Charles Spurgeon Commentary Job 34

I wish that verse were always true, especially concerning those who hear what purports to be the gospel; I only wish they would test and try what they hear, just as, with their mouth, they taste what they eat. But, as there are some persons who will eat anything that is set before them, so there are some who will accept anything that they hear, without exercising any spiritual discernment whatever. "It is cleverly put," they say, and therefore they receive it; yet they would scarcely be foolish enough to eat unhealthy food simply because it was skillfully carved.

Yes, Job had said something like that, though not precisely that. He had denied the charges of gross sin that his friends brought against him, and he had, in that sense, declared that he was righteous, and so he was. There may have been in Job a little of the spirit that Elihu here denounces; he may, perhaps, have thought that God had not treated him well by allowing him to fall into so much trouble, considering he was a righteous man. Elihu will not allow this notion to pass unchallenged.

Mistaking Job's meaning, he denounces it, just as I have heard preachers sometimes give a description of Calvinism as it never truly was, and then they have proceeded to burn the straw man that they themselves have made. It is one of the easiest things in the world to misquote or misinterpret an opponent's statement, then denounce it, and think you have refuted him, when in reality, you have only dispelled a fantasy of your own mind.

Elihu proceeds to deal with Job in this way.

He did not mean that Job actually went into the company of the wicked; but that, in saying that it had been no profit to him to delight himself with God—which Elihu declares Job said, though I do not remember that Job ever actually said so—, he was making himself an associate of ungodly men. Any of us would be doing the same if we, in our sorrowful moments, were to say that we had derived no profit from delighting ourselves with God. That would not be true; it would be a rebellious and wicked speech, and, to some degree, it would be an atheistic speech.

That was well spoken. Let us never, even for a moment, imagine that God can do anything that is unrighteous or unjust. God is a sovereign, and therefore he may do as he wills with his own grace; but there is never any injustice in any of the acts of his sovereignty.

He is infinitely wise, and just, and merciful, in all that he does. He does as he wills, but he never wills to do anything that could possibly be better done. His own will is the best that can be.

For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways. Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment. Who hath given him a charge over the earth? or who hath disposed the whole world? If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust. If now thou hast understanding, hear this: hearken to the voice of my words. Shall even he that hateth right govern?

Do you suppose that it could be so—that the Governor of all the earth should hate that which is right? This would be rank blasphemy.