Job 5:9-18

(9) Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number: (10) Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields: (11) To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety. (12) He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. (13) He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. (14) They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night. (15) But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. (16) So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth. (17) В¶ Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: (18) For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.

Be Eliphaz who he may, or let his views be what they might in his address to Job, yet we must own he giveth in these words a most sublime description of the sovereignty, and goodness of GOD. Reader! I would call upon you to remark with me, some of the sweet and precious truths contained within these verses. First, mark what he saith of GOD, as governing in the kingdom of nature. To him he ascribes all the great things produced. Not as some do to chance or accident, but to a settled plan of his order; the rain, and the dew, and the waters which run through the earth. Next he goes on and contemplates the works of GOD in the kingdom of his providence. Here he more largely treats; in stating how the LORD sets up one, and lowereth another; and while men are concluding, that it is from their own plans, and wisdom, and foresight, Eliphaz reasoneth with a precision and certainty, that it is GOD that taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. But Eliphaz doth not stop here, for whether he himself had any experience of divine influences, or had marked it in others, I do not stay to enquire, but certain it is, his language equally applies to the works of GOD in the kingdom of his grace, when he talks of the LORD saving the poor sinner from the sword, and giving hope to the poor, in stopping the month of iniquity. This is true gospel. And therefore, in a more especial manner, may it be said, that man is happy, who is made sore by the convictions of GOD'S SPIRIT, and bound up, and healed by the blood and righteousness of CHRIST.