(1) В¶ 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.
Nothing can be more just and beautiful than this comparative statement between man's righteousness, as extended towards man, and the same, as manifested towards GOD. We may be very helpful to one another, but when this kind of reasoning is brought forward, as it refers to GOD, it loseth its very name. There is a beautiful expression of David; with an eye to CHRIST, in his prophetical character, in one of the Psalms, which throws a light to illustrate this reasoning of Elihu's very strikingly: O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Psalms 16:2-3. This may be said of David, King of Israel, and of every man like David. All the goodness of the world is unprofitable to the LORD; for whether men bless GOD, or revile GOD, the one neither can add to his glory, nor the other tend to the lessening of it. The glory of the sun is never the less for any dark or bright clouds below. The LORD hath no need of our services. And indeed, all the good that any man is enabled to do, the ability must be derived from GOD to do it. So that in fact, in the very act of doing good (if there be anything among poor sinners which can deserve the name) there is a debt to GOD for being enabled to do it, instead of GOD being indebted to any to whom be gives that ability for doing it. But I rather would read the passage with an eye to JESUS, concerning whom, if I mistake not, David spoke these words by the spirit of prophecy. And here how precious is it to hear JESUS addressing our GOD and FATHER in these sweet words, That his goodness, in the redemption he wrought for poor sinners, extended not to the FATHER. His glory was and is eternally the same. But, saith JESUS, it is to the saints, to my redeemed, the excellent in me, for there is no excellency otherwise in themselves, but as they are related to me. In these, saith the LORD, is all my delight. Precious LORD! thy delights were with thy people from everlasting. And notwithstanding all our unworthiness, and baseness, thy delights are with us still; for having loved thine own, which are in the world, thou lovest them unto the end. John 13:1. Elihu's reasoning on this subject, as it refers to Job, is most decisive. The great defect all along of Job's discourse had been, in seeking more his own justification than the divine glory. This therefore Elihu unanswerably refutes. He also reproves Job for denying the profitableness of affliction, and plainly shows that in all dispensations the grace of GOD is directed to man's profit, not the LORD'S advantage, for that is impossible: neither our righteousness or un-righteousness can do anything to GOD.