Job 33:13 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Job 33:13

Comments

Why, asks Elihu, do you contend with the Almighty God? Why do you enter into dispute with him as if you could expect him to start giving you answers to all the things that perplex you? This seems to be the only thing that would satisfy you and in effect you want to stop trusting him and have him fully explain himself to you before doing anything. Is he there only to answer you and to make life easy for you to understand? To think like this is to be greatly mistaken about the relationship between God and man. It is to fail to see that God is so much higher than us that we cannot begin to follow the complexity of his ways. Life is an experience which we must go through without knowing all the answers, without being in control ourselves. We are not the ones with our hands on the wheel, deciding what experiences to allocate; we could not safely take on such a role. God is the teacher of his people and some of the lessons he needs to teach us we would not be willing to teach ourselves. They include times of perplexity when our only way out is to trust him. Does the Christian really want a God who does nothing without asking his permission first? What sort of a parent would bring up his child only in ways that the child approved of. A child looks to a parent to have more wisdom than itself. The parent thinks of things that the child is not capable of thinking of, and the Lord trains his people with lessons the outcome of which we have not yet ever conceived. We are in the hands of one who knows all things and who can do all things. He does not impart his knowledge to us in an instant but he allows us to learn gradually, and above all he teaches us to trust him. Even when God spoke directly to Job, he did answer the questions that Job raised even though he appeared and spoke personally to his servant. But when Job was in a better state of mind he did not want answers to those questions.

Application

Later God actually does explain himself, but the point is that he is not bound to do so. We become precocious: ‘I want guidance – surely it is my right.’ Books on guidance start almost like this. A great deal of his guidance is sure, but without being totally clear. Maybe we would run a mile if God told us where we would be. The important thing is that we trust God so that we do not insist on an explanation.

Questions

Does this mean that we will never understand what he is doing? Not at all. We shall understand all things when the day comes that we no longer walk by faith but by sight. In that day God will greatly increase our knowledge and our understanding and it will be safe for us to have many answers to questions we wanted to know before. The reason that he hides things from us now, is partly because in our unglorified state we are not capable of understanding the answers, and partly because the training of our faith is of even greater value than having this knowledge.

Is he then indifferent to our perplexity and trials? Certainly not. He knows that all the suffering of this life is not worthy to compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Note that that glory is revealed not to us but in us. It is the result of life’s experience that we shall have this glory and it will be a part of us. This can only happen because of the experience of life on earth which God allocates to us.

Can we not ask the Lord for answers? Yes of course we can ask and we can pray, but always in a way that recognizes who he is and who we are. We cannot demand and we must be content with what answers we receive and not be petulant children. We must ask in the right spirit, a meek spirit that bows to his superior wisdom.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Job 33:13 Commentary and Bible Study