It is vain to appeal to God to remove affliction, or to try to acquit ourselves, if we have not studied to know the end for which the affliction was sent. It is equally vain to pray for relief when we do not trust our case in God’s hands.
Job 35
1 Elihu spake moreover, and said,
2 Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?
3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?
8 Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
10 But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;
11 Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
12 There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.
13 Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
14 Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.
15 But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:
16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.
Job 35:1-16 – J. Vernon McGee
Job 35 – Songs in the Night
God is so exalted above man in His nature that He is altogether independent of him. When men sin against Him, they hurt not Him but themselves. There is no motive, therefore, of retaliation or revenge in His chastisements. “Not for His pleasure,” the Holy Ghost saith in another place, but “for our profit,” Hebrews 12:10.
Instead of seeking after God our Maker, who can give songs in the darkest night that ever befell a human spirit, we are too apt to despair. Instead of crying to God, we cry against Him. We murmur and complain. We arraign God. There is our pride, Job 35:12. We regard iniquity in our heart, and God cannot answer us until we change our note for one of loving, trustful submission. God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
Let us change our temper and our note. Have done with the proud self-will that chafes and argues and complains. This will not speed thy cause at God’s bar. Humble thyself under His mighty hand, and He will exalt thee. “The meek will he teach his way” (Psalm 25:9). —Through the Bible Day by Day
Job 35:10—None saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?
Do you have sleepless nights, tossing on the hot pillow, and watching for the first glint of dawn? Ask the Divine Spirit to enable you to fix your thoughts on God, your Maker, and believe that He can fill those lonely, dreary hours with song.
Is yours the night of doubt?—A holy man tells us that once as he was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over him, and a temptation beset him to think that all things came by nature; and as he sat still under it, and let it alone, a living hope arose in him, and a true voice said, “There is a living God who made all things.” And immediately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and life rose over it all. His heart was glad, and he praised the living God. Was not this a song in the night?
Is yours the night of bereavement?—Is it not often to such God draws near, and assures the mourner that the Lord had need of its beloved, and called “the eager, earnest spirit to stand in the bright throng of the invisible, liberated, radiant, active, intent on some high mission”; and as the thought enters, is there not the beginning of a song?
Is yours the night of discouragement and fancied or actual failure?—No one understands you, your friends reproach; but your Maker draws nigh, and gives you a song-the song of hope, the song which is harmonious with the strong, deep music of His providence. Be ready to sing the songs that your Maker gives.
“What then? Shall we sit idly down and say
’The night hath come; it is no longer day’?…
Yet as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars, invisible to day.” —Our Daily Homily
Job 35:10 – It is often in sorrow that our lives are taught their sweetest songs. There is a story of a German baron who stretched wires from tower to tower of his castle, to make a great AEolian harp. Then he waited and listened to hear the music from it. For a time the air was still and no sound was heard. The wires hung silent in the air. After a while came gentle breezes, and the harp sang softly. At length came the stern winter winds, strong and storm-like in their forces. Then the wires gave forth majestic music which was heard far and near. There are human lives that never, in the calm of quiet days, yield the music that is in them. When the breezes of common care sweep over them they give out soft murmurings of song. But it is only when the storms of adversity blow upon them that they answer in notes of noble victoriousness. It takes some trouble to bring out the best that is in them. (J.R. Miller)
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13 Surely God will not hear ____________, neither will the Almighty ____________ it.
14 ________________ thou ____________ thou shalt not ______ him, yet ________________ is ____________ him; therefore __________ thou in him.