Job 36:21

_TAKE HEED, REGARD NOT INIQUITY: FOR THIS HAST THOU CHOSEN RATHER THAN AFFLICTION._ Regard - literally, turn thyself to. INIQUITY - namely, presumptuous speaking against God (Job 34:5, and above Job 36:17, note). RATHER THAN - to bear "affliction" with pious patience. Men think it an alleviation to complain against God. But this is adding sin to sorrow; it is sin, not sorrow, which can really hurt us (contrast Hebrews 11:25)....

15-23 Elihu shows that Job caused the continuance of his own trouble. He cautions him not to persist in frowardness. Even good men need to be kept to their duty by the fear of God's wrath; the wisest and best have enough in them to deserve his stroke. Let not Job continue his unjust quarrel with God and his providence. And let us never dare to think favourably of sin, never indulge it, nor allow ourselves in it. Elihu thinks Job needed this caution, he having chosen rather to gratify his pride and humour by contending with God, than to mortify them by submitting, and accepting the punishment. It is absurd for us to think to teach Him who is himself the Fountain of light, truth, knowledge, and instruction. He teaches by the Bible, and that is the best book; teaches by his Son, and he is the best Master. He is just in all proceedings....

Verse Job 36:21. _REGARD NOT INIQUITY_] It is sinful to entertain such wishes; it is an insult to the providence of God. _He_ sends affliction; he knows this to be best for thee: but _thou_ hast preferred _death_ to _affliction_, thereby setting thy wisdom against the wisdom of God. Many in affliction, long for death; and yet they are not prepared to appear before God! What madness is this! If he takes them at their wish, they are ruined for ever. Affliction may be the means of their salvation; the wished-for death, of their eternal destruction....

TAKE HEED, REGARD NOT INIQUITY - That is, be cautious that in the view which you take of the divine government, and the sentiments which you express, you do not become the advocate of iniquity. Elihu apprehended this from the remarks in which he had indulged, and regarded him as having become the advocate of the same sentiments which the wicked held, and as in fact manifesting the same spirit. It is well to put a man who is afflicted on his guard against this, when he attempts to reason about the divine administration. FOR THIS HAST THOU CHOSEN RATHER THAN AFFLICTION - That is, you have chosen rather to give vent to the language of complaint, than to bear your trials with resignation. “You have chosen rather to accuse divine Providence than to submit patiently to his chastisements.” “Patrick.” There was too much truth in this remark about Job; and it is still not an uncommon thing in tim...

EXPOSITION JOB 36:1 The two chapters, Job 36:1; Job 37:1, form a single discourse, and ought not to have been separated; or, at any rate, not so unskilfully as they are, in the middle of a description of a thunderstorm. They constitute a final appeal to Job, who is exhorted to submission, resignation, and patience, in consideration of God's inscrutability, and of his perfect justice, wisdom, and strength. Job 36:1 begins with a short preface (Job 36:1), in which Elihu seeks to prove his right to offer counsel to Job, after which God's justice is

TAKE HEED, REGARD NOT INIQUITY,.... Not any iniquity, as to show any approbation of it, love for it, and desire after it. All appearance of sin, of every sin, is to be abstained from; but particularly by the iniquity here meant may be the sin of impatience under his affliction; murmuring at the dealings of God with him; arraigning his justice, and saying very indecent things of him, as in Job 34:5. Or it may mean the evil he had been guilty of in so earnestly desiring the night of death: FOR THIS THOU HAST CHOSEN RATHER THAN AFFLICTION; chose rather to die than to be afflicted as he was; or chose rather to complain of God, as if he dealt hardly with him, and did not do justly by him, than to submit patiently to the will of God, as he, ought to have done: or this he chose "through affliction" d; through the force of it, because of it, and by means thereof; and so is a

CHAPTER 36:1-21 _ 1. God's care over the godly (Job 36:1)_ 2. The purposes of affliction (Job 36:8) 3. Job to consider this (Job 36:19) Job 36:1. Elihu had told Job in the last verse of the preceding chapter that he had opened his mouth in vanity and had multiplied words without knowledge. That should have explained to Job the reason why God did not answer. There could be no reply from Job and so Elihu continues. He is not through yet with speaking in behalf of God. Sublimely he stands up for God. “I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.” He tells Job, “One that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.” How could he say this? Becau

The godless cherish angry thoughts about God's discipline they refuse to cry for God's help (Job 36:13). They die young, perishing like the sodomites (those religiously consecrated to unnatural vice; see Deuteronomy 23:17). God saves the afflicted by his affliction, and opens their ear by adversity (following in Job 36:15 b mg. instead of text). So God would have dealt with Job (Job 36:16). As it is, Job is visited by the Divine judgment (Job 36:17). Let not Job be led astray by his sufferings (Job 36

Elihu's doctrine is in a word: God is great and despiseth not, He is great in strength of heart. His greatness is that of understanding, which enables Him to estimate all rightly, to see through all right and wrong, and to adapt His providence to the strong and to the weak, the evil and the good. This thought with the illustrations of it, Job 36:6, and the application of it to Job, vv16-25, exhaust the first half of this concluding speech....

2. Job has had the wrong spirit toward his sufferings. (Job 36:17-21) TEXT 36:17-21 17 BUT THOU ART FALL OF THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED: Judgment and justice take hold _on thee._ 18 For let not wrath stir thee up against chastisements; Neither let the greatness of the ransom turn thee aside. 19 Will thy cry avail, _that thou be_ not in distress, Or all the forces of _thy_ strength? 20 Desire not the night, When peoples are cut off in their place. 21 Take heed, regard not iniquity: For this hast thou chosen rather than affliction. COMMENT 36:17-21 JOB 36:17The first verb in the verse is in the perfect tense, full of judgment, and the second is in the imperfectjudgment and justice take hold of him. Job's own attitu