Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.
God answers Job out of the storm. He does not explain Himself. Instead He tells Job to put on the robes of divine majesty and deal with every proud man on earth. To abase the proud means to bring them low. This is not a job God expects Job to do. It is a mirror held up to a man who had been judging God's rule while sitting on an ash heap.
The throne Job is offered
The line follows a summons to put on splendour, and the words carry the sense of flinging out anger in every direction and then looking each proud man in the face until he bows:
William KellyPut on then majesty and grandeur, and honour and beauty put on; scatter abroad the outbursts of your anger, see every proud one, and humble him; see every proud one — make him bow, and tread down the wicked in their place.
What is being handed over is not a chore but a position. One writer reads the whole passage as an offer of God's own seat:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThen He tells him: "Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendour." Dress yourself in majesty and power. Come and take My place, and then, dressed like this, let Job be in God's place, rule and deal with proud man and the evildoers.
What Job claimed
The offer only makes sense against what Job had been saying. His complaint had a conclusion buried inside it:
Samuel RidoutWill he set aside and deny God's righteous judgment, and condemn God so that he can set up a petty human righteousness? For this is really what lay at the bottom of Job's complaints. He was suffering affliction which he did not deserve. He was a righteous man, treated as though he were unrighteous. The conclusion then was unavoidable — the One who was afflicting him was unjust!
The irony of the command
If Job can sit in judgment on God's rule, he must be fit to run it. Read the command against the picture of the man who receives it:
William KellyLet us see him deck himself with majesty, and grandeur, and honour, and beauty. What! that poor object of compassion! Let him scatter abroad the outbursts of his anger. What! that woe-begone sufferer! Yes, if he dares to sit in judgment on God's dealings, let him first see every proud one and humble him, see every proud one — make him low, and tread down the wicked in their place.
The gap between the costume and the man is the whole argument:
Samuel RidoutCan such language be used of Job? — "You are clothed with splendour and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment" (Ps. 104:1-2). "Those who walk in pride He is able to humble" (Dan. 4:37). If so, then Jehovah Himself will be the first to praise him and confess that he is able to help himself. But had his own right hand even stopped the raiders who drove away his possessions? Or turned aside the storm that swept away his children? Sadly, he had needed a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself. His clothing was sackcloth, not glory and majesty. His seat was the ashes of a ruined life, not the throne of glory.
Who can bring pride down
The test exposes Job. It also shows who does hold this power:
Leslie M. GrantThe irony of such words is obvious; Job needed humbling himself. How could he even hope to humble others? But there are many proud people today. We are helpless to humble any of them, but God will bring down the pride of everyone to the dust.
Severity that is kindness
The tone sounds harsh against a man already stripped of everything. One commentator meets that objection:
Samuel RidoutIs it cruel of Jehovah to deal like this with a poor heart-broken creature? Rather let us ask, would it have been kindness to leave him wearing his pride like a garment, railing against the Almighty? Pride can only be brought low this way — by being brought face to face with its nothingness in the presence of the majesty and boundless goodness of God.
Humble, or humbled
God humbles Job here because Job was not humble. There is a better road:
William KellyThe invariable way of God is this: "He who humbles himself will be exalted," and faith alone gives humbling of self. There are two forms of it: the happiest of all is to be humble; the next best thing is to be humbled. It is better to be humble than to be humbled, but there is no comparison between being humbled and being lifted up. Humility is the effect of grace; being humbled is the effect of God's righteous government, where we are not humble.
Summary
- The claim. Job's complaint carried a buried verdict — that God was unjust — and the question about abasing the proud drags that verdict into the light.
- The offer. God does not argue. He offers Job His own place: put on majesty, and rule the proud. That is His answer to anyone who thinks he could run the world better.
- The irony. A man sits in sackcloth on an ash heap, scraping himself with broken pottery. God tells him to clothe himself in splendour and crush the wicked where they stand.
- The reach. Nobody can humble the proud — not Job, not us. God alone brings every proud person down to the dust.
- The kindness. God brings a man low out of kindness, not cruelty. Leaving him wearing his pride would have been the cruel thing. Better still to be humble before God does the humbling.