He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.
God is great. Yet this verse puts Him next to people in pain — and the pain itself is the tool in His hand. Elihu is speaking about how God deals with the righteous. The question pressing on Job is simple. Does suffering prove God has turned away, or prove He is watching closely?
Greatness that stoops
Elihu first clears away a suspicion: that a God this vast has no care for one broken man.
Samuel RidoutIn one word he sweeps away the unholy suspicions Job had held — "God is mighty, and does not despise any." He is infinite in power, yet He looks with compassion on the feeblest of His creatures. He shows Himself just as clearly in both extremes — the infinitely great, and the infinitely small. How comforting is the truth, "He does not despise any!" His greatness is never the occasion for scorn.
Kelly notes that people assume the opposite — that a majestic God has no time for small things:
William KellyIt is all the other way. God shows His might by being able to grasp everything, and by taking notice of the smallest insect and caring about it... God disciplines man to win him to Himself. That discipline is far stricter over the righteous man, to keep him right.
Why the righteous are bound
These chains are not punishment for God's enemies. They fall on the people He watches over.
F. B. HoleGod does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous; He keeps them always under observation, and in the end He exalts them as kings. Yet before that happy end is reached, He may allow them to be "bound in fetters" and "held in cords of affliction," just as poor Job was at that moment. And if He does allow this, it is for a purpose... Notice, it is the righteous who are dealt with in this way. Even an Abraham and a Job, though righteous, were not sinless. God aims His discipline at people like these, rather than at those who shut God out of their lives.
The opened ear
The phrase "opens their ear" names the goal. Trouble is not the message. It is what makes people hear it.
Leslie M. GrantWhen God allows people to be bound in cords of affliction (v.8), His object is to get their ear. He then tells them where they have transgressed and acted defiantly. That gives people the opportunity to listen and to turn from iniquity (vv.9-10). Job's earlier life had not been a life of iniquity. But his bold criticism of God certainly was iniquity, little as he realised it.
Delivered by it, not only out of it
We expect rescue from affliction. Ridout weighs the small words "in" and "by", and adds what we can now say that Elihu could not.
Samuel RidoutNaturally Elihu cannot go beyond the present life... With the added light we now have, we can speak of "this light momentary affliction," though it lasts a lifetime... The despiser will meet his doom with all the unclean, but God will save the humble sufferer, "in" and indeed "by" his affliction. It "works out" blessing for him.
Older translations read "in his affliction" here, while this one reads "by their affliction." Ridout keeps both.
The test that some fail
The same trouble tests everyone, and not everyone passes. Elihu describes people who stay silent when God binds them.
Leslie M. Grant"They do not cry for help when He binds them." When the Lord puts them in a bind, they fail the test completely. How can a hypocrite honestly cry to the Lord for help? Their own hypocrisy defeats them... In contrast, God delivers the poor who know how to cry to Him honestly. The affliction and oppression they suffer are the test by which God "opens their ears" to listen to Him.
Where Job himself was caught
Elihu applies all of this to the man in front of him.
The Bible TreasuryJob ought to understand this: "He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous." "He opens also their ear to discipline." "He delivers the afflicted by their affliction." Here Job had failed. He had been busy justifying himself, instead of letting his ear be opened to discipline... When I have a true sense of what He is, the effect must be to humble myself under His mighty hand, and to wait on Him.
Darby separates two kinds of dealing in the book, and says what discipline taught him:
J. N. DarbyIn Job 33 it is inward things that have to be corrected; it is correcting a disposition, to withdraw man from his purpose. In Job 36 it is actual failure, discipline for positive faults... There are many things to correct in me, which hinder me feeling the love. I know it better, the more I am disciplined and exercised.
Summary
- Greatness. God "does not despise any" — His size is never a reason for scorn, and He sees the feeblest creature with compassion.
- Attention. He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous. The chains fall on people He is watching, not people He has left.
- Purpose. The affliction has an object: getting the ear, so He can name what has gone wrong and give the chance to turn.
- Method. He saves the humble sufferer not just out of the trouble but by it — the trouble itself works out the blessing.
- Response. The test divides. Some will not cry when He binds them. Job's failure was justifying himself instead of listening. The cure is to bow under God's mighty hand and wait.