| Back to Home Page | Back
to Book Index |
Job Chapter
Eleven
Job 11
Chapter Contents
Zophar reproves Job. (1-6) God's perfections and almighty
power. (7-12) Zophar assures Job of blessings if he repented. (13-20)
Commentary on Job 11:1-6
(Read Job 11:1-6)
Zophar attacked Job with great vehemence. He represented
him as a man that loved to hear himself speak
though he could say nothing to
the purpose
and as a man that maintained falsehoods. He desired God would show
Job that less punishment was exacted than he deserved. We are ready
with much
assurance
to call God to act in our quarrels
and to think that if he would
but speak
he would take our part. We ought to leave all disputes to the
judgment of God
which we are sure is according to truth; but those are not
always right who are most forward to appeal to the Divine judgment.
Commentary on Job 11:7-12
(Read Job 11:7-12)
Zophar speaks well concerning God and his greatness and
glory
concerning man and his vanity and folly. See here what man is; and let
him be humbled. God sees this concerning vain man
that he would be wise
would
be thought so
though he is born like a wild ass's colt
so unteachable and
untameable. Man is a vain creature; empty
so the word is. Yet he is a proud
creature
and self-conceited. He would be wise
would be thought so
though he
will not submit to the laws of wisdom. He would be wise
he reaches after
forbidden wisdom
and
like his first parents
aiming to be wise above what is
written
loses the tree of life for the tree of knowledge. Is such a creature
as this fit to contend with God?
Commentary on Job 11:13-20
(Read Job 11:13-20)
Zophar exhorts Job to repentance
and gives him
encouragement
yet mixed with hard thoughts of him. He thought that worldly
prosperity was always the lot of the righteous
and that Job was to be deemed a
hypocrite unless his prosperity was restored. Then shalt thou lift up thy face
without spot; that is
thou mayst come boldly to the throne of grace
and not
with the terror and amazement expressed in 34. If we are looked upon in the face of the
Anointed
our faces that were cast down may be lifted up; though polluted
being now washed with the blood of Christ
they may be lifted up without spot.
We may draw near in full assurance of faith
when we are sprinkled from an evil
conscience
Hebrews 10:22.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Job》
Job 11
Verse 1
[1] Then
answered Zophar the Naamathite
and said
Then answered —
How hard is it
to preserve calmness
in the heat of disputation! Eliphaz began
modestly: Bildad was a little rougher: But Zophar falls upon Job without mercy.
"Those that have a mind to fall out with their brethren
and to fall foul
upon them
find it necessary
to put the worst colours they can upon them and
their performances
and right or wrong to make them odious."
Verse 2
[2] Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of
talk be justified?
Answered —
Truly
sometimes it should not. Silence is the best confutation of
impertinence
and puts the greatest contempt upon it.
Verse 3
[3]
Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest
shall no man
make thee ashamed?
Lies —
Both concerning thy own innocency
and concerning the counsels and ways of God.
Mockest —
Our friendly and faithful counsels
chap. 6:14
15
25
26.
Verse 4
[4] For
thou hast said
My doctrine is pure
and I am clean in thine eyes.
Doctrine —
Concerning God and his providence.
Clean — I
am innocent before God; I have not sinned either by my former actions
or by my
present expressions. But Zophar perverts Job's words
for he did not deny that
he was a sinner
but only that he was an hypocrite.
Verse 5
[5] But oh that God would speak
and open his lips against thee;
Speak —
Plead with thee according to thy desire: he would soon put thee to silence. We
are commonly ready with great assurance to interest God in our quarrels. But
they are not always in the right
who are most forward
to appeal to his
judgment
and prejudge it against their antagonists.
Verse 6
[6] And
that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom
that they are double to that
which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity
deserveth.
Secrets —
The unsearchable depths of God's wisdom in dealing with his creatures.
Double —
That they are far greater (the word double being used indefinitely for
manifold
or plentiful) than that which is manifested. The secret wisdom of God
is infinitely greater than that which is revealed to us by his word or works:
the greatest part of what is known of God
is the least part of those
perfections that are in him. And therefore thou dost rashly in judging so
harshly of his proceedings with thee
because thou dost not comprehend the
reasons of them
and in judging thyself innocent
because thou dost not see thy
sins; whereas the all-knowing God sees innumerable sins in thee
for which he
may utterly destroy thee.
Verse 7
[7]
Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto
perfection?
Find out —
Discover all the depths of his wisdom
and the reasons of his actions?
Verse 10
[10] If
he cut off
and shut up
or gather together
then who can hinder him?
Cut off — A
person or family.
Shut —
Its a prison
or in the hands of an enemy.
Gather —
Whether it pleaseth God to scatter a family
or to gather them together from
their dispersions.
Hinder —
Or
who can contradict him
charge him with injustice in such proceedings?
Verse 11
[11] For
he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it?
Knoweth —
Though men know but little of God
yet God knows man exactly. He knoweth that
every man in the world is guilty of much vanity and folly
and therefore seeth
sufficient reason for his severity against the best men.
Wickedness — He
perceiveth the wickedness of evil men
though it be covered with the veil of
religion.
Consider —
Shall he only see it as an idle spectator
and not observe it as a judge to
punish it?
Verse 12
[12] For
vain man would be wise
though man be born like a wild ass's colt.
Man —
That since the fall is void of all true wisdom
pretends to be wise
and able
to pass a censure upon all God's ways and works.
Colt —
Ignorant
and dull
and stupid
as to divine things
and yet heady and
untractable.
Verse 13
[13] If
thou prepare thine heart
and stretch out thine hands toward him;
Heart — To
seek God; turning thy bold contentions with God into humble supplications.
Verse 15
[15] For
then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea
thou shalt be stedfast
and
shalt not fear:
Lift up —
Which denotes chearfulness
and holy boldness.
Without spot —
Having a clear and unspotted conscience.
Steadfast —
Shall have a strong and comfortable assurance of God's favour.
Verse 16
[16]
Because thou shalt forget thy misery
and remember it as waters that pass away:
As waters —
Thou shalt remember it no more
than men remember a land-flood
which as it
comes
so it goes away suddenly.
Verse 17
[17] And
thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth
thou shalt
be as the morning.
Shine —
Light in scripture commonly signifies prosperity and glory. Thy comfort
like
the morning-light shall shine brighter and brighter
until the perfect day.
Verse 18
[18] And
thou shalt be secure
because there is hope; yea
thou shalt dig about thee
and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.
Secure —
Thy mind shall be quiet and free from terrors
because thou shalt have a firm
and well-grounded confidence in God.
Dig —
Either to fix thy tents
which after the manner of the Arabians were removed
from place to place: or to plough the ground
as he had done
chap. 1:14
or to make a fence about thy dwelling.
Verse 20
[20] But
the eyes of the wicked shall fail
and they shall not escape
and their hope
shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
Fail —
Either with grief and tears for their sore calamities: or with long looking for
what they shall never attain.
Their hope —
They shall never obtain deliverance out of their distresses
but shall perish
in them.
Ghost —
Shall be as vain and desperate as the hope of life is in a man
when he is at
the very point of death.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Job》
11 Chapter 11
Verses 1-20
Verses 1-6
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite.
The attitude of Job’s friends
In this chapter Zophar gives his first speech
and it is sharper
toned than those which went before. The three friends have now all spoken. Your
sympathies perhaps are not wholly on their side. Yet do not let us misjudge
them
or assail them with the invectives which Christian writers hurled against
them for centuries. Do not say
as has been said by the great Gregory
that
these three men are types of God’s worst enemies
or that they scarcely speak a
word of good
except what they have learned from Job. Is it not rather true
that their words
taken by themselves
are far more devout
far more fit for
the lips of pious
we may even say
of Christian men
than those of Job? Do
they not represent that large number of good and God-fearing men and women
who
do not feel moved or disturbed by the perplexities of life; and who resent as
shallow
or as mischievous
the doubts to which those perplexities give rise in
the minds of others
of the much afflicted
or the perplexed
or of persons
reared in another school than their own
or touched by influences which have
never reached themselves? So Job’s friends try in their own way to “justify the
ways of God to man”--a noble endeavour
and in doing this
they have already
said much which is not only true
but also most valuable. They have pleaded on
their behalf the teaching
if I may so speak
of their Church
the teaching
handed down from antiquity
and the experiences of God’s people. They have a
firm belief
not only in God’s power
but in His unerring righteousness. They
hold also the precious truth that He is a God who will forgive the sinner
and
take back to His favour him who bears rightly the teaching of affliction. Surely
so far
a very grand and simple creed. We shall watch their language narrowly
and we shall still find in it much to admire
much with which to sympathise
much to treasure and use as a storehouse of Christian thought. We shall see
also where and how it is that they misapplied the most precious of truths
and
the most edifying of doctrines; turned wholesome food to poison; pressed upon
their friend half truths
which are sometimes the worst of untruths. We shall
note also no less that want of true sympathy
of the faculty of entering into
the feelings of men unlike themselves
and of the power of facing new views or
new truths
which has so often in the history of the Church marred the
character and impaired the usefulness of some of God’s truest servants. We
shall see them
lastly
in the true spirit of the controversialist
grow more
and more embittered by the persistency in error
as they hold it
of him who
opposes them. The true subject of this sacred drama is unveiling itself before
our eyes. Has he who serves God a right to claim exemption from pain and
suffering? Is such pain a mark of God’s displeasure
or may it be something
exceedingly different? Must God’s children in their hour of trial have their
thoughts turned to the judgment that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah
or shall they
fix them on “the agony and bloody sweat” of Him whose coming in the flesh we so
soon commemorate? (Dean Bradley.)
Questionable reproving and necessary teaching
I. Questionable
reproof. Reproof is often an urgent duty. It is the hardest act of friendship
for whilst there are but few men who do not at times merit reprehension
there
are fewer still who will graciously receive
or even patiently endure a
reproving word
and “Considering
” as John Foster has it
“how many difficulties
a friend has to surmount before he can bring
himself to reprove me
I ought to
be much obliged to him for his chiding words.” The reproof which Zophar
in the
first four verses
addressed to Job suggests two remarks.
1. The charges he brings against Job
if true
justly deserve
reproof. What does he charge him with?
2. The charges
if true
could not justify the spirit and style of
the reproof. Considering the high character and the trying circumstances of
Job
and the professions of Zophar as his friend
there is a heartlessness and
an insolence in his reproof most reprehensible and revolting. There is no real
religion in rudeness; there is no Divine inspiration in insolence. Reproof
to
be of any worth
should not merely be deserved
but should be given in a right
spirit
a spirit of meekness
tenderness
and love. “Reprehension is not an act
of butchery
but an act of surgery
” says Seeker. There are those who confound
bluntness with honesty
insolence with straightforwardness. The true reprover
is of a different metal
and his words fall
not like the rushing hailstorm
but like the gentle dew.
II. Necessary
teaching. These words suggest that kind of teaching which is essential to the
well-being of every man.
1. It is intercourse with the mind of God. “Oh that God would speak
and open His lips against thee.” The great need of the soul is direct
communication with God. All teachers are utterly worthless unless they bring
God in contact with the soul of the student. If this globe is to be warmed into
life the sun must do it.
2. It is instruction in the wisdom of God. “And that He would show
thee the secrets of wisdom
that they are double to that which is!” God’s
wisdom is profound; it has its “secrets.” God’s wisdom is “double
” it is many
folded; fold within fold
without end.
3. It is faith in the forbearing love of God. “Know therefore that
God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.” (Homilist.)
Multitudinous words
I have always a suspicion of sonorous sentences. The full shell sounds
little
but shows by that little what is within. A bladder swells out more with
wind than with oil. (J. Landor.)
Verse 7
Canst thou by searching find out God?
The unsearchableness of God
You are not to suppose that your God is to be utterly unknown
and
that because your faculties cannot pierce the inmost recesses of His being
therefore you are discharged from the duty of thinking about Him at all. Your
faculties were given you for use
and the highest exercise of which they are
capable is thought on God.
1. The duty of searching into Divine things is one recognised and
acted out by very few. Let your own observations convince you of this. It is
only by a knowledge of God’s character that we can hope to keep His law.
2. The proper objects of the search. Such as God’s mind about you.
God in His dispensations and His ways. This is practical; and it is far more
profitable to spend our energies on such considerations as these
than on
speculations which are too deep for us
at least while we are on this side the
grave
and in the flesh. To know God’s mind about Himself
I invite even the
man that would study the character of the Most High
and would “know the Lord.”
3. What measure of success in such study may we expect? Success will
not be limited to improvement. It will bring consolation. (P. B. Power
M.
A.)
God incomprehensible by His creatures
That there is a first and supreme cause
who is the Creator and
Governor of the universe
is a plain and obvious truth which forces itself upon
every attentive mind; so that many have argued the existence of God
from the
unanimous consent of all nations to this great and fundamental truth. But
though we may easily conceive of the existence of the Deity
yet His nature and
perfections surpass the comprehension of all minds but His own.
I. God is
incomprehensible in respect to the ground of His existence. God owes His
existence to Himself
yet we are obliged to suppose there is some ground or
reason of His existing
rather than not existing. We cannot conceive of any
existence which has no ground or foundation. The ground or reason of God’s
existence must be wholly within Himself. What that something in Himself is
is
above the comprehension of all created beings.
II. God is
incomprehensible in respect to many of His perfections.
1. Eternity. God is eternal. He never had a beginning. We can
conceive of a future
but not of a past eternity. That a being should always
exist without any beginning is what men will never be able to fathom
either in
this world
or that which is to come.
2. Omnipresence. The immensity of the Divine presence transcends the
highest conceptions of created beings. God is equally present with each of His
creatures
and with all His creatures at one and the same instant.
3. Power. God can do everything. His power can meet with no
resistance or obstruction. Who can stay His hand? The effects of Divine power
are astonishing.
4. Knowledge. That knowledge takes in all objects within the compass
of possibility. Such knowledge is wonderful; it is high; we cannot attain unto
it.
5. The moral perfections of God in extent and degree surpass our
limited views.
III. God is
incomprehensible in His great designs. None of the creatures of God can look
into His mind and see all His views and intentions as they lie there. His
counsels will of necessity remain incomprehensible
until His Word or
providence shall reveal them to His intelligent creatures.
IV. He is
incomprehensible in His works. Their nature
number
and magnitude stretch
beyond the largest views of creatures. No man knows how second causes produce
their effects; nor how the material system holds together and hangs upon
nothing.
V. He is
unsearchable in His providence. Whatever God has done
He always intended to
do; but we do not know at present all the reasons of His conduct
nor all the
consequences that will flow from it. Respecting future events
God has drawn
over them an impenetrable veil. Improve and apply the subject.
1. In a very important sense God is truly infinite. To be
incomprehensible is the same as to be infinite.
2. The incomprehensible nature of the Supreme Being does by no means
preclude our having clear and just conceptions of His true character.
3. If God be incomprehensible by His creatures
we have no reason to
deny our need of a Divine revelation.
4. If God is incomprehensible in His nature and perfections
then it
is no objection against the Divinity of the Bible that it contains some
incomprehensible mysteries.
5. Then it is very unreasonable to disbelieve anything which He has
been pleased to reveal concerning Himself
merely because we cannot comprehend
it.
6. Ministers ought to make it their great object in preaching
to
unfold the character and perfections of the Deity. (N. Emmons
D. D.)
The incomprehensibleness of God
Job
in the foregoing chapter
carried the justification of his
integrity so far that he seemed to entrench somewhat rudely on the justice of
providence. Zophar
therefore
to repress this insolence
and vindicate the
Divine honour
lays before him the incomprehensibleness and majesty of God.
I. Assert and
illustrate the doctrine of the text. That God is incomprehensible. If in the
Godhead we gaze and pry too boldly into eternal generation and procession
and
the ineffable unity of Father
Son
and Holy Ghost
it will but dazzle and
confound our weak faculties. All the attributes of God are infinite in their
perfection
and whosoever goes about to fathom what is infinite
is guilty of
the folly of that countryman
in the poem
who sitting on the bank side
expects to see the stream run quite away
and leave its channel dry; but that
runs on
and will do so to all ages. We cannot comprehend the whole extent of
God’s moral attributes. Though God were so far discoverable by the light of
reason
as served to render the idolatry and wickedness of the pagan world
inexcusable (Romans 1:1-32)
yet God being infinite
and His perfections a vast abyss
there are therefore mysteries in the Godhead
which human reason cannot penetrate
heights which we cannot soar.
II. Reflections
upon this proposition. Use it--
1. To let out the tumour of self-conceit.
2. To justify our belief of mysteries.
3. To vindicate the doctrine of providence. The incomprehensibleness
of God solves all the difficulties that clog the doctrine of providence. (Richard
Lucas
D. D.)
God incomprehensible
That there is a God is almost the universal belief of mankind.
There are few absolute atheists. Zophar reproves Job for pretending to a
perfect knowledge of God. The charge implies that God is incomprehensible. We
cannot perfectly understand His works
His ways
His Word
or His
attributes--such as His eternity
power
wisdom
and knowledge
holiness
justice
goodness. Practical lessons--
1. We should learn to be humble.
2. Infer how base a thing is idolatry
or image worship.
3. If God is incomprehensibly glorious
how should we admire and
adore Him!
4. Let us calmly submit to all His dispensations in providence.
5. Seeing that the nature of God is so wonderfully glorious
let us
study to know Him.
6. Learn the reasonableness of faith.
7. This subject should render the heavenly state exceedingly
desirable; for in that state “we shall know even as we are known.” (G.
Burder.)
The incomprehensibleness of God
This term or attribute is a relative term
and speaks a relation
between an object and a faculty
between God and a created understanding. God
knows Himself
but He is incomprehensible to His creatures. Give the proof of
the doctrine--
I. By way of
instance or induction of particulars.
1. Instances on the part of the object. The nature of God
the
excellency and perfection of God
the works and ways of God
are above our
thoughts and apprehensions. We can only understand God’s perfections as He
communicates them
and not as He possesses them. We must not frame notions of
them contrary to what they are in the creature
nor must we limit them by what
they are in the creature. The ways of God’s providence are not to be traced. We
take a part from the whole
and consider it by itself
without relation to the
whole series of His dispensations.
2. Instances on the part of the subject
or the persons capable of
knowing
God in any measure. The perfect knowledge of God is above a finite
creature’s understanding. Wicked men are full of false apprehensions of God.
And good men have some false apprehensions. The angels do not arrive at perfect
knowledge of Him.
II. By way of
conviction. If the creature be unsearchable
is not the Creator much more
unsearchable. He possesses all the perfections which He communicates
and many
which cannot be communicated to a creature.
III. The clear
reason of it. Which is this--the disproportion between the faculty and the
object; the finiteness of our understandings
and the infiniteness of the
Divine nature and perfections. Apply this doctrine--
1. It calls for our admiration
and veneration
and reverence.
2. It calls for humility and modesty.
3. It calls for the highest degree of our affection. (J.
Tillotson
D. D.)
Doctrine of Trinity not a contradiction to reason
The doctrine of the Trinity is not at all more incomprehensible
than others to which no opposition is offered. A man can comprehend the Trinity
as well as he can the eternity of God
or the omnipresence of God.
1. Certain considerations from which you will infer the presumption
of expecting that the nature of God should be either discernible or
demonstrable by reason. If we would but observe how little way our reason can
make when labouring amongst things with which we are every day conversant
we
should be prepared to expect that when applied to the nature of the Deity
it
would be found altogether incompetent to the unravelling and comprehending of
it. We are to ourselves a mystery. There is a presumption which outweighs
language in expecting that we can apprehend what is God
and how He subsists. A
revelation from God may be expected to contain much which must overmatch all but
the faith of mankind. We are continually in the habit of admitting things on
the testimony of experience
which without such experience we should reject as
incredible. We may assert this in respect to many of those operations of nature
which are going on daily and hourly around us
e.g.
husbandry. We do
not
in regard of the things of this lower creation
measure what we believe by
what we can demonstrate. Where then is the justice and the reasonableness of
our carrying up to the highest investigations of God a rule which
if applied
to the facts or phenomena of nature
would make us doubt the one half
and
disbelieve the other? If we reject one property of God
because
incomprehensible
we must
if consistent
reject almost every other. This is
not sufficiently observed. It is customary to fasten on the mystery of the
Trinity as the great incomprehensible in God
and to speak of it as tasking our
reason in a measure far higher than the rest. We admit that whilst the whole of
a revelation may be above our reason
there may be parts which seem contrary to
it; and if there exists a repugnance between reason and revelation
we do right
in withholding our assent. If it could be shown that the received doctrine of
the Trinity did violence to the conclusions of reason
there would be good
ground for rejecting that doctrine and regarding the Bible as wrongly
interpreted.
2. There is no repugnance to reason in the doctrine of the Trinity.
It is above reason
but not contrary to reason. The sense in which God is three
is not the sense in which God is one. The doctrine stated with simplicity
the
doctrine that Father
Son
and Holy Ghost are so distinct as not to be one with
the other
and so united as to be one God
carries nothing on its front to
convict it of absurdity. There is no contradiction in three being one
unless
it be said that the three are one in the same respect. We are not now
endeavouring to establish the fact that Scripture teaches the doctrine of the
Trinity; we only show that there is nothing in the doctrine which reason can
prove impossible. The testimonies of Scripture to the Divinity of Father
Son
and Spirit
are numerous and explicit; the declarations that there is only one
God rival these in amount and clearness. You will be told that this doctrine is
a speculative thing; that even if it is true
it is not fundamental; and that
whatsoever place it may fill in scholastic theology
it is of little or no
worth in practical Christianity. Remember one truth. If the doctrine of the
Trinity be a false doctrine
your Redeemer
Jesus Christ
was nothing more than
a man. The Divinity of Christ stands or falls with the Trinity or Unity. (H.
Melvill
B. D.)
Feelings after God
When the Creator formed man He placed within him a religious
sentiment
a sense of a superior existence
and this being the nature of the
subjective mind
the outer realm became at once peopled with supernatural
creatures. The religious feeling in the soul
in the first years of its
strivings
saw gods in every storm
and in every ray of sunshine
and in all
the shadows of the night. Paul says God so made the rational world
that they
should “seek the Lord
if haply they may feel after Him
and find Him.” All the
mythological and theological phenomena of the past are manifestations of this
feeling after the true God. Christ stands the nearest of all alleged divinities
to any historical fact. There have been claims to Divine honours set up by
others. Christ stands farthest from myth
and nearest to reality. Think of the
less questionable elements in this historic fact.
1. It was a great gain to our race that at last the search for an
Incarnation came up to a real
visible being. Man had gone about as far as he
could upon a theology of legend and absurdity. There was no valuable religious
faith in the world at the time of the Advent. The Roman Empire had all forms of
greatness except religious faith. Mankind will always exchange legend for
history. The development of reason works against myth and in favour of the
actual. Examine further the quality of this Christ idea. It was the first
incarnation lying within the field of evidence. How far was this Christ
an-incarnation of the Divine?
2. It should soften our judgment that we do not know the nature of
Deity. There is every reason for supposing that man was created in the
intellectual likeness of God
and hence for God to become manifest in Christ
was only a filling to the full of a cup partly filled in the creation of man.
Man himself held a part of the Divine image. Christ held it all. The picture of
Jesus Christ is the best picture conceivable of a mingling of the earthly and
the heavenly. The whole scene is above life and below the infinite. It was God
brought down
and man lifted up. (David Swing.)
How can I know there is a God
A knowledge of God is necessary. It is important to have strong
faith in God.
I. I know there is
a God
because He has revealed Himself to men. In all ages God has spoken to
men
and given them a knowledge of Himself. All along the ages God was
constantly speaking to men
and revealing Himself to His people. As large
numbers of these men gave their lives as witnesses for God’s revelation
I
believe their testimony
and am aided in searching to know God for myself.
II. Because He has
revealed Himself to me. In three ways--
1. In His Holy Word.
2. In the world in which I live.
3. In my own heart
and soul
and life.
III. Because He made
the world. It could not have made itself.
IV. Because I can
see His wisdom in the harmony and design which exist in the world. Wherever you
see design
you may be sure there has been a designer. Things do not happen by
chance.
V. I am confirmed
in my knowledge of God when I learn that men everywhere have believed in God.
Go wherever you will
you will find men who believe in God. Rather than be
without God
men will make one. The universal failure of man has not been to
have no God
but to have too many. (Charles Leach
D. D.)
Searching after God
I. This is a
righteous occupation.
1. It agrees with the profoundest instincts of our souls. “My heart
and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” It is the hunger of the river for
the ocean--every particle heaves towards it
and rests not until it finds it.
2. It is stimulated by the manifestations of nature. His footprints
are everywhere
and they invite us to pursue His march.
3. It is encouraged by the declarations of the Bible. “Seek ye the
Lord while He may be found
call ye upon Him whilst He is near.”
4. It is aided by the manifestations of Christ. “Christ is the
brightness of His Father’s glory
” etc.
II. This is a
useful occupation.
1. There is no occupation so spirit-quickening. The idea of God to
the soul is what the sunbeam is to nature. No other idea has such a life-giving
power.
2. There is no occupation so spirit-humbling.
3. There is no occupation so spirit-ennobling. When the soul feels
itself before God
the majesty of kings
and the splendour of empires are but
childish toys.
III. This is an
endless occupation. “Canst thou by searching find out God?” Never fully. The
finite can never comprehend the Infinite.
1. This endless work agrees with the inexhaustible powers of our
nature. Searching after anything less than the Infinite would never bring out
into full and vigorous action the immeasurable potentialities within us.
2. This endless work agrees with the instinct of mystery within us.
The soul wants mystery. Without mystery there is no inquisitiveness
no wonder
no adoration
no self-abnegation. (Homilist.)
The Divine nature incomprehensible
Mankind supremely desire knowledge. In the pursuit of it every
encouragement should be given. Yet there is a sort of knowledge which some busy
and unsatisfied tempers are too inquisitive after. It is out of this arrogant
deceit that they take upon them to be so well acquainted with the Divine nature
and to fathom all the deep things of God. As the term God must imply in it
every perfection that is conceivable of a power infinitely superior to us
the
very idea of such a Being must be sufficient to make us stand in awe and keep
our distance. What ought effectually to deter and discourage too bold
researches into the Divine nature is--
I. That it seems
to be a sin to attempt to find it out. Our lust after knowledge should be put
under restraint. It was a forbidden curiosity that ruined the first members of
our race. Certain it is that we are under limitations; and it must be very
unadvised to pretend to find out God to perfection. And--
II. It is
impossible to accomplish it. Neither prophets nor apostles were capable of
comprehending all knowledge: at least they were not thought fit to be entrusted
with more important discoveries. Some things angels even might not look into.
Will reason supply the deficiency? The immensity of the Divine nature
and the
weakness of human capacities
will be perpetual discouragements to such a rash
experiment. It is true that the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator are so
easily deducible from the things that are made
that those are pronounced
without excuse that do not discern them
and act agreeably to their conviction.
But what is man that he should with so much impatience covet to know the hidden
things of God before the time? Secret things belong unto God. Highly then does
it concern us to cheek that petulant and wanton desire of prying into things
which God hath industriously concealed from us. We may know quite enough to
make us religious here
and happy hereafter. It is not unreasonable to believe
that it will be one of the beatitudes of good men to have their understandings
enlarged at the great day of the manifestation of all things. Let no one fancy
he is injured
or that God’s ways are not equal
in not suffering us at present
to see Him as He is; since He never intended that this life should be a state
of perfection in any kind. Let us be thankful that God has graciously revealed
to us the way of salvation
and not be dissatisfied that He hath not given us
to understand all mysteries and all knowledge. (James Roe
M. A.)
The incomprehensibleness of the Divine nature and perfection
1. We can apprehend that God is a being of all possible perfection.
He is the first
or self-existent being. What has no cause for its existence
we naturally think can have no bounds.
2. We cannot find God out to perfection. Were He less perfect
the
attempt might not be so utterly impossible. That we cannot perfectly know God
may be argued from the narrowness of our faculties
and from the great
disadvantages for knowing God which we lie under in the present state. Moreover
God is infinite
and all created understandings are but finite. We cannot
fathom infinite perfection with the short line of our reason; or soar to
boundless heights with our feeble wing; or stretch our thoughts till they are
commensurate to the Divine immensity. Consider some particular
perfections--eternity
immensity
omniscience
and omnipotence. Consider the
moral attributes of God His holiness
goodness
justice
truth. Practical
reflections--
1. Let us adore this incomprehensible Being. It is the grandeur
the
infinity of His perfections which makes Him a proper object of adoration.
2. Whenever we are thinking or speaking of God
let us carry this in
our minds
that He is incomprehensible. This will influence us to think and
speak honourably of Him.
3. This will help us to form a more raised conception of the
happiness of the heavenly state. (H. Groves.)
The incomprehensibleness of God
I. As to the
creation. That work of God is perfect
with regard to the ends for which it was
designed. But our wisdom is not sufficient always to trace out the Divine.
1. We cannot perfectly understand the production and disposal of
things at the beginning. Creation is of two kinds: out of nothing
and out of
pre-existent matter. Of creation out of nothing
it is not possible that we
should form the least conception. Of creation out of preexistent matter we can
have some idea
but only an inadequate one.
2. We cannot perfectly understand the causes of things in the stated
course of nature. A thousand questions might be started
about which the wisest
philosophers can only offer their conjectures. The way of God is too deep and
winding for us to find out. We have no reason to boast of our knowledge of the
works of God
since what we know not is much more considerable than what we
know.
3. We cannot perfectly understand the reasons and ends for which all
things are what they are
and their exact adjustment and correspondence to
these ends. The general and ultimate end of all things is the glory of God. And
we can perceive that things are admirably fitted to answer this end. Yet we do
not clearly understand in what manner each thing contributes to this purpose.
We should be cautioned against censuring any of the works of God in our
thoughts
because we are not able to tell what good they answer.
II. As to
providence. We can easily demonstrate that there is a providence
and this
in
all its dispensations
consonant to the perfections of God
but we can by no
means fathom all the depths of it. Some instances may be given in which the
unsearchableness of the ways of providence appears. Such as--
1. God’s manner of dealing with the race of mankind
especially in
suffering it to be in a state so full of sin and confusion
of imperfection and
misery.
2. The providence of God
as exercised over His Church
is beyond our
deciphering. Why is the Church so small; and why has it been so overrun with
errors and corruptions?
3. The providence of God in weighing out the fates of kingdoms
nations
and families. Baffled as we are in our attempts to solve a thousand
perplexing difficulties which present themselves to our minds
we should
inquire with modesty
judge with caution
and always remember that God is not
bound to give us any account of His matters.
4. The providence of God in relation to particular persons will be
forever inexplicable. Some reasons why the ways of providence are inscrutable
may be given. We have not a thorough insight into the nature of man. God
governs man according to the nature He has given. The ends of providence are
unknown to us
or known very imperfectly; therefore they appear to us so
perplexed and intricate.
5. Only a small part of providence comes under our notice and
observation. How then can we know the beauty of the whole? The subject teaches
the greatest resignation both of mind and heart. (H. Groves.)
Difficulties concerning God’s providence
Zophar reproved Job as if he had replied against God in order to
justify himself. The argument upon which Zophar proceeds is this
That after
all our inquiries concerning the nature or attributes of God
and the reasons
of His conduct
we are still to seek
and shall never be able perfectly to
comprehend or account for them. But we may upon a modest and pious search have
a true notion of God’s attributes
and justify His providential dispensation.
Difficulties--
I. In relation to
the Divine attributes. By our strongest efforts we cannot know what the
essential properties are of a Being infinitely perfect. By the attributes of
God
we are to understand the several apprehensions we have of Him according to
the different lights wherein our minds are capable of beholding Him
or the
different subjects upon which He is pleased to operate.
1. With respect to God’s power. That power is a perfection will not
be disputed. How shall we form to ourselves any perfect idea of infinite power?
Especially if we consider Omnipotence as operating on mere privation
and
raising almost an infinite variety of beings out of nothing. And if creation
implies only the disposing of existing things into a beautiful and useful
order
this equally gives us a sublime idea of power.
2. With respect to God’s eternity. Who can distinctly apprehend how
one single and permanent act of duration should extend to all periods of time
without succession of time? But how the eternity of God should be one single
and permanent act of duration
present to all past as well as future time
is a
difficulty sufficient to turn the edge of the finest wit
and the force of the
strongest head.
3. With respect to the immensity of God. That a single individual
substance
without extension or parts
should spread itself into and over all
parts; that it should fill all places
and be circumscribed to no place
and
yet be intimately present in every place; are truths discoverable by reason and
confirmed by revelation. To say that God is present only by His knowledge does
not solve the difficulty of conceiving His ubiquity. Where God is present in
any attribute
He is essentially present.
4. With respect to the omniscience of God. God does not only foreknow
what He has effectually decreed shall come to pass
but what is of a casual and
contingent nature
and depends on the good or ill use man will make of his
liberty. So that we must suppose in God a certain and determinate knowledge of
events
which yet are of arbitrary and uncertain determination in their causes.
The best answer is
that God is present to all time
and to all the events
which happen in time. Futurity in respect to Him is only a term we are forced
to make use of
from the defects of our finite capacity. The difficulty
however
of His predictions remains. We have more clear and distinct ideas of the moral
perfections of His nature
than of His incommunicable properties.
II. In relation to
the Divine providence.
1. How far is God’s wisdom affected or impeached by the sufferings of
good men? One of the principal designs of God is to promote the interests of
religion. The sufferings of good men appear to obstruct such a design
as they
seem to lessen the force of those arguments which we draw from the temporal
rewards of religion; and as circumstances of distress are commonly supposed to
sour and embitter the spirits of men. The promises made to the Jews rap all
along upon temporal blessings and enjoyments. But the principal motives to our
Christian obedience are taken from the happiness and rewards of a life after
this. Religion does
however
entitle men to the temporal advantages of life
but the Christian promises relate principally to the inward peace and
tranquillity of mind which naturally flow from a religious conduct; or to the
inward consolations wherewith God is sometimes pleased more eminently to reward
piety in this life. The necessary supports of life are assured. To lay too
great a stress on the temporal rewards of religion seems of ill consequence to
religion on two accounts. As it tends to confirm people in the opinion that the
happiness of human life consists in the abundance of things that a man
possesses. And men are hereby tempted to suspect the truth of religion itself
or to make false and uncharitable judgments on persons truly religious. Such
judgments the friends made of suffering Job.
2. Prejudices against the goodness of God. The notion we have of
goodness is
that it disposes to good and beneficent actions. But pain and
sickness
etc.
are things naturally evil. Such things seem inconsistent with
the nature of God. But God may have special ends in view in afflicting
and He
may be treating men as a parent treats his child.
3. Prejudices concerning the justice of God. But the best of men are
conscious to themselves of many sins and defects which might justly have
provoked God to inflict what they suffer upon them. And this life is not
properly a state of rewards and punishments
but of trial and discipline. So
the afflictions of good men are parts of the training work of Divine goodness
and mercy. Seek then to have the best and largest thoughts of the Divine
perfections you possibly can. Frequently reflect on the moral perfections of
the Divine nature. Since we cannot by searching find out the Almighty to perfection
nor even discover all the particular reasons of His providence in this world
let us labour for eternity. There our minds will not only be united to God in
perfect vision
but our hearts in perfect love. (R. Fiddes.)
God searchable and yet unsearchable
Job sometimes spake a language difficult to be interpreted by his
friends
and easy to be mistaken by his enemies. The men who came to comfort
him made no allowance for the anguish that his flesh suffered
and hence they
took undue advantage of every self-justifying word that fell from his lips
to
humble him with reproaches
and to declare him guilty of some heinous sins in
the sight of God
of which the world knew nothing. These so-called friends
mistook chastening for punishment. There is something singularly ungenerous in
the way that Zophar delivers his thought here. He makes assertions without
proofs
and states fallacies
which he calls truths. His heart was overflowing
with rancour. As if he would strip this holy man of all the brightness of hope
he proposes two questions to him which
although to a certain extent true in
themselves
were
in Job’s ease
most unsympathising and comfortless.
I. All the natural
searching in the world cannot find out God. Man’s reason is not equal to the
work of apprehending the spiritual. We are compelled to rest conjecturally upon
visible impressions; we can go no further. Supposing we are intelligent enough
to set every faculty to this searching work
the result would be the same. The
world by wisdom never yet knew God; common earthly intelligences move in every
ether direction than towards heaven. Philosophy deals with things on the earth
under the earth
and above the earth; but not one tittle of that which relates
to God forms any part of it. The high-class moralists of the most civilised
heathen states have no standing at all in their religious creeds. In them you
perceive at once the utmost length that an unenlightened understanding can go.
II. There is a
searching which can find out God
yet not unto perfection. “Search the
Scriptures.” For thousands of years there was a dispensation in which terror
prevailed over hope
and a hard bondage over spiritual liberty. It was deeply
covered with a veil which hid the wonderful workings of God
as a pardoning and
a reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. But when the mind has become acquainted
with Scripture facts
what is its real gain? It knows more
but does it ascend
higher? By such searching no man profitably finds out God. Notwithstanding all
that the best searching achieves
in the way of experimental knowledge
not the
holiest saint that ever searched the most
is able to find out the Almighty in
His perfection.
III. In what manner
are we to glorify God in the discovery of His redemptive character? Our desires
must be longing and panting after fuller flowings in of His love. It is in the
heart that we are’ the most sensible of the tender relationship which He bears
to us. (F. G. Crossman.)
The unsearchableness of God
It is scarcely a paradox to say that God is at once the most known
Being in the whole universe
and yet the most unknown. Our subject is the
inevitable limits which are placed to the human intelligence; not only in
relation to all Divine subjects
but extending
more or less
to every
department of human inquiry. The claim to unlimited knowledge is never put
forth by the true philosopher.
1. We find evidence of the unsearchableness of God in His own Being
and perfections. Hence all the humiliating failures of the ancients in their
endeavours to find out God. In the economy of nature and providence. In those
providential aspects which more immediately concern our own happiness.
Practical lessons.
1. We should be prepared for some corresponding difficulties in the
written word.
2. We should show great diffidence and caution in interpreting the
disclosures which God has been pleased to make of Himself
whether in nature or
revelation.
3. We should cherish a feeling of thankfulness for the knowledge we
already possess. (D. Moore
M. A.)
The incomprehensible character of God
I. Of what we
cannot find out. These are things both in providence
nature
and grace. What
wonder that there is a mystery in the Trinity
that the mode of the Deity’s
existence is too high for earthly thought? The inability which we may feel to
understand the reason of a fact
does not in the slightest degree interfere
with the fact being credible. A great moral lesson is taught us. The propensity
of man is to self-exaltation. He overvalues his own righteousness
his own
wisdom
his own power. There is both a wisdom and an utility in the fact that
we cannot by searching find out the Almighty to perfection. There are truths
which
as facts
we must receive
though the reasons of them we may be
inadequate to apprehend. Still we must remember
that nothing like a blind
unreflecting credulity is imposed upon us.
II. What we may
reach to. Though we cannot in the abstract comprehend how the three in their
essence are but One
yet what Father
Son
and Holy Spirit are to us we may
know
together with the unity of their will and purpose
so as to exhibit to us
most clearly our consolation and salvation.
1. The Father is displayed in this unapproachable Godhead
the Former
and Maintainer of all created things.
2. Whereas the Father in shewing mercy must not obliterate justice
it is in His Son
the eternal wisdom of God
that these two
apparently so
opposite
are brought into union.
3. Though we cannot comprehend how the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Father and the Son
yet the necessity of the new birth is plain enough; and the
might of the Spirit to effect it is sufficiently described. Thus
while we
cannot find out the Almighty to perfection
we have enough of His dealings
exhibited to guide our conduct. And remember that it is necessary to search into
truth
not speculatively
but experimentally and practically. (John Ayre
M.
A.)
The soul’s way to God
We hope for the reconciliation of science and faith. At present
the struggle continues in undiminished intensity. A strict philosophical
justification of faith is hard to find
and the intellect of man is always
failing in the attempt to show the reasonableness of religious emotion. But
whether religion can be logically justified or not
it lives. The questioning
and the believing instinct
the faculty of criticism
and the faculty of faith
are equally ineradicable
and yet
apparently
essentially irreconciliable. Are
we driven to the sad alternative of believing without any justification of
reason
or of suffering reason to lead us into the grey twilight of unbelief?
Both these tendencies of human thought and feeling are represented in the Old
Testament. The moral difficulty of the universe is that which weighed upon the
Jew. There were those who broke their minds against problems of providence
and
could not comprehend how the good should be afflicted
and the bad be suffered
to erect himself in pride of place
and one fate to befall all the children of
men. Among the Greeks the speculative instinct was strong
and the religious
instinct feeble
and there we find theories of the universe in plenty
physical
and theological
theistic
pantheistic
atheistic. Something is to be learned
from the constant inability of philosophy to arrive at a consistent and
satisfactory theory of the universe. The long outcome of philosophical
speculation is not simply the rejection of the religious theory of the
universe
it is the rejection of all theories upon a subject which is too vast
and too complicated for human thought. When the materialistic philosophy of our
day bids us confine ourselves to phenomena
it does not deny the existence of
that which it proclaims itself unable to comprehend. There is a point where
physics and metaphysics touch
and when that is reached
men are involved in
mysteries not less blinding than those of religion itself. The nature of God is
not the only unintelligible thing in the world. If we are told that through
physical science is no path to God
it is of the greatest importance to show
that physical science
pressed with her own ultimate problems
cannot help
admissions which make room for
and even point to
the thought of Him. If
philosophy shrinks from the affirmations of theism
and will own no more than a
possibility
what can be more necessary than to point out that the philosophic
method is not the one by which God can be surely approached? We have been
accustomed to speak of God as the Eternal
the Omnipresent
the Omnipotent
the
Absolute
the Infinite. These are wide words
and
taken at their widest
essentially unintelligible to us
for the very reason that their opposites
accurately describe the limitations of our own nature. Still
we put into them
as much meaning as we can
and make of them the most that the extent of our
knowledge and the force of our imagination will permit. (C. Beard
B. A.)
The incomprehensibility of God
The nature of God is the foundation of all true religion
and the
will of God is the rule of all acceptable worship. Therefore the knowledge of
God is of the greatest importance. To know God and Jesus Christ whom He has
sent
is eternal life. The mysteriousness of the Divine nature and government
is no reason why we should neglect what may be known concerning Him. Give one
the spirit of adoption and self-renunciation
and he cannot be frightened from
the presence of his Maker either by the lustre or the darkness round about His
throne. The doctrine of this text is
that there is in the nature and ways of
God much that is incomprehensible to us.
1. The adorable first person of the Trinity
the Father
is and must
ever be beyond the grasp of our senses and faculties. It is generally agreed
that the third person of the Trinity
the Holy Ghost
is
and ever will be
beyond the direct and immediate notice of all creatures. He is far beyond the
grasp of both our bodily and mental faculties. The brightest manifestation of
the Godhead is in the incarnation of the Son of God. We may behold His glory
as of the only-begotten of the Father
but we can go no further. This
manifestation is for all practical purposes sufficient. But even in Christ
divinity shone forth under great obscuration. Whatever eludes all our senses
and faculties is to us necessarily clad with mysteriousness. Whatever is
concealed from every perceptive power excludes the possibility of original
knowledge. In such a case learning without instruction is impossible.
2. The incomprehensibility of God’s nature and ways is often asserted
in His Word. Nowhere is the incomprehensibility of God spoken of in Scripture
as cause of sorrow to the pious. Our inability to find out the Almighty to
perfection is not merely moral
but natural. The same would have been true if
man had not sinned.
3. So very wonderful are the perfections of God
compared with the
attributes of the most exalted creature
that His nature and ways must always
be mysterious
just in proportion to our knowledge of their extent. How should
man
as compared with God
have knowledge either extensive or absolute? God’s
plans are founded on the most perfect knowledge of all things. Man’s
information is very imperfect both in scope and degree. The moral character of
God presents greater wonders than His natural attributes. His moral
character--holiness
justice
goodness
truth
faithfulness--is presented in
the person and work of Jesus Christ.
4. God has shown Himself to be incomprehensible in His works of
creation. Out of nothing God made all things
our bodies and our souls
all we
are
all we see
all that is within us
above us
beneath us
around us. Most
of our knowledge of God is negative. Our positive knowledge of Him is very
limited. There will ever be topless heights of Divine knowledge
to which we
shall have to look up with inquiring awe.
5. In God’s government and providence are several things which must
ever make them incomprehensible to us. How noiseless are most of His doings.
But when He chooses He can make our ears to tingle. God hides His works and
ways from man by commonly removing results far from human view. God’s ways
respecting means are very remarkable. He
apparently
often works without
means. Perceiving no causes in operation
we expect no effects. God also
employs such instruments as greatly confound us. We often tremble to see God
pursuing a course which
to our short sight
seems quite contrary to the end to
be gained.
Lessons--
1. The Christian lives and walks by faith
not by sight.
2. As the object of God in all His dealings with His people is His
own glory and their eternal good
so they ought heartily to concur in these
ends
and labour to promote them. God’s glory is more important than the lives
of all His creatures.
3. Let us put a watch upon our hearts and lips
lest we should think
or say more about God’s nature and ways than befits our ignorance and our
selfishness.
4. Note how excellent are Divine things. “Divinity is the haven and
Sabbath of all man’s contemplations.” Every honest effort to spread the
knowledge of God is praiseworthy. (W. S. Plumer
D. D.)
Man can never apprehend first causes
All our knowledge is limited
and we can never apprehend the first
causes of any phenomena. The force of crystallisation
the force of gravitation
and chemical affinity remain in themselves just as incomprehensible as
adaptation and inheritance or will and consciousness (Haeckel
History of
Creation.)
Man’s imperfect knowledge of God
If I never saw that creature which contains not something
unsearchable; nor the worm so small
but that it affordeth questions to puzzle
the greatest philosopher
no wonder
then
if mine eyes fail when I would look
at God
my tongue fail me in speaking of Him
and my heart in conceiving. As
long as the Athenian inscription doth as well suit with my sacrifices
“To the
unknown God
” and while I cannot contain the smallest rivulet
it is little I
can contain of this immense ocean. We shall never be capable of clearly
knowing
till we are capable of fully enjoying; nay
nor till we do actually
enjoy Him. What strange conceivings hath a man
born blind
of the sun and its
light
or a man born deaf of the nature of sounds and music; so do we yet want
that sense by which God must be clearly known. I stand and look upon a heap of
ants
and see them all
with one view
very busy to little purpose. They know
not me
my being
nature
or thoughts
though I am their fellow creature
how
little
then
must we know of the great Creator
though He with one view
continually beholds us all. Yet a knowledge we have
though imperfect
and such
as must be done away. A glimpse the saints behold
though but in a glass
which
makes us capable of some poor
general
dark apprehensions of what we shall
behold in glory. (R. Baxter.)
Nature’s testimony of God insufficient
All nature is incapable of discovering God in a full manner as He
may be known. Nature
like Zaccheus
is of too low a stature to see God in the
length and breadth
height and depth of His perfections. The key of man’s
reason answers not to all the wards in the lock of those mysteries. The world
at best is but a shadow of God
and therefore cannot discover Him in His
magnificent and royal virtues
no more than a shadow can discover the outward
beauty
the excellent mien
and the inward endowments of the person whose
shadow it is.
Verses 13-15
If thou prepare thine heart
and stretch out thine hands towards
Him.
The way to happiness
I purpose to show you that happiness is within your reach
and to
point out the means by which it may be infallibly attained.
1. Prepare your hearts
or rightly dispose and order your hearts
especially with reference to subsequent acts and exercises. If we would be
truly happy
we must seek happiness within.
1. A prepared heart is thoughtful and considerate. The careless and
trifling never attain peace of mind. A prepared heart is a penitent and humble
heart. Sin is the great hindrance to human happiness; and the removal of it is
therefore absolutely necessary.
2. A prepared mind is a decided mind. The mind thinks with reference
to decision; otherwise thinking is a vain employ
a mere mocking of intelligence.
If a man decides under that preparedness which serious thoughtfulness
prayer
and the aid of God concur to supply
it will determine to make the cultivation
and salvation of the soul the great end of life.
2. Stretch out the hand towards God. This denotes the act and habit
of prayer. The expression “stretching forth the hand” is strikingly descriptive
of true and prevalent prayer. It was an action over a sacrifice
and it marked
man’s submission to the rites which God had appointed his trust in them
and
his appeal to God upon their presentation. It was an action which acknowledged
God as the source of supply and help. It was the action of desire. It was an
action of waiting upon God.
3. Personal reformation. “If iniquity be in thine hand put it far
away.” Those who sin are not generally the men who pray; but some do. They pray
both in public and in secret
and yet do not renounce all evil. The most
perverse attempt that man has ever made
is to reconcile religion with the
practice of sin. This will appear if you consider the only principles upon
which such an attempt can be made. It may suppose that God loves religious
services for their own sake. Or that God can be deceived by a show of outward
piety
if outward morality be superadded
or that men may sin because grace
abounds. Or that the end of religion is to save men from punishment. If
then
you have practised iniquity
renounce it entirely
and renounce it forever. If
it be shut up secretly “in thine heart
” let it not remain there any longer. Conscience
is privy to it
and will smite you for it in your seasons of calm reflection.
If the price of iniquity is in your hand
divest yourself of the evil thing.
Make restitution to the men you have injured. “The righteous Lord loveth
righteousness.” When iniquity is put away then comes true peace. The blessing
of God is given
and conscience approves of the act. The consciousness of
integrity and uprightness is a source of the purest enjoyment.
4. The fourth direction relates to a godly family discipline. In
ancient times the heads of families were the priests. Nor did parents cease
in
a very important sense
to be the priests in their families after the
establishment of the Levitical priesthood. In this respect no change has taken
place under the Christian dispensation. The office of the head of the family is
to instruct his household in the truths of God’s law and Gospel. Our ancestors
understood this duty. Together with religious concern
there is to be the
actual putting away of evil from your families. From a proper course of family
discipline and order God’s blessing will not be withheld. “For then shalt thou
lift up thy face without spot; yea
thou shalt be steadfast and shalt not
fear.” “Thy face” shall be “lifted up” in holy confidence towards God; and it
shall be undefiled by a spot of guilty shame towards men. (R. Watson.)
Heart and hands
Zophar tells Job of his faults
and of God’s secret knowledge of
him
and winds up with the words of the text
which
while they are altogether
inappropriate and undeserved in Job’s case
are in principle grandly true
in
form sweetly beautiful
and may well provide us with pleasant food. “If thou
shalt prepare thy heart
and stretch out thine hands toward Him.” That is the
attitude of supplication
and doubtless has here the idea of prayer. But it has
much more than that. It means that the heart and the hands are to go together
are to move in unison; that the hands must do what the heart prompts
and that
as the heart is prepared to take in God
the hands are to be at the control of
God. The prepared heart receives Christ as guest
and the willing hands are
told off to wait upon Him all the time. The stretching of the hands here means
also a habit of desire. It includes willing obedience. It is the attitude of one
who is willing
waiting
and even eager to be of service. This consecration of
the heart
and this dedication of the hands
will lead to the due fulfilment of
the next verse
“If iniquity be in thine hands
put it far away.” That is to
say
all the misdoings of the past are to be sorrowed over
repented of
and
put away. Heart and hands are alike to be clean
and a new leaf is to be turned
over in the volume of life
no more to be blotted by guilt
or inscribed with
the writing of self-condemning sin. Adapt the meaning of Zophar to our day
and
it comes to this
no wickedness is to be permitted to dwell under any roof we
can call our own. We are to turn it out
and keep it out of our homes
let it
have no place by our hearthstones
no shelter in kitchen or parlour. True
religious principle will not turn and trifle
will not dally with wrong-doing.
“For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot.” A manly religion
a godly
fidelity will enable a man to look all the world in the face. “Thou shalt not fear.”
Only true religion can so endow a man. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” “Thou
shalt forget thy misery
and remember it as waters that pass away.” The good
man’s life is like a river
ever flowing
through various scenery of mingled
barrenness and beauty. The rough
barren
sad
sorrowful
through which it
passes
will never
never be reproduced. (Good Company.)
The two-fold development of godliness
I. Godliness
developed in the spiritual activity of a man’s life. The activity which Zophar
recommends has a threefold direction--
1. Towards his own heart. “If thou prepare thine heart.”
2. Towards the great God. “And stretch out thine hands towards Him.”
3. Towards moral evil. “If iniquity be in thine hand
put it far
away.”
II. Godliness
developed in the spiritual blessedness of a man’s life. Zophar specifies
several advantages attending the course he recommended.
1. Cheerfulness of aspect.
2. Steadfastness of mind.
3. Fearlessness of soul.
4. A deliverance from all suffering.
5. Uncloudedness of being. (Homilist.)
Change of heart
New mental level produces new perspective. There is a form of
decision in which
in consequence of some outer experience or some inexplicable
inward change
we suddenly pass from the easy and careless to the sober and
strenuous mood
or possibly the other way. The whole scale of values of our
motives and impulses then undergoes a change like that which a change of the
observer’s level produces on a view. The most sobering possible agents are
objects of grief and fear. When one of these affects us
all “light fantastic”
notions lose their motive power
all solemn ones find theirs multiplied
manifold. The consequence is an instant abandonment of the more trivial
projects with which we had been dallying
and an instant practical acceptance
of the more grim and earnest alternative which till then could not extort our
mind’s consent. All those “changes of heart
” “awakenings of conscience
” etc.
which make new men of so many of us
may be classed under this head. The
character abruptly rises to another “level
” and deliberation comes to an
immediate end. (Prof. James
Psychology.)
Verse 16
Thou shalt forget thy misery
and remember it as waters that pass
away.
Comfort from the future
Job’s misery was extreme
and it seemed as if he could never
forget it. He never did forget the fact of it
but he did forget the pain of
it. Nothing better can happen to our misery than that it should be forgotten in
the sense referred to in our text; for then
evidently
it will be clean gone
from us. It will be as it is when even the scent of the liquor has gone out of
the cask
even when the flavour of the bitter drug lingers no longer in the
medicine glass
but has altogether disappeared. If you look carefully at the
connection of our text
I do not doubt that you will experience this blessed
forgetfulness. When we are in pain of body
and depression of spirit
we
imagine that we never shall forget such misery as we are enduring. And yet
by
and by
God turns towards us the palm of His hand
and we see that it is full
of mercy
we are restored to health
or uplifted from depression of spirit
and
we wonder that we ever made so much of our former suffering or depression. We remember
it no more
except as a thing that has passed and gone
to be recollected with
gratitude.
I. I am not going
to limit the application of the text to Job and his friends
for it has also a
message for many of us at the present time; and I shall take it
first
with
reference to the common troubles of life which affect believing men and women.
These troubles of life happen to us all more or less. They come to one in one
shape
and perhaps life thinks that he is the only man who has any real misery;
yet they also come to others
though possibly in another form. The Lord of the
pilgrims was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”; and His disciples
must expect to fare even as their Master fared while here below; it is enough
for the servant if he be as his lord. You
who are just now enduring misery
should seek to be comforted under it. Perhaps you will ask me
“Where can we
get any comfort?” Well
if you cannot draw any from your present experience
seek to gather some from the past. You have been miserable before
but you have
been delivered and helped. There has come to you a most substantial benefit
from everything which you have been called to endure. Let us gather consolation
also from the future. If
as the apostle truly says
“No chastening for the
present seemeth to be joyous
but grievous
” recollect how he goes on to say
“Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto
them which are exercised thereby.” “Thou shalt forget thy misery
and remember
it as waters that pass away.” How will that be?
1. Well
first
by the lapse of time. Time is a wonderful healer.
2. Ay
but there is something better than the lapse of years
and
that is when
during a considerable time
you are left without trial. That is a
sharp pain you are now enduring; but what if you should have years of health
afterwards? Remember how Job forgot his misery when
in a short time
he had
double as much of all that he possessed as he had before. There is wonderfully
smooth sailing on ahead for some of you when you are once over this little
stretch of broken water.
3. And besides the lapse of time
and an interval of rest and calm
it may be--it probably is the fact with God’s people--that He has in store for
you some great mercies. When the Lord turns your captivity
you will be like
them that dream; and you know what happens to men who dream. They wake up;
their dream is all gone
they have completely forgotten it. So will it be with
your sorrow. Be of good courage in these dark
dull times
for
mayhap this
text is God’s message to thy soul
“Thou shalt forget thy misery
and remember
it as waters that pass away.” It has bee so with many
many
many believers in
the past. What do you think of Joseph sold for a slave
Joseph falsely accused
Joseph shut up in prison? But when Joseph found out that all that trial was the
way to make him ruler over all the land of Egypt
and that he might be the
means of saving other nations from famine
and blessing his father’s house
I
do not wonder that he called his elder son “Manasseh.” What does that name
mean? “Forgetfulness”--“for God
” said he
“hath made me forget all my toil
and all my father’s house.”
II. I should be
greatly rejoiced if
in the second place
I might speak a cheering word to poor
souls under distress on account of sin.
1. Well
now
I exhort you
first of all
to look to Christ
and lean
on Christ. Trust in His atoning sacrifice
for there alone can a troubled soul
find rest. There was never a man yet who
with all his heart
did seek the Lord
Jesus Christ
but sooner or later found Him; and if you have been long in
seeking
I lay it to the fact that you have not sought with a prepared heart
a
thoroughly earnest heart
or else you would have found Him. But
perhaps
taking Zophar’s next expression
you have not stretched out your hands toward
the Lord
giving yourself up to Him like a man who holds up his hands to show
that he surrenders. Further
you may and you shall forget your misery
provided
you fulfil one more condition mentioned by Zophar
and that is
that you are
not harbouring any sin: “If iniquity be in thine hand
put it far away
and let
not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.” “Oh!” you say
“but how am I to do
it?” Christ will help you. Trust Him to help you. Oh
do see that you let not
wickedness dwell in your tabernacles
you who are the people of God
and you
who wish to be His
if you would have Zophar’s words to Job fulfilled in your
experience
“Then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea
thou shalt be
stedfast
and shalt not fear: because thou shalt forget thy misery
and
remember it as waters that pass away.”
III. Now let me tell
you how sweetly God can make a sinner forget his misery.
1. The moment a sinner believes in Jesus Christ with true heart and
repentant spirit
God makes him forget his misery
first
by giving him a full
pardon.
2. Next
he rejoices in all the blessings that God gives with His
grace.
IV. This text will
come true to the sickening
declining
soon-departing believer. If thou hast
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ
and if thou art resting alone upon Him
recollect that
in a very short time
“thou shalt forget thy misery
and
remember it as waters that pass away.” In a very
very
very short time
your
suffering and sadness will all be over. I suppose the expression
“waters that
pass away
” signifies those rivers which are common in the East
and which we
meet with so abundantly in the south of France. They are rivers with very broad
channels
but I have often looked in vain for a single drop of water in them.
“Then
” perhaps you ask
“what is the use of such rivers?” Well
at certain
times
the mountain torrents come rushing down
bearing great rocks
and
stones
and trees before them
and then
after they have surged along the river
bed for several days
they altogether disappear in the sea. Such will all the
sorrows of fife and the sorrows even of death soon be to you
and to me also.
They will all have passed away
and all will be over with us here. And then
you know
those waters that have passed away will never come back again. Thank
God
we shall recollect our sorrows in heaven only to praise God for the grace
that sustained us under them; but we shall not remember them as a person does
who has cut his finger
and who still bears the scar in his flesh. We shall not
recollect them as one does who has been wounded
and who carries the bullet
somewhere about him. In heaven
you shall not have a trace of earth’s sorrow;
you shall not have
in your glorified body
or in your perfectly sanctified soul
and spirit
any trace of any spot
or wrinkle
or any such thing. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Verse 17
Thou shalt shine forth.
Shining for Jesus
A beautiful parable showing how we can live for Christ
by shining
for Him
speaks from every lawn covered with hoar frost in winter
when the sun
shines out the frost melts into great dewdrops
and each of these hanging from
its blade of grass
is a miniature sun reflecting his bright rays to all
around. Thus should every Christian shine for Jesus
and reflect Him to a
godless world. When a breeze passes over the dewdrops
and they wave to and
fro
then bright-coloured rays are seen--red
blue
and yellow tints shine
forth
making them look like sparkling jewels. In the same way the winds of
adversity passing over the Christian
enable him to show faith
meekness
patience
and other graces. In joy and sorrow let us shine for Jesus
and
reflect Him like the dewdrops in the sunshine.
Secret of a radiant personality
Here is one of the secrets of an illuminated life. Associations
will have their influence upon us. There is one kind of a diamond which
after
it has been exposed for some minutes to the light of the sun
will when taken
into a dark room
emit light for a long time. The human heart is like that in
many respects. The man who associates with God
whose heart and soul rises in
communion with all pure spirits
will gather the heavenly light
and it will
shine forth from him in all walks of life. In one of the old palaces the spaces
between the windows of one of the rooms are hung with radiant mirrors
and by
this skilful device the walls are made just as luminous as the windows through
which the sunshine streams. Every square inch of surface reflects the fight.
Our natures may be like that. If we are completely surrendered and consecrated
to God
in perfect fellowship with Jesus
with all selfishness cast out
the
whole realm of the soul will be ablaze with moral illumination
which will make
the personality radiant and glorious. The bright-coloured soil of volcanic
Sicily produces flowers of more beautiful tint than any other part of the
world. So a spiritual soil that is bright with the radiance of love
hope
and
faith will produce deeds of brighter tint and sweeter fragrance than any other
heart soil. (R. Venting.)
Verse 18
And thou shalt be secure.
The practical advantages of religion
These words represent to us the comfortable state of that man who
has God for his protector and friend; the security and safety which there is in
His favour. “He shall be secure
because there is hope”; i.e.
whatever
may be the present portion of his lot
he needs not to be anxious about the
future; he may be easy concerning that
because he has such comfortable ground
of expectation from it. If he enjoys the blessings of life
he may enjoy them
securely; he has great reason to expect their continuance
and that the providence
of God will protect him from all pernicious and fatal accidents. Zophar made
this mistake in his reasoning; what was with great reason to be expected from
the general course of God’s providence
he made an invariable rule of judging
and censuring in each single instance. Suppose--
1. That the recompenses of vice and virtue were dubious; that the
sanctions of the Gospel were not so ascertained as to exclude all scruple and
distrust concerning them: even upon this supposal
religion would be much the
safest side of the question. When we are considering the danger or the safety
which respectively belongs to vice or virtue
in order to a just representation
of the matter
we must take into our account the risks and prospects of both
sides what it is which the man of religion and the man of no religion do
respectively venture
and what on each side is the propounded recompense. As
to: religion
the risks
if any
are small and inconsiderable; and its
prospects vast and very promising. The risks are ordinarily small in
themselves
and always small on comparison. Godliness has the promise of this
life. In comparison with its prospects the risks of religion were always
inconsiderable. A very encouraging prospect deserves a proportionable venture.
So men think
and so they act in the common commerce and dealings of the world.
They do not insist upon downright demonstration for the certainty of their
success in what they aim at. If the appearances be fair
there is no man who
stands debating for more evidence
or refuses reasonable and promising
conditions. We desire no more in the business of religion; nay
we need not so
much. If religion promises for the general a pleasant and easy passage through
this life
and always a state of infinite and endless bliss and glory beyond
it; if it promises this
upon reasons as firm and unexceptionable
as the
nature of the case
and of such proofs will admit; if with all this vast
encouragement
it requires
for the main
no other sacrifice than of such
indulgences as would be injurious either to ourselves or others
what account
can be given of that monstrous indifference wherewith the notice of so great a
gain is commonly entertained? What are the prospects and risks of vice and
irreligion? The prospects are inconsiderable
the risks are dangerous and
fatal. The promises of vice fall miserably short in the performance. Vice may
promise pleasure
but it will pay in pain. The prospects of sin with regard to
this life are dark and gloomy; and with regard to the next they are infinitely
worse. The risk of the sinner who resolves to persist in his wicked courses
is
no less than to encounter the wrath of God
and to arm Divine justice against
his own soul.
2. In the favourable circumstances of life and fortune
the good man
is best qualified for enjoying them with the least alloy
the least
apprehension of a change for the worse. To the righteous it is no abatement of
their present felicities that they must exchange them one day for others which
shall be brighter and more perfect. They are sure that “when this mortal shall
put on immortality
” that immortality will be blessed and triumphant. That
comfortable hope will balance a good deal against those natural fears of death
and dissolution
which otherwise were enough to jar the most harmonious
conjunction of the world’s blessings. The wicked
even upon their own
principles
are entirely destitute of this cordial preservative. The more
pleasing life is
the more melancholy (one would think) should be the thought
of parting with it.
3. So great is the difference between the case of the good man and
the wicked
that
whereas the latter can scarce bear up amid all the affluences
of a prosperous fortune
the former has the support of the brightest hopes. The
severest pinches of adversity are improved by a religious disposition into
occasions of weaning us from the world
and of turning us to God; of
strengthening our faith
and of elevating our hope
and of enlarging our
spirits towards the Father of them. He who has all his happiness and all his
prospects on this side the grave
is miserably disappointed when these are
defeated.
4. What mightily heightens the good man’s security
both in the
misfortunes and felicities of his present state
is the assurance he has of
favour with the great Governor of the world
and the Supreme Disposer of all
events. We see
therefore
that whatever circumstance or station of life may be
allotted us
religion is necessary to carry us through it with satisfaction and
comfort. (N. Marshall
D. D.)
The believer’s security
Faith is the Christian’s foundation
and hope his anchor
and
death is his harbour
and Christ is his pilot
and heaven is his country; and
all the evils of poverty
or affronts of tribunals and evil judges
of fears
and sad apprehensions
are but like the loud winds blowing from the night
point
--they make a noise
but drive faster to the harbour. And if we do not
leave the ship and jump into the sea; quit the interest of religion
and run to
the securities of the world; cut our cables and dissolve our hopes; grow
impatient; hug a wave and die in its embrace--we are safe at sea
safer in the
storm which God sends us
than in a calm when befriended by the world. (Jeremy
Taylor.)
Verse 20
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail . . . and their hope shall
be as the giving up of the ghost.
The doom of the wicked
1. Here is the loss of energy. “The eyes of the wicked shall fail.”
The soul’s eyes gone
and the spiritual universe is midnight.
2. Here is the loss of safety. “They shall not escape.” All efforts
directed to safety utterly fruitless.
3. Here is the loss of hope. “Their hope shall be as the giving up of
the ghost.” The idea is that the loss of hope is like death
the separation of
the soul from the body. What the soul is to the body
the dominant hope is to
the soul
the inspirer of its energies and the spring of its being. The loss of
the dominant hope is like death in two respects.
Delusive hopes of ungodly men
Like many a sick man that I have known in the beginning of a
consumption
or some grievous disease
they hope there is no danger in it; or
they hope it will go away of itself
and it is but some cold; or they hope that
such and such medicine will cure it
till they are past hope
and then they
must give up these hopes and their lives together
whether they will or no.
Just so do poor wretches by their souls. They know that all is not well with
them
but they hope God is merciful
that He will not condemn them; or they
hope to be converted sometime hereafter; or they hope that less ado may serve
their turn
and that their good wishes and prayers may save their souls; and
thus in these hopes they hold on
till they find themselves to be past remedy
and their hopes and they be dead together. There is scarcely a greater
hindrance of conversion than these false
deceiving hopes of sinners. (R.
Baxter.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》