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Job Chapter
Seven
Job 7
Chapter Contents
Job's troubles. (1-6) Job expostulates with God. (7-16)
He begs release. (17-21)
Commentary on Job 7:1-6
(Read Job 7:1-6)
Job here excuses what he could not justify
his desire of
death. Observe man's present place: he is upon earth. He is yet on earth
not
in hell. Is there not a time appointed for his abode here? yes
certainly
and
the appointment is made by Him who made us and sent us here. During that
man's
life is a warfare
and as day-labourers
who have the work of the day to do in
its day
and must make up their account at night. Job had as much reason
he
thought
to wish for death
as a poor servant that is tired with his work
has
to wish for the shadows of the evening
when he shall go to rest. The sleep of
the labouring man is sweet; nor can any rich man take so much satisfaction in
his wealth
as the hireling in his day's wages. The comparison is plain; hear
his complaint: His days were useless
and had long been so; but when we are not
able to work for God
if we sit still quietly for him
we shall be accepted.
His nights were restless. Whatever is grievous
it is good to see it appointed
for us
and as designed for some holy end. When we have comfortable nights
we
must see them also appointed to us
and be thankful for them. His body was
noisome. See what vile bodies we have. His life was hastening apace. While we
are living
every day
like the shuttle
leaves a thread behind: many weave the
spider's web
which will fail
14. But if
while we live
we live unto the
Lord
in works of faith and labours of love
we shall have the benefit
for
every man shall reap as he sowed
and wear as he wove.
Commentary on Job 7:7-16
(Read Job 7:7-16)
Plain truths as to the shortness and vanity of man's
life
and the certainty of death
do us good
when we think and speak of them
with application to ourselves. Dying is done but once
and therefore it had
need be well done. An error here is past retrieve. Other clouds arise
but the
same cloud never returns: so a new generation of men is raised up
but the
former generation vanishes away. Glorified saints shall return no more to the
cares and sorrows of their houses; nor condemned sinners to the gaieties and
pleasures of their houses. It concerns us to secure a better place when we die.
From these reasons Job might have drawn a better conclusion than this
I will
complain. When we have but a few breaths to draw
we should spend them in the
holy
gracious breathings of faith and prayer; not in the noisome
noxious
breathings of sin and corruption. We have much reason to pray
that He who
keeps Israel
and neither slumbers nor sleeps
may keep us when we slumber and
sleep. Job covets to rest in his grave. Doubtless
this was his infirmity; for
though a good man would choose death rather than sin
yet he should be content
to live as long as God pleases
because life is our opportunity of glorifying
him
and preparing for heaven.
Commentary on Job 7:17-21
(Read Job 7:17-21)
Job reasons with God concerning his dealings with man.
But in the midst of this discourse
Job seems to have lifted up his thoughts to
God with some faith and hope. Observe the concern he is in about his sins. The
best men have to complain of sin; and the better they are
the more they will
complain of it. God is the Preserver of our lives
and the Saviour of the souls
of all that believe; but probably Job meant the Observer of men
whose eyes are
upon the ways and hearts of all men. We can hide nothing from Him; let us plead
guilty before his throne of grace
that we may not be condemned at his
judgment-seat. Job maintained
against his friends
that he was not a
hypocrite
not a wicked man
yet he owns to his God
that he had sinned. The
best must so acknowledge
before the Lord. He seriously inquires how he might
be at peace with God
and earnestly begs forgiveness of his sins. He means more
than the removing of his outward trouble
and is earnest for the return of
God's favour. Wherever the Lord removes the guilt of sin
he breaks the power
of sin. To strengthen his prayer for pardon
Job pleads the prospect he had of
dying quickly. If my sins be not pardoned while I live
I am lost and undone
for ever. How wretched is sinful man without a knowledge of the Saviour!
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Job》
Job 7
Verse 1
[1] Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are
not his days also like the days of an hireling?
Is there not — Job is here excusing what he
cannot justify
his passionate longing for death.
A time — Is there not a time limited by God
wherein man shall
live in this sinful
and miserable world? And is it a crime in me
to desire
that God would bring me to that joyful period? Our time on earth is limited and
short
according to the narrow bounds of this earth. But heaven cannot be
measured
nor the days of heaven numbered.
Hireling — Whose time is short
being but a few years
or days
whose condition is full of toil and hardship.
Verse 2
[2] As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow
and as an
hireling looketh for the reward of his work:
Shadow — That is
the sun-set
the time allotted for his rest.
Verse 3
[3] So am I made to possess months of vanity
and wearisome
nights are appointed to me.
So — This so respects not so much the desire of an hired
servant
as the ground of it
his hard toil and service.
Possess — God
hath given me this as my lot and inheritance.
Months — So he calls them rather than days
to note the
tediousness of his affliction.
Vanity — Empty and unsatisfying.
Nights — He mentions nights
because that is the saddest time
for sick and miserable persons; the darkness and solitude of the night being of
themselves uncomfortable
and giving them more opportunity for solemn and
sorrowful reflections.
Verse 5
[5] My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my
skin is broken
and become loathsome.
Worms — Which were bred out of Job's corrupted flesh and sores.
Dust — The dust of the earth upon which he lay.
Broken — By ulcers in all parts of it.
Verse 6
[6] My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle
and are
spent without hope.
Swifter — The time of my life hastens to a period.
Shuttle — Which passes in a moment from one end of the web to
the other.
Hope — Of enjoying any good day here.
Verse 7
[7] O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more
see good.
O — He turns his speech to God. Perhaps observing
that
his friends grew weary of hearing it. If men will not hear us
God will: if men
cannot help us
he can: for his arm is not shortened
neither is his ear heavy.
Verse 8
[8] The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more:
thine eyes are upon me
and I am not.
No more — In this mortal state: I shall never return to this
life again.
Am not — If thou cast one angry look upon me
I am not; thou
canst look me into eternity.
Verse 9
[9] As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that
goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.
No more — Never until the general resurrection. When we see a
cloud which looked great
as if it would eclipse the sun
of a sudden dispersed
and disappearing
say
Just such a thing is the life of man
a vapour that
appears for a while and then vanisheth away.
Verse 10
[10] He shall return no more to his house
neither shall his
place know him any more.
Any more — He shall no more be seen and known in his former
habitation. It concerns us to secure a better place when we die: for this will
own us no more.
Verse 11
[11] Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in
the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Therefore — Since my life is so vain and
short
and when once lost
without all hopes of recovery. I will plead with God
for pity before I die; I will not smother my anguish within my breast
but will
ease myself by pouring out my complaints.
Verse 12
[12] Am I a sea
or a whale
that thou settest a watch over
me?
A sea — Am I as fierce and unruly as the sea
which
if thou didst
not set bounds to it
would overwhelm the earth? Or
am I a vast and
ungovernable sea-monster? Which thou must restrain by thy powerful providence.
That
… — That thou shouldest guard and restrain me with such
heavy and unexampled miseries? We are apt in affliction to complain of God
as
if he laid more upon us than there is occasion for: whereas we are never in
heaviness
but when there is need
nor more than there is need.
Verse 17
[17] What is man
that thou shouldest magnify him? and that
thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?
What
… — What is there in that poor
mean
creature called man
miserable man
as this word signifies
which can induce thee to take any notice
of him
or to make such account of him? Man is not worthy of thy favour
and he
is below thy anger; that thou shouldest concern thyself so much about him
as
one near and dear to thee?
Verse 18
[18] And that thou shouldest visit him every morning
and try
him every moment?
And try
… — What is man that vain
foolish
creature
that thou shouldest magnify or regard
or visit him
(with thy mercy
and blessings
that thou shouldest so far honour and regard him
as by thy
visitation to preserve his spirit
or hold his soul in life) and try him
which
God doth not only by afflictions
but also by prosperity and both inward and
outward blessings? That thou shouldst observe his motions every moment
as in
care for him
and jealous over him?
Verse 19
[19] How long wilt thou not depart from me
nor let me alone
till I swallow down my spittle?
How long — How long will it be ere thou withdraw thy afflicting
hand? Swallow - That I may have a breathing time: a proverbial expression.
Verse 20
[20] I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee
O thou
preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee
so that I am a
burden to myself?
Sinned — Although I am free from those crying sins
for which
my friends suppose thou hast sent this judgment upon me
yet
I freely confess
I am a sinner
and therefore obnoxious to thy justice.
What
… — To satisfy thy justice
or regain thy favour? Who dost
know and diligently observe all mens inward motions
and outward actions; and
therefore
if thou shalt be severe to mark mine iniquities
I have not what to
say or do unto thee. My case is singular
none is shot at as I am.
Verse 21
[21] And why dost thou not pardon my transgression
and take
away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me
in the morning
but I shall not be.
Pardon — Seeing thou art so gracious to others
why may not I
hope for the same favour from thee? Dust - If thou dost not speedily help me
it will be too late.
But I shall not be — It will be to late to
shew me favour.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Job》
07 Chapter 7
Verses 1-21
Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?
An appointed time
I. The nature of
the fact which is here affirmed.
1. That the existence of man will be terminated by death. When sin
was committed
the order and harmony of the universe was disturbed
and then
the solemn and awful sentence was pronounced. What is the world itself
but a
vast charnel house
to be filled with the ashes of innumerable dead?
2. The existence of man is confined to a narrow compass. There has
been a serious abridgment of the average length of life. All the Scripture
representations describe the extreme brevity of human life. We are pushed on by
the hand of time
from the various objects we meet with in our course
wondering
at the swiftness with which they are taken from our vision
and astonished at
the destiny which winds up the scene and ratifies our doom.
3. The existence of man is
as to its precise duration
uncertain and
unknown. We know not the day of our departure. There is an impervious gloom
about our final departure which no man can penetrate. But all is well known to
the wisdom of God. With Him all is fixed--to us
all is uncertain.
4. Our departure from this world is for the purpose of our mingling
in scenes which are beyond the grave. We do not depart and sink into the
dulness of annihilation. This life is but the threshold of eternity; we are
placed here as probationers for eternity.
II. The feelings
which arise from the contemplation of it. There is a universal inclination to
avoid these truths; they are regarded in general as merely professional; and
there is much in the world to counteract their influence. All this can only be
removed by the Spirit of God.
1. We ought to make our final departure the subject of habitual
contemptation.
2. We should be induced to moderate our attachment to the world
from
which we shall so soon be separated.
3. You should be induced to seek an interest in that redeeming system
by which you may depart in peace
with the prospect of eternal happiness.
4. We should be induced to pursue with Christian diligence those
great employments which the Gospel has proposed. (James Parsons.)
Life as a clock
Our brains are seventy year clocks. The angel of life winds them
up at once for all
then closes the cases
and gives the key into the hand of
the angel of resurrection. “Tic-tac
tic-tac!” go the wheels of thought. Our
will cannot stop them
madness only makes them go faster. Death alone can break
into the case
and
seizing the ever-swinging pendulum which we call the heart
silence at last the clicking of the terrible escapement we have carried so long
beneath our aching foreheads. If we could only get at them as we lie on our
pillows
and count the dead beats of thought after thought
and image after
image
jarring through the overtired organ. Will nobody block those wheels
uncouple their pinion
cut the string which holds those weights? What a passion
comes over us sometimes for silence and rest
that this dreadful mechanism
unwinding
the endless tapestry of time
embroidered with spectral figures of life and
death
might have but one brief holiday! (J. Holmes.)
The hand of God in the history of a man
I. There is a
Divine appointment ruling all human life. Not that I single out man’s existence
as the sole object of Divine forethought
far rather do I believe it to be but
one little corner of illimitable providence. A Divine appointment arranges
every event
minute or magnificent. As we look out on the world from our quiet
room it appears to be a mass of confusion. Events happen which we deeply
deplore--incidents which appear to bring evil
and only evil
and we wonder why
they are permitted. The picture before us
to the glance of reason
looks like
a medley of colour. But the affairs of this world are neither tangled
nor
confused
nor perplexing to Him who seeth the end from the beginning. God is in
all
and rules all. In the least as well as in the greatest
Jehovah’s power is
manifested. It is night
but the watchman never sleepeth
and Israel may rest
in peace. The tempest rages
but it is well
for our Captain is governor of
storms. Our main point is that God rules mortal life; and He does so
first
as
to its term
“Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?” He rules it
secondly
as to its warfare
for so the text might most properly be read
“Is
there not an appointed warfare for man upon earth?” And
thirdly
He rules it
as to its service
for the second clause of the text is
“Are not his days as
the days of an hireling?”
1. First
then
God’s determination governs the time of human life.
2. But we must now consider the other translation of our text. It is
generally given in the margin of the Bibles. “Is there not an appointed warfare
to man upon earth?” which teaches us that God has appointed life to be a
warfare. To all men it will be so
whether bad or good. Every man will find
himself a soldier under some captain or another. Alas for those men who are
battling against God and His truth
they will in the end be clothed with
dishonour and defeat. No Christian is free to follow his own devices; we are
all under law to Christ. A soldier surrenders his own will to that of his
commander. Such is the Christian’s life--a life of willing subjection to the
wilt of the Lord Jesus Christ. In consequence of this we have our place fixed
and our order arranged for us
and our life’s relative positions are all
prescribed. A soldier has to keep rank and step with the rest of the line. As
we have a warfare to accomplish
we must expect hardships. A soldier must not
reckon upon ease. If life be a warfare
we must look for contests and
struggles. The Christian man must not expect to go to heaven without
opposition. It is a warfare
for all these reasons
and yet more so because we
must always be upon the watch against danger. In a battle no man is safe.
Blessed be God that the text says “Is there not an ‘appointed’ warfare?” Then
it is not our warfare
but one that God has appointed for us
in which He does
not expect us to wear out our armour
or bear our own charges
or find our own
rations
or supply our own ammunition. The armour that we wear we have not to
construct
and the sword we wield we have not to fabricate.
3. The Lord has also determined the service of our life. All men are
servants to some master or another
neither can any of us avoid the servitude.
The greatest men are only so much the more the servants of others. If we are
now the servants of the Lord Jesus
this life is a set time of a labour and
apprenticeship to be worked out. I am bound by solemn indentures to my Lord and
Master till my term of life shall run out
and I am right glad to have it so.
Now
a servant who has let himself out for a term of years has not a moment
that he can call his own
nor have any of us
if we are God’s people. We have
not a moment
no
not a breath
nor a faculty
nor a farthing that we may
honestly reserve. You must expect to toil in His service till you are ready to
faint
and then His grace will renew your strength. A servant knows that his
time is limited. If it is weekly service
he knows that his engagement may be
closed on Saturday; if he is hired by the month
he knows how many days there
are in a month
and he expects it to end; if he is engaged by the year
he
knows the day of the year when his service shall be run out. As for us
we do
not know when our term will be complete. The hireling expects his wages; that
is one reason for his industry. We
too
expect ours--not of debt truly
but of
grace
yet still a gracious reward. God does not employ servants without paying
them wages
as many of our merchants now do.
II. Secondly
the
inferences to be drawn from this fact.
1. First
there is Job’s inference. Job’s inference was that as there
was only an appointed time
and he was like a servant employed by the year
he
might be allowed to wish for life’s speedy close
and therefore he says
“As a
servant earnestly desireth the shadow
and as an hireling looketh for the
reward of his work.” Job was right in a measure
but not altogether so. There
is a sense in which every Christian may look forward to the end of life with
joy and expectancy
and may pray for it. At the same time
there are needful
modifications to this desire to depart
and a great many of them; for
first
it would be a very lazy thing for a servant to be always looking for Saturday
night
and to be always sighing and groaning because the days are so long. The
man who wants to be off to heaven before his life’s work is done does not seem
to me to be quite the man that is likely to go there at all. Besides
while our
days are like those of a hireling
we serve a better master than other servants
do.
2. I will tell you the devil’s inference. The devil’s inference is
that if our time
warfare
and service are appointed
there is no need of care
and we may cast ourselves down from the pinnacle of the temple
or do any other
rash thing
for we shall only work out our destiny. “Oh
” say they
“we need
not turn to Christ
for if we are ordained to eternal life we shall be saved.”
Yes
sirs
but why will you eat at meal time today? Why
sirs
nothing in the
world more nerves me for work than the belief that God’s purposes have
appointed me to this service. Being convinced that the eternal forces of
immutable wisdom and unfailing power are at my back
I put forth all my
strength as becometh a “worker together with God.”
3. I will now give you the sick man’s inference. “Is there not an
appointed time to men upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of an
hireling?” The sick man
therefore
concludes that his pains will not last
forever
and that every suffering is measured out by love Divine. Therefore
let him be patient
and in confidence and quietness shall be his strength.
4. Next comes the mourner’s inference--one which we do not always
draw quite so readily as we should. It is this: “My child has died
but not too
soon. My husband is gone; ah
God
what shall I do? Where shall my widowed
heart find sympathy? Still he has been taken away at the right time. The Lord
has done as it pleased Him
and He has done wisely.”
5. Furthermore
let us draw the healthy man’s inference. I have no
end of business--too much
a great deal; and I resolved “I will get
all square
and trim as if I were going off
for perhaps I am.” You are a healthy man
but
be prepared to die.
6. Lastly
there is the sinner’s inference. “My time
my warfare
and
my service are appointed
but what have I done in them? I have waged a warfare
against God
and have served in the pay of the devil; what will the end be?”
Sinner
you will run your length
you will fulfil your day to your black
master; you will fight his battle and earn your pay
but what will the wages
be? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
As a servant earnestly
desireth the shadow.
Longing for sunset
The title of this sermon
is the subject of a picture. The artist shows an overworked and weary slave
earnestly looking to the western sky
and longing for the evening shadow which
will say his work is done.
I. The different forms of that experience in which the soul
“earnestly desireth the shadow
” or the coming on of the night of death. The
natural instinct of man is to desire to live. Yet there is a settled mood or
habit of the soul in which there is longing for sunset.
1. One form of this experience arises out of painful and exhausting
sickness. Months of bitterness and wearisome nights had
for Job
worn away the
instinct of life. The grave seemed to him a desirable refuge from his
distresses.
2. When the infirmities of old age creep on
and life continues after
the loss of nearly all the friends among whom it was passed.
3. Those under the shadow of a mighty sorrow from God often long for
sunset. Worldly disappointments sometimes almost craze the agonised spirit.
4. The baffled hero of the Church
after a long conflict with
wickedness
often yearns for the end of his course. (Illustrate from Luther.)
5. The high
Christian experience which finds delight in working for
God upon earth
yearns also for a full communion with Him in heaven.
II. Is such an experience healthy and desirable in any of its forms?
When inspired by a clear realisation of the celestial glories
it certainly is
both healthy and desirable. The real Christian often needs this longing for God
as the solace and hope of his work. But every form of this experience which
arises from disgust of life
is both unhealthy and undesirable. It is not a
normal condition of the soul of man to wish to die
simply as a relief from the
cares and toils of this world. Men love activity. It is a sure sign of unhealth
when the manly vigour of the soul succumbs to its sorrows
and longs for the
rest of the grave. The physical system is itself broken down. Such a state of
mind is also undesirable. It oppresses the soul with a heavy load
so that it
can bear no burden of duty. It envelops the life in a cloud of darkness
so
that it cannot see the light. It is to be prayed against
laboured against
and
lived against
with the utmost tenacity of will.
III. How far is it right or wrong to harbour this disgust of life? We
cannot condemn this longing for death in the souls of those worn out by
disease
but we cannot sanction the very common notion that it is to any extent
the proof of grace in the heart. So far as the desire of the grave is
concerned
it is simply the breaking down of nature
and not the incoming of
grace. It is right too for the aged man to look joyfully towards the end. And
if for the aged
why not for the oppressed? No one who is called to live has
any right to wish to die. Every Christian is sinning against God
when he
permits
himself to loathe
or to neglect the actual work to which he is
clearly called. Observe
then
the supreme dignity of a joyful
earnest
working life in God. That is better far than a constant longing for sunset: God
gives a higher importance to our living than to our dying. Yet
though a
working life is to be desired in itself
it is not true that a Christian is
always best trained in the sunshine. Some of the most precious of the graces
grow best in the darkness
and the choicest disciples very often pass their
lives under a cloud. But we must not forget that the shadow will be falling
soon
nor neglect to prepare for death. And it is well to keep in mind the
blessings which the sunset will bring to the weary saint. (W. H. Corning.)
I am made to possess months of vanity.
The wasted weeks of sickness
“Months of vanity” indicate a protracted time of uselessness
when
no good cause is furthered by us
and we ourselves seem rather to be failing in
piety than growing in grace; a time of suffering without Divine consolation;
months which look not even like months of discipline
because no good end seems
to be served by the affliction. The modes of spiritual distress are almost as
varied as the modes of spiritual progress.
I. The experience
of “months of vanity.” We must carefully distinguish between these and months
of sin
or of punishment for sin.
1. Job’s “months of vanity” were the result of disastrous
circumstances.
2. Sickness was another factor of Job’s distress.
3. Job suffered from the injudicious sympathy of his friends. There
was no lack of tenderness in these men. They were
however
wholly mistaken in
the man; they wholly misread the meaning of his affliction and the purpose of
God.
4. Job was in the hand of Satan. Are there not times when every woe
is aggravated
and all the sufferer’s courage sapped by the consciousness that
no help is being vouchsafed? There are powers of evil which make themselves
felt
thoughts that come charged with doubt
despair
and death. These are the
things that try a man
seeming to make his life valueless and his piety a dream.
II. The Divine
meaning in these “months of vanity.” All this takes place in the providence of
God. The consciousness of the sufferer is no true exponent
as his past
experience is no measure of the Divine purpose.
1. These “months of vanity” revealed the energy of Job’s endurance.
There are Christians whose mere endurance is a greater triumph of grace than
the labours and successes of others.
2. See the manifest victory of Job’s faith. His utterances become
more and more the utterances of faith. The manifest victory of faith becomes an
enlargement of faith.
3. An enlarged thought of God was another of the fruits of Job’s
“months of vanity.” (See the last chapter.)
4. The profound compassion and awe awakened in others by the sight of
the good man’s sufferings. We always need to have a new flow of sympathy
to be
disturbed in our self-complacency; the tragedy of life unfolds itself to us; we
are awestricken to mark God’s dealings with human souls. We learn in what a
man’s life consists; we watch with patience for the assured victory of the
human spirit. Life becomes nobler and grander; homely piety takes on a new
dignity as the infinite possibilities of the patient soul appear. (A.
Mackennal
D. D.)
The design and improvement of useless days and wearisome nights
I. Useless days
and wearisome nights may be the portion of the best of men. To those who
like
Job
are righteous and upright in the sight of God
and have been
like him
healthy
vigorous
and useful
“months of vanity” are months void of health
activity
and usefulness. But this to an aged Christian is not so grievous as that there
are months of vanity in which he is capable of doing little for the glory of
God and the good of his fellow creatures. An ancient writer calls old age “a
middle state between health and sickness.”
II. Months of
vanity and wearisome nights are to be considered as the appointment of God and
to be improved accordingly. God intends hereby--
1. To restrain an earthly spirit
and bring His people to serious
consideration and piety. In order to restrain the inordinate love of the world
God is pleased to visit men with pain and sickness. He gives them time to think
and consider.
2. To exercise and strengthen their graces
especially their
humility
patience
meekness
and contentment. It is very difficult habitually
to practise these virtues
especially if we have long enjoyed health and ease.
But when God toucheth our bone and our flesh
He calls us to and disposeth us
for the exercise of them.
3. To promote the good and advantage of others. It is the observation
of a lively writer “that God makes one-half of the human species a moral lesson
to the other half.” Thus He set forth Job as an example of enduring affliction
and of patience.
4. To confirm their hopes and excite their desires of a blessed
immortality. They tend to confirm their hopes of it. Reflections--
On sickness
When any disease severely attacks us
we are ready to imagine that
our trouble is almost peculiar to ourselves; attended with circumstances which
have never been before experienced. So we think
but we are deceived. The same
complaint has been formerly made; others have exceeded us in sufferings
as
much as they have excelled us in patience and piety. There are disorders which
make our beds uneasy. Some circumstances render the night particularly tedious
to those who are sick.
1. Its darkness. Light is sweet.
2. Its solitariness. In the day the company and conversation of
friends help to beguile the time. At night we are left alone.
3. Its confinement. In the day change of place and posture afford
temporary relief. At night we are shut up
as it were
in a prison.
4. Its wakefulness. If we could get sleep we should welcome it as a
very desirable blessing. It would render us
for a time
insensible to pain.
Sometimes we cannot sleep. Suggest some useful reflections--
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle.
The web of life
These words fitly describe the quickness with which the days of
our life glide away. The weaver at his frame swiftly throws the shuttle from
side to side
backwards and forwards
and every throw leaves a thread behind
it
which is woven into the piece of cloth he is making. And Job compares human
life to the shuttle’s motions.
I. The swiftness
of our days. When anything is gone
and gone forever
we begin to think more of
its value. “Man is like a thing of nought--his time passeth away like a
shadow.”
II. Each day has
added another thread to the web of life. What is our life but a collection of
days? Each day adds something to the colour and complexion of the whole
life--something for good or evil. Thus each day is
as it were
a
representative of the whole life. Of how great importance then is every day!
III. We weave now
what we wear in eternity. “Whatsoever a man soweth
that shall he also reap.”
Scriptures declare that our life will be brought into evidence to show whether
we were believers in Christ or not. Then let us ask ourselves these questions--
1. On what are we resting our hope of salvation?
2. Is it our sincere desire to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus
Christ?
3. Do we live in the spirit of prayer?
4. How has the day of our life been spent? What have we done for
God’s glory? (E. Blencowe
M. A.)
The web of life
I. The swiftness
of our days. We are apt not to prize them till they are gone. Each was full of
mercies: did we appreciate them? Each was full of opportunities: did we use
them wisely or abuse them?
II. Each day adds a
thread to the web of life. Each day has its influence for good or evil
for sin
or holiness
for God or Satan.
III. What we now
weave we shall wear in eternity. What is the web your life is weaving?
Application--
1. On what are you resting your hopes of salvation?
2. Is it your sincere desire to be conformed to the likeness of
Jesus?
3. Do you live in the spirit of prayer?
4. Consider at the close of each day how it has been spent.
5. What
on the whole
is the texture and colouring of the web of
your life as you look upon it in the light of another dying or opening year? (Homiletic
Review.)
The web of life
A Christian man’s life is laid in the loom of time to a
pattern which he does not see
but God does: and his heart is a shuttle. On one
side of the loom is sorrow
and on the other joy; and the shuttle
struck
alternately by each
flies back and forth
carrying the thread
which is white
or black as the pattern needs. And in the end
when God shall lift up the
finished garment and all its changing hues shall glance out
it will then
appear that the deep and dark colours were as needful to beauty as the bright
and high colours. (H. W. Beecher.)
Life’s brevity
How brief it is! Who stood sentinel by the gate of Shushan when
the royal couriers
bearing hope to the Jews
dashed through
burying their
spurs in their horses’ flanks--who stood on the platform by the iron rails that
stretch from Holyhead to London
when signals flashed on along the line to stop
the traffic and keep all clear
an engine and carriage dashed by with tidings
of peace or war from America--saw an image of life. The eagle poising herself a
moment on the wing
and then rushing at her prey; the ship that throwing the
spray from her bows
scuds before the gale; the shuttle flashing through the
loom; the shadow of a cloud sweeping the hillside
and then gone forever; the
summer flowers that vanishing
have left our gardens bare
and where were
spread out the colours of the rainbow
only dull
black earth
or the rotting
wreck of beauty--these with many other fleeting things
are emblems by which
God through nature teaches us how frail we are
at the longest how short our
days. (T. Guthrie.)
Am I a sea
or a whale
that Thou settest a watch over me?
Watch and ward
These words are part of that first great cry to heaven that broke
from the stricken soul of Job. He seems to expostulate with the Almighty for
treating him so harshly. He
a poor
weak
frail mortal
was being handled as
firmly and as severely as though he was as boisterous and encroaching as an
angry sea; as savage and as dangerous as a monster of the river or the deep.
His heart and his flesh cry out against this. I am not going to upbraid Job for
this. It is far more the groaning of the flesh than the insurrection of the
soul. God knoweth our frame
He remembereth that we are dust. There are great
lessons here
nevertheless. God exercises a direct control in the universe His
hand hath made
and all things are under a law of restraint. Job himself was
conscious of this restraining law. “Thou settest a watch over me.” Every
individual has to bend to this superior will; is held in check by this unseen
hand. No man can accomplish the full gratification of his desires
can work out
the full execution of his plans. He is held back by the force of public
sentiment; by the power of conscience; by lack of capacity; by the force of
circumstance; and by the direct interposition of the will of God. Job’s words
imply perplexity
doubt
question
and distress because of this restraint. You
and I know his line of feeling and of thought very well
we fret and murmur
within the chain that binds us
the fetters that restrain us
the ropes that
hold us in. There are good reasons why man should be watched even more closely
reined in more firmly
than anything in the material universe beside. Man
possesses a higher nature
and sustains a nearer relationship to God. He is the
offspring of God. Man is the only being that has a capacity to break through
the lawful boundaries and limits of his place and sphere. He can overleap the
laws of moral being
and become a curse to himself and to his kind. He has even
a tendency to deviate and rush across the true line of his being
the just and
righteous limitations of his nature. Nothing but man in all nature has a
tendency to get out of his place. And man is also the only creature capable of
definite improvement under the control and superintendence of God. It is a
grand thing then
a noble privilege
a gracious mercy that God sets a watch
over us
puts us under special ward
and makes His providence so that all
things shall work together for good. And our true wisdom lies in this
that we
seek
and suffer
and yield ourselves to God’s wise and good control. If we
will
His government of us shall be the law of love
the law of life. Self-will
is our peril. To take our own course is
in the most serious sense
to take our
own life. “Thy will be done.” That is the way of wisdom. Love holds the reins
of government
and God is Guardian
Controller
Governor
and Guide. (Good
Company.)
Man marked and watched
Certain men are not only plagued by conscience and dogged by fear
but the providence of God seems to have gone out against them. Just when the
man had resolved to have a bout of drinking
he fell sick of a fever
and had
to go to the hospital. He was going to a dance; but he became so weak that he
had not a leg to stand upon. He was forced to toss to and fro on the bed
to
quite another tune from that which pleases the ballroom. He had yellow fever
and was long in pulling round. God watched him
and put the skid on him just as
he meant to have a breakneck run downhill. The man gets better
and he says to
himself
“I will have a good time now.” But then he is out of berth
and
perhaps he cannot get a ship for months
and he is brought down to poverty.
“Dear me!” he says
“everything goes against me. I am a marked man”; and so he
is. Just when he thinks that he is going to have a fair wind
a tempest comes
on and drives him out of his course
and he sees rocks ahead. After a while he
thinks
“Now I am all right. Jack is himself again
and piping times have
come.” A storm hurries up; the ship goes down
and he loses all but the clothes
he has on his back. He is in a wretched plight: a shipwrecked mariner
far from
home. God seems to pursue him
even as He did Jonah. He carries with him
misfortune for others
and he might well cry
“Am I a sea
or a whale
that
Thou settest a watch over me?” Nothing prospers. His tacklings are loosed; he
cannot well strengthen his mast; his ship leaks; his sails are rent; his yards
are snapped; and he cannot make it out. Other people seem to get on
though
they are worse than he is. Time was when he used to be lucky too; but now he
has parted company with success
and carries the black flag of distress. He is
driven to and fro by contrary winds; he makes no headway; he is a miserable
man
and would wish that the whole thing would go to the bottom
only he dreads
a place which has no bottom
from which there is no escape
if once you sink
into it. The providence of God runs hard against him
and thus he sees himself
to be a watched man. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Man magnified in view of God’s providence
This is an expression of wonder
petulance
and expostulation at
the strangeness of God’s dealings. They seemed to Job unsuitable and
disproportionate. Viewing himself as the object of them
he was amazed and
disaffected at their character and scale. He deemed such an exertion of force
such
a stretch of observation
such an expense of care and agency
unmeet
and
wasted on so inconsiderable and impotent an object. Surely it is unnecessary
and unbecoming condescension in Thee to stoop at such an expense of care and
effort
to repress his designs and chastise his faults! Contempt and derision
are alone suited to the case of such a puny creature . . . Man is treated by
God as though he were a thing of magnitude
consequence
might
and value. The
providence of God magnifies man
proves him to be an object of wonderful
interest
concern
and solicitude to his Maker. Herein is a mystery. Why am I
thus? Wherein does the value consist? None of His stupendous and potent
creatures has cost Him
and yet does cost Him so much as poor
feeble
short-lived
I
who
if blotted out of creation
would make a void too small to be felt or
seen. But God measures values not by material volume
or physical efficiency
but by likeness to Himself
spiritual furniture
length of being. Then
since
Thou hast made me thus
I marvel not that Thou dost care for me thus. I marvel
not that by so many precautions
and by such frequent checks and corrections
Thou restrainest me from ruining so precious a substance
and filling with
wretchedness so durable a being. The discovery of this invisible value may
serve to explain the fact of God’s vigilance and jealousy over man
but it does
not account for the methods in which they are exhibited. The character of God’s
providence over man is well described in the phrase of Job
“Thou settest a
watch over me
” which denotes constant distrust
observation
and vigilance
an
attitude of suspicion and alarm. Can this be a true picture of the way in which
the great God treats feeble man? I should expect more summary and decisive
measures. Yet God saves man
as it were
by stratagem
with much painstaking
and multiplied endeavours. Here a new phase of human greatness presents itself.
Man is not only a spiritual and immortal creature
but a being of will
a
voluntary agent
the arbiter of his own destiny. Liberty is a dangerous thing
involving fearful hazards. The control of a wise
good despot might be much
safer. God can only “set a watch over me
” and eye me with affectionate
solicitude. And surely He spares no expense to persuade me to choose aright
and impress me with a sense of my own importance
and of the vastness of the
stake dependent on my choice. Then
brethren
esteem and treat yourselves as
your God esteems and treats you. So respected and cared for by God
begin to
respect and care for yourselves. (R. A. Hallam
D. D.)
“Am I a sea
or a whale?”
Job was in great pain when he thus bitterly complained.
I. I have
first
to say that some men seem to be specially tracked and watched by God. We hear
of persons being “shadowed” by the police
and certain people feel as if they
were shadowed by God; they are mysteriously tracked by the great Spirit
and
they know and feel it. All men are really surrounded by God. He is not far from
every one of us. “In Him we live
and move
and have our being.” Some are
singularly aware of the presence of God. Certain of us never were without a
sense of God. With others God’s watch is seen in a different way.
1. They feel that they are watched by God
because their conscience
never ceases to rebuke them.
2. In some this watching has gone farther
for they are under solemn
conviction of sin.
3. Certain men are not only plagued by conscience and dogged by fear
but the providence of God seems to have gone out against them. Yes
and God
also watches over many in the way of admonition. Wherever they go
holy
warnings follow them.
II. Secondly
we
notice that they are very apt to dislike this watching. Job is not pleased with
it. Do you know what they would like?
1. They want liberty to sin. They would like to be let loose
and to
be allowed to do just as their wild wills would suggest to them.
2. They wish also that they could be as hard of heart as many others
are.
3. Men do not like this being surrounded by God--this wearing the bit
and kicking strap--because they would drop God from their thoughts.
4. Once more
there are some who do not like to be shadowed in this
way
because they want to have their will with others. There are men--and
seamen to be found among them--who are not satisfied with being ruined
themselves
but they thirst to ruin others.
III. The third part
is this--that this argument against the Lord’s dealings is a very bad one. Job
says
“Am I a sea
or a whale
that Thou settest a watch over me?”
1. To argue from our insignificance is poor pleading; for the little
things are just those against which there is most need to watch. If you were a
sea
or a whale
God might leave you alone; but as you are a feeble and sinful
creature
which can do more hurt than a sea
or a whale
you need constant
watching.
2. After all
there is not a man here who is not very like a sea
or
a sea monster in this respect
that he needs a watch to be set over him. A
man’s heart is as changeable and as deceitful as the sea.
3. I shall now go further
and show that
by reason of our evil
nature
we have became like the sea.
IV. Last of all
I
would remark that all they complained of was sent in love. They said
“Am I a
sea
or a whale
that Thou settest a watch over me?” but if they had known the
truth they would have blessed God with all their hearts for having watched over
them as He has done.
1. First
God’s restraint of some of us has kept us from self-ruin.
If the Lord had not held us in we might have been in prison; we might have been
in the grave; we might have been in hell! Who knows what would have become of
us?
2. God will not always deal roughly with you. Perhaps tonight He will
say His last sharp word. Will you yield to softer means? (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
I would not live alway.
Living alway
We are led to say with Job
“I would not live alway.”
I. From the state
of things around us. They are subject to dissolution
and are actually
dissolving. Every year we behold proofs and symptoms of this. Years as they
pass speak to us of the consummation of all things. Is it a thing desirable to
live alway in the dissolving scene?
II. From the
condition of mankind. “One generation goeth and another cometh.” “The fathers
where are they?”
III. From the nature
of human enjoyments. Human enjoyments there are
but they are fluctuating
and
the memory of our early joys is all of them that remains. Human enjoyments not
only fade and decay; they are often blasted in the bud or the blossom. Besides
the real disappointments and evils of life there are imaginary evils. Some have
hours of deep and awful melancholy. There is a time of life with every thinking
person
when he looks no more forward to worldly objects of desire
when he
leaves these things behind
and meditates the evening of his day. Then he
thinks on the mercies of a past life
and takes up songs of praise.
IV. From difficulty
in the duties of life. Favourable circumstances often attend our entrance into
the world. By and by difficulties arise. It is sometimes difficult to fulfil
the demands of justice. Even in a high station honours are apt to fade
and
cares to multiply.
V. From the
remains of sin. At first the Christian says
“I will keep all Thy
commandments.” Then temptation prevails. Experience convinces him that human
resolution is weak
that the heart is deceitful
that sin is wedded to
mortality.
VI. The death of
friends makes us say with job
“I would not live alway.” Friendship sweetens
life; but the course of human affection is often interrupted
is often varied
is often embittered. The happiest union on earth must be dissolved
and the
love of life dissolves with it. A beautiful view of providence opens. That
which constitutes our greatest felicity on earth makes us most willing to
depart. The friends of our youth have failed. The hour of departure rises on
the soul
for we are going to a land peopled with our fathers
and our kindred
and the friends of our youth
Already our spirits mingle with theirs. (S.
Charters.)
Death better than life
“I would not live alway.” The preference of death to life is the
utterance
not of a devout and hopeful but of a despairing and repining spirit.
With such a load of misery pressing upon him
and with no earthly comfort to
relieve his anguish
it is not surprising that this godly man should give vent
to his sorrows in a manner which cannot be wholly justified
and for which we
find him afterwards expressing his contrition. It is right for a man to choose
death rather than sin
but it can never be right for a man to choose death
rather than life
when it is the will of God that he should live. A restless
and rebellious longing for dissolution must always have the nature of sin: but
the deliberate preference of heaven to earth may be characteristic of the
Christian. Death is a change desirable to the believer.
I. Because it is
the termination of all the evils and temptations by which he is surrounded here
upon earth. The evil
even in the happiest life
outweighs the good. There are
but two things really profitable and desirable upon earth
--godliness and
contentment; and even these
although they make earthly sorrow tolerable
can
neither wholly remove it
nor deprive it altogether of its power to disquiet
us. The great work of sanctification is never wholly completed in this life.
The holiest man is daily exposed to manifold temptations
and falls under them
daily. Such is the power of remaining corruption
that the best man living upon
earth is guilty of frequent departures from the requirement of God
and
constantly falls short of it. Is this then a state in which a reasonable being
would wish to remain forever? There is
in every child of God
a moral
necessity of dying
that he may be fitted for eternal life.
II. Because it is
the appointed entrance into a state of perfect holiness and inalienable joy.
The change from earth to heaven is not indeed fully completed till the
resurrection. A Christian cannot die. Death to the believer is but a shadow of
death. It is wrong to think of the eternal life and happiness which is assured
after death to the faithful in Christ
as nothing more than an expansion to all
eternity of the life which we now have
exempted from all pain and sorrow
and
fed with a continual supply of such pleasures as we are now capable of
enjoying. That is a very low and very unscriptural view of the excellency of
the glory which is to be revealed. The life which is promised to the believer
is nothing less than a participation
through the Incarnate Son
in that
fulness of life which makes the eternal being and infinite blessedness of God
Himself. Such being the prize of our high calling
let us give all diligence to
make our calling sure
lest
having this great hope held out to us
we should
fall short of it. (W. Ramsay.)
“I would not live alway”
These words may signify a preference for immediate death
but they
are capable of a modified and Christian sense; that this life would be
undesirable if it were perpetual; that it would be better to die than to live
here always. We have no sympathy with that sour
repining
self-torturing
mood
that selects and combines all that is dark and sad and discouraging in
the present existence
and calls it a picture of human life. That is an
unchristian mood. It is a false view. This world is full of beneficence to all
creatures that inhabit it. Man cannot move or think but he experiences the
arrangements of the Divine love. True
we meet with much to dishearten and
sadden us. If our anxieties and sorrows were all brought together in one view
and it were forgotten how many alleviations and respites there were
how many
mercies mingled with sorrows
what strength given for the occasion
what kind
remembrance of our frames
and what tempering of the wind to the shorn lamb
the picture would be a black one indeed. But when we further reflect on the end
of these chastenings
the wise purposes they serve in our moral education
the
blessed results they accomplish for our minds and hearts
then we can bow
contentedly to the appointments of God’s love. If good was not educed out of
evil
evil would be a problem beyond our power to solve. Though troubled
then
by earthly ills
they shall not extinguish our love of life
or make us murmur
under its wholesome corrections
its blessed ministries and teachings. Though
we would not live alway
it is not because life’s cup has no sweetness to
delight us
nor is it because it has in it bitterness and tears. The hopes
friendships
and privileges of existence are great
substantial
and noble
things. They yield pure
elevated
and entrancing enjoyments. We would live for
what of good and fair and affectionate and true there is in the present lot.
And
on the other hand
we would live also for its purifying afflictions
its
humbling reverses
its spiritualising bereavements
and healthy
though severe
discipline. But though we would live
and live contentedly and joyfully
yet
would we not live alway here. The whole arrangement of things
and the whole
constitution of man
show that this world could not be a final home for
us--that we could not endure to be immortal below. Even the most worldly would
tire of the world
if they believed that they must abide in it always. The
body
too
--exquisite in its construction
but frail
feeble
fatigued
--this
could not be immortal here. We would not live alway
for friends have left us
and gone hence. From the bright and holy scenes of the upper world
from
mansions of rest and glory
from bowers of beauty and bliss
they bend to
invite us to ascend and dwell with them. That the future state is to be a
social state
there can be no doubt. Moreover
our intellectual nature demands
a finer culture
a wider range
and fewer lets and hindrances than it has here.
With must of us the intellectual possibilities largely remain uncultivated. We
wish
for ourselves and for the race
in the good time of our Father’s will
a
removal to a condition better fitted than this to refine
unfold
and exalt our
mental powers
in accordance with the manifest design of their Author
and
their own ceaseless aspirations. Then again
we seek a nearer communion with
Jesus and with God
higher excellence and virtue
a greater expansion of the
moral and spiritual part of our nature. Much may be done
indeed
in this
state. Our higher nature
with all its powers and aspirations
will be called
into a new and happy exercise
of which the most blessed moments on earth have
given us hardly any idea There is a faith that plucks out the sting of death
a
resurrection that brings life and immortality to light. (A. A. Livermore.)
Continuance on earth not desired by the believer
The love of life is natural to all men. For the wisest purposes it
has been implanted within us. But the Gospel has brought life and immortality
to light
and has shown us that the valley of the shadow of death forms a
passage for the believer to a world of light and glory everlasting. The
reception of this Gospel into the heart changes both the scenes of mortality
and the state of the mind
so as to regulate the love of life
produce a subjection
to the will of God
and lead to a certain and cheery prospect of felicity
beyond the grave.
I. The reasons
which lead the Christian to desire a continuance in life. There are some who
through fear of death
are all their lifetime subject to bondage. This may be
owing to the natural character and habit of the mind
to bodily indisposition
or to the power of temptation; or it may arise from a consciousness that they
are destitute of the necessary meetness for heaven. Some desire life that they
may yield themselves to Satan as servants. The Christian’s desire for
continuance may arise--
1. From our relative connection with others. We are all bound by
strong and tender ties.
2. It may arise from a sense of former slothfulness
or backslidings
from the ways of God. Then
when death appears to be approaching
fear is
excited.
3. It may arise from love to the Redeemer’s cause.
II. The reasons
which lead good men
notwithstanding their natural love of life
to desire a
departure from the present state. They know that there is a state of
immortality and glory actually in existence beyond the grave.
1. A prospect of perfect freedom from suffering leads believers to
entertain this desire.
2. So does a sense of the evil of sin.
3. The believer longs to quit this mortal state
because death will
introduce him to a better Sabbath
and a perfect society.
4. The anticipated enjoyment of God and the Lamb is a strong reason
why the righteous would not live alway. Learn what gratitude is due to God for
His Gospel. Hence all our hopes arise; and by its cordial reception the
believer is delivered from the love of life
and from the fear of death. (Essex
Remembrancer.)
Why the believer does not wish to live always
A truth may sometimes be uttered in a bad spirit. This is. But it
may be expressed with an intelligent submission to the Divine will
and be
cherished in harmony with the Christian principles. There are reasons which
induce the believer to utter this sentiment.
1. He knows it is not the will of God that he should live always. “It
is appointed unto all men once to die.”
2. Because here the work of grace is but imperfectly developed. At
present his piety is only elementary. “Now we know in part.”
3. Here the full blessing of justifying righteousness cannot be
enjoyed. This blessing is now enjoyed by faith
and faith is fluctuating.
4. Here God is at best but imperfectly worshipped. The holy soul
desires to worship God with undivided thought and affection. This outer court
worship is too often interrupted by the din and bustle of worldly traffickers.
Thoughts and affections are often intruders when the mind would be engaged in
God’s worship.
5. The change is absolutely necessary for the completion of our
blessedness and the perfection of the Divine glory. We must go home to be
happy. In the consolations
hopes
and joys the believer realises in death God
is glorified. (Evangelical Preacher.)
Reasons why good men may look forward with desire to the
termination of life
The sentiment of the text is not unfrequently the breathing of a
guilty soul--racked with remorse
stung by an accusing conscience
haunted by
the recollection of deeds of guilt
and prompted by the hope
if not the sober
belief
that death shall prove the end of all. The words of the text
however
do not necessarily imply either impiety or impatience. Even good men may be
weary of life
and long for its close.
1. Good men may be so fax reconciled to death
from their experience
of the evils of life
and the unsatisfactory nature of all earthly enjoyments.
In infancy
we rejoice in parental care: in youth
our imagination is gladdened
by the beauty and novelty of the scene around us; we live in hope
and are
ignorant of the evil to come; in the maturity of life
we exercise
with
peculiar satisfaction
our ripened powers
and draw liberally on the stores of
friendship and affection. Yet is this world termed a vale of tears; and they
who have lived the longest
and enjoyed the greatest portion of the world’s
good
have with one voice declared their days to have been both few and evil.
2. Good men may be led to look forward with desire to the termination
of life
from the changes taking place around them
and particularly the deaths
of companions and friends.
3. Good men may be reconciled to death
and may be led even to desire
it
from the remains of sin and their growing desire after perfection. (James
Grant.)
A reasonable desire
I. Where a child
of God would not live always. On earth. The utmost to be enjoyed or expected on
this side heaven
cannot make him wish that it may be always with him as now
that this may be his everlasting abode.
1. You that are men of the world
would you live always?
2. You that have much of this world’s goods
would you live alway?
II. Why a child of
God would not live alway in this present state. It is common for men in
distress to wish for death
as having no other notion of it than of its being a
freedom from their present pain and misery.
1. Because it is the will of God that the child of God should not
live alway.
2. Saints would not live alway
from the concern and zeal they have
for God’s glory.
3. From love to Christ the saint is willing to depart.
4. A child of God would behave after the example of Christ.
5. As feeling the evils of the present state
and having the
believing prospect of a better.
III. What is implied
in this saying?
1. That the saint believes he is one who is already
through grace
prepared for a better life.
2. While in this world
a child of God should think and speak
not as
an inhabitant of it
but as a traveller through it; not as one fixed here
but
as one in motion towards a better country
that is
a heavenly.
IV. In what manner
should a child of God thus speak?
1. With a deep sense of the evil of sin
which hath made this world
so undesirable.
2. With great seriousness
upon the consideration
how awful a thing
it is to die.
3. Not as peremptorily fixing the time to what date he would have his
life drawn out
or when cut off
but with entire resignation
referring the
matter to God.
V. To whom may a
saint speak thus?
1. To God by way of appeal.
2. To others we may utter this
when speaking of the concerns of our
souls
and of eternity
to engage them to regard us as those who are dying
and
well satisfied in the choice we have made
of God for our portion
and heaven
as our home.
3. To himself. Application--
The advantage of not living alway
The Quiver contains a paper on “Butterflies
” by the late
Rev. Dr. Hugh Macmillan. This must have been one of the last papers written by
that charming writer
and most cultured of men
and it is a curious coincidence
that just before the great change came to him he should have written thus
“Death is ‘the shadow feared by man
’ as apparent destruction; but should we
live always as we now live upon the earth
should we never pass through the
experience of death
we should remain mere human embryos
undeveloped beings
forever. It is only through death that the mortal can put on immortality. It is
only undergoing a metamorphosis as complete as and at present more inexplicable
than that which the caterpillar undergoes when it passes through the apparently
lifeless condition of the chrysalis and becomes a butterfly
that we can pass
from the seeming hopeless condition of the grave to the winged condition of the
angel
acquire the full power of our being
and soar from earth to heaven.” (Christian
Endeavour Times.)
On death
There is nothing to which human nature is more averse than to
dissolution. Death presents himself to the imagination of every man
clothed
with terrors.
1. A due respect to the Divine will would deter us from wishing to
“live alway.” Our life is not made transient by any malignant power. Why should
we turn with regret from any allotment to which it is the will of God we should
submit? There is
in submission to the laws to which the all-wise Creator hath
subjected our nature
both safety and virtue.
2. We may be reconciled to the necessity of dying by considering who
have passed through the gate of death.
3. The condition of this present state is such that no Christian can
wish to live in it always. Not that it becomes us to find fault with the
circumstances of our present existence. It is problematical whether our virtue
or our trials would prevail
if our probation were prolonged; but discretion
would seem to plead for the shortest exposure to evil. Death releases us from
the temptations
ignorance
and sorrows of this probationary existence.
4. A just consideration of the future life will reconcile us entirely
to the transitoriness of this. If to die were to cease to be
we might with a
desperate tenacity cling to this present existence
chequered and
unsatisfactory as it is.
5. By His death
the “Captain of our salvation” hath overcome death
and made the passage through the grave the ordinary entrance to the reward of
our inheritance. What a body of motives is here to induce you
when your
Creator shall call you out of this life
to depart willingly! Lay them up in
your memories. (Bishop Dehon.)
Death preferable to life
There are few stronger principles in the human breast than the
love of life. The desire of self-preservation is instinctive
and operates long
before reason dawns
or experience attaches us to the pleasures of existence.
Nor are men attached to life merely by the principle of instinct. “I could willingly
die
” said an expiring Christian
“were there not friends to whom it is hard to
say farewell.” Life is made pleasant
and attachment to it is strengthened by
friendship and the social relations. And then our fears have exhibited death
with terrific aspect
and surrounded it with horrid drapery. The coffin
the
shroud
the darkness and dampness
the silence and coldness of the grave
the
worm and the corruption
and the untried and eternal state into which death
introduces the soul
are circumstances calculated to make the stoutest heart
recoil
and cling with closest grasp upon its hold of life. But these
attachments and apprehensions are incident to our frailty. Through the grace of
God
they may be overcome and renounced. The believer in Christ can say
“I
would not live alway.”
I. There is the
greatest wisdom in this choice
since should he live alway
the evils of the
present life could be prolonged and perpetuated.
1. I would not live alway
exposed to the evils incident to this
mortal body--under the continual infliction of God’s original curse upon man
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”; or perpetually exposed to the
ravages of the “pestilence that walketh in darkness
” and to the violence of
the “sickness that wasteth at noonday”;--to be forever a partaker of that
nature whose beauty is a “fading flower
” whose “strength” is “labour and
sorrow
” whose eyes fail through dimness
and whose ears grow dull of hearing
and whose head totters with infirmity
and whitens with the frosts of age
whose limbs are scorched with fever
and racked with pain
and then chilled
with ague
and shaken with anguish
--to be frozen by the severity of winter and
burn by the fervour of summer.
2. I would not live alway
the subject of mental infirmity. What
ignorance beclouds the mind of wretched man! How much carefulness and
painstaking must be expended before he can be taught things the most necessary
to be known! How often is his judgment
even in its most vigorous exercise
erring and imperfect! Frequent are his mistakes
and erroneous his conclusions
even in affairs of the utmost importance
and which intimately concern his own
welfare.
3. I would not live alway
in the midst of a selfish and malignant
world
where my conduct is misrepresented
my motives misunderstood
my
character assailed
and my best interests injured and obstructed; where envy
displays her malignant features
and detraction employs her envenomed tongue to
destroy my reputation; where jealousy invents
and malice contrives
their cruel
purposes to disturb my peace.
4. I would not live alway
the witness
as well as the subject of
human miseries. It is painful to the benevolent heart to witness the
misfortunes and follies of men. It is painful to “discern
among the youth
a
young man void of understanding
” wasting his patrimony in extravagance and
dissipation; degrading the noble faculties of body and mind
with which God has
endowed him; and descending prematurely down to the grave
and to the shades of
eternal death
the victim of accursed intemperance. It is painful to see the
impenitent and prayerless sinner
careless of his rebellion
and thoughtless of
his danger
sporting with the menaces of Jehovah
and mocking at the
threatenings of the Almighty
and yet to know that between him and eternal
burnings there only intervenes--what is liable to be sundered at any
moment--the thin fragile veil of flesh.
5. Well may the Christian
the witness of such spectacles
and
himself the servant of unholy passions
declare
I would not live alway. When
his faith is firm
doubts and obscurities will sometimes arise and weaken it.
When his hopes are bright
sin and impenitence will obscure and darken them.
When his love to God and men is fervent
unholy feelings will spring up and
dampen and allay it. When the Sun of Righteousness shines upon him
his
iniquities will often arise like a thick cloud
envelop him in spiritual
darkness
and leave him in mental misery.
6. I would not live alway
exposed to temptations and enticements to
sin. The alluring example of men whom
for some good qualities
the Christian
has been taught to respect
will offer its persuasions to divert him from the
path of life. Learning
and intelligence
and wit
and persuasion
will be
employed by those who in appearance are angels of light
to weaken his
allegiance to his crucified Master.
7. Himself the subject and witness of misery and sin
the Christian
will say
I would not live alway
especially since God has otherwise
determined. His daily prayer will be
“My Father
Thy will be done”; and
acquiescence in the will of God will constitute the perfection of his religious
character. He will therefore desire to depart from this wretched life
knowing
that God has prepared some better thing for him.
II. There is wisdom
in the Christian’s choice
for
should his life not terminate
he would not be
admitted into the joys of heaven.
1. His corruptible body would not then put on incorruption
nor his
mortal
immortality. “The righteous shall shine forth as the sun; they shall
shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars forever and ever.”
The Saviour said that the children of the resurrection will be equal to the
angels
and therefore will resemble angels in their glory and beauty.
2. In heaven
the faculties of the mind
as well as those of the
body
will in a wonderful measure be strengthened and perfected. The memory
perfected and made retentive
will preserve whatever is committed to its trust.
The understanding
thus aided by the other mental powers
redeemed and invigorated
will be making perpetual advances in knowledge. For not only will the faculties
of the mind be improved
but the field of investigation will be proportionably
enlarged. The scene of observation and improvement will not be this little
earth
and its limited productions
but the wonders and glories of the
celestial regions. I would not live alway
in prospect of such an increase of
knowledge and intelligence
the perpetual subject of mental imperfection
of
ignorance and weakness.
3. I would not live alway
away from my home. How many pleasing
associations and tender recollections are awakened by the mention of home!
Around what place do the affections linger with such strong attachment
or what
spot looks bright and happy
when the rest of the world appears dark and
cheerless
but that characterised by the expressive word home? Where do the
skies wear a peculiar brightness
and nature present peculiar cheerfulness and
loveliness
but at home? But heaven is the Christian’s home. Here
he is a stranger
and a sojourner; but he is travelling to a city which hath foundations
the
abode of friendship and peace. Divine love is the sacred principle that
animates all hearts in the regions of bliss
from the “rapt seraph” to him who
has “washed his robes in the blood of the Lamb.” It unites the inhabitants of
heaven in an indissoluble bond of harmony
and attaches them to God Himself.
Security also is there. Security from the influence of unholy affections
from
the temptations and hostility of wicked men
and from the enmity and malice of
the great spiritual foe. With the Prince of Peace
peace shall ever reign
and
from the right hand of God shall flow the river of His pleasures for evermore.
4. I would not live alway separated from my pious friends
in whose
sacred society and holy friendship I found such delight and profit
but who
have preceded me in their entrance into glory. For in heaven the pious
friendships of this world shall be renewed and perpetuated.
5. I would not live alway
for in the midst of that holy brotherhood
is Jesus Christ
their elder brother
the faithful and true witness; that
Jesus
the desire and Saviour of all nations; and whom I desire to see; my
Saviour I to whom I have so often prayed
and in whom I have so long trusted;
Him who has for years been my invisible teacher and defence
and whom
though
not seeing
yet have I loved! (S. Fuller.)
What is man
that Thou shouldst magnify him?
Divine condescension
Here is a question that is both answered and unanswerable.
I. A scriptural
solution of the question.
1. What is man as a creature? A piece of modified dust
enlivened by
the breath of God (Genesis 2:7). An earthen vessel (2 Corinthians 4:7). He is grass (Isaiah 40:6; Isaiah 40:8). A drop of a bucket
or dust
that will not turn the scale (Isaiah 40:15). Vanity (Job 7:16; Isaiah 40:17).
2. What is man as a fallen creature? An ignorant creature (Isaiah 1:3). A guilty (Romans 3:23). A condemned (John 3:18-19). A polluted (Job 15:16; Isaiah 1:16). A diseased (Isaiah 1:6). Impotent (Ezekiel 16:4; Ezekiel 16:6). Rebellious (Numbers 20:10; Isaiah 1:2).
II. In what
respects it may be said that the Lord magnified man. He magnified man at the
creation. By the care He showeth towards him in the course of His providence.
By assuming human nature. By giving us such great and precious promises. By
making man a sharer of His throne. Observe--
1. How amazing that the Lord should thus notice sinful man! He who is
the High and Lofty One.
2. The base ingratitude of sinners who rebel against so kind a
Benefactor.
3. If God thus magnify man
ought not man to endeavour to magnify
God
i.e.
praise and extol Him? (T. Hannam.)
The dignity and possibility of manhood
The doctrine of this text seems to be that man is a creature of
such insignificance
so sinful
frail
and unimportant
that he is utterly
unworthy of the care and attention that God pays to him. That this is true
none of us doubt. Infidels have often used this truth in their attempts to
prove that God cannot pay the regard to man that the Bible declares He does.
Yet these words of the text clearly and distinctly teach other truths--the
greatness of man
because God has magnified him; the duty of man
because God
has blessed him; the possibilities of man
because God has set His heart upon
him. View man in the light of his privileges
in the light of his
possibilities
in the light of Calvary
he then becomes a creature of infinite
worth; and the highest service which a servant of God can be engaged in
is
that of seeking the elevation
the conversion of men. It is the nobler aspect
of man we are to study. I would lead you young men to self-respect. Distinguish
between self-respect and self-conceit. One is the child of ignorance
the other
the fair daughter of knowledge.
I. The dignity of
man.
1. We are dignified because magnified of God. So far as we know
man
is the consummation of creative skill. Man is both material and spiritual
presenting a marvellous combination of the two. He is a middle link in the
chain of being
holding both ends together. He partakes much of the grossness
of earth
yet much of the refinement of heaven. Without man
between the atom
and the angel there would be a chasm
Man is the golden chain between the two.
He is a little world in miniature
for in his frame there is an epitome of the
universe. Truly
in the character of his being he is magnified. No one who
thinks of his capabilities can dispute it. The capabilities of some men must be
enormous. The dignity of man is further enhanced
if we consider that he
possesses an immortal soul. He has a life that must run parallel with the life
of the Eternal; a life that neither sin
death nor hell can quench. How awful
does this make the importance of even a single man! Notice also man’s exalted
position in this world. He is lord of creation. This world was built as a
house
for which man is the tenant.
2. We are dignified
because beloved of God. Our text says that God
has set His heart upon man. This glorious truth is written on the page of
inspiration with the clearness of a sunbeam (John 3:16). Surely such love must make
man the envy of the angels. It seems as though man had received more care
attention
and love than all other parts of His dominion put together. On our
weal the Deity has expended Himself
communicated to us in Christ Jesus all
that was communicative in His being and character.
II. What conduct is
worthy of the dignity of man? I take a high standard of appeal
and ask you
in
the light of your noble faculties
in the light of all the mercies bestowed on
you in creation and providence
in the light of God’s infinite love
what
conduct becomes you? What should be your bearing towards yourselves
your
Saviour
your God? You are unanimous in your verdict that a sinful
sensual
life is utterly beneath the dignity of manhood. Take another kind of life. A
life of mere self-gratification. Perhaps more promising young men are ruined
through this kind of living than any other. But it is unworthy of a man. The
end of a life that is true is not happiness in any shape or form
but character
that shall fit us for eternity. In every man that has not this as his supreme
desire
his one aim
only a fraction of manhood is awakened. The portions of
his nature which make it worth while to be
are dormant. The trembling anxiety
about our privileges
our welfare
our debt to God--which leads us to trust in
Him--this makes a life true.
III. What are the
possibilities of such a magnified being?
1. There is a possibility of any lost self-respect being restored.
Some of you may have started wrong. This has destroyed self-respect. This is
one of the most potent evils incident to a sinful life. Remember that character
is under a law of perpetuity. It has an element in it which will make it almost
immutable. “Evil tends to evil permanence.” Then let me tell you the glad news
of the Gospel. There is a possibility of self-conquest. Self-control
for real
usefulness
is as necessary as self-respect. How are we to exercise it? Will
resolution
will determination do? My only hope is in God the Holy Spirit; in
seeking Divine grace and power. To all of us there is the joyous possibility of
a sublime life. Then
talk not of destiny
but believe in your own
and working
like men
trusting like children
fulfil it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The philosophy of human worth
From the East proceeded first the light of Divine knowledge
of
art
and of science
that threefold cord with which the loins of our
civilisation are girded. In what boasted philosopher of heathendom do we find a
single sentiment
on the subject in point
equal to the one contained in our
text? To a Father the patriarch Job confidently looked
both in his prosperity
and adversity; it was not to a God afar off that he poured out the feelings of
his heart. It is true he was deeply awed at the infinity and consequent
mysteriousness of his Divine Father; but while
on the one hand
he was
overwhelmed with majesty and incomprehensibility
on the other
he was soothed
and cheered with condescension and love. The Divine character
and the ways of
providence
appear to have occupied the thoughts of this large-minded and holy
man
to the exclusion of almost everything else. It was not a thing
it was a
person towards whom his thoughts and affections rationally and instinctively
turned. The law which influenced this good man was moral. The grand centre of
attraction
and source of all spiritual life and glory
was God Himself
“the
Father of lights.” Now wherefore did Job thus seek after God
and look upon
righteousness
or moral excellence
as the chief concern of his existence?
Because something within prompted him to do so. There are two great generic
ways in which God reveals Himself to man. Objectively
or through any physical
medium such as His works
or assumed experiences
and subjectively
or in the
conscious spirit. There was something more than mere figure in these words of
our blessed Saviour
“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” “What is man
that Thou shouldst magnify him?” The patriarch appears to have been astonished
that so vile
impotent
and short-lived a creature as man
should be specially
noticed and favoured by his Maker. Whatever his ideas may have been of human dignity
and worth
it is quite obvious that they were associated with a strong
conviction of human degradation and vanity. And is not this a true estimate
the proper mean between two extremes
one of which exalts man far too high
whilst the other debases him far too low? If we looked no further than the
outward nature and condition of man
we could only regard him as a unique kind
of animal
inferior in some respects
though superior in others
to his fellow
tenants of the earth. Were his animal nature the whole of man
in what would
consist his preeminence over “the beasts that perish”? And yet this animal
nature is all that our senses can take cognisance of. Considering him
however
in the light of analogy
it is clear that there may be undeveloped faculties
and destinies
Of a high and inconceivable order
slumbering in his breast
but
concealed from all inspection. Such was the pleasing theme of poetic song and
philosophic speculation. These are by no means adequate effectively to
counteract the sceptical conclusions of sense respecting the nature and
destinies of man. Hence the uncertainty of the wisest and best of the old
heathen philosophers. The plain truth is that the world by wisdom knew nothing
conclusively about these things. The vantage ground on which the Bible places
our feet
has raised us immeasurably higher than the wisest heathen
as such
ever stood. Guided by the torch of heaven
let us consider why God may be said
to “magnify man
and set His heart upon him.”
1. Man is magnified by the gift of an intellectual nature.
2. In the possession of a moral nature.
3. In being the object of a Divine redemption.
4. In the omnipresent and omniactive superintendence of Divine
providence over human affairs.
5. Immortality and future blessedness strikingly illustrate the text.
If you believe these things
what manner of persons ought you to be? (Jabez
Cole.)
Man magnified by the Divine regard
It is the character of almost all speculative systems of unbelief
that
whilst they palliate or excuse the moral pravity of our nature
they
depreciate and undervalue that nature itself. Some deny that there is a “spirit
in man.” Others deny man an immortality. Some would persuade us that we are but
atoms in the mass of beings; and to suppose ourselves noticed by the Great
Supreme
either in judgment or in mercy
is an unfounded and presumptuous
conceit. The Word of God stands in illustrious and cheering contrast to all
these chilling and vicious speculations. As to our moral condition
it lays us
deep in the dust
and brings down every high imagination. But it never abases
our nature itself. Man is the head and chief of the system he inhabits
and the
image of God. He is arrayed in immortality
and invested with high and awful
capacities both of good and evil.
I. Certain
considerations illustrative of the doctrine of the text.
1. God hath “magnified” man by the gift of an intellectual nature. We
see unorganised matter without life; matter organised
as in vegetables
with
life
but without sensation; and
in the inferior animals
with life
sense
and a portion of knowledge
but without reason. But
in man
the scale rises
unspeakably higher. His endowments are beyond animal life and sensation
and
beyond instinct. Man is the only visible creature which God
in the proper
sense of the word
could “love.” No creature is capable of being loved
but one
which is also capable of reciprocal knowledge
regard
and intercourse.
2. By the variety and the superior nature of the pleasures of which
He has made him capable. His are the pleasures of contemplation. These the
inferior animals have not. The pleasures of contemplation are inexhaustible
and the powers we may apply to them are capable of unmeasurable enlargement.
His are the pleasures of devotion. Can it be rationally denied that devotion is
the source of even a still higher pleasure than knowledge? His are the
pleasures of sympathy and benevolence. His are the pleasures of hope.
3. The text receives its most striking illustration from the conduct
of God to man considered as a sinner. If under this character we have still
been loved; if still
notwithstanding ingratitude and rebellion
we are loved;
then
in a most emphatic sense
in a sense which we cannot adequately conceive
or express
God hath “set His heart” upon us. Mark the means of our
reconciliation to God
and mark the result.
4. Consider the means by which God’s gracious purpose of “magnifying
man
” by raising him out of his fallen condition
is pursued and effected.
II. The practical
improvement which flows from facts so established.
1. We are taught the folly and voluntary degradation of the greater
part of the unhappy race of mankind.
2. The subject affords an instructive test of our religious
pretensions.
3. To form a proper estimate of our fellow men
and of our
obligations to promote their spiritual and eternal benefit. (R. Watson.)
On the nature and character of man
The heathen sage
who bid us know ourselves
might give the
precept
but it was out of his power to put us in a way of obtaining the proper
information. The present state of man can only be understood from the history
of man
as the best natural philosophy must be built upon the history of
nature. When man came first from the hands of his Creator
he was neither
sinful nor mortal; but as the happiness of a rational being must be the object
of his free choice
and cannot possibly be otherwise
life and happiness were
proposed to man on such terms as put him to a trial. There can be no reward but
to obedience
and there can be no obedience without liberty
that is
without
the liberty of falling away into disobedience and rebellion. As man consists of
soul and body
and is allied to the visible and invisible world
no
transactions pass between God and man without some intermediate visible figure;
therefore life and death were proposed to Adam
under the two symbols of the
tree of life
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The latter was the
instrument of temptation. By partaking of the tree of life
the nature of man
would have been refined and spiritualised upon earth. The enemy of God’s glory
and man’s happiness was permitted to enter into paradise in the form of a
serpent
who having prevailed first upon the weaker sex
deceived Adam by her
means. Thus the life of paradise was forfeited. It appears then that man is now
in a state of banishment from his native paradise
and driven out into the wide
world. The tempter who first seduced him into sin
is carrying on the same plan
of enmity and opposition to this day. We find such contrarieties in the nature
of man as can never be accounted for but from the history of his fall. In the
fall of man there are two things to be considered
the sin and the punishment.
The act of disobedience proceeded from a sinful desire
suggested by the devil
of rising by forbidden means
and without any dependence upon God
to a state
of superior wisdom and greatness. Look attentively into this original act of
man’s disobedience
and you will discover that every lust and passion of which
man is capable
prevailed on that occasion. The “lust of the flesh” was
indulged in eating; the “lust of the eye” in coveting what was forbidden; and
the “pride of life” in the affectation of a superior condition
to which there
was no title. Man cannot now sin by the same act as Adam did; but all his sin
is after that pattern. His three vices are
intemperance
covetousness
and
pride. There is an irregular conflict in human nature which we cannot account
for
but upon the principle of original sin. The effect of original sin is evident
from that lamentable symptom of it
an alienation of the mind from God: for
there certainly is in man
such as he is now
a distaste of God
and of all
that relates to Him. This cannot be nature
it must be a depravation of nature.
The other evidences of the fall of man are to be found in its punishment
which
comprehends the several particulars of labour
poverty
sickness
and death. It
appears then that man is in a fallen state
subject to the power of sin
and
the penalty of disobedience. In consequence of this evil nature
it is good for
man to be afflicted
as it is necessary that his dross should be separated by a
fiery trial in the furnace. (W. Jones
M. A.)
God’s dealings with insignificant man
Pride is the great besetting sin of our corrupt nature. This it is
which unfolds man’s self-righteousness
self-seeking
self-dependence
and
self-complacency
in all their varied forms. It will show itself as family
pride
professional pride
intellectual pride
yea
and in that low and
contemptible exhibition of it
even the love of personal attraction.
I. Man’s
littleness. As a creature. As a fallen creature. Is it too much to say that he
is lower than the beasts? It is a strong expression. Is it too much to say that
sin has sunk man as low as Satan? Man is a sinful
guilty
and condemned
creature. The law condemns him. All that is in God condemns the impenitent
unbelieving sinner. Man is a proud
self-righteous sinner. There is no man but
what has some apparently good qualities--at least
he thinks he has them--and
these blind him to all his bad qualities
and he thinks he can blind God with
them.
II. God’s most
wondrous dealings with man. Out of these materials does God choose a people and
erect a temple to His own glory. How wonderful is the exhibition of God’s grace
in the conversion of a sinner! Look at the wondrous display of grace in
redemption
and in bringing all the redeemed ones safe to glory. See in this
subject the greatness of God: notice how contemptible is our pride when we can
look down upon others. Though our Lord shows us our littleness
yet we ought
not to forget that He has magnified us. (J. H. Evans
M. A.)
God’s perpetual providence in life; its mystery and its meaning
The question must have been asked by Job in the profoundest
earnestness. The sudden shocks of sorrow had been bringing him face to face
with the awful mysteries of eternal providence
and making him feel their power
as he had never felt it before. The question expresses each of the first of
those great mysteries which the stern reality of trouble had forced upon his
thoughts. It was no curious inquiry on his part; it was one which the agony of
his life had compelled him to meet. You will perceive this by considering the
experience he had recently passed through. He had reached that desire for death
which sometimes rises from the strong pressure of deep and sorrowful thought.
Then arose the mysterious question
Why did God prolong his life? To live amid
the desolation of his great sorrow: and struggling with awful doubts
was a
constant trial
and why did God thus “try him every moment” by keeping him
alive? Remember
too
that Job had remained for days and nights in silence
under the open sky. Looking at nature in his sorrow
the mighty march of the
stars
in the far-off wilderness of space
and the solemn glory of the day as
it rose and faded
and the voices of the winds as they came and went through
the land
would all make him feel the majesty of God and the insignificance of
man. Taking the words in their broadest meaning
the subject presented by them
is God’s perpetual providence in life.
I. Its mystery. We
shall not feel it as Job felt it unless we accept his belief in the incessant
action of God’s providence in human history. He did not regard life as governed
by general laws usually
and by the living God only occasionally. He said God
“visited man every morning.” Job’s view of human life was that the souls of men
were surrounded and influenced by the ever-present
ever-acting God
How common
is the belief that “in the beginning” God created certain general laws
and
that He has retired into His eternity
leaving them to govern the universe
interfering Himself now and then
when a great crisis demands His action. We
speak of general and special providence as if there were some real distinction
between the two
and as if all providence were not the activity of the living
God
equally present everywhere. Now this distinction is unscriptural and
unreasonable. If God directs the great events
He also directs every event
for
all are bound together. Besides
how do we know which are great and which are
small? We must go back to the strong
simple faith of such men as Job and David
before we can realise the mystery which they felt in life. Accepting
then
that view of an incessant providence
the difficulty which Job felt must have
risen from two sources: the greatness of God
“What is man
that Thou shouldst
magnify him?” and the nature of the discipline through which He conducted life
“That Thou shouldst try him every moment?”
1. Take the first source of the mystery which Job felt in the
unceasing providence of God: the greatness of God compared with the
insignificance of man. He felt God was so great
that for Him to visit man in
sorrow was to magnify the frail child of time by exalting it to even a moment’s
notice of the Infinite One. We do not feel the mystery of God’s dealings with
man with the same intensity as Job and the men of old time must have felt it.
2. Look at the other aspect of God’s perpetual providence--The nature
of the discipline through which God conducts life. This was evidently the other
source of the difficulty that perplexed the patriarch. Life had become to him
one overwhelming trial
yet he believed that every element of that trial was
sent or permitted by God. Why? Some men have to learn the mystery of discipline
in the sternest school of suffering. Now
accepting the Bible faith that God
orders all our life
is it not evident He is trying us every moment? Why does
He stoop from His vast empire to visit thus the creatures of a day?
Christianity has revealed two things
corresponding to the two-fold character
of this mystery.
The tragedy of life
This is a cry wrung from the heart of a man who was passing
through a season of awful tribulation. His life
which was formerly smooth and
prosperous
had now become
all at once
a very tragedy of sorrow. Not one
gleam of hope was visible throughout the whole range of his earthly
circumstances. His misfortunes had indeed come in battalions. What wonder if
Job
thus crushed to the very dust by his calamities and by his friends
deserted
as it seemed
both by God and man
and left to wrestle all alone with
his sorrow
should
out of his weakness
utter this cry of remonstrance to the
Almighty? Here Job
feeling himself overwhelmed by his calamities
is
remonstrating with God for taking so much notice of man as even to visit him
with trial. Why cannot the Almighty “let” a poor worm “alone”? Surely it is
“magnifying” man unduly--it is making altogether too much of a creature so
frail--for God thus to “turn His thoughts towards man
” and “visit” him with
such incessant and overwhelming “trials”! When we ourselves have been passing
through some bitter experience
have we not been tempted to feel as if the
trial were overdone? Have we not been tempted to think
Surely the Almighty
could have effected His purpose with less expenditure of suffering? Thinking of
the woes of humanity
we ask
Why is there not more economy of all this pain?
Why break a butterfly on the wheel? It is the old thought of Job
born of the
old and ever-recurring mystery that attends so much of the earth’s sorrow. We
must meet the mystery with faith. We ought to believe that He who can keep in
their places Orion and the Pleiades; can make no mistake in guiding and
overruling human destinies. We ought to believe that the Father of all is as
loving as He is wise
and that
in spite of all appearances
there is
throughout His universe a true economy of suffering. What God Himself is
remains our best reason for trusting Him in everything He does. Consider some
of the ends which are subserved by what we may call the tragic element in our
human life.
1. It tends to deliver us from shallow and frivolous conceptions of
our own nature. There are many influences at work which tend to give to human
nature and life an aspect of littleness. Our very being is itself animal as
well as spiritual. We have many needs and cravings in common with the brutes.
Our nature
moreover
touches the surrounding world at countless points
many
of which are as “pin points.” Things which are in themselves but trifles
have
often a wondrous power over us. No doubt the comedy of life has also its uses.
God has not endowed us with the sense of humour for nothing. Laughter is a kind
of safety valve. But there is danger of our life being dwarfed into pettiness
and of our losing a true sense of the inherent dignity of our nature. Precisely
here comes in the tragic element of life to counteract this tendency. Just as
the loftiest mountains throw the largest and deepest shadows
so these dark
shadows of human experience bear witness to the original grandeur of our being.
You cannot have tragedy without a certain greatness. Even those tragedies of
life which are due directly to human sins
testify to the greatness of the
nature which has been so sadly and shamefully perverted. With regard to those
terrible calamities which sometimes come into men’s experience without any
fault of their own
how often is it the case that these ordeals of trial bring
to light the noblest traits of character. Is not the Cross of Calvary itself
the crowning illustration of how the loftiest greatness of humanity may be
revealed against the dark background of the deepest sorrow? Look also at
affliction as a means of discipline and education
and we can scarcely fail to
be impressed with the greatness of that nature which God subjects to trials so
great. This is the thought which lies latent even in poor Job’s remonstrance.
Whatever we may do with our life
God evidently does not trifle with it;
whatever we may think of our nature
God evidently does not think lightly of
it. Thus
then
the tragic element in our life tends to redeem it from
pettiness
to deliver us alike from prosaic stolidity and shallow
sentimentalism
and to inspire us with a sense of the sacredness of our being.
2. This same element in life confronts men directly with the thought
of God. Men
in their sinfulness
banish God from their hearts
and try to
forget Him in their lives. But God refuses to be forgotten. For our own good
He will
if necessary
simply compel us to recognise His presence. He will make
men feel that a higher will than theirs is at work. When there comes some
sudden and extraordinary visitation
men are aroused to reflection. The appalling
magnitude of the calamity startles them. The very fact that some event presents
an inscrutable mystery
awakens them to the sense of an infinite wisdom
overruling the projects and actions of mankind.
3. This same tragic element of life tends to deepen our reverence and
tenderness towards our fellowmen. Our very experience of the world sometimes
tends to make us hard and cold and censorious. Even our own troubles do not
always deepen the springs of our charity. We may shut ourselves up in our griefs
and morbidly exaggerate our trials until we become morose and peevish
instead
of sympathetic and gentle. But here
too
comes in the tragedy of life to
counteract this selfish tendency. Ever and again there occurs some terrible
event involving others in a sorrow which dwarfs our own griefs. And a great
calamity invests even the meanest with interest. It tends to draw us out of
ourselves
and to open the floodgates of sympathy and benevolence. Think
finally
how we are living together under the shadow of the closing tragedy of
all. Prince and peasant
master and servant
all are travelling to that. Death
gives a tragic touch even to the beggar’s personality. Let us cultivate
reverence and tenderness towards one another; for we are all of us living in a
world that has its terrible possibilities of experience. (T. Campbell
Finlayson.)
Measured by the shadow
So Job speaks out of deep affliction; he is puzzled to know why
God heaps sorrows on man and makes his life one long trial. How is it that the
Almighty should consider a weak mortal sufficiently important to be made the
object of so much interest and the subject of such severe correction? Let us
attempt an answer to this question.
I. Man is a
creature of consequence
or God would not thus visit him. The Psalmist asks the
same question
but from a very different point of view (Psalms 8:3-4). It is here that we usually
look for the signs of human greatness and royalty--in the direction of man’s
power
action
rule
and achievement. Job is concerned with man’s weakness
perplexity
suffering
humiliation
and failure. What is man
that Thou
shouldst magnify him with miseries? Job feels the greatness of man in the
greatness of his suffering. The conflict and sorrow of human life are
indubitable signs of dignity. We often enough look poor
feel poor
but we
cannot be poor. There is a singular greatness about us somewhere
or we should
not be distinguished by infinite and endless sorrows. Our importance is
demonstrated by the length and depth of the shadows that we make. The shouts of
conquerors
the sceptres of princes
the triumphs of scientists
the
masterpieces of artists
and the scarlet of merchantmen are so many signs of
our status; yet the sense of anxiety
the problems which torture the intellect
our wounded affections
the smart of conscience
our painful sense of
limitation and disability
the groan of the afflicted
the burden of living
and the terror of dying are not less signs of our fundamental greatness. Is it
not
indeed
often the case that we are more affected by the dignity of men
when they suffer than when they are strong? that in misfortune we discern a
loftiness and sacredness never discovered in them in their prosperity? and if
we never felt their majesty in life
do we not awake to it when they die
and
uncover at their grave? It is also true that in deep affliction we realise most
vividly the greatness of our own nature. Stripped of outward
meretricious
greatness
Job begins to feel that he is great; his sorrows show him his
consequence before God. The very humility born of trouble is a sign of
greatness.
II. Man is a
creature of guilt
or God would not thus visit him.
1. There is no cruelty in God. Nero condemned men to prison and then
treated them as condemned malefactors simply to feast his eyes on their
agonies
by
and by releasing them. This world is no laboratory of aimless
vivisection. “For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of
men.”
2. There is no injustice in God. “The right of a man before the face
of the Most High.” Nowhere is the right of a man more sacred than before the
face of the Most High.
3. There is no levity in God. Some talk as if this world were a mere
spectacle
a great theatre of shadows where God watches the long tragedy with
an aesthetic eye. But there is no levity in the Ruler of the universe. All
revelation teaches how real human sorrow is to God. What
then
is man
that
God visits him with endless correction? Why does He fill his soul with anguish?
There is only one answer: man is an offender
his sin is the secret of his
misery. In vindicating himself against his friends Job denied that he was
guilty of any conscious
specific
secret transgression; but he knew that he
was a sinner before God. Immediately after the text he confesses
“I have
sinned.” It was all there: his suffering brought home the sense of guilt. The
broken law makes the shadow of death.
III. Man is a
creature of hope
or God would not thus visit him. “What is man
that Thou
shouldst magnify him?” Sinful and afflicted as he may be
he is yet a creature
of hope
or God would not thus lavish discipline upon him. Terrible as this
world may be
it is not hell
nor the region of despair. Hope is written with
sunbeams on the forehead of the morning; spring writes the lovely word in the
grass with flowers; it is emblazoned in the colours of the rainbow. God visits
us
then
that He may awake in us the consciousness of sin
and discipline us
out of our sin into health of spirit. Again and again Job says
“Let me alone.”
And that appeal is often on our lips. “Let me alone
” cries one
that I may
examine this curious world
and do not disturb me with thoughts of infinity and
eternity. “Let me alone
” pleads another
so that I may enjoy life
and do not
harass me about righteousness
guilt
and judgment. “Let me alone
” entreats a
third
and cease to interrupt my money making by sickness and misfortune. “Let
me alone
” cry those whose hearths are threatened; leave my friends
and spare
me bitter bereavements. But this is exactly what God will not do. He visits us
every morning
and tries us every moment
that He may arouse us to our true
state
great need
and awful danger. Having awoke in us the sense of sin
through the discipline of suffering God perfects us. Yes
this--this is the
grand end. “Behold
I will melt them
and try them” (Jeremiah 9:7). “The Lord hath proved thee
and humbled thee
to do thee good at thy latter end.” (W. L. Watkinson.)
And try him every moment.--
Continual trial
Why doth God try us every moment? Because we are one moment in one
temper
and the next moment in another. The acting frame of a man’s heart this
hour cannot be collected from the frame it was in an hour before; therefore
there is a continual trial. Some things if they be tried once
they are tried
forever; if we try gold
it will ever be as good as we found it
unless we
alter it: as we try it to be
so it continues to be. But try the heart of man
this day
and come again the next and you may find it in a different condition;
today believing
tomorrow unbelieving; today humble
tomorrow proud; today
meek
tomorrow passionate; today lively and enlarged
tomorrow dead and
straightened; pure gold today
and tomorrow exceeding drossy. As it is with the
pulse of a sick man
it varieth every quarter of an hour
therefore the
physician tries his pulse every time he comes
because his disease alters the
state of his body. So it is with the distempered condition of man’s spirit. God
having tried our pulse
the state of our spirit
by crones or by mercies this
day
next day He tries us too
and the third day He tries us again
and so
keeps us in continual trials
because we are in continual variations. That
sickness and disease within us alters the state and condition of the soul every
moment. Our comfort is that God hath a time wherein He will set our souls up in
such a frame as He shall need to try us
but that once. Having set us up in a
frame of glory
He shall not need to try our hearts for us
or to put us to the
trial of ourselves any more
we shall stand as He sets us up to all eternity. (J.
Caryl.)
I have sinned; what shall I do unto Thee
O Thou Preserver of men!
The sinner’s surrender to his Preserver
I.
A
confession. “I have sinned.” In words this is no more than a hypocrite
nay
a
Judas
might say. Do not many call themselves “miserable sinners” who are
indeed despicable mockers? Yet seeing Job’s heart was right his confession was
accepted.
1. It was very brief
but yet very full. It was more full in its
generality than if he had descended to particulars. We may use it as a summary
of our life. “I have sinned.” What else is certain in my whole career? This is
most sure and undeniable.
2. It was personal. I have sinned
whatever others may have done.
3. It was to the Lord. He addresses the confession not to his fellow
men but to the Preserver of men.
4. It was a confession wrought by the Spirit. See verse 18
where he
ascribes his grief to the visitation of God.
5. It was sincere. No complimentary talk
or matter of ritualistic
form
or passing acknowledgment. His heart cried
“I have sinned
” and he meant
it.
6. It was feeling. He was cut to the quick by it. Read the whole
chapter. This one fact
“I have sinned
” is enough to brand the soul with the
mark of Cain
and burn it with the flames of hell.
7. It was a believing confession. Mingled with much unbelief
Job
still had faith in God’s power to pardon. An unbelieving confession may
increase sin.
II. An inquiry.
“What shall I do unto Thee?” In this question we see--
1. His willingness to do anything
whatever the Lord might demand
thus proving his earnestness.
2. His bewilderment: he could not tell what to offer
or where to
turn; yet something must be done.
3. His surrender at discretion. He makes no conditions
he only begs
to know the Lord’s terms.
4. The inquiry may be answered negatively. What can I do to escape
Thee? Thou art all around me. Can past obedience atone? Alas! as I look back I
am unable to find anything in my life but sin. Can I bring a sacrifice? Would
grief
fasting
long prayers
ceremonies
or self-denial avail? I know they
would not.
5. It may be answered evangelically. Confess the sin. Renounce it.
Obey the message of peace: believe in the Lord Jesus
and live.
III. A title. “O
Thou Preserver of men!” Observer of men
therefore aware of my case
my misery
my confession
my desire for pardon
my utter helplessness. Preserver of men.
By His infinite long-suffering refraining from punishment. By daily bounties of
supply keeping the ungrateful alive. By the plan of salvation delivering men
from going down to the pit. By daily grace preventing the backsliding and
apostasy of believers. Address upon the point in hand--
1. The impenitent
urging them to confession.
2. The unconcerned
moving them to inquire
“What must I do to be
saved?”
3. The ungrateful
exhibiting the preserving goodness of God as a
motive for love to Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
What to do in case of sin
1. What to do in case of sin is a point of the highest consideration.
2. Sincere confession of sin makes the soul very active and
inquisitive about the remedies of sin.
3. A soul truly sensible of sin is ready to submit to any terms which
God shall put upon him.
4. God is to be consulted and inquired after in all doubtful cases
especially in our sin cases. (J. Caryl.)
Complaining to God
It is his God whom the pious Job is thus apostrophising. “I
the
poor pismire in the dust
will my error or my wrong-doing affect Omnipotence?
Ah! pardon my transgression
whatever it be
ere it be too late! A little
while
and I shall lie down in the dust
and even Thy keen eye will look for me
in vain.” What are we to say to such language? It is a monotone that you will
hardly find monotonous. Where is the patience
the submission
so calm
so
dutiful
so beautiful of the Job whom we knew before? Is there a trace of it left?
Surely from first to last we have not as yet one touch of such meek
acquiescence in suffering
as we have seen
some of us
on beds of pain--such
as we would pray earnestly to attain unto
in some measure
in our own hour of
trial. We see nothing of the frame of mind in which a Moslem
whose very name
implies submission
or a Stoic
a Marcus Aurelius
to say nothing of a
Christian
would wish to meet the sharpest pang. We feel--do we not? that the
very object of these wild cries is partly to intensify our sense of the woes
that fell on Job
yet mainly to make us feel how boundless is his bewilderment
at finding this terrible measure of suffering meted out as the seeming
recompense for a life of innocence. And yet we are intended to feel with him.
Admirable
pious
well-intentioned as are the words of Eliphaz
they seem to
belong to another spiritual world than that of Job’s cries. We cannot but feel
the sharp contrast between them
and you will feel with me that some great
question must be at stake
some vital problem stirring in the air
or we should
not be called on to listen
on the one hand
to the calm
well-rounded
unimpeachable teaching of Eliphaz
and
on the other
to the bitter
impassioned complaints
the almost rebellious cries of one whose praise is in
all the Churches. This
then
is the one question which will be pressed on us
more and more as we read the book
How is it that the saint
the saintly hero
who stands in the forefront of the drama
uses language which we dare not use
which we would pray to be preserved from using in our bitterest hour of
suffering. How is it that
thus far at least
the foremost of his opponents
speaks nothing which is not to be found on the lips of psalmist or prophet
little that is not worthy of lips which have been touched by a still higher
teaching? How is it that
for all this
we shall
as we know
in due time have
the highest of all authorities for holding that he and they
in their insight
into the highest truths
fall below the Job whom they rebuke
and whom we
ourselves cannot but reprove? Surely
so far
the great Judge of this debate
must be listening with full approval to the good Eliphaz; with stern
if
pitiful displeasure to the wild cries of Job. (Dean Bradley.)
And why dost Thou not pardon my transgression
and take away mine
iniquity?
Why some sinners are not pardoned
No man should rest until he is sure that his sin is forgiven.
I. I shall first
take our text as a question that may be asked
as in job’s case
by a true
child of God. “Why dost Thou not pardon my transgression
and take away mine
iniquity?” Sometimes this question is asked under a misapprehension. Job was a
great sufferer; and although he knew that he was not as guilty as his
troublesome friends tried to make out
yet he did fear that
possibly
his
great afflictions were the results of some sin. “If it be caused by sin
why
dost Thou not first pardon the sin
and then remove its effects?”
1. Now I take it that it would have been a misapprehension on Job’s
part to suppose that his afflictions were the result of his sin. Mark you
we
are
by nature
so full of sin that we may always believe that there is enough
evil within us to cause us to suffer severe affliction if God dealt with us
according to justice; but do recollect that
in Job’s case
the Lord’s object
in his afflictions and trials
was not to punish Job for his sin
but to
display in the patriarch
to His own honour and glory
the wonders of His
grace. It may happen to you that you think that your present affliction is the
result of some sin in you
yet it may be nothing of the kind. It may be that
the Lord loves you in a very special manner because you are a fruit-bearing
branch
and He is pruning you that you may bring forth more fruit. There are
certain kinds of affliction that come only upon the more eminent members of the
family of God; and if you are one of those who are thus honoured
instead of
saying to your Heavenly Father
“When wilt Thou pardon my sin?” you might more
properly say
“My Father
since Thou hast pardoned mine iniquity
and adopted
me into Thy family
I cheerfully accept my portion of suffering
since in all
this
Thou art not bringing to my mind the remembrance of any unforgiven sin
for I know that all my transgressions were numbered on the Scapegoat’s head of
old.”
2. Sometimes
also
a child of God uses this prayer under a very
unusual sense of sin. You know that
in looking at a landscape
you may so fix your
gaze upon some one object that you do not observe the rest of the landscape. If
you fix your eye upon your own sinfulness
as you well may do
it may be that
you will not quite forget the greatness of Almighty love
and the grandeur of
the atoning sacrifice; but
yet
if you do not forget them
you do not think so
much of them as you should
for you seem to make your own sin
in all its
heinousness and aggravation
the central object of your consideration. There
are certain times in which you cannot help doing this; they come upon me
so I
can speak from my own experience.
3. There is another time when the believer may
perhaps
utter the
question of our text; that is
whenever he gets into trouble with his God. I
fear that some of you must have known at times what this experience means; for
between you and your Heavenly Father--although you are safe enough
and He will
never cast you away from Him--there is a cloud. You are not walking in the
light
your heart is not right in the sight of God.
II. The question in
our text may be asked by some who are not consciously God’s children. “Why dost
Thou not pardon my transgression
and take away mine iniquity?”
1. And
first
I think that I hear somebody making this kind of
inquiry
“Why does not God pardon my sin
and have done with it? When I come to
this place
I hear a great deal about atonement by blood
and reconciliation
through the death of Christ; but why does not God just say to me
‘It is true
that you have done wrong
but I forgive you
and there is an end of the
matter’?” With the utmost reverence for the name and character of God
I must
say that such a course of action is impossible. God is infinitely just and
holy
He is the Judge of all the earth
and He must punish sin. God will not
permit anarchy in order that He may indulge your whims
or vacate the throne of
heaven that He may save you according to your fancy.
2. Perhaps somebody else says
“Well
then
if that is God’s way of
salvation
let us believe in Jesus Christ
and let us have pardon at once. But
you talk about the need of a new birth
and about forsaking sin
and following
after holiness
and you say that without holiness no man can see the Lord.”
Yes
I do say it
for God’s Word says it. The curse of sin is in the evil
itself rather than in its punishment; and if it could become a happy thing for
a man to be a sinner
then men would sin
and sin again
and sin yet more
deeply; and this God will not have.
3. “Well
” says another friend
“that is not my trouble. I am willing
to be saved by the atonement of Christ
and I am perfectly willing to be made
to cease from sin
and to receive from God a new heart and a right spirit; why
then
does He not pardon me
and blot out my transgressions?” Well
it may be
first
because you have not confessed your wrong-doing. May it not be possible
also
you who cannot obtain pardon and peace
that you are still practising
some known sin?
4. “Well
” say you
“I do not know that this is my case at all
for I
really do
from my heart
endeavour to give up all sin
and I am sincerely
seeking peace with God.” Well
perhaps you have not found it because you have
not been thoroughly earnest in seeking it.
5. There is still one thing more that I will mention as a reason why
some men do not find the Saviour
and get their sins forgiven; and that is
because they do not get off the wrong ground on to the right ground. If you are
ever to be pardoned
it must be entirely by an act of Divine
unmerited favour.
Now perhaps you are trying to do something to recommend yourself to God. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》