Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction.
Elihu is finishing his long appeal to Job. Here he presses one sharp warning: in his pain, Job is drifting toward something worse than the pain. The verse puts a question to every sufferer. If a wrong turn could end your trouble, would you take it?
The Choice Elihu Saw Job Making
Elihu points to the real danger. It is not Job's loss, but his answer to it.
Leslie M. GrantHe did not want Job to fail the test by turning to the iniquity of judging God. This was the bad fault Job had chosen, instead of bowing in faith to the affliction that tried him.
The iniquity here is not one of the crimes his friends charged him with. It is what a good man reaches for when suffering closes in.
F. B. HoleElihu's warning to Job came at the right time, above all verse 21. Job shrank from the "affliction," and so he turned to the "iniquity" of maintaining his own righteousness. But affliction is better than iniquity. Peter's first letter reminds us: "whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." The early Christians might escape suffering by sinning, and so may we — if it is only a question of what may come upon us from the world or the flesh or the devil.
Why God Allows the Fetters
Ridout asks why God afflicts the righteous at all.
Samuel RidoutThese "righteous" are the objects of God's care. Yet at times they are "bound in fetters, held in cords of affliction." Is that a contradiction of what Elihu had just said? To Job it had seemed so, because he failed to see the possibilities of evil in his own heart — a pride that was as real a transgression as the terrible evils his friends falsely charged him with. God's object was to lay bare to man the hidden evil of his heart, to open his ear to His warnings and to turn him from pride.
Kelly names what Elihu presses on Job next.
William KellyThe point pressed here is the teaching of God. It is not only that God saves a soul from going down into the pit. It is that God teaches.
Sinning Your Way Out of Trouble
The warning reaches past Job. Under pressure, the way out can itself be a sin.
Hamilton SmithMany, to rid themselves out of trouble, run themselves into sin. When God has bound them with the cords of affliction, they go to the devil to loosen their bands. It is better to stay in affliction than to sin ourselves out of it.
Darby shows where this choice is made — in the heart.
J. N. DarbyIf God wills that we pass through a trial, even one we dread, our wisdom is to come before God and lay everything out before His eyes. There may be anguish. It lays bare whatever in us still has an unbroken will. Sometimes we want to avoid the temptation because it is painful. We spare ourselves instead of yielding the fruits of righteousness. We refuse to submit to it for the good of our souls and for the glory of God. Then the evil path of selfishness that the heart tries to take becomes clear: we choose "iniquity rather than affliction."
Take Heed
The verse opens with a command to watch yourself. Kelly shows why Job needed it.
William KellyJob, therefore, had reason for care. His excited feeling might stir him up against the blow, and then a worse thing could happen to him. There all resources fail, and the night, in which no one can work, is no comfort. It is dangerous, but very possible, to choose what is worse than affliction, or because of it.
Summary
- The test. Affliction does more than hurt; it sets a choice before you. Job's real danger was not his losses. It was the iniquity of maintaining his own righteousness against God.
- The gift. God binds the righteous in cords of affliction. His aim is to lay bare the hidden evil of the heart and turn a man from pride — teaching, not only rescue.
- The exchange. We make the swap by sparing ourselves instead of submitting to the trial. We choose iniquity rather than affliction, often before we act at all.
- The rule. It is better to stay in affliction than to sin ourselves out of it. Going to the devil to loosen God's bands is no deliverance.
- The outcome. Whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. But it is dangerous, and very possible, to choose what is worse than the affliction itself.