Job 36:5 Commentary and Bible Study

This refers to the being of God. The statesman may be mighty in office, but when you get to know him you are disappointed. But God is truly mighty and what we know of him is far less than the reality. We can set no limit on his might; he is almighty, his might is unsearchable. Job has said as much (Job 9:4-10; 12:13-25; 26:7-14) and Elihu concedes this, but then contradicts Job, ‘and despiseth not any’, for Job had said, ‘Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?’ (Job 10:3). He had alleged that although God has great power, he does not use it fairly, but in an arbitrary way. Elihu denies that God could ever do this. God is mighty in wisdom, the very attribute needed to manage all the affairs of men at once and to apportion to each one what is right. He is not short of skill in handling so many different concerns at once as if he has to compromise his justice by applying a less than perfect providence to one in order to avoid hurting another. Nor is he indifferent to any so that he fails to punish the wicked or to reward the righteous; we live in a world which is under a perfectly just government. Although justice is not complete in this world and the world is under the curse, this does not mean that perfect justice has been abandoned. God is doing other things as well in this world which sometimes make it hard to see his justice at work: he is training his children through discipline and trials; he has allowed the principle of death to come into the world and to reign over the righteous and the wicked, so that all must come to him for life, for only the Lord Jesus Christ can overcome such a great enemy. But unlike the great ones of this world, God does not despise even the poorest and meanest of his subjects: Job is entirely wrong in this. He is kind, tender to all. He knows everything: the deep, the complicated. Nothing is hidden from the eye of God. The main cause of spiritual depression is number one: my failure, my problems, how does this affect me? We ought to be thinking of God’s purposes, plans, character. One of the worst things about depression is that we have come to the centre of the stage. Elihu points out that the basis of communication with God is starting, not with our problems, but with God – his character, his power, his kindness, his strength.