_Elihu also proceeded and said._ THE PORTRAIT OF A TRUE PREACHER I. The side he has to take. “I have yet to speak on God’s behalf.” Sin is a controversy with God. The true preacher has to take the side of God in the discussion. 1. He has to defend the procedure of God. He has to justify the ways... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, God is mighty and despiseth not any._ THE LAW OF REVERENCE Contempt, whether of men or of things, is a feeling that is alien to God. With Him there is no littleness; He neither spurns, nor slights, nor disregards. And the reason is that He is so mighty. I. God is great in intelligence and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then He sheweth them their work, and their transgression that they have exceeded._ SHOWING UP OUR TRANSGRESSIONS I. General remarks on the text. 1. Sin is properly attributable to man. It is “their work.” If God suffers moral evil to exist, He is not the author of it. Satan may tempt, but cannot... [ Continue Reading ]
_He openeth their ear to discipline._ DISCIPLINE 1. Notice the discipline which God uses in His family. Many of us are froward children and need discipline. Job needed it, and had it; we are not told why, except that God meant to try his graces, and bring them into exercise. Paul was disciplined, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Out of the strait into a broad place._ AN INVITATION TO STRAITENED SOULS What is literally straitness? The word “strait” means “narrow.” The place between two mountains or two seas is a strait or narrow passage. A strait implies a difficulty of choice. “I am in a strait betwixt two.” We say of a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because there is wrath._ THE WRATH OF GOD The language of the text may be spoken to every impenitent and unbelieving sinner of the human race. I. The actual. “There is wrath.” 1. This wrath is Divine. By virtue of God’s perfection He is in the possession of an emotional nature, He has the attri... [ Continue Reading ]
_Take heed; regard not iniquity; for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction._ AFFLICTION BETTER THAN SIN Elihu rebukes Job with a becoming dignity, for some rash and unadvised speeches which the severity of his other friends, and the sharpness of his own anguish, had drawn from him, and part... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who teacheth like Him?_ --Like whom? you ask. Like Him who is the great Teacher and Enlightener of the Church--even God, the Holy Spirit. This question is a sort of challenge to us to point out any teacher equal to the Lord. In what points does the teaching of God the Holy Spirit exceed all other... [ Continue Reading ]
_God is great, and we know Him not._ THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD These words recall the supreme questions which divide hostile philosophies. Even Christian apologists have maintained that God is inaccessible to human thought, and that our highest knowledge of Him can have only a relative truth. Many who... [ Continue Reading ]