Job 33:19 - Meaning and Application

God has spoken once to sinners through their own consciences, warning them away from the path of the destroyer, but they do not notice it. They do not realize that the inward checks their hearts give them about sin come from God. Instead, they blame it on gloominess or on the strictness of their upbringing. So God speaks twice, meaning he speaks again in another way to convince sinners and bring them back.

He does this through providences, meaning events he orders for us, both painful and kind. He also does it through timely teaching from good ministers, who help interpret those events. Job had complained often about his diseases and judged from them that God was angry with him. His friends did the same. But Elihu shows they were all wrong, because God often afflicts the body in love, with good plans for the soul, as the outcome proves. This part of Elihu’s speech is very useful for us, because it helps us use sickness well, since God speaks to people through it.

Here is the sufferer in his worst condition, and we can see what sickness does when God sends it with his authority. The sick person is full of pain all over his body (Job 33:19). He is disciplined with pain on his bed, pain so strong that it keeps him in bed, or pain so severe that he cannot find relief even there. Pain and sickness can turn a soft bed into a bed of thorns, where a person tosses from side to side until morning. This is a very bad condition. Pain is harder to bear than sickness itself, and here he is disciplined by it. It is not a dull ache, but a sharp, intense one. Often the stronger the person, the stronger the pain, because a fuller, more vigorous body usually feels disease more violently. This is not just the skin stinging, but the bones aching. It is an inward pain that seems rooted deep, and not only one limb, but many bones, are troubled this way. See how weak and miserable our bodies are. Even without any outside injury, they can be made to suffer from causes inside themselves. See also what sin does, what damage it brings. Pain is a fruit of sin, yet God’s grace often uses bodily pain to do good to the soul.

He also loses his appetite, which is a common result of sickness (Job 33:20). His life hates bread, the most needed food, and also the rich food he once loved and enjoyed with pleasure. This is a good reason not to crave delicacies, because they are deceptive food (Proverbs 23:3). We may soon become as sick of them as we are now eager for them. Those who live for luxury while healthy may, if sickness comes and they begin to loathe rich food, read their sin in their suffering with grief and shame. Let us not love the taste of food too much, because the time may come when we cannot even bear to look at it (Psalm 107:18).

He becomes nothing but skin and bones (Job 33:21). In just a few days of sickness, perhaps, his flesh, once full and healthy, is consumed so that it cannot be seen. It wastes away in a strange way. His bones, once hidden under flesh, now stick out. You can count his ribs and tell all his bones. The soul that is well fed with the bread of life will not be made lean by sickness, but the body changes quickly. A man who once had such a pleasing look, and, spoiled by ease, seemed plump and fair, surprises all his friends by the change. Pale cheeks and hollow eyes take the place of health. His bones, a terrible sight, push through the skin that once covered them in flesh and fat.

He is also given up as lost, and his life is no longer expected (Job 33:22). His soul draws near to the grave. That is, he shows all the signs of death, and everyone around him, as well as he himself, sees him as a dying man. The destroyers, meaning the pains of death, are almost ready to seize him. They surround him, as in (Psalm 116:3). This may also show how terrifying death seems when it stands right before people who once treated it lightly when it was far away. When death comes near, everyone agrees it is a serious thing to die.

Then comes the help provided for his instruction, so that his suffering may lead to blessing and not be wasted (Job 33:23). He is happy if there is a messenger with him in his sickness, someone to convince him, guide him, and comfort him. Such a person is an interpreter, one who explains God’s providence and helps him understand its meaning. He is a wise man who knows the voice of the rod and what it means. When God speaks through affliction, we often do not understand the language, so we need an interpreter. It is a good thing if we have one. The help and advice of a good minister are as necessary and fitting in sickness as the help of a good doctor, especially if the minister is skilled at explaining and applying God’s dealings. In that case, he is one in a thousand and should be valued that way.

His work at such a time is to show the person his uprightness, meaning God’s uprightness, that in faithfulness he afflicts him and does him no wrong. We must be convinced of that if we are to profit from affliction. Or it may mean the person’s uprightness, that is, his right standing. If the sick person is truly godly, the interpreter will not do what Job’s friends did and try to prove he is a hypocrite just because he suffers. Instead, he will show him that his uprightness remains, despite his afflictions, so that he may take comfort in it and remain at ease, whatever happens. Or it may mean the uprightness, the reformation, that should take place in order to have life and peace. When people come to see that the way of uprightness is the only safe way to salvation, and choose it and live in it, the work is done.

God’s gracious acceptance comes when the person repents (Job 33:24). When God sees that the sick person is truly convinced that sincere repentance, and that uprightness which is gospel perfection, meaning the mature and complete obedience the gospel calls for, are both his duty and his good, then God, who waits to be gracious and shows mercy at the first sign of real repentance, is gracious to him. He takes him back into his favor and keeps him in his kind thoughts. Wherever God finds a gracious heart, he will prove himself a gracious God. And he gives a gracious order for release: “Deliver him,” that is, let him be delivered, from going down to the pit, from that death that is the wages of sin. When afflictions have done their work, they will be removed. When we return to God in obedience, he returns to us in mercy.

Those who receive God’s messengers and rightly understand his interpreters will be kept from going down to the pit. That is, they will not be lost, because they listen to God’s warning and agree that he is right.

God also gives a gracious reason for this rescue: “I have found a ransom,” or a propitiation, meaning a sacrifice that turns away God’s anger. Jesus Christ is that ransom, as Elihu calls him here, just as Job had called him his Redeemer. Christ is both the one who pays and the payment, both the priest and the sacrifice. Human souls are so precious that nothing less could buy them back, and sin is so serious that nothing less than the blood of the Son of God could make atonement for it. He gave his life as a ransom for many.

This ransom is God’s own finding, a plan from infinite wisdom. We could never have discovered it ourselves, and even the angels could not have found it. It is God’s wisdom hidden in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, and it will remain a wonder to all heavenly powers who long to look into it. Notice how God rejoices in this discovery, as if he were saying, “I have found it, I have found the ransom. I myself have done this.”

From here comes the recovery of the sick man. Remove the cause, and the effect will stop. When the patient becomes a penitent, when he turns from sin with sorrow, a blessed change follows. His body sometimes recovers its health, though this is not always the result of repentance and return to God. Still, sometimes it is. Recovery from sickness is truly a mercy when it comes from forgiveness of sin. Then it is for the good of the soul that the body is brought back from the pit of decay, when God puts our sins behind his back (Isaiah 38:17). That is the pattern of a blessed recovery. “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven,” and then, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk” (Matthew 9:2, Matthew 9:6). So here, if the sick man is joined to the ransom, his flesh will become fresher than a child’s, with no trace left of his disease. He will return to the days of his youth, with the beauty and strength he once had.

When the sickness that weighed down nature is removed, nature often helps itself in amazing ways. In that, we must thankfully recognize the power and goodness of the God of nature. By merciful dealings like these, which suffering gives rise to, God speaks once, yes, twice to people, letting them know, if only they would notice, their dependence on him and his tender pity.

His soul also recovers peace. The healed man, now a penitent, becomes a supplicant and learns how to pray. He knows that God’s blessings are to be sought, so he will pray to God for pardon and for health. If anyone is afflicted and sick, let him pray. And when he begins to recover, he should not think prayer is no longer needed. We need God’s grace as much to sanctify a mercy as to sanctify an affliction.

His prayers are accepted. God will be favorable to him and pleased with him. His anger will turn away, and the light of God’s face will shine on his soul. Then he will have the comfort of fellowship with God. He will see God’s face again, a sight that had been hidden from him, and he will see it with joy, since nothing can be more refreshing. Jacob said, “It is like seeing the face of God” (Genesis 33:10). True penitents rejoice more in the return of God’s favor than in any other good thing or pleasure (Psalm 4:6, Psalm 4:7).

He also gains a blessed calm of mind, coming from the sense of being made right with God. God will give back to this man his righteousness. He will receive the atonement, that is, the comfort of being at peace with God (Romans 5:11). Righteousness will be counted to him, and peace will be spoken to him because of it. He will hear joy and gladness, though he could not hear such things in the day of his suffering. God will now deal with him as with a righteous man, and things will go well with him. He will receive the blessing from the Lord, namely righteousness (Psalm 24:5). God will also give him grace to go and sin no more. This may point to a changed life after recovery. As he will pray to God, whom he had once neglected, so he will give back to people what he owes them, whom he had wronged. He will make restitution, and in the future he will act justly.

From this example, we can draw a general rule for how God deals with people. As sick people are restored when they submit, so all who truly repent of their sins will find mercy with God. Sin itself is the twisting of what is right, a deeply unreasonable thing. It is the creature rebelling against the Creator, the flesh claiming rule over the spirit, and a direct challenge to the eternal standards of good and evil. It is turning aside from the right ways of the Lord (Acts 13:10), which is why the ways of sin are called crooked ways (Psalm 125:5). And what do we gain by sin? Nothing. The works of darkness are fruitless. When gain and loss are weighed together, all the profit from sin falls far short of the damage it causes. Every true penitent is ready to admit this, and it is a humbling thought: “What fruit did you get then from the things you are now ashamed of?” (Romans 6:21).

Repentance is the opposite of that, and it is our best path. If we want to show ourselves true penitents, we must confess our sins to God with a broken and sorry heart (1 John 1:9). We must confess the fact of sin, saying, “I have sinned,” and not deny the charge or defend ourselves. We must confess the wrongness of sin, its dishonesty and guilt, saying that we have twisted what was right. We must also confess the foolishness of sin: “I have been so foolish and ignorant, for it profited me nothing.” And if we see that clearly, what reason have we to go on with it?

There is strong reason for such a confession. God expects it. After people sin, he watches to see what they will do next, whether they will keep going or turn back. He listens to hear whether anyone will say, “What have I done?” (Jeremiah 8:6). He looks on sinners with pity, wanting to hear repentance from them, because he takes no pleasure in their ruin. And as soon as he sees true repentance growing in them, he is ready to welcome them, as the father went out to meet the returning prodigal.

This will also bring us great and lasting good. The promise is for all who humble themselves this way, whoever they are. They will not come into condemnation, but will be saved from the wrath to come. He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, the pit of hell, and sin will not ruin him. He will also be happy in everlasting life and joy. His life will see the light, meaning every good thing in the vision and enjoyment of God.

To receive this blessing, if the prophet had told us to do some great thing, would we not have done it? How much more, then, when he only says, “Wash and be clean, confess and be forgiven, repent and be saved”?