Job 22 and 33
While Job and his three friends talked together, another person had listened but had not spoken, this was a young man named Elihu. Because they were much older than he, Elihu showed great respect, not trying to tell his thoughts while they were speaking; but when they had no more to say, Elihu spoke. He knew Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had been wrong to accuse Job of evil which he had not done, and had spoken without kindness to him in his sorrow, and had also been very wrong to say that God was punishing job.
Elihu knew that Job also was wrong in boasting of his good deeds, and thinking that God had forgotten him, and had even said,
“He counteth me for His enemy.” Chapter 33:10.
Job and the three friends believed God’s great power; but did not know His care or mercy. Yet Job had wished someone would speak to God for him; and it was a proof of God’s care that Elihu was there to tell of God’s ways. (Chapters. 16:21 and 33:6).
God gave Elihu wisdom to know it was not His wish to punish people, but His great desire was to turn them from then, pride, and to save them from the punish-. went of sins. It was God “speaking” to them in sickness; sometimes in dreams, and by saving their lives in danger, to teach them not to be proud, but to believe in Him. Notice these words,
“He (God) speaketh once, yea twice. He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, ... . He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.” Chapter 33:14,27,28.
Elihu said God had “found a ransom” to save people from “the pit” which means a place of punishment. A ransom is the price paid for a slave or a prisoner. Job’s own words show that even such; good man as he, was proud, so he needed one to save him from sin, and although he was rich, he could not pay a ransom for his sins. Another must pay the price for him.
Elihu did not know the name of the One to be the Ransom, but we know, for when God’s Son came to earth, an angel was sent to say, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.’’
God still speaks to people; we have His words in the Bible, and most of all He has spoken by sending His Son. (Heb.1:1, 2.) There is also sickness and trouble, even for boys and girls, to teach us how helpless we are to save ourselves.
Although God speaks “once, yea twice’’, and perhaps more, He has not promised to keep on speaking. You do not wait to obey your father or mother until they speak many times; surely you must not wait when the Lord speaks dt is now we can say to Him, “I have sinned”. There is a time when even the “great Ransom” cannot save.
“Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke, then a great ransom cannot deliver thee,” Job 36:1818Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. (Job 36:18). (Read all of Job 33).
ML 05/26/1940