Job 33:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 33:14

Comments

Throughout the next block of verses, ending with verse 30, Elihu considers the way in which God speaks to men and women, and in particular how he has spoken to Job. ‘For God speaketh once, yea twice’, that is, more than once. Though we do not know how many times God will speak to us, and can never presume on his mercy, he often gives more than one warning that we are out of the way, and opportunity to repent. God does speak, even though he is not bound to do so, but nevertheless we do not listen. When he speaks we don’t listen, and yet when we want to know, we demand his answer instantly.The issue with Job has not been his failure to recognise inspired revelation. It has been his failure to accept what God was saying to him personally in his walk as a believer. So why does Elihu speak of forms of communication which we associate with the impartation of inspired truth to prophets? Matthew Henry comments that there was not then as far as we know any divine revelation in writing, and therefore that is not here mentioned among the ways by which God speaks to men, though now it is the principal way. At that time the ways by which God personally corrected his children necessarily involved personal revelation which we would associate with divine inspiration. Elihu speaks of various modes such as dreams and visions of the night and even of the chastisement of painful illness, a reference no doubt to the ways in which God has already been speaking to Job and which he has failed to respond to. Job had complained that God had been inaccessible to him, but God, Elihu insists, had been speaking to him all along, only Job had not recognised his voice. Why not? Because the message of God did not give Job the answer he wanted to hear. He ought to have heard the voice of a loving heavenly Father who would never finally let him go but who wished to teach even the man who, by comparison with many, was blameless and upright and had no equal on the earth. Job had further lessons to learn and God wished to give him further advanced instruction in the life of faith. God opens the ears of men and seals their instruction. He makes it sufficiently clear that it is he that is speaking to them and so that they know what they have to do. Job ought to have known that he was being corrected, and he ought to have responded to that correction with repentance and humility before the point where he was forced to do so by the Lord appearing to him.

Application

Far from remaining silent and leaving the believer in isolation, God is constantly talking to him and he expects that his children to take note of these intimations. He speaks through the promptings of conscience, a gentle voice to begin with but one which gets more uncomfortable as we resist. He speaks through providences which in turn stimulate conscience, for the believer is right to read events as coming from a heavenly Father who expects us to see his hand in the twists and turns of our lives, and he speaks through direct instruction from ministers (Matthew Henry). Certainly if God persists in addressing us even though we are slow to learn, it is because he is concerned about us and does not willingly leave us in ignorance or sin. Some Christians love to feel that God gives impressions about this and that – but Elihu says it is mainly about sanctification that God speaks. All that God does is to bring you into experimental relationship with himself, not to drive us away. The effort of the devil is to get us away from this, and to know no warmth or challenge. We must listen to God’s word daily. Everything in our lives has this design. All God’s dealings are gracious.

A man is about to commit some evil deed. God sees it clearly and if the man examined his heart and did not try to deceive himself, he would also see it. If he is a child of God then his loving heavenly Father does not ignore this but, consistent with his fatherly care, he deals with us as with sons and chastens us (Hebrews 12:7). He comes to us, Elihu suggests, by one of these means and prompts us because he sees that his gentlest mode of communication – conscience – is about to be overridden. Instructed conscience ought to e enough and we have no right to require anything else, but God is gracious to us and does not leave us to perish, which is what we would do if he did not intervene. God conceals pride from man in the sense that he makes it hard for us to behave in the way that we want to behave, a way that is motivated by pride. His correction has the effect of hiding our pride from us because the path that would have exercised our pride becomes repugnant to us as we see how offensive it is to God.

Questions

Does this passage refer to God’s authoritative inspired revelation to human beings, or to his personal guidance of individual believers, or both? Among other things Elihu is talking about dreams (verse 15). It is true that God sometimes gave revelation to the patriarchs in the form of dreams. In a dream Jacob was told by the Angel of God which of Laban’s rams to take, and Laban and Abimelech were warned in dreams to do no harm to God’s servants. Joseph was taught in a dream what would be the course and purpose of his life, and through dreams he was given understanding of events in the lives of others. It was God’s common way of speaking to prophets to reveal truth in a dream (Numbers 12:6), even though to Moses God used more direct means of communication. But here Elihu speaks in the context of Job’s demand that God explain why his life has taken the course that it has. God, Elihu has just said, does not give an accounting of any of his words or ways. This does not mean that he is unwilling to reveal his truth to men, but it does mean that he does not give an exhaustive explanation of all his actions that answers every question curious man would like to ask. Elihu is speaking of how God prompts the consciences of all his children particularly in matters of personal discipline. This prompting is something which the individual may fail to recognise (verse 14) so that it needs to be repeated, or the form of communication changed. That is not the sort of communication which was given to prophets and inspired writers, for they knew when they had received divine communication. Sometimes God also uses a terrifying dream to deal with people and to stir the conscience, bringing them to repentance, not to give authoritative teaching. We may dream of committing some sin, and when awake again shrink back in horror at what we might have done.

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Job 33:14 Commentary and Bible Study