19. The majesty of God
The majesty of God The remaining part of Elihu’s speech is to bring out the majesty of God, and to show man’s entire dependence on Him. Then Jehovah, the Lord Himself, speaks to Job. Thus we have the order of the book: Job — God’s testimony of him — Satan accusing and opposing, through Job’s friends — then Elihu the daysman — then God Himself. Thus we have the man of God — Satan against him — Christ the High Priest for him — then God.
Now mark the effect of Job’s being thus before the Lord Himself. Astonished that he found himself contending with the Almighty, he then ’answered the Lord and said,Behold I am vile: what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth’. He had said his words were ended, and now he says he will proceed no further. Oh yes, Job will proceed a little further yet. There is in this confession the owning of what he is — vile. But in the second confession he will go much further than this.
What a solemn word to Job was this, ’Wilt thoualso disannul my judgments? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?’ I will illustrate this. Suppose an iron-founder, employing a number of servants, has in his yard two heaps of metal; the one is utterly bad, good for nothing, and every attempt to use it is a waste of time, for no perfect article can be made of it; the other heap is exactly suited for the casting required. Now the master has a perfect knowledge of both these two heaps, and he tells the men the worthlessness of the one and the suitability of the other. They will not believe him, but go on trying to get a sound casting from the bad heap. Would not this be contending against the master? Or take another: A large farmer tells his men, who are about to sow his fields, that such a heap of seed is thoroughly bad, that there is not a germ of life in it, but that the seed in the other garner is sure to bring forth a good crop. Well, they will not believe him. They sow the bad seed, and when the summer comes there is nothing but weeds. Well, say they, we must till the land better; we must try again. Try again! would not this be striving against the farmer?
After this manner God has told us, most plainly, that man is a lost, guilty, heap of sin, and that on the principle of keeping the law he never can be just; and on the other hand, that the blood of Jesus does justify every ungodly sinner that believes on Him. See Romans 3:19; Romans 3:25; Galatians 2:21; Galatians 3:10. Now, suppose a man does not believe God about this, but tries to justify himself by keeping the law, or preaches justification to others by trying to keep the law; does not God say to that man, ’Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?’
Oh! it is a terrible thing to fight against God. If this should meet the eye of a law preacher for salvation, I tell thee, Thou art a fighter against God — a persecutor of Christ. I saw a letter yesterday, from one vested in human authority, threatening to excommunicate, from what he called the church, a person, because she had been converted from the law-keeping religion of the old man, to the perfect and everlasting salvation in Christ. Just think of a threatening letter from a professed pastor, because a poor sinner had found settled peace in Christ. May God, who revealed Jesus to the mad persecuting Saul, reveal Christ to this poor, deceived striver against God. But it is not only the ministers of Satan who are trying to keep souls from Christ, and telling men that there is yet something in the old, bad heap of humanity — that it may yet be moulded and cast perfect — but God’s testimony as to man’s utter ruin in Adam, and the only redemption in Christ Jesus for lost sinners is so little understood even by the real children of God, that they spend most of their lives in trying to make the bad seed grow; that is, to find righteousness in themselves — that they are constantly finding, instead of fruit, nothing but weeds.
Surely it must be so, so long as we try to be righteous in that which God has pronounced guilty. God grant that we may try no longer to be righteous in self; but, rejoicing in the righteousness of God, may we now walk in the power of the new life.
God now shows to Job, under the figure of leviathan, that the power of Satan is too great for him. What a terrible one this king over all the children of pride is. This world has rejected the King of Righteousness and preferred the horrible slavery of Satan. But what could be God’s object in thus describing the power of the adversary? Surely it was to lead Job into entire dependence on himself. ’I know’, says Job, ’that thou canst do everything’.
Now what a relief this is. The believer looked at in himself has no power to overcome Satan. Man failed before him when innocent; much less then, now he is fallen, is he able to stand. It was independence of God that opened the door for Satan at first; and it is simple dependence on God alone that can shut it. May God give us a deep sense of dependence on Himself. It is very gracious of God telling us what the power of the enemy is, that we may know that our only resource is in a firm trust in Himself. ’I can do all things’, says Paul ’through Christ Jesus’.’My grace’, says Jesus, ’is sufficient for thee’.