Appearance of Elihu: the Motives of His Address
E. Johnson Job 32:1-33:7 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.… I. HIS CHARACTER INDICATED. (Vers. 1-6.) In a few touches the temper and spirit of this new speaker are set before us. 1. His warm piety, which could not tolerate the confidence and the self-justifying spirit of Job. His sense of the greatness of God and his holiness is so profound that he cannot endure what seems to be the bold and haughty attitude of the creature. His feeling seems to be, "Let God be true, and every man a liar!" 2. His spirit of justice, which was indignant at the unfairness of the friends, who held Job for guilty, and condemned him without being able to give an answer to his plea. These are two grand elements in a noble character. Without zeal for God and his righteousness, our sympathy for the suffering may degenerate into a sickly and immoral sentimentalism. But without feeling for the wrongs of the oppressed, without the passion for justice, our zeal for God will become an unholy and pernicious fire. This last has been the cause of many of those terrible persecutions which have defaced the history of the world. Let us beware in our spirit and temper of these extremes-and avoid either dishonouring God through a weak pity for mere suffering, or being cruel to men through a zeal for God. Zeal is a good servant, but a bad master; the spring of heroic deeds or of dreadful crimes. 3. His modesty and respect, shown by his keeping silence in the presence of his elders, so long as they might desire to speak. As the shade to a figure in a picture, so does modesty impart a strength and beauty to the character; it adds to virtue the charm that chastity adds to beauty. But there is a limit to every grace; and modesty becomes a weakness if it leads a man to withhold truth from the world, or to keep his mouth shut whoa flue "word in season" ought to be spoken. II. THE EXPLANATION OF ELIHU'S INTERFERENCE (Vers. 6-10.) His modest sense of his own youth and his respect for their age held him back in the presence of his seniors. But, on the other hand, conscience and the inspiration of God's truth within him impelled him to speak. This little fragment is very instructive, and yields several important lessons. There is a lesson of prudence and tact. The speaker should ever seek to gain the good will of his audience, by laying aside every appearance of assumption or conceit, by testimonies of graceful respect for his audience. Especially should this rule be kept in mind by those who have the most important truths to deliver. Before sowing the seed let the ill weeds be rooted out, and the soil be well broken up. We must try to soften the minds of our hearers as a preparative for impressing them. Augustine says, "He who strives to persuade others to goodness should neglect none of these three things: to please, to teach, to sway their minds; thus he will be heard gladly, intelligently, obediently. But higher than these is the lesson of conscientiousness - attention to the voice within. The Spirit of God finds its truest echo in the conscience. All distinctions of persons and of age fade away in presence of this supreme truth. For wisdom depends not on age, but on the Divine illumination. Well for us if we can forget in whose presence we are speaking, whether younger or elder, richer or poorer, wiser or more unlearned, because absorbed like Elihu in the sense of God's truth and the desire for his glory. Let no man despise thy youth" (1 Timothy 4:12). If young men have a sound knowledge of Divine things, the elder need not be ashamed to listen and learn from them. III. THE JUSTIFICATION OF ELIHU'S INTERFERENCE. (Vers. 11-22.) In this passage his character and spirit are further unfolded in points that are worthy of admiration and imitation. 1. His love of reason: He waited expectantly to hear some satisfactory reply from the friends to Job's clear arguments and statements in self-vindication. He expected either that they would confute him, or that they would candidly admit they were worsted in the strife. "We found wisdom (in Job); God can strike him, not man." His wisdom is so superior to ours that God only can drive him from the field (ver. 13). This is a lesson on the morals of controversy. Meet your antagonist with resin for reason; and, when you can do so no longer, be willing to own yourself beaten. Reasonableness and candour, the desire to persuade others or to be persuaded one's self of the truth, - this is the chivalry of controversy; these are the jewels that shine amidst the cloud of words; the precious balsam-drops that these woeful wars distil. A sullen conspiracy of silence is the retreat and fortress of the dishonourable and the coward. 2. His depth of heart. Elihu is not convinced by Job; his mind teems with matter of deep and living truth. His is no shallow logic of the schools, which falls powerless upon the true heart armed with the justice of its cause. His is no fool's bolt, soon shot, and leaving him in helplessness. His bosom is like a skin of new wine; he is bursting to tell forth all that experience and reflection have taught him concerning the truths of life. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Let us harvest the instruction of time, lay up a good store of heart-memories, that we may ever have a good and useful word to speak in season. Let us take care of those strong impulses that they are true and pure before we speak; but never hesitate to speak when we are conscious that God is inspiring us. To be led by the Spirit, we must walk in the Spirit. 3. His fearless sincerity. He has no respect of persons when truth is concerned, reverential as he otherwise is in the presence of his elders. He will not flatter; he does not understand the base art. The fear of God is before his eyes. "Flatterers are the worst kind of traitors," says Sir Walter Raleigh. He who is true to God and to himself will never distil this poison from his tongue. In Elihu, then, we have the picture of what a man should be, of what we all should desire in a friend - fairness, honour, candour; sympathy and affection based upon the only sure foundation, love of truth, piety toward God. IV. ELIHU'S SPECIAL APPEAL TO JOB FOR A PATIENT HEARING. (Job 33:1-7.) Here we see the following traits: 1. Intense earnestness. (Vers. 1, 2.) For these opening words, which might seem to our Western ears like a "beating about the bush," are in fact Oriental phrases by which the speaker calls the most solemn attention to, and lays the greatest weight upon, what he is about to speak. Such opening formulae may be found in Matthew 5:2; Acts 10:34; 2 Corinthians 6:11. Let it be clear in one way or another to those who listen that we mean what we say, that we are not talking to fill up time, or using words to conceal the void of thought. 2. Perfect sincerity. (Ver. 3.) His sayings am the straightforward utterances of his heart, very different from the stale and secondhand commonplaces of the three friends. True eloquence, like the substance of every virtue and every art, is in the heart. The bullet finds its way to the mark, according to the old legend, that has been first dipped in the marksman's blood. Words that come from the heart will reach to the heart. 3. The sense of dependence upon God (ver. 4), for all light and wisdom, which, while it makes a man humble, makes him truly confident and strong. God's Spirit has made him. He appeals to no special inspiration, however, but simply to that genuine human wisdom, that common sense which he recognizes to be a Divine endowment. It is a mark of true piety to own the presence of the Divine Spirit in all the ordinary as well as the extraordinary gifts of intelligence. It is this that chastens, sweetens, and sanctifies the use of every bright talent of the mind and heart. 4. Fellow-feeling. (Vers. 6, 7.) He does not pretend to stand nearer to God than the fellow-man he has arisen to comfort and instruct. He is made of the same clay, moulded by the hand of the Divine Potter. Therefore Job has not to fear an unequal struggle with Elihu as he has with God. Would that all teachers would remember this! The artificial distinctions of life, as prince or peasant, lettered or unlettered, mean but little; those of talent, character, and attainment have a certain value; but the common constitution God has given us is the great ground of appeal, the great source of authority. Those are the best teachers who most deeply read and interpret this common nature; and every truth must at last be certified, not by the ipse dixit of a dogmatizing teacher, but by the utterance of the universal heart and conscience. - J. Parallel Verses KJV: So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. WEB: So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.