ELIHU'S SERMON
ELIHU’S SERMON
Job 32:6; Job 32:17-22; Job 33: 1 - 7; Job 37: 1 - 24
I have selected passages from the book of Job in order, among other things, to call attention to the testimony of God which this book contemplates, namely, that which nature or creation affords, having in view that, while no divinely authenticated records are appealed to, the testimony corresponds strikingly with what we have in the divinely accredited records in our possession, namely, the Holy Scriptures. Indeed, the witness which creation affords is but an index to the great testimony that has come out in our Lord Jesus Christ. Further, the men contemplated in the book of Job are men such as ourselves, and in the person of Elihu, who, as he says, is made out of clay, we see one who was the expression of the testimony then available. He tells us of his righteous anger because of the self-vindication which marked the speeches of Job, and of the condemnation that marked the speeches of his three friends, and yet they were unable to convict Job.
In speaking to you, friend, one would seek to be in the spiritual animation of Elihu, for one cannot avoid being righteously indignant as one, contemplates the character of the ministry which is abroad at the present time, and which fails to represent the mind of God, and which consequently fails to convict the sinner. Plenty of condemnation there is indeed, but little or no conviction before God; and the ministry that condemns without convicting the sinner is not a ministry of God. It is such as stands in the way of the ministry which God designed in the gospel, for the gospel is designed to convey the mind of God in regard to men, and in regard to Christ in such wise as to bring conviction.
The great thought of the gospel is not condemnation,
[p. 59] but conviction, in order that by conviction man may repent and turn to God and be saved, and the absence of the convicting authority of God in the speeches of Job’s three friends was what aroused the anger of Elihu. On the other hand, the folly of Job in endeavouring to justify himself also aroused the anger of Elihu. It was righteous anger, and, beloved friend, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, one would express such righteous anger, an anger according to God in respect of the character of what pretends to be the ministry of God, but which fails to convict whilst condemning the sinner.
On the other hand, if you are one of those who justify themselves rather than God, love, divine love, in the preacher, would be righteously angry, for you are your own greatest enemy. You are thwarting the overtures of God if you are in any way endeavouring to justify yourself in the presence of God. God would convict you. He has brought into this world, beloved friend, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, a convicting power.
The Holy Spirit has various missions to fulfil, and not the least is His mission to convict, as the Lord says, “Having come, he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin” (John 16: 8). Conviction is the function of the Spirit, and so it is the function of the preacher; hence the ministry of Elihu represents that which brings in conviction. I speak of him particularly because of his remarkable correspondence with the Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently his correspondence with every minister of Christ that is patterned after his Master. And so Elihu not only was angry, righteously angry, but he calls attention to the fact that he was young, that he knew how to wait, and, furthermore, that he was full of matter, that he was, as it were, a bottle containing new wine ready to burst, and he had to speak to relieve himself. Can a man like Elihu fail to be impressive? No, he is sure to be impressive. He is [p. 60] full of matter, he says, and so he speaks. How it reminds us of the Lord Jesus Christ as come into this world. He is presented in the gospel by Luke as the vessel of divine grace, and he is full of it. As John, in his beautiful confirmation of Luke in this respect, says: “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 14). So that as He opens His mouth there come forth words of grace. They were but the beginning of that wonderful ministry, the expression of that wonderful reservoir of grace which He contained. But whilst there was the grace, beloved friends, there was the truth, and so the Lord brought conviction.
My thought is to convict by the Lord’s help, and so I have referred to Elihu in the book of Job as corresponding with our Lord Jesus Christ. And, furthermore, what encourages me about him is that God could follow after him. What one hopes is that in every gospel preaching for which one is responsible God may take up the work. If God does not follow the preacher there can be no permanent work accomplished, and so what you find in Job 38 is that after Elihu had finished, for he made several speeches, God takes up the work. See the interest that God has in one man. Elihu, an interpreter, one among a thousand, speaks to him out of a full heart. He speaks to him in order to convict him, and now God takes up the work, and the work is done. My hope is that what I am suggesting to you may open the way for God to take up the work. My work can only be initial; it can only be suggestive. God’s work is final. Oh! beloved friend, there is a final touch as God undertakes the work. As of old, in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, everything is finished. When God takes up the work, the work is done. As Paul, the apostle, said: “It is God who works in you” (Philippians 2: 13), and if I can, by what I have to say, call such attention to Christ and to God as to open your [p. 61] heart and mind, God will speak to you. He will follow you up, follow you to your room, will follow you throughout the week, and will pursue you in love until He gets you, and obtaining you through faith, will perfect His work in you. The work will be completed, as it was with Job. I refer particularly to Elihu, as one whose work God can take up and complete.
Now, I proceed to chapter 37, which is the last one in the ministry of Elihu, and you will see how he labours to bring home the testimony of God as it then was to the conscience and mind of Job. He first speaks of God’s voice: “Hear attentively the roar of his voice”. He had heard it, and he says, “my heart trembleth at this also”. Sometimes the thought comes into one’s mind in preaching; Do you believe what you are saying? It is a challenge to one. In Elihu, beloved friend, there was a profound effect produced. He says, “My heart trembleth”. Why should it not tremble if God speaks? It is God, as it were, speaking angrily. You may say, ‘Is that the gospel?’ It is the gospel, beloved friend. If you are hastening on to a point of danger in your folly, is it not love to speak angrily to you, and call attention to your folly? Is it not love in God to command you to repent? You may say, it is harsh, but God is simply using His authority to save you from your folly.
Elihu refers to the lightning and thunder of God. Are these things nothing? Are they mere accidents? Are they the mere result of certain motions in the firmament? No, beloved friend, they are there for a testimony from God. They contain a voice, and Elihu says, “My heart trembleth”. Does yours? He says, “My heart trembleth at this also, and leapeth up out of its place”. I look at that angel that sat on the tombstone of Christ’s grave. “His countenance was like lightning”. What is behind that lightning?
[p. 62] What is behind that countenance of an angel like lightning? God would speak to men as to His authority and His power. He would warn you as to the power He has by Him to deal with sinners and with sin. It is love in the lightning and in the thunder of His power, to arouse men, to remind them of what they have to face in rejecting His overtures of mercy. And so, it says, “He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth”.
It is no mere local testimony. God speaks to the whole race of men in His lightning and thunder, and so it goes on. “After it a voice roareth; he thundereth with the voice of his excellency, and holdeth not back the flashes when his voice is heard. God thundereth marvellously with his voice, doing great things which we do not comprehend”. I would ask you who have been rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, Are you prepared to accept the consequences? Think of the power that God has by to deal with sin and with sinners! “He is slow to anger”, but He can be angry. Judgment is His strange work, but it is His work.
Think -of Him who will sit on that great white throne of which Scripture speaks, “from whose face the earth and the heaven fled” (Revelation 20: 11). What a face it must be! We read of the angel whose countenance was like lightning; we hear nothing of the heavens and the earth fleeing from that. Think of what the face of Jesus could be like, as He sits on that great white throne, from whose face, mark you, the earth and the heaven fled away. I look at His face today; it is my privilege, as it is of every Christian, to look at the face of Jesus. But oh, what a face! It is attractive, it speaks of mercy, of forgiveness, of the heart of God toward us. According to the light of that countenance reflecting the faithfulness of God, our sins and our iniquities, as believers, are remembered [p. 63] no more. That is what I read in the face of Jesus at the present time, and it will be terrible for you if you fail to read His face now, for there is a day coming when you must look at it, as it is said, “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne”. Who can number them? Who can number the untold millions of the antediluvian world, of the world that followed, and of the present world? “The dead, great and small, standing before the throne”, and there is power in Him to deal with all, for it is said that “death and hades were cast into the lake of fire;” it is an act of power. You may say, ‘You are thundering’. I hope I am, because God is thundering. God thunders now in His love, in order to arouse you, to your folly as to what is ahead of you.
Now, I come to another side. He causes the snow to be on the earth. If the thunder of God convicts you to repentance, what is the standard of the repentance? The snow. “He saith to the snow, Fall on the earth”. That is where you and I are. Where men were in their guilt God brought down beside them a witness of His purity. In whom was that witness presented? In the Lord Jesus Christ — holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners. The purity expressed in the snow was there as a witness to man. You come to God in your guilt and present yourself, and He says, ‘There is the snow, that is My ideal’. You cannot come to that by any effort, beloved friend. There is a whiteness which no fuller on earth can produce, and that is the whiteness of Jesus. He was transfigured before His disciples. “His garments became shining, exceeding white”, whiter, as Mark tells us, “such as fuller on earth could not whiten them” (Mark 9: 3). God brought down to man on the earth a witness to His standard for men, and that is in Jesus. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 23). The glory of God is in Jesus. He would say to you, ‘Look at My Son, He [p. 64] reflects My ideal, and I intend to bring you to that by the gospel. If you cannot be brought to that, you cannot be brought to Me’. Do not foist yourself on Him in your guilt, in your rags; you must be before Him as Jesus is. That is the divine proposal. God Himself has brought in Jesus as His ideal. He lives before Him, and He proposes to bring man to Jesus, to correspond with Jesus. He has the means to do it, but before doing it He brings in the testimony in the snow.
Now I come on to another point. It says, “And to the pouring rain, even the pouring rains of his might”, and again in the verses 9 and 10, “From ... the south cometh the whirlwind; and cold from the winds of the north. By the breath of God ice is given; and the breadth of the waters is straitened”. You see, beloved friends, if God has brought in a standard in Christ, and if His presence among men only brings out all the more the utter hideousness of man, the utter unsuitability of man for the divine presence, what is to be done? The rain of God’s power comes in immediately. What does that mean? It means a deluge. The deluge was the rain of His power. God must, as it were, wash the earth of its filth, and He did it once. What a testimony, as those poor antediluvians rejected the testimony of Christ in the preaching of Noah. As hill after hill became submerged, as those thousands and millions of creatures who had rejected the gospel sought, doubtless, to escape the rising tide of divine vengeance and power, as they sought to climb the summits of the mountains, what terror would strike their hearts as the tide rose and rose until the tops of the mountains were covered — there was no escape! But whilst there is that testimony from God, what you find is, beloved friend, instead there is the ice. As it says, “By the breath of God ice is given, and the breadth of the waters is straitened”. We hear nothing of the [p. 65] power of the cold on the waters of the deluge. That was reserved for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ to take up this great sin question. The waters were to go over His soul instead of over the millions of human creatures. It was not only to go over His soul, but the water was frozen.
Think of what Jesus endured in His holy soul. The waters were made fast. He went down into death. Think of all that meant, as He alone with God knew! The deluge was only an indication of the awfulness of death. The waters of death for the Lord Jesus were straitened by the power of the cold — the wrath of the Almighty. By the breath of God is the ice. Think of Jesus in Gethsemane as He spoke to His Father; the perfection of His manhood shone out there, as in three prayers of His manhood He told His Father how He felt about the cup, and asked that if it were possible, it should pass from Him, “nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done”. Perfect, holy submission to the will of God was there. He entered into the waters and the waters became frozen; they were made fast. Think of the awfulness of the forsaking of God; as the Sin-bearer Jesus was totally abandoned. In saying that, one feels how little one takes in the total abandonment of Jesus; the waters were made fast; by the breath of God was the ice, and the waters were straitened. It was brought to bear on the holy soul of Jesus. The pangs of death had to be loosed. How really He entered into it as He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He was there in it, in all its power. The breath of God straitened it, made it fast, so that He was held in death. But He could not be holden of its power, we are told. Hence His divine glory is evident. He was the Prince of life, but, nevertheless, as an obedient Man, He went into death. Not only did the waters enter into His soul, overflow His soul, the iron entered into His soul.
[p. 66] His feet, in type, were made fast by fetters. He went down to the bottom of the mountains, the earth with her bars was round about Him. How little we enter into the atoning sufferings of Christ! They are, indeed, infinite, for He had to do with the holy God in regard to sin, and it was dealt with perfectly. He came up out of death, as it is said, by the exceeding greatness of divine power. He was raised from the dead, said the apostle, triumphantly, by the glory of the Father. He has come out of the ice. And now it is all favour.
You will observe, that whilst the south is the favourable aspect, denoting the favour of God, when the waters were frozen there was no favour. The divine countenance was turned away from Jesus. The whirlwind comes out of the south and the cold from the north. The cold from the north and the whirlwind from the south met at Calvary in all their force, but Jesus has come out, and now, instead of the cold, the bitter blast of divine wrath from the north, what comes out, as the verse lower down says, is gold, or the golden light. There is gold from the north. God is preaching to you in the gospel, and presenting His righteousness. Now that Jesus has been into death, the righteousness of God is preached, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, witnessed to by the law and the prophets. It is for you today, it is for everyone that is of the faith of Jesus; gold is for you, it comes out of the north. Where the judgment came from, the righteousness comes from; it comes from God. It is the righteousness of God; unto all, and upon all those that believe. I am referring to Job 37: 22. “From the north cometh gold”. It brings precious light to you, to tell you that God is favourable to you. It is the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
[p. 67] Now I want to go on to another point. It says in verse 7, “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work”. It is as if God were to say to you, ‘I have completed the work of salvation. My Son has been down into the depths of death, the plan of salvation is complete, I want to bind your hands, you can do nothing’. “He sealeth up the hand of every man”. He shuts every man’s mouth in order “that all men may know his work”. Salvation is the work of God; He has accomplished it in the death of Christ, and He offers it to you.
Well, now, there is another thing. It says that “the wild beast goeth into its lair, and they remain in their dens”. You see, God binds up your hands and He limits the power of Satan, so that you might become the subject of His work. He wants to save you; He keeps Satan away for the moment. He causes him to go into his den, as it were, and to remain there, for by the death of Christ he is annulled. You know how the Lord Jesus refers to Satan; as “the strong man armed keeps his own house, his goods in peace; but when the stronger than he coming upon him overcomes him, he takes away his panoply in which he trusted, and he will divide the spoil” (Luke 11: 21, 22). It is what the Lord is doing. He has limited the power of Satan, and is spoiling his goods. Satan is limited and Jesus has taken over every believer as His spoil, and has spoiled us for this world, thank God!
We now come on to another point before I close. In verse 11 it says: “Also with plentiful moisture he loadeth the thick clouds”. We are now in the favour of God; as Elihu goes on to say, “thy garments become warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind”. It is not a whirlwind now, it is a south, or warm wind. We are in the day of salvation now; we are in the acceptable year of the Lord.
[p. 68] The very Gentile world is in reconciliation, for Christ has come in “a light to lighten the Gentiles;” to unveil the Gentiles, really. We are in the favour of God. Our very clothes are warm, as I speak. Look at the passage in the verse 17, “How thy garments become warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind?” The earth has been quieted by this wind these 1900 years. The gospel goes on in spite of the tides of human wickedness that rise up; they are quieted by the south wind, and the gospel goes on. Man’s variance cannot interfere with heaven. What can they do with heaven? What can they do with the sun? What can they do with the wind? Nothing. The south wind blows, it blows on wicked as on righteous men; it blows on you. It is the favour of God in the gospel, and it is intended to make your clothes warm, but, you need more than your clothes warm; you need your heart warm. The south wind of God is warm enough, as it were, to warm the clothes of the wickedest men, but that does not save them. The fact that the Gentiles are in reconciliation does not save them, but it is a wonderful opportunity for them; and the present is a wonderful time of opportunity for you, as you listen to the word of God, as you feel the warmth of divine affection in the people of God, your clothes become warmed. You go away from this meeting and yet how easily you may forget the influence, and so I would urge you now, whilst your clothes are warm, to turn to Jesus. It is a great opportunity. It is much easier to do it now than when the north wind comes upon you. The chill of this world tends to turn you away, but the Christian affection the south wind of the gospel, is intended to encourage you to believe. Trust yourself to Jesus it is a favourable time, as the scripture says, “Now is the well-accepted time; behold now the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6: 2).
We are now in the region of favour, and everything [p. 69] is for us; even the thick cloud instead of judgment is full of moisture, and there is light in it. And then, again, there is the balancing of them, as it says in verse 12, “they are turned every way by his guidance, that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the circuit of the earth”. In other words, every circumstance in that way in the favour of God is in our favour — everything. He balances the clouds, He disposes of them, as it says here, “they are turned every way by his guidance, that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the circuit of the earth”. And so it goes on to say, “Whether he cause it to come as a rod, or for his land, or in mercy”. I say that to Christians, we who are come into the favour of God, and know it as believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every circumstance of ours is at the divine disposal. He disposes of the clouds according to His purpose, whether it be for His land or for mercy, for the promotion of His interests, everything is for us. “If God be for us, who against us?” (Romans 8: 31). “All things work together for good to those who love God” (verse 28). In Romans 5: 3 - 5 we have the workers mentioned individually, “tribulation works endurance; and endurance experience”, but chapter 8 we have them combined, “work together for good to those who love God”.
It is what comes out you see in this passage; God disposes of the clouds and He balances them. You say, they are very heavy. Never mind, God is balancing them. He will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able to bear. He will bring with the temptation a way of escape. The physical universe could not stand except by the principle of balance, and how much more so the spiritual and the moral systems. Everything is poised and balanced by divine scale; even with the feeblest believer, everything is balanced. May God bless the word to us.