Footmen

Footmen are soldiers of the infantry who typically have no unique positions or authority. They are everyday, ordinary soldiers who are charged with the basic tasks in combat and warfare. Footmen go about unremarkable jobs, often unknown and unseen. Footmen are not the generals, lieutenants, or colonels. Footmen are not the commanders, strategists, or specialists. Footmen are not the champions, warriors, or heroes. Footmen are not lauded by men, save through extraordinary acts of bravery and heroism. Footmen may go through years of dedicated service, but they are quickly forgotten and are often unrecognized for their work.

In Jehovah’s elect army there are many footmen. In God’s providence only a select few of the elect number have had their names carried down to many generations. Occasionally, God gives to the church a Moses, a David, a Paul, a Peter, an Augustine, a Gottschalk of Orbais, a Guido de Brès, or a John Calvin; but compared to the millions of members in the whole body of Christ, this is rare. God designs the lives of his people in this way to show us that lasting fame and recognition are often not the lot of his people in this life. There is something seriously wrong when a supposed Christian seeks fame and recognition in the world, perhaps through politics, entertainment, earthly success, or worse, through gaining a following in the church.

Most of God’s people are forgotten by man as the years roll on; many are relatively unknown even in their own day. They often do not make impressions on the pages of history; they are often not remembered for mighty deeds; they certainly do not capture the interest and imaginations of the world. They might not even make seemingly much of an impact upon the church of their day. They might not be seen on the frontlines doing mighty deeds for the kingdom. They are overshadowed by church leaders and those with extraordinary spiritual gifts. They might do only small, unnoticed acts: a glass of water in Christ’s name over here, a brief word of godly encouragement over there.

But recognition of men and fame in this world do not matter. What matters is the truth on which God places his people and that truth in which they stand—the truth of God, his name, and his Son, Jesus Christ, with salvation through him alone. And while God’s people are neglected by men, God not only remembers them but also builds them into a beautiful and exact temple. They are the apple of God’s eye, and they are written forever on the back of his hand and in the Lamb’s book of life. They are the objects of his love and grace only for Christ’s sake and through his work—not through their own works, however great or small those works may seem. Through Christ’s work God beholds his elect as lovely and pleasing to him!

God is pleased to use ordinary, lowly footmen for his divine purpose, that is, his glory. He chooses to use the simple to confound the wise. He ordains strength from the mouths of babes and sucklings. The simple! Babes and sucklings! Common, ordinary nothings in the eyes of man!

Man always has his opinions of things. These opinions are often antithetical to God’s thoughts on those things. Did not the giant Goliath disdain young David because he was a ruddy, smooth-faced boy? Yet God decreed to use that boy to kill Goliath, the enemy of God’s Christ and his church. Did not man say, “Can anything good come from Nazareth”? Yet the all-wise God decreed to send Christ from that small, despised town. God is the God of lowly, humble means to accomplish his eternal good pleasure. In doing so God exposes man as anti-God in all man’s thoughts and purposes, and God reveals his glory as the sovereign one of all creation.

A man often overlooked as a model of the humble, ordinary footman is God’s servant Elihu. Elihu? Exactly, Elihu. Elihu was not one of the great leaders or memorable characters of the pages of scripture. He appeared for a brief time, having little background and no explanation, only to vanish after his work was finished. What we know of Elihu is scarce, but the details that the Holy Spirit includes are exactly enough for “doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).

Elihu

The record of Elihu is found in the Old Testament book of Job. Elihu was the son of Barachel the Buzite of the kindred of Ram (32:2). From this meager information, we gather that Elihu was from a family that knew the one true God. Elihu’s name means my God is he, and Barachel means God blesses. These names instruct us not about some pagan god but about Jehovah God, the one true God. Elihu was from a family that knew Jehovah, and most likely Elihu was a relative of Abraham. Elihu was a Buzite, and Buz was one of Abraham’s nephews, the son of Abraham’s brother Nahor (Gen. 22:20–21). Many biblical historians say that Ram also refers to the family or kindred of Abraham. So Elihu was a relative of Abraham, of the line of Shem. This is a reason many date the book of Job as happening around or shortly after the time of Abraham.

That Elihu was a relative of Abraham means that Elihu lived in the sphere of the covenant. Perhaps the book of Job took place during the history when Abraham’s seed still had relations with Nahor’s seed. Examples would be Isaac’s marrying Nahor’s granddaughter, Rebecca, or Jacob’s marrying Leah and Rachel, Nahor’s great-granddaughters. After this history we hear no more of Nahor and his descendants, and we are led to believe that they apostatized and fell away in their generations, as God established his covenant with Nahor’s brother Abraham and Abraham’s seed.

The Spirit also saw fit in his wisdom to include that Elihu was the youngest of Job and his friends. Youth are often seen as foolish and inexperienced. Proverbs 22:15 teaches that foolishness is bound in the heart of children (youth). David calls upon God in Psalm 25:7 not to remember the sins of his youth. However, despite the relative dearth of knowledge about Elihu, his person is not the focus in recounting his history. It is good to set him in the proper context of the sphere of the covenant and to know of his youthfulness, but the man Elihu is not the point of this history. The word that Elihu brought is the point of this history. That is why only a single verse of Holy Writ is used to describe Elihu’s entire backstory, and six chapters are spent on what he spoke to Job and his three friends. The word that Elihu brought, simply put, was the truth of who Jehovah God is, applied practically to Job’s sin and situation in the world.

Elihu appeared on the scene as Job was finishing his replies to his other three friends at the end of Job 31. Job suffered tremendously at the hands of God, a history we likely know well. And Job’s friends arrived at his house, as Job sat childless, virtually servant-less, bereft of livestock, covered in boils, and living with a wife who told him to curse God and die. As Job looked for an answer to his suffering, his three friends—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar— gave their speculations. Each began by supposing that Job had been walking in some sin, and each stated in so many words that this sin was the reason for Job’s suffering.

In Job 4:7–8 Eliphaz stated, “Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.”

This is a true statement; those who plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap perishing. But implied is that Job had been walking impenitently in sin and that God had sent the earthly circumstances of Job’s suffering as punishment.

In Job 8:6 Bildad not only implied that Job was living in sin, but Bildad also stated that that was the reason for Job’s calamity when Bildad said, “If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.”

Zophar took up the same charge—namely, that God had taken away Job’s wealth because Job was living impenitently in some sin. Zophar said, “If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles” (11:14).

After Job answered his friends, denying that he was living in unrepentant sin, Job’s friends leveled specific charges at him—wild charges, charges with no grounds whatever. The friends accused Job of being uncharitable with his wealth, stealing, ignoring the poor and fatherless, lusting after women, and other gross sins. Job answered these charges, not because they merited a response but because Job took care to demonstrate that gross sin must not be the reason God had sent such immense suffering his way.

After Job’s lengthy response in chapters 27–31, the three friends had nothing more to say. Their mouths were stopped so no more foolishness could come out. However, Job still had no answer for his suffering. What was worse, Job had indeed sinned—not as an adulterer; not as a robber; and not as an uncharitable, avaricious man. His sin was not the reason God had brought the suffering, for this sin came in Job’s replies and speeches after his suffering began. Nonetheless, Job sinned. The three friends clearly were clueless of what that sin might be, for they certainly would have jumped on the opportunity to accuse Job of it. None would bring this sin to Job with a godly rebuke—that is, until Jehovah sent his own mouthpiece, his servant Elihu.

Job 32 begins with the introduction of Elihu. Elihu had watched some of what had occurred but most likely not all of it, for he did not have a speech of his own nor an introduction until Job had finished replying to all three friends. The answers Job gave evidently were satisfactory to the three friends, and they had no other charges, no other possible explanations for Job’s suffering. There was a period of silence from Job and from his friends.

Watching this unfold, Elihu knew exactly what Job’s sin was, but none of Job’s friends would cut the silence with the clear and obvious truth. As the writer introduces Elihu, the first thing we read is that Elihu’s wrath was kindled (32:2). That is how he arrived on the scene, as one who was hopping mad with a holy anger, jealous for the glory of God. How could Job not see it? And how could the friends not see it? The text says that Elihu’s wrath was kindled against them too, for “they found no answer, and yet had condemned Job” (v. 3). They were not speaking the truth that Job needed to hear.

Elihu had been patient. He had watched, possibly for hours, expecting the truth to come out, as words were spoken, replies and rebuttals made, accusations made, and more explanations were given. After all, these men were older and wiser than he! Elihu said to the men, “I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion. I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom” (32:6–7).

Elihu later realized why the friends had not spoken the truth in wisdom, and he said, “But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment” (32:8–9).

Wisdom to discern the truth does not come by age, power, authority, position, or greatness. Wisdom does not come simply by becoming a church leader, going through seminary, having children and grandchildren, or reaching a certain age. There are plenty of foolish church leaders, ministers, parents, grandparents, and old men and women. And there are plenty of truly wise young children and uneducated adults in Jehovah’s army. That is because wisdom comes by the Spirit! And God certainly gave to Elihu the Spirit. Those older, great men did not see the truth, but God revealed it unto young Elihu.

Holy Wrath

Against Job and against his three friends was Elihu’s wrath kindled. That wrath was a fierce, burning anger. It was the kind of anger that absolutely cannot be contained and explodes from a person. “Behold,” Elihu said, “my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles. I will speak, that I may be refreshed” (32:19–20). And yet his wrath was not an uncontrolled rage. Neither was Elihu’s wrath for his own sake due to some personal offense Job had caused. That would be wicked, unchristian wrath. But there is a holy, good, Christian wrath, even such a wrath that cannot be contained and bursts forth like poorly ventilated wine.

That wrath is God’s own wrath against all sin and iniquity as that sin and iniquity are an assault against his name and worthy of everlasting punishment. That wrath is essentially God’s holiness encountering any unholiness. That wrath, a hating and despising of sin as unholy and offensive to God’s name, was put into Elihu’s heart by the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit’s wrath against Job’s sin. Because it came from the Spirit of Christ, it was good, right, holy wrath that may never be condemned.

The false church will slander that wrath, calling it mean, hateful, overzealous, and unbalanced. Or perhaps they concede that it possibly could be appropriate in some sense, but not at that time, not in that way, and not in that place. If that holy, zealous anger were manifested in the false church off pulpits, in writing, in conversations after church or with family and friends, it would be silenced, slandered, and condemned. That is why scripture encourages true believers with comforting words such as Paul’s in Galatians 4:18: “But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.”

The believer need not worry if he is angered by sin for God’s sake when he sees it in himself or others. He need not worry even if that anger is manifest in a sharp rebuke toward the sinner. He need not worry about that holy anger because of outward circumstances, where he is, or who he is with. In fact, the believer ought to rejoice that the Spirit gave to him God’s own hatred and wrath toward sin. It is always good to be zealous for a good thing, and what better thing than the sake of the glory of God’s name!

So what was the occasion for Elihu’s wrath? Job 32:2 speaks plainly that it was Job’s sin. But what exactly was Job’s sin? There is much discussion and debate over what Job’s sin specifically was, enough in which to get completely lost. If we are to understand what Job’s sin was, we must look to Elihu’s reason for anger. The text says that Elihu’s wrath was kindled because Job had “justified himself rather than God.”

Of all Job’s friends recorded in this history, Elihu is the only one to receive an introduction like this before he spoke. That is scripture’s way to affirm that Elihu was correctly identifying Job’s sin. The other three friends were not angry; they could not be! Not in a righteous way. They could not identify Job’s sin nor the reason for his suffering. It is apparent that they did not really believe the charges they had brought because their charges were not accompanied by a true, holy anger. But Elihu was angry, and he was spot on in the identification of Job’s actual sin. Job had justified himself rather than God.

Throughout his replies Job had maintained that he was innocent, and therefore, there was no conceivable reason God should send such suffering upon Job. That was Job’s sin; he justified himself and declared God as unjust in sovereignly bringing those immense trials into Job’s life. God, according to Job, should not have done that. God was wrong, sinful, and unfair to do what he did.

No wonder Elihu was angry.

From a human perspective, however, this sin is almost understandable. Who among us does not question God’s reasons for sending trials into our lives? Now imagine you were Job: stripped of ten children, many servants, your livelihood, health, and earthly comforts in the space of a day. Would you complain the same way? “What did I do to deserve this, O God? Why have you done this to your servant, your child, your redeemed one? Surely there is no good reason this calamity befalls me!” I imagine most of us would think that God was unjust in his dealings too.

But sinful it absolutely was, for Job declared that God was not righteous in what he had done and that he, Job, was righteous. Later Elihu further explained the meaning of his charge when he said, “Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?” (35:2). One who examines Job’s speeches will not find him saying these exact words. But Elihu was not lying or slandering Job; Elihu was pinpointing what Job’s actions were declaring. Job was claiming to be more righteous than God. “God could not possibly have a good reason for bringing this suffering upon me,” Job thought, “and I certainly would not have given someone like me this suffering.”

Job dared to put himself in the judgment seat and ultimately to make himself God and to judge God for what God had done. Job said, “I am right; God is not!” Elihu summarized Job’s sin again in chapter 34:5 when he said, “For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.” Job was saying that because of his innocence of great sin, God was not giving Job a fair trial and treating him justly. Job, therefore, attempted to un-God God as the perfect, righteous, and all-just one. Job questioned the dealings of the unfathomable God. Job, a concoction of dirt, replied against the infinite, majestic, creator of all things material and spiritual.

Elihu gave a harsh, pointed rebuke. One would think if Elihu had practiced charity he would have simply overlooked this sin amid all Job’s agonizing hardships. After all, Job was a good man, perfect and upright (1:1). Job had not cursed God; in fact, after God originally had sent the trials, Job testified to God’s blessedness (v. 21). But Elihu, filled with the holy zeal of the Holy Spirit, could not ignore and overlook Job’s grievous sin. That would have been as impossible as God himself ignoring and overlooking that sin. Elihu was given the powerful grace of God to look past Job’s person, as he swore to do (32:21–22), and he thundered a rebuke that Job might be humbled to dust.

A speech such as Elihu’s would be ridiculed, hated, and mocked in the theological and ecclesiastical climate of today. The view of polemics, harsh language, and rebukes in general is that they are unfit for Christians and are to be kept out of the church, the preaching, and the lives of the members. This is rank unbelief that judges according to man’s standards of what is acceptable and appropriate and that is completely blind to view sin or false doctrine as God views them.

This unbelief dwells in our flesh too. We wince and cringe at strong polemics, harsh words of rebuke, and condemnation of sin and the lie. We mutter under our breaths that certain polemical statements should be said differently or not at all. We consider all too often what men may think of this or who might be offended by that. We put our fingers to the wind before weighing in on conversations with impassioned remarks. We often bite our tongues, quenching the Spirit’s holy and necessary words of warning or rebuke. We judge according to our own foolishly dark standards, not according to the light that God reveals in his word. The truth is that all polemics, rebukes, or harsh words that are based upon principles of God’s word are of God himself. To reject those polemics, silently criticize them, or fail to bring them is to reject and criticize Christ, who is that Word.

The spirit of zeal for God is antithetical to what lies in us by nature. Elihu’s discourse was a clear manifestation of love for the glory of God’s name and love for Job, whereas all that lies within us by nature is a virulent hatred for God and the neighbor. What Elihu spoke was not said in service of himself but in denial of himself, whereas all that is in our flesh is self-serving and looks only to our own best interests. It is not surprising that the church world hates the sentiments behind Elihu’s speech because we know well that hatred lies in us too.

One of the church world’s opinions of Elihu’s speech is found in the Reformation Heritage Study Bible, chiefly edited by Rev. Joel Beeke and his team. The commentary given on Elihu’s speech in Job 32–37 repeatedly claims that Elihu misrepresented Job, that Elihu took extreme quotes out of context, that Elihu did not have compassion upon Job in his suffering, and that Elihu displayed arrogance and a judgmental attitude toward Job.

The study Bible censors Elihu and condemns parts of his speech as unloving mischaracterization of Job. By nature we completely agree with this. “That is not loving!” we would say. “That is not nice! Poor Job, having to endure the false charges of his other three friends, and now this!”

But what does scripture say? Elihu certainly was a sinner, prone by nature to hate God and Job, his neighbor. Perhaps Elihu did sin. Perhaps the rebuke was too harsh. Perhaps he was unloving toward Job. Perhaps Elihu was just like Job’s other friends, who falsely accused Job. Perhaps. But let us examine scripture as we judge Elihu’s speech.

Elihu testified that his words came out of the Spirit in his heart (32:8). He spoke on behalf of God (36:2). He spoke out of the uprightness of his heart—the new man (33:3). This is strong evidence from scripture that Elihu’s speech was indeed a good, holy rebuke.

To further demonstrate the uprightness of Elihu’s speech, Job never replied or argued against Elihu. This is significant because most of the book of Job consists of the false accusations of the three friends and Job’s lengthy responses to them, explaining why their musings on his suffering were dead wrong. But to Elihu’s words Job could not offer a single defense. He was silent. Elihu even paused at one point, giving Job the opportunity to answer him. Elihu said in chapter 33:32, “If thou hast any thing to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify thee.” Elihu said, “Job, if I am wrong, say something! I want you to be justified in this matter!” But Job said nothing, and chapter 34 simply continues with “Furthermore Elihu answered and said…” Job had no answer; the Spirit in him recognized the truth that Elihu had spoken by that same Spirit.

Again in Job 34:36 Elihu said that his goal was not to blindly accuse and belittle Job but to try him and to give Job the opportunity to defend himself. Elihu said, “My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers for wicked men.” Elihu wanted Job to be innocent. Elihu would have listened if Job replied again and claimed innocence of any sin of which Elihu had accused Job. But Job continued to remain silent.

Then there is God’s seal upon the speech of Elihu. When God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, he rebuked Job’s other three friends in Job 42:7–9. God specifically rebuked Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, but God did not rebuke Elihu. If Elihu had indeed sinned and misrepresented, slandered, or was uncompassionate toward Job, God would have rebuked Elihu. But Jehovah had sent Elihu to rebuke Job and put the very words of rebuke upon Elihu’s lips. Elihu was God’s mouthpiece. Young as Elihu was, unknown as he was, he was Jehovah’s mouthpiece for this important work of rebuking Job, God’s servant.

This is proved even further when we see that God restated the same points that he had spoken by Elihu. An example is chapter 40:8 when God said, “Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?” It is almost precisely the charge brought by God’s mouthpiece, Elihu. Elihu had not misrepresented Job, been uncharitable, or falsely accused Job, but Elihu had spoken God’s own thoughts!

Elihu exercised the Christian freedom that all God’s people possess to use God’s word to judge matters and rebuke sin where stubbornness in sin is seen. The believer who is in Jesus Christ is completely free to rebuke! The believer is free of the condemnation of the law on that rebuke, which rebuke will be far from perfect. He is not saved by or through that rebuke in any way. Salvation is not dependent upon how flawless that rebuke is.

The believer is also free in that he has the right to rebuke. Those outside Christ have no right to rebuke sin. They may not use a syllable of God’s word, take it upon their lips, or apply it to any situation in their lives. They must, according to God’s demand, but they have no right to God’s holy word. They are unholy, and God’s word may not be polluted with unclean lips. But in Christ the believer is restored the right freely to use God’s word and to judge all matters with it.

The believer is free of respecting persons. He is free from all considerations and rules about rebukes set down by man. The believer does not need to feel guilty or ashamed for showing righteous wrath toward sin, regardless of what unbelieving men may say. The believer does not need to carve away at the rebuke to make it palatable to man’s dark tastes. The believer does not need to wait for the right moment or the right place to make the rebuke or be concerned about bringing the rebuke at the wrong moment or in the wrong place. Such unbiblical restrictions made by man upon God’s word are wicked attempts to bind and silence God as he wills to speak. The believer is free! He is free in love and holy zeal for God to take the word that is in his heart and apply a godly rebuke.

King of Creation

The meat of Elihu’s rebuke of Job was hardly about Job. It was about God. It was specifically about God’s sovereignty. Elihu brought the truth of God’s sovereignty with the purpose to humble Job to nothing. There are many ways to speak to the child of God about God’s sovereignty. The truth of God’s sovereignty could be brought in connection with the gospel of God, who sent Jesus Christ to fully satisfy for all the sins of God’s people at the cross and to sovereignly accomplish salvation. The truth of God’s sovereignty could be brought to comfort one who suffers, so that he knows and is assured of God’s absolute control over his life. But Elihu brought the truth of God’s sovereignty for the purpose of abasing Job. And what more humbling doctrine is there than the doctrine of God’s total sovereignty!

One might give a cursory thought to many of God’s infinite attributes and perhaps not immediately be lowered to nothing. But that is very difficult to avoid when one considers God’s sheer power, control, governance, and complete kingship over all existence. All men, living beings, plants, water, air, cells, atoms, heavenly bodies, energy, scientific forces, space, time, history, thoughts, purposes, actions, and spiritual beings are simultaneously controlled, governed, given existence, directed, willed, and purposed by I AM. All things imaginable and unimaginable that make up this universe and all spiritual realms are in God’s absolute control.

This action of upholding and controlling all created reality does not tax God in the slightest. It is not difficult for God to uphold and direct every blade of grass, grain of sand, star in heaven, moment in time, passing thought of man, and every rational and moral soul. Man hardly can begin to quantify these things, but God fashioned each one uniquely, upholds each constantly, and gives each a distinct purpose and goal in his creation. God neither sleeps nor slumbers, but he is ceaselessly active. God never waxes nor wanes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The truth of God’s sovereignty humbles man to the dust, to wallowing in the dirt. The sovereignty of God makes man clay in the hands of the almighty potter. That truth removes even the thought that man could boast in anything. It makes man absolutely, positively, and definitely nothing. Nothing! The words of Psalm 8 come to mind and give force to this point. What is man, that God could possibly be mindful of him? He who controls the sun, moon, and stars; who stills his enemies and the avenger; who has everything in his power and directs all things is mindful of the dust that is man. Who can understand that?

It was that truth of God that Elihu spoke to Job. Job had exalted himself in his sinful mind to a place where he thought he could judge God and condemn what God did to him. Elihu responded, “Job, do you even know who God is? Job, do you even know who you are?”

God’s sovereignty is a truth that all men must know. The reprobate must know it for their own condemnation as they hate that truth and press it down in their minds and souls. The elect must know it too. They must know and understand God’s absolute sovereignty. They too are prone to puff up themselves with self-worth before God. They are prone to question when God sends this or that trial into their lives. They are prone to judge God, just as Job did, and ultimately to condemn God when things do not go their way according to their desires. The elect too must be humbled by the same truth that Elihu brought to Job. Who are you to dare to put yourself in the judgment seat and demand of God an answer? Do you even know who that God is whom you are judging? Do you know his holiness? Do you know his righteousness? Do you know his might and power? Have you the slightest idea how wicked it is to suggest to God that he should not have done this or that?

This focus of Elihu’s polemic begins in Job 35. There is evidence of it from the beginning, but chapter 35 is where he becomes the most explicit. “Look unto the heavens, and see,” he said in verse 5, “and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.” Already Elihu had humbled Job by pointing to an earthly picture. But Elihu continued, “If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?” (vv. 6–7).

Elihu explained that God in his sovereignty is completely independent of the actions of man. Whether a man sins or is righteous, whether he obeys or disobeys, whether he believes in God or not, it does nothing to the being of the almighty God. Whether man thanks God or not, whether man praises God or not, whether man acknowledges God or not, God is completely unchanged and unmoved. Sins of men and devils cannot injure God in any respect, and righteous acts of men and angels cannot add anything to God. Man cannot rob anything from God, nor can man extend his hand and give something to God. Even when men attempt to steal God’s glory, deny him, or corrupt his truth in their minds and lives, God is not diminished or affected whatsoever. God does not depend upon man; God does not change due to man’s actions or responses; and God needs nothing from man. God’s will and decree do not adjust to accommodate the doings of man, and God’s plan can never be thwarted.

What a comfort this is to a child of God! The elect child’s sins cannot change God’s will to save him! The elect child’s good works do not have the purpose of obtaining, possessing, or maintaining his salvation! God is unaffected by man, and God’s salvation of his elect people never changes or is dependent upon them. God is independent of man, and so the salvation that God chooses to bestow is also independent of man. Man, rather, whether he is a sinner or a righteous man, is completely dependent upon God.

“Behold,” Elihu continued, “God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out” (36:26). Then by examples from God’s creation, Elihu proved that man cannot comprehend God in his greatness. God’s greatness is indescribably magnificent! His control over all things is utterly unfathomable!

What follows are examples from creation that the Spirit gave to Elihu that point to God’s sovereignty. In chapter 36:27–33, Elihu testified of God’s creation of raindrops and clouds. Elihu began by speaking of God’s creating the small drops of rain. Each raindrop, small and insignificant though each may seem, is made individually by the almighty God of the heavens. Then God stores those tiny droplets of water in clouds that spread across the expanse of the sky. Those massive clouds, weighing millions of tons each, block out the light and warmth of the sun and empty rain upon the earth.

Continuing to exposit the sermon spoken by the creation, Elihu turned to the thunder and the lightning. The sound of thunder pictures the very voice of the king of all creation. The thunder is an excellent, powerful testimony to God’s greatness and sheer might. The earth shakes; the beasts tremble; the habitations of man shiver; and man is frightened. With the accompanying lightning a streak of electricity, burning at thousands of degrees Fahrenheit, strikes the earth. Trees are set ablaze and split in half; power across cities is knocked out; and wildfires are ignited. As Jehovah’s voice, his thunder and lightning speak and proclaim Jehovah, the God of creation who possesses all power and glory and the God who must be worshiped.

The creation has still more to say; its sermon is not complete. Elihu turned next to the snow and to the rain, specifically, to storms of snow and rain that God sends that cease all labor and all activity. In chapter 37:7 Elihu said, “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.” The work of man’s hand is stopped when God sends a massive snowstorm or torrential rain. In a modern example, perhaps the storm knocks out all power or makes driving conditions too hazardous. Man simply must sit and watch the storm unfold, and that is God’s purpose. God will have man undistracted with man’s labor and the things of the world for a time to witness God’s awesome majesty and to know that he alone is God! Few things occur on earth that are quite as humbling as when God sends his storms. Of course, the elect to whom God gives faith will see and know their God and praise his majesty. The unbeliever will hold down that knowledge of God in unrighteousness, but he cannot escape that testimony sent to him by God.

Elihu spoke next of what we might call more extreme weather phenomena: whirlwinds, strong winds, extreme heat, extreme cold, and the like. These are sent by God too. He is completely sovereign over the tornados and hurricanes and holds them in his hand. He blows his wind and levels buildings and forests, completely and forever changing landscapes and bringing death and destruction. He forms the ice and blows the frost upon the land, bringing cold that cannot be imagined and in which man is helpless to survive. God sends extreme heat waves against which man is equally helpless as he attempts to prevent his body from overheating.

In the spirit of Elihu’s speech, an example of God’s sovereignty to which many of us can relate occurred in the more northern part of our world not long ago. Many of us, including me, recently were privileged to see a glimpse of the northern lights. As I looked up and my entire field of vision was filled with massive ribbons of color, constantly shifting and changing the whole appearance of the sky, I imagined how many hundreds of miles those lights covered. I experienced a feeling of incredible smallness and an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Some gigantic event that I was completely powerless to affect was happening in the upper thermosphere hundreds of miles above me, hundreds of miles long, and unfazed by what was happening below. And now that I know that those lights are charged particles of sunlight pummeling the earth’s atmosphere from ninety-three million miles away at a terrific speed, it creates an even larger, grander picture. And I understand that we saw very little of what someone living around the Arctic Circle would commonly see. I cannot grasp the scale of what I witnessed that night. And yet God not only understands and knows the northern lights, but he sent them. God is sovereign over them and directed each color, flicker, and shimmer. He did that to show his power and Godhead and to reveal that he alone is God to all men, including myself. As God revealed himself as God with that event, he also exposed man as nothing.

What Elihu brought to bear in all these examples was man’s utter powerlessness over against these aspects of the creation for the purpose of humbling Job. These are everyday occurrences upon God’s footstool and are common enough to man. Yet man is subject to them. He cannot overpower them. He cannot stop them or send them at his whim. He cannot withstand them in his weakness and frailty. He cannot even comprehend them! Elihu said to Job, “Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine? Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?” (37:15–16).

Man can only stop and watch in awe as God unfolds his eternal counsel in the sending of the massive clouds, terrifying thunderstorms, powerful whirlwinds, frigid snowstorms, and sweltering heat. Man’s work stops; perhaps his home or town is destroyed; perhaps he cannot go outside or use electricity. And there is nothing man can do. Man must simply wait for the storms and their results to pass and sit in awe of his creator.

God is sovereign over these aspects of the creation and all things. He wills them; he decrees them; he sends them where he wants, in the intensity he wants, and for as long as he wants. He is the creator of them, the governor of them, and he issues them forth as an army, for he is the Lord of hosts. As an army they go forth in God’s purposes to glorify himself and to show all men that he alone is God.

What is man compared to these things? He is small and unnoticed. He is a grain of sand swallowed up by a stormy sea. And these are only earthly things. What is man compared to the everlasting, infinite God? If this is what God can work and has complete control over, then what is man? Does that humble you? Are you brought to dust before the God of all creation? God used these truths along with a strong rebuke to humble Job to the point where Job said in chapter 40:4, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.”

Sovereignly Saved

But that is not all that God would speak to Job through Elihu. Yes, God had used Elihu to sufficiently humble Job to the dust, and soon God personally would come in the whirlwind to affirm the truth that Elihu had spoken. But a man never will come to the point of freely confessing his vileness and later repenting in dust and ashes if God only speaks of his greatness, majesty, and his power over all things. All men know this; God reveals it to them by the creation, as Elihu proved. This knowledge is only sufficient to condemn man and leave him without excuse, as Belgic Confession article 2 states.

Man knows that there is a God; man knows the power and majesty and sovereignty of God; man knows that God demands obedience and worship; yet man cannot, will not, and cannot even will to give that worship. Man at best can only shiver and quake before God in the face of that knowledge; but that apparent terror before God is still born of unbelief. Man attempts to run from God like Jonah, or he might even cry for the mountains to fall on him like the ungodly will do at the return of Christ. Ordinarily, man simply suppresses that truth in his mind and soul to avoid the terrifying reality that he is not right with God.

Because of God’s particular, sovereign grace toward Job, Elihu also spoke words of comfort. Those words of comfort were the gospel, and the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit works faith in God’s people. Only by faith can one be stilled in his soul and dare to approach the living God without terror. That is because faith looks not to itself, to faith’s worth, or to the goodness of the works that flow out of faith for peace, assurance, or being right before God. Faith looks to Jesus Christ, Job’s redeemer and the redeemer of all God’s elect. “For I know,” said Job in chapter 19:25, “that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” In Christ alone the child of God finds all comfort, peace, and knowledge of his righteousness before God. On the cross Christ accomplished for all his sheep that righteousness, comfort, and peace, and he bestows those blessings to them through the gift of faith.

God commissioned the footman Elihu to rebuke Job for his sin of demanding that God answer Job for the reason of his suffering. Elihu was to expose Job’s sin of making himself more righteous than God and judging God as guilty and himself as innocent. Elihu was appointed to humble Job to dust by showing Job the total nothingness of man and bringing over against that God’s awesome sovereignty. As a soldier that was Elihu’s main duty. But God’s other purpose for Elihu was to prelude the glorious gospel that God in the whirlwind would bring more fully toward the end of book. Elihu preluded the gospel in Job 36 with these beautiful words:

5. Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom.

6. He preserveth not the life of the wicked: but giveth right to the poor.

7. He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted.

8. And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction;

9. Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.

10. He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.

11. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.

12. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.

13. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.

14. They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.

15. He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression.

These words highlight the gospel especially in its antithetical character. The gospel was delivered as an antithetical promise in Eden in Genesis 3:15, and that antithesis is carried out throughout all church history. It is not surprising but expected that the gospel promise that Elihu delivered to Job and to all God’s people was an antithetical promise. God’s promise to the wicked, disobedient, hypocrites, and unclean is that God will destroy them utterly in his just wrath. That is a sure, unchangeable, just promise. Those who are described by those words cannot escape God’s judgment but should expect it to come, for God is holy and filled with wrath against all iniquity.

This negative side of the promise is an essential part of the gospel that God’s people may never forget. Who are the wicked, disobedient, hypocrites, and unclean but us by nature! Destruction and wrath are what Job deserved. That is what all God’s people deserve. God’s wrath does not simply go away. Sin cannot and will not be overlooked. God must and does destroy the ones responsible for sin. The ones responsible for the sins of God’s people, however, are not God’s people. The one alone who is responsible for the sins of God’s people is Jesus Christ.

Christ was cut off, forsaken by God. Christ was destroyed in his body and soul his whole life long and especially at the cross. He went to hell on the cross, and there he suffered the full torment and anguish of hell. He was destroyed and forsaken for our sins, for we deserved that very punishment and everlasting destruction in hell. But that precisely is the gospel! I deserve punishment; I deserve all the pain and torment and suffering of hell; and Jesus Christ delivered me from that suffering by his perfect substitution on the accursed tree. I am the wicked, the disobedient, and the hypocrite; and for me Christ became all those things to save me from the wrath of God.

Now the positive side of the gospel that Elihu brought is made clear. God gives right to the poor; he never withdraws his eyes from the righteous; he delivers the poor and opens their ears. First, the righteous one and poor, afflicted one is Christ as he lived a perfect life on this earth and suffered miserably at the hands of all men. Second, the righteous and poor are all the elect in Jesus Christ as they are righteous in him and as they are manifest in the world by the power of the Spirit. The elect are righteous in Christ and seen as perfect through his work. And by the power of the Spirit, a mark of their election is their spiritual poverty. The elect have nothing in themselves. They know themselves to be empty of all goodness and blessedness and gifts whereby to obtain the favor of God. The elect know their sin, misery, and nothingness. The promise of God to the elect and to them only is that God will deliver them and exalt them for Christ’s sake. God will forgive their sins; he will pardon all their iniquities; he will preserve them in this life and the next; and he will glorify (exalt) them forever in the new heavens and earth because of the work of their savior, Jesus Christ. The promise is particular to the poor and to the righteous because the promise is particular to the elect. The elect are made righteous and poor, so this promise is for them only.

These truths also explain Elihu’s words in Job 36:10–12.

10. He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.

11. If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.

12. But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.

These verses may appear to be conditional. They appear to place a necessary activity of man before a blessing of God. But this is a promise of God—an unconditional promise of God antithetically manifested. Remember, God is sovereign. That sovereignty, according to Elihu, is that God is not affected by the actions, sins, or even good works of man. God simply is; and his plan, decree, will, and being are unchangeable and unmovable.

These verses describe God’s dealings with the two different kinds of people that God decreed to be in the world. The “if” is not conditional but is an “if” that describes two different realities. It is not an “if” such that if a man would obey and serve God, then God would see to it that that man spends his days in prosperity and years in pleasure. But it is an “if” such that when a hearer is seen obeying God’s voice and serving him, that hearer is manifest as someone to whom God has promised prosperity and pleasure. When the word of God comes, one of two things will happen: either the hearer will obey and serve God, or the hearer will not obey. If that hearer is an elect child of God who has been given faith, he will obey and serve, and God always gives to his elect prosperity and pleasure. If the hearer is an unregenerate reprobate, he will disobey, and God always gives the reprobate to perish.

There are those who do not obey God, hardened in sin and unbelief, and they perish outside Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did not die for them; they were not chosen to be saved by God; therefore, they do not receive faith and do not receive the Spirit. They are the reprobate, forever decreed by God to be disobedient to him and to perish justly in their sins.

And there are those whom God chooses, the elect. They too are sinners. They require discipline, Job 36:10 says. They are caught up in iniquity. They are no better; they are no different, not distinguishing themselves from those who are not chosen by God. And God in his sovereign, particular grace chooses to give to them faith worked by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit marks them in the world as God’s people; and as marked by the Spirit, they are also turned from sin by the same Spirit. They repent, obey God’s voice to turn from sin, and spend their lives serving God from new, regenerated hearts. These are fruits of God’s choice of them in eternity, fruits earned by Jesus Christ on the cross, powerfully brought to them by the Word and Holy Spirit, and worked in their hearts efficaciously.

We see here God’s grace and mercy on full display. He chooses some in eternity, who did not deserve to be the objects of that choice, and he chooses to turn them from their wicked ways. And God further promises them prosperity and pleasure with an unchanging, sovereign, and unconditional promise. Not earthly prosperity, not earthly pleasure, but the prosperity of the riches of salvation in Jesus Christ and the pleasure of a sinner knowing that he has peace with the sovereign, almighty God. Not because the elect obey and serve God but because God chose them in love and sent Jesus Christ to die for them. Their election also guarantees that they will obey God and serve him.

Only through the lens of God’s sovereignty, which Elihu established throughout the polemic, can we understand this twofold promise of God. Because God is sovereign, the promise must be unconditional. The promise will certainly, infallibly, surely come to pass, regardless of anything that man might do or say. The promise that God sovereignly carries out to the reprobate is their just destruction, perishing, and eternal death. God carries out his plan for their disobedience, impenitence, and final perdition. God does not author the disobedience or impenitence, but he decreed that the reprobate would choose and perform the evil, and he judges them accordingly for those choices and actions. God is sovereign in damnation, just as he is sovereign over each individual snowflake in a snowstorm, the strength and speed of a whirlwind, and the precise point where lightning will strike. According to God’s decree, the reprobate will not hear God’s word and turn from sin; they will not obey his voice; and they will just as certainly be sent to hell.

The promise sovereignly carried to the elect is their salvation, and that includes all their turning from sin and lives of service to God. God is sovereign over all salvation; nothing is left to chance or to the will of man. That would make God no longer sovereign but dependent. At no point will God wait for man to respond to his commands or hinge his actions upon the obedience of man. This too would make God no longer sovereign but dependent. No, God is as sovereign over salvation as he is over the individual drops of water in a rainstorm, the exact shape and mass of the clouds, and the intensity and duration of a heat wave. The elect will certainly turn from sin; they will certainly serve God; and they will just as certainly receive the spiritual promise of prosperity and peace.

In the truth of God’s sovereignty, God’s people are safe. They can never fall away and can never be plucked out of their Father’s hand, regardless of their sins and sinful nature against which they struggle all their lives; regardless of the wiles and attacks of Satan upon them and the church; and regardless of the machinations of wicked men, who hate God and his chosen elect. In fact, not even regardless of all these things but through them. God uses wicked men, the devil, and even the sins of the elect children of God to serve their salvation! That is how sovereign God is! While men and the devil and even the child of God at times mean evil, God means all things for the good of his elect church. That is the immeasurable comfort afforded through the truth of the sovereignty of our God.

That sovereignty Job heard from Elihu, God’s footman. Elihu was a humble, unremarkable footman in Jehovah’s army, who was given a mighty task to bring a polemical word of rebuke and to extol the amazing power, majesty, and grace of God. It was not about the footman; it was about the truth that he spoke. And that truth, though hated and rejected by many, is a truth that stands forever to the glory of God’s name and the salvation of Christ’s church.