It is not only unkind insinuation which has danger for the heart. There is need of vigilance and self-judgment. And we do well, always and in everything, above all to vindicate God, who needs nothing from us, and can in no way be a debtor to us, yet deigns to occupy Himself with us in infinitely condescending mercy and compassion. Here Job had failed, not under the blows which fell on him so heavily and fast, but when stung by the evil surmisings of men who knew incomparably less, of God than he, and as they could not help the sufferer to the secret none of them understood, so they hindered and provoked him by the cruel misunderstanding they expressed. Elihu lets him know plainly that he thought too much of himself, and forgot the majesty of God. One should not use complaints which imply failure in His moral government, who is infallibly right, and beyond measure good. None should indulge in the dream of blamelessness before God. The heavens are high above man; but God is high above the heavens, and if man will talk of himself or his doings, what can all this be to God, who is above all man's measures? And if He seem to disregard the cry of the oppressed, He has good reason, and they fail to ask aright; else their lamentations would soon change to songs of thankful praise in the night. To groan is not enough, as the brute may; it is to God that the tried should cry. God remains God, and is the judge of all, however slow to punish, as He surely will in His day. Feebleness in giving God credit for what He is spite of appearances, Elihu feels, had betrayed Job into no little impropriety of speech.
And Elihu answered and said,
Hast thou counted this for judgment,
[That] thou hast said, I am more right than God?
For thou askest what is the gain to thee,
What profit shall I have more than by my sin?
I will answer thee words, and with thee thy friends.
Look at the heavens, and see,
And behold the clouds—they are higher than thee.
If thou sinnest, what doest thou against Him?
Thy transgressions are multiplied, what doest thou to Him?
If thou art righteous, what givest thou to Him?
Or what receiveth He from thy hand?
Thy wickedness [is] to man like thyself,
And thy righteousness to a son of man.
Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out,
They cry because of the arm of the mighty.
But no man saith, Where [is] God my maker,
That giveth songs in the night,
That teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth,
And maketh us wiser than the fowls of the heavens?
There they cry, but He answereth not,
Because of the haughtiness of the wicked.
Surely God doth not hear vanity,
And the Almighty beholdeth it not.
Though thou say thou seest Him not,
Judgment [is] before Him, and wait thou on Him.
And now, because His anger hath not punished aught,
Doth He not very much regard insolence?
Therefore Job openeth his mouth to vanity,
He multiplieth words without knowledge.
Elihu did not tax Job with anything so presumptuous as a direct assertion of his own superior righteousness to God's. But to impeach His ways because of conscious integrity under severe trial, to complain of His dealings as hard toward oneself, or as indifferent to others, what is this if not a virtual censure of His government, and implied preference of one's own thoughts? To judge from self, or anything here, to God, now especially that sin is come into the world, with all its bitter consequences and darkening influences, is always false ground; and Job needed to learn, as his friends yet more and with less excuse, that it is alone wise, becoming, and even safe to reason from Him and His revelation of Himself to ourselves or anything else. This Elihu could not do as those who have seen Jesus and the Father in Him, the Son, and that Son a man on earth. But he does what he could under God's teaching, and from the heavens above man he points to His majesty above all. Man's sin is serious for himself, and may be so for his fellows; but what difference does it make for God? Not all the transgressors that dare most can darken a ray of His glory, though He may turn all, as He will, to exalt as well as manifest what He is. And so with the righteousness of man: what does it confer on God? or what does He receive at man's hand? God is the unchanging One, always good, never unrighteous: it is man, the human race, which is affected by one's righteousness or iniquity.
Doubtless, in such a world as this, there never lacks an oppressor, and oppression abounds, and the oppressed cry out and wail because of the violence of the mighty. Is it that God does not hear or feel? Not so, but that even human anguish fails to lead to God. As the prophet, long after, complained of the pride and silliness of stricken Israel: “They have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds.” (Hos. 7:1414And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. (Hosea 7:14).) So of men generally Elihu declares that none said, Where is Eloah my maker, who can change all and deliver at the worst extremity, thus giving songs in the night, teaching us more than the beasts of the field, and making us wiser than the birds of the heavens? Now it is this very God-consciousness which distinguishes man from every other animal of earth or air; not the mind, or νοῦς, as the heathen and others thought, but the highest part of the inner man. It is the spirit which, capable as it is of enjoying God, constitutes the wretchedness of the lost man, as it is therein by will he is God's enemy. Hence their reluctance to tell their sorrows to the one effectual source of help, and His apparent indifference, while all is open before Him, and known forever. There are haughty as well as wicked; there are thoughtless of God who suffer from man. His eyes, His ears, are open to those who appeal, not to vain cries which have no more spiritual, or perhaps even moral, feeling than the brutes that perish. Shaddai regards not, though all power be His to protect and deliver. But He will interpose, though men believe not, and saints are downcast, if not destroyed. Judgment is before Him. It is for the believer to wait on and for Him. Insolence of speech is none the less hateful because He not yet punishes. Job, therefore, had spoken to no purpose, and his words were multiplied without knowledge. It was sorrowful so to speak, but the truth.