Job 33:8

Though speaking kindly to Job, Elihu must also speak faithfully. He does not question how Job had lived, but with what Job had clearly spoken. Job's friends had heard this, and Elihu also. He therefore faithfully quotes what Job had said: "I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me. Yet He counts me as His enemy; He puts my feet in the stocks. He watches all my paths." Of course Job could not deny that he had said this. So Elihu had a firm basis for his message to Job.

Elihu refers to many of Job's own statements in proof of the dishonour done to God. Some of these he quotes exactly; for others he gives the substance of much that Job had said. Compare such statements as these: "You know that I am not guilty" (Job 10:7); "till I die I will not put away my integrity from me" (Job 27:5).

Elihu's chief concern throughout is the vindication of God's character from the accusations cast upon it by Job. He is not so much occupied with what Job had done or what he was, though he entertains no unworthy suspicions. Job had spoken things in his hearing which he could not allow to pass without reproof. This is as it should be. God must always be first, and His honour the chief concern of those who know Him. In this Job had sadly failed.

Here it is that Elihu stands out in vivid contrast. He tells Job the truth, but he lays no heavy hand upon him. Elihu has learned the great, mysterious power of "a low whisper" — the grace that quiets the soul and melts the heart. Job had spoken a lot of false notions about himself. Those notions grew from a root, and the sharp axe of "truth" had to be laid to that root.

Job really had used some very improper words. But should we take no account of his friends' provocation, and of his extreme agony in soul and body? Beyond a doubt Job had gone too far. It was quite true that there was no such hidden wickedness as his friends insinuated. But God did have the wisest reasons for withering self in Job's eyes, and to say otherwise was utterly false.

Although he was so clean, so innocent, so free from iniquity, he still says of God that "He finds occasions against me, He counts me as His enemy. He puts my feet in the stocks, He watches all my paths." Here is an obvious contradiction. How could a holy, just, and righteous Being count a pure and innocent man His enemy? Impossible. Either Job was self-deceived, or God was unrighteous. Elihu, as the minister of truth, is not long in giving a verdict and telling us which is which. "Behold, in this you are not right; I will answer you, for God is greater than man." What a simple truth! And yet how little understood!