Job 34:15

"Far be it from God to do evil." "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). The Almighty can do everything, but "He cannot lie." "He cannot deny Himself." This ensures perfect and impartial justice in His dealings with men... How could God act wickedly or twist what is right? He would not be God if this were possible.

Note verse 14 in its true rendering, "Should He set His heart upon Himself," what then would become of man? All flesh would then expire and man would turn to dust again. But He does not set His heart upon Himself.

Verse 14 has been translated, "If He only thought of Himself, and gathered to Him His spirit and His breath;" then the result would be that all flesh would expire together and man return to the dust. Such is the greatness as well as the rightness of God.

Let Job look at God's providential care over His creation. It is His own, and not something committed to Him by another. He is self-sufficient. He needs nothing from outside Himself... Suppose, says Elihu, He were to turn back into that Divine Sufficiency. Suppose He set His heart on Himself, and not upon man as older versions read it. What would become of His creation? "All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust" (ver. 15). "You take away their breath, they die" (Ps. 104:29)... So Peter tells believers who are suffering to "entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good" (1 Peter 4:19). How good it is to remember this. The One who "upholds the universe by the word of His power" is also our Saviour, Lord and Friend.

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. In fact, if God so desired, He could "gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath" by which He gives life to all mankind. What would happen then? "All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust" (vv.14-15). How withering a rebuke to the pride of man! How clearly this tells us that we always depend on the power of God. He not only created us; He keeps us alive moment by moment.

"The preacher" speaks of death as touching both parts of man — the material and the spiritual. He says, "Then the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Eccles. 12:7). Elihu also speaks of the material and the spiritual. He says, "If He set His heart upon man, if He gathers to Himself His spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust" (Job 34:14-15). This Scripture gives us further light. It links the spirit with the thought of breath. That suggests the breath of life in Genesis 2:7 is the spirit of a man.