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Job Chapter
One
Job 1
Chapter Contents
The piety and prosperity of Job. (1-5) Satan obtains
leave to try Job. (6-12) The loss of Job's property
and the death of his
children. (13-19) Job's patience and piety. (20-22)
Commentary on Job 1:1-5
(Read Job 1:1-5)
Job was prosperous
and yet pious. Though it is hard and
rare
it is not impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
By God's grace the temptations of worldly wealth may be overcome. The account
of Job's piety and prosperity comes before the history of his great
afflictions
showing that neither will secure from troubles. While Job beheld
the harmony and comforts of his sons with satisfaction
his knowledge of the
human heart made him fearful for them. He sent and sanctified them
reminding
them to examine themselves
to confess their sins
to seek forgiveness; and as
one who hoped for acceptance with God through the promised Saviour
he offered
a burnt-offering for each. We perceive his care for their souls
his knowledge
of the sinful state of man
his entire dependence on God's mercy in the way he
had appointed.
Commentary on Job 1:6-12
(Read Job 1:6-12)
Job's afflictions began from the malice of Satan
by the
Lord's permission
for wise and holy purposes. There is an evil spirit
the
enemy of God
and of all righteousness
who is continually seeking to distress
to lead astray
and
if possible
to destroy those who love God. How far his
influence may extend
we cannot say; but probably much unsteadiness and unhappiness
in Christians may be ascribed to him. While we are on this earth we are within
his reach. Hence it concerns us to be sober and vigilant
1 Peter 5:8. See how Satan censures Job. This is
the common way of slanderers
to suggest that which they have no reason to
think is true. But as there is nothing we should dread more than really being
hypocrites
so there is nothing we need dread less than being called and
counted so without cause. It is not wrong to look at the eternal recompence in
our obedience; but it is wrong to aim at worldly advantages in our religion.
God's people are taken under his special protection; they
and all that belong
to them. The blessing of the Lord makes rich; Satan himself owns it. God
suffered Job to be tried
as he suffered Peter to be sifted. It is our comfort
that God has the devil in a chain
Revelation 20:1. He has no power to lead men to
sin
but what they give him themselves; nor any power to afflict men
but what
is given him from above. All this is here described to us after the manner of
men. The Scripture speaks thus to teach us that God directs the affairs of the
world.
Commentary on Job 1:13-19
(Read Job 1:13-19)
Satan brought Job's troubles upon him on the day that his
children began their course of feasting. The troubles all came upon Job at
once; while one messenger of evil tidings was speaking
another followed. His
dearest and most valuable possessions were his ten children; news is brought
him that they are killed. They were taken away when he had most need of them to
comfort him under other losses. In God only have we a help present at all
times.
Commentary on Job 1:20-22
(Read Job 1:20-22)
Job humbled himself under the hand of God. He reasons
from the common state of human life
which he describes. We brought nothing of
this world's goods into the world
but have them from others; and it is certain
we can carry nothing out
but must leave them to others. Job
under all his
losses
is but reduced to his first state. He is but where he must have been at
last
and is only unclothed
or unloaded rather
a little sooner than he
expected. If we put off our clothes before we go to bed
it is some
inconvenience
but it may be the better borne when it is near bed-time. The
same who gave hath taken away. See how Job looks above instruments
and keeps
his eye upon the First Cause. Afflictions must not divert us from
but quicken
us to religion. If in all our troubles we look to the Lord
he will support us.
The Lord is righteous. All we have is from his gift; we have forfeited it by
sin
and ought not to complain if he takes any part from us. Discontent and
impatience charge God with folly. Against these Job carefully watched; and so
must we
acknowledging that as God has done right
but we have done wickedly
so God has done wisely
but we have done very foolishly. And may the malice and
power of Satan render that Saviour more precious to our souls
who came to
destroy the works of the devil; who
for our salvation
suffered from that enemy
far more than Job suffered
or we can think.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Job》
Job 1
Verse 1
[1]
There was a man in the land of Uz
whose name was Job; and that man was perfect
and upright
and one that feared God
and eschewed evil.
Uz — Part of Arabia.
Perfect —
Not legally or exactly
but as to his sincere intentions
hearty affections
and diligent endeavours to perform all his duties to God and men.
Upright —
Heb. right
exact and regular in all his dealings
with men; one of an
unblameable conversation.
Feared —
One truly pious
and devoted to God.
Eschewed —
Carefully avoiding all sin against God or men.
Verse 3
[3] His substance also was seven thousand sheep
and three thousand camels
and five hundred yoke of oxen
and five hundred she asses
and a very great
household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Camels - Camels in these parts were very
numerous
and very useful
both for carrying burdens in these hot and dry
countries
as being able to endure thirst much better than other creatures
and
for service in war.
Asses —
He-asses also may be included in this expression
because the greatest part of
them (from which the denomination is usually taken) were she asses.
The greatest —
That lived in those parts. The account of his piety and prosperity comes before
the account of his afflictions
to shew that neither of these will secure us
from the common
no
nor from the uncommon calamities of human life.
Verse 4
[4] And
his sons went and feasted in their houses
every one his day; and sent and
called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
Feasted — To
testify and maintain their brotherly love.
His day —
Each his appointed day
perhaps his birth-day
or the first day of the month.
Verse 5
[5] And
it was so
when the days of their feasting were gone about
that Job sent and
sanctified them
and rose up early in the morning
and offered burnt offerings
according to the number of them all: for Job said
It may be that my sons have
sinned
and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
When —
When each of them had had his turn.
Satisfied — He
exhorted them to examine their own consciences
to repent of any thing
which
had been amiss in their feasting
and compose their minds for employments of a
more solemn nature.
Early —
Thereby shewing his ardent zeal in God's service.
May be —
His zeal for God's glory
and his true love to his children
made him jealous.
Cursed —
Not in a gross manner
which it is not probable either that they should do
or
that Job should suspect it concerning them
but despised or dishonoured God;
for both Hebrew and Greek words signifies cursing
are sometimes used to note
only
reviling or setting light by a person.
Hearts — By
slight and low thoughts of God
or by neglecting to give God the praise for the
mercies which they enjoyed.
Thus — It
was his constant course at the end of every feasting time
to offer a sacrifice
for each. Parents should be particular in their addresses to God
for the
several branches of their family; praying for each child
according to his
particular temper
genius and disposition.
Verse 6
[6] Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before
the LORD
and Satan came also among them.
A day — A
certain time appointed by God.
The sons —
The holy angels
so called
chap. 38:7;
Daniel 3:25
28
because of their creation by
God
for their resemblance of him in power
and dignity
and holiness
and for
their filial affection and obedience
to him.
Before —
Before his throne
to receive his commands
and to give him an account of their
negotiations. But you must not think that these things are to be understood
literally; it is only a parabolical representation of that great truth
that
God by his wise and holy providence governs all the actions of men and devils:
It being usual with the great God to condescend to our shallow capacities
and
to express himself
as the Jews phrase it
in the language of the sons of men.
And it is likewise intimated
that the affairs of earth are much the subject of
the counsels of the unseen world. That world is dark to us: but we lie open to
it.
Verse 9
[9] Then
Satan answered the LORD
and said
Doth Job fear God for nought?
For nought —
Out of pure love and respect to thee? No. It is policy
not piety
that makes
him good; he doth not serve thee
but serveth himself of thee
serving thee for
his own ends.
Verse 12
[12] And
the LORD said unto Satan
Behold
all that he hath is in thy power; only upon
himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the
LORD.
Behold
… — It
seems strange
that
God should give Satan such a permission as this. But he
did it for his own glory
for the honour of Job
for the explanation of
providence
and the encouragement of his afflicted people in all ages.
Verse 14
[14] And
there came a messenger unto Job
and said
The oxen were plowing
and the asses
feeding beside them:
Messenger
… —
One messenger immediately followed another; Satan so ordering by God's
permission
that there might seem to be more than ordinary displeasure of God
against him in his troubles
and that he might not have leisure to recollect
himself
but be overwhelmed by a complication of calamities.
Verse 15
[15] And
the Sabeans fell upon them
and took them away; yea
they have slain the
servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Sabeans — A
people of Arabia
who led a wandering life
and lived by robbery and spoil.
I — Whom Satan spared
that Job might have speedy and certain intelligence of his calamity.
Verse 16
[16]
While he was yet speaking
there came also another
and said
The fire of God
is fallen from heaven
and hath burned up the sheep
and the servants
and
consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
The fire of God — As
thunder is the voice of God
so lightning is his fire. How terrible then were
the tidings of this destruction
which came immediately from the hand of God!
And seemed to shew
that God was angry at his very offerings
and would receive
no more from his hands.
Verse 17
[17]
While he was yet speaking
there came also another
and said
The Chaldeans
made out three bands
and fell upon the camels
and have carried them away
yea
and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped
alone to tell thee.
Chaldeans —
Who also lived upon spoil
as Xenephon and others observe.
Verse 19
[19] And
behold
there came a great wind from the wilderness
and smote the four corners
of the house
and it fell upon the young men
and they are dead; and I only am
escaped alone to tell thee.
The young men —
This was the greatest of Job's losses
and therefore Satan reserved it to the
last
that if the other provocations failed
this might make him curse God.
They died by a wind of the devils raising
but which seemed to be the immediate
hand of God. And they were taken away
when he had the most need of them
to
comfort him under all his other losses. Such miserable comforters are
creatures: in God we have a constant and sufficient help.
Verse 20
[20] Then
Job arose
and rent his mantle
and shaved his head
and fell down upon the
ground
and worshipped
Shaved —
Caused his hair to be shaved or cut off
which was then an usual ceremony in
mourning.
Worshipped —
Instead of cursing God
which Satan said he would do
he adored him
and gave
him the glory of his sovereignty
of his justice
and of his goodness also
in
this most severe dispensation.
Verse 21
[21] And
said
Naked came I out of my mother's womb
and naked shall I return thither:
the LORD gave
and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Naked — I
brought none of these things with me
when I came out of my mother's womb into
the world
but I received them from the hand of God
who hath now required his
own again.
Return thither — I
shall be as rich when I die as I was when I was born
and therefore have reason
to be contented with my condition
which also is the common lot of all men.
Into the lap of our common mother
the earth
as the weary child lays its head
in its mother's bosom. We go out of the world naked; the body doth
tho' the
sanctified soul goes clothed. ( 2 Corinthians 5:3.) Death strips us of all our
enjoyments: clothing can neither warm nor adorn a dead body.
Taken — He
hath taken away nothing but his own
and what he so gave that he reserved the
supreme disposal of in his own hand. And what is it to me
by what hand he that
gives
resumes what he gave?
Verse 22
[22] In
all this Job sinned not
nor charged God foolishly.
Charged —
Heb. not imputed folly to God; so far was he from blaspheming God
that he did not
entertain any dishonourable thought of God
as if he had done anything unworthy
of his infinite wisdom
or justice
or goodness
but heartily acquiesced in his
good pleasure
and in his righteous though sharp proceedings against him.
Discontent and impatience do in effect impute folly to God. Against the
workings of these we should carefully watch
acknowledging that God has done
well
but we have done foolishly.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Job》
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-5
There was a man in the land of Uz
whose name was Job.
The character of Job
There are serious and devout persons who regard the Book of Job as
a work of imagination
and refer it to the age of Solomon. They point out that
the subject discussed is precisely that which agitated the mind of Solomon
and
that nothing but a wide contact with the Gentile world could have admitted a
subject or a scene so remote from ordinary Jewish thought. Luther says
“I look
upon the Book of Job as true history
yet I do not believe that all took place
just as it is written
but that an ingenious
learned
and pious person brought
it into its present form.” The poetical character of the work is manifest
and
this poetical character must be taken into full account in any attempt to
explain the contents. That is admissible in poetry which would not be proper in
prose. Poetry may suggest
prose should state. Whether the poem be historically
based or not
there is certainly set before us a very distinct and well-marked
individuality. It is not possible for us to understand the discussion in the
book until we are adequately impressed with the character of the hero
because
the whole turns
not as is usually assumed
upon his patience
nor upon his
absolute innocence
but upon his religious sincerity and moral uprightness. Job
is presented in the characteristics of his conduct
his attractions
and his
repulsions. “Perfect and upright.” “Fearing God.” “Eschewing evil.” A man may
be delineated very minutely; a photograph in words may be presented of his
features
his bodily form
his gait
his tone of voice
and even of his qualities
of mind and disposition
and yet no adequate idea of him may be conveyed to the
minds of others. Genius is shown in some brief
sententious striking off of the
essential peculiarities
the things in which the man stands out from other men.
This hand mark of genius is on the description that is given of Job. It is
brief
but it differentiates him precisely. We feel that we know the man.
I. It presents the
characteristics of his conduct. Our Lord taught--what reason also affirms--that
a man’s life and doings form the proper basis of any judgment that is made
concerning him. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” That ground of judgment
is universally acknowledged to be quite fair. We ought to be willing to lay our
life and conduct open before our fellow men
and to say
“Judge me according to
my integrity.” Many
even religious men
prefer to say
“Judge me according to
my professions.” The world is right in persisting in judging us by our conduct.
And it may be questioned whether
on the whole
its judgment is harsh and
unfair. It does not look for perfection in us
but it does expect to find that
ours is a higher standard of honesty and charity than theirs. We would like to
be described by our beliefs. Our Lord was described by His doings. “He went about
doing good.” It says much for Job that he can be set before us in the light of
his conduct. He was a sincere
upright
kind
and good man. How are we to
explain these words
“perfect and upright
” as descriptions of human life and
conduct? The word “perfect” has in Scripture this idea in it. The thought of
the absolutely perfect is cherished in a man’s soul
and he is ever trying to
work his thought out into his life and conduct. Taking the two words together
“perfect” refers to the ideal in the man’s mind; and “upright” describes the
moral characteristic of his human relationships. And we may glorify our Father
in heaven by cherishing high ideals
and by bringing forth
in our daily life
much fruit of common honesties
common purities
and common charities
and so
grow towards the standard of the perfect.
II. It presents the
characteristic of his attractions. Tell us what a man loves
and we can tell
you exactly what the man is. Everyone is disclosed by his favourite pursuit. Do
you love truth and goodness? Then a blessed revelation is made concerning you.
The Godward side of your nature is alive
healthy
and active. But is it the
same thing to say of Job that he “feared God
” and to say that he “set his love
on God”? Yes. A man can never worthily love
if he does not fear
--fear in the
deeper sense of respect
admire
and reverence. Fear and love grow together
and grow so like each other that we find it difficult to tell which is fear and
which is love. Job
on the side of his attractions
was drawn to God. The
purity of the waters that lie full in the face of the sun is drawn out
and
caught up by invisible forces into the sky
by and by to serve ends of
refreshing on the earth. And all the noblest and best that is in a man may be
drawn out by the invisible forces of Divine love and fear
if the soul do but
lie open to God
the Sun of Righteousness.
III. It presents the
characteristic of his repulsions. “He eschewed evil.” The word employed is
vigorous
but not exactly refined. We cannot pronounce it without discerning
its precise meaning. “Escheweth” means
“finds it nauseous
and spits it out.”
The clean is repelled from the unclean
the kindly from the cruel
the gentle
from the passionate
the pure from the vicious. A good man is characterised by
an acute sensitiveness to everything that is evil. What then was the leading
idea of Job’s life? It was a life lived in the power of principle. Some central
idea ruled it
gave it unity
steadied it. He believed that
in righteousness
Divine communion may be enjoyed. He saw that God
happiness
truth
peace
the
only worthy idea of living
all belong to righteousness. So his conduct was
right. “Righteousness tendeth unto life”; and “God blesseth the generation of
the righteous.” Whatever may happen to this man
we may be sure that God was on
his side. God declared him to be a pure
upright
and sincere man. (Robert
Tuck
B. A.)
Job
the model of piety
Job must have lived not very long after the Deluge. Somewhere
between the time of Noah and of Abraham. Five things in this model which we
shall do well to imitate.
I. Job was a model
of home piety (1 Timothy 5:4). Some persons pretend
to be very good and pious when among strangers
but they are not careful how
they act at home. If we are really trying to be good Christians
and to love
and serve God
then home is the place in which we should let our religion be
seen. It should make us more respectful and obedient to our parents
and more
kind and loving and gentle to our brothers and sisters
and to all about us in
the home
than those are who do not profess to be Christians. Job’s sons were
in the habit of having social gatherings at each other’s houses. When their
feasting was over
their father was accustomed to gather them all together for
special religious services
when he prayed that God would forgive them if any
of them had said
or thought
or felt
or done anything that was wrong while
the feasting was going on. It was in this way that Job was a model of piety at
home.
II. Job was a model
of intelligent piety. He lived so long ago that we could not expect him to have
had very clear views about the character of God
and the way to serve Him. But
he had. It is wonderful how much he knew about these things. He lived before
any part of the Bible was written. But he got his knowledge from the God of the
Bible. We get our knowledge from the Bible. If we come to the Bible to find out
what true piety is
and how we are to serve God
we shall understand this
matter as Job did
and our piety
like his
will be intelligent piety.
III. Job was a model
of practical piety. His piety did not show itself in what he said only
but
also
and mainly
in what he did. He carried his religion with him wherever he
went (chap. 29). We have some examples of good Christian men and women who are
like Job in this respect. But there ought to be many more of the same kind. If
from the example of Job
we look up to the example of Jesus
we shall find them
both very much alike in this respect. When Jesus “went about doing good
” He
was making His piety practical.
IV. We have is joe
a model of patient piety. The apostle James says
“Ye have heard of the
patience of Job.” This is the first thought that comes to us when the name of
Job is mentioned. Think of his terrible calamities. We should have been tempted
to say some very bitter things against the providence of God for permitting so
great and crushing an affliction to come upon us. But Job said nothing of the
kind. All he did is told thus: “Job arose
and rent his mantle
and shaved his
head.” This was the way in which people in that Eastern country were accustomed
to express their feelings when in great sorrow. But what a much more wonderful
model of patience was Jesus! The patience of Job was beautiful at the
beginning
but it did not last. He got discouraged
and said some very
impatient things. He failed in his patience before he got through his trials.
And so it is with all the examples of piety and patience that we find among our
fellow creatures. They fail
sooner or later. The example of Jesus is the only
perfect one.
V. Job was a
model
or example
of rewarded piety. When Satan said
“Does Job serve God for
nought?” he meant to say that Job was selfish in his religion
and only served
God for the pay or profit he expected from it. But he was mistaken here. Job
knew that there was a reward to be found in the service of God. But this was
not the only thing he thought of in that service. “In keeping God’s
commandments there is great reward.” All who serve God as faithfully as Job did
will find themselves richly rewarded. (R. Newton
D. D.)
The character of Job
1. Beginning with the opening verses
we are led to contemplate Job
in his family relations; in his tender solicitude for the spiritual welfare of
his children
causing the light of daily worship to shed its rays upon the
domestic tabernacle
--his house a church
and himself the ministering priest at
its altars. This whole passage brings out in strong relief the depth of Job’s
personal piety
and his fervent intercessions for his family. “According to the
number”--that is
according to the needs
and necessities
and particular
circumstances of them all
the ungovernable pride and passion
perhaps
which
he had observed in one son
the worldly spirit and pleasure seeking which he
knew to be the besetting sin of another. One by one
each son’s infirmities and
temptations shall have its remembrance in a pious father’s prayers. The whole
scene brings out an example of that household piety which is the strength of
nations
the seed of the Church
the best conservator of God’s truth in the
world
and that on which the Almighty has declared shall ever rest His heavenly
benediction. “For I know him
” it is said of Abraham
“that he will command his
children and his household after him
and they shall keep the way of the Lord
to do justice and judgment.” Thus
for his exemplary character and conduct in
all the relations of home life
we can understand why it is witnessed of Job
that he was a perfect and an upright man.
2. Again
in the entire submissiveness of his will to the Divine
will
we see a reason why it should be witnessed of Job that he was “a perfect
and an upright man.” His preeminence in this virtue of patient resignation we
find recognised in the Epistle of St. James
who
after bidding us “take the
prophets for an example of suffering affliction and of patience
” cites
as
worthy of special imitation
the “patience of Job.” Nor have we need to go
further than this first chapter for evidence of the patriarch’s absolute and
beautiful self-abasement. For we see a man before us who is a very wreck of
wrecks--under the pressure of bodily suffering unexampled. And yet
amidst the
wild and wasting havoc
no murmur of rebellion escapes his lips
neither does
any hard thought of God find any place in his heart. Still
as we know
it was
not always thus with Job. This model of suffering patience was at times tempted
to expressions of almost blasphemous impatience--imprecating darkness upon the
anniversary of his birth
as a day not worthy to be joined unto the days of the
year
or to come into the number of the months. It was the yielding to this
temper of mind which drew forth against him the stern and just reproof of
Elihu
“Should it be according to thy mind?” Is it for thee to say how God
should correct
and when God should correct
and in what measures He should
correct? Art thou a competent judge of what the Almighty may have in view in
His corrective dispensations; or whether shall tend to promote them
this form
of chastening or that? “Should it be according to thy mind?” No doubt this form
of insubmissiveness is often to be found in God’s children when lying under His
Fatherly corrections. Chastening
we know
we must have; and chastening we
expect. But
as with Job at the time of this reproof being administered to him
there is often a disposition in us to dictate to our heavenly Father in what
form the chastening should come. Under any great trial there is a constant tendency
in us to say
“I could have borne any trial rather than this.” Far otherwise
was it with Job--at least
when he was in his better moods: He desired to be
conformed to the will of God in all things. He had no selective submissions
taking patiently the thorn in the flesh one day
and withstanding proudly the
angel in the path of the vineyards the next; now bowing in all lowliness under
the imposed yoke of the Saviour
and now refusing to take up his appointed
cross. Job knew that submission to the Divine will was not more the discipline
of life than it will be the repose and bliss of immortality. “In all this Job
sinned hot
nor charged God foolishly.” In the yielded captivity and surrender
of every thought to the will of God
he would vindicate his claim to be
considered “a perfect and an upright man.”
3. Furthermore
among personal characteristics of Job justifying the
honourable mention made of him in our text
we naturally include the strength
and clearness of his faith. As a grace of character
no virtue stands higher
than this in the Divine esteem. It was that royal gift from above which
procured for Abraham the distinguishing title of “the Friend of God.” And there
are points of resemblance between his faith and that of this perfect and
upright man in the land of Uz. Both were beforehand of their dispensation in
their views of the doctrine of an atoning sacrifice; both
with a clearness of
vision beyond that of men of their own age
saw the day of Christ; saw it
and
were glad. Even in those family burnt offerings recorded in this first chapter
there was
on the part of Job
a distinct act of faith. He saw in that
sacrifice and oblation a type of the coming propitiation; saw his own sins and
his sons’ sins laid on that slain victim
and believed that they were blotted
out in the cloud that curled up from that sacrificial fire. This
indeed
was
the only answer to be returned to his own question--the question which had
perplexed him
as well as thousands of minds besides: “How should man be just
with God? How should God and man come together in judgment?” Clearly in no way
except by means of that Divine and ineffable mystery so beautifully
foreshadowed in his own striking language: “Neither is there any daysman
betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both.” And then see how this strong
and eagle-eyed gaze into the far-off future comes out in the nineteenth
chapter
when describing his faith in the God-Redeemer
the Divine and
everliving Mediator. Job knew
as well as David knew
that
in the higher sense
for which a Redeemer is needed
“no man can redeem his brother
or make
atonement unto God for him; for that it cost more to redeem their souls: so
that he must let that alone forever.” See
then
how great is Job’s faith. This
Redeemer
who can do for us what no created being could do--living
and all
through the ages
ever living--must be Divine. Yet not Divine only; for He is
my kinsman
of the same race and blood with me
bound over by Divine
appointment to do for me the kinsman’s part. Mystery of mysteries! yet shall my
faith embrace it. “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” And this faith
in Job’s
case
like all true faith
was an intensely practical thing; a working factor
in the shaping of his whole life and character. See how this comes out in the
thirteenth chapter. Things are at their worst with Job. The taunts and
reproaches of his so-called friends had irritated him beyond endurance
and he
spake unadvisedly with his lips. And no wonder. “Hold your peace
” he says to
them. “Let me alone
that I may speak
and let come on me what will. It does
seem as if God had set me for His mark; the looming wrath cloud does seem as if
it would discharge itself upon me every moment. Yet think you that on this
account I am going to doubt my God
distrust my God
see shadow of change in
the Unchangeable? Nay
verily; though He slay me
yet will I trust in Him.” Oh!
wonder we to find it written of such an one
“That man was perfect and upright
and one that feared God”?
4. One other aspect of Job’s character remains to be taken
as
supplying a reason for the high commendation of the text; I mean that view of
his life which brings him before us as a man of prayer; a man of devout and
heart-searching communion with his own spirit; a man able to bear anything
rather than the thought of estrangement
and coldness
and a cloud of fear and
unlove coming for a moment between his soul and God. Take a few passages only
from his book
showing the intense fervour of these spiritual longings: “Oh!
that I knew where I might find Him; that I might come even unto His seat! Oh!
that one might plead for a man with God
as a man pleadeth for his friend! Oh!
that I were as in months past; as in the days when God preserved me; as I was
in the days of my youth
when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle!” “That
man was perfect and upright
and one that feared God.” Still
we must be
careful that these searchings of heart are not carried too far; are not
in the
hands of Satan
made an occasion of driving us from our hope. We must not forget
that the occasional intermission of our spiritual comforts is often a part of a
necessary sanctifying discipline. It is possible that God sees us depending too
much on these tokens of His favour
this abiding of His secret upon our
tabernacle
Insensibly we had come to look upon those happy experiences as our
righteousness; we had almost made a Christ of them
to the disparagement of the
a insufficiency of His atonement
and to the casting of a shadow on the glory
of His Cross. But this must not be. In all our self-examinations we must not
shrink from looking back
and must not be afraid to look within. But if we can
honestly discern in ourselves the signs of present desires after holiness
and
yet are disquieted and cast down
then
instead either of looking back or
looking within
we must look out and look up; out of self
up to Christ; out of
the light upon the tabernacle
up to the light of heaven; out of all thought
of what we may have done or not done for Christ
up to the grateful
contemplation of what Christ has done for us. (Daniel Moore
M. A.)
A good man in great prosperity
I. A good man. He
was “perfect.” Not sinless
but complete in all the parts of his moral and
religious character; he did not attend to one class of duties to the exclusion
of others
cultivate one attribute of virtue regardless of the rest. He was
complete. All the parts of the plant of goodness within him grew simultaneously
and symmetrically.
1. In relation to his general conduct he was “upright.” He pursued
the straight road of rectitude
turning neither to the right nor left hand; he
did what his conscience believed was right
regardless of issues.
2. In relation to his God he was devout. He “feared God
” not with a
slavish fear
--his fear was a loving reverence. He was far removed from all
irreverence of feeling
he was profoundly religious. God filled the horizon of
his soul
he looked at all things in their relation to the Divine.
3. In relation to evil he was an apostate. He “eschewed evil”; he
departed from it; he hurried from it as from the presence of a monster. However
fashionable
gorgeously attired
institutionally and socially powerful
he
loathed it
and fled from it as Lot from Sodom.
4. In relation to his family he was a priest. “He offered burnt
offerings.” He interposed with God on their behalf; he was a mediator between
his own children and the great Father of spirits. Like a good father he sought
the moral cleansing of his children and their reconciliation to the Eternal.
II. Here is a good
man very prosperous.
1. He was prosperous as a father. “There were born unto him seven
sons and three daughters.” In ancient times
to be destitute of children was
esteemed a great calamity: the greater the family the greater the parental
blessing. Things have changed now: here in our England
a large family is
regarded as a terrible infliction. What greater blessing in this world can a
man have than a large number of loving hearts to call him father?
2. He was prosperous as a farmer. The stock here described has been
estimated to amount in our money to the sum of £30
000. Here
and now
this is
a good fortune
but yonder
and then
it stood for at least fifty times the
amount.
3. He was prosperous as a citizen. “For this man was the greatest of
all the men in the east in those days
no doubt
men whose names would strike
awe into the soul of the populace
but Job was the greatest of them all.
Elsewhere he describes the power which he wielded over men. “When I went out to
the gate through the city
when I prepared my seat in the street! the young men
saw me
and hid themselves
” etc. (Job 29:7-8).
In conclusion
two remarks--
1. That a good man in great prosperity is what antecedently we might
have expected to find everywhere in the world.
2. That a good man in great prosperity is not a common scene in human
life. Generally speaking
the best men are the poorest
and the worst men hold
the prizes of the world. (Homilist.)
Job’s life of prosperity
Now let us judge this life from a point of view which the writer
may have taken
which at any rate it becomes us to take
with our knowledge of
what gives manhood its true dignity and perfectness. Obedience to God
self-control and self-culture
the observance of religious forms
brotherliness
and compassion
uprightness and purity of life
these are Job’s excellences.
But all circumstances are favourable
his wealth makes beneficence easy
and
moves him to gratitude. His natural disposition is towards piety and
generosity; it is pure joy to him to honour God and help his fellow men. The
life is beautiful. But imagine it as the unclouded experience of years in a
world where so many are tried with suffering and bereavement
foiled in their
strenuous toil
and disappointed in their dearest hopes
and is it not evident
that Job’s would tend to become a kind of dream life
not deep and strong
but
on the surface
a broad stream
clear
glittering
with the reflection of moon
and stars
or of the blue heaven
but shallow
gathering no force
scarcely
moving towards the ocean? No dreaming is there when the soul is met with sore
rebuffs
and made aware of the profound abyss that lies beneath
when the limbs
fail on the steep hills of difficult duty. But a long succession of prosperous
years
immunity from disappointment
loss
and sorrow
lulls the spirit to
repose. Earnestness of heart is not called for
and the will
however good
is
not braced to endurance. Whether by subtle intention or by an instinctive sense
of fitness
the writer has painted Job as one who with all his virtue and
perfectness spent his life as in a dream
and needed to be awakened. He is a
Pygmalion’s statue of flawless marble
the face divinely calm
and not without
a trace of self-conscious remoteness from the suffering multitudes
needing the
hot blast of misfortune to bring it to life. Or
let us say he is a new type of
humanity in Paradise
an Adam enjoying a Garden of Eden fenced in from every
storm
as yet undiscovered by the enemy. We are to see the problem of the
primitive story of Genesis revived and wrought out afresh
not on the old
lines
but in a way that makes it real to the race of suffering men. The dream
life of Job in his time of prosperity corresponds closely with that ignorance
of good and evil which the first pair had in the garden eastward ill Eden while
as yet the forbidden tree bore its fruit untouched
undesired
in the midst of
the greenery and flowers. (Robert A. Watson
D. D.)
Job
Job may be called “the first of the Bible heathens.” He was not a
Jew
he was one “outside the pale of the visible Church.” The problems of the
book are of interest to man as man
and not as either Jew or Gentile. There is
no allusion in the book to Jewish traditions
customs
or modes of thought
. The
sacrifices mentioned are primitive
not Mosaic. There is a striking breadth and
universalism in its pictures of life
manners
customs
and places. There is a
variety about the local colouring that we find in no book that is undoubtedly
Jewish in its origin. There is a marked absence of the strong assertion of God
as Israel’s God which we elsewhere find. The picture of Satan is very different
from that which we have elsewhere in Scripture. Many considerations point to
the very high antiquity of Job’s time
--such as his own great longevity; the
primitive and patriarchal simplicity of life and customs; the reference to
sacrifices
but to neither priest nor shrine; the fact that the only form of
idolatry spoken of is the very primitive one of the worship of the sun and
moon; and the total silence of the history to such striking and momentous
events as the destruction of Sodom
and the giving of the law. When or by whom
the book was written we have not sufficient evidence to warrant even a guess.
The presence of the book in the Canon ought to be a standing marvel to those
who can see in the Old Testament only a collection of Jewish literature
a
store house of national thought
history
poetry
or theology. The book stands
by itself
sublime in its solitariness
suggestive in its isolation. Not less
remarkable is the book if regard be had to its literary character
its poetic
elevation
its dramatic daring
its full-blown magnificence of imagery. Carlyle
says
“There is nothing written
I think
in the Bible or out of it
of equal
literary merit.” The form is essentially dramatic. The problem presented is one
phase of the world-old and worldwide one of human suffering. It is the most
inscrutable side of the mystery that is presented and treated--the suffering of
a righteous man; not of one made righteous
purified
by the discipline of
pain
but righteous prior to the assault of affliction. There is brought before
us a figure of piety and fame
public repute and private virtue. Then follows
the charge of selfishness
preferred by the accuser
and the Divine permission
that he be put to the test. The working out of this test
its effect upon him
and upon his friends
constitute the body of the drama. The theory of the
friends is this; in this life pain is proportioned to sin
and joy to
righteousness; suffering to transgression
and reward to innocence. It makes no
provision for a mystery of suffering; all pain
whilst it may be made to be
disciplinary or corrective in its consequence by being rightly used
and by learning
what it is fitted to teach
is yet
in its primary character
penal. When
therefore
you see suffering
you may be sure there has been sin. Job
indignantly repels this explanation of his sufferings. He touches the very
borders of blasphemy in his declarations of innocence
and his demands that the
Almighty should show why He causes him thus to suffer. As the argument
develops
the parties change places. The friends
at first calm
dispassionate
and even
from their standpoint
considerate and forbearing
deteriorate. They
lose temper in presence of what they deem to be Job’s obstinacy and sinful
determination not to admit his sins. Their theory is not broad enough to cover
all the facts of the case: this they feel
and naturally they become irritated
and irritable. The episode of Elihu may be passed by as not essential to the
development of the drams
. In a few sentences may be stated the position which
is assumed by the Divine voice. He ends the controversy
but not by explaining
the difficulties which had perplexed them all. He asks
Is it the Creator God
of this universe that man dares to arraign at his bar
and is it of Him that he
dares to demand a self-vindication? The true attitude of man ought to be one of
confidence in the God whose works proclaim Him to be infinitely great and wise.
Man is crushed out of the last semblance of self-complacency. The effect of
this self-manifestation by the Almighty
and of the revelation of what His own
real image is
strikes Job into nothingness. But whatever had been his faults
those of his friends had been deeper and deadlier. Their presumption had been
more than his. So the Almighty vindicates the sufferer
and condemns
though He
spares the mere theologians
who set their own orthodoxy as higher than His charity
and a human theory above a Divine sympathy. (G. M. Grant
B. D.)
In the land of Uz.
God’s servants in unfavourable surroundings
I. God hath His
servants in all places
in the worst places. There was never any air so bad but
that a servant of God might breathe in it. Here God had a choice piece
even in
the land of Uz
a place of profaneness; here was Bethel in Bethaven
a house of
God in a land of wickedness. Lot dwelt in Sodom
Joseph in Egypt.
II. It is a great
honour and a high commendation to be good
and do good amongst those that are
evil.
III. Grace will
preserve itself in the midst of the greatest opposition. It is such a fire as
no water can wholly quench or put out. True grace will keep itself sound and
clean among those who are leprous and unclean; it is such a thing as overcomes
all the evil that is about it. As all the water in the salt sea cannot make the
fish salt
but still the fish retains its freshness; so all the wickedness and
filthiness that is in the world cannot destroy
cannot defile true grace; that
will bear up its head
and hold up itself forever. (J. Caryl.)
Perfect and upright.--
The perfection of the saints
There is a two-fold perfection ascribed to the saints in this
life; a perfection of justification
a perfection of sanctification. The first
of these
in a strict sense
is a complete perfection. The saints are complete
in Christ
they are perfectly justified; there is not any sin left uncovered
nor any guilt left unwashed in the blood of Christ
not the least spot
but is
taken away. His garment is large enough to cover all our nakedness and
deformities. Then there is a perfection of holiness or of sanctification.
1. The saints even in this life have a perfect beginning of holiness
because they are begun to be sanctified in every part (1 Thessalonians 5:23). When the work
of sanctification is begun in all parts
it is a perfect work beginning.
2. They are likewise perfect in regard of their desires and
intendments. Perfect holiness is the aim of the saints on earth; it is the
reward of the saints in heaven. The thing which they drive at here
is
perfection
therefore they themselves are called perfect.
3. He was perfect comparatively
comparing him with those who were
either openly wicked or but openly holy; he was a man without spot
compared
with those that were either all over spotted with filthiness
or only painted
with godliness.
4. We may say the perfection here spoken of is the perfection of sincerity.
Job was sincere
he was sound at the heart. He did not act a part
or personate
religion
but was a religious person. He was not gilded
but gold. When Job
bought or sold
traded or bargained
promised or covenanted
he stood to all
uprightly. As a magistrate he gave to all their due. (J. Caryl.)
Grace the best of blessings
The first thing which God takes notice of is His grace.
I. Gracious habits
and spiritual blessings are the choicest of all blessings. If God has given a
man grace
he hath the best and the choicest of all that which God can give.
God hath given us His Son
and God hath given us His Spirit
and God hath given
us the graces of His Spirit; these are the finest of the flower
and the honey
out of the rock of mercy. Though you should not come to children
though you
should not come to the other part of the inventory
to sheep
and camels
and
oxen
and asses; if you are in the first part of the description
that you have
a perfect heart
and upright life
and the fear of God in your inward parts
and a holy turning against every evil
your lot is fallen in a fair place
and
you have a goodly heritage: they that have this
need not be discontented at
their own
nor envious at the condition of any other; they have the principal
verb
the one thing necessary.
II. Where one grace
is
there is every grace. Grace is laid into the soul in all the parts of it
and there is somewhat of every grace laid into the soul. We have not one man
one grace
and another man another grace; but every man hath every grace that
hath any grace at all. All grace goes together. Particularly
this man was
perfect. That is
he was sincere and plain hearted. Observe from hence--
1. It is sincerity that especially commends us unto God. As Job’s
graces are preferred in his description
before his riches
so sincerity is
preferred before all his other graces. Sincerity is that which makes us so
acceptable and pleasing unto God.
2. Sincere and sound-hearted persons are in God’s esteem perfect
persons. Truth of grace is our perfection here; in heaven we shall have
perfection as well as truth. Further
in that upon this perfectness and
plainness of heart
there is presently added uprightness:
Observe from thence--
1. Where the heart is sincere towards God
the ways are just and
honest before men.
2. It is a great honour and an ornament unto our profession of
godliness
to be just and upright in our dealings toward men. (J. Caryl.)
One that feared God.--
Holy fear
Here we have fearing God added to perfect and upright. Observe hence--
I. Moral integrity
and moral honesty
without the fear of God
can never render us acceptable unto
God. God delights in nothing we do
unless we do it in His fear. Not to wrong
man because we fear God
is an argument of more than man.
II. Holy fear
contains in it every grace we receive from God
and all the worship we tender
up to God. Fear containeth faith
and fear containeth love too.
III. Holy fear keeps
the heart and life clean. The fear of the Lord is clean (Psalms 19:1-14). Clean not only in
itself
formally clean
but effective: it makes clean
and keeps clean the
heart and life. Fear is an armed man at the gate
which examines all
and stops
everyone from entering that is unfit. It stands as a watchman on the tower
and
it looks every way
to see what is coming to the soul; if evil come
fear will
not admit it. (J. Caryl.)
And eschewed evil.--
Hatred of evil
1. Godly persons do not only forbear sin
but they abhor sin. They
have not only their hands bound from it
but they have their hearts set against
it.
2. A godly man’s opposition of sin is universal; it is against all
sin.
3. Godly persons do not only avoid the acts of evil
but all the
occasions of evil. (J. Caryl.)
The upright eschew all evil
If sin be evil
and displease God
and deserve damnation
he that
most fully and carefully avoideth it
is the honestest and the wisest man. You
will not blame your child or servant for being loath to offend and disobey you
even in the smallest matter. You like not him that offereth you the least
abuse
so well as him that offereth you none. You had rather be well than have
the least disease. You will not take a little poison
nor would you feel a
little of hell. Why then should we not avoid the least sin so far as we are
able? (R. Baxter.)
Revert sons and three
daughters.--
Children a blessing
There are some who account their children but bills of charges;
but God puts them upon the account of our mercies. (J. Caryl.)
His substance also was
seven thousand sheep.--
A great estate
A question may here be raised
Why the Holy Ghost spends so many
words
and is thus accurate in the setting forth of Job’s outward estate?
1. He is described to be a man of a very great estate
to the end
that the greatness of his affliction might appear afterward. The measure of a
loss is taken by the greatness of a man’s enjoyment. If a man have but little
his affliction cannot be great. After great enjoyments
want is greatest.
2. The greatness of his estate is set forth
that the greatness of
his patience might appear.
3. It was to give all the world a testimony that Job was a thorough
godly and holy man; that he was a man of extraordinary strength of grace. Why?
Because he held his integrity
and kept up his spirit in the way of holiness
notwithstanding he was lifted up with abundance of outward blessings. To be
very great
and very good
shows that a man is good indeed. Great and good
rich and holy
are happy conjunctions
and they are rare conjunctions. Usually
riches impoverish the soul
and the world eats out all care of heaven;
therefore Job was one of a thousand
being at once thus great in riches
and
thus rich in goodness. How often do riches cause forgetfulness of God
yea
kicking against God? How often are they made the bellows of pride
the fuel of
uncleanness
the instruments of revenge? How often do rich men contemn
despise
and oppress their weak and poor brethren? From the whole
take these
observations.
We see here Job a holy man
very full of riches: thence observe--
1. That riches are the good blessings of God. To hold and possess
great riches
is not evil; it is evil to set our hearts upon them.
2. Plain and honest dealing is no hindrance to the gaining or
preserving of an estate. Honest dealing is no stop
no bar to getting. The
nighest and the safest way to riches
is the way of justice. Woe to those
who
by getting riches
get a wound in their own consciences.
3. In that Job
a man fearing God
was thus rich
thus great; see
here the truth of the promises. God will make good His promise concerning
outward things to His people (1 Timothy 4:8).
4. Here is another observation from this place: Job was frequent in holy
duties; he was a man fearing God
he was much in the way of holy worship; he
did not serve God by fits
or at his leisure
but “continually”; yet he was
very rich. Time spent in holy duties is no loss
no hindrance to our ordinary
callings
or to our thriving in them. The time we spend in spiritual duties
is
time gained for secular. The time we spend in prayer
etc.
whets our tools
and oils our wheels
promotes all we go about
and getteth a blessing upon all.
(J. Caryl.)
And his sons went and feasted in their houses.
The family meeting and the family sacrifice
I. The festive
meeting. “And his sons went
” etc.
1. It was a united family. There were no schisms in that body. The
sons had all grown up
had their own houses
their own lands
and their own
flocks and herds. Yet Ephraim did not envy Judah
and Judah did not vex
Ephraim--without jealousies
without shyness
without any affected superiority
without mistrust. “Behold
how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity.” And what an evil thing it is where this unity is
wanting.
2. It was a social family. “And called for their three sisters to eat
and drink with them.” It is a noticeable feature of patriarchal life that great
respect was always paid to the home courtesies. We claim it as one of the
refining and beneficent results of Christianity that it has restored woman to
her social place and dignity. And
as compared with her lower position in an
immediately preceding age
no doubt it did. But the courtesies of the sisterly
relation have never been observed more sacredly than by the patriarchs
who
thus learned under the paternal roof the graceful attentions and refinements which
should the better befit them for married life. We open a deep spring of
elevating and softening influences when we establish among brothers and sisters
a systematic regard to domestic courteousness. A young man is sure to grow up a
churl--rude
half-humanised
unmannerly--who does not care to maintain a kindly
and affectionate bearing toward a sister at home.
3. It was a convivial family. “And his sons went and feasted in their
houses.” It was not then inconsistent with patriarchal manners to mark these
family gatherings by a feast. Abraham made a feast at the weaning of Isaac;
Isaac makes a feast to Abimelech and Pichol; and Laban made a feast on the
occasion of the marriage of Jacob. God has clearly made some things for the
service of man only
but He has as clearly made other things for his enjoyment
for his refreshment. The Psalmist tells us in one verse that the great Parent
“caused the grass to grow for the cattle
and the herb for the service of man
”
he tells us in the next verse that He causeth “wine that maketh glad the heart
of man
and oil to make him of a cheerful countenance.” Only in the abuse
consists the sin of these well-spread tables.
II. The family
sacrifice. The seven days’ feasting were past. “And it was so when the days of
their feasting were gone about
Job sent and sanctified them
” etc.
1. Job sent and sanctified his children; that is
bade them prepare
themselves for a sanctifying ordinance. The most ordinary exercises of devotion
are well preceded by a moment’s pause; it gives the soul time to attire itself
for the Divine presence chamber--an opportunity to shake off the dust from our
feet before approaching to speak with God upon the mount. The present was a
great family occasion in Job’s household. There were mercies to acknowledge
shortcomings to bewail
responsibilities to renew
lessons to sanctify. What
changes might pass over their domestic fortunes before the yearly feast came
round! That cloud
now no bigger than a man’s hand
what may it not grow to?
That sorrow
now lighting heavily on our neighbour
and on account of which we
dare not even utter to him the customary kind words of the season
how soon may
that sorrow be ours! God of the future
and of the unseen
and the unknown
how
should a devout parent desire to roll on Thee the burden of these
responsibilities! Avert them from our children and families we cannot
but if
like Job
we send and sanctify them
a year which is begun with prayer we may
hope to conclude with praise.
2. Observe
too
they were grown-up sons on account of whom Job
evinced solicitude. The fact may suggest whether in our day the filial and
parental relations are kept up long enough. It seems to be too much taken for
granted that the quitting of the home roof is the signal for the discharge of
the parental responsibilities. “And he rose up early in the morning and offered
burnt offerings.” Early in the morning
for this was a marked characteristic of
the devotions of men of old time. Abraham
David
and Job seem to have thought
that they who prevented the dawning of the day in their supplications would
carry away the best blessings. God sitteth between the cherubim
waiting for
prayer
and they who come first shall be heard first. “I love them that love
Me
and they that seek Me early shall find Me.” “And offered burnt offerings.”
How so
when as yet there was no written law
no order of priesthood
no
ordinance or sanctuary? The answer suggests how far back
and how universally
the day of Christ has been looked for. How much or how little Job understood of
the moral scope of these burnt offerings does not appear.
Two features of Job’s practical religion come out here.
1. In making an offering he measured the amount by the greatness of
his mercies.
2. His offerings were not thank offerings only
they were
intercessory
and in this view they mark the beautiful individuality of a pious
father’s prayers. (D. Moore
M. A.)
A merry Christmas
Our text gives us a very pleasing picture of Job’s family. He was
a happy man to have had so many children all comfortably settled in life; for
they all had houses
and each was able in turn to entertain the rest. Perhaps
the soberness of age disqualified him for joining in their feasting
but he
commended it
he did not condemn it.
I. The text
and
that is festive; so we will ring a merry bell. I distinctly hear three notes in
its merry peal.
1. It gives a licence to the righteous. They may meet together in
their houses to eat and drink
and to praise God. The Puritans tried to put
down the keeping of Christmas. God forbid that I should proclaim the
annihilation of any day of rest which falls to the lot of the labouring man.
Feasting is not a wrong thing. Job only feared lest a wrong thing should be
made out of a right thing. These young people met in good houses
and in good
company. Their feasting was a good thing
for it had a good intent; it was for
amity
for cheerfulness
for family union. And at the feasting there was good
behaviour. Good men of old have feasted. Abraham made a feast when his child
was weaned. Shall I tell of Samson and his feasts
or of David
or of Hezekiah
or of Josiah? Feasting was even an essential part of Divine worship under the
old law. There was the feast of trumpets
of tabernacles
of the passover
of
the new moons
etc. And our Saviour countenanced a feast
and even helped to
provide the guests for it. He was not Himself out of place at the wedding feast
at Cana. And God has provided in His world not only enough for man’s need
but
also abundance for man’s feasting.
2. It suggests a caution. Job said
“It may be.” Though they were
good sons
they may have “blessed God too little in their hearts.” They may not
have been grateful enough for their prosperity
and for the enjoyments God had
given them. This caution is necessary
because there is no place free from sin.
Wherever two meet together Satan is always a possible third. Because there is
many a special temptation where there is a loaded table. More men have perished
by fulness of bread than ever died by hunger. More have been drowned in the
bowl than ever were drowned at sea. Because they who sit at table are but men
and the best of men are but men at the best.
3. It provides a remedy. Job sent for his sons as a father; he
sanctified them as a preacher; he sacrificed for them as a priest. Our feasts
should be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
II. What is in the
text
and that is instructive; So we must ring the sermon bell. If Job found it
right with a holy jealousy to suspect lest his sons might have sinned
how much
more do you think he suspected himself. He who was so anxious to keep his
children clean was himself more anxious that he might always fear his God and
eschew evil. Then be careful
be watchful of yourself.
III. The text
that
is afflictive; here we ring the funeral bell. Calamity came while the children
were feasting. Between the table and the coffin there is but a step. Then do
nothing that you would not willingly die doing. Be today what you would wish to
be in eternity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The patriarch Job and his children
The feasts mentioned were probably birthday festivities. The pious
father
while he permitted these youthful festivities
knew the moral danger by
which they were attended. So once a year
when the round of feasts was
complete
he called the family together
and kept a feast unto the Lord. He
“sanctified” them
that is
on this occasion he specially set himself and his
children apart for God.
I. The danger to
which Job’s children were exposed: the danger of sinning.
1. Youth is an age of ignorance and inexperience. Life is new. They
have not proved its innumerable perils
its unfathomable deceits. They look at
life through the medium of their own frank and buoyant and hopeful feelings.
The more self-assured is the unthinking youth
the more likely he is to miss
the narrow path of obedience and truth
and fall into temptation and snare.
2. In the age of youth the passions of human nature are most
irregular and impetuous. Reason is too often dethroned
and lawless appetite
usurps her seat.
3. In the age of youth evil example exerts its most pernicious
influence. Man in all periods of his existence is an imitative creature
but
more particularly so in the days of youth.
4. In the period of youth the great destroyer of the peace
and of
the souls of men
is especially assiduous in his bad work.
5. This danger of sinning is never
perhaps
greater than on
occasions of festivity
when luxury and gaiety reign.
6. What aggravates the evil of sin is its tendency to increase
so
that a young sinner may go so far as to “curse God in his heart.” Dreadful as
such a sin is
it is that towards which all other sins lead.
II. The deep and
anxious concern of the patriarch lest his children should have fallen into this
evil. His expressions indicate great anxiety
tender and heartfelt
apprehension.
1. To sin against God must of necessity be a most odious and dreadful
thing.
2. The consequence of sin is misery. The parent whose heart is right
with God knows well that there is no calamity like the calamity of sin; no pang
like the pang of remorse.
3. Not greater is the misery than is the deep dishonour which sin
ensures.
III. The manner in
which Job sought to deprecate
on behalf of his children
the great evil of
sin. He had recourse to sacrifice--the only mode in which the guilt of sin can
be cancelled
and its punishment averted. The father who felt it his duty to
institute these solemn family atonements would accompany them with such
faithful admonitions
such affectionate counsel
and such religious
instructions
as the occasion would dictate
and as their wants required. Nor
would these annual sacrifices be unaccompanied with earnest prayers and
intercessions on behalf of his children. As parents we may plead in private for
our children. We may give parental instructions in our customary family
devotions. We may have
like this patriarch
special seasons of family
consecration.
IV. The effect
which the spirit and conduct of Job must have had upon the minds of his
children. They could not behold the pious concern which their father manifested
for their religious and eternal well-being; they could not behold the annual
solemnities
which he instituted for their sake
unmoved. We may charitably
hope that the effect upon them was beneficial; and that such a pious parent was
rewarded by the piety and obedience of the children. The holy anxiety
the
private and domestic intercessions
the kind and tender admonitions of pious
parents
constitute
for their children
one of heaven’s loudest calls.
Conclusion--To parents. Have you been sufficiently alive to the religious and
eternal interests of your posterity? Ought we not to look to God
who knows all
our need
for grace to fulfil
in a more effectual manner
the Christian
parent’s part? (J. Bromley.)
Religion presiding over hospitality and social enjoyment
Job’s domestic felicity seemed secured by the solemn
acknowledgment of the Divine authority with which it was accompanied
and by
that godly jealousy with which the patriarch regarded his children
for which
there was probably no more specific ground than the fatal tendency of human
nature
especially in the fulness of prosperity
to forget the obligations of
spiritual religion. At the close of their social meetings
he was wont to
assemble the whole family for sacred exercises; and in conformity with the
prescriptions of religion in that early period
to offer sacrifices for them
all
and to renew the dedication of them to Jehovah
accompanying these acts
with confession of sins and prayer for Divine grace. We do not know whether
in
reference to his children
the calamity did not bear a character of righteous
displeasure. The faith of Job would not have been fully tried if some doubt had
not existed on this point; if the apprehensions of parental solicitude had not
accompanied the sorrows of bereaved affliction. That social and convivial
meetings are
on some occasions
allowable and becoming
few will be disposed
to deny; nor can it
be supposed that religion
which prescribes mutual
benevolence and affection
should prohibit mutual enjoyment. The Scriptures
allude
with manifest approbation
to several occasions of festivity. In the
Christian Church
though no festivals are prescribed
except of a spiritual
kind
yet private hospitality
on suitable occasions
is abundantly commended.
It is the folly and weakness of man that plants his enjoyments with dangers and
snares
1. If you would act a Christian part in your social intercourse and
entertainments
it is manifest they must be conducted with such prudence and
moderation as to exclude the idea of extravagance
vanity
and excess. Under
the fair guise of hospitality
may not injustice sometimes be detected?
Sinister and dishonest views may sometimes prompt an expensive show of
hospitality
but perhaps a more ordinary motive is found in a principle of
worldly ambition. The parade of wealth is sometimes assumed as a means of
obtaining wealth. But no fortune
however ample
will justify a vain and
expensive conviviality
or vindicate either extravagance or excess.
2. Our social entertainments should be attended with corresponding
liberality to the poor. While the heart is expanded with the feelings of
kindness
and warmed with the communications of hospitality
we should take
care that the poor come in for a proportionate share of our fellow feeling
and
that our social enjoyments be accompanied with a more express attention to the
duties of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.
3. Your social intercourse
if you would please God in it
must be so
conducted as to be
not injurious
but subservient to the high ends Christians
should ever aim at--their personal improvement
and the glory of their Heavenly
Father. As a Christian should form no voluntary engagement on which it might
not be permitted to ask the blessing of God
so should he act so as to invite
this blessing. It becomes him who daily prays
“Lead us not into temptation
”
to guard against those circumstances that would endanger his integrity and
purity. (H. Gray
D. D.)
The banquet of Job’s children
Among the blessings of Job
his children are reckoned first. How
his children were affected we cannot define so well as of their father
because
the Holy Ghost saith nothing of them but that they banqueted
which doth sound
as though He noted a disparity between Job and his sons. So it seems that Job’s
sons were secure upon their father’s holiness
as many are upon their father’s
husbandry. We do not see by any circumstance of the story that the sons abused
their feasts. Their meetings tended to nourish amity. Why did God create more
things than we need
but to show that He alloweth us needful and comfortable
things? All the good things which were not created for need
were created for
delight. If feasts had been unlawful
Christ would not have been at the feast
in Cana. The story saith
“Job sent for his sons
and sanctified them
and
sacrificed for them.” In which words the Holy Ghost showeth the pattern of an
holy man and good father
which kept the rule that God gave to Abraham
to
“bring up his children in the fear of the Lord.” Job goeth to the remedy.
Albeit my children have not done their duties in all points
but offended in
their feastings
yet I am sure that God will have mercy upon them and upon me
if we ask Him forgiveness.
1. The cause which moved Job to sacrifice for his sons. “It may be
that my sons have blasphemed God in their hearts.” He was glad to see his
children agree so well together; but he would have them merry and not sin
and
therefore he puts them in mind every day while they feasted
to sanctify themselves.
Job thought with himself
It may be that my sons have committed some scape like
other men; I cannot tell
they are but men; and it is easy to slip when
occasion is ready
though they think not to offend. It is better to be fearful
than too secure. Blasphemy is properly in the mouth when a man speaks against
God
as Rabshakeh did; but Job had a further respect to blasphemy of the heart
counting every sinister affection of the heart as it were a kind of blasphemy
or petty treason. We may see this
that the best things may soon be corrupted
by the wickedness of men; such is our nature
ever since Adam. It is good for
man
so long as he liveth in this world
to remember still that he is amongst
temptations. We must look upon our riches as we look upon snares
and behold
our meats as we behold baits
and handle our pleasures as we handle bees
that
is
pick out the sting before we take the honey; for in God’s gifts Satan hid
his snares
and made God’s benefits his baits. One lesson Job’s action may
teach us
to prepare ourselves before we eat the communion; that is
to
sanctify ourselves and meats
as Christ did. We may also learn to suspect the
worst of the flesh
and to live in a kind of jealousy of ourselves. When thou
seest some selling in the shops
some tippling in the taverns
some playing in
theatres
then think of this with thyself: it is very like that these men
swallow many sins
for God is never so forgotten as in feasting and sporting
and bargaining; then turn to thy compassion
and pray for them
that God would
keep them from sin when temptation is at hand
and that He would not impute
their sin to their charge. (H. Smith.)
The village feast
One of the greatest hindrances that religion finds is the false
idea that it involves giving up all that makes life happy and enjoyable. We can
never set forth too clearly that such an idea is wrong and unscriptural. Sin is
the only thing to be given up; and in avoiding sin we do not cut off any part
of true happiness; we increase it
by getting what alone can make any heart
really happy--the joy and peace of a good conscience. Religion is not to make
us sombre
morose
and dull
but is able to fit us to join in the pleasures of
life
as those who
loving God most of all
are able also best to truly love
their fellow men. Job did not join his children
yet he allowed their
happiness. He was a wise man
and able to discern between youthful pleasures
and youthful lusts. The knowledge of their happiness in sinless pleasures made
him happy too. Yet notice how he acted. He helps them
and in the best way
possible. He remembers them before the throne of grace. He dedicates even their
feastings and joys by prayer and sacrifice to God. Fear filled the mind of Job
lest “his sons should sin
and curse God in their hearts”; lest feasting and
prosperity should cause them to forget God’s goodness. So it is specially on
their feast day that Job remembers them at the throne of grace. Have you thus
honoured God this morning
as the Giver of all good things? If not
learn a
lesson from the patriarch. (Rowland P. Hills
M. A.)
Counteractions of excitement
The apprehension thus expressed arose out of a deep knowledge of
human nature. The apprehension was lest a time of unusual excitement should
produce irreligious effects. In the case of Job the usual dangers of wealth and
prosperity were mitigated and counterbalanced to the greatest possible extent.
But now those dangers were on a particular occasion aggravated by the
temptations of excitement. The even tenor of life was interrupted by a season
of special festivity. The good
experienced man saw in this new risks and new
solicitations to evil. The text tells how he met these new dangers. Excitement
involves some such dangers as these--
1. A temptation to be more than commonly hasty and perfunctory in our
strictly religious duties. The flagging interest
more than the failing time
is the real danger for us.
2. The way in which the world at such times asserts its importance
and would persuade us of its alone reality. It is a difficult thing to live in
this world as if really expecting and belonging to another. That which is at
all times a difficult thing
becomes in times of special excitement a thing
impossible with man
a thing possible only in the strength of God.
3. Times of excitement are apt to be also selfish times. When once
our thoughts are more of pleasure than of duty
we must be selfish. We may be
selfish about duties; we are almost sure to be so about pleasures. When God is
forgotten
we may be almost sure it is self
and nothing better
that is
remembered.
4. Excitement is too often made an excuse for utter idleness. At such
times there is generally a considerable abatement made of your regular duties.
Often those which remain are less well done than ordinarily.
5. Times of excitement are generally discontented times. You see what
was the special fear of the good man spoken of in the text. “Cursed God in
their hearts.” The moment we separate ourselves from God
we become impatient
of Him.
6. Where such is the state of things within
there must be a
condition
in the simplest sense
of terrific danger. Consider now God’s
goodness to us in providing us with some special helps in times of special
difficulty. You see what the resource described in the text was. It is not much
that others can do for you in this matter. In the example here before us we
must see rather a type of the heavenly than of any human intercession. The
application of Christ’s one offering is still needed. At such times it is our
bounden duty to pray. It is well
too
that we should rather force ourselves to
an increased use of the means of grace than suffer that use to become more than
commonly slack and infrequent. Good men at such times have found it necessary
from time to time to set apart seasons for themselves of especial humiliation
and prayer. How anxious and how difficult a thing is the restoration of the
spiritual health! Then great reason have we to guard against its becoming
impaired. (C. J. Vaughan
D. D.)
The priest-like father
The father is the family priest. Job was an Arab chief. In
that Arabian home there was
what there ought to be in every British home
a
father who
as he sees his children about him
feels himself called to be a
consecrated priest unto God
a priest ordained by the laying on of hands
the
hands of his own little children.
1. The first
quality of a priest is sympathy. One who can “have
compassion
” because he knows life
and is able to sympathise. Sympathy means
being able to know exactly what are the feelings of other people. Job had
before him the question which comes to all parents
“How ought I to feel
towards young people who are thirsting for pleasures which I have long lost the
relish for?” Job’s children were fond of feasts and holidays
and it is clear
that their enjoyments caused him anxiety. He felt that there are times when
young life needs a very watchful eye. Youth has its special temptations. What
young life is really doing--its thoughts
its faults
its dangers--these are
things that a parent wants to know. The Christian father would sit within the
very soul of his child if he could
and keep the crooked serpent out of that
new Eden. Feeling the limit of his own power
the good man kneels and prays.
What he cannot do God can do.
2. A priest was a director. The education of a child is done by the
schoolmaster
but it is directed from the home. What is it that makes or mars
every life? It is personal character. This makes the man or woman
and it is
Christ that makes character. Here is the sphere for the priest-like father.
These young holiday-loving people in the land of Uz daily saw their model in
their own father. They lived under the shadow of a sublime example.
3. Above all
a priest is an intercessor. There is one Mediator
and
yet all are mediators. Every one is a bridge over which some benefit is
conveyed to his fellows. And the most sacred of mediators are father and
mother. On the priest-like father’s heart are engraved the names of the
household
for which he makes daily intercession. For these sacred home responsibilities
as for all other
the great preparation is the preparation of self. To give
ourselves to God is the chief thing out of which all good influences come. Let
us give ourselves to the habit of faithful prayer. The prayer and devotion of
God’s people ennobles and safeguards life. (Samuel Gregory.)
Job’s fears for his children
In the text there are two parts.
I. Job’s fear
or
jealousy
concerning his children. The persons suspected. His sons. His
daughters are mentioned
but Job’s care specially concerned the sons
as
responsible for the feast
and as more exposed to temptations of excess. But
perhaps sons means children
and includes them all. Look at Job as another man
than his children
and yet solicitous about them. Then we learn that a good and
gracious heart is troubled about other men’s miscarriages as well as his own.
The good man will try to restrain others by his admonitions; to expiate their
sins by his prayers; to bewail their sins in his reflections. So should we do
upon sundry considerations.
Consider Job in his relation as a father. His chief care was lest
his children should offend God at their meetings and feastings.
This was his fear
lest his children should offend
and trespass
against God. He was solicitous about the sins of his children. No doubt he had
been careful to instruct his children. But there is no trust to be given either
to good relationships
or good education
considered alone by themselves. See
the reasons and occasions for Job’s fears.
There are great temptations at such scenes: to gluttony
drunkenness
and intemperance; to strife
contentions
and brawlings; to
lascivious carriages and speeches; to atheism and forgetfulness of God. Satan
is usually vigilant to improve such opportunities.
II. The particular
matter of Job’s fear is
lest his children should “have cursed God in their
hearts.” It may mean have blest (the word is barak) God in their
hearts--that is
they may have sinned together with their blessing of God. This
is usual
and it proceeds from that hypocrisy which by nature rests in men’s
hearts; men are careful to have a good outside now and then
and to conform to
some outward duties of religion
because they carry some speciousness with
them
but the inward frame and disposition of spirit is little heeded or
regarded by them. The expression admits of such an interpretation as this:
though my sons have blest God in their hearts
they may have fallen into some
occasional and actual miscarriage. There are said to be sins of three sorts.
1. It is a thing very commendable in a Christian to repent of sin
even unknown.
2. It is the care of a gracious person
not only to take heed of
notorious sins
but also of the shadows and resemblances of it.
3. A good Christian has regard to his thoughts
as well as to his
words and actions.
4. A godly man is tender of passing hard censure upon the persons or
actions of other men. (T. Horton
D. D.)
On family worship
I. Considerations
which recommend family worship. With respect to the Deity
it is due to Him
and it is pleasant to Him. Man is to worship his Maker in all the capacities
and relations in which his Maker places him. As an individual
he offers to Him
his private devotions. Communities
as such
bring to Him in public worship
their gratitude and their prayers. And families living under the same roof
affected by the sins
interested in the wants
and blessed in the felicities of
each other
owe a family sacrifice to the God of mercy
and Giver of their
common safety and joys. Will it be said God has no need for such service? We
have every reason to believe that this duty is peculiarly pleasant and
acceptable to Him. It was from Abraham He resolved He would not hide anything
He would do
because He knew the patriarch
that he “would command his children
and his household after him
that they should keep the way of the Lord” (Genesis 18:19).
II. The effects of
family worship upon the families in which it is performed.
1. It is favourable to good order.
2. It is calculated to promote and preserve amity and kind offices in
the family.
3. And it brings the blessings of heaven. This duty will appear still
more important and beneficial
if we advert to its uses to the individuals of
whom families are generally composed.
4. Consider its influence upon the community as a whole. (Bishop
Dehon.)
Regard for children’s spiritual welfare
There is not a father or a mother among us to this day to
whom God has not often said
Hast thou
in this matter of thy children
considered My servant Job? No. We confess with pain and shame and guilt
concerning our children
that Job here condemns us to our face. But we feel
tonight greatly drawn
if it is not too late
to imitate Job henceforth in
behalf of our children. We have not wholly neglected them
nor the Great
Sacrifice in their behalf. But we have not remembered it and them together at
all with that regularity and point and perseverance and watchfulness that all
combined to make Job such a good father to his children
and such a good
servant to his God. But if our children are still about us
and if it is not
yet too late
we shall vow before God tonight that whilst they are still with
us we shall not again so forget them. When they set out to go to school we shall
look out of our windows after them
and we shall imagine and picture to
ourselves the life into which they must all enter and cannot escape. We shall
remember the streets and the playgrounds of our own schooldays
and the older
boys and their conversations. And we shall reflect that the games and sports
and talks of the playground will bring things out of our children’s hearts that
we never see nor hear at home. And then
when they come the length of taking
walking and cycling tours
and fishing and shooting expeditions; and
still
more
when they are invited out to eat and to drink and to dance
till they
must now have a latchkey of their own--by that time it is more than time we had
done with all our own late hours
and had taken ourselves to almost nothing in
this world but intercessory prayer. We shall not go with them to watch and to
judge over our children: but we shall not sleep till they have all come home
and shut the door to our hearing behind them. And we shall every such night
and in as many words
plead before God the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
for each
several one of our own and our neighbour’s children. (Alexander Whyte
D. D.)
Unconscious sin
Of course
we confess overt acts of sin
and also secret sins
directly we are aware of them. But our unconscious sins are vastly more
numerous than our conscious ones
just as the elevations beneath the ocean
waves are much more numerous than those which rear themselves above the
breakers as islets. For every one sin you know of
there are perhaps ten of
which you are ignorant.
1. Let us understand how unconscious sins come into existence. Old
habits assert themselves
in the heat of life
without our noticing them
as a
man may unconsciously give a nervous twitch. Besides
our sensibilities are
blunt
and permit sins to pass for want of knowing better
as a clerk in a bank
may pass a counterfeit banknote for want of longer experience. Moreover
our
standard is too low; we measure ourselves against our fellows
and not against
the requirements of God. Then
too
though we may resist temptation
we can
hardly do it without getting some stain.
2. Let us learn when unconscious sins are most to be dreaded. During
times of feasting and holiday. Because we then give less time to devotion.
Because we relax our self-watch. Because we are thrown into light and frivolous
company. Job was always anxious after such times
and said
“It may be.”
3. Let us see how to deal with unconscious sins. They are sins. They
will interrupt our communion. They will work a deadly injury to our spiritual
life; for hidden disease is even more perilous than that which shows itself.
They must be brought beneath the cleansing blood of Jesus. We need to ask many
times each day
Lord Jesus
keep me cleansed from all conscious and unconscious
sin. (F. B. Meyer
B. A.)
Moderate recreation lawful
1. It doth well become godly parents to give their children leave to
take moderate refreshing and recreation one with another.
2. Parents must not cast off the care of their children
though they
are grown up
though they are men and women.
3. Children that are grown up
or have houses and families of their
own
ought yet to yield all reverence and submission to the lawful commands
counsels
and directions of their parents. Do you think you have outgrown
obedience and honour to parents
when you are grown in years?
4. A parent’s main and special care should be for the souls of his
children. The care of many parents is only to enrich their children
to make
them great and honourable
to leave them full portions and estates
to provide
matches for them; but for sanctifying their children
there is no thought of
that.
5. He that is a holy person himself desires to make others holy too.
Holy Job would have all his children holy.
6. The good which others do by our advice and counsel
is reckoned as
done by ourselves. While we provoke others to goodness
that good which they do
is set upon our account as if we had done it.
7. Holy duties call for holy preparation. Oh
come not to the
sacrifice except you be sanctified! (J. Caryl.)
The early morning the best praying time
1. That it is God’s due and our duty to dedicate the morning
the
first and best of every day
unto God (Psalms 5:3). We have a saying among us
the morning is a friend to the Muses: that is
the morning is a good studying
time. I am sure it is as true that the morning is a great friend to the Graces;
the morning is the best praying time.
2. That it is not safe for any to let sin lie a moment unrepented of
or unpardoned upon their own consciences or the consciences of others. If a
man’s house be on fire
he will not only rise in the morning
or early in the
morning
but he will rise at midnight to quench it. (J. Caryl.)
Parental solicitude
1. That everyone is saved and pardoned by the special and particular
actings of his own faith: every soul must believe for itself. Everyone must
have a sacrifice.
2. That it is not enough for parents to pray in general for their
children
but they ought to pray particularly for them. As parents who have
many children provide portions according to the number of them all; and in the
family they provide meat and clothing according to the particular number of
them all: so likewise they ought to be at a proportionable expense in
spirituals
to lay out and lay up prayers and intercessions
“according to the
number of them all”; not only to pray in general
that God would bless their
children and family
but even to set them one by one before God. The souls of
the best
of the purest
though they do not rake in the dunghill
and wallow in
the mire of sin
basely and filthily
yet they do from day to day
yea from
moment to moment
contract some filth and uncleanness. Every man hath a
fountain of uncleanness in him; and there will be ever some sin bubbling and
boiling up
if not flowing forth.
3. A suspicion that we ourselves or others have sinned against God
is ground enough for us to seek a reconcilement for ourselves or others with
God. If you that are tender parents have but a suspicion--if there be but an
“It may be”--that your child hath the plague or taken the infection
will it
not be ground enough for you to go presently and give your child a good
medicine? And if Job prayed thus
when he only suspected his sons had sinned
what shall we say of those parents who are little troubled when they see and
know their sons have sinned? It is safest to repent even of those sins we only
fear we have committed. A scrupulous conscience grieves for what it suspects.
4. That we may quickly offend and break the law
while we are about
things in their own nature lawful
especially in feasting. It is an easy matter
to sin
while the thing you are about is not sinful; nay
while the thing you
are about is holy. Lawful things are oftentimes the occasion of unlawful. (J.
Caryl.)
Now there was a day.
A fatal day
1. That Satan observeth and
watcheth his time to fasten his temptations most strongly upon the soul. He
watcheth a day
“there was a day
” and there was not a day in the whole year
upon which he could have done it with greater advantage than upon that day. As
the mercies of God are exceedingly endeared to us by the season in which they
come to us: When they come to us in our special need
how sweet is a mercy
then! And as our sins are exceedingly aggravated
by the session and time
wherein they are committed: What
sin upon this day? A day of trouble
a day of
humiliation? So likewise the temptations of Satan and the afflictions which he
brings upon the servants of God
are exceedingly embittered by the season; and
he knows well enough what seasons will make them most bitter. And what can more
imbitter a cup of sorrow than to have it brought us upon a day of rejoicing? If
joy be troublesome in our sorrows
how troublesome is sorrow in the midst of
our joys (Proverbs 25:20). Then Satan could never
have found out such a time as this. Must he needs be afflicting the father when
the children were a feasting? Could he find out no other time but this? blast
his tears be mingled with their wine? Must the children’s rejoicing day be the
father’s mourning day? Must Satan needs show his malice against the father
when the children were shewing their love one to another? Let us observe
then
this mixture of malice and cunning in Satan
in choosing his time. To carry a
man from one extremity to another
puts him upon the greatest extremity: To
make the day of a man’s greatest rejoicing to be the day of his deepest
sorrows
this is cutting
if not killing sorrow. It were well if we could be
wise in this respect to imitate Satan
to choose out our day to do good when
there is greatest probability of success
as he chose out his day to do
mischief.
2. That the fairest and
clearest day of our onward comfort may be clouded and overcast before the
evening. (J. Caryl.)
And Satan came also among
them.--
The Satan
In contrast to the Almighty we have the figure of the adversary
or Satan
depicted with sufficient clearness
notably coherent
representing a
phase of being not imaginary but actual. He is not
as the Satan of later times
came to be
the head of a kingdom peopled with evil spirits
a nether world
separated from the abode of the heavenly angels by a broad
impassable gulf. He
has no distinctive hideousness
nor is he painted as in any sense independent
although the evil bent of his nature is made plain
and he ventures to dispute
the judgment of the Most High. This conception of the adversary need not be set
in opposition to those which afterwards appear in Scripture as if truth must be
entirely there or here. But we cannot help contrasting the Satan of the Book of
Job with the grotesque
gigantic
awful
and despicable fallen angels of the
world’s poetry. Not that the mark of genius is wanting in these; but they
reflect the powers of this world
and the accompaniments of malignant human
despotism. The author of Job
on the contrary
moved little by earthly state or
grandeur
whether good or evil
solely occupied with the Divine sovereignty
never dreams of one who could maintain the slightest shadow of authority in
opposition to God. He cannot trifle with his idea of the Almighty in the way of
representing a rival to Him; nor can he degrade a subject so serious as that of
human faith and well-being by painting with any touch of levity a superhuman
adversary of men . . . Evidently we have here a personification Of the
doubting
misbelieving
misreading spirit which
in our day
we limit to men
and call pessimism. (Robert A. Watson
D. D.)
Satan among the angels
This scene is not less perplexing than startling. Satan is beheld
in some way among the angels of God. There is another parallel striking
illustration of the dominion God holds
and of His mode of administration over
the world of moral causes and evil consequences
in 1 Kings 22:19-22.
I. Can we in any way realise
the scene? We may conceive the bright beings--Gabriel
Raphael
Michael
Uriel
“circling the throne
” rejoicing each with his hymn of praise
reporting his
work of love. These are the “chariots of the Lord”; these are they which “do
His commandments”; they have each performed his own work
for the Bible beholds
all the work of creation and providence carried on
not by dead laws
not eves
by operating living principles--life stands behind all matter
using it as a
veil or as a vehicle. “I
” might Raphael say
“directed the rolling planets
I
stood by the axis of the young firmament
I heard the stars sing together
and
I stand in Thy presence to report my obedience
and to bless Thee. And I
might
Uriel say
have confirmed the doubting
I have steadied the steps of the
straying; I passed by the couch of the dying
and I consoled.” “And I
” might
Gabriel have said
“have prepared the earth for Thy approach; I have winnowed
the winds and have diffused the light; and I have put thoughts into the hearts
of men; and at Thy command I have broken up solitudes; I have set the solitary
in families
and where I have gathered them into companies I have heard their
songs to Thee; and I have come into Thy presence to report my obedience and to
bless Thee.” And then there was seen a shadow
and it fell across the gold of
the throne
and while it dropped from the seraph’s wing
it spread itself out
even over the pavement of light; and when the voice from the central
blessedness piercingly inquired
“Whence comest thou?” it was in a tone
altogether unlike that of the other angels
the shadow rejoined
“From going to
and fro in the earth
and from walking up and down in it.” And all this
transaction
so suggestively given
I conceive still; I drop the more lofty
conceptions of the book--I conceive the sons of God
each with his hymn and his
work. I see the merchant who
the balances of trade in his hands
feels how
much selfishness has still been
if not the main intention
still present--yet
he goes and presents himself before the Lord. “Thou
” he says
“hast given all;
behold my obedience; behold my contrition; behold me
and bless me.” Or the
schoolmaster
or the minister
“I also am an angel or a messenger of Thine; my
strength is from Thee
the light I bear is a candle kindled by Thee; I bring
Thee my obedience
I have wrought for Thee
behold me
and bless me.” And then
you can conceive one to whom all this is only a fitting subject for caricature
as you see all reality is
all enthusiasm is. Do you not see that which exposes
itself most always as the weak side
is ever the strongest side of a character?
So the jaunty sneerer comes; some cynical Horace Walpole or sardonic Voltaire
and
“Ah
” says he
“I have been looking at all these things
mocking--that is
my way
not mending--‘I have been going to and fro in the earth
and walking up
and down in it.’“
II. Here
then
we have next
the scriptural idea of Satan. Of course you will often have heard the passage I
have read
spoken of as conveying a poetic description
that it is merely a
highly sublime personification. Be that as it may
the doctrine of the text
affirms the personality of Satan. The Holy Scriptures sketch the character of
the Evil One; but they never permit us to hesitate as to the fact of his
personality. He exists
not as an abstract idea
not as a blind force
not
either as a mere quality
or the absence or negation of qualities in bodies or
in persons. Elevate your conceptions to what is the ground of personality
what
constitutes its difference from a mere thing. Personality is consciousness; it
consciously works out its own character
and its powers are all collected and
resolved in will. Now Scripture teaches us that such a being there is
immediately evil
and living only in and for evil. He is not merely a necessity
in things; at any rate this is not the account of his origin; and it would be
impossible to believe this without impeaching the infinite character
the
unity
and goodness of God. Satan is positive
personal
although not absolute
evil. The response of the Evil One to his Almighty Questioner distinctly
expresses--
1. Indifference. Indeed
the
attributes of his personality are riveted and closely interlocked together; the
one emanates from the other
“going to and fro in the earth
and walking up and
down in it.” This is the end
the passionless end of Ms
character--indifference
the absence of all reality
contempt for all
enthusiasm
contempt for all sentiment
studious repression of all that might
be divine instinct
or delight in the works of the great God--such is Satan.
What Satan is
you may detect in many a character
in many an essay
in which
you are reminded how Satan comes among people still
“going to and fro in the
earth
and walking up and down in it.” See a man who has lost his sense of
wonder
who boasts that nothing can take him by surprise
who has been living
so fast you cannot overtake him by any sentiments or ideas that are noble--not
the delicacy of a flower
not the calm
upheaving grandeur of the mountain
no
holy life
no noble book
no spectacle of a stirring and absorbing passion; he
goes to and fro in the earth
and sees nothing; his eyeglass sees us much as he
sees. Look at that hard man who prides himself on seeing what men are
and using
them; priding himself
too
that nobody ever did know him
that nobody ever did
read him--he is “going to and fro in the earth
and walking up and down in it.”
Or the selfish manufacturer or merchant
who simply wrought for his own gains
like a buccaneer or Choctaw
who has prowled over society to find among men
cogs for his machine
bricks for his mill
and to whom men anywhere are only as
so many stones in the wall. And just as all these are manifestations of
personality
so I conceive a vast and extended personality in that amazing
conscienceless being
who seems to wrap this world round like a cold and
dreadful mist
or withering blight and shade--Satan.
2. There is another
attribute
although
certainly
the first is very greatly the result of this
second--it is Unbelief. In the instance before us it assumes a shape we often
notice now
manifests itself in disbelief in man. “Doth Job serve God for
nought?” This
then
is a marked attribute of Satan--disbelief in God too; for
to believe in God is not merely to apprehend His being and His absolute power.
3. Another characteristic is
brought out as an attribute of Satan in this singular and ancient
scene--Cruelty. I cannot but notice how most assuredly there is involved in it
the immediate connection of Satan with
and his influence over
material
interests and things; lightning and storm
disease and death
are shown here to
be certainly related to him. It seems to me eminently reasonable
that in
Scripture the universe is represented as governed by life. I know I shall be
told of “forces” and “laws
” and I reply
I have looked at these things
and
attempted a little to apprehend these things
and I believe in them. In any
case
as we cannot account for the benevolent and general scheme of nature
without one blessed and infinite over-ruling Presence
so it seems impossible
to conceive the strangely ruptured condition of things without referring them
back to some central agency of evil and sin.
4. Another characteristic
feature brought out in the text is Limitation. While evil and Satan exist
they
are conditioned by the sovereignty of God; God rules over evil in all its
personalities and forms. Satan and the angels alike come into the presence of
God. The faith of our fathers
indeed
was
that the devil was on the earth
having great power. It would provoke a smile on some lips to think of the real
way in which they were wont to wrestle with the devil. I hear of nobody who
places much faith in his power to injure us; we never pray as if he were by us
in terrible might. Coldly our prayers ascend to God
as if He were not; and for
the great Adversary
it is as if he were really dead. How different was Luther
and his great foe
Duke George
for instance. “All the Duke Georges in the
universe
” said he
“are not equal to a single devil
and I do not fear the
devil.” The mighty-hearted Luther kept the battle heating in a constant
tempest. You have read and know well his Table Talk
his life--that
invisible world
how present to him! With Luther it was
then
evidently no
sham fight
but a fearful hand-to-hand conflict; and all his praying and
speaking most evidently went upon the principle
not only of a real belief in
the power of darkness
but of his power also
by hearty prayer and faith in
Christ
to rout and scatter it. And I
why do I venture to set before you this
doctrine
as I believe it is
of Holy Scripture? Very greatly because I feel
that we live in an age which is dangerously loosening its hold of great
spiritual personalities. I cannot
indeed
form a very clear conception of
attributes
excepting as they are embodied in persons. I can speak of theft
and I can define theft
but I cannot separate it from the action of a person;
and I can speak of holiness
and define holiness
but it is nothing to me unless
it is embodied in a person. We are in great danger of using fine-sounding
epithets about God
and even about man
and losing the sense of personal
relation. So to many who even profess and call themselves Christians
God is
the sum total of the forces of the universe
the soul is a mode of matter
and
Satan is a term for the empirical
partial
and evil drift of things
which in
the course of ages may possibly sink into the tidal force of good
and so cease
to be the necessity it looks at present. Manifestly the whole consequence of
such negations is to annihilate responsibility
and to destroy the cheerful
radiant freedom of the human soul everywhere. The personality of Satan stands
over against the personality of God; limited
indeed
only permitted
and
doomed by His sovereignty. Strangely
indeed
must Scripture have surrendered
its intention
if its purpose is not to produce in us hatred and fear towards
some tremendous ubiquitous person constantly seeking to have power over us--a
malignant will
a power and an element in the universe
in the world
in the
human heart--a power not of God
not good
adverse and hateful to God and
goodness. (E. P. Hood.)
Satan
We have here a highly figurative representation of the Eternal and
His spiritual kingdom. And a remarkable meeting of the great God and some of
His intelligent creatures. The passage teaches concerning Satan--
I. That he has a personal
existence. Acting as a person
he “goes to and fro in the earth.”
1. The personality of his
existence is suggested by reason.
2. The personality of his
existence is confirmed by human history. It is almost impossible to account for
the absurdities which men entertain
and the enormities which they perpetrate
without going up to some foul spirit who blinds the eyes and flames the
passions of men.
3. The personality of his
existence is declared in the Bible (Matthew 4:3; John 8:44; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Thessalonians 3:5; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6; Revelation 12:10
etc.). He is called by
different names
Satan
Devil
Old Serpent
Prince of the Power of the Air
Beelzebub
Dragon
etc.
II. He is an intruder into the
sacred (1 Kings 22:19-23; Matthew 4:3). Wherever the sons of
the Almighty assemble
Satan is amongst them; he is there to bias the
intellect
and to pollute the feelings.
III. He is amenable to the
eternal. Jehovah asks him concerning his movements
and concerning his
opinions.
IV. He is a vagrant in the
universe. Going to and fro implies--
1. Homelessness.
2. Zealousness.
V. He is a slanderer of the
good. He slanders man to God
and he slanders God to man. He is diabolus
breaking the harmony of God’s moral universe by slander.
VI. He is a slave of the
infinite. He can only act by permission. God uses him as His instrument. (Homilist.)
Temptation
Temptation is the precursor of sin. There is a great
tendency to forget the real nature of Satan; that he is a distinct being
governed by the same laws of motion and influence over matter by which other
spiritual bodies are governed. Every strong impulse of evil is a direct
assault
and indicates a personal appearance of the tempter
as decidedly as
would the approach of any earthly assailant be marked by visible signs. Satan
has a distinct personality and individuality
veiled only from us by the mist
of our bodily being. There is a floating impression in men’s minds that evil is
simply a principle inherent in themselves
of no very definite shape
and
scarcely forming itself into a clear principle at all. We ought to be able to
separate in our minds between the distinct and violent assaults of the tempter
and those slighter suggestions of evil which are the frequent movements of our
own corrupt heart. A clear distinction between external assault and internal
suggestion will go far to chase those doubts and apprehensions away
and tend
to give health and vigour to the soul and conscience. Another benefit will
arise from the ideas and pictures this idea of the personality of Satan will
raise to the mind in the contest with evil. It reduces the conflict to a
definite period
and a number of definite acts. The more real we make our
struggle with evil the better. In our bodily condition it is easier to resist a
person than an abstraction. We can more easily kindle within ourselves feelings
of indignation
desire of superiority
and the like
when we realise personality
in our foe. (E. Monte.)
Satanic temptation
1. That there is no place in
the world that can secure a man from temptation
or be a sanctuary from Satan’s
assaults. Cloisters are as open to Satan as the open field.
2. We may note here the
wonderful diligence of Satan.
3. That Satan is confined in
his business to the earth. (J. Caryl.)
Satan deserves his name
Many have their names for nought
because they do nothing for
them; like Laban’s images
which were called gods
though they were but blocks;
but the devil deserves his names. He is not called a tempter
a liar
a
slanderer
and an accuser
and a deceiver
and a murderer
and a compasser in
vain; like St. George
which is always on horseback
and never rides; but he
would do more than by his office he is bound to. Others are called officers
because they have an office; but he is called an enemy because he shows his
envy. Others are called justicers because they should do justice; but he is
called a tempter because he practiseth temptation. Others are called pastors
because they should feed; but he is called a devourer because he doth devour;
and we call him a compasser because he doth compass. (Henry Smith.)
Satanic excursions
Another route that Satan on his active travels is exceedingly apt
to take is for the despoiling of souls. It does not pay him merely to destroy
the bodies of men and women. Those bodies would soon be gone anyhow; but great
treasures are involved in this Satanic excursion. On this route he meets a man
who is aroused by something he has seen in the Bible
and Satan says
“Now I
can settle that for you: the Bible is an imposition; it has been deluding the
world for centuries; do not let it delude you. It has no more authority than
the Koran of the Mohammedan
or the Shaster of the Hindoo
or the Zend-Avesta
of the Parsee.” He meets another man who is hastening towards the Kingdom of
God
and says: “Why all this precipitation? Religion is right
but any time
within the next ten years will be soon enough for you. A man with a stout chest
like yours
and such muscular development
must not be bothering himself about
the next world.” Satan meets another man who has gone through a long course of
profligacy
and is beginning to pray for forgiveness
and Satan says to the
man: “You are too late; the Lord will not help such a wretch as you; you might
as well brace up and fight your own way through.” And so with a spite and an
acuteness and a velocity that have been gaining for six thousand yours
he
ranges up and down
baffling
disappointing
defeating
afflicting
destroying
the human race. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Satan compassing the earth
Compassing here doth signify tempting
and the “earth” doth
signify all the people of the earth; as if he should say
“I come from tempting
all men.” As Satan is here called a “compasser
” so he will compass your eyes
with shows
and your ears with sounds
and your senses with sleep
and your
thoughts with fancies
and all to hinder you from hearing while the articles
are against him; and after I have spoken
he will compass you again with
business
and cares
and pleasures
and quarrels
to make you forget that which
you have heard. Therefore “take heed how ye hear.” Satan is an adversary
compassing the earth; and therefore let the earth beware
like a city which is
besieged with the adversaries. Three things I note wherefore the devil may be
said to compass the earth.
1. Because he tempteth all
men.
2. Because he tempteth all to
sin; and
3. Because he tempteth by all
means.
What doth he compass? “The earth.” This is the devil’s pilgrimage
from one end of the earth to the other
and then back again; like a wandering
merchant which seeketh his traffic where he can speed cheapest. First of all
creatures
Satan compasseth men; he compasseth all men
and he compasseth good
men. If then the devil be such a busy-body
which meddleth in every man’s
matter
let us remember what the wise man saith
“A busy-body is hated”; the
devil is to be hated because he is a busy-body. As the serpent compasseth
so
doth his seed; and therefore Solomon calls the ways of the wicked crooked ways.
(H. Smith.)
My servant Job (verses 8
11; and Job 40:4).
A three-fold estimate of a good man’s character
I. Job’s character as
estimated by God. God regarded the character of Job. He estimated Job as
“perfect.” Every part of his character contained the germ of completeness. He
estimated Job as “upright.” His life was parallel with the commandments of
heaven
and the precepts of truth. Job recognised carefully his domestic
responsibilities. This perfection is alleged of human nature
“an upright man.”
Note the blessedness of this character.
II. Job’s character estimated
by Satan. The Satanic test of character must he viewed in a two-fold aspect.
III. Job’s character estimated
by himself.
1. He designates himself
“vile.” True
his sorrows may have had a depressing effect upon him
and
continued suffering have brought him under the influence of gloomy views.
Perhaps he had circumstances as an index of his heart life
thinking that his
trials were the infliction of wrath
rather than the chidings of love. However
it is evident that reverent humility was a great element in his piety. He had
such lofty conceptions of God
His purity and justice
that
in remembrance of
such an ideal of life
his own paled into absolute imperfection.
2. Job calls attention to his
vileness.--“Behold!” This is somewhat unusual
as people try to conceal the
miserable rottenness of their lives
either by a mock modesty or daring
pretension.
3. Job takes the blame of his
vileness--“I am vile.” He does not make his assumed pollution the result of
original depravity; he does not attribute it to the despotism of circumstances
to the evil tendency of education
and the impurity of society. No; without
palliation or excuse
he renders himself culpable. Ought we not to be shamed
into honesty by the plain
bold confession of this good man? Job could afford
to consider himself vile
when God thought him perfect. (Joseph S. Exell
M.
A.)
God’s servant
1. That Satan’s main
temptations
his strongest batteries are planted against the most eminent godly
persons. Here God calleth Job His servant. And He calleth him so--
(a) By election.
(b) They are God’s servants by
the right of purchase.
2. It is a man’s honour to be
God’s servant
and God thinks Himself honoured by the service of man. When God
speaks of His people by name
it noteth two things in Scripture.
3. That God doth take care of
His elect children and servants in a special manner above all other men in the
world. (J. Caryl.)
God’s testimony to the good
I. That God hath servants of
all statures and degrees. All His servants come not to the like pitch
to the
like height; here is one that is beyond them all
“My servant” Job--not a man
like him upon the earth.
II. We ought not to set up our
rest in low degrees of grace; or content ourselves to be like others in grace.
Then see the character that God giveth of Job
A perfect and upright man
one
that feareth God and escheweth evil.
1. God hath a perfect
character of every soul. He knoweth fully and clearly what the tempers of your
hearts and spirits are.
2. God will give to every man
a testimony according to his utmost worth. God will not conceal any of your
graces
or obscure your goodness
He will make it known to the world to the
full
what you are. It is good for us to have our letters testimonial from God
to have our letters commendatory from heaven. It is not what a man saith in his
own heart
what he flattereth himself: it is not what your neighbours or others
flatter you
and say of you
but what God saith of you
what testimony He
giveth of you. (J. Caryl.)
Sin eschewed
If I say to a person
“I will not receive you into my house when
you come dressed in such a coat”; and I open the door to him when he has on
another suit which is more respectable
it is evident that my objection was not
to the person
but to his clothes. If a man will not cheat when the transaction
is open to the world
but will do so in a more secret way
or in a kind of
adulteration which is winked at in the trade
the man does not hate cheating
he only hates that kind of it which is sure to be found out; he likes the thing
itself very well. Some sinners
they say
hate sin. Not at all
sin in its
essence is pleasing enough; it is only the glaring shape of it which they
dislike. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Satan considering the saints
How very uncertain are all terrestrial things! How foolish would
that believer be who should lay up his treasure anywhere
except in heaven!
Job’s prosperity promised as much stability as anything can do beneath the
moon. He had accumulated wealth of a kind which does not suddenly depreciate in
value. Up there
beyond the clouds
where no human eye could see
there was a
scene enacted which augured no good to Job’s prosperity. The spirit of evil
stood face to face with the infinite Spirit of all good. An extraordinary
conversation took place between these two beings.
I. In what sense may Satan be
said to consider the people of God? Certainly not in the usual Biblical meaning
of the term “consider.” O Lord
consider my trouble. Consider my meditation.
Blessed is he that considereth the poor.” Such consideration implies goodwill
and a careful inspection of the object of benevolence with regard to a wise
distribution of favour. In that sense Satan never considers any. If he has any
benevolence
it must be towards himself; but all his considerations of other
creatures are of the most malevolent kind. No meteoric flash of good flits
across the black midnight of his soul. Nor does he consider us as we are told
to consider the works of God
that is
in order to derive instruction as to
God’s wisdom and love and kindness. He does not honour God by what he sees in
His works
or in His people.
1. The consideration which
Satan pays to God’s saints is upon this wise. He regards them with wonder
when
he considers the difference between them and himself. A traitor
when he knows
the thorough villainy and the blackness of his own heart
cannot help being
astounded when he is forced to believe another man to be faithful. What grace
is it which keeps these? I was a vessel of gold
and yet I was broken; these
are earthen vessels
but I cannot break them! It may be that he also wonders at
their happiness. He feels within himself a seething sea of misery. He admires
and hates the peace which reigns in the believer’s soul.
2. Do you not think that he
considers them to detect
if possible
any flaw and fault in them
by way of
solace to himself? He considers our sinful flesh
and makes it one of the books
in which he diligently reads. One of the fairest prospects
I doubt not
which
the devil’s eye ever rests upon is the inconsistency and the impurity which he
can discover in the true child of God. In this respect he had very little to
consider in God’s true servant
Job.
3. We doubt not that he views
the Lord’s people
and especially the more eminent and excellent among them
as
the great barriers to the progress of his kingdom; and just as the engineer
endeavouring to make a railway
keeps his eye very much fixed upon the hills
and rivers
and especially upon the great mountain through which it will take
years laboriously to bore a tunnel
so Satan
in looking upon his various plans
to carry on his dominion in the world
considers most such men as Job. He is
sure to consider God’s servant
if there be “none like him
” if he stand out
distinct and separate from his fellows. Those of us who are called to the work
of the ministry must expect from our position to be the special objects of his
consideration. If you are more generous than other saints
if you live nearer
to God than others
as the birds peck most at the ripest fruit
so may you
expect Satan to be most busy against you. Who cares to contend for a province
covered with stones and barren rocks
and ice bound by frozen seas? But in all
times there is sure to be a contention after the fat valleys where the
wheat-sheaves are plenteous
and where the husbandman’s toil is well requited
and thus
for you who honour God most
Satan will struggle very sternly. He
wants to pluck God’s jewels from His crown
if he can
and take the Redeemer’s
precious stones even from the breastplate itself.
4. It needs not much wisdom
to discern that the great object of Satan in considering God’s people is to do
them injury. Where he cannot destroy
there is no doubt that Satan’s object is
to worry. He does not like to see God’s people happy.
5. Moreover
if Satan cannot
destroy a Christian
how often has he spoilt his usefulness! How is it that God
permits this constant and malevolent consideration of His people by the evil
one? One answer
doubtless
is
that God knows what is for His own glory
and
that He giveth no account of His matters; that
having permitted free agency
and having allowed
for some mysterious reason
the existence of evil
it does
not seem agreeable with His having done so to destroy Satan; but He gives him
power
that it may be a fair hand-to-hand fight between sin and holiness
between grace and craftiness. Besides
be it remembered
that incidentally the
temptations of Satan are of service to the people of God. An experimental
divine remarks
that there is no temptation in the world which is so bad as not
being tempted at all; for to be tempted will tend to keep us awake--whereas
being without temptation
flesh and blood are weak: and though the spirit may
be willing
yet we may be found falling into slumber. Children do not run away
from their father’s side when big dogs bark at them.
II. What is it that Satan
considers with a view to the injury of God’s people? It cannot be said of him
as of God
that he knoweth us altogether; but since he has been now nearly six
thousand years dealing with poor fallen humanity
he must have acquired a very
vast experience in that time
and having been all over the earth
and having
tempted the highest and the lowest
he must know exceedingly well what the
springs of human action are
and how to play upon them.
1. Satan watches and
considers
first of all
our peculiar infirmities. He looks us up and down
just as I have seen a horse dealer do with a horse; and soon finds out wherein
we are faulty. Satan knows how to look at us and reckon us up from heel to
head
so that he will say of this man
“His infirmity is lust
” or of that
other
“He hath a quick temper
” or of this other
“He is proud
” or of that
other
“He is slothful.”
2. He takes care also to
consider our frames and states of mind. If the devil would attack us when our
minds are in certain moods
we should be more than a match for him: he knows
this
and shuns the encounter. Some men are more ready for temptation when they
are distressed and desponding; the fiend will then assail them. Others will be
more liable to take fire when they are jubilant and full of joy; then will he
strike his spark into the tinder. As the worker in metals knows that one metal
is to be worked at such a heat
and another at a different temperature; as
those who have to deal with chemicals know that at a certain heat one fluid will
boil
while another reaches the boiling point much earlier
so Satan knows
exactly the temperature at which to work us to his purpose. Small pots boil
directly they are put on the fire
and so little men of quick temper are soon
in a passion; larger vessels require more time and coal before they will boil
but when they do boil
it is a boil indeed
not soon forgotten or abated.
3. He also takes care to
consider our position among men. There are a few persons who are most easily
tempted when they are alone--they are the subjects then of great heaviness of
mind
and they may be driven to most awful crimes; perhaps the most of us are
more liable to sin when we are in company. In some company I never should be
led into sin; into another society I could scarcely venture.
4. How
too
will he consider
our condition in the world! He looks at one man
and says
“That man has
property--it is of no use my trying such-and-such arts with him; but here is
another man who is very poor
I will catch him in that net.”
5. Satan
when he makes his
investigations
notices all the objects of our affection. I doubt not
when he
went round Job’s house
he observed it as carefully as thieves do a jeweller’s
premises when they mean to break into them. So
when the devil went round
jotting down in his mind all Job’s position
he thought to himself
“There are
the camels and the oxen
the asses and the servants
--yes
I can use all these
very admirably.” “Then
” he thought
“there are the three daughters! There are
the ten sons
and they go feasting--I shall know where to catch them
and if I
can just blow the house down when they are feasting
that will afflict the
father’s mind the more severely
for he will say
‘Oh
that they had died when
they had been praying
rather than when they had been feasting and drinking
wine.’ I will put down
too
in the inventory
” says the devil
“his wife--I
dare say I shall want her
” and accordingly it came to that. You have a child
and Satan knows that you idolise it. “Ah
” says he
“there is a place for my
wounding him.”
III. Satan considered
but
there was a higher consideration which overrode. His consideration. In times of
war
the sappers and miners of one party will make a mine
and it is a very
common counteractive for the sappers and miners of the other party to
countermine by undermining the first mine. This is just what God does with
Satan. Satan is mining
and he thinks to light the fusee and to blow up God’s
building
but all the while God is undermining him
and tie blows up Satan’s
mine before he can do any mischief. Subtlety is not wisdom. All the while that
Satan was tempting Job he little knew that he was answering God’s purpose
for
God was looking on and considering the whole of it
and holding the enemy as a
man holds a horse by its bridle.
1. The Lord had considered
exactly how far He would let Satan go.
2. Did not the Lord also
consider how He should sustain His servant under the trial? You do not know how
blessedly our God poured the secret oil upon Jacob’s fire of grace
while the
devil was throwing buckets of water on it.
3. In the next place
the
Lord considered how to sanctify Job by this trial. Job was a much better man at
the end of the story than he was at the beginning. Foolish devil! he is piling
up a pedestal on which God will set His servant Job
that he may be looked upon
with wonder by all ages.
4. Job’s afflictions and
Job’s patience have been a lasting blessing to the Church of God
and they have
inflicted incredible disgrace upon Satan. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses
6-12
Now
there was a day.
A fatal day
1. That Satan observeth and watcheth his time to fasten his
temptations most strongly upon the soul. He watcheth a day
“there was a day
”
and there was not a day in the whole year upon which he could have done it with
greater advantage than upon that day. As the mercies of God are exceedingly
endeared to us by the season in which they come to us: When they come to us in
our special need
how sweet is a mercy then! And as our sins are exceedingly
aggravated
by the session and time wherein they are committed: What
sin upon
this day? A day of trouble
a day of humiliation? So likewise the temptations
of Satan and the afflictions which he brings upon the servants of God
are
exceedingly embittered by the season; and he knows well enough what seasons
will make them most bitter. And what can more imbitter a cup of sorrow than to
have it brought us upon a day of rejoicing? If joy be troublesome in our
sorrows
how troublesome is sorrow in the midst of our joys (Proverbs 25:20). Then Satan could never have found out such a time as this. Must
he needs be afflicting the father when the children were a feasting? Could he
find out no other time but this? blast his tears be mingled with their wine?
Must the children’s rejoicing day be the father’s mourning day? Must Satan
needs show his malice against the father
when the children were shewing their
love one to another? Let us observe
then
this mixture of malice and cunning
in Satan
in choosing his time. To carry a man from one extremity to another
puts him upon the greatest extremity: To make the day of a man’s greatest
rejoicing to be the day of his deepest sorrows
this is cutting
if not killing
sorrow. It were well if we could be wise in this respect to imitate Satan
to
choose out our day to do good when there is greatest probability of success
as
he chose out his day to do mischief.
2. That the fairest and clearest day of our onward comfort may be
clouded and overcast before the evening. (J. Caryl.)
And Satan came also among them.--
The Satan
In
contrast to the Almighty we have the figure of the adversary
or Satan
depicted with sufficient clearness
notably coherent
representing a phase of
being not imaginary but actual. He is not
as the Satan of later times came to
be
the head of a kingdom peopled with evil spirits
a nether world separated
from the abode of the heavenly angels by a broad
impassable gulf. He has no
distinctive hideousness
nor is he painted as in any sense independent
although the evil bent of his nature is made plain
and he ventures to dispute
the judgment of the Most High. This conception of the adversary need not be set
in opposition to those which afterwards appear in Scripture as if truth must be
entirely there or here. But we cannot help contrasting the Satan of the Book of
Job with the grotesque
gigantic
awful
and despicable fallen angels of the
world’s poetry. Not that the mark of genius is wanting in these; but they
reflect the powers of this world
and the accompaniments of malignant human
despotism. The author of Job
on the contrary
moved little by earthly state or
grandeur
whether good or evil
solely occupied with the Divine sovereignty
never dreams of one who could maintain the slightest shadow of authority in
opposition to God. He cannot trifle with his idea of the Almighty in the way of
representing a rival to Him; nor can he degrade a subject so serious as that of
human faith and well-being by painting with any touch of levity a superhuman
adversary of men . . . Evidently we have here a personification Of the
doubting
misbelieving
misreading spirit which
in our day
we limit to men
and call pessimism. (Robert A. Watson
D. D.)
Satan among the
angels
This
scene is not less perplexing than startling. Satan is beheld in some way among
the angels of God. There is another parallel striking illustration of the
dominion God holds
and of His mode of administration over the world of moral
causes and evil consequences
in 1 Kings 22:19-22.
I. Can we in any way realise the scene? We may conceive the bright
beings--Gabriel
Raphael
Michael
Uriel “circling the throne
” rejoicing each
with his hymn of praise
reporting his work of love. These are the “chariots of
the Lord”; these are they which “do His commandments”; they have each performed
his own work
for the Bible beholds all the work of creation and providence
carried on
not by dead laws
not eves by operating living principles--life
stands behind all matter
using it as a veil or as a vehicle. “I
” might
Raphael say
“directed the rolling planets
I stood by the axis of the young
firmament
I heard the stars sing together
and I stand in Thy presence to
report my obedience
and to bless Thee. And I
might Uriel say
have confirmed
the doubting
I have steadied the steps of the straying; I passed by the couch
of the dying
and I consoled.” “And I
” might Gabriel have said
“have prepared
the earth for Thy approach; I have winnowed the winds and have diffused the
light; and I have put thoughts into the hearts of men; and at Thy command I
have broken up solitudes; I have set the solitary in families
and where I have
gathered them into companies I have heard their songs to Thee; and I have come
into Thy presence to report my obedience and to bless Thee.” And then there was
seen a shadow
and it fell across the gold of the throne
and while it dropped
from the seraph’s wing
it spread itself out even over the pavement of light;
and when the voice from the central blessedness piercingly inquired
“Whence
comest thou?” it was in a tone altogether unlike that of the other angels
the
shadow rejoined
“From going to and fro in the earth
and from walking up and
down in it.” And all this transaction
so suggestively given
I conceive still;
I drop the more lofty conceptions of the book--I conceive the sons of God
each
with his hymn and his work. I see the merchant who
the balances of trade in
his hands
feels how much selfishness has still been
if not the main
intention
still present--yet he goes and presents himself before the Lord.
“Thou
” he says
“hast given all; behold my obedience; behold my contrition;
behold me
and bless me.” Or the schoolmaster
or the minister
“I also am an
angel or a messenger of Thine; my strength is from Thee
the light I bear is a
candle kindled by Thee; I bring Thee my obedience
I have wrought for Thee
behold me
and bless me.” And then you can conceive one to whom all this is
only a fitting subject for caricature
as you see all reality is
all
enthusiasm is. Do you not see that which exposes itself most always as the weak
side
is ever the strongest side of a character? So the jaunty sneerer comes;
some cynical Horace Walpole or sardonic Voltaire
and
“Ah
” says he
“I have
been looking at all these things
mocking--that is my way
not mending--‘I have
been going to and fro in the earth
and walking up and down in it.’“
II. Here
then
we have next the scriptural idea of Satan. Of course
you will often have heard the passage I have read
spoken of as conveying a
poetic description
that it is merely a highly sublime personification. Be that
as it may
the doctrine of the text affirms the personality of Satan. The Holy
Scriptures sketch the character of the Evil One; but they never permit us to
hesitate as to the fact of his personality. He exists
not as an abstract idea
not as a blind force
not either as a mere quality
or the absence or negation
of qualities in bodies or in persons. Elevate your conceptions to what is the
ground of personality
what constitutes its difference from a mere thing.
Personality is consciousness; it consciously works out its own character
and
its powers are all collected and resolved in will. Now Scripture teaches us
that such a being there is
immediately evil
and living only in and for evil.
He is not merely a necessity in things; at any rate this is not the account of
his origin; and it would be impossible to believe this without impeaching the
infinite character
the unity
and goodness of God. Satan is positive
personal
although not absolute
evil. The response of the Evil One to his Almighty
Questioner distinctly expresses--
1. Indifference. Indeed
the attributes of his personality are
riveted and closely interlocked together; the one emanates from the other
“going to and fro in the earth
and walking up and down in it.” This is the
end
the passionless end of Ms character--indifference
the absence of all
reality
contempt for all enthusiasm
contempt for all sentiment
studious
repression of all that might be divine instinct
or delight in the works of the
great God--such is Satan. What Satan is
you may detect in many a character
in
many an essay
in which you are reminded how Satan comes among people still
“going to and fro in the earth
and walking up and down in it.” See a man who
has lost his sense of wonder
who boasts that nothing can take him by surprise
who has been living so fast you cannot overtake him by any sentiments or ideas
that are noble--not the delicacy of a flower
not the calm
upheaving grandeur
of the mountain
no holy life
no noble book
no spectacle of a stirring and
absorbing passion; he goes to and fro in the earth
and sees nothing; his
eyeglass sees us much as he sees. Look at that hard man who prides himself on
seeing what men are
and using them; priding himself
too
that nobody ever did
know him
that nobody ever did read him--he is “going to and fro in the earth
and walking up and down in it.” Or the selfish manufacturer or merchant
who
simply wrought for his own gains
like a buccaneer or Choctaw
who has prowled
over society to find among men cogs for his machine
bricks for his mill
and
to whom men anywhere are only as so many stones in the wall. And just as all
these are manifestations of personality
so I conceive a vast and extended
personality in that amazing conscienceless being
who seems to wrap this world
round like a cold and dreadful mist
or withering blight and shade--Satan.
2. There is another attribute
although
certainly
the first is very
greatly the result of this second--it is Unbelief. In the instance before us it
assumes a shape we often notice now
manifests itself in disbelief in man.
“Doth Job serve God for nought?” This
then
is a marked attribute of
Satan--disbelief in God too; for to believe in God is not merely to apprehend
His being and His absolute power.
3. Another characteristic is brought out as an attribute of Satan in
this singular and ancient scene--Cruelty. I cannot but notice how most
assuredly there is involved in it the immediate connection of Satan with
and
his influence over
material interests and things; lightning and storm
disease
and death
are shown here to be certainly related to him. It seems to me
eminently reasonable
that in Scripture the universe is represented as governed
by life. I know I shall be told of “forces” and “laws
” and I reply
I have
looked at these things
and attempted a little to apprehend these things
and I
believe in them. In any case
as we cannot account for the benevolent and
general scheme of nature without one blessed and infinite over-ruling Presence
so it seems impossible to conceive the strangely ruptured condition of things
without referring them back to some central agency of evil and sin.
4. Another characteristic feature brought out in the text is
Limitation. While evil and Satan exist
they are conditioned by the sovereignty
of God; God rules over evil in all its personalities and forms. Satan and the
angels alike come into the presence of God. The faith of our fathers
indeed
was
that the devil was on the earth
having great power. It would provoke a
smile on some lips to think of the real way in which they were wont to wrestle
with the devil. I hear of nobody who places much faith in his power to injure
us; we never pray as if he were by us in terrible might. Coldly our prayers
ascend to God
as if He were not; and for the great Adversary
it is as if he
were really dead. How different was Luther and his great foe
Duke George
for
instance. “All the Duke Georges in the universe
” said he
“are not equal to a
single devil
and I do not fear the devil.” The mighty-hearted Luther kept the
battle heating in a constant tempest. You have read and know well his Table
Talk
his life--that invisible world
how present to him! With Luther it
was
then
evidently no sham fight
but a fearful hand-to-hand conflict; and
all his praying and speaking most evidently went upon the principle
not only
of a real belief in the power of darkness
but of his power also
by hearty
prayer and faith in Christ
to rout and scatter it. And I
why do I venture to
set before you this doctrine
as I believe it is
of Holy Scripture? Very
greatly because I feel that we live in an age which is dangerously loosening
its hold of great spiritual personalities. I cannot
indeed
form a very clear
conception of attributes
excepting as they are embodied in persons. I can
speak of theft
and I can define theft
but I cannot separate it from the
action of a person; and I can speak of holiness
and define holiness
but it is
nothing to me unless it is embodied in a person. We are in great danger of
using fine-sounding epithets about God
and even about man
and losing the
sense of personal relation. So to many who even profess and call themselves
Christians
God is the sum total of the forces of the universe
the soul is a
mode of matter
and Satan is a term for the empirical
partial
and evil drift
of things
which in the course of ages may possibly sink into the tidal force
of good
and so cease to be the necessity it looks at present. Manifestly the
whole consequence of such negations is to annihilate responsibility
and to
destroy the cheerful radiant freedom of the human soul everywhere. The
personality of Satan stands over against the personality of God; limited
indeed
only permitted
and doomed by His sovereignty. Strangely
indeed
must
Scripture have surrendered its intention
if its purpose is not to produce in
us hatred and fear towards some tremendous ubiquitous person constantly seeking
to have power over us--a malignant will
a power and an element in the
universe
in the world
in the human heart--a power not of God
not good
adverse and hateful to God and goodness. (E. P. Hood.)
Satan
We
have here a highly figurative representation of the Eternal and His spiritual
kingdom. And a remarkable meeting of the great God and some of His intelligent creatures.
The passage teaches concerning Satan--
I. That he has a personal existence. Acting as a person
he “goes to
and fro in the earth.”
1. The personality of his existence is suggested by reason.
2. The personality of his existence is confirmed by human history. It
is almost impossible to account for the absurdities which men entertain
and
the enormities which they perpetrate
without going up to some foul spirit who
blinds the eyes and flames the passions of men.
3. The personality of his existence is declared in the Bible (Matthew 4:3; John 8:44; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Thessalonians 3:5; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6; Revelation 12:10
etc.). He is called by different names
Satan
Devil
Old
Serpent
Prince of the Power of the Air
Beelzebub
Dragon
etc.
II. He is an intruder into the sacred (1 Kings 22:19-23; Matthew 4:3). Wherever the sons of the Almighty assemble
Satan is amongst
them; he is there to bias the intellect
and to pollute the feelings.
III. He is amenable to the eternal. Jehovah asks him concerning his
movements
and concerning his opinions.
IV. He is a vagrant in the universe. Going to and fro implies--
1. Homelessness.
2. Zealousness.
V. He is a slanderer of the good. He slanders man to God
and he
slanders God to man. He is diabolus
breaking the harmony of God’s moral universe
by slander.
VI. He is a slave of the infinite. He can only act by permission. God
uses him as His instrument. (Homilist.)
Temptation
Temptation
is the precursor of sin. There is a great tendency to forget the real
nature of Satan; that he is a distinct being
governed by the same laws of
motion and influence over matter by which other spiritual bodies are governed.
Every strong impulse of evil is a direct assault
and indicates a personal
appearance of the tempter
as decidedly as would the approach of any earthly
assailant be marked by visible signs. Satan has a distinct personality and
individuality
veiled only from us by the mist of our bodily being. There is a
floating impression in men’s minds that evil is simply a principle inherent in
themselves
of no very definite shape
and scarcely forming itself into a clear
principle at all. We ought to be able to separate in our minds between the
distinct and violent assaults of the tempter
and those slighter suggestions of
evil which are the frequent movements of our own corrupt heart. A clear
distinction between external assault and internal suggestion will go far to
chase those doubts and apprehensions away
and tend to give health and vigour
to the soul and conscience. Another benefit will arise from the ideas and
pictures this idea of the personality of Satan will raise to the mind in the
contest with evil. It reduces the conflict to a definite period
and a number
of definite acts. The more real we make our struggle with evil the better. In
our bodily condition it is easier to resist a person than an abstraction. We
can more easily kindle within ourselves feelings of indignation
desire of
superiority
and the like
when we realise personality in our foe. (E.
Monte.)
Satanic
temptation
1. That there is no place in the world that can secure a man from
temptation
or be a sanctuary from Satan’s assaults. Cloisters are as open to
Satan as the open field.
2. We may note here the wonderful diligence of Satan.
3. That Satan is confined in his business to the earth. (J. Caryl.)
Satan deserves
his name
Many
have their names for nought
because they do nothing for them; like Laban’s
images
which were called gods
though they were but blocks; but the devil
deserves his names. He is not called a tempter
a liar
a slanderer
and an
accuser
and a deceiver
and a murderer
and a compasser in vain; like St.
George
which is always on horseback
and never rides; but he would do more
than by his office he is bound to. Others are called officers because they have
an office; but he is called an enemy because he shows his envy. Others are
called justicers because they should do justice; but he is called a tempter
because he practiseth temptation. Others are called pastors because they should
feed; but he is called a devourer because he doth devour; and we call him a
compasser because he doth compass. (Henry Smith.)
Satanic
excursions
Another
route that Satan on his active travels is exceedingly apt to take is for the
despoiling of souls. It does not pay him merely to destroy the bodies of men
and women. Those bodies would soon be gone anyhow; but great treasures are
involved in this Satanic excursion. On this route he meets a man who is aroused
by something he has seen in the Bible
and Satan says
“Now I can settle that
for you: the Bible is an imposition; it has been deluding the world for
centuries; do not let it delude you. It has no more authority than the Koran of
the Mohammedan
or the Shaster of the Hindoo
or the Zend-Avesta of the
Parsee.” He meets another man who is hastening towards the Kingdom of God
and
says: “Why all this precipitation? Religion is right
but any time within the
next ten years will be soon enough for you. A man with a stout chest like
yours
and such muscular development
must not be bothering himself about the
next world.” Satan meets another man who has gone through a long course of
profligacy
and is beginning to pray for forgiveness
and Satan says to the
man: “You are too late; the Lord will not help such a wretch as you; you might
as well brace up and fight your own way through.” And so with a spite and an
acuteness and a velocity that have been gaining for six thousand yours
he
ranges up and down
baffling
disappointing
defeating
afflicting
destroying
the human race. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Satan
compassing the earth
Compassing
here doth signify tempting
and the “earth” doth signify all the people of the
earth; as if he should say
“I come from tempting all men.” As Satan is here
called a “compasser
” so he will compass your eyes with shows
and your ears
with sounds
and your senses with sleep
and your thoughts with fancies
and
all to hinder you from hearing while the articles are against him; and after I
have spoken
he will compass you again with business
and cares
and pleasures
and quarrels
to make you forget that which you have heard. Therefore “take
heed how ye hear.” Satan is an adversary compassing the earth; and therefore
let the earth beware
like a city which is besieged with the adversaries. Three
things I note wherefore the devil may be said to compass the earth.
1. Because he tempteth all men.
2. Because he tempteth all to sin; and
3. Because he tempteth by all means.
What
doth he compass? “The earth.” This is the devil’s pilgrimage
from one end of
the earth to the other
and then back again; like a wandering merchant which
seeketh his traffic where he can speed cheapest. First of all creatures
Satan
compasseth men; he compasseth all men
and he compasseth good men. If then the
devil be such a busy-body
which meddleth in every man’s matter
let us
remember what the wise man saith
“A busy-body is hated”; the devil is to be
hated because he is a busy-body. As the serpent compasseth
so doth his seed;
and therefore Solomon calls the ways of the wicked crooked ways. (H. Smith.)
My servant Job (verses 8
11; and Job 40:4).
A three-fold
estimate of a good man’s character
I. Job’s character as estimated by God. God regarded the character of
Job. He estimated Job as “perfect.” Every part of his character contained the
germ of completeness. He estimated Job as “upright.” His life was parallel with
the commandments of heaven
and the precepts of truth. Job recognised carefully
his domestic responsibilities. This perfection is alleged of human nature
“an
upright man.” Note the blessedness of this character.
II. Job’s character estimated by Satan. The Satanic test of character
must he viewed in a two-fold aspect.
III. Job’s character estimated by himself.
1. He designates himself “vile.” True
his sorrows may have had a
depressing effect upon him
and continued suffering have brought him under the
influence of gloomy views. Perhaps he had circumstances as an index of his
heart life
thinking that his trials were the infliction of wrath
rather than
the chidings of love. However
it is evident that reverent humility was a great
element in his piety. He had such lofty conceptions of God
His purity and
justice
that
in remembrance of such an ideal of life
his own paled into
absolute imperfection.
2. Job calls attention to his vileness.--“Behold!” This is somewhat
unusual
as people try to conceal the miserable rottenness of their lives
either by a mock modesty or daring pretension.
3. Job takes the blame of his vileness--“I am vile.” He does not make
his assumed pollution the result of original depravity; he does not attribute
it to the despotism of circumstances
to the evil tendency of education
and
the impurity of society. No; without palliation or excuse
he renders himself
culpable. Ought we not to be shamed into honesty by the plain
bold confession
of this good man? Job could afford to consider himself vile
when God thought
him perfect. (Joseph S. Exell
M. A.)
God’s servant
1. That Satan’s main temptations
his strongest batteries are planted
against the most eminent godly persons. Here God calleth Job His servant. And
He calleth him so--
(a) By election.
(b) They are God’s servants by the right of purchase.
2. It is a man’s honour to be God’s servant
and God thinks Himself
honoured by the service of man. When God speaks of His people by name
it
noteth two things in Scripture.
3. That God doth take care of His elect children and servants in a
special manner above all other men in the world. (J. Caryl.)
God’s testimony
to the good
I. That God hath servants of all statures and degrees. All His
servants come not to the like pitch
to the like height; here is one that is
beyond them all
“My servant” Job--not a man like him upon the earth.
II. We ought not to set up our rest in low degrees of grace; or
content ourselves to be like others in grace. Then see the character that God
giveth of Job
A perfect and upright man
one that feareth God and escheweth
evil.
1. God hath a perfect character of every soul. He knoweth fully and
clearly what the tempers of your hearts and spirits are.
2. God will give to every man a testimony according to his utmost
worth. God will not conceal any of your graces
or obscure your goodness
He
will make it known to the world to the full
what you are. It is good for us to
have our letters testimonial from God
to have our letters commendatory from
heaven. It is not what a man saith in his own heart
what he flattereth
himself: it is not what your neighbours or others flatter you
and say of you
but what God saith of you
what testimony He giveth of you. (J. Caryl.)
Sin eschewed
If I
say to a person
“I will not receive you into my house when you come dressed in
such a coat”; and I open the door to him when he has on another suit which is
more respectable
it is evident that my objection was not to the person
but to
his clothes. If a man will not cheat when the transaction is open to the world
but will do so in a more secret way
or in a kind of adulteration which is
winked at in the trade
the man does not hate cheating
he only hates that kind
of it which is sure to be found out; he likes the thing itself very well. Some
sinners
they say
hate sin. Not at all
sin in its essence is pleasing enough;
it is only the glaring shape of it which they dislike. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Satan
considering the saints
How
very uncertain are all terrestrial things! How foolish would that believer be
who should lay up his treasure anywhere
except in heaven! Job’s prosperity
promised as much stability as anything can do beneath the moon. He had
accumulated wealth of a kind which does not suddenly depreciate in value. Up
there
beyond the clouds
where no human eye could see
there was a scene
enacted which augured no good to Job’s prosperity. The spirit of evil stood
face to face with the infinite Spirit of all good. An extraordinary
conversation took place between these two beings.
I. In what sense may Satan be said to consider the people of God?
Certainly not in the usual Biblical meaning of the term “consider.” O Lord
consider my trouble. Consider my meditation. Blessed is he that considereth the
poor.” Such consideration implies goodwill and a careful inspection of the
object of benevolence with regard to a wise distribution of favour. In that sense
Satan never considers any. If he has any benevolence
it must be towards
himself; but all his considerations of other creatures are of the most
malevolent kind. No meteoric flash of good flits across the black midnight of
his soul. Nor does he consider us as we are told to consider the works of God
that is
in order to derive instruction as to God’s wisdom and love and
kindness. He does not honour God by what he sees in His works
or in His
people.
1. The consideration which Satan pays to God’s saints is upon this
wise. He regards them with wonder
when he considers the difference between
them and himself. A traitor
when he knows the thorough villainy and the
blackness of his own heart
cannot help being astounded when he is forced to
believe another man to be faithful. What grace is it which keeps these? I was a
vessel of gold
and yet I was broken; these are earthen vessels
but I cannot
break them! It may be that he also wonders at their happiness. He feels within
himself a seething sea of misery. He admires and hates the peace which reigns
in the believer’s soul.
2. Do you not think that he considers them to detect
if possible
any flaw and fault in them
by way of solace to himself? He considers our
sinful flesh
and makes it one of the books in which he diligently reads. One
of the fairest prospects
I doubt not
which the devil’s eye ever rests upon is
the inconsistency and the impurity which he can discover in the true child of
God. In this respect he had very little to consider in God’s true servant
Job.
3. We doubt not that he views the Lord’s people
and especially the
more eminent and excellent among them
as the great barriers to the progress of
his kingdom; and just as the engineer
endeavouring to make a railway
keeps
his eye very much fixed upon the hills and rivers
and especially upon the
great mountain through which it will take years laboriously to bore a tunnel
so Satan
in looking upon his various plans to carry on his dominion in the
world
considers most such men as Job. He is sure to consider God’s servant
if
there be “none like him
” if he stand out distinct and separate from his
fellows. Those of us who are called to the work of the ministry must expect
from our position to be the special objects of his consideration. If you are
more generous than other saints
if you live nearer to God than others
as the
birds peck most at the ripest fruit
so may you expect Satan to be most busy
against you. Who cares to contend for a province covered with stones and barren
rocks
and ice bound by frozen seas? But in all times there is sure to be a
contention after the fat valleys where the wheat-sheaves are plenteous
and
where the husbandman’s toil is well requited
and thus
for you who honour God
most
Satan will struggle very sternly. He wants to pluck God’s jewels from His
crown
if he can
and take the Redeemer’s precious stones even from the
breastplate itself.
4. It needs not much wisdom to discern that the great object of Satan
in considering God’s people is to do them injury. Where he cannot destroy
there is no doubt that Satan’s object is to worry. He does not like to see
God’s people happy.
5. Moreover
if Satan cannot destroy a Christian
how often has he
spoilt his usefulness! How is it that God permits this constant and malevolent
consideration of His people by the evil one? One answer
doubtless
is
that
God knows what is for His own glory
and that He giveth no account of His
matters; that
having permitted free agency
and having allowed
for some
mysterious reason
the existence of evil
it does not seem agreeable with His
having done so to destroy Satan; but He gives him power
that it may be a fair
hand-to-hand fight between sin and holiness
between grace and craftiness.
Besides
be it remembered
that incidentally the temptations of Satan are of
service to the people of God. An experimental divine remarks
that there is no
temptation in the world which is so bad as not being tempted at all; for to be
tempted will tend to keep us awake--whereas
being without temptation
flesh
and blood are weak: and though the spirit may be willing
yet we may be found
falling into slumber. Children do not run away from their father’s side when
big dogs bark at them.
II. What is it that Satan considers with a view to the injury of God’s
people? It cannot be said of him as of God
that he knoweth us altogether; but
since he has been now nearly six thousand years dealing with poor fallen
humanity
he must have acquired a very vast experience in that time
and having
been all over the earth
and having tempted the highest and the lowest
he must
know exceedingly well what the springs of human action are
and how to play
upon them.
1. Satan watches and considers
first of all
our peculiar
infirmities. He looks us up and down
just as I have seen a horse dealer do
with a horse; and soon finds out wherein we are faulty. Satan knows how to look
at us and reckon us up from heel to head
so that he will say of this man
“His
infirmity is lust
” or of that other
“He hath a quick temper
” or of this other
“He is proud
” or of that other
“He is slothful.”
2. He takes care also to consider our frames and states of mind. If
the devil would attack us when our minds are in certain moods
we should be
more than a match for him: he knows this
and shuns the encounter. Some men are
more ready for temptation when they are distressed and desponding; the fiend
will then assail them. Others will be more liable to take fire when they are
jubilant and full of joy; then will he strike his spark into the tinder. As the
worker in metals knows that one metal is to be worked at such a heat
and
another at a different temperature; as those who have to deal with chemicals
know that at a certain heat one fluid will boil
while another reaches the
boiling point much earlier
so Satan knows exactly the temperature at which to
work us to his purpose. Small pots boil directly they are put on the fire
and
so little men of quick temper are soon in a passion; larger vessels require
more time and coal before they will boil
but when they do boil
it is a boil
indeed
not soon forgotten or abated.
3. He also takes care to consider our position among men. There are a
few persons who are most easily tempted when they are alone--they are the
subjects then of great heaviness of mind
and they may be driven to most awful
crimes; perhaps the most of us are more liable to sin when we are in company.
In some company I never should be led into sin; into another society I could
scarcely venture.
4. How
too
will he consider our condition in the world! He looks at
one man
and says
“That man has property--it is of no use my trying
such-and-such arts with him; but here is another man who is very poor
I will
catch him in that net.”
5. Satan
when he makes his investigations
notices all the objects
of our affection. I doubt not
when he went round Job’s house
he observed it
as carefully as thieves do a jeweller’s premises when they mean to break into
them. So
when the devil went round
jotting down in his mind all Job’s
position
he thought to himself
“There are the camels and the oxen
the asses
and the servants
--yes
I can use all these very admirably.” “Then
” he
thought
“there are the three daughters! There are the ten sons
and they go
feasting--I shall know where to catch them
and if I can just blow the house
down when they are feasting
that will afflict the father’s mind the more
severely
for he will say
‘Oh
that they had died when they had been praying
rather than when they had been feasting and drinking wine.’ I will put down
too
in the inventory
” says the devil
“his wife--I dare say I shall want her
” and
accordingly it came to that. You have a child
and Satan knows that you idolise
it. “Ah
” says he
“there is a place for my wounding him.”
III. Satan considered
but there was a higher consideration which
overrode. His consideration. In times of war
the sappers and miners of one
party will make a mine
and it is a very common counteractive for the sappers
and miners of the other party to countermine by undermining the first mine.
This is just what God does with Satan. Satan is mining
and he thinks to light
the fusee and to blow up God’s building
but all the while God is undermining
him
and tie blows up Satan’s mine before he can do any mischief. Subtlety is
not wisdom. All the while that Satan was tempting Job he little knew that he
was answering God’s purpose
for God was looking on and considering the whole
of it
and holding the enemy as a man holds a horse by its bridle.
1. The Lord had considered exactly how far He would let Satan go.
2. Did not the Lord also consider how He should sustain His servant
under the trial? You do not know how blessedly our God poured the secret oil
upon Jacob’s fire of grace
while the devil was throwing buckets of water on
it.
3. In the next place
the Lord considered how to sanctify Job by this
trial. Job was a much better man at the end of the story than he was at the
beginning. Foolish devil! he is piling up a pedestal on which God will set His
servant Job
that he may be looked upon with wonder by all ages.
4. Job’s afflictions and Job’s patience have been a lasting blessing
to the Church of God
and they have inflicted incredible disgrace upon Satan. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 9
Doth Job fear God for
nought?
The devil’s sneer
There is very much
distrust abroad
and unfortunately too much warrant for distrust
touching the
sincerity of people in general. The devil has his fling at even one of the best
of men here in this opening chapter of the drama of Job. As is readily seen
the implication in this question as to whether Job fears God for nought is that
every mart has his price. It is assumed that the basis of all action is
commercial. The law of the counting house or the market--so much for so
much--it is taken for granted rules everywhere. If one is unusually patriotic
or religious
or is enthusiastically devoted to any high ideal
it is for a
consideration. Disinterestedness is a pretence or a dream. Deprive virtue of
the reward which ordinarily waits on virtuous behaviour
and the reward which
virtue is to itself
or which is found in being virtuous
will soon lose all
its fascination and power. Investments made in the moral world
like
investments made in the material world
are solely with a view to prospective
dividends. This is the devil’s theory of human conduct. There it is
--the low
contemptuous estimate of virtue
the pessimistic view of human nature. One
feels the chill there is in the tone of it. It is all a matter of cool
calculation. The man may be everything that is claimed for him--devout
obedient
pure
true; but then--he is paid for it! This is the explanation of
it all
--the man finds his account in this service or devotion. It is the yardstick
view of things. It is the book balances which settle it. It is the ethics of
the labour market--work so long as the remuneration is satisfactory--brought
over into moral spheres--elevated into a standard with which to measure the
sublime consecration to freedom and duty of men like William of Orange and
Cromwell and Washington and Garibaldi. It is the matchless Livingstone
dying
on his knees in the heart of Africa
reduced to the level of the tusk hunter or
the man stealer who penetrates these same wilds for the material recompense he
can find in the perilous adventure. Not so; verily
not so. There are other and
higher motives in life than those which enter into the management of a peanut
stand or a cotton factory or a railroad. Humanity has in it loftier
capabilities
and these capabilities have frequent illustration in actual
experience. Unquestionably a good many people are disposed to fall in with the
devil’s estimate of the motives which govern conduct
and to consider even the
worthiest of men incapable of rising above selfish considerations. The
selfishness may be more refined in some instances than in others. It is still
only a question of degree. It is selfishness all the same. It is this for that
so much for so much
doing things for what is in them. There are several
explanations of this satanic tendency to look at all actions from the view
point of selfish motives.
1. In
the first place
with all that is dignified and commendable and noble in human
nature
there is a disposition--possibly we might go further and say
--a
predisposition--to judge the general conduct of our fellows in a spirit of
detraction. From what we know of ourselves
from what we know of others in
their confessed schemes
from envy
from jealousy
from a certain conceit of our
own shrewdness in penetrating character
we easily drift into the habit of
forming low estimates of the motives of men and women
and attributing their
movements to influences and aims and desires which originate
not in the upper
but in the lower ranges of incitement. The multiplied warnings of Scripture
against these harsh judgments and prejudgments and misjudgments show us what a
bad aptitude there is in the heart for this kind of indulgence. We are prone to
level down. In presence of a commendable action how fatal is the facility with
which our nimble tongues fall to saying
“Certainly; but the thing was done
just to catch votes
or to win the favour and patronage of the rich
or to
please the populace.”
2. In
the second place
there is
beyond all gainsaying
a vast amount of action
among men whose secret spring is some sort of personal advantage or gain. Large
numbers make unblushing confession of this. Of many who do not confess it
and
only half realise it
perhaps
it is still true. Their only controlling thought
is pleasure or profit or promotion. It runs through all they do. They choose
their professions
they marry
they espouse causes
they join political
parties
they enter clubs
they identify themselves with churches
all in a
temper of self-interest--a self-interest which it is impossible to distinguish
from selfishness. It is not a matter of injustice nor is it at all uncharitable
to ascribe selfish and even sinister motives to this kind of folk.
3. In
the third place
there is the consideration which Satan and those who coincide
with him in his view of things may bring forward in support of the position
taken by them on this question
and which admits of no successful disputing
namely
that fearing God--fearing God in the way of love and reverent
loyalty--always does secure to one something worth having. Satan was right in
his intimation that Job was getting a good deal--a good deal that was
substantial and abiding--out of his fidelity. God never permits a man to do
this thing: serve Him for naught. Never yet did a man come into the faith of
God
and maintain the integrity of his soul before God and the world
without
receiving something rich and rare in return for it. As the event proved
Job
was getting something out of his serene and unfaltering trust and his upright
conduct besides wife and children and houses and barns and cattle and servants
and renown among his fellows--something which stood by him
and to which he
could cling in all the darkness and under all the bitter bruising of the after
days. We say often that virtue is its own reward. It is. It is often an
unutterable satisfaction just to have the consciousness in one that he is
sincere and clean and upright
and means to stand square on the truth and do
his duty
come what will. But virtue has other rewards. It has rewards outside
itself. Early and late
at home and abroad
at the hearthstone
in social
circles
in business operations
in politics
honesty is the best policy. It
pays to be pure. In the long run nothing else does pay. It is Gerizim and Ebal
over again. On the side of righteousness are the blessings. On the side of
unrighteousness are the curses. Hence it comes to pass that it is a nice
psychological question
and one requiring not a little analytical skill
to run
the knife in and turn it about in a way to distinguish between the stress of
motives which look to the doing of right solely because it is right
and the
doing of right out of consideration for what follows. One with as much
dialectic cunning as Satan has can confuse almost anybody at this point. There
is the fact of the waiting of the reward upon the conduct. Who shall say the
conduct is not with an eye to the reward? At least the suggestion can always be
made to seem plausible. Still
in spite of all in evidence to the contrary
and
in spite of all appearances to the contrary
there is disinterestedness in the
world. (F. A. Noble
D. D.)
Religious selfishness
This is the question which
the infidelity of hell asks the fidelity of heaven. With the same underlying
current of thought
not a few reason in our day. The only theory of life which
some will recognise as at all philosophic is that which is based upon purely
utilitarian principles. But the world
all that is best and noblest in the
world
does not act from purely selfish motives. Not only humanity
but the
very physical world itself protests against this dreary doctrine. God does not
seem to have created the earth and visible heavens on those exalted “purely
utilitarian principles” which commend themselves to some superfine intellects
in the present dry. A certain class of thinkers charge the religious life with
being based on the same principle. Religion is not objected to
it is only
patronisingly relegated to a department of political economy. The question--the
selfishness of religion--which I propose now to speak of
I shall deal with as
a difficulty in an earnest Christian soul
which longs to get rid of it
rather
than as the hostile idea of an avowed opponent. “Doth Job fear God for nought?”
The answer expected is
of course
“No.” Therefore religion is selfish. Is this
true of our Christian faith? There are some forms in which certain of its
doctrines have been presented and enforced which would seem to sustain the
charge. Has there not sometimes been too great a tendency to make our
individual salvation the sole and exclusive object of the Christian life? In
many manuals of devotion
e.g.
Kempis’ “De Imitatione Christi
” and in
books which treat systematically of the religious life
this is painfully
apparent. And we have a lurking suspicion that such is what the Bible and the
Church alike teach us. First let me speak of rewards and punishments. There is
no doubt that Scripture and the Church lay stress upon the glorious life which
the righteous shall inherit
and the unutterable woe which shall befall the
wicked. Such teaching has still
and ever will have
its due place and power in
the work of the ministry of Christ. It is
however
a small part of Christian
teaching. If the exhortations and motives to Christian life were to begin and
end here
there might be some colour of selfishness about it. But this is only
a first step. It is
if you will
an appeal to men’s self-interest for a
moment
--but only for a moment
--to lead them up afterwards to something
infinitely purer and higher. A Christian lives on through such childish
feelings to the full unselfish manhood in Christ Jesus. When we remember that
self is the very root and essence of sin
it is not surprising that in the
first stage of dealing with such a nature as man’s there should be an
adaptation of the means employed to such a condition. To represent the hope of
reward or fear of pain as the continually abiding and sole motive of the
Christian life all through
is to ignore nine-tenths of the exhortations of the
New Testament--is utterly to misrepresent and pervert the teaching of our
Lord--is to deny the truth of countless Christian lives which we have read of
or have seen. There is another thing of still more practical importance. There
is no word which we use more frequently in religious phraseology than the word
“salvation.” Is there not too great a tendency in many of us to always speak
and think of that salvation as solely an escape from some future punishment? If
we regard the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God as merely a means by which we
are to escape some future pain
I do not know whether there may not be a strong
tinge of selfishness in our faith. But there is a more awful thing than pain or
punishment
there is sin It is to save us from sin that Christ died. If then
the salvation be deliverance from sin
and if self be sin (for sin is ever the
assertion of “I” against the all-good
all-loving God)--is it selfish to
conquer self through the power of Christ--is it selfish to become so one with
Christ as to have self crucified with Him
so that we no longer live unto self
but unto Him who died and rose again? There can be no real spiritual life until
we learn to loathe sin--not merely the results of sin. Let us tell men
sin is
your enemy; sin
here in your hearts; sin
which is robbing your life of all
its joy and sweetness; sin
which is grinding like a hot chain into your very
flesh. From that Christ died to save you. Is not this a pure
unselfish Gospel?
“The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” That power has actually
been felt by many. Then there dawns on us gradually the new life; self is
nailed to the Cross--to Christ’s Cross with Him--and henceforth it is not I
that live
“but Christ that liveth in me”; not a calm
indifferent life
but a
life of constant struggle against all sin and evil
--and yet a life in which
self-sacrifice itself becomes easy
for I am “dead to sin
and living unto
righteousness “ (T. Teignmouth Shore
M. A.)
Is man entirely selfish
Satan insinuates that the
man who professes to serve God is
after all
only serving himself
and is
making God nothing more than a convenience
a purveyor to his own selfish
profit and pleasure. One object of the Book of Job is to prove that there is
something genuine in man
especially when the grace of God has entered his
heart. Satan puts his calumny into the form of a question. It is evident how he
intended it to be answered. God has held up Job as a proof of His power to put
true goodness into human nature; and the reply is that this seeming goodness is
only self-interest. The man is religious because he makes a good thing out of
religion. The accuser has a belief in the philosophy of selfishness. It is a
faith not uncommon in our day. There are some who seek a foundation for it in
argument
and wish to prove that all virtue is merely self-interest largely and
wisely interpreted
which is true in this respect
that goodness and
self-interest will
in the end
coincide
but very false if it is meant that
goodness has its origin in taking this end into account. The Bible itself is
quoted as sanctioning the idea that self-interest is
and ought to be
the
spring of human action. Sin
it is said
is only self-interest unenlightened
and wrongly directed
and true religion is a proper and wise regard to our own
happiness.
I. Selfishness
is not the essence of human nature as presented in the Bible. Satan denies that
there is unselfishness in Job. He would imply that it is not in God’s power to
create a disinterested love of Himself
even in a regenerate creature--that
self-interest is the hidden worm at the root of everything
good or bad.
Think--
1. Of
the regenerate man
and see whether God’s plan of forming him proceeds on the
principle of appealing to selfishness. It is granted that the Bible
all
through
presses men with threatenings of punishment
and holds out to them
promises of happiness to lead them to a new life. But this is to be remembered
that it begins its work with men who are sunk in sin
and that the essence of
sin is selfishness. It must arrest and raise them by motives adapted to their
condition
provided that these motives are not wrong
and enlightened
self-interest
that is
self-interest which is consistent with the good of
others is not wrong. The Bible is too bread and human not to bring all fair
motives into exercise. So before the Gospel
and even with it
we must have
Sinai’s word
“The soul that sinneth it shall die.” But to affirm that this is
the final
or even the prevailing motive of the new life
is to mistake or
misrepresent the Bible
which is constantly advancing from the domain of
threatening and outward promise to that of free and unselfish love. Its
strength of appeal from the very beginning lies in the mercy of God pardoning
unconditionally. As a man rises into the knowledge of the Divine plan he seeks
and serves God
not from the hope of what he is to receive from Him
but from
the delight which he finds in Him--in the true
the pure
the loving
that
dwell in the Father of Lights. If they still charge us with selfishness in
seeking this
because it is our happiness
we confess we know not what is meant
by the charge. We do not seek Him for the joy
we find the joy in seeking. God
acts towards man on the principle of free
undeserved love
that He may form in
him the spirit and image of His own action
creating a spring of self-sacrifice
which flows back to God
and overflows to men. The Son of God
who knows what
is in man
believed this possible. He made a John
a Paul
a Peter
a
Stephen--hearts that drank of the cup of His self-sacrifice
and forgot
themselves
and laboured
and suffered
and died
like Him
for the world’s
good. It is certain that the Bible proceeds on the principle of creating
unselfish action in the regenerate heart.
2. Even
in the case of unregenerate men
the Bible does not affirm that the only law at
work is one of utter selfishness. Though man is fallen
the elements of human
nature are still there. They are not annihilated
neither are they demonised.
The deep radical defect is Godward
that man has ceased to retain Him in his
knowledge
and has expelled His love from his heart. There yet shines many a
fair tint on human nature. Whatever unrenewed men may be to God
they perform
to their fellow men
oftentimes
the most unselfish acts. They give
hoping to
receive nothing again. Let us not think that we discredit the Gospel
by
seeming to leave these fair features of humanity outside its regenerating
circle
but let us rather widen that circle to embrace them
and believe that
if there is anything glorious upon earth
or beautiful in humanity
we owe it
to the power of Christ’s death
and the breadth of His intercession.
II. The
results of belief in unmitigated selfishness. The first evident consequence in
him who holds it is a want of due regard for his fellow creatures. With no
belief in principle or goodness
he can cherish no reverence
and feel no pity.
The next consequence is the want of any centre of rest within itself. Another
effect is the failure of any real hold of God. The spirit
Satan
here
had no
just views of a God of truth and purity and goodness.
III. Some
means that may be adopted as a remedy by those who are in danger of falling
into this faith. We should seek to bring our own life into close contact with
what is genuine in our fellow men. Next to the cultivation of society and
friendships among living men
we may mention the choice of books. Then
in
judging humanity
we must beware of taking a part for the whole. The last means
for removing the view that man is incapable of rising above self is to
apprehend the Divine care of human nature. He who has studied the person of
Christ
and laid his hand
however feebly
on the throbbings of that heart
will not be in danger of the view that self-love
utter and eternal
is part of
the nature of man. (John Ker
D. D.)
Doth Job fear God for
nought
I. The
import of this insinuated sneer. It is chiefly interesting to us because the
words are not yet dead. Satan’s agents imitate their master
and use the same
arguments and the same sophistries. It is still a common device of the world to
attribute good actions to evil motives. Sometimes men are said to be pious to
obtain influence. If a person gives largely to church building
the world will
hint that he wants to “get his name up.” If a handsome subscription is sent to
any particular object
the donor “desires to see his name in print.” Sometimes
men are said to be pious because of a far-seeing expediency. They are said to
go to this or that church on account of the patronage they expect to receive.
Tradesmen are accused of attaching themselves to the particular sect from which
they hope to derive the greatest profit. How many a poor person exclaims
“Oh
if the squire had only to fight with hunger
he could not afford to be
religious.”
II. The
influence of this insinuated sneer. What a power there is in a covert insult!
Even the devil’s speech was not without a terrific influence. It appealed even
to the Almighty. He granted the arch-fiend the opportunity to try his theory
and to prove his assertion. And all this bitter experiment recoiled upon poor
Job. For weeks and months and years he was as molten gold in the devil’s
crucible. He lost all he had. Do not let us run away with the idea that the
wicked have no influence now. They are lords of the present world
and they can
make the life of the righteous man very bitter for him
whether he be rich or
whether he be poor. And God permits those influences to continue
in order that
He may vindicate His people and manifest His own power and glory.
III. The
unintentional truth of this insinuated sneer. Satan overreached himself after
all. No man does serve God for nought. There is no such thing as entire
self-abnegation in this world. Job proved in the end that his principles were
sound. But what are religious principles after all? A determination to serve
God because we are convinced that to serve Him is the best policy. We cannot
divest religion of selfishness. The Scriptures teach us that we love Him
because “He first loved us
” and because He has redeemed us
and promised us
eternal life. An ideal
uninterested religion may be the attainment of heaven
and the angels
but it cannot be of men. (Homilist.)
Disinterestedness
“Doth Job fear God for
nought?” There is one Taskmaster for whom no labourer ever works in vain
whose
wages are always punctually and fully paid
and with whom a faithful servant
never feels even a passing shade of dissatisfaction. We always know that
obedience to God never fails of its reward; that all work done for God ends in
fit and full result; that to live with and for God is to live the noblest
the
happiest
the peacefullest life possible to us. The text draws our attention to
man’s motives. The Book of Job asks
in every variety of form
this question
Is there any connection to be traced between a man’s character and his earthly
fate? Satan refers the indisputable obedience and piety of Job to God’s kindly
and generous dealing with him. The question before us is this
Are disinterested
love and service of God things impossible? The great contention of ethical
principle is whether any human action is ever or can be performed without the
more or less subtle impulse of self-interest. Some say that we serve God as we
do our duty
as we love our children
as we sacrifice ourselves for our
country
for the sake of what we can get by it. But this doctrine takes the
light and the nobleness out of human life. We feel instinctively that it
answers only to our meaner and commoner part: this thought cuts away our moral
ideal leaves us nothing to aspire to
imprisons us forever in the baseness of
what we are. We are reduced to this dilemma
that our noblest actions and
affections can only exist when the mind is
as it were
hoodwinked and wilfully
ignorant of their real character. But we make appeal to conscience. Is not your
whole notion of moral life based upon the thought that the noblest actions are
those from which the recollection of self is completely eradicated? A human
life is acknowledged to rise in nobleness in proportion as the part of it which
is occupied with self-regarding labours and interests grows less
and the part
which we are accustomed to look upon as disinterested grows larger. In the
quality of our less interested actions
we rise from the lower to the higher
just in proportion as we painfully purge away from them the clinging taint of
self. The purity and depth of love are measured precisely by this--whether the
thought of self becomes more frequent and more prevailing
or silently and
completely fades away. When there is undue anticipation of what is to be
obtained in a future life
Christianity becomes nothing more or higher than the
utilitarian philosophy upon an extended scale
and with coarser issues. St.
Theresa saw in a vision a strange and awful woman
bearing in the one hand
water
in the other fire. Asking her whither she went
she replied
“I go to
burn up heaven
and to quench hell
that henceforth men may love God for
Himself alone.” Is there nothing here which finds a ready echo in our noblest
instincts? Do we not to a large extent create the difficulty which afterwards
we try to resolve
by making the ideas of reward and punishment co-extensive
with that of a future life? If heaven be a reward
we know that we have not
earned it. To the common imagination heaven is nothing better or higher than a
kind of Mahometan paradise
full of enjoyments less markedly sensual
yet which
whoever is fortunate enough to pass its gates can enjoy without further
preparation. If heaven be something loftier; if its central idea be a closer
communion with God
a larger knowledge of His purposes
a fuller cooperation
with His will
it assumes quite another aspect to the enlightened conscience.
It is the better part of our present life indefinitely strengthened and
purified and brightened. Heaven is purer love
larger trust
more perfect
service. We do not “serve God for nought
” and yet just as little do we serve
Him for what we can get by it. We are like little children with their mother. We
loved her when we received everything from her
and assuredly loved her no less
when she had no more to give and asked much from us. From the bounty of God we
can never escape. He wins us first by His goodness; happy are we if at last we
turn to Him for Himself. (C. Beard
B. A.)
Disinterested goodness
The Satan puts at once
into words a view of human springs of action
not confined to a single age.
There is no such thing
he says
as “disinterested goodness.” Such a question
such a view
is not confined to evil spirits
or to the story of the man of Uz.
The question had been raised when this book was written. It is one of the main
questions
some have said
the main question of all
with which this book is
meant to deal. But the view embodied in (the) Satan’s words is one which you
may have heard whispered
or loudly spoken
now and here
as there and then.
There is no such thing
you may be told
as a love of goodness for its own
sake. There is always some ulterior aim
some selfish motive. Even religion
you will hear
even the religion of Christ
is a mere matter of selfish
interest. It is nothing more
even when sincere
than a selfish device to
escape from pain
and enjoy happiness hereafter. “Doth Job fear God for
nought?” You see how far the words extend. They cover a wider range than that
of the character of one child of Adam. They go down to the very springs of human
nature; down to the very essence
and even the existence of goodness itself.
“Can men and women care for goodness and mercy
or for truth
or for
righteousness
for their own sake?” Nay
the arrow launched at Job flies
farther
it is really pointed at God Himself. If (the) Satan is right.
it is
not only that there is no such thing as disinterested goodness
but God Himself
is robbed of His highest and noblest attribute. If He can no longer win the
hearts
and retain in joy and sorrow the reverential affection of those on whom
He showers His benefits; if He can no longer inspire anything but a mercenary
love
He may be all-powerful still
but there are surely those among our fellow
creatures
whom some of us know
or have known
who must come before Him in our
homage. Heaven and earth are no longer full of His glory. You see how vital the
question which the challenge stirs
and how rightly it has been said
that in
the coming contest
Job is the champion
not of his own character only
but of
all who care for goodness
and of God Himself. The challenge is given and
accepted; and power is granted to (the) Satan to test the good man
the “perfect
and upright” Job
with the loss of that on the possession of which the accuser
believes all his goodness to be based. Satan is not represented in this book as
the suggester of evil to the human soul
nor as the fallen angel
his Maker’s
foe. He is depicted as simply a malicious spirit
whose power for evil is
rigidly limited by his Master
and the Master of the world. And such as he is
he goes forth to work His will. And once more the scene shifts to the land of
Uz. (Dean Bradley.)
Satanic selfishness
He himself has sunk into
an evil condition
for he delights in making even good men seem bad
in fitting
good deeds with evil motives. Self is his centre
not God; and he suspects all
the world of a selfishness like his own. He cannot
or will not
believe in an
unselfish
a disinterested goodness. (S. Cox
D. D.)
Is it selfish to be
religious
Satan employs a base
insinuation against the servant of the Lord. “Doth Job fear God for nought?” He
cannot find room to accuse Job. There is no foothold for him in Job’s
character; he cannot bring a railing accusation against him. So he imputes bad
motives. He says that Job fears God for what he can get out of it. It is not to
be wondered at that Satan employs such a weapon. What is true of Satan is true
of all his sons. “Marvel not if the world hate you.” A treacherous heart
accuses all of treachery. Job signally refutes the slander. Carey was offered
by the government £1000 per annum if he would turn interpreter. He had nobler
work than that. They raised the bribe--£5000 in the service of your country.
No
he had nobler work than that. Yet Satan might have insinuated
“Doth Carey
serve God for nought?” Although this was a base insinuation
Satan really made
assertion of a blessed fact. He himself confesses
“Hast Thou not made a hedge
about him?” etc. Godliness with contentment is great gain. We do not serve God
for nought. He is not a Master who forgets to care for His servants
or treats
His children ill. The poorest and meanest of God’s saints would bear glad testimony
to the unmistakable fact that it is good to serve God; it has the promise of
the life that now is
and of that which is to come. (Thomas Spurgeon.)
The satanic insinuation
God’s challenge calls
forth this reply from Satan. It is an insolent reply
in character with the
speaker; but one which nevertheless reveals a great deal of keen insight.
1. Satan’s
reply discloses his conception of Divine providence. “Hast Thou not made a
hedge about him?” There are two ways of looking at the hedges
or limitations
of life. Those who know of what use they are in protecting and guarding men
accept them gratefully. Those who know little of the uses of such limitations
are often found to be impatient of them. Satan’s desire concerning every life
is that there shall be no hedge about it.
2. Satan’s
reply supplies his estimate of piety
that it is selfish. A literal translation
would be
“Doth Job fear God gratis?” He suspects that there is no such thing
as disinterested goodness. If Job’s piety had turned out to be selfish
the
probability is that the piety of the best of us would prove equally selfish.
3. Satan’s
reply expresses his estimate of Job. The mission of Satan
according to his own
showing
had been that of a peripatetic critic. He had failed to tempt Job
so
all he could do was
suggest a false and unworthy motive. When we deal with
human motive
we deal with one of the most mysterious things in God’s world.
Now
I do not expect a better theory of goodness from the devil than that at
best it is selfish. No one can rise to a higher altitude than he himself
occupies
and when anyone tells me that Christian motive is necessarily a
selfish motive I know where he is living. I know the altitude he has reached.
It is a law of life that the man who is incapable of an unselfish act is the
greatest sceptic on God’s earth about the unselfishness of others. He can only
grasp the possibility of being unselfish by being partaker of that exalted
quality himself. On that principle
when Satan speaks about piety
I do not expect
that he should see anything higher or nobler than selfishness in it. I know of
nothing so satanic in life as to impute impious motives to godly men. That
scepticism as to the possibility of disinterested piety gives me a glimpse into
the depths of depravity in the heart of the being who is capable of uttering
it. The denial of the possibility of disinterested piety reveals the saddest
degradation on the part of the man who is capable of such a denial. There is no
power that can save him except that which shall renew his whole nature; for
there is no power that can redeem a man save as it makes him unselfish. After
all
down deep in the heart of man
there is a profound belief in and
admiration of unselfishness. Who are the great men of the past
even in the
world’s estimation? The men who denied themselves for the sake of their
fellows; great reformers
who suffered in order to uplift their fellows. We all
instinctively feel keenly the charge of selfishness. We are all ashamed of
being considered selfish. In this even those who profess to cling to the
philosophy of selfishness are nobler than their creed. Let me remind you of the
fact
that as long as we gather round the Cross
and recognise there the
highest expression of a surrendering love for us
so long shall we believe in
the possibility of self-denial and disinterested services
and our highest
desire and aim shall be that the mind which was also in Christ Jesus may be in
us. (David Davies.)
Is piety mercenary
I shall give you Satan’s
sense in three notable falsities
which he twists up together in this one
speech
”Doth Job fear God for nought?”
1. That
riches will make any man serve God; that it is no great matter to be holy when
we have abundance; a man that prospers in the world cannot choose but be good.
This Satan implies in these words
and this is an extreme lie (Deuteronomy
28:47).
Abundance doth not draw the heart unto God. Yet Satan would infer that it doth.
This might well be retorted upon Satan himself. Satan
why didst not thou serve
God then? thou didst once receive more outward blessings from God than ever Job
did
the blessedness of an angel.
2. There
is this in it: “Doth Job fear God for nought?” Satan intimates that God could
have no servants for love
none unless He did pay them extremely; that God is
such a Master
and His work such as none would meddle with
unless allured by
benefits. Here is another lie Satan windeth up closely in this speech; for the
truth is
God’s servants follow Him for Himself: the very excellences of God
and sweetness of His ways
are the argument and the wages by which His people
are chiefly moved to His service. God indeed makes many promises to those that
serve Him
but He never makes any bargains with them: His obey Him freely.
Satan makes bargains to hire men to his service (Matthew
4:9).
3. Then
there is a third sense full of falsehood
which Satan casteth upon Job
“Doth
Job fear God for nought?” that is
Job hath a bias in all that he doth
he is
carried by the gain of godliness
not by any delight in godliness
thus to
serve God. Job is mercenary; Job doth not seek the glory of God
but he seeks
his own advantage.
Thus in brief you see the
sense
I shall give you some observations from it.
1. It is
an argument of a most malignant spirit
when a man’s actions are fair
then to
accuse his intentions. The devil hath nothing to say against the actions of
Job
but goes down into his heart and accuseth his intentions. Malice
misinterprets the fairest actions
but love puts the fairest interpretation it
can upon foul actions.
2. That
it is an argument of a base and an unworthy spirit to serve God for ends. Had
this been true of Job in Satan’s sense
it had indeed blemished all that he had
done. Those that come unto God upon such terms
they are not holy
but crafty.
As sin is punishment enough unto itself; though there were no other punishment:
so to do good is reward enough unto itself. But here a question will arise
May
we not have respect to our own good
or unto the benefit we shall receive from
God? Must we serve God for nought in that strict sense
or else will God
account nothing of all our services?
I shall clear that in five
brief conclusions.
1. The
first is this
There is no man doth
or possibly can serve God for nought. God
hath by benefits already bestowed
and by benefits promised
outvied and outbid
all the endeavours of the creature. If a man had a thousand pair of hands
a
thousand tongues
and a thousand heads
and should set them all on work for
God
he were never able to answer the obligations which God hath already put
upon him. Therefore this is a truth
that no man can in a strict sense serve
God for nought. God is not beholden to any creature for any work or service
that is done unto Him.
2. Again
this is further to be considered. The more outward blessings anyone doth
receive
the more he ought to serve God
and the more service God looks for at
his hands.
3. In
the third place
it is lawful to have some respect to benefits both received
and promised by way of motive and encouragement to stir us up and quicken us
either in doing or in suffering for God (Hebrews
11:26; Hebrews
12:2).
4. Then
reference unto benefit is sinful
when we make it either the sole and only
cause
or the chief cause of our obedience. This makes anything we do smell so
of ourselves that God abides it not.
5. Lastly
we may look upon them as fruits and consequences of holiness
yea
as
encouragements unto holiness
but not as causes of our holiness; or we may eye
these as media
through which to see the bounty and goodness of God
not as
objects on which to fix and terminate our desires. (J. Caryl.)
Verse
10
Hast not Thou made an hedge about him?
Hedges
(To children):--Satan held that Job was such a good man just
because God took such special care of him. Now
Satan very often says that of
good men; and some of us have been guilty of repeating it. We are so apt to
think that God has made It hedge to protect other lives far more than our own
and that the best people are as good as they are because of some special
protection which God has granted them. The word “hedge” denotes that which
protects or guards. Why does the farmer raise a hedge all round his field? And
God does this. He seeks to protect all our lives. There is many a hedge that we
have hardly ever noticed
and certainly have never properly valued. God has
given some of us a hedge in the example and teaching of good and pious parents;
in the influence of good teachers; in the form of good companionships; in the
discipline we have to undergo in the home
in the school
and in life.
Sometimes a schoolmaster’s cane is a very useful hedge. A hedge not only
shelters
it often keeps us from wandering. Sometimes we do not like hedges; we
should like to see more of the country
and wander at will. God’s way of
hedging us in is not always by sending us blessings which we are pleased to
accept
but sometimes by sending us sorrow and trial. He thus keeps us in our
places
guards us against going astray. That was the kind of hedge that Job did
not like. The farmer sometimes plants thorns in his hedges
and we must not be
surprised if God does. After all
a hedge may become a very lovely thing. What
would the landscape often be without hedges? God makes the hedges along the
country full of beauty
poetry
and song. And in our lives here
this is just
what the Lord Jesus has done. The old Law of Moses was like a stone hedge. The
hedges of the Lord Jesus are like our quick-set hedges. He makes His
commandments sweet and welcome
and the ways of His testimonies full of
delight. It is the love of Christ constrains us
and that is always a sweet
constraint. (David Davies.)
God protects His people
1. That the protection God gives to His people and servants is the
vexation of Satan
and of all his instruments.
2. That Satan
the father of lies
sometimes speaks truth for his own
advantage.
3. That the people and servants of God dwell in the midst of enemies
in the midst of dangers.
4. That God Himself doth undertake the guarding and protecting of His
people.
5. You see how far the hedge goeth
not only about his person and
household
but about all that he hath. His meanest thing was hedged about. (J.
Caryl.)
Thou hast blessed the work
of his hands.
Success the outcome of the Divine blessing
1. That all success in business is from the blessing of the Lord.
Satan speaks very good Divinity here; Thou hast blessed: it is from the Lord (Genesis 39:23). That whatsoever he did
the Lord made it to prosper. Working is our part
but prospering is the Lord’s
part. Some take all to themselves
and thank their own labours
their own
wisdom
policy
and parts; others ascribe all to their good fortune
etc. We
see Satan himself here preacheth a truth that will confute them.
2. Everyone ought to be a man of employment. Everyone ought to have
some business to turn his hand. God doth not love to bless those that are idle.
3. That the Lord delighteth to bless those who are industrious. It is
seldom that there is an industrious hand
but there is a blessing of God upon
it. Hence
as we find in one place
the diligent hand maketh rich (Proverbs 10:4; Proverbs 10:22).
4. The blessing of God where it falleth is effectual. If God doth but
bless we shall increase
there is no question of it. Blessing and multiplying
go together. The blessing of God is a powerful blessing. (J. Caryl.)
Verse 11
But put forth Thine hand
now.
Conscious and unconscious
hypocrisy
There are two kinds of
hypocrisy in the world--conscious hypocrisy and unconscious. Of conscious
hypocrisy it is not our intention to speak; we would fain believe that
deliberate hypocrisy is as rare as deliberate atheism. We do not think that it
was with conscious hypocrisy that Satan intended to charge God’s servant Job
or with knowingly serving the Lord for what he could gain by it. Had he been
guilty of this his probation must have made it manifest. It was a more latent
hypocrisy the tempter wished to detect. The accusation of the adversary had
reference to unconscious hypocrisy
and this is not so rare in the world. The
insinuation against the patriarch was
that there was a measure of hypocrisy in
him unknown to his own soul; that there was some self-interest at the root of
his service of which he was not aware; that he was not so honest as he thought
himself
or as others thought him; and that his affliction would elicit these
facts against him. It is true that
to some extent
men are not so good as they
seem; that there is not a little unconscious hypocrisy in the world; that the
characters of men depend
more than they are disposed to acknowledge
upon
their circumstances; that many of us would not be so good as we are were our
positions in life worse. We ought to have examined ourselves very narrowly
and
be well assured of our spiritual estate
ere we think
still less affirm
that
we should not be the same as they--in worse social positions--did we by some
providential reverse change places with them. This unconscious hypocrisy is a
danger to which we are all liable. (Alfred Bowen Evans.)
The ease with which God
can destroy man’s estate
The extreme importunity of
Satan to do mischief. It is a truth which Satan here speaks concerning the hand
of God: that if God do but touch the highest and greatest estate in the world
it will fall to pieces quickly. (J. Caryl.)
He will curse Thee to Thy face.--
Trial the touchstone
1. Satan can only guess at the hearts of men. He would undertake and
enter warranty with God that Job would blaspheme if God did but touch him
but
he was deceived: Satan did but speak at a venture.
2. Affliction is the trial and touchstone of sincerity. When God doth
afflict you
then He doth bring you to the touchstone
to see whether you are
good metal or no; He doth bring you then to the furnace
to try whether you be
dross or gold
or what you are. Affliction is the great discoverer. That
unmasks us. Satan was not out in the thing. While religion and prosperity go
together
it is hard to say which a man follows; but when once they are forced
to a separation
where the heart was will soon be manifest The upright in heart
are like Ruth
--whatsoever becometh of the Gospel
they will be sharers with it
in the same condition. When zeal is kindled only with the beams of worldly
hopes
when worldly hopes fail our zeal is extinct
and our endeavour is cut
off with our expectation. (J. Caryl.)
Temptations of the
afflicted
The hour of affliction is
the hour of temptation. Satan loves to fish when the waters are troubled. He
would bring us to hard thoughts of God by the hard things we suffer from God.
“Touch him
and he will curse Thee to Thy face.” In such stormy weather some
vessels are cast away. Faith is a special antidote against the poison of the
wicked one. It can read love in the blackest of Divine dispensation
as by a
rainbow we see the beautiful image of the sun’s light in the midst of a dark
and waterish cloud. (G. Swinnock.)
So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord
The foe of foes
I.
The enthusiasm
of his malignity. No sooner does he receive permission than he begins in
terrible earnestness. He does not seem to have lost a moment. Like a hungry
vulture in a carrioned atmosphere
he pounces down upon his victim. Now he
strikes at the cattle that were ploughing the field
and the she asses that
were beside them. Then he slays the servants
then with a shaft of fire from
heaven he burns up the “sheep and servants
” and then he breathes a hurricane
through the wilderness
and levels to the dust the house which his children are
revelling in the festive pleasures of family love
and destroys them all. Then
he goes to the utmost point of the liberty which his great Master granted him.
He could do no more with Job’s circumstances. He deprived him as in a moment of
all his property and his children. He had no authority to go beyond this point
at present. He had to wait for another Divine communication before he could
touch the body of Job. He did his utmost
and did it with an infernal delight.
II. The variety of
his agents.
1. Wicked men. He
breathed his malign spirit into the men of Sheba
and they rushed to the work
of violence and destruction. He inflamed the Chaldeans with the same murderous
passions
and then “three bands fell upon the camels
” carried them away
and
slew the servants
etc. Alas! this arch-fiend has access to human souls. “He
worketh in the children of disobedience.” He leadeth them captive at his will.
2. Maternal
nature. The great God gave him power over the elements of nature. He kindled
the lightning
and made it consume the sheep and the servants. He raised the
atmosphere into a tempest
levelled its fury against the house
and brought it
down to the destruction of all within. With heaven’s permission this mighty
spirit of evil can cause earthquakes to engulph cities
breathe pestilences to
depopulate countries
create storms that will spread devastation over sea and
land. “He is the prince of the power of the air.”
III. The celerity of
his movements. How rapidly his fell strokes followed each other. Before the
first messenger of evil had told the patriarch his terrible tale
another
appeared. Whilst the first was “yet speaking
” another came; and whilst the
second was yet speaking
came the third. The carriers of misery trod on the
heels of each other. Why this hurry? Was it because this work of violence was
agreeable to the passions of this foul fiend? Or was it because the rapidity
would be likely so to shock Job’s moral nature as to produce a religious
revulsion
and cause him to do what he desired him to do--curse the Almighty to
His face? Perhaps both. Perhaps the celerity was both his pleasure and his policy.
Trials seldom come alone.
IV. The folly of
his calculations. What was the result of all this on Job? The very reverse of
what Sarah had calculated. He “worshipped.” He did not curse. In his worship we
discover three things:--
1. His profound
sensibility.
2. His exalted
philosophy.
3. His religious
magnanimity.
How disappointed this arch-fiend must have been with the result.
The result was the very opposite to what he had expected--to what he had
wrought for. Thus it has ever been
and thus it will ever be. God may permit
Satan to blast our worldly prospects
to wreck our fortunes
and destroy our
friendships. But if we trust in Him He will not allow him to touch our souls to
their injury. He only uses the fiend to try His servants. An old Welsh minister
in preaching on this text
is reported to have said that God permitted Satan to
try Job as the tradesman tries the coin that his customer has tendered in
payment for the purchased wares. He strikes it on the counter and hears it ring
as rings the true metal
before he accepts it and places it in his drawer. The
great Merchantman employed Satan to ring Job on the counter of trial. He did
so--did so with all the force of his mighty arm
and in the Divine ear the
moral heart of the patriarch vibrated as the music of Divine metal fit for the
treasury in the heavens. (Homilist.)
God sets bounds to the afflictions of His people
1. It is not
always an argument of God’s goodwill and love to have our motions granted. Many
are heard and answered out of anger
not out of love. The children of Israel
required meat for their lusts
and God gave it them.
2. That until God
gives commission
Satan hath no power over the estates or persons of God’s
people
or over anything that belongs unto them.
3. That which
Satan and evil men desire sinfully
the Lord grants holily. The will of God and
the will of Satan joined both in the same thing; yet they were as different as
light and darkness
their ends were as different as their natures.
4. That God
Himself sets bounds to the afflictions of His people.
5. That Satan is
boundless in his malice toward the people of God. If God did not set him bounds
he would set himself no bounds
therefore saith God unto him
only upon
himself
etc. (J. Caryl.)
Verses
13-22
Verse 16
While he was yet speaking
there came also another.
The calamities of Job
I. Many
agents are watching for opportunities to injure us
but are restrained by the
power of God. These may be divided into the visible and invisible. There are
the invisible
those fallen spirits
of whose apostasy and active malignity so
much is said in Scripture. Here you will see how the devil first tried to take
away Job’s character for sincerity and virtue
then to insinuate that he was no
better than a mercenary hypocrite
then to suggest that if he was but deprived
of his outward possessions he would soon prove himself to be a downright
blasphemer. Have we any reason to suppose it is otherwise with respect to us?
Is not Satan still injuriously active? There are visible foes of our interests
and of our peace. Man is not only alienated from God
but also from his fellow
creatures. You especially ought to consider the debt you owe to God’s
restraining and preserving mercy. Persecution is perfectly natural to depraved
man. It is providence which throws chains upon his black and malignant
passions.
II. The
creatures can be readily converted by God into the authors of our injury or
destruction. It is so with the very elements of nature themselves. So with our
social connections. “A man’s foes may be those of his own household.” Thus it
is also with our secular possessions: they may prove curses rather than
blessings.
III. The
external dispensations of God’s providence are not infallible criteria by which
to form our estimate of human character. Prosperity is not
for it often
happens that the horn of the wicked is exalted
and that they flourish like a
green bay tree. Adversity is not an unequivocal test. Learn--
1. Our
obligations to the protecting care of God.
2. What
an illustration has been supplied of the precariousness of that tenure by which
all earthly things are held. (John Clayton.)
The testing of Job
The question discussed in
the Book of Job is this--Is it possible for man to be actuated by disinterested
love for his Maker? Observe the tests to which Job was subjected.
I. He
was ‘tried circumstantially. Though bereft of everything
Job does not throw
off his allegiance to heaven
nor shriek curses into the ears of the infinite.
Desolate he says--“Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
II. He
was tried constitutionally. Satan asks--Let me act on him? He is smitten with a
loathsome disease. Does his faith stand this?
III. He
was tried theologically. His friends denounced him as a sinner. His nature
rebelled. For many a long day he was tortured in his deepest convictions
the
tenderest nerves of his soul. Does his loyalty to heaven then give way; does
his trust in the Almighty die out? Here
in Job
is the question settled for
all time
that the human soul is not essentially selfish. It can “fear God for
nought.” (Homilist.)
The design of affliction
Job and affliction have
long been associated together in our minds. Next to the “man of sorrows
” Job
was perhaps the most afflicted of the servants of God. The principle of
substitution at once explains the sufferings of the one
but to account for the
sufferings of the other seems at first sight more difficult. The Book of Job is
the most ancient of all the books of inspiration
and is entirely independent
of them. Job’s history is not linked with that of the people of God
nor does
it advance in any way the manifestation of the purposes of God. As resulting
from the fall
and as stamping the Divine curse upon creation
affliction is
the common lot of mankind. Affliction
in one shape or another
is the special
portion of God’s people. God is the author of the afflictions of His people. We
are apt to ascribe it to second causes
and to lose sight of the great first
cause. God has a design in affliction.
I. The
design of God in the afflictions of the wicked.
1. He
intends to punish the wicked by affliction. But He designs also to awaken them
to arrest their attention
and to show them the nothingness and vanity of all
things here. How blessed is that affliction which brings the prodigal back to
his father’s house
however severe it may be.
II. The
design of God in afflicting His own people.
1. To
try the genuineness of their faith. The apostle speaks of the “trial of our
faith.” In all his trial Job’s faith was found genuine
and to the praise and
honour of God; Job never does anything which is inconsistent with his being a
child of God. Some
when they are put into the furnace of affliction
prove
themselves to have been but hypocrites.
2. To
discover the latent corruption of their hearts. When a man is first converted
he little thinks how much evil there still remains behind! But the trial comes
and then unbelief arises in its former strength. Rebelliousness rages in every
region of the soul. Unsubdued passions resume their strength
and he is utterly
dismayed at the fearful scene. Job
who was the most patient of all men
then
showed impatience. In the days of his prosperity he seemed to be perfect
but
affliction showed what was in his heart.
3. To
purify and to sanctify them. God puts us into the furnace to purge us from the
dross--to make us holy and spiritually minded--to make us seek those things
which are above.
4. To
call into exercise the graces of the Spirit. There is a great tendency even in
the people of God to spiritual sloth and slumber. They have grace
but their
grace is not in lively exercise. Their movements are sluggish and lifeless. By
affliction God awakens us to a sense of our high responsibilities
and calls forth
into exercise our dormant graces.
5. To
enhance the value of true religion. What can sustain you when trial and
trouble
in various forms
has come upon you
but real
heartfelt piety? What
else could have supported Job in his unparalleled and complicated afflictions?
6. God
afflicts His people also in order to manifest His own glorious attributes. The
great object in all that God does is to manifest His own glory. Learn--
Whom He loveth He
chasteneth
Among the mysteries of
God’s providence there is perhaps no mystery greater than the law by which
suffering is meted out in the world. It is not a mystery that sin should bring
forth sorrow; it is not a mystery that pain
disease
and death should be the
fruit of man’s fall. The conscience of men in all ages--the heathen as well as
the Jewish and Christian--has acquiesced in the justice of that moral
constitution of things by which sin becomes chastisement and suffering the
expiation of guilt. The really difficult problem is not the problem of
suffering in the abstract: it is the problem of the meting out of suffering on
any theory; it is the problem why the innocent are called upon to suffer
whilst the guilty too often escape. This is a problem which comes before us in
the Book of Job. Job is a righteous man
living in the fear of God
and
eschewing evil. He is a man of large wealth and possessions
but he does not
spend his wealth in selfish gratification. He is charitable to the poor
hospitable to the stranger
bountiful to all. He was not only the greatest of
all the men of the East--he was the best. But in a moment the sky of his
prosperity is overcast; blow follows blow with fearful rapidity. On what
principle of justice is such a man made to suffer? Here is a man exemplary in
life
devout
pure
charitable
of sterling integrity
earnest piety
and
sincere faith in God; Why is he crushed with this awful suffering? Contrast
with this the tragedy of “Prometheus
” written by AEschylus. Prometheus has
been the benefactor of mankind. He has entered into a sublime conflict with
Zeus
the supreme being
for the good of the race. He is crushed by his
adversary and he dies with defiance on his lips. The conception is grand
but
the chief element of grandeur lies in the fact that it is power
and not
righteousness
which sits on the throne
and rebellion against supreme power
which is not supreme right must always be grand. The struggle in the history of
Job is far nobler. He knows that the God he worships is not supreme power only
but supreme righteousness also. This it is that makes his trial so hard. With
him the difficulty is to reconcile the God of his conscience and his faith with
the God who is ruling the world. On the throne of the universe sits one who
judging by the facts of life
is not absolutely righteous. The struggle in the
drama of Job is not the defiance of power
it is not the arrogant assertion of
self-righteousness: it is the confession of ignorance of self
and ignorance of
God; it is the submission of the sorely tried man to the revelation of that God
whose revelation he had longed to see. The problem is that of innocent
suffering. What is the solution of it? Three answers are given.
1. That
of the three friends. Though representing three different types of character
all concur in one thing--they all hold the same theory of the Divine
government
and on the strength of that theory they all condemn Job. God is
just
and therefore God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. If a man
suffers
he suffers because he deserves it. Job may be upright
but he must be
cherishing some secret sin
and it is this which has called down on him the
vengeance of the Most High. This is their compendious system of theology. But
it breaks down. It is not large enough to cover the facts. Centuries of teaching
could not root out of men’s minds the obstinate belief that suffering is the
measure of sin; but the sufferer himself repudiates it. The righteousness of
God is the fundamental article of God’s creed; but then comes his cruel
perplexity. Job does not maintain absolute freedom from sin. For a moment he is
tempted to take refuge in blind submission. But in his inmost heart he cries
out
“God must be righteous.” And so to the very last word he uttered he
refused to be convinced of direct sin as the cause of his suffering. We know
that Job is right
bat he still needed to learn the greatest lesson of all
that his very righteousness was not his own. He is right in maintaining his own
innocence against his friends
right in holding fast his integrity
right in
trusting God through all
right in appealing to Him to declare his
righteousness when it seems to be hidden.
2. Another
theory of suffering is given by Elihu. He is angry with Job for his obstinacy;
and with the friends
because they have failed so completely to vindicate the
righteousness of God. Elihu represents a younger theology. God’s purpose in
chastisement He declares to be the purification of His servant. If He puts
those whom He loves into the crucible
it is to purge away their dross
to
cleanse them from past sins
and to keep them from failing in the future. Here
certainly
is a step in advance. To see a purpose of love in affliction is to
turn it into a blessing. Job accepts in silence this interpretation of
suffering.
3. But
the mystery of suffering is not fully explained even when this purifying power
is assigned to it. There is a suffering which is not even for the salvation or
purification of the individual soul
but for the glory of God. In the prelude
Satan tells God to His face that His servants serve Him not from disinterested
motives or sincere affection
but in the spirit of the hireling
from the
lowest and most mercenary
considerations. “Doth Job fear God for nought?” This
is the challenge given
and it is one that strikes at the nature of God
Himself. It means that he is incapable of inspiring a genuine
disinterested
affection. God accepts the challenge. Job has to learn that suffering comes
because God is honoured in the trial of His people; and surely no more noble
part can be assigned to man than to be the champion of God. (Bishop Perowne.)
The mystery of pleasure
and pain
Pleasure and pain
happiness and suffering
are elements of creaturely experience appointed by
God. The right use of them makes life
the wrong use of them mars it. They are
ordained
all of them
in equal degrees
to a good end; for all that God does
is done in perfect love as well as in perfect justice. It is no more wonderful
that a good man should suffer than that a bad man should suffer: for the good
man
the man who believes in God and therefore in goodness
making a right use
of suffering
will gain by it in the true sense; he will reach a deeper and a
nobler life. It is no more wonderful that a bad man
one who disbelieves in
God
and therefore in goodness
should be happy
than that a good man should be
happy
the happiness being God’s appointed means for both to reach a higher
life. The main element of this higher life is vigour
but not of the body. The
Divine purpose is spiritual evolution. That gratification of the sensuous side
of our nature for which physical health and a well-knit organism are
indispensable--paramount in the pleasure philosophy--is not neglected
but is
made subordinate to the Divine culture of life. The grace of God aims at the life
of the spirit--power to love
to follow righteousness
to dare for justice’s
sake
to seek and grasp the true
to sympathise with men and bear with them
to
bless them that curse
to suffer and be strong. To promote this vitality
all
that God appoints is fitted--pain as well as pleasure
adversity as well as
prosperity
sorrow as well as joy
defeat as well as success. We wonder that
suffering is so often the result of imprudence. On the ordinary theory the fact
is inexplicable
for imprudence has no dark colour of ethical faultiness. He
who by an error of judgment plunges himself and his family into what appears
irretrievable disaster may
by all reckoning
be almost blameless in character.
If suffering is held to be penal
no reference to the general sin of humanity
will account for the result. But the reason is plain. The suffering is
disciplinary. The nobler life at which Divine providence aims must be sagacious
no less than pure
guided by sound reason no less than right feeling. And if it
is asked how
from this point of view
we are to find the punishment of sin
the answer is
that happiness as well as suffering is punishment to him whose
sin and the unbelief that accompanies it pervert his view of truth
and blind
him to the spiritual life and to the will of God. The pleasures of a wrong-doer
who persistently denies obligation to Divine authority and refuses obedience to
the Divine law are no gain
but loss. They dissipate and attenuate his life.
His sensuous or sensual enjoyment
his delight in selfish triumph and gratified
ambition
are real
give at the time quite as much happiness as the good man
has in his obedience and virtue
and perhaps a great deal more. But they are
penal and retributive nevertheless
and the conviction that they are so becomes
clear to the man whenever the light of truth is flashed upon his spiritual
state. On the other hand
the pains and disasters which fall to the lot of evil
men
intended for their correction
if in perversity or in blindness they are
misunderstood
again become punishment
for they too dissipate and attenuate
life. The real good of existence slips away while the mind is intent on the
mere pain or vexation
and how it is to be got rid of. (Robert A. Watson
D.
D.)
The three-fold calamity
This sincere
right-hearted
man must be passed through the entire round of human troubles. If any usual
form of human sorrow is left untried in the case of Job
then the problem of
the book is not yet fully solved. According to this poet author
the calamity
of human life is three fold.
I. Trouble
affects a man through his possessions. The case of Job is quite a model of the
troubles that can come to a man through his possessions. He had scarcely time
to take breath after hearing one mournful tale before another messenger of woe
burst upon him
and the climax of his woe seems utterly heartbreaking. How is
it that these changes of circumstances came to press on this man as troubles?
Nothing really hurts us save as it affects the mind
and different things
affect us differently according as they reach the various parts of our mental
and spiritual nature. What part of us
then
is touched by these outward
calamities which deprive us of the things that we possess? There is in our
nature the desire of acquisition
and its satisfaction is the source of very
many of our pleasures. The hurt to the mind which follows on losing our
possessions takes its highest form in the loss of our children and friends. So
far
however
as such troubles are concerned
our manhood ought to be great enough
to enable us to deal with them
and we have no overwhelming admiration for the
man who can see all his possessions go and yet maintain his integrity and keep
his hold on God.
II. Troubles
may come to a man through his body. We could not easily overestimate the
relation which health and bodily vigour bear to a bright
hopeful spirit and a
cheery
active faith. A vast proportion of the doubts and fears and inward
struggles of men have their secret source in conditions of the beds
failure at
the springs of vitality
or the presence of insidious disease. The secret
relations of the body and the spirit are very mysterious. Consequently you come
nearer to a man
you touch him to the quick
you put his spirit to a far higher
test
when you bring calamity in upon his body. From the descriptions given it
is probable that Job’s disease was what Eastern travellers know as
elephantiasis
because the extremities of the body swell enormously
and the
skin becomes as hard as the elephant’s hide. It is hard to bear when disease is
painful; harder still when it is prostrating; harder still when it is
disfiguring and loathsome; harder still when it involves social disabilities.
And Job’s was all this. Can a man so suffer and keep hold of God? These
calamities which come through our bodies affect other parts of our nature
and
in some senses higher parts. The love of life. The desire of pleasure. The
faculty of hope. All these are struck back
pressed down
forbidden to speak
and it is their inward wrestling which makes the bitterness of such
trouble-times. But if affliction only reached these two things
our possessions
and our bodies
we should not be able to call the testing sublime. Something
would still be wanting.
III. Trouble
affecting a man through his mind. For this greater testing the outward troubles
of Job were but the approach and preparation. These new trials were of a kind
and came in such a way
as was most likely to cause mental confusion. The visit
of the friends
and their bad theology and false accusations
were the very
things to awaken the inner conflicts of the soul. They offered forms of truth
which roused his resistance. They presented creeds
in their grave and formal
way
which Job felt were too small to meet his case. They started doubts in his
mind which almost swelled into the agony of despair. Job’s mental anguish took
one particular form. The facts of his condition were brought into conflict with
the formal creed of his day
the creed in which he himself had been brought up.
That creed declared that suffering was the exact and necessary accompaniment of
every sin; and that great calamity betokened great sin. Job feels sure that
this must somehow be wrong. The creed would not fit his case. Scripture
provides us with other illustrations of this highest and most imperilling form
of human trouble. But the most sublime example is found in the Lord Jesus
Himself. Bodily sufferings He had
but no man knows what the Lord has borne for
him until he can enter into the spiritual conflict of Christ’s temptation
and
the infinitely mysterious inward distress of Gethsemane and Calvary. We are not
alone in these agonies of soul. Not alone while the struggle is being waged
not alone in the blessed victory it may be given us to win. We
too
with Job
may hold fast our integrity. Two things need a passing notice. Observe how the
mental struggle was intensified by the influence of the foregoing outward
calamities. The loss of all he possessed had humbled him. Grief at the loss of
his children had oppressed him. Long-continued suffering of body had wearied
him
and now the very spirit was weak. And observe also
that in such times of
strain a man may very nearly fail and yet hold his integrity. Sometimes a man
is
for a moment
smitten down. Job sometimes fails
and talks foolishly. He
seems as if
in his desperation
he set his righteousness against God’s. But
from the very borderland of infidelity and despair Job comes back to the trust
and the rest of the child heart that finds the Father in God. (Robert Tuck
B. A.)
Usually where God gives
much grace
He tries grace much
To whom God hath given
strong shoulders
on him
for the most part
He layeth heavy burdens. And so we
are come to the second main division of the chapter
which is the affliction of
Job; and that is set forth from this verse 6 to the end of verse 19. And lest
we should conceive it to have come upon him by chance
it is punctually
described four ways.
1. By
the causes of it (verse 6
7
etc.).
2. By
the instruments of it (verse 15
16
etc.).
3. By
the manner of it (verses 14
15
16
etc.).
4. By
the time of it (verse 13). (J. Caryl.)
The tests to which God
puts His people
God puts His servants
sometimes into these experiments that He may test them (as He did Job)
that
Satan himself may know how true-hearted God’s grace has made them
and that the
world may see how they can play the man. Good engineers
if they build a
bridge
are glad to have a train of enormous weight go over it. When the first
great exhibition was built they marched regiments of soldiers
with a steady
tramp
over the girders
that they might be quite sure that they would be
strong enough to bear any crowd of men
for the regular tramp of
well-disciplined soldiers is more trying to a building than anything else. So
our wise and prudent Father sometimes marches the soldiery of trouble right
over His people’s supports
to let all men see that the grace of God can
sustain every possible pressure and load. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The severest temptation
last
When he thinks we are at
the weakest
then he cometh with the strongest assaults. If Satan had sent Job
word of the death of his children first
all the rest would have been as
nothing to him. We observe in war
that when once the great ordnance are
discharged
the soldiers are not afraid of the musket: so when a great battery
is made by some thundering terrible judgment upon the soul
or upon the body
or estate of any man
the noise and fears of lesser evils are drowned and
abated. Therefore Satan keeps his greatest shot to the last
that the small
might be heard and felt
and that the last coming in greater strength might
find the least strength to resist it. (J. Caryl.)
Verse
20
And worshipped.
The grand victory
This is the grandest scene that human nature has ever
presented. The world had never seen anything to compare to it. The greatest
conqueror that ever won his triumph in Rome was as a pigmy beside the giant.
I. The triumph of mind over
matter. Job’s soul seems to soar above what is material. Things which were seen
faded from his view
and things which were not seen grew bright and distinct.
The dying Stephen saw the Lord Jesus in his vision. But Job was not a dying
man. He was in full strength and vigour. It is possible
then
so to triumph
over that which is seen and temporal
that even in this world heaven is a
reality.
II. The triumph of principle
over selfishness. Principle and selfishness are always antagonistic. There is a
constant warfare going on between these in the universe
in the world
in the
soul. Self is too often the victor. But in Job religious principle was supreme.
He rose up and worshipped! Selfish human nature would have raved and cursed.
The worldly man would have cursed his luck
cursed his foes
cursed the
Chaldeans
and cursed everything. There does not seem to have been any struggle
in the mind of Job. He seems
by constant patience and by the unceasing habit
of giving principle the first place
to have been raised almost above strife
and contention. There is a time when contest ceases. Sometimes self
after a
few weeks or years
obtains the mastery
and then to self the man habitually
yields. But we do occasionally find cases wherein principle is victor
and then
homage is paid hereafter unquestioningly to its sovereignty.
III. The triumph of religion
over worldliness. The world passed out of Job’s ken as a factor in his fate.
Many would have said
What a strange combination of circumstances! What a
terrible coincidence! What an unlucky man! “The Lord hath taken away.” Here is
a pattern for causalists
who look to minor details instead of to the prime
Ruler of all things. This is the true sphere of religion--to east out all else
from a man’s life--all except God. Then
and then alone
has it triumphed over
the world
and sin
and temptation.
IV. The triumph of Divine
grace over the devil’s temptations. (Homilist.)
The humble saint under an awful rod
1. The best of men are often exercised with the sorest troubles. Job
was a perfect and upright man
fearing God and eschewing evil. Those who are
nearest God’s heart may smart most under His rod.
2. When things go best with us as to this world
we should look for
changes. Presumption of continued prosperity is unwarrantable; for who can tell
what a day may bring forth? If any man in the world had reason to promise
himself a security from poverty and distress
surely it was this eminent
servant of God. The Lord had blessed him with large possessions
and a numerous
offspring. He could appeal to heaven as to the integrity of his conduct
that
he had got his wealth without oppressing the poor or injuring his fellow
creatures. Let us therefore take care how we say our mountain shall stand
strong and cannot be moved
for who can tell what is in the womb of providence?
This will
in a great measure
prepare us for the trial
if God should call us
to it. On the other hand
we should be cautious how we sink under our burdens
when the Lord is contending with us
and entertain gloomy apprehensions that
deliverance is impossible. Our wisdom lies in the medium
between resting in
and boasting of blessings
and limiting the power and goodness of God
as if He
could not support us under trouble
or make a way for our escape.
3. The grace of God is given us
not to erase or destroy our natural
passions and affections
but to correct
restrain
and purify them. Job arose
rent his mantle and shaved his head
and this before he set himself to worship.
The grace of God is designed to regulate
refine
and spiritualise our natural
affections
which
if left to themselves
are ready to run rote riot and
excess.
4. Saints under trouble usually find that relief at the throne of
grace
when pouring out their souls to God in prayer
which they meet with
nowhere else.
5. Seriously to reflect on what we once were
in a state of infancy
and what we shall be when laid up in the grave
is a good means to reconcile
our minds to afflictive emptying providences. Pride is the mother of
discontent. Humility gives the sweetest relish to all our enjoyments
and
prepares the mind with a becoming resignation to part with them at the will of
our original Proprietor
who is the Sovereign Disposer of all things.
6. Good men desire to look beyond second causes to the hand of God in
all their mercies and afflictions. Job mentions not a word of his own industry
or care in obtaining
or of the Sabeans and Chaldeans in robbing him of his
substance
but
the “Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away.” Means and
instruments have their influence
but it is under a Divine agency or
permission. Those which are best suited to promote a desirable end will
certainly miscarry without His concurrence
and the most envenomed enemies of
God and His people can do no more than He is pleased to suffer.
7. Satan
the accuser of the brethren
narrowly watches the saint
when oppressed with affliction
and if anything can be pleasing to a spirit so
completely miserable
it would be to hear him speak unadvisedly with his lips
and charge God foolishly. It is hard work
but how very reasonable! For a saint
cannot be in that situation not to have much to bless God for. More and better
is always left than is taken away
such as God Himself
His unchangeable love
the glorious Redeemer
the Holy Spirit
an everlasting covenant
the blessings
of redemption and sanctification
with grace and glory. And who does not see
that all the sufferings and losses of this world are not worthy to be compared
with any one of these
much less than with them all! (S. Wilson.)
Right behaviour in times of affliction
1. That when the hand of God is upon us
it becometh us to be
sensible of it
and to be humbled under it.
2. That in times of affliction we may express our sorrows by outward
gestures
by sorrowful gestures.
3. That when God afflicteth us with sufferings
we ought to afflict
ourselves
to humble our souls for sin.
4. That thoughts of blasphemy against God should be cast off
and
rejected with the highest indignation. (J. Caryl.)
Afflictions turned into prayers
1. A godly man will not let nature work alone
he mixes or tempers
acts of grace with acts of nature.
2. Afflictions send the people of God home unto God; afflictions draw
a godly man nearer unto God.
3. That the people of God turn all their afflictions into prayers
or
into praises. When God is striking
then Job is praying; when God is
afflicting
then Job falls to worshipping. Grace makes every condition work
glory to God
as God makes every condition work good to them who have grace.
4. It becometh us to worship God in an humble manner.
5. That Divine worship is God’s peculiar. (J. Caryl.)
Verse 21
Naked came I out of my
mother’s womb
and naked shall I return thither.
Job’s resignation
Job was very much
troubled
and did not try to hide the outward signs of his sorrow. A man of God
is not expected to be a stoic. The grace of God takes away the heart of stone
out of his flesh
but it does not turn his heart into a stone. I want you
however
to notice that mourning should always be sanctified with devotion. “Ye people
pour out your hearts before Him: God is a refuge for us.” When you are bowed
down beneath a heavy burden of sorrow
then take to worshipping the Lord
and
especially to that kind of worshipping which lies in adoring God
and in making
a full surrender of yourself to the Divine will
so that you can say with Job
“Though He slay me
yet will I trust in Him.” It will also greatly alleviate
our sorrow if we then fall into serious contemplations
and begin to argue a
little
and to bring facts to bear upon our mind. “While I was musing
” said
David
“the fire burned
” and it comforted and warmed him. Job is an instance
of this kind of personal instruction; he has three or four subjects which he
brings before his own mind
and these tend to comfort him.
I. The extreme
brevity of life. Observe what Job says
“Naked came I out of my mother’s womb
and naked shall I return thither.” We appear for a brief moment
and then we
vanish away. I often
in my own mind
compare life to a procession. Well now
because life is so short
do you not see where the comfort comes? Job says to
himself
“I came
and I shall return; then why should I worry myself about what
I have lost? I am going to be here only a little while
then what need have I
of all those camels and sheep? If my earthly stores vanish
well
I shall
vanish too.” Further
Job seems especially to dwell with comfort upon the
thought
“I shall return to the earth
from which all the particles of my body
originally came: I shall return thither.” You recollect how the tribe of Gad
and the tribe of Reuben went to Moses
and said
“If we have found grace in thy
sight
let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession
and bring us
not over Jordan.” Of course
they did not want to cross the Jordan if they
could get all their possessions on the other side. But Job had not anything
this side Jordan; he was cleaned right out
so he was willing to go. And
really
the losses that a man has
which make him “desire to depart
and to be
with Christ
which is far better
” are real gains. What is the use of all that
clogs us here?
II. Job seems to
comfort himself by noticing the tenure of his earthly possessions. “Naked
”
says he
“came I out of my mother’s womb
and naked shall I return thither.” He
feels himself to be very poor
everything is gone
he is stripped; yet he seems
to say
“I am not poorer now than I was when I was born.” One said to me
the
other day
“All is gone
sir
all is gone
except health and strength.” Yes
but we had not as much as that when we were born. We had no strength
we were
too weak to perform the least though most necessary offices for our poor tender
frame. Old men sometimes arrive at a second childhood. Do not be afraid
brother
if that is your case; you have gone through one period already that
was more infantile than your second one can be
you will not be weaker then
than you were at first. Suppose that you and I should be brought to extreme
weakness and poverty
we shall neither be weaker nor poorer than we were then.
It is wonderful that
after God has been gracious to us for fifty years
we
cannot trust Him for the rest of our lives; and as for you who are sixty
seventy
or eighty years of age
what! has He brought you thus far to put you
to shame? Did He bear you through that very weakest part of your life
and do
you think He will now forsake you? Then Job adds
“However poor I may be
I am
not as poor as I shall be
for naked shall I return to mother earth. If I have
but little now
I shall soon have still less.” I want you to notice
also
what
I think really was in Job’s mind
that
notwithstanding that he was but dust at
the beginning
and would be dust at the end
still there was a Job who existed
all the while. “I was naked
but I was; naked shall I return thither
but I
shall be there.” Some men never find themselves till they have lost their
goods. They
themselves
are hidden away
like Saul
among the stuff; their
true manhood is not to be seen
because they are dressed so finely that people
seem to respect them
when it is their clothes that are respected. They appear
to be somebodies
but they are nobodies
notwithstanding all that they possess.
III. But perhaps the
most blessed thing is what Job said concerning the hand of God in all things:
“The Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
I am so pleased to think that Job recognised the hand of God everywhere giving
he said
“The Lord gave.” He did not say
“I earned it all.” He did not say
“There are all my hard-earned savings gone.” What a sweet thing it is if you
can feel that all you have in this world is God’s gift to you! A slender income
will give us much content if we can see that it is God’s gift. Let us not only
regard our money and our goods as God’s gifts; but also our wife
our children
our friends. Alas! some of you do not know anything about God. What you have is
not counted by you as God’s gift. You miss the very sweetness and joy of life
by missing this recognition of the Divine hand in giving us all good things
richly to enjoy. But then
Job equally saw God’s hand in taking them away. If
he had not been a believer in Jehovah
he would have said
“Oh
those
detestable Sabeans! Somebody ought to go and cut to pieces those Chaldeans.”
That is often our style
is it not
--finding fault with the secondary agents?
Suppose my dear wife should say to the servant
“Where has that picture gone?”
and the maid replied
“Oh
the master took it!” Would she find fault? Oh
no!
If it had been a servant who took it down
or a stranger who removed it
she
might have said something; but not when I took it
for it is mine. And surely
we will let God be Master in His own house: where we are only the children
He
shall take whatever He pleases of all He has lent us for a while.
IV. Job’s last
comfort lay in this truth
that God is worthy to be blessed in all
things--“Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Let us never rob God of His praise
however dark the day is. “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job means that the
Lord is to be blessed both for giving and taking. “The Lord gave
” blessed be
His name. “The Lord hath taken away
” blessed be His name. Surely it has not
come to this among God’s people
that He must do as we like
or else we will
not praise Him. God is
however
specially to be praised by us whenever we are
moved by the devil to curse. Satan had said to the Lord concerning Job
“Put
forth Thine hand now
and touch all that he hath
and he will curse Thee to Thy
face”; and it seemed as if God had hinted to His servant that this was what the
devil was aiming at. “Then
” said Job
“I will bless Him.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The entrance and exit of
life
1. That every man is born a poor
helpless
naked creature.
2. When death cometh
it shakes us out of all our worldly comforts
and possessions.
3. The life of man is nothing else but a coming and a returning.
Infancy and after life
Job feels himself to be
very poor indeed
everything is gone
he is stripped; yet he seems to say
“I
am not poorer now than I was when I was born.” I had nothing then
not even a
garment to my back but what the love of my mother provided for me. I was
helpless then; I could not do anything for myself whatever. One said to me the
other day
“All is gone
sir
all is gone save health and strength.” Yes
but
he had not so much as that when he was born. David often very sweetly dwells
upon his childhood
and still more upon his infancy; and we shall do well to
imitate him. Suppose that you and I should be brought to extreme weakness and
poverty
we shall never be weaker nor poorer than we were then. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Empty-handed departure
from life
We have heard of a rustic
who
when dying
put a crown piece into his mouth
because he said he would not
be without money in another world; but then he was a clown
and everyone knew
how foolish was his attempt thus to provide for the future. There have been
stories told of persons who have had their gold sewn up in their shrouds
but
they took not a penny with them for all their pains. The dust of great Caesar
may help to stop a hole through which the blast blows
and the dust of his
slave cannot be put to more ignoble uses. The two ends of our life are
nakedness; if the middle of it should not always be scarlet and fine linen
and
faring sumptuously every day
let us not wonder; and if it should seem to be
all of a piece
let us not be impatient or complaining. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away.
The right attitude in time
of trouble
It is an easy thing
to smile when we are pleased
when our enterprises are successful
and our
garners are filled with all manner of store. It is a far different thing to
maintain a thankful spirit in the day of adversity
to “rest in the day of trouble
”
It is no easy thing to contemplate
with an even mind
the reverses of human
life. Yet the patriarch Job was able to meet the most afflicting changes with a
holy composure
to own the hand and to bless the name of God in the cloudy as
in the sunny day. In these words we have a clear statement of the providence of
God in the affairs of human life
and an example of the true disposition and
experience of a child of God.
1. The troubles of Job had fallen upon him four fold. Of each of the
four great troubles which had befallen him
a natural cause had been reported.
If Job could have anticipated the light of modern wisdom
he would
no doubt
have fixed his mind
and allowed it to rest
upon the instruments of his great
affliction. In second causes men seek and find the potency of human events; but
they “regard not the work of the Lord
neither consider the operation of His
hands.” The conduct of Job is an instructive contrast to this
and an edifying
example of the good and right way. He exclaims
“The Lord gave
and the Lord
hath taken away.” It is no less strange than deplorable
that
in proportion as
great discoveries in sciences and arts have wrought effects
there has been an
evil and unreasonable heart of unbelief growing and spreading
and emboldening
men to limit or deny the power of God to exercise a controlling influence in
His own creation and in the affairs of men.
2. We have represented to us the true disposition and conduct of a
child of God in the example before us. Job in deepest distress could say
“Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Edward Meade
M. A.)
Right conduct under the
smiles and frowns of God
I. Men ought to
acknowledge God under the smiles and frowns of providence. God is the Creator
Preserver
and Governor of all things. He rules in the kingdoms of nature
providence
and grace. He controls all the views
purposes
and actions of men.
No good nor evil can come to them but under His direction and by virtue of His
influence. Since God guides all the wheels of providence and governs all
secondary causes
all good and evil are to be traced up to His holy
wise
powerful
righteous
and sovereign hand.
II. Men ought to
bless as well as acknowledge God under both the smiles and frowns of His
providence. Job acknowledged that God had given and taken away
and then adds
what was still more important
“Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
1. God never takes away any favours from mankind but what He meant to
take away when He gave them. As He always has some purpose to answer by every
good gift
so when that good gift has answered the purpose for which it was
given
He takes it away
and not before. So that He acts from the same
benevolent motive in taking away as in bestowing favours.
2. It becomes men to bless God in taking away as well as in giving
peculiar favours
because the favours He continues are generally more numerous
and more important than those He removes.
3. The afflicted always know that whatever personal evils God brings
upon them
He constantly seeks the general good of the universe; and that all
the sufferings they endure are calculated and designed to answer that wise and
benevolent purpose.
4. The afflicted and bereaved have often reason to bless God
because
the evils they are suffering are so much lighter than those that many others
have suffered and are suffering. They are apt to think and say there is no
sorrow like unto our sorrow.
5. Men should always bless God
because this is the only way to make
all His dealings towards them eventually work for their good. There is an
infallible connection between their feeling and acting right under Divine
corrections
and their receiving spiritual and everlasting benefit from them.
Reflections--
1. This subject suggests the propriety of drawing near to God
and
conversing with Him under His correcting hand. His providential dealings have a
meaning and a voice
which the afflicted ought to hear and understand.
2. See the nature of true submission under the afflicting and
bereaving hand of God. It is something very different from stupidity and
insensibility under Divine chastenings. This is not submitting to them
but
despising them
which is highly displeasing to God. (N. Emmons
D. D.)
Job recognising God’s hand
I. The words
spoken imply a conviction of the doctrine of a particular providence. Many
there are who
although they aver that God will not utterly leave an abandoned
world
still deny the existence of a particular providence. Job saw the hand of
God in all the afflictive dispensations under which he lay.
II. Although Job
praises God for the giving of His mercies
still he recognises His hand in the
taking of them away. Tell one who is healthy of the mercy of God in giving him
his strength
and this he may readily acknowledge. But on the withdrawment of
these mercies
how does he receive it?
III. These words
Flow from the conviction of one who saw the Divine justice shining in all His
acts. The real Christian is widely distinguished from the man of the world. The
latter charges God foolishly as acting foolishly
but the former sees plainly
that God is just and holy in all He does.
IV. Job recognised
the Divine wisdom which superintended and controlled his sufferings
for a good
end. These words
as well as recognising God’s dealings as wisest and best
whether in gain or in bereavement
are an answer to the voice of lying and
temptation. Satan had been exceedingly busy
and wished to overwhelm the holy
man with despair. He continually threw in gloomy thoughts and doubts of the
care
and goodness
and wisdom of God. But Job was not to be moved by such
words. (T. Judkin
A. M.)
The life of the true
I. The life of the
true has the ordinary vicissitudes. Job had received children
cattle
and
property from the Lord
and all had been now “taken away.” In the life of all
men there is a constant receiving and losing. Health
pleasure
friendship
fame
property
these come and go. How much that we all once had has been taken
away from us. The freshness of childhood
the buoyancy of youth
the circles of
early friendships. These vicissitudes of life--
1. Remind us that this world is not our rest.
2. Urge us to rest on the Unchangeable.
II. The life of the
true has an ennobling creed. Job felt that God was in all the receivings and
losings of his life. “The Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away.” Some trace
their vicissitudes to chance
and some to necessity
but Job to God. He
recognised God in all the events of his life. This creed is--
1. Reasonable. If there be a God
He must be concerned in
everything--the small as well as the great.
2. Scriptural. The Bible is full of it. Not a sparrow falleth to the
ground without His notice.
3. Dignifying. It brings God in conscious proximity to man in his
everyday life.
III. The life of the
true has a magnanimous religiousness. “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” The
language is that of pious exultation. This spirit is something more than
submission to the Divine will under suffering--even something more than an
acquiescence in the Divine will in suffering. It is exultation in the
manifestation of the Divine will in all the events of life. It amounts to the
experience of Paul
who said
“We glory in tribulation also
knowing that
tribulation worketh patience
patience
experience
” etc. (Homilist.)
God’s dealing with Job
Let us consider God’s
seemingly hard dealing with Job
notwithstanding He had once dealt so
bountifully with him
that is
“The Lord hath taken away.” It is hard
no
doubt
for a man to be born in poverty; and be obliged to struggle on in
poverty and want all his life long; but still I should imagine it must be much
easier for a man who had been born poor to be able to live in poverty
than for
a man who had been born and reared up in plenty and luxury; for a man never
misses what he never possessed. We have a striking instance of this in the
history of the unjust steward. When that unfaithful man was about to be turned
out of office
we find him absorbed for a time in private meditation and
pondering over the terrible change that awaited him; and at last he was forced
to give vent to his feelings in these words
“I cannot dig
and to beg I am
ashamed.” A man of gentle birth
or a man who has been used to enjoy life
when
he is suddenly reduced to poverty and want through some unforeseen and
unavoidable misfortune
has not been used to the hardships that a poor man has
been accustomed to bear
and therefore his want of experience makes the change
so much the more intolerable for him. And I have no doubt but that it was the
terrible change which came so suddenly upon him that made the young prodigal
son in the Gospel
“who had wasted his substance with riotous living” in the
far country
and “who would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the
swine did eat
” to cry out with a heavy heart and tearful eye
“How many hired
servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare
and I perish with
hunger!” Job was cognisant of the fact that the Almighty had delivered him into
the hands of Satan to do what he would with him
provided he only spared his
life; and therefore
instead of saying
“The Lord gave
” and Satan hath taken
away
Job saith here
“The Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away.” True it is
that it was the Sabeans that had seized upon the oxen and the asses
and had
taken them away
and had slain all the servants with the edge of the sword. It
was true that it was a fire from heaven that had burned up and consumed all the
sheep and the servants. It was true that the Chaldeans had fallen upon the
camels
and carried them away
and had slain all the servants with the edge of
the sword. It was only too true that a great wind from the wilderness smote the
four corners of the house in which all his sons and daughters were feasting
together
and buried them all beneath its ruins. But Job uttered not a word of
complaint against any of these
for well he knew that all these were only
instruments in the hands of Satan with the express permission of God
and that
by these Satan was to prove his uprightness: hence Job still persists in
saying
“The Lord hath taken away.” It was the same God that had dealt so
bountifully with Job at first
that had now again stripped him of all that he
had; and when the Almighty gave them unto Job at first
He made no conditions
with him; He never promised him that he should have to keep his riches or property
for any definite period
much less that he should have them absolutely and
forever. Oh
no! and hence it was only just that God should do with His own
things as seemed good unto Himself
and to all this just and righteous dealing
of God’s Job agrees; and he confesses that in the text when he says
“The Lord
hath taken away.” (H. Harris Davies
M. A.)
The Lord hath taken away
These words were not
lightly uttered. They were said by one who
with mantle rent and head shaven
had fallen on the ground and worshipped. After all
it is not the praise of
jubilant moments that is the truest
but that which is murmured low in the
thick darkness
mixed with tears. It is all very fine to sing with the linnets
in the sunshine
but to sing against the weather is finer. Everything around us
looks mournful in the fall of the leaf--all is fading and vanishing
and the
odour of death is in the damp air. Yet nature in her bright tints seems to say
“Isn’t it beautiful?” This decay is a happening fit and seasonable. And every fading
and vanishing face is a bright advent. It is well
though it look ill to us;
and it is always opportune
however bad it seems to us who remain. Believing in
God and immortality as we do
it is the quite best thing for them. God in His
wise government brings punctually the change of air which the soul requires.
But what of us who are left?
I. Our true
possession in those who are taken away remains untouched. The portion of the
heart
that is the true possession--not what we see and hear. This affection is
ours still. Death does but refine and sublime it. The dead are not gone from
us
they are given to us as we never had them before. The ancient violin makers
wrote of their work
making the wood speak
“Being dead
I sing more than when
I was alive.” May it not be that the idealising touch of death reveals that
which we had missed before? We can see now the beauty that was not able to
shine out in them before. It is the real man we see now. Let us be bold and
loving enough to imagine good when only evil is apparent.
II. The
true-hearted and beloved are still with us as regards their influence. In this
respect we have lost nothing
but perhaps gained something. Sometimes the pity
is that one cannot escape from the influence of one’s ancestors
and get clear
of the black drop in the blood which we inherit. But a brave
upright
holy
life is more quickening in its effect when that life is over. The thought of
such has had a restoring
wholesome
moulding influence. And let us not doubt
for a moment that those who are taken away still live. They
not their
influence only. I never doubt that. Extinction at death is altogether too poor
and low as the solution of the mystery of humanity. To me it is an
impossibility to believe that of the soul developed in long evolution; to think
that is the end of the greatest work the great Creator ever made. To believe
what some call nature
what I call God
should be so foolish and so wasteful as
to throw away the only great thing
evolved at such tremendous cost--to extinguish
the conscious soul
that subtle and wonderful essence which took the Creator
ages to distil
is an impossibility to me. Death means life. Wherefore comfort
one another with these words. (S. A. Tipple.)
Job’s gracious words
Although he was bereaved
of every comfort
although his heart was pierced with many sorrows
although
his patience was tried by the extremity of pain
and his ear stunned with the
words of a foolish woman
Job still retained his integrity
and continued to
look up with cheerful resignation to the hand that chastened him. The
calamities which befell Job are a standing lesson
confirmed by the experience
and observation of mankind in all ages
that this world furnishes no armour
which is proof against the arrows of adversity; and that the more diversified
are the comforts which any person enjoys
he is exposed to the greater variety
of suffering in the days of darkness which may overtake him.
I. The words of
Job discover a recollection of the goodness of God. Instead of searching for
other causes of the distinguished prosperity which he had enjoyed
he says
with the simplicity and humility of a grateful spirit
“The Lord gave.” There
is no portion under the sun precisely similar to that which was given to Job.
But all we have we have received from the hand of God. If you accustom
yourselves to remember the years of the right hand of the Most High
no change
of situation will obliterate from your minds the good which you have received;
and to be deprived will seem but another phase of the same Divine goodness.
II. The words of
Job imply an acknowledgment that the Lord does not deal unjustly with the
children of men when He takes away what He gave. The security and joy of
possession may have produced a mistaken opinion of the good things of this
world. But you do not find in Scripture any promise of their being continued to
you. They are in their nature temporary. When they are bestowed in the largest
measures
they cease not to be precarious. You cannot demand from the justice
of your Creator that He should never take away from you anything that He gave.
If He takes away you should
with Job
be disposed to bless His name.
III. The words of
Job imply a conviction that the evil which the children of men receive is
intended for their benefit. He represents it as proceeding from the same
independent and unchangeable Being from whom they receive good. God rejoices
over His creatures to do them good; but it is needful that He should sometimes
afflict. In the sober solitude of affliction He corrects that giddiness with
which continued prosperity often inspires frivolous minds
and His
chastisements bring back to Himself those hearts which His indulgence had
estranged. By touching something dear to those who are at ease in their
possessions
He rebukes their former indifference about the distresses of
others
and melts them into a fellow feeling of all the infirmities of the
children of sorrow. Although the salutary effects are often counteracted by the
foolishness of man
yet it has been understood in all ages that adversity is
by the appointment of nature
the season of recollection
and the school of
virtue.
IV. The words of
Job imply a belief that the benefit which the children of God derive from
affliction is imparted to their souls with tenderness and grace. Attend then to
the consolations of religion. The consolations are founded on the principle
that all the sorrows of life are appointed by God. The same hand which
at one
time
fills your houses with good things
at another time measures out the waters
of affliction which you drink. Attend to the hopes which religion provides for
the afflicted. But these hopes belong only to His dutiful children. If you
honour the God of your fathers
if you enjoy with moderation what He gives
and
serve Him with gladness of heart in the multitude of His goodness
He will
revive you when you walk in the midst of trouble. The best preparation for
adversity
then
is the sentiment of religion
habitually cherished by acts of
devotion. (G. Hill
D. D.)
The mourner’s song
Atheism in sorrow is a
night without a star.
1. Man cannot have any property apart from God.
2. Death is the assertion of God’s proprietorship.
3. Submission to Divine arrangements is the highest test of
obedience.
4. Submission is most honourable to man
and most acceptable to God
when it rises into thankfulness.
In sorrow the soul finds
its surest refuge in fundamental principles.
1. There is a God.
2. That God is careful of me.
3. By impoverishing me of other possessions
He is seeking to enrich
me with Himself.
4. He will ultimately take me as well as my family and property.
5. If I can bless His name in the very sanctuary of affliction and
death
what rapture shall I feel in the heaven of unclouded and undying love!
He who submits most lovingly and reverently on earth shall sing most sweetly in
heaven.
6. Out of this filial submission comes a doubling of the very
possessions which were taken away. (Joseph Parker
D. D.)
God the subtractor
It sounds a Christian
commonplace when we sing that all blessings flow from God. Existence itself
with its range of faculty and wealth of delight
becomes ours by the daily will
of God
to be recalled and revoked at His good pleasure. For these unnumbered
bounties and benefits we find it easy to bless the Lord who gives. But can we
as we lose them
one after another
also bless the Lord who takes away? How
hardly we learn to trust in God the subtractor! Consider
for instance
how
springtime belongs to us all to begin with--and bounding health and sunny
spirits and the zest of being alive. In life’s April we are happy as with a
singing of birds in the heart. But the season draws on when He who gave these
boons of youth will take some of them
perchance most of them away. And so
too
we have hope granted us to begin with
and generous ambitions
and gallant
dreams of what we will be and what we can do. These also are the gifts of God.
It is an instinct with the young to gird themselves for the peaks and prizes of
life
albeit we see only a few in each generation walking with tranquil breath
about those high tablelands
for which we all secretly feel that we were born.
And this is not because
as in a competition
some must be first. Real eminence
is a region
not a pinnacle
and those who dwell there beckon us up to the
ample spaces by their side. Yet the forlorn sense of limitation creeps over
most men in middle age. You have measured your own powers by that time
and
found the end of your tether. The God who kindled those brave hopes and plans
is the God who quenches them one by one. Can we accept our limitation
and gain
peace even in what seems defeat and failure
as we say quietly
The will of the
Lord be done? Then again
how strangely God often gives a man his great
opportunity. Once perhaps in a lifetime the door opens
and he may enter in and
obtain his heart’s desire and win his fame and success. But it is not for
always. The man himself may have no blame to bear. Yet the door shuts again as
strangely as it opened
and God has taken the opportunity away. For the rest of
his days that man will never go any farther. But when the roses fade out of
your own garden
can you say as you stand among their dead petals
Blessed be
the name of the Lord? Or think again of friendship
that golden gift of God
which is granted to most of us but for a season. How sadly our dearest friends
divide and scatter
or more sadly we outlast their affection. For the bitterest
losses and withdrawals of life there is no final or sufficient solution. We can
but accept them in blind faith which falls back on the Inscrutable Will. The
Lord hath taken away is “the last word that can be said. Nothing can go beyond
it
and at times it is the only ground which we feel does not shake under our
feet.” The Lord Himself is left. And in the hour of our utmost desolation it is
He who whispers
“I am thy Youth
and thy Health
and thy Opportunity
and thy
Success
and thy Consolation. I am thy Friend and thy Shield
and the whole
inward nature lies parched and barren
when impulse flags and sickens
and desire
grows languid
and the fountain of love seems shrunken and low. The holiest and
most mysterious gifts of God--the touch of His awful presence
the solemn
rapture of His communion
the clasp and embrace of His love--they are not with
us always. When we say
The Lord gave
sometimes we must say also
The Lord
hath taken away. Too many Christians fret and perplex and blame themselves when
they sink below the high-water mark of some former experience of the Divine
bounty. Yet from the nature of the case that must needs be. No pilgrim to
Jerusalem may linger on the shining Mount of Transfiguration. It may be that
our Lord’s warning against treasures on earth applies to the hoarding up even
of spiritual experiences and emotions. The apostle’s word that we brought
nothing into this world
and it is certain that we can carry nothing out
may
prove true at last concerning those inward possessions which even the saints
have prided themselves on
and clung to and trusted in. God will bring our very
faith to the bare simplicity of childhood
so that we may repose not in our
creed
not in our fidelity
but in Himself alone. And thus it comes to pass
with the Christian who has suffered the loss of all things
that he gathers
grace to bless God even out of that very nakedness to which God has reduced his
spirit. Yet the ultimate truth stands sure
that the gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He cannot tantalise His children with a mere loan of
blessings which they must so soon lament. What He grants once He never reclaims
absolutely and forever. When we confess that we look for the resurrection of
the dead and the life of the world to come
we affirm more than bare
immortality. We mean that the life to come shall realise and make perfect all
that this life has come short of
and failed at
and left undone. Heaven for a
Christian is the home prepared for his lost causes and unfinished labours and
impossible loyalties. Christ Himself has taken charge of all our dead hopes
our ruined plans
our buried joys
our vanished years
our broken dreams. He
has laid them away safe in His holy sepulchre. So the resurrection of the dead
shall include the blossoming again of every fair thing that has faded and
withered out of our hearts. The world to come shall renew all the fulness and
glow and passion of existence which this world half bestowed and then
extinguished. The time-worn disciple can feel at last detached and disengaged
from everything save the Father’s perfect will. God has taken away so much from
him that he has now so many hostages in Paradise. One after another his
treasures have been lifted into heavenly places
until his heart is only
waiting for the call to follow and regain them there. (T. H. Darlow
M. A.)
God giving and taking
All heaven must have kept holiday
when this calm
intelligent
and believing utterance was made. Over against
Cicero
with his culture
philosophy
and eloquence
when mourning as those who
have no hope in the decease of a beloved daughter
may we gladly set the
Chaldean patriarch who
in the deprivation of health
wealth
and children; in
the swerving counsel of an uncongenial wife; in the oil of vitriol which
self-righteous friends poured into his gaping wounds
could still honour God
and possess his soul in patience. Successive inundations
which would have
swept others into hell
only raised this grand old hero on their mountain
billows to higher altitudes of faith
self-conquest
and endurance.
I. The nature of
Christian resignation.
1. Implies belief in a wise and loving Providence.
2. Contentment with our allotments.
3. Calm yielding to the will of God. No retaliation
no resistance
and no flight
like Adam or Jonah
is attempted.
4. Deep sense of our mercies God leaves more than He takes. Lot’s
property lost
yet family spared; himself saved. If Isaac must die
yet Ishmael
lives. If Joseph is devoured
Benjamin and the other sons survive.
5. A strong confidence in God. “Though He slay me
yet will I trust
in Him.”
II. The manner in
which it is shown.
1. It is sincere (31).
2. It is cheerful (Job 2:10).
3. It is immediate (Job 1:20).
4. It is constant (Job 42:7-8).
III. Proofs of its
reasonableness.
1. Perfections of God require it (Isaiah 40:26-31).
2. The Word of God demands it (James 5:11).
3. The honour of religion closely related to it (1 Peter 2:20).
4. The example of Christ sanctions it (Hebrews 12:3).
5. Our present and future felicity depends on it (1 Peter 5:10). (Homiletic Review.)
Submission to bereaving
providences
The affliction and the
patience of Job are set before us as an example
and there is scarcely any case
that can occur but something in his complicated trials will be found to
correspond to it. His afflictions were sent
not so much in consequence of any
particular sin
as for the trial of his faith. However painful any affliction
may be
while we are exercised by it
yet when it is over we often perceive
that all was wise and good; at least
we see it so in others. In Job’s trials
a particular
God was glorified
Satan confounded
and the sufferer comes forth
as gold. That which supported him under all was the power of religion
the
value of which is never more known than in the day of adversity. This is the
armour of God
which enables us to stand in the evil day; and having done all
to stand.
I. The spirit of
submission under bereaving providences exemplified in the conduct of Job. There
are several particulars in this case which serve to show the greatness and
severity of Job’s affliction
and the aboundings of the grace of God towards
him
which enabled him to endure it all with so much meekness and submission.
1. The degree of his afflictions. The objects taken away were more
than were left
and seemed to leave him nothing to comfort him.
2. His trouble came upon him suddenly and unexpectedly
and
completely reversed his former circumstances. It was all in one day
and that a
day of feasting too
when everything appeared promising around him. Prosperity
and adversity are like two opposite climates: men can live in almost any
temperature
if but inured to it; but sudden reverses are insupportable. Hence
it is we feel most for those who have seen better days when they fall into
poverty and want.
3. Though Job was eminently pious
it is doubtful whether his
children were so in any degree
and this would render the bereavement far more
severe.
4. His submission also appears in a holy moderation which attended
his griefs. A man of no religion would have been distracted
or have sunk in
sullen despair. A heathen would have cursed his gods
and perhaps have
committed suicide
being filled with rage and disappointment.
5. Amidst all his sorrow and distress he preserves a holy resolution
to think well of God
and even blesses His holy name.
II. The principles
on which Job’s submission was evidently founded. There is the patience of
despair
and a submission to fate; but Job’s was of a very different
description.
1. He considers all that befell him as God’s doing
and this calms
and quiets his spirit.
2. He recollects that all he had was from the hand of God; that it
was merely a gift
or rather lent for a time
to be employed for His glory.
3. He feels thankful that they were once given him to enjoy
though
now they are taken from him. We may see reason to bless God that ever we had
property or children or friends to enjoy
and that we possessed any of them so
long as we did; though now
by the will of providence
we are deprived of them
all.
4. Even when bereaved of every earthly comfort
he considers God as
worthy of his gratitude and adoration. Job could bless the hand that took away
as well as the hand that gave; and this must have been a special act of faith.
Reflections--
True resignation
This sentence is one of
the pillars of Christian ethics
and represents one of the highest attainments
taught by God’s revelation. If Job had said nothing else
this verse is
sufficient to stamp him as one of the greatest of moral philosophers.
I. The facts here
stated.
1. “The Lord gave.” Everything came from Him. He gave us life at
first. He gives us every breath we draw
every meal we eat
every friend we
value
every relative we love.
2. “The Lord taketh away.” It is practical infidelity to look upon
our losses in any other light than we regard our gifts. He gives and He takes
away the gift. And He has the right to do so.
II. The sentiment
implied. It is this inward sentiment that makes the aphorism so precious and
valued. The undercurrent which gives life to the dead body is resignation to
the Divine will. This is what Job manifested
and it is the proper course for
us.
1. It is a natural course. What He does is done in wisdom. Hence
acquiescence is the proper and natural feeling to be displayed.
2. It is a wise course. To murmur and complain at trials is a source
of still greater misery and unhappiness. Resignation
like the honey in the
lion’s carcase
will bring us comfort in our sorrow. It promotes the highest
Christian graces. It tranquillises the disturbed passions and calms the
troubled soul. The highest form of resignation is that brought before us in the
text--a feeling which will not only submit
but will bless the gracious hand
that deals the blow
knowing that the blow is only dealt in love. (Homilist.)
Submission with praise to
God on the death of hopeful children
I. Show what we
are to understand by blessing God’s name at such times.
1. It does not exclude a becoming grief at the loss of near and dear
relatives.
2. It supposes that we are far from thinking
and much further from
speaking
hardly of God.
3. We are not to bless God for such strokes
in themselves
considered. They may be called evils
as sin is the occasion or procuring cause
of them.
4. We should bless God at such times
because we may be assured
if
we are true believers
that He designs to do us good thereby
though we at
present
perhaps
cannot see how.
II. Demonstrate the
truth of the proposition. Or make it appear that it is our duty to bless God
not only when He gives
but also when He takes away. Most
I fear
are not so
thankful as they ought to be for the favours which they daily receive from God.
All are too apt to “forget His benefits.” It is God who both gives and takes
away. And He is infinite in all perfections. Therefore He must know what is
fittest to be done. God only takes what He freely gave
or rather lent us. He
never told us we should always enjoy our relations
or that He would not call
for them. If our deceased relations were truly religious
or made partakers of
saving grace
God hath taken them out of a sinful
troublesome world
and at
the time which He thought best. And though God hath taken them from us
He hath
taken them to Himself.
III. The
application.
1. Nothing is by chance.
2. How unbecoming to murmur against God.
3. How miserable must they be who do not eye the providence of God in
their affections.
4. What an excellent thing is grace.
5. Let us be weaned from earthly friends.
6. This may reconcile us to the death of godly relations. (Joseph
Pitts.)
Praise for resignation
Dr. Pierson says
concerning
a German pastor
Benjamin Schmolke
that a fire raged over his parish and laid
in ruins his church and the homes of his people. Then God’s angel of death took
wife and children
and only graves were left
then disease smote him
and laid
him prostrate
then blindness took the light of his eyes away; and under all
this avalanche of ills Schmolke dictated the sweet hymn beginning with the
verse--
“My Jesus
as Thou wilt!
Oh
may Thy will be mine;
Into Thy hand of love
My all I would resign.”
Music from the heart
“Blessed be the name of
the Lord.” God is a wonderful organist
who knows just what heart chord to
strike (says a famous preacher). In the Black Forest of Germany a baron built a
castle with two lofty towers. From one tower to the other he stretched several
wires
which in calm weather were motionless and silent. When the wind began to
blow the wires began to play like an AEolian harp in the window. As the wind
rose into a fierce gale
the old baron sat in his castle and heard his mighty
hurricane harp playing grandly over the battlements. So
while the weather is
calm and the skies clear
a great many of the emotions of a Christian’s heart
are silent. As soon as the wind of adversity smites the chords the heart begins
to play
and when God sends a hurricane of terrible trial you will hear strains
of submission and faith
and even of sublime confidence and holy exultation
which we never could have heard in the calm hours of prosperity.
In everything give thanks
There are bitter mercies
and sweet mercies; some mercies God gives in wine
some in wormwood. Now
we
must praise God for the bitter mercies as well as the sweet: thus Job
“The
Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away
blessed be the name of the Lord.” Too
many are prone to think nothing is a mercy that is not sweet in the going down
and leaves not a pleasant farewell on their palate
but this is the
childishness of our spirits
which
as grace grows more manly and the Christian
more judicious
will wear off. Who that understands himself will value a book
by the gilt on the cover? Truly
none of our temporals (whether crosses or
enjoyments) considered in themselves
are either a curse or a mercy. They are
only as the covering to the book; it is what is writ in them that must decide
whether they be a mercy or not. Is it an affliction that lies on thee? If thou
canst find it comes from love
and ends in grace and holiness
it is a mercy
though it be bitter to thy taste. Is it an enjoyment? If love doth not send it
and grace end it
it is a curse though sweet to thy sense. There are sweet
poisons as well as bitter cordials. (W. Gurnall.)
Verse 22
In all this Job sinned not.
Pious resignation
“In all this Job sinned not
nor charged God foolishly.”
I. Consider the
nature of pious resignation to the will of God
in His afflictive dispensations
towards us
as represented in what Job did upon the present occasion. The
greatest favourites of heaven are often the subjects of the severest
afflictions. Not only is affliction the common lot of all men
but adversity
may be a greater token of the Divine favour and love than prosperity itself. Of
Job it is said
“he arose”; that is
he did not sink under his afflictions so as
to forget himself. He rose from his seat with all the dignity of true religion
and heavenly composure of mind. He “rent his mantle.” An outward sign
in
Eastern countries
of great distress
or of indignation. Thus Job testified the
greatness of his sorrow and the depths of his humiliation as a sinful creature.
“Shaved his head
” another expression of uncommon distress. “Tell down upon the
ground
” bowing lowly and prostrate before the Majesty of heaven
with entire
submission to the Divine will. “And worshipped
” not in appearance only
but in
heart. So we see that pious resignation does not consist in the stupid
insensibility of the hard hearted
nor in the monkish apathy of the Stoic; for
there is neither virtue nor grace in bearing what we do not feel; and no
chastening is for the present joyous
but grievous. People may suffer very much
under their afflictions
and feel them very deeply
and be resigned to the will
of God at the same time. Neither is an earnest desire to have our affliction
removed inconsistent with the nature of holy submission. We may weep and mourn
and betray our inward distress by our outward emotions and conduct
and still
be unfeignedly submissive to the will of God. External agitations are
in some
cases
the almost unavoidable effect of strong natural affections.
Insensibility
so far from being the ornament
is the disgrace of human nature.
II. A peculiar
privilege of God’s people under His afflicting hand
which is exhibited to us
in what Job said. “Naked came!” etc. Here is an interpretation of the true
state of his mind
as evidential of a most excellent frame of heart. It is
recorded to teach us what is our duty as creatures
and what is our privilege
as Christians
if indeed we be partakers of the saving grace of God. Every good
thing we have is the undeserved gift of God
to be received with gratitude
thanksgiving
and love
and to be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. It
is not only our duty to justify the Lord in all His afflictive dispensations
towards us; it is our privilege to praise God for them
and even bless Him for
our afflictions. They will then prove unspeakable blessings to us.
III. A testimony by
the Holy Ghost himself concerning the great excellency of patient resignation.
“In all this
” etc. In all the behaviour of this servant of the Lord he acted
not only like a man
but like a wise man
and like a holy man
a man of God. It
was not his natural fortitude and courage
nor the strength of reason and
argument that supported him
but the superior power of faith in. God
the
nobler principle of Divine grace. He did not utter a repining word
entertain a
hard thought
nor discover a fretful and impatient spirit. He neither arraigned
the justice nor indicted the goodness of God
but acknowledged his own unworthiness
and the Divine Sovereignty; confessed his obligations to his great Benefactor
and His undisputable right to do what He would with His own. Remember
then
that the Lord doth not willingly grieve nor afflict the children of men.
Afflictions are always dealt out in number
weight
and measure. When the end
in view is answered they will be removed. We should be more anxious to have our
afflictions sanctified than taken away. Beware of the evil of impatience
murmuring
and discontent. Why should a living man complain
a man for the
punishment of his sins? (C. de Coetlogon.)
Charging God foolishly
The two opposite states of prosperity and adversity equally
require our vigilance and caution; each of them is a state of conflict
in
which nothing but unwearied resistance can preserve us from being overcome.
There is no crime more incident to those whose life is embittered with
calamities
and whom afflictions have reduced to gloominess and melancholy
than that of repining at the determinations of Providence
or of “charging God
foolishly.” They are often tempted to unseemly inquiries into the reasons of
His dispensations
and to expostulations about the justice of that sentence
which condemned them to their present sufferings. They consider the lives of those
whom they account happier than themselves with an eye of malice and suspicion
and if they find them no better than their own
think themselves almost
justified in murmuring at their own state. The unreasonableness of this may be
seen by--
I. Considering the
attributes of God. Many of the errors of mankind
both in opinion and practice
arise originally from mistaken notions of the Divine Being. It is frequently
observed in common life
that some favourite notion or inclination
long
indulged
takes such an entire possession of a man’s mind
and so engrosses his
faculties
as to mingle thoughts perhaps he is not himself conscious of with
almost all his conceptions
and influence his whole behaviour. The two great
attributes of our Sovereign Creator which seem most likely to influence our
lives are His justice and His mercy. The justice of God will not permit Him to
afflict any man without cause. Whether we suppose ourselves to suffer for the
sake of punishment or probation
it is not easy to discover with what right we
repine. If our pains and labours be only preparatory to unbounded felicity we
ought to rejoice and be exceeding glad
and to glorify the goodness of God
who
by uniting us in the sufferings with saints and martyrs
will join us also
in our reward. Since God is just
a man may be sure that there is a reason for
his misery
and it will be generally found in his own corruption. He will
therefore
instead of murmuring at God
begin to examine himself
and when he
has found the depravity of his own manners it is more likely that he will
admire the mercy than complain of the severity of his Judge. Then we may think
of God not only as Governor
but as Father of the universe
a Being infinitely
gracious
whose punishments are not inflicted to gratify any passion of anger
or revenge
but to awaken us from the lethargy of sin
and to recall us from
the paths of destruction. A constant conviction of the mercy of God firmly
implanted in our minds will
upon the first attack of any calamity
easily
induce us to reflect that it is permitted by God to fall upon us
lest we
should be too much enamoured by our present state
and neglect to extend our
prospects into eternity. Thus by familiarising to our minds the attributes of
God we shall
in a great measure
secure ourselves against any temptation to
repine at His arrangements
but shall probably still more strengthen our
resolution and confirm our piety by reflecting.
II. By reflecting
on the ignorance of man. It is by comparing ourselves with others that we often
make an estimate of our own happiness
and even sometimes of our virtue. He
that has more than he deserves is not to murmur merely because he has less than
another. When we judge so confidently of others we deceive ourselves
we admit
conjectures for certainties
and chimeras for realities. No man can say that he
is better than another
because no man can tell how far the other Was enabled
to resist temptation
or what incidents might concur to overthrow his virtue.
Let everyone
then
whom God shall visit with affliction humble himself before
Him with steady confidence in His mercy
and unfeigned submission to His
justice. Let him remember that his sins are the cause of his miseries
and
apply himself seriously to the great work of self-examination and repentance. (S.
Johnson
LL. D.)
Job’s first victory
They are indeed conquerors under trouble who are kept free from
sin and provocation in their hour of trial. For this was Job’s victory
that in
all this Job sinned not. Albeit troubles do suggest temptations to many sins;
yet the great sin to be avoided by the godly under trouble is
misconstructing
of God and His dealing. Misconstructions of God do both reflect upon the
infinite wisdom and deep counsels of God in ordering the lots of His people.
And they also do proclaim their own folly
in their want of skill to judge
aright of God’s proceeding
and in following a course which may well vex
themselves
but cannot profit them at all. Whatever advantage saints do give to
Satan over themselves in an hour of trial
yet by the power of grace they may
be enabled so to walk as may refute all his calumnies of them
and make him a
liar; even as God in the issue will
once for all
wipe off all the aspersions
which Satan casts upon His followers. As God doth always take notice of His
people’s carriage so especially under trouble; and whoever so keep their feet
in time of trial
they are observed and commended by God. Saints ought not to
measure God’s approbation of their way under trouble by any present comfortable
issue; seeing the Lord may take notice of and commend the integrity of those
whom yet He seeth is not fit to deliver: for Job is here commended
while the
trial is not only continued
but growing upon him. (George Hutcheson.)
Patient Job and the baffled enemy
That is to say
in all this trial
and under all this temptation
Job kept right with God. During all the losses of his estate
and the deaths of
his children
he did not speak in an unworthy manner. The text speaks
admiringly of “all this”; and a great “all” it was. Some of you are in troubles
many; but what are they compared with those of Job? Your afflictions are
molehills contrasted with the Alps of the patriarch’s grief. Ah
if God could
uphold Job in all this
you may be sure that He can support you. “All this”
also alludes to all that Job did
and thought
and said. If in patience he can
possess his soul when all the arrows of affliction are wounding him
he is a
man indeed. May we ourselves so live that it may be said of us in the end
“In
all this he sinned not. He swam through a sea of trouble.”
I. In all our
affairs the main thing is
not to sin. It is not said
“In all this Job was
never spoken against
” for he was spoken against by Satan in the presence of
himself; and very soon he was falsely accused by men who should have comforted
him. You must not expect that you will pass through this world
and have it
said of you in the end
“In all this no one ever spoke against him.” Those who
secure zealous lovers are pretty sure to call forth intense adversaries. The
trimmer may dodge through the world without much censure; but it will seldom be
so with an out-and-out man of God. Neither is it a chief point for us to seek
to go through life without suffering
since the Lord’s servants
the best of them
are ripened and mellowed by suffering. Remember
if the grace of God prevents
our affliction from driving us into sin
then Satan is defeated. Satan did not
care what Job suffered
so long as he could but hope to make him sin; and he
was foiled when he did not sin. If you conquer him in your hour of grief
you
conquer indeed. If you do not sin while under the stress of heavy trouble
God
will be honoured. He is not so much glorified by preserving you from trouble
as by upholding you in trouble. He allows you to be tried that His grace in you
may be tested and glorified. Remember
furthermore
that if you do not sin
you
yourself will be no loser by all your tribulations. Sin alone can injure you;
but if you remain steadfast
though you are stripped
you will be clothed with
glory; though you are deprived of comfort
you will lose no real blessing.
True
it may not seem a pleasant thing to be stripped
and yet if one is soon
going to bed
it is of no great consequence.
II. In all time of
trial there is special fear of our sinning. It is well for the child of God to
remember that the hour of darkness is an hour of danger. Suffering is fruitful
soil for certain forms of sin. Hence it was needful for the Holy Spirit to give
a testimony to Job that
“In all this he sinned not.”
1. For instance
we are apt to grow impatient.
2. We are even tempted to rebellion against God.
3. We may also sin by despair. An afflicted on said
I shall never
look up again. I shall go mourning all my days.” Come
if you are as poor as
Job
be as patient as Job
and you will find hope ever shining like a star
which never sets.
4. Many sin by unbelieving speeches.
5. Men have been driven into a kind of atheism by successive
troubles. They have wickedly argued--“There cannot be a God
or He would not
let me suffer so.”
III. In acts of
mourning we need not sin. Hearken: you are allowed to weep. You are allowed to
show that you suffer by your losses. See what Job did. “Job arose
and rent his
mantle
and shaved his head
and fell down upon the ground
and worshipped”;
and “in all this Job sinned not.” The husband lamented sorely when his beloved
was taken from him. He was right. I should have thought far less of him if he
had not done so. “Jesus wept.” But there is a measure in the expression of
grief. Job was not wrong in rending his garment: he might have been wrong if he
had torn it into shreds. Do not restrain the boiling floods. A flood of tears
without may assuage the deluge of grief within. Job’s acts of mourning were
moderate and seemly--toned down by his faith. Job’s words also
though very
strong
were very true: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb
and naked shall
I return thither.” Job mourned
and yet did not sin; for he mourned
and
worshipped as he mourned. Remember
then
that in acts of mourning there is
not
of necessity
any sin.
IV. In charging God
foolishly we sin greatly. “Job sinned not
” and the phrase which explains it
is
“nor charged God foolishly.”
I. Here let me say
that to call God to our judgment seat at all is a high crime and misdemeanour.
“Nay but
O man
who art thou that repliest against God?”
2. In the next place
we sin in requiring that we should understand
God. What? Is God under bonds to explain Himself to us?
3. We charge God foolishly when we imagine that He is unjust. “Ah!”
said one
“when I was a worldling I prospered; but ever since I have been a
Christian I have endured no end of losses and troubles.” Do you mean to
insinuate that the Lord does not treat you justly? Think a minute
and stand
corrected. If the Lord were to deal with you according to strict justice
where
would you be?
4. Some
however
will bring foolish charges against His love.
5. Alas! at times
unbelief charges God foolishly with reference to
His power. We think that He cannot help us in some peculiar trial.
6. We may be so foolish as to doubt His wisdom. If He be All-wise
how can He suffer us to be in such straits
and to sink so low as we do? What
folly is this I Who art thou
that thou wouldst measure the wisdom of God?
V. To come through
great trial without sin is the honour of the saints. There is no glory in being
a feather-bed soldier
a man bedecked with gorgeous regimentals
but never
beautified by a sear
or ennobled by a wound. All that you ever hear of such a
soldier is that his spurs jingle on the pavement as he walks. There is no
history for this carpet knight. He never smelt gunpowder in his life; or if he
did
he fetched out his scent bottle to kill the offensive odour. Well
that
will not make much show in the story of the nations. If we could have our
choice
and we were as wise as the Lord Himself
we should choose the troubles
which He has appointed us
and we should not spare ourselves a single pang. Who
wants to paddle about a duck pond all his life? Nay
Lord
if Thou wilt bid me
go upon the waters
let me launch out into the deep. The honour of a Christian
or
let me say
the honour of God’s grace in a Christian
is when we have so
acted that we have obeyed in detail
not forgetting any point of duty. “In all
this Job sinned not” neither in what he thought
or said
or did; nor even in
what he did not say
and did not do: I feel that I must add just this. As I
read the verse through
it looked too dry for me
and so I wetted it with a
tear. “In all this Job sinned not
nor charged God foolishly”; and yet I
who have
suffered so little
have often sinned
and
I fear
in times of anguish
have
charged God foolishly. Is not this true of some of you? (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》