Job 33:1-18
1 "But please, Job, hear my speech,
And listen to all my words.
2 Now, I open my mouth;
My tongue speaks in my mouth.
3 My words come from my upright heart;
My lips utter pure knowledge.
4 The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
5 If you can answer me,
Set your words in order before me;
Take your stand.
6 Truly I am as your spokesman before God;
I also have been formed out of clay.
7 Surely no fear of me will terrify you,
Nor will my hand be heavy on you.
8 "Surely you have spoken in my hearing,
And I have heard the sound of your words, saying,
9 'I am pure, without transgression;
I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me.
10 Yet He finds occasions against me,
He counts me as His enemy;
11 He puts my feet in the stocks,
He watches all my paths.'
12 "Look, in this you are not righteous.
I will answer you,
For God is greater than man.
13 Why do you contend with Him?
For He does not give an accounting of any of His words.
14 For God may speak in one way, or in another,
Yet man does not perceive it.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falls upon men,
While slumbering on their beds,
16 Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction.
17 In order to turn man from his deed,
And conceal pride from man,
18 He keeps back his soul from the Pit,
And his life from perishing by the sword.
Elihu exhorted Job by correcting his errant thinking. He first asked Job to really listen and not just hear his words of advice. He then spoke of his utter sincerity of heart as a fellow creation of God’s hand, as a brother. Then he asked Job to take the stand and consider his answers well in the sight of God by implication. Elihu Offered himself as an advocate for Job to represent him before God, promising not to terrify or be a threat to his client on the stand. He continued by repeating Job’s testimony of his defense before God and the three counselors whom Job had been speaking with up till that point. He represented Job’s defense in his own words by which Job had declared himself sinless and innocent, yet blaming God for unjustly punishment and under scrutiny, as if His enemy. Elihu States clearly and bluntly that Job is not righteous by saying these things, just as we are not righteous by blaming God for suffering in the world as if any good works we have done could ever make us blameless in innocence before Him. Our works are never perfect, and are as dirty and torn garments before His perfect purity (Isaiah 64:6, Philippians 3:9). We are definitely not without sin as Job claimed here nor as we would like to think (Psalm 53:1-3, Romans 3:10, 19-20, 23). Only God is righteous, and our righteousness is His alone, imputed or accounted as if ours, in Him alone. Elihu Then asked Job why he argues with God, expecting Him to account for His words and actions to Job. God does not need to justify Himself, but communicates to man as He sees fit, by His word in unclear ways like parables (Psalm 78:2) or dreams at night (Numbers 12:6, Psalm 17:3). They do not understand until God opens men’s ears to hear to instruct them and to turn them from sin to Him and overturn their pride, keeping man from death and destruction. This is an apt analogy of all of us before God’s certain judgment. We are all sinners, blind and deaf to His word and righteousness, needing Him to give us ears to hear and eyes to see our state and His holiness, to find deliverance from deserved punishment, just and certain for us all. We need His righteousness because we have none in or of ourselves; we need a mediator who is perfect and sinless (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 9:14-15, 26-28, 10:14). That man is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gospel of grace, of undeserved mercy on our hopeless state. We therefore need this correction for our presumed righteousness (Romans 5:19), just as Job required. Dependence on Christ alone is our Independence Day from the unrighteousness of sin and our just due of its wages earned by our rebellion against God.
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