Job 33:14-17 | KingComments | STEP | The word “indeed” Elihu uses in indicates that he is going to explain what he said in the previous verses. Job’s accusation that he called and God did not answer is not justified. However, God has spoken. What Job considers to be God’s unjust dealings with him, is in reality God’s speaking to him. Only Job did not recognize God’s voice. That is why God sends in His grace a man like Elihu to explain this to Job. Although God is infinitely superior to man, He is not indifferent to His weak creature or acts arbitrarily with him. He speaks to him. He does this “once or twice”. It is not God’s fault that man does not heed it, but man’s fault. God speaks and He does so several times. One time He uses “a dream, a vision of the night” ( ), the other time He uses sickness and suffering ( ). Sometimes He uses His reason, His Word, another time His rod, His punishment. “When sound sleep falls on men, while they slumber in their beds”, there are no outside influences that can distract him. Someone who sleeps does not feel whether he is poor or rich, whether he is healthy or sick, whether he is hungry or not. God can use this condition of rest in His grace to speak to him in a dream or a vision and make His will known. In the time of the patriarchs, and also later, God spoke in dreams or visions, as with Abraham, Joseph and Daniel, but also with someone like Abimelech, Laban, Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. This is typical of the time when the Bible was not yet complete. Then God spoke “in many portions and in many ways” ( ). Now that the Bible is complete, God makes His will known through His Word, the Bible. Certainly He still speaks through a dream in certain cases. This usually concerns people who do not have a Bible. But certainly in the western, post-Christian part of the world, where the light of the Bible has shone for so long, the written Word of God suffices for the Christian. When God speaks to a man in a dream, He reveals His will to “the ears of men” ( ). Here the ear is mentioned and not the eye, which is what we would expect in dreams and visions. However, it is not about seeing, but about hearing. It is about God speaking and that is always directed at the ear. It is about listening to what God has to say. The dreams or visions do not appear to contain any sweet or pleasant scenes. They are not ‘sweet dreams’, but cautionary dreams or visions that literally and spiritually awaken a person ( ). God thus “seals their instruction”. He puts His seal on it that it will be as He has shown in the dream or the vision. The word “instruction” includes admonition, warning, and education. The seal implies God’s assurance that the message is reliable and will be carried out. God speaks in this way because He wants to bring man to contemplation and to a standstill, so that he renounces the wrong act he wanted to commit ( ). It is not about that single act, but about his whole life consisting only of evil deeds. He is guided in it by his pride. The end of it is destruction ( ). But God intervenes in grace and warns him. By doing so, He keeps back “his soul from the pit”, for God has no joy in the death of a man, but that he turns from his way and lives ( ). If a man does not listen to God’s speaking in dreams and visions, He speaks in a different way, by punishment in the sense of chastisement, which is represented here by Elihu in the form of a serious illness ( ). That is what happened to Job. But Elihu is not making accusations against Job which the friends have so often made that his suffering is proof of a secret sinful life. Elihu describes in the process of a debilitating sickness, with the intention that Job should get an eye for God’s interference in it, that he should be able to hear the speaking of God through all this. It begins “with pain on his bed”, which indicates that the place of rest (cf. ) becomes a place of torment. The fever rages unceasingly in his bones. His appetite not only disappears, but he abhors the bread, he hates to think of eating anything ( ). He even abhors his favorite food. Because of this he emaciates so much that there is nothing left of his flesh, and his bones, which at first were not visible, now stick out and can be seen ( ). In this way his powers flow away and with them his life. What comes closer and closer is the grave ( ). His life is about to fall into the grip of death. And it is precisely with this in mind that God brings suffering upon man. He wants to chastise him for his own good, because he stands face to face with death, that he may turn to Him.

‏ Job 33:14-17

God Speaks Once or Twice

The word “indeed” Elihu uses in Job 33:14 indicates that he is going to explain what he said in the previous verses. Job’s accusation that he called and God did not answer is not justified. However, God has spoken. What Job considers to be God’s unjust dealings with him, is in reality God’s speaking to him. Only Job did not recognize God’s voice. That is why God sends in His grace a man like Elihu to explain this to Job.

Although God is infinitely superior to man, He is not indifferent to His weak creature or acts arbitrarily with him. He speaks to him. He does this “once or twice”. It is not God’s fault that man does not heed it, but man’s fault. God speaks and He does so several times. One time He uses “a dream, a vision of the night” (Job 33:15), the other time He uses sickness and suffering (Job 33:19). Sometimes He uses His reason, His Word, another time His rod, His punishment.

“When sound sleep falls on men, while they slumber in their beds”, there are no outside influences that can distract him. Someone who sleeps does not feel whether he is poor or rich, whether he is healthy or sick, whether he is hungry or not. God can use this condition of rest in His grace to speak to him in a dream or a vision and make His will known. In the time of the patriarchs, and also later, God spoke in dreams or visions, as with Abraham, Joseph and Daniel, but also with someone like Abimelech, Laban, Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. This is typical of the time when the Bible was not yet complete. Then God spoke “in many portions and in many ways” (Heb 1:1).

Now that the Bible is complete, God makes His will known through His Word, the Bible. Certainly He still speaks through a dream in certain cases. This usually concerns people who do not have a Bible. But certainly in the western, post-Christian part of the world, where the light of the Bible has shone for so long, the written Word of God suffices for the Christian.

When God speaks to a man in a dream, He reveals His will to “the ears of men” (Job 33:16). Here the ear is mentioned and not the eye, which is what we would expect in dreams and visions. However, it is not about seeing, but about hearing. It is about God speaking and that is always directed at the ear. It is about listening to what God has to say.

The dreams or visions do not appear to contain any sweet or pleasant scenes. They are not ‘sweet dreams’, but cautionary dreams or visions that literally and spiritually awaken a person (Gen 41:7). God thus “seals their instruction”. He puts His seal on it that it will be as He has shown in the dream or the vision. The word “instruction” includes admonition, warning, and education. The seal implies God’s assurance that the message is reliable and will be carried out.

God speaks in this way because He wants to bring man to contemplation and to a standstill, so that he renounces the wrong act he wanted to commit (Job 33:17). It is not about that single act, but about his whole life consisting only of evil deeds. He is guided in it by his pride. The end of it is destruction (Job 33:18). But God intervenes in grace and warns him. By doing so, He keeps back “his soul from the pit”, for God has no joy in the death of a man, but that he turns from his way and lives (Eze 33:11).

If a man does not listen to God’s speaking in dreams and visions, He speaks in a different way, by punishment in the sense of chastisement, which is represented here by Elihu in the form of a serious illness (Job 33:19). That is what happened to Job. But Elihu is not making accusations against Job which the friends have so often made that his suffering is proof of a secret sinful life.

Elihu describes in Job 33:19-22 the process of a debilitating sickness, with the intention that Job should get an eye for God’s interference in it, that he should be able to hear the speaking of God through all this. It begins “with pain on his bed”, which indicates that the place of rest (cf. Job 33:15) becomes a place of torment. The fever rages unceasingly in his bones. His appetite not only disappears, but he abhors the bread, he hates to think of eating anything (Job 33:20). He even abhors his favorite food.

Because of this he emaciates so much that there is nothing left of his flesh, and his bones, which at first were not visible, now stick out and can be seen (Job 33:21). In this way his powers flow away and with them his life. What comes closer and closer is the grave (Job 33:22). His life is about to fall into the grip of death. And it is precisely with this in mind that God brings suffering upon man. He wants to chastise him for his own good, because he stands face to face with death, that he may turn to Him.