Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Job
Book: Job
Chapter: 33
Overview:
Elihu offers to reason with
Job.
(1-7) Elihu blames
Job for
reflecting upon
God.
(8-13) God calls men to
Repentance.
(14-18)
God sends
Afflictions for good.
(19-28) Elihu entreats
Job's
attention.
(29-33)
1-7 Job had desired a
Judge to decide his
Appeal.
Elihu was one
according to his wish, a
Man like himself. If we would rightly
convince men, it must be
By reason, not
By terror;
By fair
argument, not
By a heavy
Hand.
8-13 Elihu charges
Job with reflecting upon the
Justice and
Goodness of God. When we hear any thing said to
God's dishonour,
we ought to
Bear our
Testimony against it.
Job had represented
God as severe in marking what he did amiss.
Elihu urges that he
had spoken wrong, and that he ought to humble himself before
God, and
By Repentance to unsay it.
God is not accountable to
us. It is unreasonable for weak, sinful creatures, to strive
with a
God of infinite
Wisdom, power, and
Goodness. He
Acts with
perfect
Justice,
Wisdom, and
Goodness, where we cannot perceive
it.
14-18 God speaks to us
By Conscience,
By providences, and
By
ministers; of all these
Elihu discourses. There was not then,
that we know of, any Divine
Revelation in
Writing, though now it
is our principal guide. When
God designs men's good,
By the
convictions and dictates of their own consciences, he opens the
Heart, as
Lydia's, and opens the ears,
So that conviction finds
or
Forces its way in. The
End and design of these admonitions
are to keep men from
Sin, particularly the
Sin of pride. While
sinners are pursuing evil purposes, and indulging their pride,
their souls are hastening to
Destruction. That which turns men
from
Sin, saves them from
Hell. What a
Mercy it is to be under
the restraints of an awakened
Conscience!
19-28 Job complained of his diseases, and judged
By them that
God was angry with him; his friends did
So too: but
Elihu shows
that
God often afflicts the body for good to the soul. This
thought will be of great use for our getting good from sickness,
in and
By which
God speaks to men. Pain is the
Fruit of
Sin;
yet,
By the
Grace of
God, the pain of the body is often made a
means of good to the soul. When
Afflictions have done their
work, they shall be removed. A
Ransom or
Propitiation is found.
Jesus Christ is the
Messenger and the
Ransom,
So Elihu calls
him, as
Job had called him his
Redeemer, for he is both the
Purchaser and the Price, the
Priest and the
Sacrifice.
So high
was the value of souls, that nothing less would redeem them; and
So great the hurt done
By Sin, that nothing less would atone for
it, than the
Blood of the
Son of God, who gave his
Life a
Ransom
for many. A blessed change follows. Recovery from sickness is a
Mercy indeed, when it proceeds from the remission of
Sin. All
that truly repent of their sins, shall find
Mercy with
God. The
Works of
Darkness are unfruitful
Works; all the gains of
Sin
will come far short of the damage. We must, with a broken and
contrite
Heart, confess our sins to
God, 1Jo 1:9. We must
confess the fact of
Sin; and not try to justify or excuse
ourselves. We must confess the fault of
Sin; I have perverted
that which was right. We must confess the folly of
Sin;
So
foolish have I been and ignorant. Is there not good reason why
we should make such a
Confession?
29-33 Elihu shows that
God's great and gracious design toward
the children of men, is, to save them from being for ever
miserable, and to bring them to be for ever happy.
By whatever
means we are kept back from the
Pit, we shall
Bless the
Lord for them
at last, and should
Bless him for them now, though they be painful
and distressing. Those that perish for ever are without excuse,
for they would not be healed.