Job  

Chapter  33  

"Elihu's words to Job, speaking of God's goodness."  

Job  33:1   "Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words."

Job  33:2   "Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth."

This is all right on the tip of my tongue.

Job  33:3   "My word shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly."

Elihu is telling Job that all he is going to say is pure facts.  Again that is what is needed to make a correct decision as to what is wrong, and fix it.

Job  33:4   "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life."

Elihu is giving credit for everything that happens, and the life within each soul to the Almighty.   Recognize that all of us are the benefactor of the power and might of God. 

Job  33:5   "If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up."

Elihu is telling each of these men that if you know the answer to what I am saying, then stand up and speak.  Have you seen a person that would not make a stand no matter what the circumstances?  That person is lukewarm, and you know what God says about those that are neither hot nor cold, but just lukewarm; they are good for nothing, and He will spew them out away from Himself.  There is nothing wrong in being wrong, for when you know you were wrong, that's the time to make changes in your life.  Get up and start over.  If you have sinned, then repent of that sin, and set your new direction. 

Job  33:6   "Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay."

This looses a little in the translation, it is saying; in God's sight I am but a mere mortal. 

Job  33:7   "Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee."

Elihu is not going to come down heavy on Job, and you don't have to be afraid of me for I am just like you.  I am another mortal formed out of clay. 

Job  33:8   "Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying,"

Elihu is reminding Job that this is what I heard you saying.

Job  33:9   "I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me."

Even though you claim to be innocent, and that there is no iniquity with you, Job.

Job  33:10   "He putteth my feet in the stocks, He marketh all my paths.' "

I have heard you claiming your innocence, and your blaming God for this. 

Job  33:11   "Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man."

Elihu is telling Job that he is absolutely wrong, in saying that God is your enemy and He has done this to you.  You are wrong when you say that God will not answer you. 

Job  33:12   "Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man."

Job  33:13   "Why dost thou strive against Him? for He giveth not account of any of His matters."

Elihu is telling Job that God is not going to come down and explain to you all of the detail of what he plans to do throughout His creation.  So now Elihu is going to accuse Job of lacking greatly in discernment. 

Job  33:14   "For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not."

God speaks to man in two different ways.  Then as we will see in the next few verses, that God speaks to man even in dreams.  Then in verses 19-22 we will see that Elihu says that God speaks to man through affliction.    

Job  33:15   "In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;"

When all persons in the house have gone to sleep, God is awake and He speaks to man in his deep sleep.  This is how He speaks to man. 

Job  33:16   "Then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instructions,"

It goes deeper than this in the Hebrew text, for Elihu states that God inserts instructions in man's minds so that they will not take the wrong path to where evil befalls them. 

Job  33:17   "That He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man."

God will hide the man from any evil action, and God gives us protection through His handling our subconscious mind.  While you are asleep, God puts his instructions into the mind, and this is how God speaks to a man.  Keep in mind that Elihu is given this advise to Job, and Job was a man that truly loved the Father.   

Job  33:18   "He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword."

By doing this, God can save the man's life.  This is what the coming of Jesus Christ was all about, the saving of your life, or eternal soul from destruction.  God speaks to you through your subconscious, and he takes care of you and protects you by these instructions. 

Job  33:19   "He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:"

This verse is now going into the second part of verse fourteen.  Elihu is now telling Job that God protects you by sickness.  Before you take this as a fact from the Bible, this statement is not of God, but stated by Elihu to Job.  It is not a correct statement. 

Job  33:20   "So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat."

In other words, he becomes so sick that he loses his appetite.  Have you ever been in that position to where nothing appeals to your taste?

Job  33:21   "His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out."

Even the things that you like just don't appeal to you, and in the end you will have great weight loss to where your bones just stick out. 

Job  33:22   "Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers."

In other words, it take you so far down that it almost make you want to die.

Job  33:23   "If there be a messenger with Him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man His uprightness:"

"A Messenger" in the Hebrew is an angel.  Elihu is telling Job that when you get that far down, it is best to go to an person that knows God's Word, and let him show you how to get your life in order.  Get someone that knows how to get to the facts, to see what is causing all this trouble to come into your life.  

Job  33:24   "Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, `Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a Ransom.' "

This word for "ransom" in the Hebrew is "atonement".  Today we have our atonement in Christ, for Jesus Christ paid the price that was necessary to cover our sins.  So we see that there is a man being delivered from his affliction, not because God wanted to bring pain on the person, but because through the pain, God wanted to deliver a message to that person. 

Job  33:25   "His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth:"

What this is saying is that in the end, he will be as young and fresh as he was in his childhood.  Through the pain and suffering, God will also do the healing.  We are healed through the Son, through the power of the living God. 

Job  33:26   "He shall pray unto God, and He will be favourable unto him: and he shall see His face with joy: for He will render unto man His righteousness."

What Elihu is saying is that God is fair in all matters. 

Job  33:27   "He looketh upon men, and if any say, "I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;" "

It becomes necessary for the man to stand up publicly and declare that he has sinned, that he repents and that he loves God.  So what Elihu is saying to Job is nothing more than the old words that the other three men were spouting off in the first thirty chapters.  Elihu is telling Job to stand up in public and declare that he has sinned, and that he is sorry for sinning.  Job is also suppose to declare that he loves God publicly, for all the people to hear.  He is telling Job to make his heart right, when in fact Job's heart was right with God.

Job  33:28   "He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light."

Job  33:29   "Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man,"

This really looses in the translation; the Hebrew text states that God may do these things to man, speak to him in dreams, and direct him through affliction over and over many times in your life.  This is exactly what happens in most peoples lives and this young man knows what he is talking about.  Elihu is giving a straight set of facts that everyone has experienced. 

Job  33:30   "To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living."

The reason that God does all these things through dreams and affliction is to bring man [woman] to a place of enjoyment. 

Job  33:31   "Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I will speak."

Elihu is telling Job to listen careful to me. 

Job  33:32   "If your hast anything to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee."

All I am trying to do is to help you Job.  Do you see an outstanding person in Elihu? 

Job  33:33   "If not, hearken unto me: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee wisdom."

This sure sounds like such a beautiful speech that Elihu gave to Job.  The other three sat by with many words, and no facts, however Elihu is trying to get to the facts.  He is telling Job the way that God is going to speak to him, however there is one problem with what Elihu is telling Job.  This set of facts does not apply to this case.  God expects you to be wise in sifting through the facts, though he is telling us what God does in these matters, Elihu has left Satan out of the entire message. 

Satan is the one that caused the death of Job's family, and brought on the boils that covered Job from head to toe.  Satan is the one that took Job's wealth, and Satan has been left out of all of this analyzing of the fact.  Lets go back to the correct set of fact as recorded in Job 2:7, and these are the facts of all of Job's problems.  We are to remain focused on these facts through this entire book for it is a type of what we shall face in these end times.  It is a type of what the Elect shall face in our generation. 

Job  2:7  "So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto the crown [of his head]."

This is a fact, Satan is the one that smote Job with all of his sore boils.  God was not trying to give Job any message at all, and everything that happened to Job was not from the mind of God, but through the planned deceit of Satan.  Job was one of God's elect, and God was proud of Job in all that Job did in his life.  God may be using this man with his spirit, but his spirit is not in tune with God's Spirit on this matter. 

Many Scholars have tried to delete these chapters of Elihu from the book, however the Massorah text, that protected sacred text of Job has these chapters of Elihu in them.  Elihu belongs in the bible for it is giving us a warning in this final generation.  The point of these past three chapters is that you can be given a set of facts that are all true, and sound very good and of God, however they as they are applied they are wrong.  We must make sure that we have the right facts.  Facts that do not pertain to the situation, or are they taken out of context are nothing by a lie. 

This situation was that Satan and the other angels of God that were following Satan are tormenting Job.  Mankind always tries to strike out and blame someone before all the facts are in and know to be true.  At first they blamed God for this trouble, and now Elihu is leading up to blaming Job, however Job did not have any sin within him.  God stated that Job was pure and a righteous man, and yet this trouble came upon Job. 

So the point that we are facing here, applies to us as well as it applied to Job, and that is that we are to be able to discern the spirits that come upon us.  If this man had the spirit of God, he would have know that it was Satan that was causing all the trouble, and Satan would have been included in all of the discussion of these past three chapters.  God allowed these three chapters to remain in this book for the sake of testing His elect in these end times.  God elect are His pride and joy, and at times we may not be as sharp as we ought to be.  However God expects us to be His watchmen and aware that false spirits will drift into the congregation.  So keep your facts straight, and your eye on the Word of God, and don't let a multitude of words, mixed with facts that don't apply pull you off course.  Sure it is written in the bible, and it is there for the building of the elect and our edification, correction, knowledge and understanding. 

We are living in a time when certain people will try to get us to overlook Satan and his workings through his children, the Kenites.  We are living in the end times, and if you don't know him, you will be led to believe that you will fly away with him for your own protection.  The teaching today is that it is not important to know about the Antichrist, who is Satan, but only believe and you will be saved.  You had better know what spirit you are going to follow, or Satan's spirits will lead you right into Satan camp.  God through Christ made it very clear that in the last days, before the very end, the Antichrist shall walk upon the earth.  Are you going to overlook that warning, and allow yourself to be deceived?  You are not living in a time when your spiritual life can go on playing church, and the games that are being played today.  If you get lazy in your study and understanding, you will be taken advantage of, and that is a fact from the Almighty Himself.  This is what these people of Job's time have done, they have forgotten Satan and the destruction that he brings where ever he goes. 

In these facts, every one of them is true in and of itself, however these fact does not apply to Job's case, and they also will not apply to your case if you are the elect, and keeping the facts of your life in proper perspective.