“But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words.
Job's three friends have run out of arguments. A younger listener named Elihu now turns from them and speaks straight to Job. He asks first for attention, not agreement. Why should Job hear one more voice, when so many words have already failed him?
Elihu's first word to [Job
Chapter 33](osis:Job.33) is where Elihu stops explaining his silence and begins his message. One summary of the whole chapter marks out the source behind the speaker:
The Bible TreasuryThis is a very complete and wonderful chapter. It is Elihu's first word to Job, speaking to him as for God, of God, from God.
A request, not a sentence
The verse is an appeal. Elihu asks Job to hear him out, and he leaves the door open for Job to reply:
Samuel RidoutLastly, he turns to Job, not in the anger which will find a place later, but calmly and graciously. He asks Job to listen to him, because everything will be dealt with fairly. His wisdom comes not merely from human knowledge or experience, but is from the Almighty. Job is free to answer him if he does not accept his statements, for he, as well as Elihu, has a link with God.
Why the earlier speeches were never heard
Asking to be heard is one thing; deserving a hearing is another. The three friends had talked at length and changed nothing, and commentators trace that failure to what their words lacked:
C. H. MackintoshThey could fix their cold, grey eye on the wounds of their poor afflicted friend, and wonder how they came there... They had wholly misunderstood the dealings of God. They had never grasped the full moral force of that one weighty sentence, "The LORD tests the righteous." In a word, they were completely astray. Their standpoint was false, and so their whole range of vision was defective. There was neither "grace" nor "truth" in their ministry, and so they failed to convince Job. They condemned him without convincing him. They should have convinced him, and made him condemn himself.
What listening will bring
Elihu's call to listen is worth obeying because of what comes next:
William KellyBut in Job 33 we find the first great principle introduced for meeting the question of Job. He begins to open the moral reason for God's dealings, and for those trials under which Job had been groaning.
Nothing in the speaker to frighten Job
Job feared that God's own voice would overwhelm him. Elihu meets that fear by standing on the same ground as the man he speaks to:
F. B. HoleSo in the opening verses of Job 33, we find him making two claims. First, he claims his words will carry uprightness and purity, as fits someone who has his being and life from God. Second, that though he would speak on God's behalf, he himself was a man, "formed of the clay," just as Job was. Job had said of God, "let not dread of Him terrify me" (Job 9:34). Yet what Elihu had to say, as interpreting God's ways, would bring no terror to Job's spirit. Just as our Lord Jesus became a Man, bringing God to us without any sense of terror.
The interpreter Job had wished for
Elihu's coming is itself a mercy, and it points past him to someone greater:
William KellyJob's heart went out towards God, but he was afraid it would be too overwhelming. He wanted to find Him, and yet he was still afraid. He wanted someone who could speak to him in a human tongue — who could speak thoroughly for God. Well, Elihu does that in his measure. Elihu is an interpreter, one of a thousand, so he does speak for God. That is just what Job had wanted — only very far short of the Great Interpreter... Still the presence of Elihu is a witness to sovereign grace. It is the rarest thing in the world to find a man who has learnt so much from God as Elihu had. And it was deliberately meant to bring down the pride of the older men... He does not go round Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, showing how wrong they had been. He is occupied with Job instead — and that is a very fine trait in him.
Summary
- Heard — The verse is a plea for attention. Elihu asks calmly and kindly, and leaves Job free to answer back.
- Failed — The friends spoke long and convinced no one. Their words held neither grace nor truth. They condemned Job without ever bringing him to condemn himself.
- Fitted — Job can hear Elihu, because Elihu is formed of the same clay. His words carry God's message without God's terror.
- Forward — Here the moral reason behind Job's suffering starts to open. Listening is what breaks the deadlock.
- Foreshadowing — Job wanted someone to speak for God in human words. Elihu does it in his measure, and still falls far short of Christ, the Great Interpreter.