Job 33:16

Here Elihu rightly begins at the beginning. He starts with the first work of God in the man who does not know Him. It is grace working to wake up a soul that is not yet converted... This is exactly what marks out God's mercy when He appeals to the man who is not converted. His own will carries him away. But God knows how to bend it or break it.

"Then he opens the ears of men" (verse 16). That is what this chapter shows. It does not say "believing" men; it is any man, so that he may believe. Yet we do not always behave as believers. When that happens, we may get a little word that simply shows us where we are — that we are "walking as men," as the apostle said.

Elihu makes it plain that God does speak to man in this way. When the light of nature is gone, when all is silent, He speaks in "a still small voice" and makes His mind known. In this way He seals the instruction on the heart of man. His aim is to correct wrong thoughts and actions, to draw man back from "mischief," or from his own purpose, and to hide pride from man. The word for man here is geber, the hero or mighty man. This goes deeper than what a man does, for pride hides in the heart, and God would hide that pride from him — He keeps it from ruling him.

When there was no Bible, no written revelation of God, God spoke to individuals by dreams and visions. He does not do so any longer, for we have His finished Word, which makes His will known to us.

He may speak in a dream or a vision. Scripture records that He has often done so, and He clearly still does. It happens most with simple believers who know little of the Bible, and who may not even have much of it in their own language. Where believers have the Bible to teach them — a better kind of guidance — dreams in which God speaks are rare by comparison. And if God does speak to a man in a dream, what is it for? To change his course, and to humble his pride into the dust.

When God sends people dreams, He "opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction" (v.16). This is not to flatter man's pride, but the very opposite: "to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man" (v.17). In other words, if a dream is a warning against what I may be inclined to do, or if it humbles me, then I should take it to heart.

Then, too, "sickness" comes and strikes many. It stops all activity. The whirl of busy life gives way to the quiet of a bed of pain. This has done good to thousands. Then, "He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction" (Job 33:16). In the quiet they learn how worthless their own efforts are, and where they can find true peace.