Job 33 1-7 comments: Elihu addresses Job

1 ¶  Wherefore, Job, I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to all my words. 2  Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth. 3  My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly. 4  The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. 5  If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. 6  Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay. 7  Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee.

To pray is to request emphatically and, even humbly.

Genesis 12:13  Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

2Chronicles 6:24  And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house;

Hear and hearken are synonymous words that imply effort on the part of the recipient, sometimes to obey but in this case to understand, as in others.

Isaiah 42:23  Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

Mark 7:14  And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:

Elihu promises Job that his words will come from his best intentions and that he will speak clearly so Job can understand. In verse 4 Elihu acknowledges that the Spirit of God, capital S, made him. We know that the Spirit of God is the vehicle by which God, as the Holy Ghost, operates within creation.

Genesis 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Luke 4:1  And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

1Corinthians 12:3  Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is one of the three parts of God, “He,” while the Spirit is an “it”.

Matthew 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

2Corinthians 13:14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

1John 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Romans 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:…26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

There is a Spirit of God and a Spirit of Christ, as well as the Holy Ghost.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

All three dwell in the Christian through the Spirit so God is never divided into millions of people. He indwells us by His Spirit.

John 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

1Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

The name, Holy Spirit, with both words capitalized, is only used once as such in the Bible in Luke 11:13 while Holy Ghost figures into 89 verses.

Verse 4 also teaches that the Spirit of God and the breath of the Almighty are synonymous terms.

Genesis 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The first man lived because God breathed His Spirit into him. Adam was made in His image and after His likeness or appearance (Genesis 1:26). All of Adam’s descendants, because of his sin, were made in his degenerate, genetically deteriorating with each cell division image (Genesis 5:3). We are born again because God does a second work of birth inside each believer with His Spirit (John 3:5) granting us eternal life. We ignore the Bible usage and use Holy Spirit because of the Roman Catholic usage of Spiritus, the Latin word for Spirit. Also, modernists will say that Ghost and Spirit are translated from the same word but in the Bible usage and context determine meaning. Ghost and Spirit, being different words in English with similar meaning, underscore that fact of Bible interpretation.

The Spirit gives life, the breath of the Almighty does it. This, Elihu understood. He offers to stand-in for God and assures Job that because he also is human, made of clay, that Job can question him in God’s stead and have no fear of what Elihu can do to him.