.] No. 3.Wohlfarth: Although an unprejudiced exposition cannot find in these words the doctrine of an atonement through Jesus Christ, we have nevertheless so obvious a reminder of Christ here, that we cannot help observing it. If in ancient times men placed their hope in the intercession of heavenly spirits with God, how much more glorious the consolation which we have, who can say with exultation: We thank Thee, O God, that Thou hast so loved the world, etc., (Joh 3:16; 2Co 5:19-21; 1Pe 1:24).v. Gerlach: We are not to infer from the language here used that there is a particular angel, whose office it is to bring the prayers of men before God; rather does the expressionone of a thousanddenote one of the many messengers of God, who are appointed to watch over the life of His people, and to conduct them to eternal bliss (Heb 1:14). It does however contain the thought of representation, intercession before God, and in so far this passage points to the only Mediator between God and men (1Ti 2:5), and likewise to the Holy Ghost, who intercedes for Gods children with groanings that cannot be uttered (Rom 8:26), and is thus an anticipation of the New Testament. The thought to which Elihu here gives expression is essentially related to that which Job has already expressed in Job 17:3; Job 19:25, although it is by no means the same thought. But here the thought is supplied which is there wanting,that the office of the redeeming angel is not so much to attest the innocence, or the already perfected righteousness of men before God, but rather as mans advocate to intercede in his behalf because of his repentance. This it was in the perception of which Job was as yet lacking.
Job 33:26 seq. From the regeneration and quickening of the Gospel the most abundant fruits grow. First prayer, than which a greater gift can scarcely come from God to man. The second fruit is the joy of the Holy Ghost, which is Gods sweet face gladdening our consciences. The third fruit is confessionnot that which is of the ear, auricular, but the true confession of the heart, the acknowledgment of sins, etc.Starke: So beautifully has Elihu seen into the ways and purposes of God, even in the midst of trials, and where it seems as though He would destroy and cast off a soul, that he puts forth the assurance that it all has no other end in view than the true, eternal deliverance of the sufferer. And this was exactly the plaster for Jobs wounds, in order that his pain and his disquietude under the strokes of Gods hands might be assuaged and allayed, while he should be led to perceive Gods faithfulness, and to thank Him for it.
Footnotes:
[1]This is the meaning of the clause assumed by the commentators who suppose a human messenger to be referred to; e. g. Rosenmller: facit ad dignitatem ejus commendandam.
[2]Or rather of the Pseudo-Jerome, i. e. of that presbyter, Philippus, whose Expositio interlinearis on our book, found among the works of Jerome, was afterwards revised by the Venerable Bede (comp. Opp. Hieronymi, ed, Vallars, Tom. III., Append., p. 895 seq.).
[3]Sunt alii extra ecclesiam, qui Christo ejusque ecclesi similiter adversantur, quorum imaginem prtulit Balaam ille ariolus, qui et Elieu sicut patrum traditio habet, qui contra ipsum sanctum Job multa improbe et injuriose locatus est, in tantum ut esiam displiceret inconcinna ejus et in disciplinata loquac tas (Bed Opp. ed. Basil. III., c. 602).
[4] . De Patient. Job., Homil. IV.
[5]In respect to the distinction between suffering for temptation, and suffering for trial, comp. Vilmar, Past.-Theol., XI. 62 seq., (also Theolog. Moral. I. 174 seq.) A temptation is, according to this striking discrimination, which is no less instructive than Scriptural, a punitive act of God (inflicted through Satan), by which man is to be made conscious that in his inmost soul the adversary can yet find points of contact, by which to allure and urge him onward. By the temptation the secret sin is first disclosed, then perceived, and finally overcome (comp. Psa 90:8). The object of a trial on the other hand is simply to prove those whom God has already recognized as holy and good to be such. The suffering of trial, as the same is described especially in Psalms 42, 56 (to some extent also in the book of Job,a fact not sufficiently recognized by Vilmar), does not exclude the entire nearness of God, and the consciousness of this nearness, whereas in temptation the gracious nearness of God is not only not realized, but on the contrary God appears as a God afar off, as an angry God, etc.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Elihu in this chapter enters upon his subject. It is directed to Jobadiah He begs Job’s attention: and, as Job had desired, in the eagerness of dispute with his friends, that he had some day’s-man, or mediator, to judge for him; Elihu humbly proposeth himself, under this character. He makes a long discourse, and, at the close of the chapter, desires permission to proceed yet further.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words. (2) Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth. (3) My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.
By this beginning Elihu seems to intimate, that what he had to say differed from the speeches of the former speakers, which might seem to incline Job to give the more favourable attention.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 33:1
Why is it that the just must endure such suffering on earth? The book of Job does not solve this perplexing question. On the contrary, this very book is the Song of Songs of scepticism, and in it the loathsome serpents of doubt writhe and hiss out their everlasting ‘why?’ How was it that, at the return from Babylon, the pious Commission of the Temple Archives, over which Ezra presided, admitted this book into the canon of the Holy Scriptures? I have often asked myself this question. My belief is that these Divinely enlightened persons did so, not from any lack of intelligence, but simply because, in their sublime wisdom, they saw that doubt was deeply rooted and grounded in human nature, and that it is not to be suppressed by any silly device, but must undergo its own appropriate cure…. This poison could not be spared from the Bible, the great medicine-chest for the family of mankind. Yes, just as man when he suffers must weep out his sufferings, so must he also think out his doubts when he feels that he is cruelly disappointed in his claims to earthly happiness.
Heine.
Reference. XXXIII. 6-33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2453.
Job 33:14-15
Must not what is called ‘Revelation’ be simply either Anticipation, or Suggestion, or Confirmation? Some favoured and highly strung natures tell us that they have arrived at this confirmation by ‘spiritual discernment,’ and can feel not the shadow of a doubt about the matter…. The truth, they say, was revealed to them, ‘borne in upon their souls,’ vouchsafed to them in a sudden gleam of light, ‘in a dream, in a vision of the night,’ and so on; and the moment it thus flashed upon them, it wrote itself upon their mental framework by its own illumination. What is this phraseology but simply a more lofty and excited, or more poetical way of saying (as we often hear contemplative thinkers of soberer temperaments say) that the conception suddenly occurred to them, flashed upon them, and was instinctively recognized at once as the true solution of the problem which had exercised their minds so long? And what in reality is this instantaneous recognition this cry but the proof that the mind was capable of the discovery, and had long been on the brink of it?
W. Rathbone Greg, Miscellaneous Essays, pp. 264, 265.
Reference. XXXIII. 14-18. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2453.
Job 33:18-19
It would be a poor result of all our anguish and our wrestling if we won nothing but our old selves at the end of it if we could return to the same blind loves, the same self-confident blame, the same light thoughts of human suffering, the same frivolous gossip on human lives, the same feeble sense of that Unknown towards which we have sent forth irrepressible cries in our loneliness.
George Eliot, Adam Bede (chap. VII.).
The Ministry of Interpretation
Job 33:23
We shall always need a ministry of interpretation, a discriminating, highly intellectual, most penetrative ministry, that sees the little things as well as the great things, the coupling nexus, the filament, the plasm, the thing that is not yet a thing but will be a thing by and by in the out-throwing of all the purpose and issues of Divine providence. Nine hundred and ninety-nine of us therefore will do well to listen, to attend, to obey.
I. ‘An interpreter,’ that is emphatically what the Bible is. The Bible is the interpreter of God; the Bible has but one subject, all other subjects are cognate to it; they are, however, but collateral and minor; he only who keeps company with the Apostles, the minstrels, and the prophets can really interpret God.
The Bible shirks no great subject, it invites the soul to the discussion of the highest themes, it is not afraid to go into the cemetery and interpret the graves into resurrections; it is an infinite succour and a most tender strength.
II. Experience is the best commentator on the Bible. Salvation is not of grammar or of criticism. The great discussions do not turn upon points of etymology, syntax, or prosody. Every man is an interpreter of the Bible if he has rich and deep and varied experience; he can make the Bible prove itself. Never believe any man upon any subject who has not deep personal experience in relation to it. Mere intellectual expertness is becoming quite a nuisance; we want the voice of the heart, especially upon those subjects which concern the heart, and to other voices we cannot listen.
III. Jesus is the interpreter of God. He gathered us round His knee, so to say, and told us that God’s real name was Father. We said, not like our father? Yes, was the gracious reply, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that love Him. But not like some fathers? No, because some fathers are not fathers, they do despite to the genius of fatherhood; they are brutes, ruffians, cruel wicked persons, to whom the name father ought never to be given; but because there are these evil specimens of degenerate fatherhood the inner genius and spirit of fatherhood cannot be touched; that fatherhood means tenderness, love, law, sympathy, the large righteousness which melts into tears or burns into blossom. There is no interpreter of God equal to the Son of God.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 180.
References. XXXIII. 23, 24. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. XV. No. 905. XXXIII. 24. Ibid. vol. xliii. No. 2505. XXXIII. 27-29. C. Perren, Revival Sermons, p. 303.
Job 33:29-30
Take courage, say the happy to those in sorrow and trouble; are there not many mansions even here? seasons in their course; harvests in their season, thanks be to the merciful ordinances that mete out sorrow and peace, and longing and fulfilment, and rest after the storm. Take courage say the happy the message of the sorrowful is harder to understand. The echoes come from afar, and reach beyond our ken. As the cry passes beyond us into the awful unknown, we feel that this is, perhaps, the voice in life that reaches beyond life itself. Not of harvests to come, nor of peaceful home hearts do they speak in their sorrow. Their fires are out, their hearths are in ashes, but see, it was the sunlight that extinguished the flame.
Miss Thackeray in Old Kensington.
Reference. XXXIII. 29, 30. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1101. XXXIV. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvi. No. 2670. XXXIV. 29. Ibid. vol. xiii. No. 737. XXXIV. 31, 32. Ibid. vol. xxii. No. 1274. XXXIV. 32. J. Vaughan, Sermons (9th Series), p. 21. XXXIV. 33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvi. No. 2670. Ibid. vol. xlix. No. 2834.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Speech of Elihu. II.
Job 33
The introduction has quite excited our expectation. We have admired the young man’s fresh voice; he seems to have come down from the highlands, and brought all the fresh wind of heaven with him. He begins modestly and yet ambitiously. The modesty of Elihu was of a peculiar quality, thoroughly genuine and simple, yet round about it there is an atmosphere of conscious power. He boldly says that he will do what the other men have failed to do, though they were rich in days, and complete as to experience. After such an introduction as Elihu has made, we can hardly be content with less than a revelation. A man should not be large in his introduction; he should there be quite small: the kingdom of heaven itself is like unto a grain of mustard seed. What can Elihu say after his exordium? He has promised us thunder and lightning, summer glory and beauty, an opening of secrets, and a comforting of disconsolate hearts; he has come out, as it were, from the very sanctuary of God, with an odour of heaven round about him: what can we do but sit down at this young teacher’s feet, and hear what he has to say?
Not only are the three men ordered off with a great deal of well-controlled egotism, but Job himself is called to be upon his good behaviour:
“Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words. Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly. The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee” ( Job 33:1-7 ).
What less than a revelation can come after this introduction? Have not many young teachers ruined themselves by their promises? If they had said less, and done more, had it not been better with them? Had not their fortune been sunnier and their latter end more comfortable? How many have risen up to teach the Church to pull down her bulwarks and fortresses? How many have sprung up, saying to old preachers, Cease your prating: we have the right word; we have brought medicine with us for the healing of the world’s sore: stand back, and let young genius have its opportunity! Elihu has introduced himself thus, and yet when he comes to deal with the great question which was before the minds of the four men, what has he to say? He has run so splendidly before coming to the wall he had to leap over, that he stands before it on this side. He has run himself out of breath. Rhetorically he was wrong; philosophically he has proved himself to be absurd. He repeats the old things as if he had discovered them. Some men have a wonderfully self-deceiving imagination: they hear things, and then suppose that they have invented them; they acquaint themselves with the greatest thinking of the Church, and then retail the teachings as if they were originalities. If Elihu has uttered one solitary original observation, we shall not fail to discover it He must be original before we give him credit for novelty.
It is plain from all that has taken place in these eloquent colloquies that preaching abstract doctrines, however true, is useless. We must leave the abstract and come to the concrete, the personal, the living, the real; we must find the value of the sermon in its application. We have a right to say to teachers What does your lesson amount to? When it is all told, what is it? A stroke delivered upon the life of the enemy, a medicament applied to the wound of the suffering, a light held above the path of the perplexed. What is it? It must be more than words, for you have hindered us by your speeches; if you have nothing for us but mere eloquence, we must resent the introduction as an affront and as a moral disgrace. Men speak of God’s righteousness, and of man’s depravity, and all that is said sounds most tuneful and harmonious; the lines may be scanned as if they were poetry, all the sentences come and go with sweet rhythm: but what is there in them for our human need, for this bitter and tormenting distress? Even truth may be so preached as to charge God foolishly. The very attributes of God may be so presented as to drive men away from him. The listening man must insist that, not only shall there be a great doctrine in words proclaimed, but it shall come down to his poverty and wound and distress and darkness, and do something for him; otherwise it is wasted omnipotence, almightiness playing at thunderstorms in the startled air, not a great strong arm brought down to this day’s battle and to the help of this day’s tremendous struggle. That abstract truth may be proclaimed, and yet leave nothing behind it that is of the nature of strength and solace, must be evident if we consider that these men, now joined by Elihu, have insisted that all men are wrong, and therefore Job ought to accept his lot with equanimity, if not with thankfulness. But observe how pointless is this remark as it relates to Job. It is perfectly true that all men have done wrong, but all men do not suffer as Job suffered. It was open to Job to retort upon these men, If we have all done wrong, why am I suffering and ye prating? You are perfectly right in saying we have all done wrong, but where is the common penalty? Compare our respective lots at this moment. The patriarch might have continued, If your doctrine is right, and the only doctrine, and is to be preached without modification, without speciality of meaning and adaptation, then how do you account for our present relation the one to the other I the comforted, you the comforters? Were we all in one condemnation, then we should be uttering one lamentation, and we should need some angel from heaven, some white-winged life from the upper spaces of creation, to bring to us gospels, and words of cheer and direction and sympathy: you embarrass me; I cannot answer your doctrine, for that is right, but that it needs some interpretation you have not given it, is perfectly clear from the facts: were we all overwhelmed, were we all lepers, were we all sitting in dust and ashes, then the proclamation of a common depravity would meet the whole of the case, and we should reply to the charge with a common consent; but where there are rich and poor, strong and weak, prosperous and adverse; where there are people who are rioting in their strength, and others to whom life itself is a vexation and a weariness, you must adapt your doctrine; otherwise you will misrepresent it. Job felt that something was needed; he said: I have not realised the whole quantity; that I have held to certain great central truths is evident enough, but what I now possess must be brought into relation with other truths, and upon the whole there must shine a light above the brightness of the sun; otherwise we are lost in intellectual bewilderment and moral tumult. So we cannot meet the world by the proclamation of an abstract doctrine only. What is true needs to be adapted. Even the sunlight needs to be atmosphered in order to accommodate itself to human vision and the general condition of the world that is illuminated. So an abstract doctrine thundered down from some theological height will only mock the world it was intended to bless, unless it, too, be atmosphered, set in right: relations, and brought with happy, yea, with inspired skill to bear upon human ignorance, weakness, misery, and fall into all the undulations of human experience with a grace that is never a burden. Proclaim the great abstract doctrine of human responsibility. That only awakens controversy. Where can there be responsibility where there is not mutual consent? When men were not asked whether they would come into the world or not, why start a great solemn doctrine of responsibility? When men are of unequal capacity, moral fibre, intellectual power; when men are conditioned without their own consent; when their very conditions of life chafe them, and hinder them from prayer, is it not hard to thunder down upon them the abstract doctrine You are responsible, and you must answer the responsibility or forfeit your immortal blessedness? Now the doctrine of human responsibility is right Society could not exist without it. The doctrine of human responsibility finds its corroboration in the human consciousness, and in all the line of social experience it is reaffirmed. But there must be accommodation of this doctrine also to peculiar circumstances and disadvantages; otherwise it will be resented, because it will be felt to be a weight which human weakness cannot bear. “Of some have compassion, making a difference.” Jesus Christ laid down the doctrine of responsibility and judgment, but he said: From him to whom much was given much will be expected; from him to whom little was given little will be expected: certain men shall be beaten with many stripes; certain other men with few stripes. The doctrine of responsibility is not an abstract philosophy to be hurled over the entire population indiscriminately; it is to be opened up, in all its blessed meaning, in all its solemnity, and is to be so applied that every man will answer in his own heart, That is right: according to God’s gift is God’s expectation; he will not reap where he has not sown; he is not only a just God, but a merciful, not only merciful but just; he will judge, therefore, by a righteous standard. This is what is meant by adapting doctrines, individualising them, so to say, and setting them in right relations, so that they shall not trouble the conscience and bewilder the judgment, but carry with them rather the solemn assent and consent of the hearers themselves.
Here is the great failure in the case of the three friends and of Elihu: they spoke broad generalities; they are sure the doctrine is right. With these as mere utterances we have no fault to find; but where was the wisdom which could apply the doctrine to the individual case? where the holy skill that could touch the wound without aggravating it? where that learned and eloquent tongue that could speak a word in season to him that was weary, and speak as if he were singing? who could utter himself without making any noise, who could declare a judgment without perpetrating a violence? Such condolence is the very balm of heaven, but such comfort was never associated with bald generalities, rough vague statements of truths however profound; such condolence, such solace, can only be applied out of the heart that has itself become rich in experience, and learned through many a long school-day how to suffer and be strong. Commonplaces, however profound and beautiful, cannot touch the agony of life. By “commonplaces” is here meant statements which may for their truthfulness pass without challenge: they have become amongst the established truths of the world; they are accepted; the Church listens to them as to falling rain; they excite no surprise; they come and operate as by a gracious necessity. But what we want is particular application, study of every individual case: each heart has its own history; each spirit knows its own want. The spirit of a man alone understands what the man wants. So in listening to great broad declarations from the pulpit, we must each receive these declarations according to our individual need; they cease to be merely general when they become definitely and personally applied. In this way many of us may be so taught of God as to know just what to take, because taught to know just what we need. We do not need the same every day, or under every combination of circumstances: there is a portion of meat for each in due season. In speaking thus we do not dispute the doctrines themselves in all their abstract completeness and grandeur; we simply seek to accommodate them, which the men in Job’s case did not, to a particular and exceptional set of circumstances.
Elihu speaks many beautiful things:
“For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away” ( Job 32:22 ).
How many a man has come forward to say that he was not going to flatter us, and by so saying has flattered himself! How many a man has set himself on too high a pedestal for talking to the commonalty of the world! “My maker would soon take me away” were I to give flattering titles unto men. Where is the common ground? Men should take care how they separate themselves from those to whom they would minister. The doctor does not speak from behind a curtain; he lays his inquiring hand upon the poor pulse, and whilst it is there, listening, so to say, to the throb of weary life, he makes all his notes and comments, and prepares himself for the prescription that is to follow. Any dignity that separates the healing man from the man needing healing is a vicious dignity, and should be destroyed when man comes into living contact with man.
Elihu says, in Job 33:12 , “I will answer thee, that God is greater than man.” Why these commonplaces? Job had never denied that, and yet Job’s case was never touched. The man was seized as if he had hurled accusations against all the theology of the ages. He says in effect, I have never doubted these things: what are you talking about? To whom are you speaking? You have mistaken my identity; I am a man of prayer and faith and devotion; you are talking to me as if I were a pagan, an atheist, an infidel. Are we not all often spoken to in this way? There is a secret the men have not yet got at. We have lived in vain if we deny the operation of a similar secret in all our preaching and teaching and ecclesiastical relations. “Things are not what they seem.” We should have learned enough by this time to say to an exiled suffering man, You only can at present view the surface: what thou knowest not now thou shalt know hereafter: God is not dealing roughly with thee; he is conducting an experiment; he is making anew revelation to the observers who are looking abroad for manifestations of his method of government and training: God is making an example of thee, and he is teaching through thee: say to him, O thou blessed One, cruel is this wound if only a wound, but a most blessed dower from thine hand if meant to teach somewhat of thy kingdom and purpose to those who are looking on: thy grace is sufficient for me. Only by some such line as this can we reconcile providences which are obvious with the goodness which is often denied. Look for the latter end. See what God will do at the last.
“Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” ( Job 33:24 ).
Many have found Christ in this verse. We are not aware that he is literally here. Very possibly, were the words limited to mere grammar, nothing of Christ, as we understand that term, could be found in the verse. It is right that we should first get at the grammar, and settle the literal sense of a text: but what vase could hold the fragrance so well as the rose? Who can tell how much there may be in a sentence of this kind that is not expressed in the letter? Why try to find as little as possible in the letter? Why endeavour to prove that a star is no larger than the telescope through which it is seen? Why not rather take another course of exegesis, and say, These were seed-corns, beginnings, germs, hints of things; if afterwards there should appear in the pages of revelation histories that can further explain these enigmatical expressions, then bring together the history and the prophecy, and let the one illuminate or explain the other. Certainly, the Christian belief is that God has found a ransom; that God means that we should be saved from the pit. Elihu may not have known what he was talking about: he is none the less a good teacher for that. It is not necessary that there should be self-consciousness in order that there should be divine revelation: sometimes we are not to know whether we are in the body or out of the body; many a time we have to be but mere instruments through which God will blow across the ages the music of his gospel; sometimes we are to be but signs or symbols by which a little vanishing personality shall prefigure a great and eternal truth. So would I teach, that men are not to deplete Scripture of all good and gracious meaning, but rather find in it more than appears to be in the letter, if so be that the criticism is guided by conscience and reason, and is consonant with the great truths which Christian history has established. Observe how I protect the Word from mere exaggeration, from foolish romance, or vicious or sophistical spiritualisings, and how I hold that prophetic meanings are only to come as history grows, as history takes them up and shows them in their vivid and actual applications.
What wonderful forecasts of evangelical doctrine there are in the Old Testament: take for example Job 33:27-28
“He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.”
Elihu was not a conscious evangelical preacher. If any one should arise and say, The grammar of that text does not admit of a gospel interpretation, as you understand it, he shall have the grammar, but when he has received his tribute we still feel that history has so evolved itself as to give blessed and gracious confirmation to the evangelical interpretation of these words. They might have been spoken by John “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Thus the two Testaments are one. Men spoke in the dawn, when they hardly saw the exact figure of things, but the sun has not contradicted them as he has risen to the zenith; he has simply cleared away the cloud, made definite that which was vague; and there is no contradiction in the New Testament of any moral doctrine of the Old Testament; the covenants blend in conforming unity.
Elihu was only wrong in his application of the truth; he would have Job fall down and say that he had been liar, thief, murderer, hypocrite; then the men would have been pleased; they would have said to Job, Now expect redemption, and forgiveness, and cleansing, and a new start in life. But Job could not do this; he said: I am not the bad man you suppose I am, and Job in so asserting himself only claimed the character which God himself had given him. Observe that, for it is a vital fact. With what character does Job begin the book? Pronounced by God, the tribute is this “That man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” Such was God’s direct testimony to this suffering patriarch. And Job shows a wonderful constancy in not giving up his character; in effect he says, Everything has been taken from me, but you shall not take away my consciousness of at least aiming to be good and right with God. Then they came upon him and said, To thy knees, thou base hyprocrite; pour out thy confession like a river; spare nothing of self-abasement; yea, speak aloud thy sins, and we will hear thee as priests might listen. Job said, No, I have no such speech to make; all this came upon me without any desert on my side: I never spared a prayer, I never abbreviated an act of worship, I never turned away a poor man from my table, no one ever perished within my gates or outside of them to my knowledge; I am not going to say I am bad when I feel perfectly sure I am today just what I have been for the many years of my prosperity and honour. We must not be immoral in our confessions; we must not be immoral in our moanings and lamentations. Character is not so easily procured that we can afford to part with it lightly even in religious confessions. He who would give away his character in order to obtain a sentimental peace will defeat his own purpose. God does not expect us so to deal with the character, which is his own work. A great character is a divine miracle. A holy character is no work of man’s, in any mechanical or limited sense; it expresses a grand co-operation between the divine and the human. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Having therefore lived twenty, thirty, fifty years in prayer, in submission to the divine will, in anxious solicitude to know what God has said and to do it, and having fallen into suffering, you have lost your property, your children have wounded you, your house has been completely darkened in every room, every fire has been put out, the voices of music have ceased in the dwelling, bethink you the reason is not necessarily that you ceased to pray, or that all the world is depraved, or that God has a right to do arbitrarily with you what he may: you must go higher, you must go deeper: human life is an education, a drill, a continuous and ever-varying discipline. We may pray for patience, we may complain that the wound is very sore; God knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust; he does not expect us to laugh the fool’s laugh when he himself has darkened the house, and increased the burden, and put our poor strength to severest strain; he does not expect us to sing all the jubilant psalms when the valley is very deep and dark, and filled with a cold wind cold as the breath of death itself. He knows our weakness. He is working out some great miracle through us. He has almost asked our permission to prove through us that his grace is sufficient for every human extremity, and that his kingdom in the heart of man can bear every thunder of hell, every blast of the pit, and yet stand. If he has chosen some of us through whom to prove this, our suffering will be very great; but what will the end be? What song of gladness, what psalm of triumph, what shout of victory! Only after death can we explain what happened in our lifetime.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
The Speech of Elihu. III.
Job 33-34
Elihu may show us what conception of God had been formed by a young mind. If we cannot follow the thread of his argument, we can join him here and there, and consider diligently what view of the divine nature and government a mind evidently audacious and energetic, yet reverent and docile, had formed. Elihu does not come before us as necessarily young in years, but as comparatively young; he had kept silence while older men were speaking; he claims distinctly to be heard because of his inferior age: it is legitimate, therefore, to regard the whole of his exposition as one which is uttered by a youthful, modest, yet active mind.
Who was the God of Elihu? Was he a deity that could command homage? Does he sit upon an appointed place like a helpless idol? or is he intelligent, watchful, judicial, righteous? It will be interesting to discover what kind of deity was avowed and honoured so long ago.
“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life” ( Job 33:4 ).
The Bible has no difficulty in connecting human life instantly with God. There is a wonderful sense of nearness as between the Creator and the created. Elihu does not interpose millions of ages between the creating God and the created man; he rather speaks of the creation as the very last thing that was done. Elihu does not say, I am the result of intermediate operations and causes, and secondary influences; I represent the civilisation of my line or day. He speaks as Adam might have spoken when he was turned from the hand of God a living man, a divine image. This young poet if he were only a poet stands next to God, and says I am the man whom God made; the very breath I am now breathing I received from him. All this of course may be poetry, but all this may also be fact, reality, and only poetry in the sense in which poetry is the highest truth. What do we gain by considering that we were created by the Almighty countless millions of ages ago, as compared with the thought that every one of us is his handiwork, as it were just made, the very last proof of his omnipotence and wisdom and love? We gain much by the latter view: we are thus placed very close to God; he might be looking at us now; he might be speaking of us as his latest wonder, the last miracle of his creative energy. There are the two views; let men adopt which seems right to their reason when it is illuminated by revelation. Either way we are God’s creatures; from neither theory is God excluded, only in the latter he seems to some of us to be nearer; he cannot be nearer in reality, for the ages are nothing to him, but he is nearer to our imagination, our sympathy, our need, our whole desire; it seems to suit our weakness best at least, to think that God has just made us and that in our nostrils is the breath we have but just caught from him. This was the standpoint of Elihu. It enabled him to speak with great solemnity in the argument. Elihu did not pretend to come into it as a discoverer, an inventor, a moral genius, a man gifted in the reading of riddles; he came into the argument as a distinct creation of God, a man different from any who had spoken, with an individuality that involved responsibility; he speaks as if he had overheard God, and had been empowered to tell others what God had revealed to him.
Observe how he proceeds;
“For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not” ( Job 33:14 ).
Let the meaning be this: God does not speak in one way only; there is nothing monotonous in the divine government: God speaks “once,” “twice,” that is, in one way, in two ways, in many ways, in apparently self-contradictory ways, now in the high heavens, now in the deep earth; sometimes in visions of the night, often by moral intuitions, sudden startlings of the mind into new energies, and sudden investitures of the whole nature with new powers and capabilities. Elihu will not have God bound down to one way of revelation; Elihu rather says: God reveals himself in nature, in providence, in history, in human consciousness, in social combinations, in the mystery of life’s great circumference: whoever has a new thought has it from God; whoever has a right vision is indebted to God for his vision: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” that is to say, God can sustain life in a thousand different ways: if there were no wheat, it would make no difference to the sustenance of man upon the earth; if the earth refused to grow one root or fruit, God could still keep man upon the earth as vigorously and as usefully as ever: God is not confined to one method of operation; Let us then, Elihu would say, acknowledge God in whatever form he may come; do not exclude God from any part of the ministry of the universe: if you think you see him in the star, you do see him; it is the star that is lifted up in glory and suggestiveness, not the deity that is brought down into finite bounds: if any flower of the field can help you to see into heaven look through it: if you can hear music in the trill and carol of birds, hear it, and magnify it until you get some hint of the infinite music of heaven. This is not idolatry; it is the proper magnifying of nature, the proper extension of all history and providence: thus you are lifted up, and from higher levels can behold wider spaces. How much we lose in thinking that God is confined to one house, place, hour, day, week! Thus we become idolaters, and thus we exclude many from the altar who are really worshipping at it. All men are not religious in the same way: there is a diversity of operation even in the religious regions and outlooks of life. What if some men shall be found to be religious who never supposed themselves to be such? God speaketh once, yea twice, yea thrice: his voice covers the whole gamut of utterance, and men who speak truth in any department of life, of art, of science, speak God’s truth, for all truth is God’s.
So far Elihu might have been a modern teacher, so advanced, so progressive is he. From no point will he have God excluded. If a man has a dream he will say, Tell it, for even in visions of the night God shows himself. If a man can only speak through his harp, Elihu says, Play it, and we will tell you whether God or devil stretched the strings, and taught your fingers to discourse upon them. There is a spirit in man, a verifying faculty, a child-heart, that knows what the father said, and knows the very tone in which he said it.
Of one thing Elihu seems to be supremely certain
“Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity” ( Job 34:10 ).
Elihu now occupies moral ground. His deity is not a majestic outline; it is a heart, a conscience, the very source and centre of life. This gives comfort wherever it is realised. A thought like this enables man to give time to God, that he may out of a multitude of details shape a final meaning. Elihu says in effect, Things look very troubled now: it seems as if we were dealing with shapelessness, rather than with order and definite meaning: now the great space of the firmament is full of thunders and lightnings and tempests, and the very foundations of things seem to be ploughed up; but write this down as the first item in your creed, and the middle, and the last “far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should do iniquity…. Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.” Then wait: he will bring forth judgment as the morning, and righteousness as the noonday. Such doctrines establish the heart in gracious confidence. They do not blind men to the tumult and confusion which are so manifest on all the surface of life; such doctrines enable men to cultivate and exemplify the grace or virtue of patience: they acknowledge that appearances are against their doctrine, but they claim time for the Almighty: they reason analogically; they say, Look at nature; look at human life; look at any great enterprise entered into by men: what digging, what blasting of rocks, what marvellous confusion, what a want of evident form and shape and design! Yet when months have come and gone, and architects and builders have carried out their whole purpose, they retire, and say, Behold what we have been aiming at all the time, then in great temple, or wide noble bridge spanning boiling rivers, we see that when we thought all things were in confusion, they were being carried on to order and shape and perfectness and utility. So Elihu says, One thing is certain: to be God he must be good; if he were wicked he would not be God: brethren, he would say in modern language, Let us pray where we cannot reason, let us wait where we cannot move: our waiting may be service, our prayer may be the beginning of new opportunities.
Following this doctrine, and part and parcel of it, Elihu advances to say
“For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways” ( Job 34:11 ).
Being righteous, he will cause the law of cause and effect to proceed whatever happens in relation to human conduct and spiritual results. This is what Paul said “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” That is a New Testament translation of Old Testament words “For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.” How much have we advanced beyond that doctrine? Where is the difference between the Old Testament and the New in this particular? God is of one mind; who can turn him as to the law of moral cause and moral effect? A man cannot sow one kind of seed and reap another: the sowing determines the harvest. Elihu might make a false application of this principle to Job, but the principle itself is right. It is of value as showing the conception which Elihu had formed of God’s nature. He was worshipping a God worthy of his homage. Again let us say, he was not worshipping an idol, a vain imagination of his own; and again let us apply to ourselves the holy proof of God’s rule, that whatever he does he does it from a spirit of right and with a purpose of right, and that in all his doing there is no compromise with evil, no concession to wicked principles or powers. God is righteous; true and righteous altogether. Let a man have that conception of God, and how quiet he is! Though the floods lift up their voice and roar, yet still he says, There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God: though the wicked triumph for a time, yea, in great noise and great pomp; yet, he says, his triumphing is but for a moment, his joy is but a flash, to be lost in the enclosing and eternal darkness. Without such convictions we are driven about by every wind of doctrine; the doctrines themselves, which are unformed and unsettled, trouble us. What are we to do in relation to such doctrines? To come back every night to our rocky home, to the great fortresses established in the holy revelation, to the sanctuary of God’s righteousness, to the impossibility of his thinking, being, or doing anything that is wrong. Here we find rest, and from this high sanctuary we can look abroad upon all the excitement and tumult of the times, and wait in loving and expectant patience for the growing light, for the descending revelation, for the new promise that shall give us new consolation.
Then Elihu might have lived today. Verily he seems to be worshipping the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He might not be able to say so in words, to realise it in all the fulness and sweetness of its meaning; but he, in the far-away time, had a clear vision of God’s personality, God’s government, and God’s holiness.
What a comprehensive view of God he gives us
“Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just? Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? How much less to him that accepteth hot the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands. In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand. For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves” ( Job 34:17-22 ).
Observe here the action of what may be called the moral imagination. We are at liberty to expand what we do know of God in the letter. This is the meaning of preaching. The preaching however must be the expansion of what is found in revelation. If there be in one discourse a word of man’s own making, it must be taken out. Not an evidence of man’s invention must be found in any discourse. Whatever is said must be provable by what is written. Expansion is our sphere; tender, gracious, beautiful amplification is the work to which we are called: the kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, but when the mustard-tree is grown it is not an oak, nor a cedar; it is still what it was in the seed. So Elihu resorts to images, illustrations, rhetorical enlargements, and the like; but he is always tethered to the centre, always fixed in the settled and eternal truths; what he does otherwise he may do as the result of inspired genius, but it is all consonant with what is positively and definitely revealed. What then do we know of God? Nothing of ourselves. We have imaginings, conjectures, suggestions, quite a thousand in number, but as they are only imaginings, suggestions, and conjectures they are open to all kinds of disappointment; but when we come to revelation, and fix our eyes there, we feel that we are building our house upon a rock, and being built upon a rock, we can wait; we can say, Let the storm rise and fall; we have nothing to do with it whilst it rages; when it is passed we shall see what is left behind. Always distinguish between the foam and the sea, between that which is superficial and that which is central and everlasting; and be not tossed about by the wind that blows over the surface of the earth, but rest confidently and lovingly in the living God.
Elihu now comes closely to us with a gentle gospel message, and because of the gentleness of his message we are the more assured of the validity of his reasoning “For he will not lay upon man more than right” ( Job 34:23 ). This is the way by which we are to judge the Bible. If we were governed wholly by the majestic images of the Bible, we should be overwhelmed, unable to follow the high delineation; we should be blinded by excess of light; but the Bible comes down from its high revelations, and speaks comfortingly to troubled lives, to broken hearts, to weary travellers; and because it is so sympathetic and gracious in our weakness and sorrow, we begin to feel that when it rises, expands, and flames in unutterable splendour, it may be equally right there: the foot of the ladder is upon the earth; the head of the ladder is lifted up into glory, and we cannot see it. It is even so with this divine revelation of God. When he is set forth as Infinite, Eternal, Everlasting, Jehovah, Sovereign, we are lost, we cannot follow up this dizzy way of utterance; but when he is called by such terms as enable us to see that he is loving, gentle, piteous, compassionate, lifting up those that be bowed down, and comforting with tender solaces those whose hearts are sore, then we begin to feel that what was so majestic at the one end, and so tender at the other, may be harmonious, may be one, may be the very God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. A wonderful thing this for Elihu to have discovered by himself. Who ever discovered God in equal terms and equal proportions? Is this man talking out of his own emptiness and vanity of mind? Is it possible that a man younger than those who were listening to him conceived all this regarding God? Then in very deed here is the supreme miracle in the intellectual history of mankind. Here is a man who without communication with the other world has discovered a God infinite in majesty, in wisdom, in power; tender, gracious, loving in spirit; righteous, pure, holy in his nature; revealing all things to the benefit of all. One of two things must have been: either this man Elihu invented all this, and thus became practically as good as the thing which he invented; or it was revealed to him and he as an instrument revealed it to others. This latter view Christian readers of the Bible adopt. They do not believe in an invented God, but in a God revealed; in a God who will not lay upon man more than is right; in a God who knoweth our frame and remembereth that we are dust; in a God that never reaps where he has not sown; a righteous God, revealed to the world through the intuition or the experience of mankind, or by direct and startling revelation in vision and dream of the night. Be the method what it may, here he is in light, in love, in faithfulness, a God whom we adore, not with reverence only because he is great, but with sympathy and love because he is good.
The very necessity by which God loves the right makes him oppose the wicked. He will not have wicked men living as if in his complacency “He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others:” he overpowers them; he fills them with disdain and contempt; if he allows them to travel half-way up the hill it is that their fall may be the greater. Never did he endorse the wicked man. No spirit of evil can produce a certificate from heaven, saying, Behold how I am written of by your God, and commended by him whom ye worship as holy. This, too, was a wonderful thing for the unaided Elihu to have discovered. Appearances were against him: wicked men have not seldom had more than good men, so far as the possession of the hand is concerned; wicked men have been in high places; and yet here are men Elihu and others saying, looking on these facts, What you believe to be facts are only appearances, mere phases of things; within all is a righteous spirit, and the end of all is the confusion of every form and purpose of evil, Elihu never discovered that: this also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. We must await the issue, but here is our supreme difficulty to wait when we are impatient; to know that the right will come, and yet not to be able to show it instantaneously, when men are waiting for it, oh, that is trying! It gives the mocker opportunity to jeer. We are sure there is a proof, and we are positive that by-and-by it will be revealed, yet now, face to face with the sneerer, he seems to have it all his own way. Then what a struggle there is between faith and impatience, between confidence and weakness! how then we long that God would open a window in heaven, and would speak from some opening glory in the skies and declare himself! Yet he is far away, so far as silence can remove him; yea, he is dumb when the great controversy seems to beat against the very door of heaven. The Christian says we must wait; we can hasten nothing; we can toil as if we believed; we can confirm our faith by our life, and having done that we can do no more.
Elihu asks a question, which brings us to our right level “Should it be according to thy mind?” ( Job 34:33 ), Which is to be the supreme intelligence? That is the great question. Who is to be on the throne? Who is to be uppermost? Who is to speak the guiding word? It must either be the mind of man or the mind of God. Elihu says, Shall it be the mind of man? See what man has done; behold all the way through which he has passed, and see how he has been correcting himself, stultifying himself, coming back from his prodigalities, reversing his judgments, and rewriting his vows. The world cannot be administered according to a finite or limited mind. It comes to this, then; that such a world as ours, and such a universe as we know it, must be ruled by a mind equal to the occasion. We who cannot tell what will happen tomorrow ought to be silent rather than audible; we should wait, rather than advance: if we could prove our infallibility we might assert, but until we can establish it as a fact we must not broach it as a theory. The universe is too large for our management. We cannot manage our own affairs without blunder and mistake: how much less then could we manage the affairs of all men, and the courses of all worlds, and the destinies of all operations! It is ours to believe that God ruleth over all and is blessed for evermore; that all things, visible and invisible, are parts of a great empire, of which God is King and Lord. It is a noble faith. No man may come to the acceptance of this faith on the ground of weak-mindedness. No man can accept this faith without being mentally enlarged and ennobled. It may be assented to without reasoning and without reflection, and then it is not a religion but a superstition; or it may be received upon our knees, lovingly, adoringly, consentingly; our acceptance of it may be the last result of our inspired reasoning: then it becomes a faith, a religion, an inspiration, and we bow down before it, not ashamed because we cannot explain it, but glorying rather because its mystery will not come into human words, and all its meaning is too vast for the tiny vessel of human speech.
What God then shall we have? We must have some deity. We may deify ourselves, and thus become fools; or we may worship the God of the Bible, and thus receive an instruction which operates even more directly upon the moral than upon the intellectual nature. No man can serve God, and do evil: he may do the evil, never willingly or joyfully, but always with assurance that he ought not to have done it and that God rebukes him in a thousand ways. We cannot rightly receive the God of the Bible, and be little, mean, uncharitable, and unworthy. If we can find persons who profess to have received the God of the Bible and are yet all these things, then their profession is a lie. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” We are not asking for assent; we are asking for faith. It is one thing not to differ from a proposition, and another to live upon it and to have no other means of mental existence. That is faith. He is no Christian who simply “does not dispute” the facts of Christian history. Only he is a Christian who is crucified with Christ, as it were on the same cross, as it were pierced with the same nails, wounded with the same spear. That is Christianity. We debase the whole conception if we suppose that a man is a Christian because he does not differ from the New Testament in any energetic or aggressive way, that a man is a Christian because he passes through certain forms of Christian worship. That is not Christianity at all. A man may do all that, and a thousand times more, yet know nothing whatever of the Spirit of Christ He does not receive the God of the Bible who is not as good as that God, according to the measure of his capacity: “Be ye holy, as your Father in heaven is holy.” No man can receive the Christ of the gospels who is not dead and as much raised again as was that mighty Son of God, according to the man’s measure and capacity. To believe in God we must be one with God. To believe in Christ we must be one with Christ. When we are so identified we shall need no argument in words, for our life will be argument, our spirit will be persuasive and convincing eloquence.
Note
In his second speech Elihu returns to the main question of Job’s attitude towards God. He begins by imputing to Job language which he had never used, and which, from its extreme irreverence, Job would certainly have disowned (Job 34:5 , Job 34:9 ), and maintains that God never acts unjustly, but rewards every man according to his deeds. There is nothing in his treatment of this theme which requires comment…. The subject of the third speech is handled with more originality. Job had really complained that afflicted persons such as himself appealed to God in vain (Job 24:12 , Job 30:20 ). Elihu replies to this ( Job 35:9-13 ), that such persons merely cried from physical pain, and did not really pray. The fourth and last speech, in which he dismisses controversy and expresses his own sublime ideas of the Creator, has the most poetical interest. At the very outset the solemnity of his language prepares the reader to expect something great, and the expectation is not altogether disappointed. “God,” he says, “is mighty, but despiseth not any” ( Job 36:5 ); he has given proof of this by the trials with which he visits his servants when they have fallen into sin. Might and mercy are the principal attributes of God. The verses in which Elihu applies this doctrine to Job’s case are ambiguous and perhaps corrupt, but it appears as if Elihu regarded Job as in danger of missing the disciplinary object of his sufferings. It is in the second part of his speech ( Job 36:26 to Job 37:24 ) that Elihu displays his greatest rhetorical power; and though by no means equal to the speeches of Jehovah, which it appears to imitate, the vividness of his description has obtained the admiration of no less competent a judge than Alexander von Humboldt. The moral is intended to be that, instead of criticising God, Job should humble himself in devout awe at the combined splendour and mystery of the creation. Rev. Canon Cheyne.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
IX
ELIHU’S SPEECH, GOD’S INTERVENTION AND THE EPILOGUE
Job 32-42
The author’s introduction to Elihu’s speech consists of the prose section (Job 32:1-5 ), the several items of which are as follows:
1. Why the three friends ceased argument, viz: “Because he was righteous in his own eyes” (Job 32:1 ).
2. Elihu’s wrath against Job, viz: “Because he justified himself rather than God” (Job 32:2 ).
3. Elihu’s wrath against Job’s friends, viz: “Because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job” (Job 32:3 ; Job 32:5 ).
4. Why Elihu had waited to speak unto Job, viz: “Because they were older than he” (Job 32:4 ).
Elihu’s introduction (Job 32:6-22 ) consists of two sections as follows:
1. Elihu’s address to the three friends.
2. His soliloquy.
Now, an analysis of part one of this introduction consists of Elihu’s address to his three friends, with the following items:
1. He waited because he was young, and considered that days should speak and that years should teach wisdom (Job 32:6-7 ).
2. Yet there is individual intelligence, a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty which gives understanding (Job 32:8 ).
3. And greatness, and age are not always wise, therefore, I speak (Job 32:9-10 ).
4. He had waited patiently and had listened for their reasonings while they fumbled for words (Job 32:11 ).
5. They had failed to answer Job’s argument, and therefore had failed to convince him (Job 32:12 ).
6. Now beware; do not say that you have found wisdom, for God can attend to his case, but not man (Job 32:13 ).
7. I will not answer him with your speeches (Job 32:14 ). Now let us analyze his soliloquy which is found in Job 32:15-22 and consists of the following items:
1. They are amazed and silent; they have not a word to say (Job 32:15 ).
2. Shall I wait? No; I will speak and show my opinion (Job 32:16-17 ).
3. I am full of words, and must speak or burst, therefore I will speak and be relieved (Job 32:18-20 ).
4. His method was not to respect persons nor give flattering titles, because he did not know how to do so and was afraid of his Maker (Job 32:21-22 ).
Elihu’s address to Job in 33:1-7 is as follows:
1. Hear me for the integrity and sincerity of my speech, since I have already begun and am speaking to you right out of my heart (Job 33:1-3 ).
2. I also am a man, being made as a man and since we are on a common level, answer me or stand aside (Job 33:4-5 ).
3. I will be for God, and being a man, I will not terrify you, for I will not bring great pressure upon you (Job 33:6-7 ).
The point of issue now is a general charge that Job’s heart attitude toward God is not right in view of these afflictions (Job 33:8-12 ). It will be seen that Elihu’s charge is different from that of the three friends, viz: That Job was guilty of past sins.
Elihu charged first that Job had said that God giveth no account of any of his matters (Job 33:13 ).. In his reply Elihu shows that this is untrue.
1. In that God reveals himself many times in dreams and visions in order to turn man from his purpose and to save him from eternal destruction (Job 33:14-18 ).
2. In that in afflictions God also talks to man as he often brings him down into the very jaws of death (Job 33:19-22 ). [Cf. Paul’s thorn in the flesh as a preventive.] None of the speakers before him brought out this thought. This is very much like the New Testament teachings; in fact, this thought is nowhere stated more clearly than here. It shows that afflictions are to the children of God what the storm is to the tree of the forest, its roots run deeper by use of the storm.
3. In that he sends an angel sometimes to interpret the things of God, to show man what is right for him (Job 33:23-28 ).
4. Therefore these things ought to be received graciously, since God’s purpose in it all is benevolent (Job 33:29-33 ). Elihu charged, in the second place, that Job had said that God had taken away his right and that it did not profit to be a righteous man (Job 34:5-9 ; Job 35:1-3 ).
His reply is as follows:
1. The nature of God disproves it; -he is not wicked and therefore will not pervert justice (Job 34:10-15 ).
2. Therefore Job’s accusation is unbecoming, for he is by right possessor of all things and governs the world on the principles of justice and benevolence (Job 34:21-30 ).
3. What Job should have said is altogether different from what he did say because he spoke without knowledge and his words were not wise (Job 34:31-37 ).
4. Whether Job was righteous or sinful did not affect God (Job 35:4-8 ).
Elihu charged, in the third place, that Job had said that he could not get a hearing because he could not see him (Job 35:14 ). His reply was that this was unbecoming and vanity in Job (Job 35:15-16 ).
Elihu’s fourth charge was that Job was angry at his chastisements (Job 36:18 ). He replied that such an attitude was sin; and therefore he defended God (36:1-16).
Elihu’s fifth charge was that Job sought death (Job 36:20 ). He replied that it was iniquity to suggest to God when life should end (Job 36:21-23 ).
Elihu discusses in Job 37 the approaching storm. He introduces it in Job 36:24 and in Job 36:33 he gives Job a gentle rebuke, showing him how God even tells the cows of the coming storm. Then he describes the approaching storm in Job 37 , giving the lesson in Job 36:13 , viz: It may be for correction, or it may be for the benefit of the earth, but “stand still and see.”
Elihu makes a distinct advance over the three friends toward the true meaning of the mystery. They claim to know the cause; he, the purpose. They said that the affliction was punitive; he, beneficent. His error is that he, too, makes sin in Job the occasion at least of his sorrow. His implied counsel to Job approaches the final climax of a practical solution. God’s first arraignment of Job is found in Job 38:1-40:2 . Tanner’s summary is as follows:
It is foolish presumption for the blind, dependent creature to challenge the infinite in the realm of providence. The government of the universe, physical and moral, is one; to question any point is to assume understanding of all. Job, behold some of the lower realms of the divine government and realize the absurdity of your complaint.
Job’s reply follows in Job 40:3-5 . Tanner’s summary: “I see it; I hush.”
God’s second arraignment of Job is recorded in Job 40:6-41:34 . Tanner:
To criticize God’s government of the universe is to claim the ability to do better. Assuming the role of God, suppose Job, you try your hand on two of your fellow creatures the hippopotamus and the crocodile.
Job’s reply is found in Job 42:1-6 , Tanner’s summary of which is: This new view of the nature of God reveals my wicked and disgusting folly in complaining; I repent. Gladly do I embrace his dispensations in loving faith.
There are some strange silences in this arraignment and some people have been disappointed that God did not bring out all the questions of the book at the close, as:
1. He says nothing of the heaven scenes in the Prologue and of Satan.
2. He gives no theoretic solution of the problems of the book.
3. He says nothing directly about future revelation and the Messiah.
The explanation of this is easy, when we consider the following facts:
1. That it was necessary that Job should come to the right heart attitude toward God without any explanation.
2. That to have answered concerning future revelation and the Messiah would have violated God’s plan of making revelation.
3. That bringing Job to an acceptance of God’s providence of whatever form without explanation, furnishes a better demonstration of disinterested righteousness.
This is true of life and the master stroke of the production is that the theoretical solution is withheld from the sufferer, while he is led to the practical solution which is a religious attitude of heart rather than an understanding of the head. A vital, personal, loving faith in God that welcomes from him all things is the noblest exercise of the human soul. The moral triumph came by a more just realization of the nature of God.
Job was right in some things and he was mistaken in other things. He was right in the following points:
1. In the main point of difference between him and the three friends, viz: That his suffering was not the result of justice meted out to him for his sins.
2. That even and exact justice is not meted out here on the earth.
3. In contending for the necessity of a revelation by which he could know what to do.
4. In believing God would ultimately vindicate him in the future.
5. In detecting supernatural intelligence and malice in his affliction.
He was mistaken in the following particulars:
1. In considering his case hopeless and wishing for death.
2. In attributing the malice of these things to God instead of Satan.
3. In questioning the mercy and justice of God’s providence and demanding that the Almighty should give him an explanation.
The literary value of these chapters (Job 38:1-42:6 ) is immense and matchless. The reference in Job 38:3 to “The cluster of the Pleiades” is to the “seven stars” which influence spring and represents youth. “Orion” in the same passage, stood for winter and represents death. The picture of the war horse in Job 39:19-25 has stood the challenge of the ages.
The lesson of this meeting of Job with God is tremendous. Job had said, “Oh, that I could appear before him!” but his appearing here to Job reveals to him his utter unworthiness. The man that claims sinlessness advertises his guilty distance from God. Compare the cases of Isaiah, Peter, and John. The Epilogue (Job 42:7-17 ) consists of three parts, as follows:
1. The vindication of Job and the condemnation of his three friends.
2. Job as a priest makes atonement and intercession for his friends.
3. The blessed latter end of Job: “So Jehovah blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.”
The extent and value of the Almighty’s vindication of Job and his condemnation of the three friends are important. In extent it applies to the issues between Job and the three friends and not to Job’s heart attitude toward God. This he had correct-ed in Job by his arraignment of him. In vindicating Job, God justifies his contention that even and exact justice is not meted out on earth and in lime, and condemned the converse which was held by his friends. Out of this contention of Job grows his much felt need of a future judgment, a redeemer, mediator, interpreter, and incarnation, and so forth. Or if this contention is true, then man needs these things just mentioned. If the necessity of these is established, then man needs a revelation explaining all these things.
Its value is seen in God’s confirming these needs as felt by Job, which gives to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come, implicit confidence in the revelation he has given us, pointing out the fact that Job’s need of a redeemer, umpire, interpreter, and so forth has been supplied to the human race with all the needed information upon the other philosophic discussions of the book.
The signification of the Almighty’s “turning the captivity of Job” just at the point “when he prayed for his friends” is seen in the fact that Job reached the point of right heart attitude toward God before the victory came. This was the supreme test of Job’s piety. One of the hardest things for a man to do is to invoke the blessings of heaven on his enemies. This demand that God made of Job is in line with New Testament teaching and light. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for them,” and while dying he himself prayed for his executioners. Paul who was conquered by the prayer of dying Stephen often prayed for his persecutors. This shows that Job was indeed in possession of God’s grace, for without it a man is not able to thus pray. The lesson to us is that we may not expect God to turn our captivity and blessings if we are unable to do as Job did.
The more thoughtful student will see that God does not ex-plain the problem to Job in his later addresses to him, nor in the Epilogue, because to give this would anticipate, out of due time, the order of the development of revelation. Job must be content with the revelation of his day and trust God, who through good and ill will conduct both Job and the world to proper conclusions.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the author’s introduction to Elihu’s speech and what the several items of it?
2. What is Elihu’s introduction (Job 32:6-22 ) and what the two sections?
3. Give an analysis of part one of this introduction.
4. Give an analysis of his soliloquy?
5. Analyze Elihu’s address to Job in Job 33:1-7 .
6. What is the point al issue?
7. What did Elihu charge that Job had said and what Elihu’s reply?
8. What did Elihu charge, in the second place, that Job had said and what Elihu’s reply?
9. What did Elihu charge in the third place, that Job had said, and what Elihu’s answer to it?
10. What was Elihu’s fourth charge and what was Elihu’s answer?
11. What Elihu’s fifth charge and what his reply?
12. What does Elihu discuss in Job 37 ?
13. What the distinct advances made by Elihu and what his error?
14. What God’s first arraignment of Job?
15. What Job’s reply?
16. What God’s second arraignment of Job?
17. What Job’s reply?
18. What the strange silences in this arraignment and what your explanation of them?
19. What the character of the moral solution of the problem as attained by Job?
20. In what things was Job right and in what things was he mistaken?
21. What can you say of the literary value of these chapters (Job 33:1-42:6 )?
22. Explain the beauties of Job 38:31 .
23. What of the picture of the war horse in Job 39:19-25 ?
24. What the lesson of this meeting of Job with God?
25. Give an analysis of the epilogue.
26. What the extent and value of the Almighty’s vindication of Job and his condemnation of the three friends?
27. What the signification of the Almighty’s “turning the captivity of Job” just at the point “when he prayed for his friends”?
28. Does God give Job the explanation of life’s problem, and why?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Job 33:1 Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words.
Ver. 1. Wherefore Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches ] Plain Job, for flattering titles Elihu would give none, Job 32:22 ; only in prefacing to his discourses he is very large, witness the whole former chapter, which may well stand for a common exordium to all the five following; and the seven first verses of this, wherein he both calleth upon Job for audience, and useth arguments for that purpose. An orator he showeth himself all along; for in his introduction he hath , milder affections, which suit best to insinuate; and toward the conclusion he hath , pathetic expressions, that may leave an impression on his hearers.
And hearken to all my words
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job Chapter 33
But now (Job 33 ) was Elihu’s turn; and after all, Job had not said the thing that was right. So he begins here. The 32nd chapter was merely a preface, speaking of his own shortcoming, and at the same time, of his entire conviction that he saw a truth that neither Job nor the three friends had seen; and this he must have out.
“I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words. Behold, now I have opened my mouth” – he had been very slow to do it – “my tongue hath spoken in my mouth. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart” – it is all genuine and sincere, whatever these physicians of no value say, these higher critics – “and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.” And so they did. “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead.” Job, while his heart went out towards God, was afraid that it would be too overwhelming; and yet he wanted to find Him; but still he was afraid. He wanted some one that could speak in a human tongue to him – could speak thoroughly for God. Well, Elihu does that in his measure. Elihu is an interpreter, one of a thousand, and he therefore does speak for God – just what Job had wanted, only very far short of the Great Interpreter – very far short of Him who is the Chief of the Prophets, who is the Lord God of the Prophets, as well as a Prophet. Very short, indeed, of Christ! Still the presence of Elihu is a witness to sovereign grace. It is the rarest thing in the world to find a man that has learnt so of God as Elihu had. And it was purposely intended to bring down the pride of the older men. And Elihu felt that; but still he made them apologies; for he was very unwilling indeed to appear to be setting them in order and correcting the folly that had come from them. He is occupied with Job rather – and that is a very fine trait in him. He does not go round Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, and show how wrong they had been; but the great point remains still to be settled.
There was no solution of the riddle yet. Elihu contributes for the first time. Not completely – it required God to do that – and God did appear; I do not say how. I do not say that He took the shape of man, as He often did in the Old Testament. We do not read of anything of that here. It may merely have been a voice for that matter. But we shall see, when we come to that part, that it was a divine voice; there is no mistake about that. Here, however, it is a man, as he says, and a young man, too, “I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee,” etc. (vers. 7-11). Job had complained of God’s hand. There were two great faults in what Job had said. He thought too well of himself, and he found fault with God. That is what is clearly put here by Elihu. “Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.” He had entirely fallen short of the reverence due to God – entirely forgotten the infinite distance between God and man; the majesty of God; and therefore, instead of finding fault with himself for being so far short, he found fault with God. He did not understand His ways fully. Now he ought to have credited, though he did not understand them. “For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not” (vers. 12-14).
Now he brings in the fact that God carries on His wonderful way in the midst of all, in a ruined world with everything out of order and Satan triumphing, and in fact the prince of the world, and the god of this age, as scripture calls him, at any rate in the New Testament; although they very little understood that yet. But we ought to know it. Well, God, in the midst of all this, carries on His wonderful way, and did so before there was a Bible. You must remember that when the circumstances of Job occurred there was no written revelation. Genesis and Job were probably written very near one another: practically at the same time. There is no reference to the law; there is no reference to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, in Job; and although there was some distance between Job’s country and Egypt, the Book of Job shows that he was well acquainted with the great features of Egypt; that he was well acquainted with the crocodile and the like. There is a magnificent description of it in this very book, and many other things that show that the country of Egypt and its people were quite familiar to Job. He only lived on the edge of the desert, and a little, therefore, to the east of the Holy Land; perhaps the north-east; but at any rate, it was in that part of the country. Elihu belonged rather to another part. He was the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram. “Ram” is the same word (only another form) as “Aram,” i.e., Syria, that part of the country of Asia north of the Holy Land. He belonged, therefore, to a race akin to the Holy Land, but not belonging to it strictly, and that is what makes the great interest of the book – it is God and man. It is not Israel at all; it is purposely God dealing with man, and God dealing with man’s soul. It is far more important that the soul should be right, and this we find most carefully shown in this book. So much so that Job was brought into the best blessing he ever knew while he was still under the effects of his trial, and the external blessing had not yet been conferred; but it followed immediately he could bear it.
God therefore, Elihu says, often deals in a dream of the night (ver. 15). I dare say some of you have had these visitations. It is certainly not for me to beast of anything; but I think that I have had consciously God whispering little things to me about myself, and advising me to take care what I was about, and compelling me to judge myself in a way that I had not done before; and I conceive that it is very probably so in this case. It is nothing miraculous at all. We may perhaps not count with God; but this no doubt is just where we fail, in not attaching the importance that we ought to do, and this although we have His word. But still God is a living God, and God has to do with every one of us in this way. There can be no doubt that here Elihu speaks about it as a certainty in those days; and why it should not be in our day, I, for one, have never learnt. I believe it is all a mistake to imagine it is not so. The great point is that it is altogether inferior to the word. This is where we have our great advantage; and all these excellent people that come before us in this book had it not. Oh no, scripture is of enormous value, and we show our great lack of faith by not estimating it, and making it the grandest point of every day’s life – to learn God more and better by His word, now especially as we have Christ, who is not merely the Interpreter, “one of a thousand,” but alone; alone, above all – Moses, Elias, no matter whom – Jesus only. Well, “In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men” – it is not seeing a spirit, as Eliphaz did. That I do not pretend to. It has never been my lot, nor, I suppose, yours; but here it is another thing. It is in sleep; and it is a dream; plain, simple, positive fact, but still it is God deigning to help us. And He loves to do that in ways that we do not always perceive, but He is always doing so in one way or another, except where Ephraim is joined to his idols – “let him alone”! That is a terrible word.
“Then he openeth the ears of men” (ver. 16). That is what is shown in this chapter. It is not “believing” men; it is any man, in order that he might believe. But still, when we do not behave as saints, we may get a little word just showing us where we are, that we are “walking as men,” as the apostle said. “That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.” You see, it is one that had never yet been broken. “He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.” He was on the straight way to it. “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed.” It is not only these dealings with the soul, but also with the body. There he touches the very case of Job. “And the multitude of his bones with strong pain: so that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away” – how true it was of poor Job “that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen, stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with him” – that is exactly what Elihu was – “an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness”: i.e., what becomes him. And what is it that becomes a man? Self-judgment. He is a fallen man. He may be a believing man, but still, he is a man, as we can say, with the flesh in him; and that flesh may be working strongly, as it did in Job as well as the others. “Then he is gracious unto him.” Directly the man bows, directly there is submissiveness to God – that is the uprightness of man. This is what is done when a man is converted, i.e., he bows to God, but also when a man gets away, like Peter, it may also be said, “When thou art converted.” For the restoration of a man is very much of the same character as when a man is converted. He is turned back to God. He has been forgetting God, and he turns back and remembers Him. That is how it was with Peter; and that is what we sometimes find also. “Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom” (vers. 17-24).
Now I do not think you could find in all the rest of the Old Testament such a description as here of God’s dealing with the soul that is wrong, or that has got wrong. I do not remember any so graphic, and so personally applicable; and it would be hard to find it in the New Testament, except where the Lord gives us the Prodigal. There I admit that we have a perfect picture. We could not have here all that the Lord shows of the prodigal son; but here it is a wonderful thing, especially so precious at the early day. But it does not mean that the ransom was yet offered; but there it was before God, answering to that word in Rom 3 : “the pretermission” of sins – a passing over, not a “remission,” for this latter could not be true of an Old Testament saint. “Remission” is what particularly belongs to the New Testament. But there was a “pretermission” – a “passing over” by God. It was like a bad debt, and the creditors saying, “It is no use; we must pass it by; we must not expect anything.” That is what God did. There was “the forbearance of God.” But now it is not the forbearance of God at all; and it is not “pretermission.” It is “remission” now. It is God’s righteousness clearly manifested, and that is, that Christ has borne our sins, and therefore it is a righteous thing to blot them out. It is not merely saying, “Poor fellow, he cannot pay”; but here is One that has paid, and paid in the most glorious manner; more wonderful a great deal than if there had never been sin; more glorious to God and more blessed for man. Because, on the contrary, it was giving us up as a bad job where it was merely “forbearance” and “pretermission”; but now it is triumphing.
You recollect that remarkable word which I think is quite misunderstood – “come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23 ). Does this apply to the believer? On the contrary, no believer comes “short of the glory of God.” And how is this? Why, because there is One in the glory who bore my sins on the cross, And He who is in the glory of God is my life and my righteousness. Therefore it is that we, believers, do not “come short of the glory of God.” There was that great fact, not merely a mighty work upon the cross, but the Lord Jesus connecting that work with the glory of God, and giving us the wonderful impulse and strength of knowing that we do not come short of the glory of God. That was a thing that could not be at the beginning. It could not be without – not only sin forgiven, but Christ glorifying God about sin, and consequently going up Himself into the glory of God, and this as our Saviour. Well, we have not this here; nothing like it at all, but simply “I have found a ransom.”
“His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s; he shall return to the days of his youth; he shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him; and he shall see his face with joy.” We have here nothing at all about the two natures. That the Old Testament saint never understood. There is no such thing as the intelligence of that great truth in any part of the Old Testament. And man is incapable of profiting by, or understanding, it until he sees Christ by faith; sees the Son and believes in Him. Now we are capable. Now we are made to understand it simply and fully. “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not” – there you see, is just what the repentant soul says. It is not called “repentance” here. It is in Jeremiah. Jeremiah, brings it out very beautifully in the 31st chapter, before he introduces the new covenant; but here we have the thing, repentance, although the word is not employed. “He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man” (vers. 25-30). It is very comforting to think that that was what God was doing, and was known to be doing, in those days. Because the gospel was not preached then. There was, no doubt, the precious revelation of “the Seed of the woman” that was to be bruised, and which was to bruise Satan; but after all, although that is a most wonderful word, and not less wonderful now than it ever was – most wonderful to think of now – yet it was almost all they had then.
There was a little more that came in with Noah, as a type – the deluge, and man passing out of it; and then Abraham as the chosen one, and the seed that belonged to that stock; because. they all knew that thence was to be the Messiah. All the believing Jews were perfectly aware that Abraham’s Seed, represented by Isaac, was to be the Messiah. And how beautifully it was confirmed by Isaac being the one that was offered up in a figure, and was received, as it were, from the dead, God forbidding Abraham to put him to death! but he was under sentence of death for three days, and then it was, at the very critical moment, he was delivered!
Not so with Jesus. Here everything was perfect. Everything here was carried out in all its fulness of blessing, but it could not be in any other than Jesus. So Elihu calls Job (ver. 31) to mark all this, and hearken; and then if he has anything to say he would be very glad to hear, because he wanted to justify him. There is, you see, the great difference between Elihu and the others The others wanted to condemn him. They were quite sure there was something altogether bad there, and they wanted to have it out. Therefore they were on their mettle to try and discover what it could possibly be; and so they grew more and more angry with Job, because instead of acknowledging it he told them that they were botchers. Instead of being physicians of any value they were mere bunglers, and everything was a mistake and a blunder on their part, and no doubt they were very angry.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Chapter 33
Wherefore, Job, [he said,] I pray thee, now hear my speech, hearken to all my words. Behold, I’ve opened my mouth, my tongue has spoken in my mouth. My words shall be of uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly. The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life. If you can answer me, set your words in order before me, stand up. Behold, I am according to your wish in God’s stead ( Job 33:1-6 ):
Oh, my, he’s going now a little far. Job was saying earlier, “Oh, that there was someone between us, you know, that could lay his hand on.” Now, “I’m what you wished for. I am standing here in God’s stead.” Elihu, you’re getting carried away. So I depart from him at this point.
I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee. Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I’ve heard the voice of your words, saying ( Job 33:6-8 ),
And now he’s quoting Job. I’ve heard you say,
I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there any iniquity in me ( Job 33:9 ).
And he heard Job saying concerning God:
Behold, he find occasions against me, he counts me for his enemy; He puts my feet in the stocks, he marks all my paths. Behold, in this, Job, you are not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Why do you strive against him? for he gives not account of any of his matters ( Job 33:10-13 ).
“God doesn’t owe you any apologies, God doesn’t owe you any explanations.” Paul said concerning God that He is as a potter and we are as the clay, and what right has the clay to say to the potter, “Why have You made me like this? Why did You put that wrinkle in me?” I have no right to challenge God. As a lump of clay, the Potter has sovereignty over my life. He can make of me whatever He wants to make of me. He can do with me whatever He wants to do with me. He can make me a vessel of honor, a vessel of dishonor. He can make me a drinking cup or a garbage pail. He has absolute power over my life. And He doesn’t owe me explanations, though I’m oftentimes demanding explanations from Him. “God, what did You do this for? Lord, why did You allow that to happen?” I’m demanding that God give me an explanation. “God, give me a reason.” He really doesn’t owe me any explanations. He can do whatever He wants without having to explain to me.
Now we sing, “Farther along we’ll know all about it. Farther along we’ll understand why. Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine. We’ll understand it all, by and by. And we’ll talk it over in the by and by. We’ll talk it over, my Lord and I. I’ll ask the reasons, He’ll tell me why when we talk it over in the by and by.” Do you think I’m going to sit down in heaven and say, “Now, Lord, do you remember back in 1980, that weird thing that happened, now why did You do that, Lord?” No way! When I get there, I’m going to be so glad just to be there and so excited to get it on with whatever God’s got in store, I’m not going to be challenging God or asking God for the reasons why things happened to me here on the earth. At that point, I can care less. Just glad to be there and to enter into the excitement and the thrills and the joys of His eternal kingdom. So there are some people that may want to get to heaven and sit down and get all the explanations for life and all. Not me, I have no desire to waste my time in heaven with that kind of stuff. Just glad to be out of this mess and all of it. Just with the Lord and there in His presence and in His kingdom.
So he declares,
For God has spoken once, yes twice, yet man did not perceive it. In a dream, and in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings on the bed; Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instructions, That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword ( Job 33:14-18 ).
Now God speaks. Once He speaks, twice. How does God speak? He speaks sometimes through dreams. He speaks sometimes through visions. God can speak in various ways to people. I think, though, that our hearts need to be open to hear the voice of God. I believe that God is speaking and does speak quite often and we just don’t understand that it is God speaking. We don’t understand His voice. We’re looking for some echo chamber type of voice. “Charles…” Oh God! You know, just expecting things to just reverberate. But God speaks in such beautiful, natural ways that we’re not always aware that it is God speaking. God can speak to us through dreams. He can speak to us through visions. He can speak to us through angels. He can speak to us through His Word. He can speak to us through a friend. God can speak to us in many different ways, and you can’t really limit the ways by which God speaks to a man.
Elijah said there was a fire; God wasn’t in a fire. There was a horrible wind; God wasn’t in the wind. There was an earthquake; God wasn’t in the earthquake. And then there came a still small voice and God was in the still small voice ( 1Ki 19:11-13 ). Now that was that particular experience, but God can speak and did speak to Moses through the fire. God spoke to the jailer through an earthquake. God can speak in different ways. The fact is, God is speaking. Am I listening? Am I tuned in?
Would you believe me if I told you that in this room tonight there are all kinds of pictures and all kinds of voices? There is beautiful symphonic music in this room right now. And there’s hard rock. And there’s all kinds of sounds in this room right now. Now if you had a little radio and you would tune it, you could pick up all of the music that’s floating through the air. Just by turning your tuner. Tuning in. You could see all of the pictures that are floating through the air. Hear the voices. But you’ve got to be tuned into them. Even so, God is speaking, but we’re not always tuned in to the voice of God. It takes really, I think, a definite act of our own will of saying, “Lord, speak to me. Show me.” And then waiting to allow God to speak to us. Listening to what the Lord might have to say. And I think that our mistake is that we’re not asking God direct questions, and thus we’re not getting direct answers. We’re not listening enough to hear God speak to us. God has spoken once; God has spoken twice. He speaks in visions. He opens ears. He turns us from our purposes in order that He might keep us back from the pit.
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed [that is, man], and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: So that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that they were not, they stick out ( Job 33:19-21 ).
So he’s sort of describing Job’s condition. “Man, you know, you’re in pain, and your bones are sticking out, and your health is taken away, and all. God is trying to speak to you, Job.”
If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show man his uprightness; Then he is gracious unto him, and he says, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth: He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: and he’ll render unto man his righteousness. He looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul ( Job 33:23-28 )
“If you’ll confess,” he is saying,
He’ll deliver your soul from the pit, and your life shall see the light. Lo, these things God works oftentimes with man, To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living. Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I’m going to speak. And if you have anything to say, then answer: speak, for I desire to justify thee. If not, then listen to me: hold your peace, and I am going to teach you wisdom ( Job 33:28-33 ).
So this young kid’s telling Job, “If you’ve got anything to say, say it, but if not, then just let me talk on, because I’m going to teach you a few things here.” Now, what he is saying is basically pretty sound, and that is that God oftentimes uses chastisement to turn us away from the pit. You know, as a child of God, you’re in a very good position, because God’s not going to let you get away with evil. Now everyone around you may get away with it, that’s because they are not children of God. But because He’s your Father, and He’s watching over you, He’s not going to let you get by with perversity, with crookedness. And God uses chastisement to keep His children out of the pit. God’ll stop you. He’ll allow you to be caught up with. “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord. For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” ( Heb 12:5-6 ). And if you are not chastened, then you’re like a bastard; you’re not really His son.
If you can do evil and get by with it, then I would very worried. If you can cheat and get by with it, then you have cause to really be worried. But if you’re a child of God, He’s not going to let you get by. You’re going to get caught up with. That’s because He’s trying to save you from the snare, from the pit. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
This is a speech of young Elihu, who had sat quietly listening to the taunting words of the three candid friends of Job, and to the somewhat exasperated replies of the patriarch. At last, the young man breaks the silence, and with some dignity, and quite sufficient of self-content, he thus addresses himself to Job:
Job 33:1. Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words.
I am but a young man, but I speak because I cannot be quiet. An impulse moves me; I am as a vessel wanting vent. I desire to speak impartially; therefore, hear me, but hear all that I have to say; do not listen merely here and there to a part of my speech, but hearken to all my words. Sometimes, it is very necessary to beg our hearers not to run away with only one sentence, or even with one sentiment. Hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words, for there is a proportion in truth, and one truth has to be balanced with all the others. A statement may be all the better for being unguarded, more forcible because it stands alone; and yet it may need that another statement should be heard with it, lest it should be misunderstood. Wherefore the preacher also says to his hearer, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words.
Job 33:2. Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth.
That is to say, I speak with much solemnity, not as one who chatters without sense, or without due consideration, but I have opened my mouth deliberately, as one who has something to say; and I speak with my best powers of speech, as one who wishes to persuade those who hear him.
Job 33:3. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.
What a lesson this is to those of us who preach to others, that we speak out of the uprightness of our heart, and feel that, however others may judge us, we are sincere before God in what we say! How necessary also is it, especially in these days, that we should speak plainly, so as to be easily understood! Some men never think clearly, and therefore they never speak clearly; and, oftentimes, the darkness of a mans speech is only the result of the darkness of his mind; he has no clearly-defined notion of what he has to say. Let every young man who has to teach others resolve that this utterance of Elihu shall be his also, My lips shall utter knowledge clearly.
Job 33:4. The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
That is to say, I am as much the creature of God as these three old gentlemen are, these three wise friends who have spoken so tartly. I am as much endowed with the Spirit of God as thou art, O Job, and therefore I speak to thee in his name. Should not this be a lesson to every one of us to try and do all that we can for God? Every Christian may say, The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. Therefore let me use my very existence, the life that is breathed into me, for that Almighty Creator who has made me what I am.
Job 33:5. If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up.
He who speaks reason is ready to hear reason. It is only the unreasonable talker who will not allow others to have a word to say in reply. If thou canst answer me, says Elihu to Job, set thy words in order before me, stand up.
Job 33:6. Behold, I am according to thy wish in Gods stead: I also am formed out of the clay.
Job had wished that someone would stand up and speak for God, someone without the terror that seemed inseparable from the Infinite, someone without the power of Omnipotence, someone who would be more nearly his equal, with whom he could debate the questions which perplexed him, so Elihu says, I am according to thy wish in Gods stead: I also am formed out of the clay.
Job 33:7-11. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee. Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying, I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me. Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy, he putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my paths.
Elihu did not make this excuse for Job, that he had been slandered by his friends, and that his statement of innocence was not so much absolute towards God as it was defensive towards men. Still, there is no doubt that Job had gone too far in this direction. Perhaps, for this very reason, his troubles had come upon him, because he was in a measure self-righteous. In some small degree, at any rate, he may have prided himself upon his personal excellence. Elihu does well, therefore, in all faithfulness, to point out the blot in what Job had said.
Job 33:12-13. Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.
This man seems to have the very spirit that rested upon the apostle Paul when he was arguing with an objector against the Lords way of working, Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? The greatness and grandeur of the Eternal should prevent our raising objections against anything that he does. Who are we, the moths of a moment, the creatures of an hour, that we should interrogate the Infinite and question our Maker? What he does must of necessity be right; though we cannot understand how it is so, we must believe it, and meekly bow to the will of the Lord.
Job 33:14-17. For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
It is ever one great object of the divine dealings to make and keep us humble. It is strange that creatures so insignificant as we are should be perpetually infected with the foul disease of pride; this form of mental scarlet fever continually breaks out in puny man, and therefore God deals with him that he may hide pride from man.
Job 33:18-19. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:
Pain of body is usually looked upon as a great evil, and doubtless it is so in some respects; but it wraps up within itself great mercy. There are some who can scarcely be taught at all except through physical pain; and if it were possible to abolish sickness and suffering, whither would men go in the wantonness of their strength? Does not this very affliction often chide man, and bid him think, and cause him to return to his Maker, when, otherwise, he would be as thoughtless as the beasts that perish?
Job 33:20-24. So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness: then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
Happy is the messenger who comes with such a message as that. Such was the prophet Isaiah to Hezekiah when the king was sick unto death, such is the minister of Gods Word when he comes with glad tidings of redemption, and God through him says of the spiritually sick man, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
Job 33:25-28. His flesh shall be fresher than a childs: he shall return to the days of his youth: He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness. He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
See the easy terms of Gods love and mercy. The man does but confess that he has sinned, he owns that he has perverted the right, he confesses that he has gained no profit thereby; and God, seeing him in such a state of heart as this, delivers his soul from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light. What a gracious God we serve! How cruel to continue to offend him when he is so ready to forgive!
Job 33:29-30. Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
The chastisement of sickness and the flagellation of pain whip the sinner back to him who alone can save him. These are the black dogs of the Great Shepherd wherewith he brings back wandering sheep till they come again under his crook, and he leads them into green pastures.
Job 33:31-33. Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I will speak. If thou hast any thing to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee. If not, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom.
May the Lord graciously apply to all our hearts this instructive portion of Old Testament Scripture! There is a message in it to each of us as well as to the patriarch Job, to whom it was specially addressed.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Job 33:1-7
Introduction
Job 33
A CONTINUATION OF THE SPEECH OF ELIHU
This chapter does nothing to improve our low estimate of the quality of Elihu’s long tirade. He is patronizing, referring to Job by name, as though addressing an intimate or an inferior, something that Job’s three friends had refrained from doing throughout the whole book. His talk is loaded with repetitions; and “He protests too much about his sincerity (Job 33:2 f).” Furthermore, he is not perfectly fair with Job. Job had never claimed absolute perfection, admitting minor transgressions and mistakes; but he insisted that he had committed no violent crimes or immoralities that could have been the basis of divine punishment. Also, Job had not accused God of malice or injustice. Of course, he had complained bitterly that things that happened to him were undeserved and unjust; but his mention of such things as coming from God should always be understood as meaning, merely, that God had allowed them to happen. Job might not always have made that distinction clear in his words to his friends. As Andersen noted, “Job had never accused God of dishonesty or injustice; although his words might have seemed to Job’s friends that he had indeed done so.” The Bible, however, makes it clear that Job had never spoken anything about God that was not right (Job 42:7).
Job 33:1-7
ELIHU DEMANDS THAT JOB HEARKEN TO HIM
“Howbeit, Job, I pray thee, hear my speech,
And hearken to all my words.
Behold now, I have opened my mouth;
My tongue hath spoken in my mouth.
My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart;
And that which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.
The Spirit of God hath made me,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth me life.
If thou canst, answer thou me;
Set thy words in order before me, stand forth.
Behold, I am toward God even as thou art:
I also am formed out of the clay.
Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid,
Neither shall my pressure be heavy upon thee.”
“Hear my speech …hearken to all my words… I have opened my mouth … my tongue hath spoken in my mouth … my words shall utter … my lips … shall speak” (Job 33:1-3). What a pompous and bombastic line this is! What does it mean? “Watch him! This bloke is going to say something!”
“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty giveth me life” (Job 33:4). “Elihu apparently means to suggest that he has the charismatic gift of divine wisdom which was deficient in his elders who were not able to confute Job successfully.”
“Answer thou me … stand forth” (Job 33:5). The weakness of such demands appears in the fact that, to this point in Elihu’s speech, he had not said anything that demanded an answer.
“My terror shall not make thee afraid” (Job 33:7). “Elihu here alludes to Job’s charges that God intimidates him (Job 9:34; Job 13:21); and he here assures Job that this charge cannot be made in the present situation, since Job’s opponent here is a mere mortal.”
E.M. Zerr:
Job 33:1. Having prepared the mind of Job to hear his candid speech, Elihu addressed his remarks to him, begging him to hear him as he spoke.
Job 33:2-3. Mouth in the first instance means an opening or mouth in general. In the second place it refers especially to the inside of the mouth. The idea is that Elihu’s tongue had been trying to speak even in the palate of his mouth, therefore he opened it so the tongue could talk freely.
Job 33:4-5. Elihu was again claiming to be prompted by the Lord to do his speaking. He made the same claim when talking first to the friends in 32:8.
Job 33:6. Elihu stated that he was formed of the same kind of material as Job. For that reason he should be ready to listen to him because he was speaking to him instead of God; that he was a spokesman for God.
Job 33:7. Elihu was trying to calm Job in advance by assuring him that he would not be hard on him. This was all unnecessary, for Job had already shown that he could withstand strong attacks from a critic.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Elihu began his direct appeal to Job by asking his attention, assuring him of sincerity in motive, and finally declaring that he spoke to him as a comrade, not as a judge, or one who would fill him with terror.
Commencing his argument, he first quoted from what Job had said. In his speeches he had declared that God had dicted him unjustly, that God was hostile to him and gave no explanation of His method. Proceeding to his answer, Elihu declared that God is greater than man, and therefore that man has no right to ask explanation. This, however, was not all. God does answer. He speaks “once, yea, twice”; and Elihu proceeded to name two ways in which God speaks, first “in a dream,” or “vision of the night.” Moreover, His purpose in so doing is that He would rescue man rather than destroy him. There is another method. It is suffering. While Job had been complaining that God was not to be found, and had no dealing with him, Elihu suggested that all his affliction was the method of the divine dealing. What he had needed had been an angel or a messenger, an interpreter. If one could be found, then it would be understood that God is gracious, and again man would be restored and would rejoice in his restoration.
It is most likely that Elihu looked upon himself as the necessary interpreter, and here the main contention of his argument took shape. It is that through suffering God is dealing with men to some higher issue. According to this argument, suffering is educational. Elihu ended his first movement by challenging Job to hear him while he spoke, and to answer him if he had anything to say. If he had nothing to say, then he was to be silent while Elihu continued.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Interpreter
Job 33:1-33
It is not wonderful that Elihu has been mistaken for the Mediator Himself, so helpfully does he interpose between Job and his Maker. He dwells especially on his own likeness to Job in his manhood, and quotes this as the reason why he could specially help him: I also am formed out of the clay. So also our High Priest is man. Elihu takes up Jobs words protesting his innocence, and he insists that Job was not right in those protestations, or in the conclusions that he drew from them.
Then follows one of the grandest passages in the book. Elihu tells how God speaks in nature and through conscience, and is often disregarded; and how then he speaks by revelation, opening the ears of men to withdraw them from their purpose. He shows that God often lays a man upon a bed of pain, that He may speak to his heart. Happy is the afflicted if an interpreter stands beside him to point the path to repentance. Finally, broken and penitent, he turns back to God, and sees His face with joy, and sings before men the story of his restoration. Thus Elihu argues that affliction is often sent as discipline to read to man Gods deepest truth.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Job 33:4
The value and power of human life.
I. Life in its origin is infinitely important.
II. Life is transcendently precious from the service it may render God in the advancement of His glory.
III. Life is infinitely valuable on account of the eternal consequences flowing from it.
T. L. Cuyler, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 49.
Job 33:6-7
Elihu seems to stand forth as the very type of young, ardent, imaginative, quasi-inspired genius; he is the mouthpiece of the young age, the young school, which always vehemently protests its power to solve the questions which well-nigh strangle each successive generation, and which the elder wisdom practically abandons in despair. But Elihu stands far in advance of the aged ones in his discernment of the real nature of the necessity with which the aged patriarch was struggling. He knew that a mediator, a qualified interpreter of God, was the one solution of the problem, and in his short-sighted wisdom he offered himself. But, alas! an archangel had been a daysman wholly insufficient. But Elihu had laid hold of a mighty truth when he handled the subject of mediation, and he deals with it in an altogether masterly way.
In discussing the subject unfolded in the text, we notice:
I. That the words “mediation” and “intercession” present fundamentally the same idea-a coming between to bridge over a gulf or to avert a stroke.
II. Intercession rests on the fact that there is a complete humanity in God. That humanity in God is the intercession. It is God who intercedes with God. He is “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His substance,” who is the Daysman between us; and all this fulness of human pity and compassion was already in the Father when He sent Him forth.
III. There was a Divine necessity that God should be self-revealed as the Mediator, that this most Godlike form of God should take shape and appear in our world. There were depths of the Divine nature, secret things of the Divine counsels, which no material creation was full enough or rich enough to draw forth into expression. All the compassion, the tenderness, the patient love, which bore the God-Man through that path the only possible end of which was Calvary, were there in the Father, yearning for expression. It was this in God which the Lord came to make known. There is a Mediator, “one Mediator between God and man,” that God may declare Himself as Mediator.
J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., pp. 392, 406.
References: Job 33:6, Job 33:7.-H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2217. Job 33:12, Job 33:13.-S. Pearson, Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 405. Job 33:23, Job 33:24.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 905.
Job 33:24
It was a hard and marvellous thing to find that ransom, something so precious and so vast that it should outweigh in God’s balances the sin and the condemnation of the whole world.
Looking at that ransom, we see:
I. What a hateful thing sin is-sin, that needed such cancelling; sin, that murdered that ransom! You will never see sin as it really is till you look at it from the foot of the Cross.
II. Of what value must your soul be to God if that was expended upon it! See your dignity and your preciousness.
The higher the rank of the captive in war, the larger is the ransom demanded for his release. Of a thing so bought, the use, the purpose, the capability, the destiny, must be eternally immense.
III. What we buy at a great cost we watchfully keep and dearly love. And will not God be sure to take care of you and keep you safe and near Him, if only for this, that He has ransomed you with that which is above all gold and precious stones?
IV. Plead everything by the greatness of the ransom. Measure everything in your demands of Him by that. What a background is the Cross to prayer and confidence! “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 15th series, p. 101.
References: Job 33:25.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Christmas and Epiphany, p. 59; H. Macmillan, The Olive Leaf, p. 185.
Job 33:27-28
I. He looketh upon men, and if any say”-He is listening to hear a rare saying. Sinning is not a rare thing, but repenting is. Yet such a saying is heard. God’s ear is open when men speak, to what their hearts speak, if any of them are speaking to Him about sin.
II. This man has no good to say of himself; he has evil to say of himself, and that evil he speaks to God. We have here three heads of a long story of a sinful life. Mark the correctness of the man’s view of sin. It is given in three particulars. (1) “I have sinned.” I have transgressed the law, the commandment, of Him who is my liege Lord, and to whom I belong. (2) There is a recognition, not only that the law is authoritative, but that the law is right: “I have perverted that which was right.” Law, considered simply as law, is the will of a superior; but God’s law is moral law, founded on the will of God, but having a ground in the nature of God. The law is the expression of God’s moral perfections. (3) “And it profited me not.” Sin is an unnatural, suicidal thing. It is contrary to the constitution and nature of man as it proceeded from the hands of God.
III. The confession is not meritorious, entitling to forgiveness, to deliverance. For it is added, “Then He is gracious unto him;” it is an act of grace to deliver the self-confessed sinner. God hath found a ransom. The sinner’s place is the pit, but the ransom came into his place, and he shall not perish, but shall live. And then the ransomed one belongs to the Ransomer. Thou art not thine own, but bought with a price; therefore glorify God in thy body and in thy spirit, which are God’s.
J. Duncan, Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 354.
We have here:
I. The creed of penitence. (1) An absolute good and evil, right and wrong. Right and wrong, good and evil, are fixed and absolute opposites. Opinions of men may vary, but the things themselves do not vary; they abide immutable, because there is One who knows them, and before whom they are real, who abides immutable. (2) “I have perverted that which was right.” No man knows what “I” means but the man who has felt himself isolated from God by transgression, alone responsible for it, alone bound to bear it, a solitary soul in a universe of solitude. (3) “And it profited me not.” “The wages of sin is death.” Can sin stand the test of possession? Is it proof against satiety? The test of profit is the ultimate test to which everything will be practically brought.
II. The penitent’s confession. (1) “If any man say, I have sinned.” This implies at any rate that if any man should think it, and not say it, he must miss the promised fruit. (2) God demands confession (a) because confession alone makes the penitence complete; (b) because confession alone re-establishes that filial relation without which the penitence can have no lasting fruits.
III. The fruits of penitence. “He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light “-the light in which it was born to live, the light of the face of God.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Divine Mysteries, p. 131.
References: Job 33:27, Job 33:28.-Parker, Fountain, July 26th, 1877. Job 33:27-29.-W. P. Lockhart, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 97. Job 33:29, Job 33:30.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1101; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 131.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
hear: Job 13:6, Job 34:2, Psa 49:1-3, Mar 4:9
Reciprocal: Job 6:24 – Teach me Job 13:17 – General Job 15:17 – hear me Job 18:2 – mark Job 21:2 – Hear Pro 8:6 – the opening Pro 23:31 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
High Altitudes in Elihu’s Answer to Job
Job 32:1-22, Job 33:1-33, Job 34:1-37, Job 35:1-16, Job 36:1-33
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We now come to that part of the Book of Job which presents a most remarkable message spoken by a young man of spiritual integrity. Elihu had evidently been listening to the words of Job, and of his three friends. His spirit had waxed hot within him as he listened; and yet he did not deign to make a reply until the three men utterly collapsed in their arguments and expletives against Job.
1. Men who speak for God should be taught of God. Elihu said, “Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.” However, Elihu understood. “Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.” This is a message that all young people need to ponder. Men of years are not necessarily men who know God. One may be ever so well versed in human knowledge, and ever so brilliant in all things which pertain to psychical understanding, and yet, be altogether ignorant of the things of God. Here is the way Elihu put it: “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:8).
We need this inspiration from on high-this gift of God. Daniel possessed Divine wisdom. How else could he have told the things of God and particularly those things which are being fulfilled in our own day.
2. Men who speak for God should realize that they stand in God’s stead. Elihu approached Job, not with a message of his own; neither did he come in his own name. Mark his words: “Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay.”
Job had desired to meet God, and lay his case before the Almighty. Elihu now tells Job that he is there in God’s stead. He feels that he can bring God’s message, because he was taught of God. Elihu’s claim may, at the first, seem like presumption. How can a man stand in God’s stead? We must stop and consider these words. Let us examine a Scripture to be found in 2Co 5:20. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
The Spirit-sent believer holds a very vital relation to God in his delivery of a God-sent message. The Lord even says of Him, “He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me.”
The authority of one who preaches the true Word of God is as high Heaven. There is an abiding sense of responsibility in all of this; and it lies with tremendous weight upon every one sent of God. If we are in God’s stead, we must speak the words of God. If we are in God’s stead, we must work the works of God.
3. Men who speak for God should express the compassion of God. Elihu said: “My terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee” (Job 33:7). “For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take me away.”
We have then a twofold obligation: first, we must speak with all love; and yet, secondly, we must speak with all honesty and not with beguiling words, with which we would seek to please men. We may sum up our duty in this: “Speaking the truth in love.”
Job’s three friends had shown anything but the tender compassion of God. They had maligned Job, and criticised him, had continually charged him with wickedness, of which he knew he was not guilty. They expressed no Godlike sympathy, as they should have done.
Christ spoke bitter words of denunciation against the religious hypocrites of His day, but He spoke them with a heart of yearning. The darkest anathemas He ever uttered are recorded in Matthew twenty-three. Mark, therefore, how He closed His solemn series of terrific “woes.” Here are His closing words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, * * how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!” Let us speak the truth in love.
I. HOW GOD REVEALS HIMSELF (Job 33:14-17)
1. God speaks in dreams. Not for a moment would Elihu suggest that all dreams are from God. However, it is often true that in the daytime God has but little opportunity to get in a word with those to whom He would give some warning. Thus, in the hours of the night, God does speak in “a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep faileth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed.”
Where is the individual who has not felt that he had, at some time in his life, some real message from God as he lay sleeping? And yet, we would give a warning that Elihu did not give. We believe that we need to be so in touch with the Lord, and in such fellowship with the Spirit that we will seek by day, and not when asleep at night, the will of God, and His message for our souls.
We need, moreover, to be so filled with His Word that we will receive many revelations from God in the Scriptures that come to our remembrances in special hours of need. If we will walk with God in full yieldedness to Him, it will not be difficult to find out what He has to say to us.
2. God’s purpose in speaking to us. This is the way Elihu put it:
(1) “That He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.” Alas, alas, so many men are rushing headlong on their way, without ever stopping to seek, much less to know, the will of God in their lives! God has said, “It is not in a man to order his steps”; and yet, few men, comparatively, ever ask God for guidance.
Why do we get into so many labyrinths of difficulty? It is because we sought to turn every one to his own way. The very essence of sin is “my way,” “my thought.” What is the finale of salvation? It is to turn men back to God, as Lord and Master. It is to save us from our transgression-going across the will of God.
The supreme call of God to the redeemed soul, is this: “Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom 6:13).
(2) That He may keep “back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.” God does not want any of us to rush heedlessly on to our doom. He wants to bless us with all spiritual blessings. He wants to fill our lives with His good things. He has no pleasure that any man should perish. Let us, then, seek His face, and learn to trust His will.
II. GOD’S PURPOSE IN PAIN (Job 33:19-22)
Some one has said, “Sweet are the uses of adversity.” God has said, “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but * * afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Back of all affliction, is the God of all grace.
1. Then He is gracious unto him. Elihu taught that all of the chastening of God led to a manifestation of God’s mercy. Man is chastened with pain upon his bed: his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat; his flesh is consumed away; his bones stick out, and his soul draweth near to the grave: then God is gracious unto him.
Elihu is right. God does use every bitter cup that we drink, every pain that we suffer, that He may perfect, strengthen, establish, and settle us. In all of our trials, God is seeking our good. In our anguish, He is leading us to His joy; in our poverty, He is leading us into His riches; in our shame, He is leading us into His glory.
What then should we do when afflictions befall us? We should drop our tired head over upon His arm and wait for His deliverance. He will be gracious unto us.
2. The basis of God’s graciousness. Here is a little expression found in the last clause of Job 33:24, which is well worth weighing. The clause reads: “I have found a Ransom.”
We do not doubt but Elihu is seeking to convey the basis upon which God’s grace operates. How can God be gracious unto the one who has sinned, and whom He has chastened? How can God deliver any soul from going down into the pit? All have sinned; and the wages of sin is death.
God’s deliverance is given on the basis of a Ransom. That Ransom is made in none other way than by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who died, the Just for the unjust. He is the One who suffered for us. How truly grateful we should be because God found a basis upon which He could be just, and yet justify the ungodly!
There are some who feel that this Scripture in Job carries a wonderful message on God’s physical deliverances. This is no doubt true, particularly when sickness, with its contingent pain and bitterness, is due to sin. In such a case, the sin must be disposed of before the remedy can be applied.
Elihu, in Job 33:26, emphasizes the place of prayer, and confession, as a basis on which God’s grace, by way of His Ransom, operates. Elihu said, “He shall pray unto God, and He will be favourable unto him: and he shall see His face with joy.”
Elihu is pleading with Job to accept God’s graciousness by the way of His Ransom, and by means of the prayer of confession. Where can we find a better scriptural statement than this?
III. GOD’S RIGHTEOUS DEALINGS (Job 34:10-12)
During Job’s sickness and pain Elihu observed that Job was justifying himself. In this, Elihu contended that Job, of necessity, was condemning God. Elihu was right. To be sure, Job had been nagged on by the condemnatory words of his false friends; and besides, Job was righteous, so far as he knew. He was not guilty, as his friends asserted. However, Job should not have found fault with God. Here are the words of Elihu: “Far be it from God, that He should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that He should commit iniquity.”
Elihu further contended that the Almighty will not pervert judgment. As the result of Elihu’s contention, he made two statements in the form of two questions.
1. “Wilt thou condemn Him that is most just?” It is not fit for a subject to say to the King, “Thou art wicked.” Nor, for the plebian to say to the prince, “Ye are ungodly.” Then said Elihu, “How much less to Him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor?” Shall the created condemn the Creator? Shall the clay condemn the potter?
Abraham, when he prayed to God concerning Sodom, said, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Men may not always understand God’s dealings, but men should always bend the knee and acknowledge God’s righteousness.
All of Job’s complaints against Jehovah were due to Job’s ignorance. If he had only been able to have pierced the veil, and to have heard Satan’s challenge; or, if he had heard God’s marvelous commendation of his righteousness, he would have felt differently about it. The trouble with Job was that he argued in the dark.
2. Wilt thou condemn Him who is omniscient? Elihu presented before Job the fact that God knew all things. Here are Elihu’s words: “For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.”
Man may not understand God, but God knows what is in man. God may hide Himself from the wicked, but they can never hide from Him. There is nothing that is not naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Since God knows the way we take, He also knows what is good for us. Elihu said, “He will not lay upon man more than right.” What then shall we do? We will trust and not be afraid. If we do not know the way, we know our Guide; if we do not know the why of our sorrows and our pains, we do know that God leads the way.
IV. GOD’S GREAT AND BENEFICENT HAND (Job 35:10-11)
We now come to one of the most beautiful verses of the whole Bible. They are words spoken by Elihu. “But none saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night” (Job 35:10). Elihu is intimating that Job should have been singing, instead of sighing. Some may now desire to take Job’s part. They may feel that if God sends tribulation, it is right and proper for saints to tribulate. With this, Elihu would not agree.
It was just here that Job, as a type of Christ, broke down. We have shown in a former study how the cries of Job, in the hour of his anguish, paralleled those of Christ as He went to the Cross. We have also shown how the treatment which Job received paralleled the treatment which Christ received. We now wish to observe, not the parallelism, but the contrast.
As Job faced his suffering, and drank the bitterness of his cup, he caught every now and then, through faith, a vision of ultimate victory; yet, Job continually bewailed his estate. Job wished to die. Job even condemned God, and continually bemoaned his lot.
Jesus Christ, on the contrary, as He faced the hour of His travail, faced it with joy. On the night of His betrayal, Christ uttered such words as these: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, as the bitter cup was pressed to the lips of the Master, Christ said, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”
There never was a moment that the Lord Jesus complained; there was never a moment that He doubted. Our Lord was a nightingale, singing in the midnight hour of His travail. We read that after He had taken the bread and had broken it, saying, “This is My body”; and that after He had taken the cup, and had poured it forth, saying, “This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many”; that afterward, “when they had SUNG AN HYMN, they went out.”
Thus, the Lord sang songs in the night. Is it possible for us to sing, as He sang? It was possible for Paul and Silas, for they sang at Philippi with their feet in the stocks, as they lay in the Roman jail.
V. ELIHU’S SOLEMN WARNING (Job 36:18)
We must bring this message shortly to a close, but we cannot do so until we emphasize Elihu’s three solemn warnings which he gave to Job.
1. “Beware lest.” “Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.” Elihu longed for Job to get into the place of victory, before God might take him away, Elihu taught that after death God’s great Ransom could not deliver. He who repents must repent in life, and never after death. The work of the Cross is effective by faith only among men who are yet in the flesh.
Let every one, therefore, beware lest God speak the word, “Cut him down: why cumbereth he the ground?”
2. “Remember that.” This is Elihu’s second warning. He said, “Remember that thou magnify His work, which men behold.” How marvelously did Elihu give glory to God! This is the whole duty of man.
There is a little verse in the New Testament that says: “Remember Jesus Christ.” People today are in danger of forgetting God, and of forgetting His Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The world needs a renewed vision of God, and a new love for and trust in God.
3. “Behold, God.” The verse in full reads: “Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be searched out.” The balance of Elihu’s speech, finishing the thirty-sixth and through the thirty-seventh chapter, is given to glorifying God, and to magnifying His greatness.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Let us know, with the faith of Elihu, that we have a Ransom. Let us not trust “Rotten Ships.”
Much has been said and written about rotten ships, and what a sad piece of iniquity it is for any, just for the sake of present gain, to attempt to trifle with human life, in sending men in ships that ought to have been broken up long years ago. Old unseaworthy hulks patched up and painted, then freighted with precious life, all sacrificed for the cupidity and covetousness of the owners, how the world reprobates such conduct, and cries out against it.
Would that all equally condemned the attempts to sail to Heaven in the rotten hulks of man’s providing.
When we try to gain everlasting life by anything that we do, say, or promise, ignoring the new and living way, what is it but sailing in a rotten ship that must founder. When we boast ourselves of our morality, sincerity, good deeds and intentions, ignoring the work and Person of Jesus the Saviour, what is it but a fair coat of bright paint that covers a worm-eaten, rotten ship, that will not stand one breath of God’s judgment. When we weary ourselves with the performance of outward forms and ceremonies of religion, and try to satisfy the conscience with acts of devotion and contrition, rejecting the work of Christ, who hath “by Himself purged our sins,” what is it but building again what God has destroyed, and embarking in that which will never reach the shore.
God condemned all these ways four thousand years ago, providing an “Ark,” even Christ Jesus, for the saving of the soul-the sinner’s refuge and way of escape. And what He said unto Noah, He says to you, “Come thou, and all thy house, into the Ark.”-Unknown.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Job 33:1. Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches Here Elihu addresses his speech to Job alone, (for he considered what the three friends had advanced as having been sufficiently confuted by Job in his discourse with them,) and tells him that, as he had oft desired to have a man to plead with him in Gods behalf, he would now do it, and was every way according to Jobs wish, being of the same nature with himself, and neither manifesting any dreadful majesty to affright him, nor assuming any power over him. He then begins to reprehend those passages which he thought blameable in Jobs speeches; particularly his insisting so much on his integrity, which, however evident, should not have been mentioned without due acknowledgment, that the Sovereign of the world had done him no wrong in thus afflicting him; urging that it was not proper for him to call in question the wisdom and justice of Gods providence, because he did not understand it, Job 33:1-13. That God had, by revelation, declared the way of behaviour which was acceptable to him; which was, for men to put away the evil of their doings, and cast off all pride, Job 33:14-19. That if he would conform himself to this rule, he might expect, though he was even at deaths door, that God would restore him to his health and vigour; more especially if he had a prophet near him, who would show him Gods righteousness, in order to his humiliation before God, and the bringing of him to a proper confession of his faults, an acknowledgment of Gods justice in his chastisements, and a sincere purpose of amendment, Job 33:20-28. If he had any objection to make to this, he desires him to make it; if not, to have patience with him, while he showed him the course which, be was persuaded, it was his wisest method to pursue, Job 33:29 to the end. See Peters and Heath.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 33:4. The Spirit of God hath made me. See on Gen 2:7, and Psa 33:6. The creation of man was known to all the descendants of Noah, much the same as to Moses. Sanchoniatho the Phnician historian, the Brahmins of India, the Sibyls of the Greek temples, and the Voluspa of the north, all speak nearly the same things, on the main points of ancient history.
Job 33:14. God speaketh once, yea twice. This text is cited by David, in Psa 62:11. God has spoken at sundry times, as well as inwardly by his Spirit to man.
Job 33:15. In a dream, in a vision of the night. See the note on Gen 40:8.
Job 33:23. If there be a messenger. This term often refers to angels; and Christ, the uncreated Angel, is called the Angel of the Lord, Zec 3:1; the Angel of the covenant, Mal 3:1; the Angel wonderful in counsel, Isa 9:6; the Angel of JEHOVAHS presence, Isa 63:9. Exo 23:20. He only is righteous before God; he only has found a ransom; he only can deliver the soul from going down to the pit. Yet in a subordinate sense, ministers are called the messengers or angels of the churches. These messengers, one of a thousand, must be enlightened interpreters of their masters word; and learned in the study of providential visitations. The reference to the sick man wasting away, is to Job; and God, the Angel, says to him when contrite, Deliver him from going down to the pit. St. James, on advising christians to call for the elders of the church, speaks to the same effect, that the sick man shall be healed, and his iniquities forgiven.
REFLECTIONS.
Elihu solicits the ear of Job, because he spake by the Spirit of God. Yet he reproaches him for saying I am innocent, as indicative of divine injustice in the dealings of providence towards him. Thus for a time the best of men may be misguided in judgment; but we are not to arraign the Almighty. The general reasons of his conduct are evident, and it becomes us to acquiesce; to be still, and know that he is God. We are here taught that the great end and design of divine admonition and instruction is, to divert men from their evil purposes, subdue their pride, and teach them not to think of themselves more highly than they ought to think. This is a lesson all need to learn, which ordinances and providences are adapted to teach, and it is our duty to pray that we may learn it more perfectly, that God would seal this important instruction on our souls.
Sickness and pain are very salutary and beneficial. It is grievous indeed to have all the bones full of pain, and to lose our appetite; but still it is good to be afflicted, desirable to have the help of good books, tender friends, faithful ministers, to be interpreters of providence. It is proper to consider wherein we have done iniquity, and perverted that which is right, that we may have the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
Recovery from sickness ought thankfully to be acknowledged and faithfully improved; and it should engage us to continue in prayer, to make restitution, to warn others by what we have felt and experienced of the vanity of the world, of the advantages of affliction, the supports of religion, and the hopes of immortality. Thus shall we be improving ourselves, while we are comforting others with those consolations with which we have been comforted of God.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 33:1-7. Elihu turns to Job and bids him answer him, if he can. He will not terrify him into silence, as Job said God would (Job 9:34, Job 13:21).
Job 33:4 should follow Job 33:6 and thus Job 33:5 follow immediately on Job 33:3. This gives a much better connexion. In Job 33:7 for my pressure read, with LXX, my hand.
Job 33:8-13. Job has declared that he is innocent, and that God is his enemy. He is unjust in doing so. God is great. Observe that Job 33:10 b quotes Job 13:24, Job 33:11 quotes Job 13:27. In Job 33:13 read, Why dost thou strive against Him, for that He does not answer any of thy words?
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
HE SPEAKS AS A MEDIATOR
(vv.1-7)
Elihu did not take any haughty and unfeeling attitude as did Job’s three friends, but speaks with simple humility, entreating Job to hear and consider what he says (v.1). He claims that his words come from his heart, uttering pure knowledge (vv.2-3), because he is conscious that the Spirit of God has made him, and the breath (or Spirit) of the Almighty gives him life. If you can answer me, set your words in order before me: take your stand” (v.5). This should be true of anyone who speaks for God.
In verse 6 he speaks of himself as Job’s spokesman (or daysman), one taking up Job’s case before God, not as defending Job’s claims, but as concerned for the greatest good of Job’s welfare before God. He therefore wants no place of superiority, but speaks of himself as being also “formed out of clay.” Job’s friends did not think of this when they accused him, for they considered their wisdom superior to his. Elihu did not want Job to be afraid of him, nor would he terrify Job by dreams, as Eliphaz did (ch.7:13-15). “Nor will my hand be heavy upon you” (v.7). This was in contrast to all three of Job’s friends.
REFUTING JOB’S COMPLAINT AS TO GOD’S JUSTICE
(vv.8-13)
Though speaking kindly to Job, Elihu must also speak faithfully. He does not question how Job had lived, but deals rather with what Job had clearly spoken. Job’s friends had heard this, and Elihu also. He therefore faithfully quotes what Job had said, “I am pure, without transgression: I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me. Yet He counts me as His enemy; He puts my feet in the stocks. He watches all my paths” (vv.9-11). Of course Job could not deny that he had said this, so that Elihu had a firm basis for his message to Job.
“Look, in this you are not righteous. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. Why do you contend with Him? For He does not give an accounting of any of His words” (vv.12-13). Thus Elihu flatly contradicts Job’s claim to be righteous. Was it right for Job to judge God? – especially when God is so great that He does not have to give account to man, though man must give account to God. God is always right to act as He pleases without explaining His reasons to man. Since God is sovereign, it is only right for every creature to be always in every circumstance subject to God, not daring to question His righteousness.
TWO WAYS GOD DEALS WITH MAN
(vv.14-22)
Since God is invisible, He speaks to man in ways that do not manifest Him personally, but ways that awaken man’s serious attention. Two of these ways Elihu now speaks of, first, in verses 15-18, and secondly in verses 19-22. Though man may not perceive it is God speaking to him yet often God does so “in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men.” At such a time God has a captive audience, whether man wants to listen or not. God spoke to Pilate’s wife in this way (Mat 27:19), though sadly, Pilate did not act on her advice, for he had already trapped himself by his weak vacillation.
In cases of God sending dreams to people, He “opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction” (v.16), not to flatter man’s pride, but just the opposite, that is, “to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man” (v.17). In other words, if a dream is a warning against what I may be inclined to do, or if it humbles me, then I should take it to heart.
Many unsaved people have been virtually driven by a dream to turn to God from their sins, as verse 18 indicates: “He keeps back his soul from the Pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.” Thus, in pure grace God sometimes so shakes a soul by a dream that the person is shocked into turning to God from his sins. Sadly, not everyone will respond to God’s appealing in this way.
However, another means of God’s speaking is that of inflicting “strong pain,” often in one’s bed where he cannot occupy himself with many devices that keep him from listening to God (v.19). Sickness and suffering have often driven people to the Lord. One finds himself unable even to eat (v.20), then he loses weight and becomes virtually “skin and bones,” with the prospect of an untimely death staring him in the face (vv.21-22). “His soul draws near the pit.” Is there any help?
GOD’S RESTORING GRACE
(vv.23-30)
Yes, there is help, but only in God, who knows how to send a messenger at the right time, a messenger who is also a mediator, “one among a thousand” (v.23). Such an individual is typical of the Lord Jesus, the “one mediator between God and men” (1Ti 2:5). He is the One who shows to man God’s uprightness, as we see in Romans 4:26, “that He (God) might be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” The means of such grace is wonderful, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” (v.24). Elihu could not have understood the full significance of his own words, for we know the ransom is the Lord Jesus Himself in His perfect sacrifice on Calvary for sinners. Job’s friends could not think of suggesting a ransom for Job, but the heart of Elihu was overflowing with the conviction that there must be such a ransom since he knew the character of His Creator. The Spirit of God put such words into his mouth. It was not any man who had found the ransom, but God.
Though the flesh of an ailing person has wasted away to almost nothing, yet God’s work will restore his flesh like that of a little child (v.25). Of course this is the picture of new birth, a wonderful prospect to place before the eyes of the suffering Job. Could he ever return to the days of his youth? Yes! The grace of God can produce marvellous results.
The freshness of that new life will issue in thankful prayer to God, just as in the case of Saul of Tarsus, who, being awakened and saved by the grace of God, had the distinction of having God say of him, “Behold, he is praying” (Act 9:11). Such is the result of being born again, “He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him” (v.26). More than that, “he shall see His face with joy,” a wonderful honour given to every believer because God has rendered to him His righteousness (v.26). These facts of truth are clearly defined in the New Testament, such as in 1Jn 3:2 and in 1Co 1:30. Our own righteousness is discarded (as filthy rags) and the believer’s confidence is now in God’s righteousness.
The rendering of verse 27 may be a little uncertain, but it seems that the original King James Version is likely the most correct, “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not.” A real work in the heart of men must begin with God. The individual is moved by the realisation that God is observing him, and he confesses his own sin and perversion with the admission that he has not profited by this. Thus there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. There is an immediate answer from God, “He will deliver his soul from going into the Pit, and his life shall see the light” (v.28). This is certainly because of the ransom that God has found, – in fact the ransom that God has provided, the sacrifice of His own beloved Son. Thus the gospel of the New Testament is anticipated by the words of Elihu, spoken by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This was spoken before the law was given by Moses, yet at that time Elihu assures Job that God worked these things oftentimes with man. Therefore the gospel of God’s grace has been always the way of God’s meeting the need of man, “to bring back his soul from the Pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living” (vv.29-30). The simplicity of this is beautiful, and Job could have no objection to it.
Nor does God speak only once to a man, but “twice, in fact three times,” for we are poor listeners, and God is concerned deeply that souls should be brought back from the Pit, – delivered from the negative horror of being without God, and rather given the positive blessing of being enlightened with the light of life” (v.30).
IS JOB LISTENING? (vv.31-33)
It appears that Elihu has awakened a serious interest in Job, possibly also in his three friends, for none of them reply to Elihu’s words. Elihu addresses himself directly to Job, for it was Job who needed an answer for his predicament. Elihu asks him, “Give ear, Job, listen to me, hold your peace and I will speak” (v.31). Elihu desired time to say all that was on his mind, yet he did not demand that he should do all the speaking. Rather, he invites Job, if he has anything to say, to speak it out plainly (v.32), for Elihu was not putting Job down (as his friends did), but desired that Job be justified. He did not mean that Job should justify himself, for this was already Job’s tragic mistake, but no doubt he wanted Job to be justified from God’s viewpoint, just as the tax gatherer was justified rather than the Pharisee, when he prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luk 18:13-14).
Having asked Job to speak if he had anything to say, Elihu rightly tells him, “if not, listen to me; hold your peace and I will teach you wisdom” (v.33). Job then had nothing to say. No doubt he recognised that Elihu’s message was higher than he had considered, and he wisely chose to listen.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Elihu’s first response to Job ch. 33
This whole speech is an attempt to explain to Job why God was not responding to him. Elihu was very wordy, which he admitted in Job 32:18. In summary, he told Job that God was not silent, as Job had charged, but that He was speaking through dreams and sickness to Job. Rather than using suffering to punish Job for his sins, God was using it to prevent him from dying. Elihu said God was being merciful to Job. The three counselors had said the purpose of suffering was punitive. Job’s wife, before them, had said Job was suffering because God was unfair. Now Elihu offered a third solution: God was trying to teach Job something. He said the purpose of suffering is pedagogical, educational.
Job 33:1-7 record Elihu’s request that Job hear him out. "Yourselves" in Job 33:5 should read "yourself." Elihu next summarized what Job had said (Job 33:8-13). He explained that God spoke in dreams and visions (Job 33:14-18) and through pain (Job 33:19-28). Job had had dreams (Job 7:14) that, Elihu suggested, should keep Job from improper actions and attitudes, specifically, pride that would be sinful and would lead to his death (Job 33:17). In sickness and pain God brings people closer to death. This leads them to evaluate their lives and, if they respond properly, to grow in their relationship with Him.
"God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." [Note: C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, p. 81.]
The angels are God’s agents in bringing both sickness and restoration to people (Job 33:23; cf. Job 5:1; Job 9:33). The "ransom" (Job 33:24) probably refers to the sick person’s repentance. Seeing the light (Job 33:28) means being kept alive. Job 33:29-33 summarize Elihu’s argument.
"Unfortunately like so many well-meaning messengers of grace, Elihu was so fully convinced of his good intentions toward Job that he became insufferably overbearing." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 1007.]
"Elihu did, however, perceive the significance of the all-important principle of God’s free grace, which the others had slighted." [Note: Kline, p. 483.]
Elihu’s views contrasted with those of the three friends as follows.
|
Three friends |
Elihu |
|
Sin leads to suffering. |
Suffering leads to sin. |
|
Suffering is retributive. |
Suffering is protective |
|
Suffering is punitive. |
Suffering is educational. |
|
Job should repent. |
Job should learn. |
|
Job should initiate restoration. |
God had initiated restoration. |
Who was correct? Other Scriptures indicate that God uses suffering both to punish sinners and to produce spiritual growth. In some cases, He may have one purpose in view, and in other cases, another. On the other hand, both Elihu and the three friends were wrong in some of what they said. Job was not a great sinner, and God sometimes intervenes personally and directly in human experience.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
XXV.
POST-EXILIC WISDOM
Job 32:1-22; Job 33:1-33; Job 34:1-37
A PERSONAGE hitherto unnamed in the course of the drama now assumes the place of critic and judge between Job and his friends. Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, appears suddenly and as suddenly disappears. The implication is that he has been present during the whole of the colloquies, and that, having patiently waited his time, he expresses the judgment he has slowly formed on arguments to which he has given close attention.
It is significant that both Elihu and his representations are ignored in the winding up of the action. The address of the Almighty from the storm does not take him into account and seems to follow directly on the close of Jobs defence. It is a very obvious criticism, therefore, that the long discourse of Elihu may be an interpolation or an afterthought-a fresh attempt by the author or by some later writer to correct errors into which Job and his friends are supposed to have fallen and to throw new light on the matter of discussion. The textual indications are all in favour of this view. The style of the language appears to belong to a later time than the other parts of the book. But to reject the address as unworthy of a place in the poem would be too summary. Elihu indeed assumes the air of the superior person from the first, so that one is not engaged in his favour. Yet there is an honest, reverent, and thoughtful contribution to the subject. In some points this speaker comes nearer the truth than Job or any of his friends, although the address as a whole is beneath the rest of the book in respect of matter and argument, and still more in poetical feeling and expression.
It is suggested by M. Renan that the original author, taking up his work again after a long interval, at a period in his life when he had lost his verve and his style, may have added this fragment with the idea of completing the poem. There are strong reasons against such an explanation. For one thing there seems to be a misconception where, at the outset, Elihu is made to assume that Job and his friends are very old. The earlier part of the poem by no means affirms this. Job, though we call him a patriarch, was not necessarily far advanced in life, and Zophar appears considerably younger. Again the contention in the eighth verse (Job 32:8) -“There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding”-seems to be the justification a later writer would think it needful to introduce. He acknowledges the Divine gift of the original poet and adding his criticism claims for Elihu, that is, for himself, the lucidity God bestows on every calm and reverent student of His ways. This is considerably different from anything we find in the addresses of the other speakers. It seems to show that the question of inspiration had arisen and passed through some discussion. But the rest of the book is written without any consciousness, or at all events any admission of such a question.
Elihu appears to represent the new “wisdom” which came to Hebrew thinkers in the period of the exile; and there are certain opinions embodied in his address which must have been formed during an exile that brought many Jews to honour. The reading of affliction given is one following the discovery that the general sinfulness of a nation may entail chastisement on men who have not personally been guilty of great sin, yet are sharers in the common neglect of religion and pride of heart, and further that this chastisement may be the means of great profit to those who suffer. It would be harsh to say the tone is that of a mind which has caught the trick of “voluntary humility,” of pietistic self-abasement. Yet there are traces of such a tendency, the beginning of a religious strain opposed to legal self-righteousness, running, however, very readily to excess and formalism. Elihu, accordingly, appears to stand on the verge of a descent from the robust moral vigour of the original author towards that low ground in which false views of mans nature hinder the free activity of faith.
The note struck by the Book of Job had stirred eager thought in the time of the exile. Just as in the Middle Ages of European history the Divine Comedy of Dante was made a special study, and chairs were founded in universities for its exposition, so less formally the drama of Job was made the subject of inquiry and speculation. We suppose then that among the many who wrote on the poem, one acting for a circle of thinkers incorporated their views in the text. He could not do so otherwise than by bringing a new speaker on the stage. To add anything to what Eliphaz or Bildad or Job had said would have prevented the free expression of new opinion. Nor could he without disrespect have inserted the criticism after the words of Jehovah. Selecting as the only proper point of interpolation the close of the debate between Job and the friends, the scribe introduced the Elihu portion as a review of the whole scope of the book, and may indeed have subtly intended to assail as entirely heterodox the presupposition of Jobs integrity and the Almightys approval of His servant. That being his purpose, he had to veil it in order to keep the discourse of Elihu in line with the place assigned to him in the dramatic movement. The contents of the prologue and epilogue and the utterance of the Almighty from the storm affect, throughout, the added discourse. But to secure the unity of the poem the writer makes Elihu speak like one occupying the same ground as Eliphaz and the others, that of a thinker ignorant of the original motive of the drama; and this is accomplished with no small skill. The assumption is that reverent thought may throw new light, far more light than the original author possessed, on the case as it stood during the colloquies. Elihu avoids assailing the conception of the prologue that Job is a perfect and upright man approved by God. He takes the state of the sufferer as he finds it, and inquires how and why it is, what is the remedy. There are pedantries and obscurities in the discourse, yet the author must not be denied the merit of a careful and successful attempt to adapt his character to the place he occupies in the drama. Beyond this, and the admission that something additional is said on the subject of Divine discipline, it is needless to go in justifying Elihus appearance. One can only remark with wonder, in passing, that Elihu should ever have been declared the Angel Jehovah, or a personification of the Son of God.
The narrative verses which introduce the new speaker state that his wrath was kindled against Job because he justified himself rather than God, and against the three friends because they had condemned Job and yet found no answer to his arguments. The mood is that of a critic rather hot, somewhat too confident that he knows, beginning a task that requires much penetration and wisdom. But the opening sentences of the speech of Elihu betray the need the writer felt to justify himself in making his bold venture.
I am young and ye are very old;
Wherefore I held back and durst not show my knowledge.
I thought, Days should speak,
And the multitude of years teach wisdom.
Still, there is a spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
Not the great in years are wise,
Nor do the aged understand what is right.
Therefore I say: Hearken to me;
I also will show my opinion.
These verses are a defence of the new writers boldness in adding to a poem that has come down from a previous age. He is confident in his judgment, yet realises the necessity of commending it to the hearers. He claims that inspiration which belongs to every reverent conscientious inquirer. On this footing he affirms a right to express his opinion, and the right cannot be denied.
Elihu has been disappointed with the speeches of Jobs friends. He has listened for their reasons, observed how they cast about for arguments and theories; but no one said anything convincing. It is an offence to this speaker that men who had so good a case against their friend made so little of it. The intelligence of Elihu is therefore from the first committed to the hypothesis that Job is in the wrong. Obviously the writer places his spokesman in a position which the epilogue condemns; and if we assume this to have been deliberately done a subtle verdict against the scope of the poem must have been intended. May it not be surmised that this implied comment or criticism gave the interpolated discourse value in the eyes of many? Originally the poem appeared somewhat dangerous, out of the line of orthodoxy. It may have become more acceptable to Hebrew thought when this caveat against bold assumptions of human perfectibility and the right of man in presence of his Maker had been incorporated with the text.
Elihu tells the friends that they are not to say we have found wisdom in Job, unexpected wisdom which the Almighty alone is able to vanquish. They are not to excuse themselves nor exaggerate the difficulties of the situation by entertaining such an opinion, Elihu is confident that he can overcome Job in reasoning. As if speaking to himself he describes the perplexity of the friends and states his intention.
“They were amazed, they answered no more;
They had not a word to say.
And shall I wait because they speak not,
Because they stand still and answer no more?
I also will answer my part,
I also will show my opinion.”
His convictions become stronger and more urgent. He must open his lips and answer. And he will use no flattery. Neither the age nor the greatness of the men he is addressing shall keep him from speaking his mind. If he were insincere he would bring on himself the judgment of God. “My Maker would soon take me away.” Here again the second writers self defence colours the words put into Elihus mouth. Reverence for the genius of the poet whose work he is supplementing does not prevent a greater reverence for his own views.
The general exordium closes with the thirty-second chapter, and in the thirty-third Elihu, addressing Job by name, enters on a new vindication of his right to intervene. His claim is still that of straightforwardness, sincerity. He is to express what he knows without any other motive than to throw light on the matter in hand. He feels himself, moreover, to be guided by the Divine Spirit. The breath of the Almighty has given him life; and on this ground he considers himself entitled to enter the discussion and ask of Job what answer he can give. This is done with dramatic feeling. The life he enjoys is not only physical vigour as contrasted with Jobs diseased and infirm state, but also intellectual strength, the power of God-given reason. Yet, as if he might seem to claim too much, he hastens to explain that he is quite on Jobs level nevertheless.
“Behold. I am before God even as thou art;
I also am formed out of the clay.
Lo, my terror shall not make thee afraid,
Neither shall my pressure be heavy upon thee.”
Elihu is no great personage, no heaven-sent prophet whose oracles must be received without question. He is not terrible like God, but a man formed out of the clay. The dramatising appears overdone at this point, and can only be explained by the desire of the writer to keep on good terms with those who already reverenced the original poet and regarded his work as sacred. What is now to be said to Job is spoken with knowledge and conviction, yet without pretension to more than the wisdom of the holy. There is, however, a covert attack on the original author as having made too much of the terror of the Almighty, the constant pain and anxiety that bore down Jobs spirit. No excuse of the kind is to be allowed for the failure of Job to justify himself. He did not because he could not. The fact was, according to this critic, that Job had no right of self defence as perfect and upright, without fault before the Most High. No man possessed or could acquire such integrity. And all the attempts of the earlier dramatist to put arguments and defences into his heros mouth had of necessity failed. The new writer comprehends very well the purpose of his predecessor and intends to subvert it.
The formal indictment opens thus:-
Surely thou hast spoken in my hearing
And I have heard thy words:-
I am clean without transgression:
I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.
Behold. He findeth occasions against me,
He counteth me for His enemy;
He putteth me in the stocks
He marketh all my paths.
The claim of righteousness, the explanation of his troubles given by Job that God made occasions against him and without cause treated him as an enemy, are the errors on which Elihu fastens. They are the errors of the original writer. No one endeavouring to represent the feelings and language of a servant of God should have placed him in the position of making so false a claim, so base a charge against Eloah. Such criticism is not to be set aside as either incompetent or over bold. But the critic has to justify his opinion, and, like many others, when he comes to give reasons his weakness discloses itself. He is certainly hampered by the necessity of keeping within dramatic lines. Elihu must appear and speak as one who stood beside Job with the same veil between him and the Divine throne. And perhaps for this reason the effort of the dramatist comes short of the occasion.
It is to be noted that attention is fixed on isolated expressions which fell from Jobs lips, that there is no endeavour to set forth fully the attitude of the sufferer towards the Almighty. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had made Job an offender for a word and Elihu follows them. We anticipate that his criticism, however telling it may be, will miss the true point, the heart of the question. He will possibly establish some things against Job, but they will not prove him to have failed as a brave seeker after truth and God.
Opposing the claim and complaint he has quoted, Elihu advances in the first instance a proposition which has the air of a truism-“God is greater than man.” He does not try to prove that even though a man has appeared to himself righteous he may really be sinful in the sight of the Almighty, or that God has the right to afflict an innocent person in order to bring about some great and holy design. The contention is that a man should suffer and be silent. God is not to be questioned; His providence is not to be challenged. A man, however he may have lived, is not to doubt that there is good reason for his misery if he is miserable. He is to let stroke after stroke fall and utter no complaint. And yet Job had erred in saying, “God giveth not account of any of His matters.” It is not true, says Elihu, that the Divine King holds Himself entirely aloof from the inquiries and prayers of His subjects. He discloses in more than one way bath His purposes and His grace.
“Why dost thou contend against God
That He giveth not account of any of His matters?
For God speaketh once, yea twice,
Yet man perceiveth it not.”
The first way in which, according to Elihu, God speaks to men is by a dream, a vision of the night; and the second way is by the chastisement of pain.
Now as to the first of these, the dream or vision, Elihu had, of course, the testimony of almost universal belief, and also of some cases that passed ordinary experience. Scriptural examples, such as the dreams of Jacob, of Joseph, of Pharaoh, and the prophetic visions already recognised by all pious Hebrews, were no doubt in the writers mind. Yet if it is implied that Job might have learned the will of God from dreams, or that this was a method of Divine communication for which any man might look, the rule laid down was at least perilous. Visions are not always from God. A dream may come “by the multitude of business.” It is true, as Elihu says, that one who is bent on some proud and dangerous course may be more himself in a dream than in his waking hours. He may see a picture of the future which scares him, and, so he may be deterred from his purpose. Yet the waking thoughts of a man, if he is sincere and conscientious, are far more fitted to guide him, as a rule, than his dreams.
Passing to the second method of Divine communication, Elihu appears to be on safer ground. He describes the case of an afflicted man brought to extremity by disease, whose soul draweth near to the grave and his life to the destroyers or death angels. Such suffering and weakness do not of themselves insure knowledge of Gods will, but they prepare the sufferer to be instructed. And for his deliverance an interpreter is required.
“If there be with him an angel,
An interpreter, one among a thousand,
To show unto man what is his duty;
Then He is gracious unto him and saith,
Deliver him from going down to the pit,
I have found a ransom.”
Elihu cannot say that such an angel or interpreter will certainly appear. He may: and if he does and points the way of uprightness, and that way is followed, then the result is redemption, deliverance, renewed prosperity. But who is this angel? “One of the ministering spirits sent forth to do service on behalf of the heirs of salvation”? The explanation is somewhat farfetched. The ministering angels were not restricted in number. Each Hebrew was supposed to have two such guardians. Then Malachi says, “The priests lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the angel (messenger) of Jehovah Sabaoth.” Here the priest appears as an angel interpreter, and the passage seems to throw light on Elihus meaning. As no explicit mention is made of a priest or any priestly function in our text, it may at least be hinted that interpreters of the law, scribes or incipient rabbis, are intended, of whom Elihu claims to be one. In this case the ransom would remain without explanation. But if we take that as a sacrificial offering, the name “angel interpreter” covers a reference to the properly accredited priest: The passage is so obscure that little can be based upon it; yet assuming the Elihu discourses to be of late origin and intended to bring the poem into line with orthodox Hebrew thought, the introduction of either priest or scribe would be in harmony with such a purpose. Mediation at all events is declared to be necessary as between the sufferer and God; and it would be strange indeed if Elihu, professing to explain matters, really made Divine grace to be consequent on the intervention of an angel whose presence and instruction could in no way be verified. Elihu is realistic and would not rest his case at any point on what might be declared purely imaginary.
The promise he virtually makes to Job is like those of Eliphaz and the others, -renewed health, restored youth, the sense of Divine favour. Enjoying these, the forgiven penitent sings before men, acknowledging his fault and praising God for his redemption. The assurance of deliverance was probably made in view of the epilogue, with Jobs confession and the prosperity restored to him. But the writer misunderstands the confession, and promises too glibly. It is good to receive after great affliction the guidance of a wise interpreter; and to seek God again in humility is certainly a mans duty. But would submission and the forgiveness of God bring results in the physical sphere, health, renewed youth and felicity? No invariable nexus of cause and effect can be established here from experience of the dealings of God with men. Elihus account of the way in which the Almighty communicates with His creatures must be declared a failure. It is in some respects careful and ingenious, yet it has no sufficient ground of evidence. When he says-
“Lo, all these things worketh God
Oftentimes with man,
To bring back his soul from the pit”-
the design is pious, but the great question of the book is not touched. The righteous suffer like the wicked from disease, bereavement, disappointment, anxiety. Even when their integrity is vindicated the lost years and early vigour are not restored. It is useless to deal in the way of pure fancy with the troubles of existence. We say to Elihu and all his school, Let us be at the truth, let us know the absolute reality. There are valleys of human sorrow, suffering, and trial in which the shadows grow deeper as the traveller presses on, where the best are often most afflicted. We need another interpreter than Elihu, one who suffers like us and is made perfect by suffering, through it entering into His glory.
An invocation addressed by Elihu to the bystanders begins chapter 34. Again he emphatically asserts his right to speak, his claim to be a guide of those who think on the ways of God. He appeals to sound reason and he takes his auditors into counsel-“Let us choose to ourselves judgment; let us know among ourselves what is good.” The proposal is that there shall be conference on the subject of Jobs claim. But Elihu alone speaks. It is he who selects “what is good.”
Certain words that fell from the lips of Job are again his text. Job hath said, I am righteous, I am in the right; and, God hath taken away my judgment or vindication. When those words were used the meaning of Job was that the circumstances in which he had been placed, the troubles appointed by God seemed to prove him a transgressor. But was he to rest under a charge he knew to be untrue? Stricken with an incurable wound though he had not transgressed, was he to lie against his right by remaining silent? This, says Elihu, is Jobs unfounded impious indictment of the Almighty; and he asks:-
“What man is like Job,
Who drinketh up impiety like water,
Who goeth in company with the workers of iniquity,
And walketh with wicked men?”
Job had spoken of his right which God had taken away. What was his right? Was he, as he affirmed, without transgression? On the contrary, his principles were irreligious. There was infidelity beneath his apparent piety. Elihu will prove that so far from being clear of blame he has been imbibing wrong opinions and joining the company of the wicked. This attack shows the temper of the writer. No doubt certain expressions put into the mouth of Job by the original dramatist might be taken as impeaching the goodness or the justice of God. But to assert that even the most unguarded passages of the book made for impiety was a great mistake. Faith in God is to be traced not obscurely but as a shaft of light through all the speeches put into the mouth of his hero by the poet. One whose mind is bound by certain pious forms of thought may fail to see the light, but it shines nevertheless.
The attempt made by Elihu to establish his charge has an appearance of success. Job, he says, is one who drinks up impiety like water and walks with wicked men, –
“For he hath said,
It profiteth a man nothing
That he should delight himself with God.”
If this were true, Job would indeed be proved irreligious. Such a statement strikes at the root of faith and obedience. But is Elihu representing the text with anything like precision? In Job 9:22 these words are put into Jobs mouth:-
“It is all one, therefore I say,
He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.”
God is strong and is breaking him with a tempest. Job finds it useless to defend himself and maintain that he is perfect. In the midst of the storm he is so tossed that he despises his life; and in perplexity he cries, -It is all one whether I am righteous or not, God destroys the good and the vile alike. Again we find him saying, “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?” And in another passage he inquires why the Almighty does not appoint days of judgment. These are the expressions on which Elihu founds his charge, but the precise words attributed to Job were never used by him, and in many places he both said and implied that the favour of God was his greatest joy. The second author is either misapprehending or perverting the language of his predecessor. His argument accordingly does not succeed.
Passing at present from the charge of impiety, Elihu takes up the suggestion that Divine providence is unjust and sets himself to show that, whether men delight themselves in the Almighty or not, He is certainly All-righteous. And in this contention, so long as he keeps to generalities and does not take special account of the case which has roused the whole controversy, he speaks with some power. His argument comes properly to this, If you ascribe injustice or partiality to Him whom you call God, you cannot be thinking of the Divine King. From His very nature and from His position as Lord of all, God cannot be unjust. As Maker and Preserver of life He must be faithful.
“Far be from God a wickedness,
From the Almighty an injustice!
For every ones work He requiteth him,
And causeth each to find according to his ways.
Surely, too, God doth not wickedness.
The Almighty perverteth not justice.”
Has God any motive for being unjust? Can any one urge Him to what is against His nature? The thing is impossible. So far Elihu has all with him, for all alike believe in the sovereignty of God. The Most High, responsible to Himself, must be conceived of as perfectly just. But would He be so if He were to destroy the whole of His creatures? Elihu says, Gods sovereignty over all gives Him the right to act according to His will; and His will determines not only what is, but what is right in every case.
“Who hath given Him a charge over the earth?
Or who hath disposed the whole world?
Were He to set His mind upon Himself,
To gather to Himself His spirit and His breath,
Then all flesh would die together,
Man would return to his dust.”
The life of all creatures, implies that the mind of the Creator goes forth to His universe, to rule it, to supply the needs of all living beings. He is not wrapped up in Himself, but having given life He provides for its maintenance.
Another personal appeal in Job 34:16 is meant to secure attention to what follows, in which the idea is carried out that the Creator must rule His creatures by a law of justice.
“Shall one that hateth right be able to control?
Or wilt thou condemn the Just, the Mighty One?
Is it fit to say to a king, Thou wicked?
Or to princes. Ye ungodly?
How much less to Him who accepts not the persons of princes.
Nor regardeth the rich more than the poor?”
Here the principle is good, the argument of illustration inconclusive. There is a strong foundation in the thought that God, who could if He desired withdraw all life, but on the other hand sustains it, must rule according to a law of perfect righteousness. If this principle were kept in the front and followed up we should have a fruitful argument. But the philosophy of it is beyond this thinker, and he weakens his case by pointing to human rulers and arguing from the duty of subjects to abide by their decision and at least attribute to them the virtue of justice. No doubt society must be held together by a head either hereditary or chosen by the people, and, so long as his rule is necessary to the well being of the realm, what he commands must be obeyed and what he does must be approved as if it were right. But the writer either had an exceptionally favourable experience of kings, as one, let us suppose, honoured like Daniel in the Babylonian exile, or his faith in the Divine right of princes blinded him to much injustice. It is a mark of his defective logic that he rests his case for the perfect righteousness of God upon a sentiment or what may be called an accident.
And when Elihu proceeds, it is with some rambling sentences in which the suddenness of death, the insecurity of human things, and the trouble and distress coming now on whole nations, now on workers of iniquity, are all thrown together for the demonstration of Divine justice. We hear in these verses (Job 34:20-28) the echoes of disaster and exile, of the fall of thrones and empires. Because the afflicted tribes of Judah were preserved in captivity and restored to their own land, the history of the period which is before the writers mind appears to him to supply a conclusive proof of the righteousness of the Almighty. But we fail to see it. Eliphaz and Bildad might have spoken in the same terms as Elihu uses here. Everything is assumed that Job by force of circumstance has been compelled to doubt. The whole is a homily on Gods irresponsible power and penetrating wisdom which, it is taken for granted, must be exercised in righteousness. Where proof is needed nothing but assertion is offered. It is easy to say that when a man is struck down in the open sight of others it is because he has been cruel to the poor and the Almighty has been moved by the cry of the afflicted. But here is Job struck down in the open sight of others; and is it for harshness to the poor? If Elihu does not mean that, what does he mean? The conclusion is the same as that reached by the three friends; and this speaker poses, like the rest, as a generous man declaring that the iniquity God is always sure to punish is tyrannical treatment of the orphan and the widow.
Leaving this unfortunate attempt at reasoning we enter at Job 34:31 on a passage in which the circumstances of Job are directly dealt with.
For hath any one spoken thus unto God,
I have suffered though I offend not:
That which I see not teach Thou;
If I have done iniquity I will do it no more?
Shall Gods recompense be according to thy mind
That thou dost reject it?
For thou must choose, and not I:
Therefore speak what thou knowest.
Here the argument seems to be that a man like Job, assuming himself to be innocent, if he bows down before the sovereign Judge, confesses ignorance, and even goes so far as to acknowledge that he may have sinned unwittingly and promises amendment, such a one has no right to dictate to God or to complain if suffering and trouble continue. God may afflict as long as He pleases without showing why He afflicts. And if the sufferer dares to complain he does so at his own peril. Elihu would not be the man to complain in such a case. He would suffer on silently. But the choice is for Job to make; and he has need to consider well before he comes to a decision. Elihu implies that as yet Job is in the wrong mind, and he closes this part of his address in a sort of brutal triumph over the sufferer because he had complained of his sufferings. He puts the condemnation into the mouth of “men of understanding”; but it is his own.
Men of understanding will say to me,
And the wise who hears me will say:-
Job speaks without intelligence,
And his words are without wisdom:
Would that Job were tried unto the end
For his answers after the manner of wicked men.
For he addeth rebellion to his sin;
He clappeth his hands amongst us
And multiplieth his words against God.
The ideas of Elihu are few and fixed. When his attempts to convince betray his weakness in argument, he falls back on the vulgar expedient of brow beating the defendant. He is a type of many would be interpreters of Divine providence, forcing a theory of religion which admirably fits those who reckon themselves favourites of heaven, but does nothing for the many lives that are all along under a cloud of trouble and grief. The religious creed which alone can satisfy is one throwing light adown the darkest ravines human beings have to thread, in ignorance of God which they cannot help, in pain of body and feebleness of mind not caused by their own sin but by the sins of others, in slavery or something worse than slavery.