Deliverance From the Pit
(No. 2505)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
21, 1885.
"Then He is gracious unto him, and says, Deliver him from going down to
the Pit: I have found a ransom." Job 33:24.
LET it never be forgotten that in all that God does, He acts from good
reasons. You observe that the text, speaking of the sick man,
represents God as saying, "Deliver him from going down to the Pit: I
have found a ransom." If I understand the passage as relating solely to
a sick man and take the words just on the natural common level where
some place them, I would still say that the Lord, here, gives a reason
why He suspends the operations of pain and disease and raises up the
sufferer–"I have found a ransom." There is always a reason for every
act of Grace which God performs for man. He acts sovereignly and,
therefore, He is not bound to give any reason for His actions, but He
always acts wisely and, therefore, He has a reason for so acting.
Writing to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says that God "works all
things after the counsel of His own will." It is not an arbitrary will,
but a will arising out of the wisdom and holiness of His Character. So
God has a reason for raising men up from their sickness, but that
reason is not found in them, but in Himself. The sick man does not give
God a reason for restoring him, but God finds it, Himself. "I have
found a ransom." Possibly, the man does not even know the reason for
his restoration–he may be so blind of heart that he does not care to
think whether there is any reason for it or not–but God finds a reason
for His mercy and finds it entirely in Himself. He is gracious to whom
He will be gracious and He has compassion on whom He will have
compassion. So let each one of us think, "If I have been raised from
sickness. If my life, which was almost gone, has been spared, I may not
know why God has done it, but certainly He has done it in infinite
wisdom and compassion. And it is only right for me to feel that a life
which has been so remarkably prolonged ought to be entirely dedicated
unto Him who has prolonged it."
Having begun my sermon with that thought, I shall take a deep dive and
go to another and a fuller meaning of our text, if not more true than
this which I have first mentioned. Beloved Friends, there is a higher
restoration than recovery from bodily sickness! There is such a thing
as sickness of the soulwhich is, in God's esteem, far worse than
disease of body and, blessed be His name, there is such a thing as
recovery from soul-sickness even to those who are so far gone that they
appear to be going down into the Pit! God can deal with sinners when
they are on the very brink of Hell! He can deal in love with them when
the soil slips from under their feet and they, themselves, are about to
dash into that Pit that is bottomless. He can come in, even then, and
rescue them to the praise of the glory of His Grace!
I. Now, coming to our text, I shall ask you, first, to look with me
upon A MAN IN GREAT PERIL. That man is here tonight–let him look to
himself and may God help him to see himself as a man in great peril!
This is his peril–he is "going down to the Pit." That phrase describes
his whole life–going down, down, down–and the end of that going down,
unless the Lord shall deliver him, will be that, before long, he will
go finally down into the Pit of destruction!
Notice, first, that this is a daily and common danger. In some respects
this man in peril is a representative of each one of us. If we are
unconverted, if we are unrenewed by Divine Grace, every one of us is in
danger of going down into the Pit of woe! Think of it, there may be, my
Friend, but a step between you and death! Only the other morning there
was one, well known to many of us, who spoke with his Friends
apparently in health. He retired from the room for a moment and they
wondered where he was as he did not come back. They sought him out and
found that he was dead! He was gone, as in a moment. Blessed be God, we
have a sure and certain hope that though he has gone down into the
grave–he could go no lower, for his soul was at once with his
Savior–and out of that grave his body shall arise at the sounding of
the last trumpet! But as for unconverted men and women, they may be in
Hell before the clock ticks again! It is a terrible reflection, my
unsaved Friend, to think how little there is between you and eternity.
How thin is the wall! "Wall?"–Did I call it a wall? Rather let me say,
how thin the gauze "Gauze"–did I call it? There is no word in our own
or any other language that can adequately express the nearness of
eternity! We are here–and we are gone–gone into the Presence of God
in a single instant! Gone to render to the Judge of All our last
account! You are going, Friend, you are going down to the Pit unless
Sovereign Mercy shall step in and prevent it!
Further, there are some who, of set purpose, are going down to the Pit.
In this chapter, Elihu said of some that God sends sickness to them
that He may withdraw them from their purpose. Some seem to be
desperately bent on mischief, as if they were determined to ruin
themselves. How often do we see it in the case of a young man who has
been well brought up, when he comes into possession of his money and
gets what he calls his liberty–nothing that he has learned in his
youth appears to restrain him! No tearful admonitions are any check
upon him–he appears to be resolved to destroy himself! We have known
some cases of that kind and we know others now. Oh, if they were as
determined to be right as they are resolved to be wrong, they might
greatly help to turn the world upside down! But, alas, they seem to
spare no expense to ensure their own destruction–they are in a
dreadful hurry to be rid of all their property, to bring their body
into a state of disease–and to bring their soul into a state of
damnation! They cannot do enough to secure their own destruction! They
even lay violent hands upon their own characters, as if they were
insatiably at enmity with their own souls. Many of you know such people
as I am describing and you know that they are going down to the Pit. By
what are called amusements, by what are said to be pleasures–but which
are really only groveling degradations of the soul to the worst
purposes of the flesh–all these men are going down to the Pit. It is a
dreadful state for anyone to be in, yet I am even now addressing some
who are in just such a condition–I feel sure that I am. May the
description, brief as it is, be complete enough to let the sinner see
himself as he really is–in imminent peril of going down into the Pit!
There are some, also, who are going down to the Pit through their
pride. They are not doing anything positively vicious, but they are so
good in their own estimation, or so indifferent to the claims of God,
that they do not want to hear about salvation. They stand entirely in
their own strength and they seem to defy the humbling Gospel of the
Grace of God–they will not hear it–they say by their actions, if not
in so many words, "Who is God that we should servo Him? What is death
that we should have any fear concerning it? What is eternity that we
should ever let our spirit be depressed at the thought of it?" If I
were just now to try to describe the Day of Judgment and to picture the
Great White Throne with the Judge of All sitting upon it, there are
many in such a condition of heart that they would merely smile at it
all and continue in their sin! A sinner may perish through pride just
as easily as through any other sin. A man may, in his pride, hang
himself on a gallows as high as that of Haman. And he will perish as
surely as another who casts himself down into the Pit by some groveling
loathsome sin.
There are others who feel some present apprehension of coming judgment.
They are not your merry men and women who count it one of the wisest
things to drive dull care away, for they are eaten up with care. They
feel that they are going down to the Pit–I do not say that all have
felt this apprehension as I did–but this is how it came to me. I knew
that I was guilty. I knew that I had offended God. I knew that I had
transgressed against light and knowledge and I did not know when God
might call me to account. But I did know this–when I awoke in the
morning, the first thought I had was that I had to deal with a justly
angry God who might suddenly require my soul of me! Often, during the
day, when I had a little time for quiet meditation, a great depression
of spirit would come upon me because I felt that sin, sin, SIN had
outlawed me from my God! I wondered that the earth bore up such a
sinner as I was and that the heavens did not fall and crush me–and the
stars in their courses did not fight against such a wretch as I felt
myself to be. Then, indeed, did I seem as if I should go down to the
Pit! If I fell asleep, I dreamt of that Pit, and if I woke, I seemed to
wake only to endure the tortures of the never-dying worm of conscience
that was perpetually gnawing at my heart!
I went to the House of God and heard what I supposed was the Gospel,
but it was no Gospel to me. My soul abhorred all manner of meat–I
could not lay hold upon a promise, or indulge a hope–and I felt that I
was going down to the Pit. If anyone had asked me what would become of
me, I would have answered, "I am going down to the Pit." If anyone had
entreated me to hope that mercy might come to me, I would have refused
to entertain such a hope, for I felt that I was going down to the Pit!
Well, dear Friends, it was while I was in that dreadful state of mind
that Infinite Mercy met with me and saved me! And I wish that I had, in
my present congregation, many wounded, broken spirits. Many weary,
heavy-laden souls, for it is sweet work to preach the Gospel to such
people!–
"A sinner is a sacred thing,
The Holy Spirit has made him so"
–that is, a really convicted sinner, not a sham sinner, but one who
acknowledges that the title belongs to him and says, "Put that label
upon me, for that is what I am! I deserve the wrath of God and I feel
as if the first spattering drops of the fiery tempest have already
fallen upon me." This is the man who sees a true description of himself
in the words of our text, "going down to the Pit."
If you add to all this the fact that the man, as Elihu describes him,
was suffering from a fatal sickness, so that he dreaded the actual
nearness of death, you have, indeed, an unhappy case before you. See
that young woman whom consumption has marked for its victim–it is not
with her the thought that she shall go down to the Pit in 20 years'
time, but her feet are already far on the road! Or, look at that young
man who cannot delude himself with the idea that he will go down to the
Pit at the end of threes-core years and ten, but who fears that he may
not even live three-score days! He has a mortal malady within him that
is dragging him down from all hope and joy–this dread fear has settled
like a vampire upon his soul–that he is going down to the Pit! This is
the man whom I want to point out, for he is somewhere in this building.
God help him to listen while I say some words which, perhaps, will
bring comfort to him in this state of peril in which he is at present
found!
II. Now let us notice, in the second place, A NEW PRINCIPLE IN
ACTION–"Then He is gracious unto him." What does that expression mean?
That word, "gracious," has more music in it than all the oratorios of
Handel, though they are the chief of earthly music.
"Then He is gracious unto him." What does that mean? Well, "gracious"
means, first, free favor. It means that when this man is as full of sin
as an egg is full of meat. When he is as black with iniquity as a foul
chimney which hangs festooned with soot–it means even then God's favor
shall come to him and look upon him just as he ism all his defilement
and ill-desert–and God shall be gracious to him! Our text does not
say, "God shall deal with him in justice. He shall charge, accuse,
condemn and punish him." No, the message is, "He is gracious unto him."
The Lord comes to this poor lost wretch and says, "I have blotted out,
as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and as a cloud your sins: return
unto Me, for I have redeemed you." The Lord comes to such guilty souls
and just when they think that His next words will be, "Depart, you
cursed," He says, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest."
Now this is not what the man deserves–it is the very opposite of his
deserts! He has no natural right to such treatment as this–it is the
gift of Divine Sovereignty, not the purchase of man's merit. "He is
gracious unto him." The prisoner is justly condemned to death, but the
King is gracious and gives him a free pardon! The prisoner is ready to
be executed, but there comes to him undeserved deliverance from all
punishment, for the King's own Son has borne the penalty of all his
iniquities! Does not this Truth of God make your mouths water, you who
feel that you are going down to the Pit? I am sure it does, if you have
ever known the bitterness of sin! "Oh," you say, "is there such a God
as this?" Yes, there is! A God, "merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." "He delights in mercy."
His compassions fail not, therefore we are not consumed!
That is the first meaning of Grace, that free and undeserved favor of
God which forgives and blots out sin and iniquity.
But Grace has another meaning in Holy Scripture–it means saving
interference–a certain Divine operation by which God works upon the
wills and affections of men so as to change and renew them! When God is
gracious to a man, He does something to that man as well as for that
man. The Lord comes in the power of His Grace and takes out of the
sinner's heart, the stone that was there, and makes tender that heart
which once was hard as the northern iron and steel. He comes and takes
the iron sinew out of the neck and makes the obstinate man to be
yielding and pliable. He comes and changes the affections so that the
man hates what he once loved, and loves what he once hated. In a word,
where the Grace of God comes, it makes a man to be born-again even when
he is old, so that, spiritually speaking, his flesh becomes fresher
than that of a little child. He begins life anew, for he is a new
creature in Christ Jesus! All his past sin is blotted out and his
future is brightening up into the full blaze of eternal glory!
Yet this is the very man whom I described just now as going down to the
Pit! But the Lord has been gracious to him. He has said to him, "I have
loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have
I drawn you." The Lord has said to him, "Your sins, which are many, are
all forgiven you. Go, and sin no more." Is not this a most comforting
message? Note that the text says, "then." In the very extremity of his
going down to the Pit, "then," when he has come almost to the last step
down to that fearful gulf and a cruel hand seems pushing him down to
eternal destruction, "then," at that moment, the Lord is gracious to
him! Infinite pleasure flashes into his face, for the almighty loving
kindness of God pulls him back from the Pit and sets his feet on a new
track towards the land of Glory and the face of God above!
III. This brings me to my third point, which is concerning how this
Grace operates. It operates by A WORD OF
POWER.
This man was going down to the Pit, but God said, "Deliver him." To
whom is this command spoken? It appears to be addressed to the
messengers of Divine Justice. They have grasped the guilty man, they
have bound him, they are taking him off to the place of death and well
does he deserve to die–but the great King upon the Throne says to His
ministers ofjustice, "Deliver him, let him go, deliver him from going
down to the Pit." And, in an instant, his chains are snapped, his bonds
drop off and the man is free–freed by the word of the King, Himself.
No sheriffs officer can arrest him, now. None of all the police of the
universe can lay a finger on him, now, for God has said to all of them,
"Let him go. Deliver him from going down to the Pit." Here is a clean
jail delivery for the prisoners of hope–they are set free by the
mandate of the eternal God!
More than that, the man was not only bound by justice, but he was
fettered by his sin. His sins held him captive and they were dragging
him down to the Pit. There was drunkenness, for instance, which held
him as in a vice, so that he could not stir hand or foot to set himself
free. His thirst followed his drinking and his drinking followed his
thirst–and then his thirst returned after his drinking till he brought
himself to a delirium from which he could not possibly escape by his
own power! Perhaps it was the foul-mouthed demon of blasphemy that held
him in bondage, or the black demon of vice and licentiousness, but,
whatever was the band by which the man was held, every hour kept
putting about him a fresh and a stronger rope till he was bound, like
Samson of old, to make sport for those who had him in captivity! But
just as he seemed about to be dragged down to Hell, a voice came from
the excellent Glory, "Deliver him from going down to the Pit"–and
Infinite Mercy dragged off his evil habits, snapped his bands and set
him free! Now the man no longer loved the lusts of the flesh and the
passions of his body, but he was God's free man seeking to do only his
Lord's will! And if God shall make you free, you shall be free, indeed!
It is a grand thing to get rid of drunkenness–with all my heart I
advise you to try total abstinence–but it is a better thing to get rid
of all sin at once! I mean, the reigning power of every sin by yielding
yourself up to the supreme Grace of God who is able to work in you at
such a rate that all sin shall be made detestable to you and you shall
rise above it to the praise of the glory of His Grace.
Brothers and Sisters, I see this same man, in later life, attacked by
his old sins. There is a certain, "Cutthroat Lane" on the way to
Heaven. I have been down it, myself, and I am afraid I may have to go
down it yet again. It is a place where the hedges meet and it is very
dark–and it is also very miry and muddy–and when a man is slipping
about and can hardly see his own hand, there are certain villains that
come pouncing upon him, not with the highwayman's cry, "Your money or
your life," but they seek to seize his treasure, his life and all that
he has! At such a moment as that, it sometimes happens that the man
puts his hand to his side to draw his sword, but he finds that it is
gone! He determines to fight as best he can, but what can he do against
such terrible odds when he is alone and unarmed? But oh, what a blessed
thing it is for him, just then, to hear, as Bunyan says, the sound of a
horse's hoof and to know that there is a patrol going down the King's
Highway! And he cannot only hear the ring of His horse's hoofs, but he
can hear the King's own voice, crying out from the Throne, itself,
"Deliver him! Deliver him! Deliver him from going down to the Pit."
That voice you shall always hear, if you are a child of God, when you
get into a fix, when you are brought into peril and trouble. God has
given commandment to save you and you shall be saved–saved from
yourself and from all the attacks of your old sins! Saved from the
devil! Saved from evil company, for God has said it, "Deliver him from
going down to the Pit." That deliverance of God is an eternal one, nor
shall the infernal lion ever be able to rend one sheep or lamb that the
Great Shepherd deigns to keep!
Now to come back to my own story. I remember when I felt that I was
going down to the Pit and I cannot forget one blessed, blessed day. The
snow-flakes fell thick and heavy that morning and I was going,
according to my habit, to a certain very respectable place of worship
where I should hear a very respectable minister who might have left me
in my misery to this day. But it was too cold and the snow was too deep
for me to go so far. So I turned into the little Primitive Methodist
Chapel in Colchester and sat there feeling that I was going down to the
Pit, although I was sitting in the House of God to hear the Gospel. The
clock of mercy struck in Heaven the hour and moment of my deliverance,
for the time had come! Thus had the eternal purpose of Jehovah decreed
it! And when the preacher opened the Book and gave out his text, "Look
unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and
there is none else," and when he began to cry in simple terms, "Look!
It is all you have to do! Look out of yourself and away from yourself,
and look to Christ! Not to forms and ceremonies, or works, or feelings,
but look to what Christ has done!" I did look and in that moment went
out this word, "Deliver him from going down to the Pit," and I was
delivered! For, as the moment before there was none more wretched than
I was, so, within that second, there was none more joyous! It took no
longer time than does the lightning-flash! It was done and never has it
been undone! I looked and lived and leaped in joyful liberty as I
beheld sin punished upon the great Substitute and put away forever from
all those who will only trust Him!
That is what looking to Christ means–trusting in His One Great
Sacrifice! O dear Friends, I do pray the Lord to speak in great Grace
concerning some of you and to say, "Deliver him from going down to the
Pit." You may think that when I speak like this, there is some of the
excitement of enthusiasm about my language, but I reckon that I talk
cold icicles about a thing that is hotter than the furnace! Oh, the
blessedness, the joy, the exquisite peace, the overflowing happiness of
believing in Christ! If you know anything about the darkness, you are
the very person to know something about the Light of God! If you know
anything of sorrow for sin, you are the very man or woman to understand
the joy of sin being put away! And it will be all done for you if you
will but look to Jesus–if you will simply trust Him!
III. I finish by noticing that in this case God supplies us with His
reason for delivering a soul and it is AN ARGUMENT OF LOVE–"Deliver
him from going down to the Pit: I have found a ransom."
This is the only reason why any man shall be delivered from going down
to the Pit–because God has found a ransom. There is no way of
salvation but by the Ransom–all who are ever saved are saved by the
Ransom. And if you, dear Friend, would be saved, it must be by the
Ransom–and there is but one.
Observe that the text says, "I have found a ransom." This ransom is an
invention of Divine Wisdom. I do not think it would ever have occurred
to any mind but the mind of God, Himself, to save sinners by the
substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ. The most astonishing novelty under
Heaven is the old, old story of the Cross of Christ! That ever God
should take upon Himself the sin of His own creatures, that, in order
to be able to justly forgive, God, Himself, should bear the punishment
which He must inflict for the creatures' sin–this is something
marvelous to the last degree! The rebel sins and the King Himself
suffers the penalty for the rebellion! The offender commits the
trespass and the Judge bears the punishment! Such a plan was never
heard of in human courts of law–or if it has ever been spoken of
there, it was because, first of all, both the ears of him who heard it
had been made to tingle while God revealed it out of His own heart. "I
have found a ransom." Nobody would have thought of that way of the
deliverance of a sinner from the pit of Hell through a ransom if God
had not thought of it!
Notice, next, that God has not only invented a way of deliverance, but
he has found a ransom. So that it is a gift of Divine Love. "Deliver
him from going down to the Pit"–it does not say, "because there is a
ransom," or, "I will accept one if he finds it, and brings it"–but the
Lord, Himself, says, "I have found a ransom." It is the man who sinned,
but it is God who found the ransom! It is the man who is going down to
the Pit, but it is God who finds a ransom! Surely, if you have sold
yourself to sin and Satan, you must find the ransom to get yourself set
free, must you not? "No," says Sovereign Grace, "the man has sold
himself into slavery, but Ihave found a ransom. I have broken the bonds
from his neck and set him free by an immense price which I, Myself,
have found–found it in My own bosom where My only-begotten and
well-beloved Son was lying. I found it in Myself, for I have given up
Myself to bleed and die for mortal men." Oh, this is wonderful Grace,
indeed–that God should deliver and should deliver through a
ransom–and should deliver through a ransom that He has, Himself,
found!
And is there not something very wonderful in the assurance of this
Truth of God "Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a
ransom." God does not say "There may be a ransom for the poor soul.
Possibly I may find a ransom somewhere." No, He says, "I have founda
ransom." Now, if a slave were in the bitterest of bondage, yet if his
master said to him, "I have the ransom for you," that man must feel
certain of his liberty because if he who held him in bondage has found
a ransom, he certainly will hold him in bondage no longer! Sinner, do
not doubt your deliverance, for God has said it–"I have found a
ransom." If you had only heard this sentence uttered by a mortal man,
you might have questioned the truth of it, but when God Himself
proclaims concerning him who is going down to the Pit, "I have found a
ransom," then is the deliverance certain! Indeed, it is already
accomplished! Therefore, go you free and rejoice in the liberty that
God has given you!
To my mind, and with this thought I will finish, there is the ring of
heavenly music in this message. "Deliver him from going down to the
Pit: I have found a ransom." I suppose you never heard a man who had
found a treasure cry out to let everyone know what he had found.
Perhaps he would not mention it to anyone but his wife. When he wished
to make her heart glad by sharing the fortune with her, he said to her,
"I have found a treasure." But you may have heard a mother say, when
her child had been lost in the woods, perhaps, and had been sought for
by many, when at last she has discovered him, "I have found my boy!"
Oh, it is wonderful, the joy of a mother's heart when she has found her
child! But to me there is the sound of bells, there is the music of a
marriage peal in this verse as God, looking on a sinner slipping down
to Hell, says, "Deliver him from going down to the Pit: I have found a
ransom." Almighty love seems to sing out with all her might and rocks,
hills, and valleys suffice not to repeat the echo of the strain, "I
have found, I have found, I have found a ransom!" This is God's
"Eureka!" "I have found a ransom. I did not look for a ransom among the
angels, for I knew they were too weak to furnish it. I looked not for
it among the sons of men, for I knew it was not to be found there–they
were too fallen and guilty. The sea said, 'It is not in me.' All
creation cried, 'It is not in me.' But I looked on my Well-Beloved and
I heard Him say, 'Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written
of Me, I delight to do Your will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My
heart.' I saw Him descend to earth and hide Himself in an Infant's
form; I saw Him toiling on in holy servitude to My perfect Law; I saw
Him give His hands to the nails, and His side to the spear. I heard Him
cry, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' I bowed the ear of My
Glory and I drank in His conquering cry, 'It is finished,' and then I,
the Infinite, the Eternal, the Ever-Blessed, the Just, the Gracious,
said, 'I have found a Ransom.'" Thus, the Lord rejoices over you and
over me with singing as He cries, "I have found a Ransom!" How greatly
did He rejoice over the finished work of His well-beloved Son!
Therefore, sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, for the Lord,
Himself, delights in the message He delivers to us, "I have found a
Ransom!"
Now, dear Hearts, if God has found a Ransom and speaks thus joyously
about it, I do pray you to accept it. "If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land." Receive Christ and you have the
proof that God has received you. Only take Him–you have nothing else
to do! Put out that empty hand of yours, black though it is, and
receive in it the Pearl of Great Price, even the Christ of God,
Himself! Receive Him, accept Him, believe Him, trust Him! That is all
you have to do. Oh, will you not trust Him? Can you doubt Him? If God
takes upon Himself our nature and in that nature, dies, I cannot only
trust Him with my soul, but if I had all your souls within my body, and
all the souls of the millions of London all gathered beneath this
breast–and if I had besides that the souls of all the sinners who have
ever lived, all compressed within this one frame–I could believe that
the dying Christ could blot out all that mass of sin! I believe it and
so confide in Him–will not you? Verily, if you will not believe,
neither shall you be established! But he that believes shall not be
ashamed nor confounded, world without end! May God add His own
blessing, for Jesus' sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOB 33.
This is a speech of young Elihu who had sat quietly listening to the
taunting words of the three "candid Friends" of Job–and to the
somewhat exasperated replies of the Patriarch. At last, the young man
breaks the silence and, with some dignity, and quite sufficient
self-content, he thus addresses himself to Job.
Verse 1. Therefore, Job, Ipray you, hear my speeches and listen to all
my words. "I am but a young man, but I speak because I cannot be quiet.
An impulse moves me. I am as a vessel needing vent. I desire to speak
impartially and, therefore, hear me, but hear allthat I have to say. Do
not listen merely here and there to a part of my speech, but hearken to
all my words." Sometimes, it is very necessary to beg our hearers not
to run away with only one sentence, or even with one sentiment. "Hear
my speeches and listen to all my words," for there is a proportion in
truth, and one truth has to be balanced with all the others. A
statement may be all the better for being unguarded and more forcible
because it stands alone–and yet it may need that another statement
should be heard with it lest it should be misunderstood. Therefore the
preacher also says to his hearer, "I pray you, hear my speeches and
listen to all my words."
2. Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue has spoken in my
mouth. That is to say, "I speak with much solemnity, not as one who
chatters without sense, or without due consideration, but I have opened
my mouth deliberately, as one who has something to say–and I speak
with my best powers of speech, as one who wishes to persuade those who
hear him."
3. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall
utter knowledge clearly. What a lesson this is to those of us who
preach to others–that we speak out of the uprightness of our heart and
feel that, however others may judge us, we are sincere before God in
what we say! How necessary, also, is it, especially in these days, that
we should speak plainly, so as to be easily understood! Some men never
think clearly and, therefore, they never speak clearly. And,
oftentimes, the darkness of a man's speech is only the result of the
darkness of his mind–he has no clearly-defined notion of what he has
to say. Let every young man who has to teach others resolve that this
utterance of Elihu shall also be his, "My lips shall utter knowledge
clearly."
4. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has
given me life. That is to say, "I am as much the creature of God as
these three old gentlemen are, these three wise Friends who have spoken
so tartly. I am as much endowed with the Spirit of God as you are, O
Job, and, therefore, I speak to you in His name." Should not this be a
lesson to every one of us to try and do all that we can for God? Every
Christian may say, "'The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of
the Almighty has given me life.' Therefore let me use my very
existence, the life that is breathed into me, for that Almighty Creator
who has made me what I am."
5. If you can answer me, set your words in order before me, stand up.
He who speaks reason is ready to hear reason. It is only the
unreasonable talker who will not allow others to have a word to say in
reply. "If you can answer me," says Elihu to Job, "set your words in
order before me, stand up."
6. Behold, I am, according to your wish, in God's place: I also am
formed out of the day. Job had wished that someone would stand up and
speak for God, someone without the terror that seemed inseparable from
the Infinite, someone without the power of Omnipotence, someone who
would be more nearly his equal, with whom he could debate the questions
which perplexed him. So Elihu says, "I am, according to your wish, in
God's place: I also am formed out of the day."
7-11. Behold, my terror shallnot make you afraid, neither shallmy hand
be heavy upon you. Surely you have spoken in my hearing and I have
heard the voice of your words, saying, I am clean without
transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me. Behold,
He finds occasions against me, He counts me for His enemy, He puts my
feet in the stocks, He marks all my paths. Elihu did not make this
excuse for Job because he had been slandered by his Friends and that
his statement of innocence was not so much absolute towards God as it
was defensive towards men. Still, there is no doubt that Job had gone
too far in this direction. Perhaps for this very reason his troubles
had come upon him, because he was, in a measure, self-righteous. In
some small degree, at any rate, he may have prided himself upon his
personal excellence. Elihu does well, therefore, in all faithfulness,
to point out the blot in what Job had said.
12, 13. Behold, in thisyou are not just: I will answer you, that Godis
greater than man. Why do you strive against Him? For He gives not
account of any of His matters. This man seems to have the very Spirit
that rested upon the Apostle Paul when he was arguing with an objector
against the Lord's way of working, "No but, O man, who are you that
replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it,
Why have You made me thus?" The greatness and grandeur of the Eternal
should prevent our raising objections against anything that He does.
Who are we, the moths of a moment, the creatures of an hour, that we
should interrogate the Infinite and question our Maker? What He does
must of necessity be right–though we cannot understand how it is so,
we must believe it and meekly bow to the will of the Lord!
14-17. For God speaks once, yes twice, yet man perceives it not. In a
dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in
slumbering upon the bed; then He opens the ears of men, and seals their
instruction, that He may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride
from man. It is always one great object of the Divine dealings to make
and keep us humble. It is strange that creatures so insignificant as we
are should be perpetually infected with the foul disease of pride–this
form of mental scarlet fever continually breaks out in puny man and,
therefore, God deals with him that He may "hide pride from man."
18, 19. He keeps back his soul from the Pit, andhis life from perishing
by the sword. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed and the
multitude of his bones with strong pain. Pain of body is usually looked
upon as a great evil and, doubtless, it is so in some respects, but it
wraps up within itself great mercy. There are some who can scarcely be
taught at all except through physical pain. And if it were possible to
abolish sickness and suffering, where would men go in the wantonness of
their strength? Does not this very affliction often chide man and bid
him think–and cause him to return to his Maker, when, otherwise, he
would be as thoughtless as the beasts that perish?
20-24. So that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty meat. His
flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were
not seen, stick out. Yes, his soul draws near unto the grave, andhis
life to the destroyers. If there is a messenger with him, an
interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man His uprightness:
then He is gracious unto him, and says, Deliver him from going down to
the Pit: I have found a ransom. Happy is the messenger who comes with
such a message as that! Such was the Prophet Isaiah to Hezekiah when
the king was sick unto death. Such is the minister of God's Word when
he comes with glad tidings of redemption and God, through him, says of
the spiritually sick man, "Deliver him from going down to the pit: I
have found a ransom."
25-28. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to
the days of his youth: he shallpray unto God and He will be favorable
unto him: and he shall see His face with joy: for He will render unto
man His righteousness. He looks upon men, and if any say, I have
sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He
will deliver his soul from going into the Pit, andhis life shall see
the light. See the easy terms of God's love and mercy? The man does but
confess that he has sinned–he admits that he has perverted the right,
he confesses that he has gained no profit thereby– and God, seeing him
in such a state of heart as this, delivers his soul from going down to
the Pit, and his life shall see the light! What a gracious God we
serve! How cruel to continue to offend Him when He is so ready to
forgive!
29, 30. Lo, all these things works God oftentimes with man, to bring
back his soul from the Pit, to be enlightened with the light of the
living. The chastisement of sickness and the flagellation of pain whip
the sinner back to Him, who alone can save him! These are the black
dogs of the Great Shepherd wherewith He brings back wandering sheep
till they come again under His crook and He leads them into green
pastures.
31-33. Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me: hold your peace, and I will
speak. If you have anything to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to
justify you. If not, listen to me: hold your peace, and I shall teach
you wisdom. May the Lord graciously apply to all our hearts this
instructive portion of Old Testament Scripture! There is a message in
it to each of us as well as to the Patriarch, Job, to whom it was
specially addressed.