Why, God? Why? How often we ask God – please explain… How come this and how come that? Elihu (the 4th of Job’s friend and the youngest) gave this statement after he listened to all 4 of his elders’ words.
Job 33:13 “Why do you complain against Him
That He does not give an account of all His doings?
(Yes, why do we act as if God owes us an explanation?!)
14 “Indeed God speaks once,
Or twice, yet no one notices it.
(Sometimes it’s not that God is silent, but that man is deaf or dense!)
15 “In a dream, a vision of the night,
When sound sleep falls on men,
While they slumber in their beds,
16 Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction,
(God speaks, in most unlikely circumstances, when He wills it, He opens man’s ears and lets him understand.. What for?)
17 That He may turn man aside from his conduct,
And keep man from pride;
18 He keeps back his soul from the pit,
And his life from passing over into Sheol.
(THAT man might turn from his ways and THAT man might stay humble – knowing that knowledge comes from God!)
(What is right for man to pray for:)
23 “If there is an angel as mediator for him,
One out of a thousand,
To remind a man what is right for him,
24 Then let him be gracious to him, and say,
‘Deliver him from going down to the pit,
I have found a ransom’;
25 Let his flesh become fresher than in youth,
Let him return to the days of his youthful vigour;
(What makes man from going down to the pit; what makes his flesh fresher than the young; what gives strength to man? What is right to pray to God?)
26 Then he will pray to God, and He will accept him,
That he may see His face with joy,
And He may restore His righteousness to man.
(That God will accept me, that I may see His face with joy, that God may restore His righteousness to me – these are the things worthy of prayer!)
27 “He will sing to men and say,
‘I have sinned and perverted what is right,
And it is not proper for me.
28 ‘He has redeemed my soul from going to the pit,
And my life shall see the light.’
29 “Behold, God does all these oftentimes with men,
30 To bring back his soul from the pit,
That he may be enlightened with the light of life.
God does all these often with men – to turn me from the dark depths and valleys of life…from the pit to be enlightened with the light of life! It might be a long dark tunnel or a bottomless pit of gloom, BUT surely God has redeemed my soul from going to the pit, He brings back my soul from the pit that I may be enlightened with the light of life as I behold His face and seek His righteousness!
