Matthew Henry Commentary Job 12:12-25

"With aged men is wisdom, And in length of days understanding. With [God] is wisdom and might; He hath counsel and understanding. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again; He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; Again, he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. With him is strength and wisdom; The deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counsellors away stripped, And judges maketh he fools. He looseth the bond of kings, And he bindeth their loins with a girdle. He leadeth priests away stripped, And overthroweth the mighty. He removeth the speech of the trusty, And taketh away the understanding of the elders. He poureth contempt upon princes, And looseth the belt of the strong. He uncovereth deep things out of darkness, And bringeth out to light the shadow of death. He increaseth the nations, and he destroyeth them: He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive. He taketh away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light; And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man." — Job 12:12-25 (ASV)

This is a noble discourse of Job concerning the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God, in ordering all the affairs of humankind according to the counsel of His own will, which no one can resist. It would be well if wise and good people, who differ about lesser things, would see how it is for their honor and comfort, and the good of others, to focus most on the great things in which they agree. Here are no complaints or reflections.

He gives many instances of God's powerful management of humankind, overruling all their plans and overcoming all their oppositions. Having all strength and wisdom, God knows how to make use of even those who are foolish and bad; otherwise, there is so little wisdom and so little honesty in the world that all would have been in confusion and ruin long ago. These important truths were suited to convince the disputants that they were out of their depth in attempting to assign the Lord's reasons for afflicting Job; His ways are unsearchable, and His judgments past finding out.

Let us remark what beautiful illustrations there are in the Word of God, confirming His sovereignty and wisdom in that sovereignty: but the highest and infinitely the most important is that the Lord Jesus was crucified by the malice of the Jews; and who but the Lord could have known that this one event was the salvation of the world?