Job 35:11

Man's spirit, which distinguishes him from the brute, is the strongest proof of God's beneficence; by the use of it we may understand that God is the Almighty helper of all sufferers who humbly seek Him; and that they err who do not so seek Him. fowls--(see on Job 28:21).

But the reason is that the innocent sufferers often do not humbly seek God for succor; so to their "pride" is to be laid the blame of their ruin; also because (Job 35:13-16) they, as Job, instead of waiting God's time in pious trust, are prone to despair of His justice, when it is not immediately visible (Job 33:19-26).

(This was followed by a farewell address from his son, Thomas Spurgeon.) ‘But none saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night; who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?’Job 35:10-11. ELIHU PERCEIVED the great ones of the earth oppressing the needy, and he traced their domineering tyranny to their forgetfulness of God: ‘None saith, Where is God my Maker?’ Surely, had they thought of God they could not have acted so unjustly. Worse still, if I understand Elihu aright, he complained that even among the oppressed there was the same departure in heart from the Lord: they cried out by reason of the arm of the mighty, but unhappily they did not cry unto God their Maker, though he waits to be gracious unto all such, and executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Both with great and small, with oppressors and oppressed, there is one common fault in our nature, which is described by the apostle in the Romans, ‘There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.’ Until divine grace comes in and changes our nature there is none that saith, ‘Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?’ This is a very grave fault, about which we shall speak for a few minutes, and may the Holy Ghost bless the word. I. And first, LET US THINK OVER THESE NEGLECTED QUESTIONS, beginning with ‘Where is God my Maker?’ There are four questions in the text, each of which reminds us of the folly of forgetting it. First, Where is God? Above all things in the world we ought to think of him. Pope said, ‘The proper study of mankind is man’; but it is far more true that the proper study of mankind is God. Let man study man in the second place, but God first. It is a sad thing that God is all in all, that we owe everything to him, and are under allegiance to him, and yet we neglect him.

(This was followed by a farewell address from his son, Thomas Spurgeon.) ‘But none saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night; who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?’Job 35:10-11. ELIHU PERCEIVED the great ones of the earth oppressing the needy, and he traced their domineering tyranny to their forgetfulness of God: ‘None saith, Where is God my Maker?’ Surely, had they thought of God they could not have acted so unjustly.

Who teacheth us more than the beasts - “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know me, my people do not consider;” Isa 1:3. Beasts, bards, fowls, and in many cases pond-fishes, know and seem thankful to the hand that feeds them; while man, made much more noble than they, gifted with the greatest powers, privileged with the most important benefits, considers not the Lord, nor discerns the operation of his hand. Quadrupeds, reptiles, and fowls, have more gratitude to their masters than man has to his God.