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Matthew Henry |
J O B
CHAP. XXXV.
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,
II. He had complained of God as deaf to the cries of the oppressed,
against which imputation Elihu here justifies God,
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,
| The Address of Elihu. | B. C. 1520. |
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1 Elihu spake moreover, and said,
2 Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My
righteousness is more than God’s?
3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and,
What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which
are higher than thou.
6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if 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 may hurt a man as thou art; and thy
righteousness may profit the son of man.
We have here,
I. The bad words which Elihu charges upon Job,
To evince the badness of them he appeals to Job himself, and his own
sober thoughts, in the reflection: Thinkest thou this to be
right? 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,
“Thou hast, in effect, said, My righteousness is more than
God’s,” 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, My
righteousness is more than God’s; 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: What profit shall I have if I be cleansed
from my sin?
v. 3.
This is gathered from
Though I make my hands ever so clean, what the nearer am I?
Thou shalt plunge me in the ditch. And
If I be wicked, woe to me; 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, Verily I have cleansed
my heart in vain,
Ps. lxxiii. 13.
And, if Job said so, he did in effect say, My righteousness is more
than God’s
(v. 9);
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
What profit shall we have if we pray to him?) and had
immediately disclaimed them. The counsel of the wicked is far from
me,
ch. xxi. 16.
It is not a fair way of disputing to charge men with those consequences
of their opinions which they expressly renounce.
II. The good answer which Elihu gives to this
(v. 4):
“I will undertake to answer thee, and thy companions with
thee,” 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
that God is greater than man. 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
(Rom. xi. 35),
Who hath first given to God, let him prove it, and it shall
be recompensed to him again. 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,
v. 5.
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! Look
unto the heavens, and behold the clouds. God made man erect,
coelumque tueri jussit–and bade him look up to heaven. 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
glory is above the heavens
and the knowledge of him higher than heaven,
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
(v. 8):
Thy wickedness, perhaps, may hurt a man as thou art, 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 profit the son of man. Our
goodness extends to the saints that are in the earth,
Ps. xvi. 3.
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
(v. 6):
“If thou sinnest wilfully, and of malice prepense, against him,
with a high hand, nay, if thy transgressions be multiplied, and
the acts of sin be ever so often repeated, yet what doest thou
against him?” 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 be against
God because so the sinner intends it and so God takes it, and it is
an injury to his honour; yet it cannot do any thing against him.
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 What profit is it that I am cleansed from my sin? 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
(v. 7):
If thou be righteous, what givest thou to him? 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.
9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the
oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the
mighty.
10 But none saith, Where is 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.
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,
I. What it was that Job complained of; it was this, That God did not
regard the cries of the oppressed against their oppressors
(v. 9):
“By reason of the multitude of oppressions, the many hardships
which proud tyrants put upon poor people and the barbarous usage they
give them, they make the oppressed to cry; but it is to no
purpose: God does not appear to right them. They cry out, they cry on
still, by reason of the arm of the mighty, which lies heavily
upon them.” This seems to refer to those words of Job
(ch. xxiv. 12),
Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded cries
out against the oppressors, yet God lays not folly to them,
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. Is there a righteous God, and can it be that he should
so slowly hear, so slowly see?
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 ask and have not, but it is
because they ask amiss,
James iv. 3.
They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty, but it is a
complaining cry, a wailing cry, not a penitent praying cry, the cry of
nature and passion, not of grace. See
They have not cried unto me with their heart when they howled upon
their beds. How then can we expect that they should be answered and
relieved?
1. They do not enquire after God, nor seek to acquaint themselves with
him, under their affliction
(v. 10):
But none saith, Where is God my Maker? Afflictions are sent to
direct and quicken us to enquire early after God,
Ps. lxxxviii. 34.
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; but none saith, Where is God my Maker? 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,
God my makers, 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. Let us make man.
(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, Where is God my Maker?
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 gives songs in the night, 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
(v. 11):
Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, 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
them. 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 taught more than the beasts and the
fowls. They have wonderful instincts and sagacities in seeking out
their food, their physic, their shelter; but none of them are capable
of enquiring, Where is God my Maker? 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 cry by reason of the arm of the
mighty, 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,
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?
3. They are proud and unhumbled under their afflictions, which were
sent to mortify them and to hide pride from them
(v. 12):
There they cry–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–but none gives answer. God does not work deliverance
for them, and perhaps men do not much regard them; and why so? It is
because of the pride of evil men; they are evil men; they
regard iniquity in their hearts, and therefore God will not hear
their prayers,
God hears not such sinners. 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 therefore they do not seek unto God
(Ps. x. 4),
or, if they do cry unto him, therefore he does not give answer,
for he hears only the desire of the humble
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.
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
(v. 13):
God will not hear vanity, 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
truth in the inward part.
14 Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment
is before him; therefore trust thou in him.
15 But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his
anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:
16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth
words without knowledge.
Here is,
I. Another improper word for which Elihu reproves Job
(v. 14):
Thou sayest thou shalt not see him; 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,”
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
I shall not see the Lord. 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 to morrow must be as this day,
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.
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: Judgment is before him, 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; therefore trust in him, 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
(Isa. xxx. 18),
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
(v. 15):
“Because it is not so, 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 has visited thee in his
anger, 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. The foolishness of man perverts his
way, and then his heart frets against the Lord,
Prov. xix. 3.
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 Job opens his mouth in
vain
(v. 16)
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
multiplied words, but all without knowledge, 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 think that he shall receive any thing
from him,
James i. 7.
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, speaking
unadvisedly with his lips 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.
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