*Scripture: Job 33:1-18 (NKJV)* 1 "But please, Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words. 2 Now, I open my mouth; My tongue speaks in my mouth. 3 My words come from my upright heart; My lips utter pure knowledge. 4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 5 If you can answer me, set your words in order before me; Take your stand. 6 Truly I am as your spokesman before God; I also have been formed out of clay. 7 Surely no fear of me will terrify you, nor will my hand be heavy on you.
8 "Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words, saying, 9 'I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me. 10 Yet He finds occasions against me, He counts me as His enemy; 11 He puts my feet in the stocks, He watches all my paths.' 12 "Look, in this you are not righteous. I will answer you, for God is greater than man. 13 Why do you contend with Him? For He does not give an accounting of any of His words. 14 For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. 15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, 16 then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction. 17 In order to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, 18 He keeps back his soul from the Pit, and his life from perishing by the sword." * Devotion* Elihu is more conciliatory in his rebuke of Job, being, for example, the only one of the "friends" who addresses him by name and acknowledging his own limitation and sinfulness. At the same time, he claims for his words purity and righteousness because he believes God is the source of his counsel for Job. Elihu chides Job for contending with God, who gives no accounting of any of His words (see verse 13). But the Word of God is not unknowable, and God stands by His Word. The psalmist writes, "The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." (25:14) "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:1-3) It is with the confidence and humility towards the whole counsel of God that faithful preachers today do their work, trusting in the truth and power of the Scriptures. "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:31)
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