Job 33:8-33

MAIN DISCOURSE, Job 33:8-33.

Elihu’s long-protracted preamble is followed by citations from Job’s impetuous and imprudent words. (Job 33:9.) In his efforts at self-justification Job had exaggerated his own righteousness and impeached the righteousness of God. Divine silence is no sign of divine forgetfulness. God has various ways of addressing men, and, while apparently antagonizing them, of really consulting their highest interests those of the soul. Through dreams, (type of inward monitions,) through sickness, and through the mediation of the angel whose supremacy is marked, God communes with man that he may withdraw him from the pursuit of evil. Affliction has other ends than those of punishment. They are preventive (prophylactic) and remedial. Inward monitions and painful chastisements prepare the way for the angel mediator. Hearkening to him, man shall find favour with God, and a renovation of body and soul that shall well forth with the highest joy.

First division ELIHU REHEARSES SEVERAL OF THE OBJECTIONABLE UTTERANCES OF JOB, AND IN SO DOING LAYS OUT TO A CERTAIN EXTENT THE GROUNDWORK OF HIS DISCOURSES. Job 33:8-11. (See STICKEL’S Hiob, 232-236, or DAVIDSON’S Job, pp. xxxviii-xli.)