Job 33:29

Lo, all these [things] worketh God oftentimes with man,

Ver. 29. Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes] Heb. twice, thrice; such is his patience, that he trieth all conclusions, as it were, and beareth long with men's evil manners; one while casting them down, and making them believe he will pitch them into hell; and another while raising them up again, and restoring them, that if nothing will do he may pay them all at once for the new and the old, as he did Ahab, and Pharaoh, and Nineveh, because they despised "the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing," or not weighing, "that the goodness of God should have led them to repentance," Romans 2:4,5. Woe be to him that will not be warned at the first, second, or third time! See Amos 1:3; Amos 2:1, &c., See Trapp on " Amo 1:3 " See Trapp on " Amo 2:1 " R. Solomon would thence infer, That God pardoneth a man only thrice; and then if he take not warning, to hell he must; and this he thinketh to be Elihu's meaning here. But this is to limit the Holy One of Israel, who multiplieth pardon, as we multiply sin, Isaiah 55:7, and further addeth, for our comfort, Job 33:8, that his thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways; but as the heavens are higher than the earth, &c. We are apt to measure God by our models, to cast him into a dishonourable mould, and to think him like ourselves in mercy, power, and other of his attributes. Xenophanes was wont to say, that if the creatures were put to paint the Creator, they would surely conceit him to be like themselves, because a creature cannot think of anything higher than a creature. So deal we for the most part with Almighty God. But he is God and not man; he is Jehovah that changeth not, neither is there any God like unto him for pardoning iniquity, not once, but often, Micah 7:18,19; see the note there. He who commandeth us to forgive an offending brother seventy times seven times in a day, if he say, It repenteth me, what will not himself do in such a case?