An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

These words, in the close of the verse, being the same with the middle part, as last rendered, may very well be drawn up into one, and conceived of, as if Elihu had said, Suppose thou art a mighty man and hast strong forces, he will not esteem thee for all that; The very weakness of God is stronger than man (1 Cor. 1.25.) that is, than the strongest man, or than any strength which man can procure, either to oppose God, or to protect himself against him. The Prophet to show the great power of the Chaldeans, saith (Hab. 1.10.) They shall scoff at kings, and deride every strong hold. Surely the Lord is so far from esteeming the defences and forces of strength, which men make to, and for themselves, that he scoffs at and derides them. The Lord will deride all the strong holds of man, even the forces of strength. Some get internal carnal strong holds, to fortify themselves in, of which the Apostle speaks (2 Cor. 10.4.) The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the casting down of strong holds. Most sinners are men of wit, they provide themselves strong holds to save their sins in, they have their excuses and reasonings to defend their sins or themselves in their sins by. Others are men of might, they get external strong holds, they have Armies and Cities of defence, to secure themselves by; but will the Lord regard either? Not the strong holds, set up and maintained by force of wit, no, nor all the forces of strength. Though thou hast Army upon Army, and City upon City, though thou dost add Castle to Castle, and Fort to Fort, they are no more than paper walls before the Lord. As neither riches nor nobleness, so no power of man can secure man from the hand of God. Mr. Broughton varieth a little from our reading, yet concurs fully in sense; No gold, nor any other thing should be able to give sound strength; which himself expounds by this short gloss. If now thou despisest repentance, thou shalt be utterly cast off. As if he had said to Job, it is not thy, or any mans standing out against God, ⟨p. 311⟩that will help you, your only help is in repentance and self-humbling before God. Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.