Job 33:33

Job 33:29-30. Elihu tells Job that these are samples of God's way in saving souls. Job 33:31-33. He asks Job at the last, as at the first, whether he had anything to say.

And now, Job, what have you to say to all this? Elihu wants to bring out Job's true condition. He would not justify his wrong, but would treat him with complete fairness. He pauses for a reply. He will not force Job, but does Job not agree with what he has heard? May we not read his silence as an admission that what we have been dwelling on is true?

He invites Job to speak out plainly, if he has anything to say. Elihu was not putting Job down, as his friends did; he wanted Job to be justified. He did not mean that Job should justify himself, for that was already Job's tragic mistake. No doubt he wanted Job justified from God's viewpoint. God justified the tax collector rather than the Pharisee, when the tax collector prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" (Luke 18:13-14).

Elihu speaks against his own wish. He stands in front of men he would gladly have learned from, if only they could have taught him the mind of God. Yet he is careful to stand for nothing except what comes from God. He has learned, as never before, that spiritual wisdom is of God's Spirit, not of a man's age. It is the very opposite of self-confidence or boasting, though his heart is so full that he has to speak.

On what other ground could a younger man speak, and correct everyone who had gone before? He kept silent until even Job had no more to say. He spoke only when Job, as much as his friends, could not help feeling that the riddle was still unexplained. That silence is the strongest proof of how little he deserves the charge of being bold, forward, meddling, conceited, arrogant, or boastful. He certainly shows in the clearest light how completely those failed who had condemned Job without answering him, and who did it with hints that condemned themselves.

After this glowing speech, in which Elihu brings in God in His grace, he turns to Job. "Have you anything to say? Then answer me." But Elihu waits in vain. Job's lips are sealed.

Elihu had asked Job to speak if he had anything to say. Now he tells him, and rightly, "If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom" (v. 33). Job then had nothing to say. No doubt he recognised that Elihu's message was higher than he had thought, and he wisely chose to listen.