Then Elihu continued: Sermons
I. CENSURE OF JOB'S DOUBTS. (Vers. 1-9.) In silence Job has listened to the reproof of his friend, and has apparently taken to heart the lesson that in justifiable self-defence we may carry our protests beyond the true boundary, and exaggerate our innocence while rejecting false imputations. Elihu therefore rises again, and proceeds with his second reproof. Job has represented God as a cruel, unjust persecutor of his innocence. He doubts then of the justice of the world-ruling dominion of God. To the refutation of this position the present discourse is directed. Elihu appeals to the common sense of men, to the unbiassed wisdom of experience. The ear has a power of trying words, the mind has a faculty of judgment and taste, analogous to that of the body, whereby we discriminate the false from the true, and the good from the evil, This, indeed, must be the last appeal in every controversy whether on Divine or human things. A written word, a positive revelation, is always open to diverse interpretations; and this makes it the more necessary to ascertain the broad dictates of conscience and of the common judgment, with which every true revelation agrees. The question now is - Does this common religious sense condemn the utterances and the attitude of Job or not? He has asserted, "I am innocent, and yet God has denied me justice, has taken away my right. In spite of the fact that right is on my side, I shall be a liar if I maintain it. The wound caused by the shaft of God's wrath is incurable." This, according to the speaker, was the effect of Job's language. He indignantly repels it. Borrowing an expression from Eliphaz (Job 15:16), he denounces Job as one who drinks scoffing like water; and by these blasphemies associates himself with the wicked. Job denies, according to the speaker, that there is any profit or use in piety - in living in friendship with God. He had never said this in so many words; but the sense of much that he had said resembled this (Job 9:22, 23; Job 21:7, 8; Job 24:1, sqq.). Such expressions seemed to deny the very foundation of religion. Job was turning against the light within. And though he had several times censured and half recalled his own words, the offence had nevertheless been repeated. II. PROOFS OF THE DIVINE JUSTICE. (Vers. 10-30.) 1. From the creative goodness of God. (Vers. 10-15.) The point is to show that God is incapable of doing wrong, of perverting justice and right in his dealings with men; to show that he rewards men according to their works, gives them the proper fruit of their sowing, causes the life-path they choose to conduct to the happy or unhappy issue, according to the rightness of their choice or otherwise. He sets before them blessing and cursing; and the responsibility of the result is theirs alone. But how may we have the conviction that all this is so? The answer is by showing that the works of God exclude the thought of selfishness; and selfishness alone can explain the perversion of right. We cannot conceive of self-seeking in God. None entrusted to him the charge of the earth; none but he has founded the circle of the earth. As first and absolute Cause, all things am his; there is no division of power, profit, or glory. Ambition, greed, jealousy - every passion that tempts men to wrong their fellows - is shut out of the very idea of God. He is ever pouring forth out of the fulness of his life and blessedness upon his creatures - the very opposite action to that of selfishness, which draws as much as possible into itself of good, and parts with as little as possible. Only suppose for a moment that God were to become a self-absorbed Being, "directing his heart only to himself, taking in his spirit and breaths" instead of giving it forth, universal death must at once ensue; men must perish, returning to the dust. The very impossibility of such a supposition shows the impossibility of ascribing self-seeking and self-love to God. He is the Eternal Father; and as the pure parent's love has the least alloy of self in it of any earthly love, we are to take this as the type of the nature of God. These are sublime and inspiring thoughts. God cannot injure man, or do wrong, because he would thus injure himself and sully his own glory. No one can consciously betray or wrong himself. All that we call wrong-doing implies that man has his equals as free beings by his side, and disposes of the property of others. This is impossible with God, because all things belong to him, being the product of his loving activity, his self-giving fulness of life. 2. From the idea of God as the supreme Ruler. (Vers. 16-30.) As the Governor of the world, he cannot be unjust, because government can only be maintained by constant and equal righteousness, and must be destroyed by the lack of it. God is at once the Just and the Mighty, because he could not exercise the one quality without the other. Experience, the great teacher, shows this by the constant course of events. III. CONCLUSION. THE FOLLY AND CONTRADICTORY NATURE OF JOB'S ACCUSATIONS AGAINST GOD. (Vers. 31-37.) A reluctant confession is introduced, as if uttered by Job: "I am chastised, without doing evil; what I see not, that do thou show me! If I do wrong, I wilt do so no more!" (vers. 31, 32.) He seems to say that he will repent provided only wrong be pointed out (comp. Job 7:20; Job 19:4). But, asks Elihu, shall God pass unpunished thy discontented complaint against his mode of retribution, and adopt a mode that is agreeable to thy mind? Are the laws of the Divine government to be dictated by individual wishes or notions of what is right? Is man to choose, and not God, the way in which he is to be rewarded or punished?. And say, then, what is the true retribution? Speak! But this direct appeal must convince the murmurer of his inability to suggest a better method of administering the world. God's ways may not be clear to us in many particulars; but we should recollect, as Bishop Butler teaches, that we See only "parts of a scheme imperfectly understood." Were all known, doubt and distress would cease. In conclusion, the speaker sums up his meaning in the words of the men of understanding to whose judgment he appeals, condemning the want of true insight in the words of Job, and expressing the hope that he may be further tried, because of his replies "in the manner of the reprobate," because he adds insult to sin, adopts the tone of the scoffer, and multiplies words against God. Whether this view of Job's state of mind be right or wrong, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." Blessed he who can exclaim, amidst sufferings which he cannot but feel to he dissociated from guilt, "Search me, O God, and try me; prove me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." - J.
Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead. The words mediation and intercession present fundamentally the same idea — a coming between, to bridge over a gulf, or to avert a stroke. Some being to stand between him and God, and to be the interpreter of God's dealing with him, and of his thought about God, was what Job's heart yearned after. The one question which man demands to have answered, as the condition of his peace, is this — Is there any being, having prevailing power with God, who can be touched as a brother with the feeling of our infirmities, and who can bear the feeling of our infirmities with him in all his transactions with God on our behalf? Intercession rests on the fact that there is a complete humanity in God. There is already the human within the orb of the Divine nature. The thought of the creature acting upon God except through a Mediator who is God, destroys that which is most essential in the idea of God. We talk of the love of God in Christ as though it were born when Christ took on Himself the burden of our sins and cares. He but drew forth and revealed, so that every eye could see it, that which had been there from all eternity. Here is the true deep ground of all intercession. We have not to create anything, we have not to change anything, we have but to draw forth what is already waiting to be drawn forth from the Divine heart. Then what need is there of the Mediator? There was a Divine necessity that God should be self-revealed as the Mediator, that this God-like form of God should take shape and appear in our world. Creation is the Divine thought clothing itself in visible form; and it comes forth into form because to give Himself forth is the most God-like act of God. But there were depths in the Divine nature, secret things of the Divine counsels, which no material creation was full enough or rich enough to draw forth into expression. In the Mediator we see the infinite riches of grace and mercy, compassion and tenderness, which had else remained pent-up within God's heart. What must be the form of the Mediator to fulfil the conditions, and to satisfy, not the longings of the human heart only, but the necessities of the human life?1. According to our wish in God's stead. God only can stand in the stead of God. There is that absolute difference between God and every creature, that the only being who can make known God is God Himself. 2. "I also," says Elihu, laying down the conditions of a Mediator's nature and work, "am formed out of the clay." Is there one who knows both, — the things of God and the things of a man, by interior knowledge, in whom the two experiences meet? Yes, is the answer of revelation. There is one God: there can be but one God-man. The Word made flesh. Receiving Him as our Mediator who is able to stand in the stead of God, and yet wears the form of clay by our side, we see — 1. That He is our peace. 2. He is here to explain and to justify our discipline. 3. He is here to fulfil our largest and loftiest hope.He is made like unto us on earth, that we may be made like unto Him in heaven, that we may behold His glory, and, beholding, share. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) (Henry Melvill, B. D.) People Elihu, JobPlaces UzTopics Answereth, Continued, Elihu, Eli'hu, Furthermore, MoreoverOutline 1. Elihu accuses Job for charging God with injustice10. God omnipotent cannot be unjust 31. Man must humble himself unto God 34. Elihu reproves Job Dictionary of Bible Themes Job 33:31-33Library July 15 EveningThe ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.--JOB 34:3. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.--Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.--I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.--Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith.--He that is spiritual judgeth all things. Take heed what ye hear.--I know … Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path February 3 Evening Pride Catechized Covenanting Confers Obligation. Whether God Provides for all Things Directly Whether Predestination is Certain Whether God Has Immediate Providence Over Everything? Whether Christ's Judiciary Power Extends to the Angels? Whether it is More Grievous to Sin through Certain Malice than through Passion? Whether Anyone Sins through Certain Malice? The Wisdom of God Whether a Sin is Aggravated by Reason of the Condition of the Person against whom it is Committed? Whether Predestination is Certain? Letter ix. Meditation. Whether Vengeance Should be Taken on those who have Sinned Involuntarily? Thoughts Upon Worldly-Riches. Sect. Ii. Directions to Awakened Sinners. The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, Job Links Job 34:1 NIVJob 34:1 NLT Job 34:1 ESV Job 34:1 NASB Job 34:1 KJV Job 34:1 Bible Apps Job 34:1 Parallel Job 34:1 Biblia Paralela Job 34:1 Chinese Bible Job 34:1 French Bible Job 34:1 German Bible Job 34:1 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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