Are the consolations of God not enough for you, even words spoken gently to you?Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you?Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?Are the consolations of God too small for thee, Even the word that is gentle toward thee?
4 sermons cite this verse
… wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, much older than your father. Are the consolations of God too small for you? You see what he's doing? He's just peppering him with questions. And the questions are meant to be accusatory rather than conciliatory. He's not being a good counselor. He's just trying to attack like a prosecutor would in a courtroom. But he says in verse 11, are the consolations of God too small for you? He's implying that he is one of God's messengers to bring consolation. Look, God sent us to you and we've tried to reason with you. Is that too little for you? Of course, if he thinks he's consoling Job, he's not doing a great job, as Job will say in a moment. And the word spoken gently with you, why does your heart carry you away? And what do your eyes wink at? That you turn your spirit against God and let such words go out of your mouth. What is man that he could be pure and he who is born of a woman that he could be righteous? Now that's actually a good question. And he's got a pretty good point there. …
Those are sharp teeth, aren't they? having rebuked him, he follows it with reminders of the fate of the wicked, 17 to 35. Job, because you're wicked, you writhe in pain, verse 20. So there's pain all your days. You're getting what you deserve, Job. Numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless. Verse 21, after constant misery, there's terror. Sounds of terror are in his ears. While at peace, the destroyer comes upon him. He does not believe that he will return from darkness and he is destined for the sword. So there's terror and loss and torment. And then there's fear. Verse 23, he wanders about for food saying, where is it? he knows that a day of darkness is at hand and finally distress and anguish terrifying there's this overpowering distress and anguish why eliphaz just tell job why all right verse 25 because he that's job you have stretched out your hand against god you conduct yourself arrogantly against the Almighty. That's why. And Eliphaz backs away and stares at him with that glare. …
Perhaps this is the way in which, too, are visited upon God's people some neglects of ordinances.''He that knows his Master's will and does it not, the same shall be beaten with many stripes." And one of these stripes may surely be our failure in prayer! It may also be temporal affliction, but probably this is one of the main ways in which the Master inflicts the stripes upon His children. They are negligent of His commands and He says, "Then you shall tarry awhile. I will not yet grant you what you seek. But when you come to a better mind and are more scrupulous and tender in the fulfilling of My commands, then your longings shall be satisfied." It may occur, too, that this delay may be a sort of disclosure to us as to wherein our sin lies. Sin sometimes lies in a Christian unrepented of because he only dimly realizes that it is there. Hear what Job declares—"Are the consolations of God small with you? Is there any secret thing with you?" That is to say, if you love selfish ease and feeble comforting. If you do not prevail with God in prayer, is there some secret sin in you which keeps back the blessing? God does, as it were, say to us, "Search and look." Unanswered prayer should be to every Christian a search warrant—he should begin to examine himself to see whether there is not something harbored within which is contrary to the will of God. Oh, Believer, this is not a hard work for you to do, surely, but it is a very necessary one! Search yourself and breathe the prayer, "Search me, O God, and try me, and know my ways, and see if there is any evil way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." I think this is one great reason for unanswered prayer, namely, that it is a chastisement for sin committed or an admonition against sin harbored. …
What a message do our Sabbaths bring to us! To those who toil all the week long, the light of the Lord's-Day seems fairer and fresher than that of any other day. A person at Newcastle who had a house to let, took an applicant for it to the top of his house. He spoke of the distant prospect and added, "We can see Durham Cathedral on a Sunday." "On Sunday," said the listener, "and pray why not on a Monday?" "Why," he said, "because on the weekdays great furnaces and pits are pouring forth their smoke and we cannot see as far—indeed, we can scarcely see at all! But when the fires are out, our view is wide." Is not this a true symbol of our Sabbaths when we are in the Spirit? The smoke of the world no more clouds the heavens and we see almost up to the golden gates! Such days do speak, indeed, and tell of the rest which remains. They sing in our ears with soft and gentle voices and tell us that we shall not always need to bow like galley slaves, tugging at the oar of this world's work, but may even now look up to the place where our Home awaits us and the weary are at rest! These peaceful Lord' s-Days call us away to the top of Shenir and Hermon, where we may view the land of our inheritance! They cry to us, "Come up higher!" They beckon us to commune with Him "whom having not seen, we love; in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with unspeakable joy and full of glory." All days speak, but Sabbaths speak best—they are orators for God! These resurrection days, these days of the Son of Man—these have angel voices. "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." …