Elihu's Second Discourse: Man has no Right to Doubt of God's Fustier
E. Johnson Job 34:1-37 Furthermore Elihu answered and said,… 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. Parallel Verses KJV: Furthermore Elihu answered and said, WEB: Moreover Elihu answered,