But now God comes, and does both, convinces Job first of his unadvised speaking and makes him cry, Peccavi-I have done wrong and, having humbled him, he puts honour upon him, by convincing his three friends that they had done him wrong. Elihu had silenced Job, and yet could not bring him to acknowledge his mismanagement of this dispute. Job had silenced his three friends, and yet could not convince them of his integrity in the main. When we know not who is in the right, and perhaps are doubtful whether we ourselves are, this may satisfy us, That God will determine shortly in the valley of decision, Joel 3 14. When they had all had their saying, and yet had not gained their point, then it was time for God to interpose, whose judgment is according to truth. 33 14) but this they could not but perceive, and yet we have a more sure word of prophecy, 2 Pet 1 19. Elihu had said, God speaks to men and they do not perceive it ( ch. Here he begins with the creation of the world, there with the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, and from both is inferred the necessity of our subjection to him. The same speaks here that afterwards spoke from Mount Sinai. Who speaks- The Lord, Jehovah, not a created angel, but the eternal Word himself, the second person in the blessed Trinity, for it is he by whom the worlds were made, and that was no other than the Son of God. God Answers Out of the Whirlwind (1520 B.C.)ฤก Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now thy loins like a man for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. If, in these ordinary works of nature, Job was puzzled, how durst he pretend to dive into the counsels of God's government and to judge of them? In this (as bishop Patrick observes) God takes up the argument begun by Elihu (who came nearest to the truth) and prosecutes it in inimitable words, excelling his, and all other men's, in the loftiness of the style, as much as thunder does a whisper. And lastly, he could not provide for the lions and the ravens, ver 39-41. He could do nothing towards the production of the rain, or frost, or lightning ( ver 28-30, 34, 35, 37, 38), nothing towards the directing of the stars and their influences ( ver 31-33), nothing towards the making of his own soul, ver 36. Nothing of the springs in the clouds ( ver 22-27), nor the secret counsels by which they are directed. Nothing of the dark recesses of the sea and earth, ver 16-21. Nothing of the limiting of the sea, ver 8-11. He knew nothing of the founding of the earth, ver 4-7. He proceeds in divers particular instances and proofs of Job's utter inability to contend with God, because of his ignorance and weakness: for, 1. He begins with an awakening challenge and demand in general, ver 2, 3. That which the great God designs in this discourse is to humble Job, and bring him to repent of, and to recant, his passionate indecent expressions concerning God's providential dealings with him and this he does by calling upon Job to compare God's eternity with his own time, God's omniscience with his own ignorance, and God's omnipotence with his own impotency. It is the office of ministers to prepare the way of the Lord. And now, at length, God does speak, when Job, by Elihu's clear and close arguings was mollified a little, and mortified, and so prepared to hear what God had to say. Job's friends had sometimes appealed to God too: "O that God would speak!" ch. It is not so easy a matter as some think it to contest with the Almighty. Job had often appealed to God, and had talked boldly how he would order his cause before him, and as a prince would he go near unto him but, when God took the throne, Job had nothing to say in his own defence, but was silent before him. But, after all the wranglings of the counsel at bar, the judge upon the bench must have the last word so God had here, and so he will have in every controversy, for every man's judgment proceeds from him and by his definitive sentence every man must stand or fall and every cause be won or lost. Job's friends had, in this controversy, tamely yielded it to Job, and then he to Elihu. In most disputes the strife is who shall have the last word.
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