Man's righteousness is of no personal profit to God.
Job 35:7
At the best, we are still unprofitable servants (Luk
17:10).
Job 35:9
Vv 9-13: Many seek God only when in pain or danger.
Job 35:10
BUT NO ONE SAYS, 'WHERE IS GOD MY MAKER...?': "Why is
God silent? Men cry for help, but God knows that what they are crying for is
merely relief, that is all. They want to be taken out of the harmful, painful
effects of their selfish ways and then allowed to go right back to being
selfish. Nobody is concerned about God's glory and about being taught by God and
learning at his hand and at his feet. Rather, they are simply crying out for
deliverance, they want to use God, and to that kind of an appeal God is silent.
I think this is why our prayers are often unanswered. Our selfishness has
produced agony in our life and all we want is to escape the penalty; we are not
at all concerned about God himself. And that is one reason for God's silence"
(RS).
WHO GIVES SONGS IN THE NIGHT: "Let all things go well,
I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow
upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith
shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for
the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of
health, and I can sing God's praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of
languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless He Himself
give me the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse,
unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk
sang, when in the night he said, 'Although the fig-tree shall not blossom,
neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the
fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there
shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in
the God of my salvation' [Hab 3:17,18]. Then, since our Maker gives songs in the
night, let us wait upon Him for the music" (CHS).
Job 35:12
ARROGANCE: Elihu now suggests that Job is seeking to
understand God's purpose because of his offended pride (which is never a good
reason).
Job 35:14
Vv 14-16: If you change your attitude ("Trust in him"), God
will explain Himself to you. Cp Job 23:1-9; 13:3; 9:11,12; 24:12; 21:1-28;
24:1.
Job 35:16
A masterful summary of Job's one weakness; the very charge God
brings (Job 38:2: "Who is this that darkens counsel By words without
knowledge?").