mh_parser/vol_split/18 - Job/Chapter 35.xml

<div2 id="Job.xxxvi" n="xxxvi" next="Job.xxxvii" prev="Job.xxxv" progress="17.55%" title="Chapter XXXV">
<h2 id="Job.xxxvi-p0.1">J O B</h2>
<h3 id="Job.xxxvi-p0.2">CHAP. XXXV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Job.xxxvi-p1">Job being still silent, Elihu follows his blow,
and here, a third time, undertakes to show him that he had spoken
amiss, and ought to recant. Three improper sayings he here charges
him with, and returns answer to them distinctly:—I. He had
represented religion as an indifferent unprofitable thing, which
God enjoins for his own sake, not for ours; Elihu evinces the
contrary, <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.1-Job.35.8" parsed="|Job|35|1|35|8" passage="Job 35:1-8">ver. 1-8</scripRef>. II.
He had complained of God as deaf to the cries of the oppressed,
against which imputation Elihu here justifies God, <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.9-Job.35.13" parsed="|Job|35|9|35|13" passage="Job 35:9-13">ver. 9-13</scripRef>. III. He had despaired
of the return of God's favour to him, because it was so long
deferred, but Elihu shows him the true cause of the delay,
<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.14-Job.35.16" parsed="|Job|35|14|35|16" passage="Job 35:14-16">ver. 14-16</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Job.xxxvi-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.35" parsed="|Job|35|0|0|0" passage="Job 35" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Job.xxxvi-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.1-Job.35.8" parsed="|Job|35|1|35|8" passage="Job 35:1-8" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.35.1-Job.35.8">
<h4 id="Job.xxxvi-p1.6">The Address of Elihu. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xxxvi-p1.7">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xxxvi-p2">1 Elihu spake moreover, and said,   2
Thinkest thou this to be right, <i>that</i> thou saidst, My
righteousness <i>is</i> more than God's?   3 For thou saidst,
What advantage will it be unto thee? <i>and,</i> What profit shall
I have, <i>if I be cleansed</i> from my sin?   4 I will answer
thee, and thy companions with thee.   5 Look unto the heavens,
and see; and behold the clouds <i>which</i> are higher than thou.
  6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or <i>if</i>
thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?  
7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he
of thine hand?   8 Thy wickedness <i>may hurt</i> a man as
thou <i>art;</i> and thy righteousness <i>may profit</i> the son of
man.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p3">We have here,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p4">I. The bad words which Elihu charges upon
Job, <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.2-Job.35.3" parsed="|Job|35|2|35|3" passage="Job 35:2,3"><i>v.</i> 2, 3</scripRef>. To
evince the badness of them he appeals to Job himself, and his own
sober thoughts, in the reflection: <i>Thinkest thou this to be
right?</i> This intimates Elihu's confidence that the reproof he
now gave was just, for he could refer the judgment of it even to
Job himself. Those that have truth and equity on their side sooner
or later will have every man's conscience on their side. It also
intimates his good opinion of Job, that he thought better than he
spoke, and that, though he had spoken amiss, yet, when he perceived
his mistake, he would not stand to it. When we have said, in our
haste, that which was not right, it becomes us to own that our
second thoughts convince us that it was wrong. Two things Elihu
here reproves Job for:—1. For justifying himself more than God,
which was the thing that first provoked him, <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.32.2" parsed="|Job|32|2|0|0" passage="Job 32:2"><i>ch.</i> xxxii. 2</scripRef>. "Thou hast, in effect,
said, <i>My righteousness is more than God's,</i>" that is, "I have
done more for God than ever he did for me; so that, when the
accounts are balanced, he will be brought in debtor to me." As if
Job thought his services had been paid less than they deserved and
his sins punished more than they deserved, which is a most unjust
and wicked thought for any man to harbour and especially to utter.
When Job insisted so much upon his own integrity, and the severity
of God's dealings with him, he did in effect say, <i>My
righteousness is more than God's;</i> whereas, though we be ever so
good and our afflictions ever so great, we are chargeable with
unrighteousness and God is not. 2. For disowning the benefits and
advantages of religion because he suffered these things: <i>What
profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin?</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.3" parsed="|Job|35|3|0|0" passage="Job 35:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. This is gathered from
<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.9.30-Job.9.31" parsed="|Job|9|30|9|31" passage="Job 9:30,31"><i>ch.</i> ix. 30, 31</scripRef>.
<i>Though I make my hands ever so clean,</i> what the nearer am I?
<i>Thou shalt plunge me in the ditch.</i> And <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.10.15" parsed="|Job|10|15|0|0" passage="Job 10:15"><i>ch.</i> x. 15</scripRef>, <i>If I be wicked, woe to
me;</i> but, if I be righteous, it is all the same. The psalmist,
when he compared his own afflictions with the prosperity of the
wicked, was tempted to say, <i>Verily I have cleansed my heart in
vain,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.73.13" parsed="|Ps|73|13|0|0" passage="Ps 73:13">Ps. lxxiii. 13</scripRef>.
And, if Job said so, he did in effect say, <i>My righteousness is
more than God's</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.9" parsed="|Job|35|9|0|0" passage="Job 35:9"><i>v.</i>
9</scripRef>); for, if he got nothing by his religion, God was more
beholden to him than he was to God. But, though there might be some
colour for it, yet it was not fair to charge these words upon Job,
when he himself had made them the wicked words of prospering
sinners (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.8" osisRef="Bible:Job.21.15" parsed="|Job|21|15|0|0" passage="Job 21:15"><i>ch.</i> xxi.
15</scripRef>, <i>What profit shall we have if we pray to him?</i>)
and had immediately disclaimed them. <i>The counsel of the wicked
is far from me,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p4.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.21.16" parsed="|Job|21|16|0|0" passage="Job 21:16"><i>ch.</i> xxi.
16</scripRef>. It is not a fair way of disputing to charge men with
those consequences of their opinions which they expressly
renounce.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p5">II. The good answer which Elihu gives to
this (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.4" parsed="|Job|35|4|0|0" passage="Job 35:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>): "<i>I
will</i> undertake to <i>answer thee, and thy companions with
thee,</i>" that is, "all those that approve thy sayings and are
ready to justify thee in them, and all others that say as thou
sayest: "I have that to offer which will silence them all." To do
this he has recourse to his old maxim (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.33.12" parsed="|Job|33|12|0|0" passage="Job 33:12"><i>ch.</i> xxxiii. 12</scripRef>), <i>that God is
greater than man.</i> This is a truth which, if duly improved, will
serve many good purposes, and particularly this to prove that God
is debtor to no man. The greatest of men may be a debtor to the
meanest; but such is the infinite disproportion between God and man
that the great God cannot possibly receive any benefit by man, and
therefore cannot be supposed to lie under any obligation to man;
for, if he be obliged by his purpose and promise, it is only to
himself. That is a challenge which no man can take up (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Rom.11.35" parsed="|Rom|11|35|0|0" passage="Ro 11:35">Rom. xi. 35</scripRef>), <i>Who hath first given
to God,</i> let him prove it, <i>and it shall be recompensed to him
again.</i> Why should we demand it, as a just debt, to gain by our
religion (as Job seemed to do), when the God we serve does not gain
by it? 1. Elihu needs not prove that God is above man; it is agreed
by all; but he endeavours to affect Job and us with it, by an
ocular demonstration of the height of the heavens and the clouds,
<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.5" parsed="|Job|35|5|0|0" passage="Job 35:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. They are far
above us, and God is far above them; how much then is he set out of
the reach either of our sins or of our services! <i>Look unto the
heavens, and behold the clouds.</i> God made man erect,
<i>coelumque tueri jussit—and bade him look up to heaven.</i>
Idolaters looked up, and worshipped the hosts of heaven, the sun,
moon, and stars; but we must look up to heaven, and worship the
Lord of those hosts. They are higher than we, but God is infinitely
above them. His <i>glory is above the heavens</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.8.1" parsed="|Ps|8|1|0|0" passage="Ps 8:1">Ps. viii. 1</scripRef>) and the knowledge of him
higher than heaven, <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:Job.11.8" parsed="|Job|11|8|0|0" passage="Job 11:8"><i>ch.</i> xi.
8</scripRef>. 2. But hence he infers that God is not affected,
either one way or other, by any thing that we do. (1.) He owns that
men may be either bettered or damaged by what we do (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.8" parsed="|Job|35|8|0|0" passage="Job 35:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>): <i>Thy wickedness,</i>
perhaps, may <i>hurt a man as thou art,</i> may occasion him
trouble in his outward concerns. A wicked man may wound, or rob, or
slander his neighbour, or may draw him into sin and so prejudice
his soul. Thy righteousness, thy justice, thy charity, thy wisdom,
thy piety, may perhaps <i>profit the son of man.</i> Our goodness
<i>extends to the saints that are in the earth,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.16.3" parsed="|Ps|16|3|0|0" passage="Ps 16:3">Ps. xvi. 3</scripRef>. To men like ourselves we
are in a capacity either of doing injury or of showing kindness;
and in both these the sovereign Lord and Judge of all will interest
himself, will reward those that do good and punish those that do
hurt to their fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects. But, (2.) He
utterly denies that God can really be either prejudiced or
advantaged by what any, even the greatest men of the earth, do, or
can do. [1.] The sins of the worst sinners are no damage to him
(<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.6" parsed="|Job|35|6|0|0" passage="Job 35:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): "<i>If thou
sinnest</i> wilfully, and of malice prepense, against him, with a
high hand, nay, <i>if thy transgressions be multiplied,</i> and the
acts of sin be ever so often repeated, yet <i>what doest thou
against him?</i>" This is a challenge to the carnal mind, and
defies the most daring sinner to do his worst. It speaks much for
the greatness and glory of God that it is not in the power of his
worst enemies to do him any real prejudice. Sin is said to <i>be
against God</i> because so the sinner intends it and so God takes
it, and it is an injury to his honour; yet it cannot <i>do any
thing against him.</i> The malice of sinners is impotent malice: it
cannot destroy his being or perfections, cannot dethrone him from
his power and dominion, cannot disturb his peace and repose, cannot
defeat his counsels and designs, nor can it derogate from his
essential glory. Job therefore spoke amiss in saying <i>What profit
is it that I am cleansed from my sin?</i> God was no gainer by his
reformation; and who then would gain if he himself did not? [2.]
The services of the best saints are no profit to him (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p5.10" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.7" parsed="|Job|35|7|0|0" passage="Job 35:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>): <i>If thou be
righteous, what givest thou to him?</i> He needs not our service;
or, if he did want to have the work done, he has better hands than
ours at command. Our religion brings no accession at all to his
felicity. He is so far from being beholden to us that we are
beholden to him for making us righteous and accepting our
righteousness; and therefore we can demand nothing from him, nor
have any reason to complain if we have not what we expect, but to
be thankful that we have better than we deserve.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Job.xxxvi-p5.11" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.9-Job.35.13" parsed="|Job|35|9|35|13" passage="Job 35:9-13" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.35.9-Job.35.13">
<p class="passage" id="Job.xxxvi-p6">9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they
make <i>the oppressed</i> to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm
of the mighty.   10 But none saith, Where <i>is</i> God my
maker, who giveth songs in the night;   11 Who teacheth us
more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the
fowls of heaven?   12 There they cry, but none giveth answer,
because of the pride of evil men.   13 Surely God will not
hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p7">Elihu here returns an answer to another
word that Job had said, which, he thought, reflected much upon the
justice and goodness of God, and therefore ought not to pass
without a remark. Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p8">I. What it was that Job complained of; it
was this, That God did not regard the cries of the oppressed
against their oppressors (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.9" parsed="|Job|35|9|0|0" passage="Job 35:9"><i>v.</i>
9</scripRef>): "<i>By reason of the multitude of oppressions,</i>
the many hardships which proud tyrants put upon poor people and the
barbarous usage they give them, <i>they make the oppressed to
cry;</i> but it is to no purpose: God does not appear to right
them. They cry out, they cry on still, <i>by reason of the arm of
the mighty,</i> which lies heavily upon them." This seems to refer
to those words of Job (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.12" parsed="|Job|24|12|0|0" passage="Job 24:12"><i>ch.</i>
xxiv. 12</scripRef>), <i>Men groan from out of the city, and the
soul of the wounded cries out</i> against the oppressors, <i>yet
God lays not folly to them,</i> does not reckon with them for it.
This is a thing that Job knows not what to make of, nor how to
reconcile to the justice of God and his government. <i>Is there a
righteous God, and can it be that he should so slowly hear, so
slowly see?</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p9">II. How Elihu solves the difficulty. If the
cries of the oppressed be not heard, the fault is not in God; he is
ready to hear and help them. But the fault is in themselves; they
<i>ask and have not,</i> but it is <i>because they ask amiss,</i>
<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Jas.4.3" parsed="|Jas|4|3|0|0" passage="Jam 4:3">James iv. 3</scripRef>. <i>They cry out
by reason of the arm of the mighty,</i> but it is a complaining
cry, a wailing cry, not a penitent praying cry, the cry of nature
and passion, not of grace. See <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.7.14" parsed="|Hos|7|14|0|0" passage="Ho 7:14">Hos.
vii. 14,</scripRef>, <i>They have not cried unto me with their
heart when they howled upon their beds.</i> How then can we expect
that they should be answered and relieved?</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p10">1. They do not enquire after God, nor seek
to acquaint themselves with him, under their affliction (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.10" parsed="|Job|35|10|0|0" passage="Job 35:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>): <i>But none saith,
Where is God my Maker?</i> Afflictions are sent to direct and
quicken us to <i>enquire early after God,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.78.34" parsed="|Ps|78|34|0|0" passage="Ps 78:34">Ps. lxxxviii. 34</scripRef>. But many that groan under
great oppressions never mind God, nor take notice of his hand in
their troubles; if they did, they would bear their troubles more
patiently and be more benefited by them. Of the many that are
afflicted and oppressed, few get the good they might get by their
affliction. It should drive them to God, but how seldom is this the
case! It is lamentable to see so little religion among the poor and
miserable part of mankind. Every one complains of his troubles;
<i>but none saith, Where is God my Maker?</i> that is, none repent
of their sins, none return to him that smites them, none seek the
face and favour of God, and that comfort in him which would balance
their outward afflictions. They are wholly taken up with the
wretchedness of their condition, as if that would excuse them in
living without God in the world which should engage them to cleave
the more closely to him. Observe, (1.) God is our Maker, the author
of our being, and, under that notion, it concerns us to regard and
remember him, <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p10.3" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.12.1" parsed="|Eccl|12|1|0|0" passage="Ec 12:1">Eccl. xii. 1</scripRef>.
<i>God my makers,</i> in the plural number, which some think is, if
not an indication, yet an intimation, of the Trinity of persons in
the unity of the Godhead. <i>Let us make man.</i> (2.) It is our
duty therefore to enquire after him. Where is he, that we may pay
our homage to him, may own our dependence upon him and obligations
to him? Where is he, that we may apply to him for maintenance and
protection, may receive law from him, and may seek our happiness in
his favour, from whose power we received our being? (3.) It is to
be lamented that he is so little enquired after by the children of
men. All are asking, Where is mirth? Where is wealth? Where is a
good bargain? But none ask, <i>Where is God my Maker?</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p11">2. They do not take notice of the mercies
they enjoy in and under their afflictions, nor are thankful for
them, and therefore cannot expect that God should deliver them out
of their afflictions. (1.) He provides for our inward comfort and
joy under our outward troubles, and we ought to make use of that,
and wait his time for the removal of our troubles: He <i>gives
songs in the night,</i> that is, when our condition is ever so
dark, and sad, and melancholy, there is that in God, in his
providence and promise, which is sufficient, not only to support
us, but to fill us with joy and consolation, and enable us in every
thing to give thanks, and even to rejoice in tribulation. When we
only pore upon the afflictions we are under, and neglect the
consolations of God which are treasured up for us, it is just with
God to reject our prayers. (2.) He preserves to us the use of our
reason and understanding (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.11" parsed="|Job|35|11|0|0" passage="Job 35:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>): <i>Who teaches us more than the beasts of the
earth,</i> that is, who has endued us with more noble powers and
faculties than they are endued with and has made us capable of more
excellent pleasures and employments here and for ever. Now this
comes in here, [1.] As that which furnishes us with matter for
thanksgiving, even under the heaviest burden of affliction.
Whatever we are deprived of, we have our immortal souls, those
jewels of more worth than all the world, continued to us; even
those that kill the body cannot hurt <i>them.</i> And if our
affliction prevail not to disturb the exercise of their faculties,
but we enjoy the use of our reason and the peace of our
consciences, we have much reason to be thankful, how pressing
soever our calamities otherwise are. [2.] As a reason why we
should, under our afflictions, enquire after God our Maker, and
seek unto him. This is the greatest excellency of reason, that it
makes us capable of religion, and it is in that especially that we
are <i>taught more than the beasts and the fowls.</i> They have
wonderful instincts and sagacities in seeking out their food, their
physic, their shelter; but none of them are capable of enquiring,
<i>Where is God my Maker?</i> Something like logic, and philosophy,
and politics, has been observed among the brute-creatures, but
never any thing of divinity or religion; these are peculiar to man.
If therefore the oppressed only <i>cry by reason of the arm of the
mighty,</i> and do not look up to God, they do no more than the
brutes (who complain when they are hurt), and they forget that
instruction and wisdom by which they are advanced so far above
them. God relieves the brute-creatures because they cry to him
according to the best of their capacity, <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.38.41 Bible:Ps.104.21" parsed="|Job|38|41|0|0;|Ps|104|21|0|0" passage="Job 38:41,Ps 104:21"><i>ch.</i> xxxviii. 41; Ps. civ.
21</scripRef>. But what reason have men to expect relief, who are
capable of enquiring after God as their Maker and yet cry to him no
otherwise than as brutes do?</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p12">3. They are proud and unhumbled under their
afflictions, which were sent to mortify them and to hide pride from
them (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.12" parsed="|Job|35|12|0|0" passage="Job 35:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>):
<i>There they cry</i>—there they lie exclaiming against their
oppressors, and filling the ears of all about them with their
complaints, not sparing to reflect upon God himself and his
providence—<i>but none gives answer.</i> God does not work
deliverance for them, and perhaps men do not much regard them; and
why so? It is <i>because of the pride of evil men;</i> they are
evil men; they <i>regard iniquity in their hearts,</i> and
therefore God will not hear their prayers, <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.66.18 Bible:Isa.1.15" parsed="|Ps|66|18|0|0;|Isa|1|15|0|0" passage="Ps 66:18,Isa 1:15">Ps. lxvi. 18; Isa. i. 15</scripRef>. <i>God
hears not</i> such <i>sinners.</i> They have, it may be, brought
themselves into trouble by their own wickedness; they are the
devil's poor; and then who can pity them? Yet this is not all: they
are proud still, and <i>therefore</i> they do not seek unto God
(<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.10.4" parsed="|Ps|10|4|0|0" passage="Ps 10:4">Ps. x. 4</scripRef>), or, if they do
cry unto him, <i>therefore</i> he does not give answer, for he
hears only the <i>desire of the humble</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.10.17" parsed="|Ps|10|17|0|0" passage="Ps 10:17">Ps. x. 17</scripRef>) and delivers those by his
providence whom he has first by his grace prepared and made fit for
deliverance, which we are not if, under humbling afflictions, our
hearts remain unhumbled and our pride unmortified. The case is
plain then, If we cry to God for the removal of the oppression and
affliction we are under, and it is not removed, the reason is not
because the Lord's hand is shortened or his ear heavy, but because
the affliction has not done its work; we are not sufficiently
humbled, and therefore must thank ourselves that it is
continued.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p13">4. They are not sincere, and upright, and
inward with God, in their supplications to him, and therefore he
does not hear and answer them (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.13" parsed="|Job|35|13|0|0" passage="Job 35:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>): <i>God will not hear
vanity,</i> that is, the hypocritical prayer, which is a vain
prayer, coming out of feigned lips. It is a vanity to think that
God should hear it, who searches the heart and requires <i>truth in
the inward part.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Job.xxxvi-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.14-Job.35.16" parsed="|Job|35|14|35|16" passage="Job 35:14-16" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.35.14-Job.35.16">
<p class="passage" id="Job.xxxvi-p14">14 Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him,
<i>yet</i> judgment <i>is</i> before him; therefore trust thou in
him.   15 But now, because <i>it is</i> not <i>so,</i> he hath
visited in his anger; yet he knoweth <i>it</i> not in great
extremity:   16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he
multiplieth words without knowledge.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p15">Here is, I. Another improper word for which
Elihu reproves Job (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.14" parsed="|Job|35|14|0|0" passage="Job 35:14"><i>v.</i>
14</scripRef>): <i>Thou sayest thou shalt not see him;</i> that is,
1. "Thou complainest that thou dost not understand the meaning of
his severe dealings with thee, nor discern the drift and design of
them," <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.23.8-Job.23.9" parsed="|Job|23|8|23|9" passage="Job 23:8,9"><i>ch.</i> xxiii. 8,
9</scripRef>. And, 2. "Thou despairest of seeing his gracious
returns to thee, of seeing better days again, and art ready to give
up all for gone;" as Hezekiah (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.38.11" parsed="|Isa|38|11|0|0" passage="Isa 38:11">Isa.
xxxviii. 11</scripRef>), <i>I shall not see the Lord.</i> As, when
we are in prosperity, we are ready to think our mountain will never
be brought low, so when we are in adversity we are ready to think
our valley will never be filled, but, in both, to conclude that
<i>to morrow must be as this day,</i> which is as absurd as to
think, when the weather is either fair or foul, that is will be
always so, that the flowing tide will always flow, or the ebbing
tide will always ebb.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxxvi-p16">II. The answer which Elihu gives to this
despairing word that Job had said, which is this, 1. That, when he
looked up to God, he had no just reason to speak thus despairingly:
<i>Judgment is before him,</i> that is, "He knows what he has to
do, and will do all in infinite wisdom and justice; he has the
entire plan and model of providence before him, and knows what he
will do, which we do not, and therefore we understand not what he
does. There is a day of judgment before him, when all the seeming
disorders of providence will be set to rights and the dark chapters
of it will be expounded. Then thou shalt see the full meaning of
these dark events, and the final period of these dismal events;
then thou shalt see his face with joy; <i>therefore trust in
him,</i> depend upon him, wait for him, and believe that the issue
will be good at last." When we consider that God is infinitely
wise, and righteous, and faithful, and that he is a God of judgment
(<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.30.18" parsed="|Isa|30|18|0|0" passage="Isa 30:18">Isa. xxx. 18</scripRef>), we shall
see no reason to despair of relief from him, but all the reason in
the world to hope in him, that it will come in due time, in the
best time. 2. That if he had not yet seen an end of his troubles,
the reason was because he did not thus trust in God and wait for
him (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.15" parsed="|Job|35|15|0|0" passage="Job 35:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>):
"<i>Because it is not so,</i> because thou dost not thus trust in
him, therefore the affliction which came at first from love has now
displeasure mixed with it. Now God <i>has visited</i> thee <i>in
his anger,</i> taking it very ill that thou canst not find in thy
heart to trust him, but harbourest such hard misgiving thoughts of
him." If there be any mixtures of divine wrath in our afflictions,
we may thank ourselves; it is because we do not behave aright under
them; we quarrel with God, and are fretful and impatient, and
distrustful of the divine Providence. This was Job's case. <i>The
foolishness of man perverts his way, and</i> then <i>his heart
frets against the Lord,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p16.3" osisRef="Bible:Prov.19.3" parsed="|Prov|19|3|0|0" passage="Pr 19:3">Prov. xix.
3</scripRef>. Yet Elihu thinks that Job, being in great extremity,
did not know and consider this as he should, that it was his own
fault that he was not yet delivered. He concludes therefore that
<i>Job opens his mouth in vain</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p16.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.35.16" parsed="|Job|35|16|0|0" passage="Job 35:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>) in complaining of his
grievances and crying for redress, or in justifying himself and
clearing up his own innocency; it is all in vain, because he does
not trust in God and wait for him, and has not a due regard to him
in his afflictions. He had said a great deal, had <i>multiplied
words,</i> but all <i>without knowledge,</i> all to no purpose,
because he did not encourage himself in God and humble himself
before him. It is in vain for us either to appeal to God or to
acquit ourselves if we do not study to answer the end for which
affliction is sent, and in vain to pray for relief if we do not
trust in God; for let not that man who distrusts God <i>think that
he shall receive any thing from him,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxxvi-p16.5" osisRef="Bible:Jas.1.7" parsed="|Jas|1|7|0|0" passage="Jam 1:7">James i. 7</scripRef>. Or this may refer to all that Job
had said. Having shown the absurdity of some passages in his
discourse, he concludes that there were many other passages which
were in like manner the fruits of his ignorance and mistake. He did
not, as his other friends, condemn him for a hypocrite, but charged
him only with Moses's sin, <i>speaking unadvisedly with his
lips</i> when his spirit was provoked. When at any time we do so
(and who is there that offends not in word?) it is a mercy to be
told of it, and we must take it patiently and kindly as Job did,
not repeating, but recanting, what we have said amiss.</p>
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