Job 34:13

Then Elihu asks, "Who gave Him charge over the earth, and who laid on Him the whole world?" (v.13). He is asking in effect, "Is God answerable to anybody?" Did Job appoint God as the authority over the whole world? If so, of course then God would be answerable to Job! Indeed the opposite is true: Job, and every individual, is answerable to God.

Elihu dismisses the very thought of wrong in God, the Judge of all. And who or what was man, to sit in judgment on the Almighty? Was it Job, or anyone else, who put Him in charge of the earth? And who founded the universe? Creation owes both its existence and its upkeep to His selfless goodness. He had only to turn His care in upon Himself and gather back His life-giving Spirit. Then all flesh would breathe its last, and man, the highest creature here below, would return to dust.

Let Job look at God's providential care over His creation. It is His own, and not something committed to Him by another. Suppose, instead of remembering the need of His dependent creation, He were to turn His heart only to Himself. He is absolutely self-sufficient. He needs nothing from outside Himself... Suppose, says Elihu, He were to withdraw into that Divine Sufficiency. Suppose He set His heart on Himself, and not on man as our translation reads. What would become of His creation? "All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust" (v. 15).

Job 34 — The next point with Elihu is that God must be righteous. Job had said that he himself was righteous, and that God had denied him justice. If God were not righteous — indeed, the very fountain of righteousness — how could He govern?... Elihu exhorts Job to understand that God is righteous and in His righteousness He can act as He will... Seeing this to be so, the true place for Job was that of confession. "Surely it is right to say to God, I have borne my punishment — I will not offend any more."

Elihu compares such statements to the conduct of the wicked. By his own claims, Job was putting himself in their company... For surely, if we lose faith in God's righteousness, what is left? This is walking "in the counsel of the wicked," and that is far more dangerous than outward forms of evil. Such teaching means there is no profit in seeking to please God, or in having fellowship with Him.

Elihu had nothing of the idea many godly people hold today, that the world runs along well by the principle of gravity. There is no doubt that God gives the impulse to all the heavenly bodies, and to the earth among them. He gave them their motion, but it is God who keeps it up. Men put this down to second causes. Yet motion does not keep itself going forever. That is a great mistake; there is no such thing. It is God who keeps everything going. If God withdrew the direct action of His power for a moment, everything would collapse. That is what Elihu teaches here.