The discussion of Job and his three friends can very well represent what was going on within Job himself. He was sitting in the ashes, scratching his sores, and all the time, emotionally, mentally, and volitionally, there were stirrings, drivings, and searchings.
We mentioned yesterday morning that Eliphaz represents, outwardly, mysticism and, inwardly, emotion. Mysticism tries to solve a spiritual problem, but it cannot do so by itself. Emotion is usually very much involved when you fall into a crisis, and you find emotion seeking its position all the time.
This is represented by the arguments of Eliphaz and Job. On the one hand, emotion tells you that God is just. He cannot pervert judgment. There must be a reason for such suffering. It must be because there is something wrong.
It is true that sometimes God does correct people, but that is saying the correction is very slight.
On the other hand, Job replies, “I cannot deny that God is just. This is one of the basic tenets of the universe. And yet, I have to maintain that I am righteous.”
When emotion is so stirred up, it finally comes almost to the point of a nervous breakdown. You find that Job is emotionally on the verge of breaking down. He asks for mercy. He asks for pity. When he cannot prove his innocence, he says, “My witness is in heaven.” Nobody seems to understand him, but his witness is in heaven. God knows.
Bildad represents, outwardly, traditionalism, because he bases his arguments on the tradition of the fathers. According to the tradition of the fathers, the wicked are punished and the good are rewarded. Bildad holds on to this.
There is nothing new in tradition. Tradition always goes back to the old, to the past—the older, the better. It is fixed and inflexible. But it does not solve any problem.
Job’s mind was free. He was not bound by tradition, and in his reply to Bildad you find that he had great knowledge too. Yet even that freedom of mind could not solve his spiritual problem.
Zophar represents dogmatism outwardly, and the will of man inwardly. Here you find the will of man beginning to clash. On the one hand, Zophar dogmatically pronounces that Job must be evil; therefore, he is punished. And Job denies what Zophar has said. He continues to say that he is right.
So here, brothers and sisters, you find that mysticism, traditionalism, and dogmatism do not help you out of a spiritual crisis.
There are values in these things. Oh, God, there are many errors too. If you read the sayings of Eliphaz, you will find many valuable things. Eliphaz suggests to Job that if he puts away his gold and silver as dust of the earth, and really loves God with his whole heart, then he will find that God is more precious than everything else. That is a good word.
There are good things in mysticism, but mysticism cannot solve a spiritual crisis. There are good things in tradition too. We mentioned yesterday that we should not be bound by the tradition of the fathers. But certainly, we should keep the tradition of the Lord.
There are certain traditions that come from God. You find that in 1 Corinthians 11:2 and 2 Thessalonians 2:15. There you find Christian tradition: that which comes from the Lord and is handed over to us by the apostles. These are the traditions that we should treasure. But tradition does not solve a spiritual problem.
We need doctrine—truth.
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The Lord Jesus said that if you really desire to do His will, you shall know whether His teaching is of God. But to be dogmatic does not convince or convict.
So here you find that neither mysticism, nor traditionalism, nor dogmatism can help in a spiritual crisis.
In a spiritual crisis, you find that inevitably there will be soul-searching. You cannot enter into a spiritual crisis with your soul at rest.
When you are plunged into a spiritual crisis, your soul will be stirred up in turmoil. Your emotion will be stirred up, your mind will be confused, and your will will be clashing.
On the one hand, you find that all these soul-searchings cannot solve any spiritual problems. You end up where you began. That is what you find: you begin at Job 3 and end up at Job 31, and there is no difference.
But is it totally a waste? No. Out of the searching of the soul, when you are brought to the end of yourself, you find flashes of divine light.
If you read these chapters, you find flashes of light coming into the soul. For instance, Job says in Job 19:
I know that my Redeemer liveth,
And at last He will stand up upon the earth:
And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed,
Then without my flesh shall I see God.
Even if I may not be able to see Him in my flesh, I know that in the day of resurrection I shall yet see God.
Again, Job says:
Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
You find flashes of divine light coming into the darkened soul. But unfortunately, these flashes come and go; they do not remain.
In the deep searching of the soul, what do you find? It ends up in Job 31.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, we mentioned that in Job 29, Job speaks of his life in the past, when he was preserved by God. What a life he lived: a life of fellowship with God, a life full of light, and a life full of righteous acts.
Then, in Job 30, he became a song sung by the young and despised ones. He was pushed around and kicked around. His soul was poured out like water. His skin was blackened, and he became a companion of jackals.
Brothers and sisters, you find that it was just the opposite of what he wanted. He was stripped of everything. The grief went deep into his soul and entered into his face.
When Job looked back to the past and tried to see what he was now, do you know what happened? After all the searching of the soul, he became so occupied with himself that you find, in Job 31, the personal pronouns I, my, and mine more than eighty times.
He was all occupied with himself: “I, mine, me, mine.” And what a good “I” he was! He proclaimed that he was right. He proclaimed his attitude toward sin: how he made a covenant with his eyes that he might not sin against God.
He spoke of how he did not love the world. Even though God gave him great wealth, he never made gold his hope. He was good to everybody and supplied the needs of those who were needy. He was even kind to his enemies. He treated his servants well. He did not secretly sin in idolatry, nor did he rejoice at the destruction of his enemies.
He tried to sum up his past life, and he said, “Look here, God, I am such a perfect soul. Here is my petition. I have signed my name here. Now, Your answer: why is it that, for a man like I am, You have treated me so badly?”
In Job 30, he even accused God and said, “You are cruel. You have become cruel to me. Once You were kind, but now You are cruel. Why? Why do You do that?”
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, we never know what is at the bottom of our soul until one day God measures us. There you find that, in spite of Job’s expression at the very beginning of disinterested love toward God, deep down in his soul there was self.
It is true that he did not serve God for gain, and yet, deep down, he was not ready for God’s dealings. He still trusted in God. He had not denied God, but he misunderstood God. He was failing under the chastening of the Father.
Here you find the righteous “I”: “I will hold on to my righteousness. Even before God, I will hold on to my integrity. I have not sinned. Why should I be punished? I cannot understand.”
He dared to challenge God with his own righteousness.
See, brothers and sisters, is there not a lesson for us today? Sometimes we think we love God with a disinterested love, and perhaps it is so. But you find that when we are measured to the very depths, there is still much mixture.
Down in our soul there is self-love, self-pity, self-righteousness, and self-vindication. There is not that total abandonment unto God.
If we are totally abandoned to God, we will not question His will. We will not try to vindicate ourselves. We will yield ourselves humbly into Jesus’ hands. But Job had not arrived at that point yet.
The cross had to uncover the subtlety of that self-will. The cross had to break him completely in order that the spirit might be easily brought forth.
This is what we find at the end of the discussion, or debate, between Job and his friends. The Bible says, “The words of Job were ended.” He had spoken his last word.
When you come to that point, you breathe. You start to breathe. The words of Job were ended. Sometimes you may think that the words of Job will never end. He seems able to go on and on, and he always has something to say. Is that not what we are?
Thank God, the words of Job were ended. Thank God, this was not the end. Suppose this was the end of the Book of Job. Suppose Job’s life ended before the end of the work was reached. What a falling short of the purpose of God.
But thank God, the words of Job were ended. That was the beginning.
From Job 32 to Job 37, we have the words of Elihu. This is what we will consider this morning.
When Job and his three friends were debating among themselves, probably there were many people around. I do not know, but it is possible. Among the crowd listening in was a young man by the name of Elihu.
We do not know this man very well. We do not know whether he knew Job and his three friends before or not. Job and his three friends were older persons, but Elihu was a young man. He was just listening in.
When the words of Job were ended and the three friends were silent, then Elihu was stirred within his spirit.
The name Elihu means, “He is my God,” or, “My God is He.” This Elihu was a young man.
What does this man represent? To me, I feel this man represents the human spirit.
When God created man, He created man not only with a body and a soul, but also with a spirit. God is Spirit, and we must worship Him in spirit. Who can worship Him in spirit? Only those who are created with a spirit.
Man was created with a spirit. Our human spirit is an organ for God. It is by our human spirit that we can worship God, who is Spirit. God is not to be found in the body, nor in the soul. God is to be found in spirit.
But unfortunately, because of sin, our spirit was dead in sins and transgressions. Therefore, most people do not know that they have a spirit. All they know is a soul and a body.
I can never forget a lady missionary who led my father to the Lord. Later, in her older years, she stayed with us. She came from Virginia, and every time something happened, she would throw up her hands and say, “Oh, my soul and body!”
She never mentioned the spirit. Of course, she knew, but you find the common expression, “soul and body.” People know soul and body; they do not know they have a spirit.
But thank God, he that is born of the Spirit is born anew. What is the meaning of new birth? What happens when you are born again?
Nothing much happens to your body, and not much happens to your soul. But at new birth there is a transformation in your spirit. The spirit that was dead in sins and transgressions is quickened into life. It becomes a new spirit.
Since the time of new birth, you have a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit, crying, “Abba, Father.” Is that not true?
Comparatively speaking, the spirit is rather young, while the soul is quite old. That is the reason why the soul is represented by Job and his three friends, while the spirit is represented by a young man.
Our new spirit is comparatively younger than our soul.
Notice the humility of this young man. He listened to the arguments of these older people and kept silent. It was the custom of the East for the young to respect the old. When the old people were talking, the young just listened.
Even though within his spirit he was so full that he was on the verge of bursting, he remained silent. He used a very good metaphor. He said it was as if new wine were fermenting in a bottle with no vent.
But he kept silent. He was humble. He waited.
He waited until Job’s words were ended. He waited until the three friends were silent. Then he began.
He said, “I acknowledge that there should be wisdom with age, and that is the reason why I kept quiet. But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”
At the beginning of his words, Elihu tried to convey that he was speaking in the spirit. He was not speaking his own opinions and ideas, but he was speaking as he was moved in his spirit.
He said, in effect, “It is true that I am younger, but there is a spirit in man. Job is older, but we are both made by God, and there is a spirit in man.” It was by the spirit that Elihu began to speak.
So, dear brothers and sisters, when the soul is busily engaged, the spirit remains silent.
Very often, when we are plunged into a spiritual crisis, if only we could listen to the spirit speaking. But we cannot. Why? Because our soul is in commotion.
Our emotion is stirring, our mind is working, and our will is striving. Our whole soul is caught up in a great tumult. When you are in that state, you cannot hear the voice of the spirit.
The spirit is too humble and too gentle to interject itself into the conversation. The spirit never forces its way. It waits.
Oh, how delicate is our spirit, dear brothers and sisters.
Often I am disturbed by one thing: we do not know the delicateness of our spirit. We live such rough and rude lives, such careless lives, that we do not know how delicate the spirit is.
Our spirit is like a dove. A little disturbance, and it is gone. It is very delicate.
If you want to listen to the voice of your spirit, you have to be quiet inwardly. When the soul is quieted, then the spirit begins to speak. It is in the spirit’s speaking that you find interpretation.
The human spirit here is trying to interpret. Elihu says in Job 33:12:
Behold, I will answer thee, in this thou art not just;
For God is greater than man.
You have lost sight of God. You are so occupied with yourself, and that is the whole problem.
Why dost thou strive against Him,
For that He giveth not account of any of His matters?
Is God obligated to explain everything to you? Are you not willing simply to submit yourself to Him? Why is there not that utter abandonment to the will of God? Why do you demand an explanation, as if He must explain?
Do you not know that He is God? He is greater than you. Can you trust Him?
But does God speak? Is it true that God never explains Himself, that He always leaves us in the dark? No, not at all. God does speak. He speaks once, yea twice.
Perhaps you are now in a crisis. You demand an explanation. You think that God has not spoken to you and has not answered your prayer. But God has already spoken—not once, but twice—and you have not perceived it. That is the problem.
On the one hand, it is true that God is not obligated to explain everything to us. He is greater than man, and we ought to trust Him and yield ourselves to Him completely. But, on the other hand, God is One who does speak. He has spoken once and twice, but the trouble is that we have not heard.
We blame God as though He has not spoken, but in actuality, it is we who have not heard.
How does God speak? He speaks once and twice:
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed;
Then He openeth the ears of men,
And sealeth their instruction,
That He may withdraw man from his purpose,
And hide pride from man;
He keepeth back his soul from the pit,
And his life from perishing by the sword.
How does God speak? God speaks within our spirit.
The metaphor here is that when one is in deep sleep, when the activities of the soul have come to an end, then God opens his inner ears and instructs him with wisdom.
This is the anointing. You find in 1 John 2:27:
And as for you, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you,
And ye need not that any one teach you;
But as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things,
And is true, and is no lie,
And even as it taught you, ye abide in Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, how does God speak? God speaks with a still, small voice to our spirit. Our spirit is the organ for God.
If we are quiet enough, if all the strivings of our soul have come to cease, then we shall hear, with our inner ear, the speaking of God. It is the speaking of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Our spirit is merely the organ, but the Holy Spirit is the Inhabitant. He dwells in our spirit. Yet very often, because our soul is so agitated, our spirit cannot hear the speaking of God.
It is only when our soul has come to rest that our spirit is able to hear the still, small voice: “This is the way; walk ye in it.”
When the Spirit speaks with a still, small voice in our spirit, He will show us our pride. He will reveal ourselves to us. He will deliver our souls from the pit. The way we are going is going to the pit.
How do we gain our soul? By losing it—by losing it.
We think we gain our soul by gratifying it. But the word of God says that if you lose your soul for His sake, you shall gain it.
Has God spoken? Yes, He always is. But we do not always listen.
God speaks once and twice. Not only once, but twice. How?
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed,
And with continual strife in his bones;
So that his life abhorreth bread,
And his soul dainty food.
His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen;
And his bones that were not seen stick out.
Yea, his soul draweth near unto the pit,
And his life to the destroyers.
Sometimes, when God speaks, we do not hear. Therefore, God has to speak twice. The second time, He speaks not merely in a still voice; He works.
God’s working is God’s speaking. When God works, He speaks.
How does He work? He raises up circumstances. He may bring in affliction, even sickness, as in this case. God may arrange our environment by bringing affliction, sickness, suffering, persecution, or whatever it may be.
Through all these happenings, we may see the hand of the Lord—the chastening of the Lord.
In other words, God may speak to us through the illumination of the indwelling Holy Spirit, or God may speak to us through the discipline of the Holy Spirit in arranging our environment.
Sometimes we are not quiet enough to hear the still, small voice within us. Therefore, God has to raise up a tumultuous environment, that through all the noises of the environment we may hear His speaking.
If we cannot hear the whisper of the Lord, then He has to thunder.
Are we so dull, so slow, that we cannot even see His hand in our environment?
What is the meaning of all these things that happened to Job? In a word, it is the chastening of the Lord.
Job is not punished because of his sin. Job is under the chastening of the Lord. Why? Because God considered Job as a son and not as a bastard. God had to train His son in order to perfect him.
If you read Hebrews 12, you find that this is what it is: the discipline of the Lord, the chastening of the Lord, the child-training of the Lord.
The reason Job was plunged into such critical times was not because he had committed something. Though he was in sickness, it was because God wanted to perfect him unto maturity, that he might be a partaker of the divine nature.
During a time of chastening, there is grief, but afterwards there will be the peaceable fruit of righteousness. This is what it is.
Why is it that you do not understand? You need an interpreter. If you have an interpreter, then he will interpret to you, and you will not die. You will not go into the pit.
Who is that interpreter? Elihu. He is the interpreter. He is trying to interpret to Job the meaning of the crucible of trial.
Who is the interpreter today? Our human spirit.
Our human spirit is an interpreter of God. It is by our human spirit that we interpret the working and speaking of the Holy Spirit.
If you do not listen to the voice of your spirit, if you do not hearken to your spirit, then even though God may speak and He may work, you still do not understand. You may still go down to the pit.
So how important is our human spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, our human spirit is the organ for God. It is not in our soul that we search out God. It is in our spirit that we come to know God and know His will.
Elihu spoke three times. He spoke, then stopped; he spoke again, then stopped; and then he spoke a third time. Why? Because there were three rounds in the debate between Job and his three friends. They went through one round, another round, and a third round. Elihu did the same thing.
In Job 32 and Job 33, he told Job that God is greater. He tried to interpret the way of God, saying that this was the discipline and chastening of the Lord. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint under it, because God is treating you as His son. You should appreciate that. He is trying to deliver your soul.
After he finished his first speech, as he was moved by the Holy Spirit, he looked around—especially at Job. He expected that Job would certainly respond. Here he was telling Job the real meaning of all the trials, and surely Job would appreciate it and thank him.
But Job kept silent. He was defiant.
Job’s silence did not mean that he had nothing to say. It meant that he was defying Elihu. He was not accepting it. He did not appreciate it. The three friends had nothing to add to help.
The anger of Elihu was stirred up.
If you read Job 34 and Job 35, you find that Elihu seems to be another person. The arguments he made in these two chapters were nothing but a repetition of what the three friends had accused Job of. He began to accuse Job just as the three friends had done.
How could this happen?
This shows us what the human spirit is. The human spirit is just an organ. May I say that a human spirit is in a vacuum? A human spirit is neutral.
It can either be inhabited by the Holy Spirit and be under the influence of the Holy Spirit, or it can be invaded by the soul and thus express the thoughts of the soul. This is our spirit.
Sometimes we do not understand the human spirit. We tend to think that the spirit is always right, and that whatever comes from the spirit must be right.
You remember one occasion when our Lord Jesus was traveling toward Jerusalem and passing through Samaria. The Samaritans did not receive Him because His face was toward Jerusalem. They were prejudiced against the Jews.
James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came to the Lord and said, “Lord, how dare these people not receive You, the Messiah? Do You want us to call fire down from heaven to consume these people?”
What did the Lord Jesus say? The Lord said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
Dear brothers and sisters, do not think that because something comes out from the spirit, it must be right. No.
When the human spirit is under the control of the Holy Spirit, it speaks for God. But when the human spirit is invaded by the soul, it becomes a spokesman for the soul.
That is what you have here. In the beginning, Elihu spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and he spoke for God. But when he noticed that Job was defiant and there was no response, his own self gained control over his spirit, and he spoke like a man not different from Job’s friends.
Beware. Even our spirit needs to be purified. That is what you find in 2 Corinthians 7:1. Not only does our flesh need to be purified; even our spirit needs to be purified.
But thank God, he spoke for two chapters and then he stopped. Did he begin to realize who was speaking? I suppose he did. He stopped, and then he opened his mouth again for the third time, in Job 36 and Job 37.
There you find Elihu proceeding again, saying:
Suffer me a little, and I will show thee;
For I have yet somewhat to say on God’s behalf.
That spirit of humility came upon him again.
You can notice whether the human spirit is under the control of the Holy Spirit or under the influence of the soul. You can easily distinguish it.
The spirit under the control of the Holy Spirit has humility in it—even the humility of the Lamb. But when the spirit is under the influence of the soul, you find arrogance.
Again, a spirit of humbleness came upon Elihu. He said, in effect, “I will speak for God. I am not speaking for myself anymore. That is futile. I acknowledge my fault. I am going to speak for God again.”
What he said was a re-emphasis of the chastening of the Lord, but with a warning: if you listen and humble yourself, you will yet enjoy that union with God even more. But if you do not listen, you may end up in disaster.
Dear brothers and sisters, is that not true? Why do we call it a spiritual crisis? Because it may come out either way.
Sometimes a spiritual crisis will make you. It has the possibility of breaking you. It may perfect you, or it may ruin you. It all depends on whether we will yield to God.
Elihu is trying to help Job out of his soul into his spirit. Then Job will begin to understand the working and discipline of the Lord.
From the discipline of the Lord, Elihu moves on in his speaking to the government of God. There is such a thing as the government of God.
God is great. He governs the universe. He governs the world according to His will. If only we knew His government, if only we learned to yield ourselves to His government.
Then we would not suffer more. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His government is beyond our understanding.
But if we are willing to submit ourselves, to abandon ourselves to His government, we will find that His government is a benevolent government.
As Elihu was speaking, a storm began to gather. There was lightning. There was thunder. Rain came down.
Elihu used this to explain the government of God.
After the storm, the gold in the north appears. Job entered into a storm full of lightning, thunder, and darkness. But after the storm, there will be golden sunlight rising on the horizon. This is the government of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, the end of the Lord is full of tender compassion and pity.