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Job Chapter
Nineteen
Job 19
Chapter Contents
Job complains of unkind usage. (1-7) God was the Author
of his afflictions. (8-22) Job's belief in the resurrection. (23-29)
Commentary on Job 19:1-7
(Read Job 19:1-7)
Job's friends blamed him as a wicked man
because he was
so afflicted; here he describes their unkindness
showing that what they
condemned was capable of excuse. Harsh language from friends
greatly adds to
the weight of afflictions: yet it is best not to lay it to heart
lest we
harbour resentment. Rather let us look to Him who endured the contradiction of
sinners against himself
and was treated with far more cruelty than Job was
or
we can be.
Commentary on Job 19:8-22
(Read Job 19:8-22)
How doleful are Job's complaints! What is the fire of
hell but the wrath of God! Seared consciences will feel it hereafter
but do
not fear it now: enlightened consciences fear it now
but shall not feel it
hereafter. It is a very common mistake to think that those whom God afflicts he
treats as his enemies. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be;
yet this does not excuse Job's relations and friends. How uncertain is the
friendship of men! but if God be our Friend
he will not fail us in time of
need. What little reason we have to indulge the body
which
after all our
care
is consumed by diseases it has in itself. Job recommends himself to the
compassion of his friends
and justly blames their harshness. It is very
distressing to one who loves God
to be bereaved at once of outward comfort and
of inward consolation; yet if this
and more
come upon a believer
it does not
weaken the proof of his being a child of God and heir of glory.
Commentary on Job 19:23-29
(Read Job 19:23-29)
The Spirit of God
at this time
seems to have powerfully
wrought on the mind of Job. Here he witnessed a good confession; declared the
soundness of his faith
and the assurance of his hope. Here is much of Christ
and heaven; and he that said such things are these
declared plainly that he
sought the better country
that is
the heavenly. Job was taught of God to
believe in a living Redeemer; to look for the resurrection of the dead
and the
life of the world to come; he comforted himself with the expectation of these.
Job was assured
that this Redeemer of sinners from the yoke of Satan and the
condemnation of sin
was his Redeemer
and expected salvation through him; and
that he was a living Redeemer
though not yet come in the flesh; and that at
the last day he would appear as the Judge of the world
to raise the dead
and
complete the redemption of his people. With what pleasure holy Job enlarges
upon this! May these faithful sayings be engraved by the Holy Spirit upon our hearts.
We are all concerned to see that the root of the matter be in us. A living
quickening
commanding principle of grace in the heart
is the root of the
matter; as necessary to our religion as the root of the tree
to which it owes
both its fixedness and its fruitfulness. Job and his friends differed
concerning the methods of Providence
but they agreed in the root of the
matter
the belief of another world.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Job》
Job 19
Verse 3
[3]
These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make
yourselves strange to me.
Ten —
Many times. A certain number for an uncertain.
Strange —
That you carry yourselves like strangers to me
and condemn me as if you had
never known my integrity.
Verse 4
[4] And be it indeed that I have erred
mine error remaineth with myself.
Erred — If
I have sinned
I myself suffer for my sins
and therefore deserve your pity
rather than reproaches.
Verse 7
[7]
Behold
I cry out of wrong
but I am not heard: I cry aloud
but there is no
judgment.
Cry —
Unto God.
Wrong —
That I am oppressed by my friends.
Verse 9
[9] He
hath stripped me of my glory
and taken the crown from my head.
Glory — Of
my estate
children
authority
and all my comforts.
Crown —
All my power
and laid my honour in the dust.
Verse 10
[10] He hath destroyed me on every side
and I am gone: and mine hope hath he
removed like a tree.
Every side — In
all respects
my person
and family
and estate.
Gone — I
am a lost and dead man.
Hope —
All my hopes of the present life
but not of the life to come.
Tree —
Which being once plucked up by the roots
never grows again. Hope in this life
is a perishing thing. But the hope of good men
when it is cut off from this
world
is but removed like a tree
transplanted from this nursery to the garden
of God.
Verse 12
[12] His
troops come together
and raise up their way against me
and encamp round about
my tabernacle.
Troops — My
afflictions
which are God's soldiers marching under his conduct.
Raise —
Cast up a trench round about me.
Verse 13
[13] He
hath put my brethren far from me
and mine acquaintance are verily estranged
from me.
Estranged — As
we must eye the hand of God
in all the injuries we receive from our enemies
so likewise in all the slights and unkindnesses we receive from our friends.
Verse 15
[15] They
that dwell in mine house
and my maids
count me for a stranger: I am an alien
in their sight.
Maids —
Who by reason of their sex
commonly have more compassionate hearts than men.
Verse 18
[18] Yea
young children despised me; I arose
and they spake against me.
Arose —
From my seat
to shew my respect to them
though they were my inferiors.
Verse 19
[19] All
my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
Inward — My
intimates and confidants
to whom I imparted all my thoughts and counsels.
Verse 20
[20] My
bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh
and I am escaped with the skin of my
teeth.
Skin —
Immediately
the fat and flesh next to the skin being consumed.
As — As closely as it doth
to these remainders of flesh which are left in my inward parts.
Verse 21
[21] Have
pity upon me
have pity upon me
O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched
me.
Touched me — My
spirit is touched with a sense of his wrath
a calamity of all others the most
grievous.
Verse 22
[22] Why
do ye persecute me as God
and are not satisfied with my flesh?
As God — As
if you had the same infinite knowledge which God hath
whereby you can search
my heart and know my hypocrisy
and the same sovereign authority to say and do
what you please with me.
Not satisfied —
Are like wolves or lions that are not contented with devouring the flesh of
their prey
but also break their bones.
Verse 23
[23] Oh
that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
My words —
The words which I am now about to speak. And that which Job wished for
God
granted him. His words are written in God's book; so that wherever that book is
read
there shall this glorious confession be declared
for a memorial of him.
Verse 24
[24] That
they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
Lead —
Anciently they used to grave the letters in a stone with an iron tool
and then
to fill up the cuts with lead
that the words might be more plainly seen.
Verse 25
[25] For
I know that my redeemer liveth
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon
the earth:
For —
This is the reason of his confidence in the goodness of his cause
and his
willingness to have the matter depending between him and his friends
published
and submitted to any trial
because he had a living and powerful Redeemer to
plead his cause
and to give sentence for him.
My Redeemer — In
whom I have a particular interest. The word Goel
here used; properly agrees to
Jesus Christ: for this word is primarily used of the next kinsman
whose office
it was to redeem by a price paid
the sold or mortgaged estate of his deceased
kinsman; to revenge his death
and to maintain his name and honour
by raising
up seed to him. All which more fitly agrees to Christ
who is our nearest
kinsman and brother
as having taken our nature upon him; who hath redeemed
that everlasting inheritance which our first parents had utterly lost
by the
price of his own blood; and hath revenged the death of mankind upon the great
contriver of it
the devil
by destroying him and his kingdom; and hath taken a
course to preserve our name
and honour
and persons
to eternity. And it is
well observed
that after these expressions
we meet not with such impatient or
despairing passages
as we had before; which shews that they had inspired him
with new life and comfort.
Latter day — At
the day of the general resurrection and judgment
which
as those holy
patriarchs well knew and firmly believed
was to be at the end of the world.
The earth —
The place upon which Christ shall appear and stand at the last day. Heb. upon
the dust; in which his saints and members lie or sleep
whom he will raise out
of it. And therefore he is fitly said to stand upon the dust
or the grave
or
death; because then he will put that among other enemies under his feet.
Verse 26
[26] And
though after my skin worms destroy this body
yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Though —
Though my skin is now in a great measure consumed
and the rest of it
together
with this body
shall be devoured by the worms
which may seem to make my case
desperate.
Flesh — Or
with bodily eyes; my flesh or body being raised from the grave
and re-united to
my soul.
God —
The same whom he called his Redeemer
verse 25
who having taken flesh
and appearing in his
flesh or body with and for Job upon the earth
might well be seen with his bodily
eyes. Nor is this understood of a simple seeing of him; but of that glorious
and beatifying vision of God
which is promised to all God's people.
Verse 27
[27] Whom
I shall see for myself
and mine eyes shall behold
and not another; though my
reins be consumed within me.
See — No
wonder he repeats it again
because the meditation of it was most sweet to him.
For —
For my own benefit and comfort.
Another —
For me or in my stead. I shall not see God by another's eyes
but by my own
and by these self-same eyes
in this same body which now I have.
Though —
This I do confidently expect
tho' the grave and the worms will consume my
whole body.
Verse 28
[28] But
ye should say
Why persecute we him
seeing the root of the matter is found in
me?
Therefore —
Because my faith and hope are in God.
The root —
The root denotes
a root of true religion. And the root of all true religion is
living faith.
Verse 29
[29] Be
ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword
that
ye may know there is a judgment.
Sword — Of
some considerable judgment to be inflicted on you which is called the sword
as
Deuteronomy 32:41
and elsewhere.
That —
This admonition I give you
that you may know it in time
and prevent it.
A judgment —
God sees and observes
and will judge all your words and actions.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Job》
19 Chapter 19
Verses 1-29
Then Job answered and said.
Complaints and confidences
I. Job bitterly
complaining.
1. He complains of the conduct of his friends
and especially their
want of sympathy.
Nothing tends more to aggravate a man’s suffering than the
heartless and wordy talk of those who controvert his opinions in the hour of
his distress.
2. He complains of the conduct of his God. God had “overthrown and
confounded him”: had “refused him a hearing and hedged up his way.” He
complains that he was utterly “deprived of his honours and his hope.” God had
even treated him as “an enemy
and sent troops of calamities to overwhelm him.”
God had put “all society against him.” These complainings reveal--
II. Job firmly
confiding. He still held on to his faith in God as the vindicator of his
character.
1. His confidence arose from faith in a Divine vindicator.
2. A vindicator who would one day appear on the earth.
3. Whom he would personally see for himself
4. Who would so thoroughly clear him that his accusers would be
filled with self-accusation. “But ye should say
Why persecute we him
seeing
the root of the matter is found in me?” (Homilist.)
Then Job
answered and said.
Complaints and confidences
I. Job bitterly complaining.
1. He complains of the conduct of his friends
and especially their
want of sympathy.
Nothing tends
more to aggravate a man’s suffering than the heartless and wordy talk of those
who controvert his opinions in the hour of his distress.
2. He complains of the conduct of his God. God had “overthrown and
confounded him”: had “refused him a hearing and hedged up his way.” He
complains that he was utterly “deprived of his honours and his hope.” God had
even treated him as “an enemy
and sent troops of calamities to overwhelm him.”
God had put “all society against him.” These complainings reveal--
II. Job firmly confiding. He still held on to his faith in God as the
vindicator of his character.
1. His confidence arose from faith in a Divine vindicator.
2. A vindicator who would one day appear on the earth.
3. Whom he would personally see for himself
4. Who would so thoroughly clear him that his accusers would be
filled with self-accusation. “But ye should say
Why persecute we him
seeing
the root of the matter is found in me?” (Homilist.)
Verse 6-7
Know new that
God has overthrown me.
The difficulties of
unbelief
One thing
is to be noticed
with both Job and his friends the existence of God is a part
of the problem
not to be discharged from it even hypothetically. The
misfortunes of the good
the prosperity of the wicked
the inequalities and the
caprices of fate--these are just what have to be reconciled with the existence
of a just and all-powerful God. The discussion starts from the supposition of a
temporal Providence. All the debate is on what the debaters take to be
religious ground. In a certain sense
the idea of God introduces a difficulty
into the discussion. If we could look out upon the world as if it had no moral
order dependent upon the will of One infinitely good and wise
then the
particular difficulty of reconciling things as they are with any worthy
conception of Divine power and goodness would suddenly disappear. It is
suggested that
when a belief in God is dropped
the difficulty and confusion
will disappear. The world
it is true
will be no brighter for the abandonment
of faith; but at least no delusive marshfires will lead us astray from the true
objects of life. We shall know neither whence we came
nor whither we are
going; but we shall live our little day
neither vexed by vain questionings
nor relying upon baseless hopes. No doubt this is true to a certain extent
but
only to that limited extent which involves essential and absolute untruth.
Theism brings its own difficulties with it into the physical and moral problem
of the universe. But what right have we to suppose that any hypothesis
as
alone we can conceive it
will explain everything? And have we not the right to
turn round upon rival theories
and ask if they can explain more than ours
or
whether to them the mystery of the world is not mysterious still? Theism
with
all that it is commonly held to involve
is an explanation of the mysteries of
nature and of life; but not a complete explanation. Taking its pretensions at
the lowest
and the least
it gathers up the facts of life into a unity
and
supplies us with a theory in the light of which they may be correlated and
understood. More than this
it furnishes a practical rule of living. It is
precisely this which the opposite theory cannot do. The very necessity of its
nature is to explain nothing. It leaves the obscurities of life just as it
finds them. Pain and sin and loss are with it ultimate facts; nor has it the
faintest glimmer of light to throw upon their absolute blackness The case might
be different had human nature no side of relation to the infinite
or even were
that relation apprehended only by one here and there. The mystery of the
universe would be nothing to us if we had no faculty of knowing and feeling it.
But
with a few and partial exceptions
this attempt to pass beyond the finite
into the infinite belongs ineradicably to us all. A shrewd thinker once said
that if there were not a God
it would be necessary to invent one. Men will never
permanently consent to the narrowing of power and life. Eternity and infinity
may still hold their secrets in inexorable grasp
but we shall never cease to
go in search of them
and to hold ourselves higher and better for the quest.
Granting for a moment that these aspirations and longings are mistakes
remnants of a lower state
things out of which we shall grow
is the aspect of
the case materially altered? I am still face to face with the facts of
existence: I have still to meet
and bear
and make the best of my fate. We
cannot permanently silence curiosity as to the universe simply by rejecting a
single familiar explanation of it. In ceasing to believe in a God
you bare
made absolutely no progress in explaining the mystery of the universe. You have
only returned to the standpoint of absolute uncertainty and blank perplexity.
Take the mystery of pain
and its correlative mystery of wrong--evil
that is
on its physical and on its moral side. Theism will not explain it. It points
out palliations of it. It suggests that it is related to the power of choice in
man
and so necessary to the moral government of the world. Still
these
answers do not cover the whole question. But is Atheism better off or worse?
Are pain and wrong any more endurable
any less weight upon the sympathetic
conscience
because they are looked upon as bare
blank
absolutely unexplained
facts? Atheism escapes from the characteristic difficulties of Theism only at
the price of encumbering itself with a difficulty of its own. According to any
theory
there is at least a set of humanity in an upward direction. Theism has
hard work to account for the evil in the world; Can Atheism explain the good?
How should the whole creation move
to one “far-off event
” and rise upon the
circling wheels of time higher and ever higher
unless at the call and under
the inspiration of God? One more illustration. We all know too well the meaning
of human waste and loss. You tell me this is simply a matter of physical law.
But
in so saying
have you explained what needs explanation? I cannot answer
those questions
I know; but dream not that they do not weigh upon you too. You
have to face them as well as I
and to bear the heartache
and the desolation
and the thought of severance
without the hope of immortality
and the
stay of a Divine presence. (C. Beard
B. A.)
Verse 14
My kinsfolk
have failed.
Fickleness of friends
What is sweeter
than a well-tuned lute
and what is more delightful than a faithful friend
who
can cheer us in sorrow with wise and affectionate discourse? Nothing
however
is sooner untuned than a lute
and nothing is more fickle than a friend. The
tone of the one changes with the weather
that of the other with fortune. With
a clear sky
and a bright sun
and a gentle breeze
you will have friends in
plenty; but let fortune frown
and the firmament be overcast
and then your
friends will prove like the strings of the lute
of which you will tighten ten
before you will find one that will bear the tension
or keep the pitch. (Gotthold.)
Verse 20
And I am
escaped with the skin of my teeth.
A narrow escape
Job had it hard.
What with boils
and bereavements
and bankruptcy
and a foolish wife
he
wished he was dead. His flesh was gone
and his bones were dry. His teeth
wasted away until nothing but the enamel seemed left. He cries out
“I am
escaped with the skin of my teeth.” There has been some difference of opinion
about this passage. St. Jerome
and Schultens
and Doctors Good and Peele and
Barnes
have all tried their forceps on Job’s teeth. You deny my
interpretation
and say
“What did Job know about the enamel of the teeth?” He
knew everything about it. Dental surgery is almost as old as the earth. The
mummies of Egypt
thousands of years old
are found today with gold filling in
their teeth. Ovid
and Horace
and Solomon
and Moses wrote about these
important factors of the body. To other provoking complaints
Job
I think
had
added an exasperating toothache; and putting his hand against the inflamed
face
he says
“I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.” A very narrow escape
you say
for Job’s body and soul; but there are thousands of men who make just
as narrow escape for their soul. There was a time when the partition between
them and ruin was no thicker than a tooth’s enamel; but as Job finally escaped
so have they. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Verse 21
Have pity upon
me
for the hand of God hath touched me.
Christ’s passion
Apt
illustration of a more perfect sufferer--one more holy than Job
and one
involved in deeper sorrow.
I. In many respects there is an analogy between the sufferers.
1. Christ was an innocent and benevolent sufferer.
2. But when was He not a sufferer?
3. How His sufferings increased as He approached His end.
4. It was the hand of God that had touched Him.
5. Job suffered for himself
and for his own benefit; Christ
not for
Himself
but for us
and in our stead.
II. How our pity should be evinced.
1. By the ordinary movement of our feelings.
2. We should awaken these feelings by the use of all means.
3. Our pity should be evinced by hatred of sin.
4. If our compassion is sincere
we shall feel a deep interest in the
result of his sufferings. (F. Close
A. M.)
Compassion a human duty
Afflictions
like Job’s were sufficient
one would have imagined
to have extorted a tear of
pity from his most implacable foe. It would surely require none of the warm
attachments and tender sensibilities of friendship to awaken compassion in the
heart on such an occasion as this. With the common feelings of humanity
one
would imagine it impossible to behold the afflictions of Job
and not to weep
over them. These so-called friends
however
turned a deaf ear to his
entreaties
and under the cloak of friendship continued to wound him by the
most ungenerous and inhuman treatment. The world in which we live is full of
misery. Distress appears before us in a thousand different forms; and in every
shape she supplicates our notice
with an importunity which the humane and
generous heart is unable to resist. Of all others
the most affecting scene of
calamity which we can behold is
when a fellow creature is at once oppressed
with the difficulties of want
and tormented with the pains of bodily
affliction. Every man should consider himself as immediately addressed in
supplications like this; for every man is
or ought to be
a friend to the
wretched. Compassion is a debt which one human creature owes to another; a debt
which no distinction of sect or party
no imperfection of character
no degree
of ingratitude
unkindness
or cruelty will cancel
Compassion is a plant which
flourishes in the human heart
as in its native soil. So great is the
satisfaction which results from the sentiments of humanity
that there is
scarcely any consideration which more fully vindicates the wisdom and goodness
of the Supreme Being
in permitting the numerous ills of human life
than this
that they afford us an opportunity of exercising the most amiable affections
and partaking of the noblest pleasures. The exercise of this disposition is
likewise
necessary to gain the esteem and love of our brethren. And to show
compassion to such as are in distress is the way to qualify ourselves for the
Divine acceptance at the great day. Let us remember that to be compassionate is
not merely to feel and cherish the emotions of pity in our hearts
but to
embrace every opportunity of expressing them by our actions. (W. Enfield.)
Hindrances to sympathy
Sympathy is
peculiarly liable to inhibition from other instincts which its stimulus may
call forth. The traveller whom the Good Samaritan rescued may well have
prompted such instinctive fear or disgust in the priest and Levite who passed
in front of him
that their sympathy could not come to the front. Then
of
course
habits
reasoned reflections
and calculations may either check or
reinforce one’s sympathy
as may also the instincts of love or hate
if these
exist
for the suffering individual. The hunting and pugnacious instincts
when
aroused
also inhibit our sympathy absolutely. This accounts for the cruelty of
collections of men hounding each other on to bait or torture a victim. The
blood mounts to the eyes
and sympathy’s chance is gone. (James
Psychology.)
Verse
23-24
Oh
that my words were now written!
Job longing for
a permanent memorial
Job’s
wish has been gratified; his memorial has found inscription on a tablet
compared with which the granite rock is rubbish
and lead a withered leaf.
It has found entry in the “Word of God
which liveth and endureth forever.” No
temple of fame like this. This dying desire of Job to find memorial is much too
natural to be at all strange. Nothing is more common in death scenes than to
find the departing one rally his failing strength
and eagerly utilise his last
few breaths to give final charges that shall be religiously honoured
and with
painfully wistful looks try to speak after vocal power is gone. Many and
impressive are the lessons that here crowd into the mind.
1. Let us say what we have to say
and do what we have to do
in
time
that during life we may so live that in the hour of death we may have
only to die.
2. Let us be careful to say and do nothing in life which we shall
long in death--alas! unavailingly--to unsay or undo.
3. Let us
above all
speak for God and the Gospel; for that
be
assured
if we are conscious and in our right mind
will be what at death we
shall be most eager to do
that every word might photograph itself on the
everlasting rock
and speak in its living influence long years after we are
dead. (J. Guthrie
D. D.)
Job’s wish for
a permanent record
As
one accustomed to the use of wealth Job speaks. He thinks first of a parchment
in which his story and his claim may be carefully written and preserved. But he
sees at once how perishable that would be
and asses to a form of memorial such
as great men employed. He imagines a cliff in the desert with a monumental
inscription bearing that once he the Emeer of Uz
lived and suffered
was
thrown from prosperity
was accursed by men
was worn by disease
but died
maintaining that all this befell him unjustly
that he had done no wrong to God
or man. It would stand there in the way of the caravans of Lema for succeeding
generations to read. Kings represent on rocks their wars and triumphs. As one
of royal dignity Job would use the same means of continuing his protest and his
name. (R. A. Watson
D. D.)
The Redeemer
The
secular view is that Job is here expressing a confident hope of recovery from
his leprosy
and of justification in the sight of men. The spiritual view is
that Job is looking beyond death
and is expressing his belief either in the
future life of the soul
or in the resurrection of the body. It is necessary to
say a few words
first on the external evidence for the meaning of the passage
and then on the internal. Both seem to me to point decisively to its spiritual
interpretation.
I. The external evidence is in its favour.
1. Job did not expect recovery at all
much less was he confident of
it as a certain thing which could not fail to happen. What his expectation of
life was we see from such words as these (Job 17:1): “My breath is corrupt
my days are extinct
the graves are
ready for me”; or these (Job 17:11; Job 17:15): “My days are past
my purposes are broken off
even the
thoughts of my heart
. . .Where is now my hope? as for my hope
who shall see
it?” Even if he wavered between hope and fear
he could not use such language
as implies the utmost certainty.
2. The Septuagint translation (made by Jews who must
be supposed
capable of understanding the Hebrew words
and made by them long before Jesus
Christ brought immortality to light
and taught the doctrine of the
resurrection from the dead) gives the spiritual sense of the passage: “He shall
raise up my body
after these present things have been destroyed.”
3. The Jewish Targum on the passage (which must be free from all
Christian bias) is also wholly in favour of the spiritual sense. I give its
rendering by a great Hebrew scholar (Delitzsch
to which one of our most
competent British Hebraists tells me he has nothing to add): “I know that my
Redeemer liveth
and hereafter His redemption will arise (become a reality)
over the dust (into which I shall be dissolved); and after my skin is again
made whole
this will happen
and from my flesh I shall again behold God.”
II. The internal evidence is even more strongly in favour of the
spiritual sense.
1. Observe the great solemnity with which the declaration is
introduced (verse 23)
and how inconsistent this is with the idea that Job
refers to recovery from his leprosy
and desires to inscribe that fact on the
rock for the teaching of posterity.
2. Mark next the perfect assurance of the writer
which is fully in
accord with the strong conviction of spiritual faith
but is quite out of place
with regard to a secular expectation.
3. The sublime and spiritual keynote of the whole passage seems
thoroughly out of keeping with any feeling which ends in mere temporal
blessing.
4. To “see God
” which is the burden of his confidence
is surely
something more and deeper than the recovery of health. Not to dwell longer then
on questions of interpretation
and avoiding minute verbal criticism
I give in
substance the probable meaning of the passage
and pass on to consider the
spiritual teaching which it implies in anticipation of the Gospel. It is to be
regarded as a rock inscription. I know that my Goal liveth ever
and that He
as survivor
shall stand over my dust
and after this skin of mine is
destroyed
yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I shall see again; mine eyes
shall see Him
and not another for me; for this also my reins do long.
I. Who and what is the Redeemer?
1. He is the Goel. The word has two meanings
and it has been
disputed which is the correct one here. It means the avenger of blood
and it
means the kinsman. Those who have adopted the secular view of the passage have
contended that it must bear the former meaning only. But they have surely
forgotten that the office of the avenger of blood could not be executed till
after the death of the person to be avenged; and that this is one of the
indications that not recovery
but something after death is looked forward to
by Job. But if we ask what is the root-meaning
the original idea in the Goel
it surely is not difficult to determine. Did a man become kinsman to the
murdered one because he was the avenger of his blood? Or did he not become the
avenger because he was already the kinsman
and was therefore called on to
avenge him? The latter is the truth; and hence kindred is the first idea of the
Goel: “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.” Avenger is the next thought
involved in the word: one seeking reparation for our death
and therefore
protecting our life by the thought that his sword is behind it. And a third
idea is that of deliverance and redemption
as of family property
by one
“whose right is to redeem.” Job then is looking forward to such a kinsman--a
kinsman in the largest sense
who
being the ideal
shall fulfil all the
meanings of the institution; who shall be of the same blood; who shall protect
and avenge that blood
after death
of which Job is to taste; and who shall
also redeem for him the lost inheritance. Here
too
the dim finger of want and
of hope points onward to Him who said of every doer of the will of God: “The
same is My brother and sister”; our “kinsman
according to the flesh.”
2. The Redeemer or Goal is an everliving person. So the Septuagint
aptly
renders the words
“My Redeemer liveth.” Job is thinking of and
expecting his own death; but he has full confidence that after that there shall
arise his kinsman and Redeemer. Yet is it certain that He too may not pass away
through death? The reply of Job’s soul is
No; He cannot pass
for He lives
forever. After my flesh is dust; after
perhaps
all flesh is dust
yet He
the
survivor
shall stand over the earth. This is a kinsman “whose years are
throughout (and beyond) all generations”!
3. Still further and more remarkably Job’s kinsman is Divine. It is
impossible to resist the conclusion that He who is the redeeming kinsman of the
25th verse is also the God of the 26th. And the whole interest of the passage
centres in this
that Job’s kinsman-Redeemer is a Divine person
who shall
interpose on Job’s behalf hereafter
by revealing Himself after death!
II. What is the expected Redeemer to do? (J. E. Coming
D. D.)
Job finding
comfort for himself
The
words and efforts of Job’s comforters were not in vain. Sometimes in bodily
inflammations a lenitive is the best treatment
and sometimes a
counter-irritant. It is not very different in inflammations of the soul. In
Job’s case
perhaps
mere condolence would have completed his despair. But when
they accuse him of hypocrisy of the basest kind
--when they arraign him as
being rejected of God
and lying under the special curse of the Almighty
--then
his manhood gathers strength in endeavour to crush the great lie.
1. Job’s first step towards recovery was when he found his
voice
--though only to curse the day of his birth. The friends who sat silently
beside him did this for him. They revived him from the stupor of his grief.
Sometimes a sense of pain
and an exhibition of impatience
is a sign of a
favourable turn in serious disease; so is it in diseases of the soul. “She must
weep
or she will die
” sings the poet of the widow
when “home they brought
her warrior dead.” And so the stupor of despair is always one of the gravest
signs. It is true that a terrific lamentation breaks forth from him (chap. 3.)
unexampled in literature
--a model on which again and again our great dramatist
has formed his representations of blank despair. Solomon’s despair in the Book
of Ecclesiastes is the result of the cynical surfeit of luxury
which finds
nothing in life sufficiently important for its regard. But this is the despair
of agony and grief
natural and seemingly incurable. Still it marks a slight
advance. It is a feeble symptom of returning vigour. Hearts break with silent
not with uttered
grief. Speech is a sort of safety valve.
2. Job’s second step towards comfort was praying for death (chaps. 6
and 7; specially Job 6:8-13). Some
ignorant of human nature
fancy comfort would be reached
by a great leap; and had they from imagination drawn a picture of a Job finding
consolation
their story would have consisted of a record of his despair
and
of the visit of some gracious prophet declaring God’s fatherhood. Such is not
the usual experience of men. “First the blade; then the ear; then the full corn
in the ear”; so grace always grows. Accordingly
the next step towards comfort
is
though a strange
a great one. To lament a sorrow in the ears of men was
some relief
but it marks an advance of the grandest kind when the soul lifts
it to the ears of God. Job will not admit the accusation of Eliphaz
but he
will act on the suggestion to “seek unto God and commit his cause to Him.” He
is strengthened by the general testimony of Eliphaz to the justice and mercy of
God
while repelling his insinuation that God is punishing his crimes. And so
poor Job raises his eye again to his God. It is not a proper prayer
it is much
too despairing; it has but little faith
and it involves an accusation against
the mercy of God’s providence. Blessed be His name
God lets us approach Him
thus. He casts out none that come unto Him
even though they come with the
presumptuous murmurings of an “elder brother
” or with the despairing agony of
Job. Whatever you have to say
say it to Him. It is not the proper
but the
sincere prayer God wants. And when a Job comes to Him
in his desolation asking
only to die
the great Father looks through all the faults of woe and
weariness
to pity only the great anguish of the soul. It is not to be
overlooked that before the prayer ends
he can address God by one of His
noblest names: “O Thou Preserver of men” (Job 7:20). Is it the first Bible name of God?
3. As a further step
Job longs for clearing of his character. At
first he doubtless cared but little for this. If his character was crushed
beneath the judgment of God
it was just one more victim; and in a world of
such disorder--where only disappointment reigned--it would have been something
beneath his care whether all his fellow men frowned or smiled upon him. But
with returning help and grace he wants something more
--that the approval of
God might rest on him (Job 9:32-35; Job 8:2). This longing for a settlement with God
to know why and
wherefore he is afflicted
does it not mark some growing force within him? Only
from Him
with whom they wrestled
did either Job or Jacob gather the strength
by which they overcame. When Zophar assails him
with still more bitter
consolation than the rest
he seems to stimulate Job’s faith still more. His
faith grows strong enough to declare “though He slay me
yet will I trust in
Him.” “I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.” “He also
shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not stand before Him” (Job 13:15; Job 13:18; Job 13:16). What a hope was even then reached that God would yet justify
him--vindicating his character
owning the integrity of his purpose and the
sincerity of his religion. The next stage we notice is--
4. We see
again
that Job prays for some blessedness in the other
world. There is a wonderful distance between the prayer of Job 6:9 --“O that it would please God to destroy me”; and the prayer in Job 14:13 --“O that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave
that Thou wouldest
keep me secret
until Thy wrath be past
that Thou wouldest appoint me a set
time
and remember me!” The other world emereges into light. Death is not an
end of this life merely; it is a gateway to another state of being--a place
where God can remember a man
where He can “call” and be “answered
” where He
can show the “desire
” the favour He has to the work of His hands. It is not
yet the exultant hope he reaches
but still a hope exceeding precious. The soul
feels itself strangely superior to disease and decay
and begins to speculate
on what it will do when it “shuffles off this mortal coil.” A prophet-poet of
the nineteenth century has sung--
“Thou wilt not leave us in
the dust
Thou madest man he knows
not why;
He thinks he was not made
to die:
And Thou hast made
him--Thou art just
”
Three thousand years ago
through the same sort of baptism of grief
the patriarch was led to the same
conclusions. The Sheol
the place of the dead which had seemed so void of life
and being
became to his mind a sphere of Divine activities--“O that Thou
wouldest hide me in the grave
that Thou wouldest appoint me a set time
and
remember me.” “Thou shalt call and I will answer Thee.” It is not evangelical
divines alone that construe this as a dream of finding fellowship with God in
the calm of an untroubled afterlife. Even M. Renan
in his translation
takes
the same view. Someone says: “The hope of eternal life is a flower growing on
the edge of the abyss.” Job found it there
and it was worth all his anguish to
reach it. It is not yet a conviction. Doubt breaks in with the question--“If a
man die
can he live again?” And the doubt is left there
faithfully
registered. But felt and faced as the doubt is
the great dream reasserts
itself and fastens on his imagination. So
through cloud and sunshine
over
hilltops of vision
and through low valleys whose views are narrow
the soul
goes on. At the outset death seemed desirable only because it seemed an
absolute end. Now the great may-be that is the beginning of a better life
where God’s desire towards the work of His hands will be manifested
dawns on
him. It will be lost--it will come back to him--it will seem too good news to
be true. He has caught now a glimpse of it. In the next valley he will lose it
but it will never fade away again. Some people forget that each has to find his
own creed. The creed cannot be manufactured. Others may give you truth; you
must find the power of believing it. So the faiths of men are propagated by
living seeds of truth falling on living hearts. But if there is something
deeply suggestive in the beginning of his great dream
the hope does not stop
there
but grows into assured confidence
for Job reaches an assured hope of
immortality. You notice a strange increase of calmness in the mind of Job after
Eliphaz and Bildad have spoken. Just in the degree in which his friends become
angry he becomes calm. The anger even dies out of his replies
and instead of
resenting their upbraiding he tenderly pleads for their sympathy. This calmness
grew from his praying; his hoping that he still might reason out his cause with
God
and that God would even take his part against Himself. He found a
wonderful increase of it in the new thought that he might in the land of the
dead walk with God. And thus subsiding into a simple faith
at last the great comfort
reaches him of a sure and certain hope--of a blessed immortality. Few eyes that
have not been washed with tears can look steadfastly into the world to come.
Not as the world giveth does God give peace
but in a different way
altogether
--by storm and grief and loss and calamity of direst kind. So He
bringeth them to their desired haven. The prophets have been all men of
sorrows. Sometimes a little unwisdom has been shown in pressing a dubious
translation
and gathering from Job’s words a testimony to the resurrection of
the body. Whether you should translate his words
“In my flesh I shall see
God”; or
“apart from my flesh I shall see God
” is
indeed
quite immaterial.
We shall probably be safest in taking Job’s words in their most general
meaning
as details of future conditions were hardly to be expected. But taking
his words in the lower sense which all interpreters admit they must carry;
taking
say
the interpretation of M. Renan himself
what a wonderful hope they
express.
1. That God will be his Deliverer
Protector of person and of
character
Guardian and Deliverer in the world unseen.
2. That after death and divested of his body
he yet will find
himself the subject of richest mercies.
3. His personal identity will be indestructibly maintained. He will
not subside into the general life
but forever be a separate soul; he will see
God for himself; his eyes shall behold his very self
unchanged
unite another.
4. And in this relieved and rescued
but unchanged personality
he
will have the highest of all bliss--he will see God. And so Job found his
dunghill become a land of Beulah--delectable mountains from which the city of
God was seen. Faults of murmuring and impeachment of God’s dignity are still to
be corrected
and his comfort is to be perfected by a restoration of earthly
comforts.
Leaving
them
we only note--
1. God’s Spirit is never idle where His providence is at work.
2. We are not following cunningly devised fables. In every age the
best have been the surest of an immortality of bliss
and such faith is
evidence. See we reach that heaven. (R. Glover.)
Verses 25-27
For I know that my
Redeemer liveth.
Of the resurrection (on
Easter Day)
This text is a prophecy
and prediction of our Saviour Christ’s glorious resurrection. A sacred truth
requiring not only the assent
but the devotion and adoration of our faith.
Here Job foresees and foretells the resurrection of Christ. He tells us that
Christ
who by His death redeemed him
hath again obtained an endless life.
That after His fall by death
He is recovered and got up again; stands
and
shall stand
at last upon the earth. And Job prophesies of his own
resurrection
that
though he were now in a dying condition
death had already
seized upon him; yet he knew there was hope in his death
that he should be
raised from the grave of corruption to an ever-living and blessed state and
condition.
I. Job’s belief
concerning Christ. Here is--
1. The saving object of his faith; that is
Christ
his Redeemer; his
Redeemer dead and alive again; and to appear again at the last day to judge the
quick and the dead. Here is a personal interest he claims in Christ. “My
Redeemer.”
2. Job’s assurance. “I know.” It fully expresses the nature of faith;
it is strongly persuaded of what it believes; it puts it beyond “ifs
” and
“ands
” and hopeful supposals. Faith is an evidence
not a conjecture; not a
supposition
but a subsistence. This knowledge of Job will appear the greater
and more admirable
as his belief was beset with three great impediments.
3. Job’s close and personal application. The word “mine” makes Christ
his own.
II. Job’s belief
concerning his own resurrection. Although death had already seized upon him
yet he was assured he should rise again
and be made partaker of a joyful
resurrection.
1. The several truths included in this faith of Job concerning his
own resurrection. He apprehends the truth of the resurrection. It is easier to
conceive of Christ’s resurrection than of ours. He lays the ground and
foundation of his faith. Why is he sure he shall rise again? Because he is sure
that Christ is risen. We may strongly argue
from Christ’s resurrection to the
possibility of ours. Job expects a true
real
substantial
bodily
resurrection. Nay
here is not only a reality
but an identity; he shall have a
body
and the very same body.
2. The motions and evidences of piety his faith expresses. Here
appears the great strength of his faith; the alacrity and cheerfulness of his
faith
against present discouragements. It is a point of his piety
that he
longs for the seeing of his Saviour
the beholding of God.
3. Notice the benefit Job makes to himself of this meditation. It
supports his spirits under present afflictions. It settles and composes him. It
is his defence and apology against the accusations of the friends. (Bishop
Brownrig.)
“I know that my Redeemer
liveth”
When was Job’s greatest
conquest won? At what part in the malign struggle does he march forth in the greatness
of his strength? The crown of the crisis is passed and the real victory won
when there bursts forth
with all-enlightening ray from the dark-rolling clouds
of Job’s sorrows
the sublimely strong convictions
chronicled in the familiar
immortal
and exhaustless words of the text. That is “the hour and power” of
Job. There in his Gethsemane he triumphs.
I. Job’s
supporting convictions.
1. At the outset we must take care lest we misjudge our facts
and
fail to get at the precise power of Job’s convictions
through crediting him
with more light than he beheld
and reading into his great sayings the ideas of
a new and largely different world. Men have read into these verses such
doctrines as eternal redemption; the humanity of the Redeemer; the resurrection
of the flesh; and the so-called Second Advent. It is not perhaps surprising
that a saying of such superlative wealth in itself
so impressive in its
setting
stirring in its influence on the hearts of the sons and daughters of
suffering
should have been enlarged by the gifts of loving hearts
and
invested with the ideas of eager and admiring readers. It is
in fact
a bold
challenge made by a suffering mart to the ages
an appeal from the accusations
of clever but mistaken and unsympathetic friends
to the tribunal of the God of
eternity. You cannot miss the ring of conviction in the man’s speech. He says
what he knows. He believes
and therefore speaks. It is not desire or caprice
wish or will
faith or hope
but unwavering
absolute knowledge
whose voice
arrests our listening ear
and directs our expectant thought. Three distinct
assertions follow the quickening preface.
I. He declares
that God is the vindicator of right-seeking and right-doing men. The language
is indicative of a state of thought and of social life wholly alien to our own
in which the administration of justice proceeds on lines with which we are no
longer familiar. The sacred duty of kinsmen to avenge the damage done to their
kin
is the one social form in which faith in the power that makes for
righteousness finds expression
and kinship is the principal instrument for the
execution of the decrees of justice
embracing and discharging the functions of
police and witnesses
judge and jury
gaoler and executioner. God is Job’s
Goel. He will act for him. Redemption from loss
and pain
and wrong
and
calumny is in Him! Of the fact he is sure; of the how
and when
and where he
says nothing
but an invincible faith that
before “the last” moment in his
history comes
God will be his Redeemer from all the ills of which he is then
the unfortunate victim
animates and sustains his suffering spirit. Nor is that
all. Job is sure that he himself
in his own conscious person
will be the
rejoicing witness of that Divine vindication. He sees beforehand the glorious
reassertion of his integrity. He does not expect that clearing here. He is
beyond that hope. It is personal and conscious witnessing of his vindicated
character that neutralises the poison of the bitter cup he is drinking
and
leaves him in full-toned spiritual health. But even that is not the most
precious treasure in this chaplet of pearls. The chief
conquering
and most
meritorious quality in Job’s mood of mind
is his clear and steadfast
recognition of the real but dimly revealed law that the suspension of the
accepted and outward manifestations of the Divine care and regard is not the
suspension of the Divine sympathy
nor the withdrawal of the Divine love and
help. Our difficulty
and Job’s
is to believe in the living God
in His unbroken
love. The suspension of the ordinary signs of the Divine favour is no proof
whatever of changed purpose
or exhausted love to God! Is not that the trial of
our faith? Because happiness is not our portion
and power not to our hand
do
we not conclude that God does not “delight” in us? We have no misgivings as to
His existence
but if He is
why does He hide Himself? Resist the diabolical
sophistry which identifies a cloudless sky with an existing sun
affirms the
unseen to be the non-existent
and the unhappy to be the unholy. God is love.
That is His nature
the essence of His being; not an accident
an occasional
emotion
or a passing mood; and therefore He is
as Job saw and felt
the
Redeemer and Vindicator of all souls that sincerely seek Him
and diligently
serve Him; the guarantee that defeated
and humiliated
and oppressed man will
be set free
and exalted to behold the triumph of eternal righteousness; and
the witness that man is at present
and here in this world
scarred and defaced
with evil though it be
the object of God’s pitiful sympathy
redeeming care
and constant protection.
II. The fruitful
origin of these strength-giving convictions in the mind of Job. For it is often
more important to know why a man says what he has to say
than it is to know
what it is that he does say. It goes without saying that Job’s most
far-reaching and comprehensive declaration falls unspeakably short of that
abolition of death
and bringing of life and immortality to light
accomplished
by the Gospel of Christ; but what it lacks in fulness and breadth
it gains in
the burning intensity and glow out of which it springs
and the sublime motives
which urge and impel him
not only to speak
but also to covet a monumental and
immortal pulpit for his words. His sayings form a window through which we look
into his soul; a lit lamp by whose clear ray we see the workings of his mind
and enter into partnership
not only with his ideas
but with himself
as those
ideas are born in his soul
and take their place in his life. The impulse
the
goad to Job’s heavenward ascent is suffering itself; the very sharpness of his
tribulation causes the rebound
pushes his thought far afield to the things
unseen and eternal
carries him over the dark river
and supplies the background
for his vision of final triumph. But though the impulse to speak comes from the
very sufferings which his friends cite as witnesses to his hypocrisy and
insincerity
the power of wing
the motive force is obviously inward
and of
the mind and spirit.
1. First in the genealogy of Job’s convictions comes his passion to
set the great controlling and cleansed faith of his life in the spotless
excellence and living sympathy of God with men
directly over against all the
seeming contradictions
chaotic perplexities
and bewildering entanglements of
his experience; and so to prove that the view of the three friends would
receive its doom as essentially a lie and a libel
later
if not sooner.
2. We may fairly credit Job with the desire to guide the friends to
the perception of the one true principle in the criticism of life. They are the
victims of sense. They judge by appearances. And still men fasten on the
trivial and accidental
and neglect the weightier matters of principle and aim
and spirit.
3. The deepest reason and strongest motive of all with Job must have
been an insatiable yearning that the truth he had lived and felt and suffered
might secure an immortal career of enlightenment and benediction. God is better
to us than our best desires
and gives a larger blessing than our fullest
prayers. (J. Clifford
M. A.)
The Christian’s assurance
of a glorious resurrection
I. The illustrious
person spoken of. The “Redeemer.” The words “redeem” and “Redeemer” frequently
occur in the sacred Book. To redeem is to buy or purchase
and the person thus
buying is justly styled the “Redeemer.” As our Redeemer He was--
1. Divinely appointed. “God sent forth His Son--made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law.” Here the benevolent act of sending the
Redeemer is attributed to God.
2. He is our Redeemer by price; He “gave Himself for us.”
3. He is our Redeemer by power; that is
He delivered us from the
captivity and misery of sin
and
consequently
from the wrath of God and the
punishment of hell.
4. He is the living Redeemer. The knowledge of a living Redeemer
afforded unspeakable consolation to the mind of Job. “My Redeemer liveth.” Yes
He was alive in Job’s day
and
in some way
was engaged in promoting his
temporal and eternal welfare; consequently
such a consideration dispelled his
fears
enabled him to wipe away his tears in transports of joy
and furnished
him with a bright prospect of a happy immortality. Since then
the Redeemer has
made a visit to our world
to effect the work of redemption. After which
He
ascended to the celestial mansion whence He came. He lives
and because He
lives
we shall live also.
II. An important
event anticipated. “He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth
” etc. The
latter day is sometimes called “the last day
” and “the great day.” It is the
day to which all other days are pointing; the day in which all other days will
end.
1. He will stand to redeem us from death; He will ransom us from the
power of the grave. No matter where that grave may be. But Job anticipated not
a resurrection only
but a glorious one
“In my flesh shall I see God.”
2. He shall stand at the latter day; stand to direct
or rather to
invite His people to their everlasting habitation. “Where I am
” says He
“there ye may be also.” See the Redeemer standing at the last day
at the head
of His people
--a number which no man can number--arrayed in spotless white
with imperishable crowns upon their heads. “In my flesh shall I see God.” “In
my flesh.” Flesh no more liable to toil
sorrow
sickness
suffering
and
death; the former things shall have passed away.
III. The Christian’s
assurance. We do not profess to have any extraordinary revelation
or personal
inspiration; yet we know that we have a living Redeemer
and that He will raise
us up at the last day.
1. We know from the testimony of Sacred Writ. The prophets in the Old
Testament
and the apostles in the New
have clearly and fearlessly furnished
us with a treasury of sterling information on this subject. And
above all
our
Lord Jesus
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
brought
life and immortality to light.
2. But we have additional evidence of our resurrection in the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
We shall conclude by
remarking--
1. This knowledge of the Redeemer is interesting and capable of
supporting the mind.
2. This knowledge is of the utmost worth
as it cheers the mind
amidst the sorrows
tolls
sufferings
and trials of this unfriendly region
and whispers to the fainting spirit.
3. This knowledge calms the troubled breast in the hour of
bereavement.
4. This knowledge supports the Christian
smooths his pillow
and
brightens his prospect in the extremity of life.
5. This knowledge furnishes the good man with an assurance of
mingling with the pious of his family and with Christian friends in the better
land forever.
6. Is not this
therefore
the most interesting knowledge? (A.
Worsnop.)
Faith triumphing over
circumstance
I. The
circumstances of Job when he delivered this prophecy. We have all heard of the
patience of Job
and know well the series of trials which called it forth. We
have sympathised with him in his adversity
and rejoiced with him in his first
and latter state of prosperity. The injudicious conduct on the part of his
friends greatly embittered the sufferings. It is such injudicious conduct as
this which causes much mischief as well as misery in the world at large. If our
misery is attributable to ourselves
we know whence is the disorder
and
in
general
by the same knowledge
we know how to provide a remedy
if the case is
not altogether hopeless. If God is afflicting us
when He speaks
He speaks to
be understood. If He is pleased to put our faith and obedience to a severe but
wholesome test
by a single blow
or a long series of trials
the matter is
entirely between God and a man’s own soul.
II. Observe the
faith of Job. “I know that my Redeemer liveth
” etc. The hardest lesson that
man has to learn in this school of his probation is submission to the will of
God. The permission of evil in the world
as it is one of the hidden mysteries
of God’s righteous government
so is it
as might naturally have been expected
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence
with which unbelief is wont to
impede the progress even of a Christian. Faith supported the holy Job
not only
under his unparalleled privations
but under a far more galling load
the
accusations and suspicions of friends. In this painful dilemma
unable to
vindicate his innocence to them
who
notwithstanding
suspected him guilty
he
is borne on the wings of faith
over the head as it were of many intervening
ages
to that glorious time when he should stand before God in the imputed
righteousness of his Saviour. “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Would you then
realise the glories and know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
--imitate
the faith and patience of Job in his various states and complicated trials. (John
Stedman
D. D.)
Job’s faith in the
Redeemer
I. The character
of Job’s Redeemer. There is only one Redeemer of guilty men.
1. His person. A Divine Person
possessing the true and proper
nature
titles
and perfections of the Godhead. Possessed of perfect humanity.
In all things made like unto us
except being sinless. Thus He became the
“kinsman” of every child of man. He was therefore both human and Divine.
2. His work. How did He redeem us? From natural depravity
by the
purity of His nature. From the demands of the law
by His perfect obedience to
all its commands. From the infliction of the curse
by His death upon the Cross.
“Being made a curse for us.” From the power of Satan and death
by His
resurrection from the dead. He redeems from the power of sin
and into the
image of God
by the influence of the Spirit which He sends down into the
hearts of His people. He redeems into heaven by entering it for us with His
precious blood
and by receiving the souls of His people to His right hand in
glory. He will redeem by His almighty power
all the bodies of His saints
from
corruption and the grave
at the last day.
II. Job’s profession
of him. “My Redeemer.”
1. Appropriation. Angels
devils
and those in unbelief cannot say
this. The humble
devout believer both realises it and says it.
2. Assurance. “I know.” In religion there is consciousness and
certainty. He is ours because we are sinners
and He was given to save sinners.
He is ours because we believe in Him. We know because we love Him.
3. Confidence. In Christ’s unchanging existence. He liveth now.
Therefore His promises shall be fulfilled
His cause maintained
His Church glorified;
and His saints shall live with Him forever and ever. Application--
I know that my Redeemer
liveth
I. First of all
then
with the patriarch of Uz
let us descend into the sepulchre. The body has
just been divorced from the soul. The body is borne upon the bier and consigned
to the silent earth; it is surrounded by the earthworks of death. Death has a
host of troops. If the locusts and the caterpillars be God’s army
the worms
are the army of death. These hungry warriors begin to attack the city of man.
The skin
the city wall of manhood
is utterly broken down
and the towers of
its glory covered with confusion. How speedily the cruel invaders deface all
beauty. The face gathers blackness; the countenance is defiled with corruption.
Where is beauty now? The most lovely cannot be known from the most deformed.
The vessel so daintily wrought upon the potter’s wheel is cast away upon the
dunghill with the vilest potsherds. The skin is gone. The troops have entered
into the town of Mansoul. And now they pursue their work of devastation; the
pitiless marauders fall upon the body itself. There are those noble aqueducts
the veins through which the streams of life were wont to flow
these
instead
of being rivers of life
have become blocked up with the soil and wastes of
death
and now they must be pulled to pieces; not a single relic of them shall
be spared. Mark the muscles and sinews
like great highways that
penetrating
the metropolis
carry the strength and wealth of manhood along--their curious
pavement must be pulled up
and they that do traffic thereon must be consumed;
each tunnelled bone
and curious arch
and knotted bond must be snapped and
broken. But these invaders stop not here. Job says that next they consume his
reins. We are wont to speak of the heart as the great citadel of life
the
inner keep and donjon
where the captain of the guard holdeth out to the last.
The Hebrews do not regard the heart
but the lower viscera
the reins
as the
seat of the passions and of mental power. The worms spare not; they enter the
secret places of the tabernacle of life
and the standard is plucked from the
tower. Having died
the heart cannot preserve itself
and falls like the rest
of the frame--a prey to worms. It is gone
it is all gone! Mother Earth has
devoured her own offspring. Why should we wish to have it otherwise? Why should
we desire to preserve the body when the soul has gone? The embalming of the
Egyptians
those master robbers of the worm
what has it done? It has served to
keep some poor shrivelled lumps of mortality above ground to be sold for
curiosities
to be dragged away to foreign climes
and stared upon by
thoughtless eyes. No
let the dust go; the sooner it dissolves the better. And
what matters it how it goes! What if plants with their roots suck up the
particles! What if the winds blow it along the highway! What if the rivers
carry it to the waves of ocean!
II. Now
having
thus descended into the grave
and seen nothing there but what is loathsome
let us look up with the patriarch and behold a sun shining with present
comport. “I know
” said he
“that my Redeemer liveth.” The word “Redeemer” here
used is in the original Goel--kinsman. The duty of the kinsman
or Goel
was
this: suppose an Israelite had alienated his estate
as in the case of Naomi
and Ruth; suppose a patrimony which had belonged to a family had passed away
through poverty
it was the Goal’s business
the redeemer’s business
to pay
the price as the next-of-kin
and to buy back the heritage. Boaz stood in that
relation to Ruth. Now
the body may be looked upon as the heritage of the
soul--the soul’s small farm
that little plot of earth in which the soul has
been wont to walk and delight
as a man walketh in his garden or dwelleth in
his house. Now
that becomes alienated. Death
like Ahab
takes away the
vineyard from us who are as Naboth; we lose our patrimonial estate. But we turn
round to Death and say
“I know that my Goal liveth
and He will redeem this
heritage; I have lost it; thou takest it from me lawfully
O Death
because my
sin hath forfeited my right; I have lost my heritage through my own offence
and through that of my first parent Adam; but there lives One who will buy this
back.” Remember
too
that it was always considered to be the duty of the Goel
not merely to redeem by price
but where that failed
to redeem by power.
Hence
when Lot was carried away captive by the four kings
Abraham summoned
his own hired servants
and the servants of all his friends
and went out
against the kings of the East
and brought back Lot and the captives of Sodom.
Now
our Lord Jesus Christ
who once has played the kinsman’s part by paying
the price for us
liveth
and He will redeem us by power. O Death
thou
tremblest at this name! Thou knowest the might of our Kinsman! Against His arm
thou canst not stand! Oh
how glorious the victory! No battle shall there be.
He comes
He sees
He conquers. The sound of the trumpet shall be enough; Death
shall fly affrighted; and at once from beds of dust and silent clay to realms of
everlasting day the righteous shall arise. There was yet a third duty of the
Goel
which was to avenge the death of his friend. If a person had been slain
the Goel was the avenger of blood; snatching up his sword
he at once pursued
the person who had been guilty of bloodshed. So now
let us picture ourselves
as being smitten by Death. His arrow has just pierced us to the heart
but in
the act of expiring
our lips are able to boast of vengeance
and in the face
of the monster we cry
“I know that my Goal liveth.” Thou mayst fly
O Death
as rapidly as thou wilt
but no city of refuge can hide thee from Him; He will
overtake thee; He will lay hold upon thee
O thou skeleton monarch
and He will
avenge my blood on thee. Christ shall certainly avenge Himself on Death for all
the injury which Death hath done to His beloved kinsmen. Passing on in our text
to notice the next word
it seems that Job found consolation not only in the
fact that he had a Goel
a Redeemer
but that this Redeemer liveth. He does not
say
“I know that my Goel shall live
” but that “He lives
”--having a clear
view of the self-existence of the Lord Jesus Christ
the same yesterday
today
and forever. He is the Lord and giver of life originally
and He shall be
specially declared to be the resurrection and the life
when the legions of His
redeemed shall be glorified with Him. Let us look up to our Goel
then
who
liveth at this very time. Still the marrow of Job’s comfort
it seems to me
lay in that little word “my.” “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Oh
to get hold
of Christ! I know that in His offices He is precious. But
dear friends
we
must get a property in Him before we can really enjoy Him. What is honey in the
wood to me
if
like the fainting Israelites
I dare not eat? What is gold in
the mine to me? Men are beggars in Peru
and beg their bread in California. It
is gold in my purse which will satisfy my necessities
purchasing the bread I
need. So what is a kinsman if he be not a kinsman to me? A redeemer that does
not redeem me
an avenger who will never stand up for my blood
of what avail
were such? But Job’s faith was strong and firm in the conviction that the
Redeemer was his. There is another word in this consoling sentence which no
doubt served to give a zest to the comfort of Job. It was that he could say
“I
know.” To say
“I hope so
I trust so
” is comfortable; and there are thousands
in the fold of Jesus who hardly ever get much farther. But to reach the marrow
of consolation you must say
“I know.” “Ifs
” “buts
” and “perhapses” are sure
murderers of peace and comfort. Doubts are dreary things in times of sorrow. I
would not like to die with a mere hope mingled with suspicion. Assurance is a
jewel for worth but not for rarity. It is the common privilege of all the saints
if they have but the grace to attain unto it
and this grace the Holy Spirit
gives freely. Surely if Job in Arabia
in those dark
misty ages when there was
only the morning star and not the sun
when they saw but tittle
when life and
immortality had not been brought to light
--if Job before the Coming and Advent
still could say
“I know
” you and I should not speak less positively. God
forbid that our positiveness should be presumption.
III. And now
in the
third place
as thy anticipation of future delight
let me call to your
remembrance the other part of the text. Job not only knew that the Redeemer
lived
but he anticipated the time when He should “stand in the latter day upon
the earth.” No doubt Job referred here to our Saviour’s first advent
to the
time when Jesus Christ
“the Goel
” the Kinsman
should stand upon the earth to
pay in the blood of His veins the ransom price
which had
indeed
in bond and
stipulation been paid before the foundation of the world in promise. But I
cannot think that Job’s vision stayed there; he was looking forward to the
second advent of Christ as being the period of the resurrection. We cannot
endorse the theory that Job arose from the dead when our Lord died although
certain Jewish believers held this idea very firmly at one time. We are
persuaded that “the latter day” refers to the advent of glory rather than to
that of shame. Our hope is that the Lord shall come to reign in glory where He
once died in agony. Mark
that Job describes Christ as standing. Some interpreters
have read the passage
“He shall stand in the latter days against the earth”;
that as the earth has covered up the slain
as the earth has become the charnel
house of the dead
Jesus shall arise to the contest and say
“Earth
I am
against thee; give up thy dead!” Well
whether that be so or no
the posture of
Christ
in standing upon the earth
is significant. It shows His triumph. He
has triumphed over sin
which once like a serpent in its coils had bound the
earth. He has defeated Satan. On the very spot where Satan gained his power
Christ has gained the victory. Then
at that auspicious hour
says Job
“Sin my
flesh I shall see God.” Oh
blessed anticipation--“I shall see God.” He does
not say
“I shall see the saints”--doubtless we shall see them all in
heaven--but
shall see God.” Note
he does not say
“I shall see the pearly
gates
I shall see the walls of jasper
I shall see the crowns of gold and the
harps of harmony
” but “I shall see God”; as if that were the sum and substance
of heaven. “In my flesh shall I see God.” The pure in heart shall see God. It
was their delight to see Him in the ordinances by faith. There in heaven they
shall have a vision of another sort. Please to notice
and then I shall
conclude
how the patriarch puts it as being a real personal enjoyment. “Whom
mine eye shall behold
and not another.” They shall not bring me a report as
they did the Queen of Sheba
but I shall see Solomon the King for myself. I
shall be able to say
as they did who spake to the woman of Samaria
“Now I
believe
not because of thy word who did bring me a report
but I have seen Him
for myself.” There shall be personal intercourse with God; not through the
Book
which is but as a glass; not through the ordinances; but directly
in the
person of our Lord Jesus Christ
we shall be able to commune with the Deity as
a man talketh with his friend. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The living Redeemer
Job seems to have
entertained no expectation of deliverance from his troubles in the present
world. Therefore he looks forward to the world beyond death and the grave for
perfect felicity and undisturbed repose. Make some general observations for
opening up the passage.
1. God
in His abundant mercy
has provided a Redeemer for fallen
man. The word “redeemer” here means “next-of-kin.”
2. The living Redeemer has been the hope of the saints under every
dispensation of grace
and in every period Of the world.
3. No distress or suffering can pluck asunder those bonds that unite
the believer to his Saviour.
4. When the believer has attained to the knowledge of his interest in
the Redeemer
this will administer great comfort and encouragement to him in
suffering and distress.
Consider now the support
and consolation which believers should derive from the assurance that their
Redeemer liveth.
1. It should afford Christians consolation and support when
struggling with a body of sin and death
to know that their Redeemer liveth;
who shall at last be “glorified in His saints.”
2. It may afford the Christian support and consolation in the season
of poverty and want.
3. It may afford the believer support and consolation in the prospect
of death and the eternal world.
4. And under all the distresses and afflictions to which the Church
is exposed in this evil world.
5. And also with respect to the public calamities and judgments which
threaten the place or country where the believer’s lot is cast.
Job’s confident
expectation
In this confession Job
declares the promised Messiah to be his Saviour; and professes his faith in His
coming to judgment; the resurrection of the dead; and the beatifical vision.
I. The matter of
the comfort.
1. That there is a Redeemer. It implies that He is our kinsman after
the flesh
or by incarnation. That He paid a price to God for us in His
Passion. That He pursueth the law against Satan
and rescues us by His power;
all which are notable grounds of comfort.
2. That He is their Redeemer. Job
by a fiducial application
makes
out his own title and interest. Faith appropriates God to our own use and
comfort.
3. The next ground of comfort is that our Redeemer liveth. This is
true of Christ
whether you consider Him as God or as man. Christ’s living
again in His resurrection is a visible demonstration of the truth of the Gospel
in general
and in particular of the article of eternal life. His living after
death was the solemn acquittance of our Surety from the sins imputed to Him
and a token of the acceptation of His purpose. His living implies His capacity
to intercede for us
and to relieve us in all our necessities. His living is
the root and cause of our life; for He having purchased eternal life
not only
for Himself
but for all His members
ever liveth to convey it to them
and
maintain it in them.
4. Another ground of comfort is the certainty of persuasion. “I know.”
This implies a clear understanding of this mystery; and a certainty of
persuasion
which includes a certainty of faith
or of spiritual sense.
II. The
applicability of this comfort in our afflictions. Such as public troubles and
difficulties; spiritual distresses; outward calamities; calumnies and slanders;
and death. Exhortation--Believe and be persuaded of this truth. Endeavour to
arrive at the highest degree of assent. (T. Manton.)
The believer’s triumph
1. Afflictions do not dissolve the endeared relation between the
Redeemer and the redeemed.
2. Jesus Christ
as He is the only Redeemer of fallen man
has been
all along so
even from the beginning.
3. A believer may attain a comfortable evidence of a special relation
to Christ and interest in Him.
4. A believer knowing his Redeemer liveth
hath therein a spring of
abundant consolation
whatever affliction he here labours under
or is liable
to.
I. How the title
Redeemer belongs to Christ. He is fitly called a Redeemer upon a threefold
account. In regard to the bondage state He finds us in. His relation to us. And
what
in that relation
He does for us. As our kinsman
He redeems us by paying
the price of our redemption; and by rescuing us from the tyranny of Satan.
II. Believers will
and ought to betake themselves to Christ
the living Redeemer
for relief and
comfort under all their troubles.
1. As fallen creatures
there is no coming unto the Father but
through a Mediator.
2. Christ is the only Mediator between God and man.
3. He is provided and exalted of God to this very end
that the weary
and heavy-laden
under whatever burden
might apply to Him for ease and rest.
4. To them that believe He is precious
from the experience they have
had of His power and grace.
III. It is of
powerful use to the consolation of believers
in looking to their provided
Redeemer
to know that He liveth
and that He is theirs. That He liveth may be
said of Him as God
and as Immanuel
God-man. As Divine
and as risen. The
resurrection speaks the value and efficacy of His death and sacrifice. His
living again confirms the truth of His doctrine and promises.
3. It is no small addition to a Christian’s comfort that Christ lives
in heaven. And Christ also is theirs; in gracious
helpful
personal relations
with them.
IV. How believers
may fetch suitable support from hence
under the trials wherewith they may be
most sorely pressed.
1. What they feel upon a public account; their tender sense of the
Church’s troubles
and concern for their brethren in the same household of
faith
by reason of the hard things they suffer
and the deep distress they are
sometimes brought into. He liveth
and has the turning of all the great wheels
of providence.
2. As to public calamities that may happen in our day
or reach the
place where our lot is cast. Christ’s voice to all is
“Be not terrified.”
3. In poverty and want
pinching necessities and straits
we may
look up with comfort while able to say
“I know that my Redeemer liveth.”
4. As to losses in substance
or near and dear relations
bodily
pains
the injuries and reproaches of enemies
and hard censures of friends
with whatever the Christian may undergo from heaven
he hath enough to feed his
comfort in being able to say
“I know that my Redeemer liveth.”
5. As deprived of the sense of God’s favour.
6. As to the temptations of Satan
the wiles and assaults of the
power of darkness.
7. Under the afflictive sense of sin
as to guilt and corruption.
8. As in solitude about finding the way to heaven by reason of error
and delusion.
9. Under persecution of suffering for the sake of Christ
and
devotedness to Him.
10. The Redeemer’s living is the believer’s security against the
dread and danger of apostasy.
11. As afflicted with the death of the righteous
private Christians
or ministers.
12. That the Redeemer liveth may keep up the believer’s joy when he
comes to die. Application--
Glory of the resurrection
Faith is most sorely tried
when the hand of God touches ourselves. Yet even then the patriarch Job
believed in the coming of Christ
whom on earth he was not to see; he believed
that the Redeemer who was to come “akin to us
” had then
too
life in Himself
and should come to redeem him also. “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” He should
at the end “stand the Last
” as well as the First
with power “over the dust”;
and though the worms should prey upon and bore through this poor body
he
himself
for himself
should
out of that very flesh
behold and gaze on God.
“I know
” said the patriarch. True faith is solid
sure as knowledge. God writes
it on the heart
and the heart knows what it believes
more surely than the
senses know what they perceive. See how Job contrasts
not only life with
death
but life as the produce of death. And so it must be. After our bodies
had through sin become subject to corruption
it had been endless misery for
them to have lived on forever. And so God the Son took our nature upon Him in
its purity
to make it to us a new origin of being. For us He was born as man.
For us
to pay the ransom for us
He died. For us
not for Himself
He rose
again. Jesus rose to give us all which He is. After His resurrection
the very
being of His body was spiritual. The glory of Christ began with the grave. As
to Him
so to us
if we are His
the grave is the vestibule to glory. Claudius
says
“The tokens of decay are the cock crowing to the resurrection.” Yet the
change and transformation must begin here. It consists in first giving our
whole souls to God
yielding ourselves to His transforming grace
that He would
change us as He wills; and then
with steady
unwavering step to obey each
impulse of His grace
This will seem hard until thou knowest the sweetness of
pleasing God. (E. B. Pusey
D. D.)
Job’s sure knowledge
I. Job had a true
friend amid cruel friends. He calls Him his Redeemer
and looks to Him in his
trouble. The Hebrew word will bear three renderings
as follows--
1. His Kinsman. Nearest akin of all. No kinsman is so near as Jesus.
None so kinned
and none so kind. Voluntarily so. Not forced to be a brother
but so in heart
and by His own choice of our nature: therefore more than
brother. Not ashamed to own it. “He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). Even when they had forsaken Him
He called them “My brethren” (Matthew 28:10). Eternally so. Who shall separate us? (Romans 8:35).
2. His Vindicator. From every false charge by pleading the causes of
our soul. From every jibe and jest: for he that believeth in Him shall not be
ashamed or confounded. From true charges
too; by bearing our sin Himself and
becoming our righteousness
thus justifying us. From accusations of Satan. “The
Lord rebuke thee
O Satan!” (Zechariah 3:2.) “The accuser of
our brethren is cast down” (Revelation 12:10).
3. His Redeemer. Of his person from bondage. Of his lost estates
privileges
and joys
from the hand of the enemy. Redeeming both by price and
by power.
II. Job had real
property amid absolute poverty. He speaks of “my Redeemer
” as much as to say
“Everything else is gone
but my Redeemer is still my own
and lives for me.”
He means--
1. I accept Him as such
leaving myself in His hands.
2. I have felt somewhat of His power already
and I am confident that
all is well with me even now
since He is my Protector.
3. I will cling to Him forever. He shall be my only hope in life and
death. I may lose all else
but never the redemption of my God
the kinship of
my Saviour.
III. Job had a
living kinship amid a dying family. “My Redeemer liveth.” He owned the great
Lord as ever living--As “the everlasting Father
” to sustain and solace him. As
head of his house
to represent him. As intercessor
to plead in heaven for
him. As defender
to preserve his rights on earth. As his righteousness
to
clear him at last. Our Divine Vindicator abides in the power of an endless
life.
IV. Job had
absolute certainty amid uncertain affairs. “I know.” He had no sort of doubt
upon that matter. Everything else was questionable
but this was certain. His
faith made him certain. Faith brings sure evidence; it substantiates what it
receives
and makes us know. His trials could not make him doubt. Why should
they? They touched not the relationship of his God
or the heart of his
Redeemer
or the life of his Vindicator. His difficulties could not make him
fear failure on this point
for the life of his Redeemer was a source of
deliverance which lay out of himself
and was never doubtful. His cavilling
friends could not move him from the assured conviction that the Lord would
vindicate his righteous cause. While Jesus lives our characters are safe. Happy
he who can say
“I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Have you this great
knowledge? Do you act in accordance with such an assurance? Will you not at
this hour devoutly adore your loving Kinsman? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
My Redeemer
There is no need to push
these words too far. We lose a great deal by attempting to find in a passage
like this what in reality is not in it. Suppose that Job is referring to Goel
the elder brother of the family
whose business it was to redeem
and protect
and lead onward to liberty--suppose that this is an Oriental image
that is no
reason for saying that it is nothing more. There have been unconscious
prophecies; men have uttered words
not knowing what they were uttering; thus
Caiaphas said to the council
“Ye know nothing at all
nor consider that it is
expedient for us
that one man should die for the people
and that the whole
nation perish not
” not knowing himself what he said. We must allow for the
unconscious region of life
the mysterious belt that is round about so-called
facts and letters; we must allow for that purple horizon
so visible
so
inaccessible. He would be an unwise teacher who said
Job knew all that we
understand by Christ
resurrection
and immortality; but he would be unwiser
still who said that when his soul had been wrought up to this high pitch of
enthusiasm in the ardour of his piety he knew nothing of the coming glory. Let
Job speak literally
and even then he leaves a margin. Here we find a man at
the utmost point of human progress; figure him to the eye; say the progress of
the world
or the education of the world
is a long mysterious process; and
here
behold
is a man who has come to the uttermost point: one step further
and he will fall over: there
however
he stands until vacuity is filled up
until vaticination becomes experience
until experience has become history
until history
again
by marvellous spiritual action
shapes itself into
prophecy
and predicts a brighter time and a fairer land. There have been men
who have stood on the headlines of history: they dare not take one more step
or they would be lost in the boundless sea. Thus the world has been educated
and stimulated by seer
and dreamer
and prophet
and teacher
and apostle.
There have never been men wanting who have been at the very forefront of
things
living the weird
often woeful
sometimes rapturous
life of the
prophet. What was a dream to Job is a reality to us. We can fill up all Job
would have said had he lived in our day; now we can say
“I know that my
Redeemer liveth
and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”
When these words are sung
do not think they are the words of Job that are
being sung; they are Job’s words with Christ’s meaning. Yes
we feel that there
must be a “Redeemer.” Things are so black and wrong
so corrupt
so crooked
so
wholly unimaginable
with such a seam of injustice running through all
that
there must be a Goel
a firstborn
an elder brother
a Redeemer. It is the
glory of the Christian faith to proclaim the personality and reality of this
Redeemer. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ
for it is the almightiness
of God
the very omnipotence of the Trinity
to everyone that believeth. “God
forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Nor can
we consent to change His name: what word sweeter than “Redeemer”? what word
mightier? A poem in itself; an apocalypse in its possibilities; Divine love
incarnated. Oh
come Thou whose right it is! “Who is this that cometh from
Edom
with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel
travelling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness
mighty to save.” That same Son of Mary
Son of Man
Son of God. Accept Him as
thy Redeemer! (Joseph Parker
D. D.)
Job’s great hope
Let us clearly understand
the point and value of the argument. It is not that a man who has served God
here and suffered here must have a joyful immortality. What man is faithful
enough to make such a claim? But the principle is that God must vindicate His
righteousness in dealing with the man He has made
the man he has called to
trust Him. It matters not who the man is
how obscure his life has been
he has
this claim on God
that to him the eternal righteousness ought to be made
clear. Job cries for his own justification; but the doubt about God involved in
the slur cast upon his own integrity is what rankles in his heart; from that he
rises in triumphant protest and daring hope. He must live till God clears up
the matter. If he dies he must revive to have it all made clear. And observe
if it were only that ignorant men cast doubt on Providence
the resurrection
and personal redemption of the believer would not be necessary. God is not
responsible for the foolish things men say
and we could not look for
resurrection because our fellow creatures misrepresent God. But Job feels that
God Himself has caused the perplexity. God sent the flash of lightning
the
storm
the dreadful disease; it is God who
by many strange things in human
experience
seems to give cause for doubt. From God in nature
God in disease
God in the earthquake and the thunderstorm
God whose way is in the sea
and
His path in the mighty waters
--from this God
Job cries in hope
in moral
conviction
to God the Vindicator
the eternally righteous One
Author of
nature and friend of man. This life may terminate before the full revelation of
right is made; it may leave the good in darkness
and the evil flaunting in
pride; the believer may go down in shame
and the atheist have the last word.
Therefore a future life with judgment in full must vindicate our Creator
and
every personality involved in the problems of time must go forward to the
opening of the seals
and the fulfilment of the things that are written in the
volumes of God. This evolution being for the earlier stage and discipline of
life
it works out nothing
completes nothing. What it does is to furnish the
awaking spirit with material of thought
opportunity of endeavour
the elements
of life; with trial
temptation
stimulus and restraint. No one who lives to
any purpose or thinks with any sincerity can miss in the course of his life one
hour at least in which he shares the tragical contest
and adds the cry of his
own soul to that of Job
his own hope to that of ages that are gone
straining
to see the Goal who undertakes for every servant of God. By slow cycles of
change the vast scheme of Divine providence draws towards a glorious consummation.
The believer waits for it
seeing One who has gone before him
the Alpha and
Omega of all life. The fulness of time will at length arrive
the time
foreordained by God
foretold by Christ
when the throne shall be set
the
judgment shall be given
and the aeons of manifestation shall begin. (Robert
A. Watson
D. D.)
My Redeemer
Then there pass from Job’s
lips words into which Christian translators have breathed a distinctness
a
hope and certainty
which doubtless far transcends the sublime
but dim
faith
of the original. “I know
” he cries
“that my Redeemer
my Rescuer
my
Vindicator
liveth.” Liveth
for He is none other than the living God--no more
mute inscription
no human Goel
or avenger--on whom Job rests his faith. “And
He
at the last
” when all this bitter conflict is over
“will stand upon the
earth
” or rather
“on the dust
” the dust of death into which I am sinking.
“And” even “after my skin
” this poor skin with all that it encases
“is
destroyed”--even when “the first-born of death
” and the “King of Terrors”
himself
of whom you speak
have done their worst--“yet
” even then
not “in
”
but rather “from” (in the sense most probably of “removed from
” or “without”)
“my flesh
” though my body moulder in the dust
“I shall see my God”--the God
now hidden
the God to whom he had appealed before to hide him for awhile from
the world of the dead
and then to call him forth. He will manifest himself at
last to his forgotten friend
who will have survived for this the shock of the
meat Destroyer; “whom I shall behold
” he goes on
yea
I the prey of death
“shall see Him
shall see Him for myself.” (Or see Him “on my side
” the phrase
is ambiguous.) “Yea
mine eyes shall behold Him
I
and not
another. My reins
” my very inmost heart
“consume
” and melt “within me” at
the vision . . . The sick heart faints with joy. Despair gives way to gladness.
The poor tortured sufferer
who again and again has looked on the inevitable
death which is waiting for him
as the limit of his days
as the final severer
between himself and his God
rises to the region of a sublime
a rapturous
hope. We dare not write into his words all the “sure and certain hope of a
joyful resurrection
” which the Christian utters; still less that anticipation
of a bodily rising from the grave
of a reclothing of his spirit in flesh
which the passage breathes in the great Latin translation
dear for ages to
Western Christendom. We recognise even in the familiar words of our own older
version
phrases and thoughts which outrun the patriarch’s aspirations
the
patriarch’s faith. But for all that
when we have stripped the passage of all
that is adventitious--all that even unconsciously imports into its framework
the ideas and faith of another and later age--we still hear the cry of the saint
of the old world
as he stands face to face with the King of Terrors; “Though
my outward man decay and perish
yet God shall reveal Himself to me
to my true
self.” He plants
as it has been well said
the flag of triumph on his own
grave. And his words
in one form or another
have lived longer than he looked
for. They will outlive the scroll for which he sighed
the very rock on which
just now he wished to see them engraved. (Dean Bradley.)
The hope of restoration
Trans. thus
“For I know
that my Goel lives
and (my) Vindicator will arise upon the earth.” The
Fathers
both Oriental
and Occidental
regarded this passage as a proof text
not only of the imortality of the soul
but also of the resurrection of the
body. Some even saw in it a conclusive proof of the divinity of Christ. This
view prevailed through the Middle Ages. But this interpretation is now
generally rejected by critics and commentators
though it was at one time
almost universal. Two views need to be considered.
I. Job hoped for
restoration in this life. This view has never been popular. Some scholars
support it on the following grounds:--
1. The language requires such an interpretation.
2. Whatever there is in the passage which can be applied to a
resurrection body
can also be referred with equal force to a restored body in
this life.
3. If this passage refers to a future life
it is strange that this
glorious doctrine is not more fully presented: Elihu passes it over in silence.
Not a word is to be found regarding it in the sublime discourses of the
Almighty.
4. The question of restoration to the favour of God in another
existence is not even incidentally raised.
5. There is no force in the assertion often made that we cannot limit
Job’s expectation for deliverance to this life without lowering the evidence
and power of his faith. This is mere rhetoric. Instead of his faith being
lowered
it is enhanced.
6. It would have been more satisfactory to Job to have been delivered
from the unjust charges laid against him
and to have been justified by the
Almighty
who could not err
in the presence of his friends and acquaintances
on the very scene of the conflict here on earth.
7. Certainly this would have been of more advantage to Job’s
contemporaries
for whom the new revelation was intended.
8. The denouement
or final issue
favours this view.
II. Job did not
expect deliverance in this life
bit in a disembodied state
after death. The
following arguments for this view have been adduced.
1. This is evident from the plain meaning of the text. The two
clauses in verse 26 are not antithetic
for the second has the same thought as
the first
and must read
“And after my skin is thus destroyed
and without my
flesh (body) I shall see God.” After my skin
without my flesh
and dust
are
parallelistic equivalents.
2. That Job did not expect deliverance in this life is also shown by
his desire to have his protestations of innocency engraved on the rock forever.
3. That Job expected no restoration here on earth is clear from his
own words in other portions of the book . . . After carefully weighing the
arguments pro and con
we are forced to the conclusion that Job
expected restoration in this life. This is the most natural interpretation. It
also accords with the development of doctrine in the Old Testament
for it is
an intermediate step between Mosaism and Christianity in regard to suffering
and retribution in this life. And in accepting this view
no one is forced to
the conclusion that Job had no hope or knowledge of immortality
but only that the
future life is not referred to in this passage. (W. W. Davis
Ph. D.)
Precious experience
I. The highest
form of knowledge is the consciousness that we have a Redeemer.
1. This is the knowledge which diminishes the distance between us and
God. Whatever else sin may be
it is the estrangement of the soul from the
source of all its joys. Sin has made us to be “far off” from God. He is denied
His place in thought. He is excluded from the counsels of the will. His own
monitor--conscience--is indifferent to His presence. The heart has sought the
fellowship of other lovers
but they all have left “an aching void
” which
cries
“Neither is there any daysman betwixt us
that might lay his hand upon
us both.” This has been attempted by many. Prophets
priests
and kings
stretched their hands upwards towards God
and downwards towards man
but their
arms were too short. Philosophers
moralists
and philanthropists have
endeavoured to fill the gulf
and pave the way for the contending parties to
approach each other
they also have all disappeared in that awful chasm. But
there is “One Mediator between God and men
the man Christ Jesus.” Have we felt
the reconciling touch of His hand? “I know that my Redeemer liveth
” is the
only answer.
2. This is the knowledge which removes all differences. We cannot
meet God
we cannot enjoy God
with the burden of guilt on our soul. The voice
of justice in heaven cries against us; the voice of conscience within is not
less in its denunciation.
3. This is the knowledge which restores the full harmony between us
and the Father. There is no other platform from which we may survey the whole
situation.
II. That the
highest form of consciousness is faith in a living saviour. “My Redeemer
liveth.” If we possibly can
let us bring the text to a nearer touch of our
life. One of the functions of faith is to convert historical Christianity into
a living power in the soul
by enacting the life of Jesus in our own.
1. The living Redeemer is the life of faith. Faith leans on a living
bosom
and draws its comfort from a living heart.
2. The living Redeemer is the stay of faith. The Hebrew Goel was the
next-of-kin who avenged his brother’s wrongs
and redeemed his life and
property. Our Saviour is that next-of-kin who watches over our affairs
and
will see that justice is done. Remember
brethren
He is the custodian of your
character and reputation. The man who deals a blow at your circumstances
must
meet Jesus
and settle the matter with Him. “Avenge not yourselves
” but “cast
all your care upon Him
for He careth for you.”
3. The living Redeemer is the satisfaction of faith. He who can say
“My Redeemer!” has enough. Things of life are transmissible. The man goes to
his solicitor to have the property he has bought conveyed to him. When it is
done
he says
“I want you to make my will.” Then runs the instrument
“I give
and bequeath
” etc. But “my Redeemer” is not a transitory possession; it abides
the inheritance of the soul forever. Thomas made a noble confession
“My Lord
and my God.”
III. The final
triumph of faith will be the meeting of the saint and the Saviour. “Whom I
shall see
” etc. Faith will launch her bark into the sea of His presence.
1. Your rights will be vindicated
and all your trials explained. A
light will be thrown on all the difficult passages in your life. Faith said all
the time that His judgments are righteous and true; you will understand that
then. That day will be a commentary on all the chapters of life
for “the day
will reveal it.”
2. Immediate communion with Jesus. In that day they will all turn
aside
and our eyes will feast on the beatific vision
for “we shall see Him as
He is.” These eyes
which have wept many times
shall see Him in the clear
light of heaven. Thank you
a thousand times
ye noble prophets and apostles
for your beautiful photos of Him
now we see Jesus Himself.
3. Faith will realise all anticipations and hopes. What is your
ruling passion; is it Poetry? Then the muse will be on the heights of
Parnassus
Music? The melody of the cross will have attracted all the harmonies
of the universe to itself. Beauty? The rose of Sharon will be there. Life? Live
on. Regarding the wonderful utterance in the text in the light of the
circumstances in which the patriarch was placed
we have here a marvellous
picture of faith. In the presence of such a faith
shall we allow ours to fret
and fear in the face of small difficulties? Put all the difficulties and
sufferings of your life by the side of those endured by the patriarch
and they
will pale and die. However
we may not be the strong men in faith that his
stature would suggest. Look to your Goel. (T. Davies
M. A.)
The living Redeemer
Schultens suggests that
the patriarch
in the previous verses
refers to an inscription upon a
sepulchral stone. Job relies upon God for his ultimate and full vindication.
Expecting to go down to the grave under the reproach of guilt
he would have it
engraven upon the stone at the door of his sepulchre
that his trust was in his
Redeemer.
I. The meaning of
the term Redeemer
as applied to our Lord Jesus Christ. The word Goal has two
significations. One
to be stained or polluted with blood; the other
to
ransom
redeem
or purchase back. The duties of a Redeemer among the Jews
included--delivering a kinsman out of captivity by force or ransom; and to buy
him out when his liberty had been forfeited by debt
buying back an inheritance
that had passed out of the hands of a poorer kinsman; advocating the right of
those who were too weak to sustain their own cause. All these offices of the
Redeemer
the Lord Jesus was fitted to sustain
and has executed
or will
execute for us. To become our Redeemer He became our kinsman. Three principal
things are intended by Christ’s title of Redeemer.
1. Atonement or satisfaction made to the Divine law in behalf of His
people.
2. Deliverance and salvation of His people from all their enemies and
difficulties.
3. The securing for them an eternal inheritance of life and
blessedness.
II. The excellence
of the Lord Jesus as a living Redeemer. He whom Job knew to be his Redeemer is
the only-begotten Son of God in whom we trust. The excellency of Christ as our
living Redeemer is seen in His resurrection
in His power
and in His glory. (Geo.
W. Bethune
D. D.)
Job’s knowledge and
triumph
I. A Redeemer is
provided for sinners of mankind. This important truth Job plainly avows
in the
solemn profession of his faith which he makes in the text. The character of
Redeemer is
with peculiar propriety
ascribed to God our Saviour. That He
might obtain complete eternal redemption for us
in the fulness of time
God
sent forth His own Son
made of a woman
made under the law. Never was there
such a glorious Redeemer as God manifest in the flesh. Never was such a price
paid for redemption as the precious blood of Christ. He redeems us from all
evil.
II. He is an
ever-living Redeemer
who has accomplished our redemption. It is not said
the
Redeemer hath lived
or shall live
but that “He liveth.” He is without
beginning of days or end of life; the “same yesterday
today
and forever.” As
God
He liveth forever and ever. As Redeemer
He is called a Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world
in the purpose and promise of God.
III. The living
Redeemer shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Lit.
“He shall stand
the last upon the earth.” He will again stand upon the earth
or over the
earth
as the words may signify. He will come in glory
to raise the dead
bodies of His people
and to judge the world in righteousness.
IV. The redeemed
among men claim relation to their Redeemer. “My Redeemer.” Job expresses the
confidence of a living faith in his intimate relation to the ever-living
Redeemer
in whom he believed and trusted
with the other patriarchs of early
ages.
V. The mortal
bodies of the redeemed shall be consumed
but they shall see God. Though death
doth no more to the soul of man than separate it from the body with which it is
united
yet it entirely demolishes the curious structure of the body. The
mighty Redeemer shall raise all His redeemed ones from the power of the grave.
Their souls
when in the separate state
behold Him with the eyes of the mind;
but after the resurrection they shall behold Him in their flesh with their
bodily eyes.
VI. The knowledge
of all this supports the servants of God under present trials
and the prospect
of death. Job himself was a remarkable instance of the truth of this
observation. (W. M’Culloch.)
Job’s confidence
I. The title under
which Christ is here spoken of. “Redeemer.” Our Redeemer has exceeded in His
work the redeemers among the Jews. All they could do for their murdered
relative was
put to death the murderer.
II. Job speaks of
the Redeemer as living at the time when he spoke. And so He was. “Before
Abraham was
I am
” He said of Himself. There never was a period when He was
not. He was virtually the Redeemer of men
though He had not actually wrought
out their redemption.
III. The personal
interest which Job claims in the Redeemer. Here is no uncertainty or doubt
but
the fullest assurance. A personal interest in Christ is absolutely necessary if
you would be saved.
IV. An important
truth respecting the future manifestation of the Redeemer. The time of the
advent is sometimes called the “last time
” the latter
or last
days. It is
however
more probable that the words of Job refer to the second coming of
Christ
which will be literally the latter or last day.
V. The blessed
hope which the patriarch indulges. He refers to the inevitable lot of man at
death. But we shall yet live again. Job could say
“In my flesh I shall see
God.” When he should see God
he would learn the purpose of his affliction.
Then his character would be cleared of the aspersions which had been cast upon
it. Job’s confidence that he should see God would be a source of joy
inasmuch
as to see God is heaven itself. (W. Cardall
B. A.)
Job’s confession
It regards--
I. The promised
saviour. It speaks of Him--
1. As a Redeemer. A title peculiarly applicable to the Lord Jesus.
2. As a living Redeemer. Which applies to that grand and consolatory
truth
the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. The words may
however
refer to His divinity rather than His resurrection.
3. As a Redeemer in whom he had a peculiar interest. His Redeemer in
particular. “My Redeemer liveth.”
4. As a Redeemer who would stand at the latter day upon the earth.
This may refer to the incarnation
but it must also refer to the great
resurrection.
II. Job’s own
joyful resurrection from the dead.
1. How he dwells on the effects which would be produced by death on
his bodily frame.
2. How
in defiance of every difficulty which might obstruct or
hinder it
he yet expressed his assured hope of a joyful resurrection.
We have here the views of
this ancient believer respecting--
1. The resurrection of the body. The body
after the resurrection
would be true flesh
not a spirit
thin and subtle as the air
as some have
vainly imagined. At the resurrection he would receive the very same body which
he had on earth. The nature of that happiness to which the servant of God
after his resurrection
would be admitted
is indicated. It was the beatific
vision of that God and Saviour in whose presence is fulness of joy. But those
only will thus see Him who have received Him here as their Redeemer
by a faith
which purifies the heart
overcometh the world
worketh by love
and
maintaineth good works. (John Natt
B. D.)
Realising the second
advent
The hardest
severest
last lesson which man has to learn upon the earth
is submission to the will of
God. All that saintly experience ever had to teach resolves itself into this
the lesson how to say
affectionately
“Not as I will
but as Thou wilt.”
Slowly and stubbornly our hearts acquiesce in that. The earliest record that we
have of this struggle in the human bosom is found in this Book of Job. In the
rough rude ages when Job lived
when men did not dwell on their feelings as in
later centuries
the heart-work of religion was manifestly the same earnest
passionate thing that it is now. What is the Book of Job but the record of an
earliest soul’s perplexities? The double difficulty of life solved there
the
existence of moral evil--the question whether suffering is a mark of wrath or
not. Job appealed from the tribunal of man’s opinion to a tribunal where
sincerity shall be cleared and vindicated. He appealed from the dark dealings
of a God whose way it is to hide Himself
to a God who shall stand upon this
earth in the clear radiance of a love on which suspicion itself cannot rest a
doubt. It was faith straining through the mist
and discerning the firm land
that is beyond.
I. The certainty
of God’s interference in the affairs of this world.
1. A present superintendence. The first truth contained in that is
God’s personal existence. It is not chance
nor fate
which sits at the wheel
of this world’s revolutions. It is a living God. To be religious is to feel
that God is the “ever-near.” Faith is that strange faculty by which man feels
the presence of the invisible. We must not throw into these words of Job a
meaning which Job had not
Job was an Arabian Emir
not a Christian. All that
Job meant was
that he knew he had a Vindicator in God above. At last God
Himself would interfere to prove his innocence. God has given us
for our faith
to rest on
something more distinct and tangible than He gave to Job.
2. The second truth implied in the personal existence of a Redeemer
is sympathy. It was the keenest part of Job’s trial that no heart beat pulse to
pulse with his. In the midst of this it seems to have risen upon his heart with
a strange power
to soothe
that he was not alone. Note the little word of
appropriation
My Redeemer. Power is shown by God’s condescension to the vast;
sympathy by His condescension to the small.
3. The third thing implied in the present superintendence is God’s
vindication of wrongs. The word translated here
Redeemer
is one of peculiar
signification. Job was professing his conviction that there was a champion or
an avenger
who would one day do battle for his wrongs.
4. There is a future redress of human wrongs
which will be made
manifest to sight. There will be a visible
personal interference. If we use
his words
we must apply them in a higher sense. The second Advent of Christ is
supposed by some to mean an appearance of Jesus in the flesh to reign and
triumph visibly. But every signal manifestation of the right and vindication of
the truth in judgment
is called in Scripture a coming of the Son of Man. The
visual perception of His form would be a small blessing; the highest and truest
presence is always spiritual
and realised by the spirit.
II. The means of
realising this interference. There is a difference between knowing a thing and
realising it. Job knew that God was the vindicator of wrongs. It was true
but
to Job it was strange
and shadowy
and unfamiliar. Two ways are suggested for
realising these things. One is meditation. No man forgets what the mind has
dwelt long on. You can scarcely read over Job’s words without fancying them the
syllables of a man who was thinking aloud. The other is this--God ensures that
His children shall realise all these things by affliction. If ever a man is
sincere
it is when he is in pain. There are many things which nothing but
sorrow can teach us. Sorrow is the realiser. (F. W. Robertson
M. A.)
A spiritual deliverance
In these remarkable words
Job was not anticipating a mere temporal deliverance from his afflictions
but
expressing his confidence in a higher deliverance
connected with another state
of being
and involving his immortal happiness.
I. The glorious
character he contemplates. A “Redeemer.” The word is used of the Blood Avenger
(Goel) of ancient times. The title of “Redeemer” is used by the prophets as an
appellation of Jehovah
and with peculiar adaptation it is appropriated to the
Lord Jesus Christ
in whom
it is stated
we have redemption. With propriety
and force the Mediator between God and man is invested with the name of our
“Redeemer.” The Mediator was unquestionably the revealed and acknowledged
object of faith and hope in patriarchal ages. The future Messiah was the being
now contemplated by Job when he spoke of a Redeemer.
II. The important
truths he states. The first refers to the actual state of the Redeemer
--He
“liveth
” or “is now living.” To His being
no commencement
however remote
can be assigned. We conceive that the patriarch was now rendering a specific
ascription to Him
as essentially “the living One
” and was acknowledging Him
in that attribute of absolute eternity which furnishes so immovable a basis for
the confidence and joy of the saints throughout every period of the world. The
second of these truths refers to the future manifestation of the Redeemer. “He
shall stand (arise) at the latter day upon (over) the earth.” We consider this
a prediction of the last day. The clause means
“He shall arise in triumph over
the ruins of mortality.” From the certainty of that event
Divine truth derives
the appropriateness and the efficacy of its appeals. In what manner
and with
what feelings
do you look towards the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ?
III. The personal
hope Job indulges. These remarkable words are strong affirmations of a personal
interest in the grace and redemption of Him who at the latter day is to appear
in His glory as the Judge; and are an anticipation of eternal happiness then to
be awarded and enjoyed. The expressions furnish several remarks.
1. Death must be uniformly suffered before the happiness of true
believers can be completed.
2. On the arrival of “the latter day
” the bodies of believers will
be raised in a state refined and glorified.
3. Believers
in their state of restoration
will enjoy the presence
and friendship of God forever.
IV. The absolute
confidence Job asserts. “I know.” These expressions of certainty by the
patriarch arose from no equivocal impulse. We who are now numbered among the
heirs of promise
tell to the world that we have the same confidence too. “We
know in whom we have believed.” (J. Parsons.)
The faith and expectation
of the Patriarch Job
1. The glorious character ascribed to Jesus Christ. Redeemer. Goel.
Christ became our Blood-relation
our kinsman after the flesh
and as such the
right of redemption devolved upon Him. This right He exercises.
1. By redeeming our forfeited inheritance of eternal life.
2. By redeeming us from the slavery of sin.
3. He avenges the blood of His people on their murderer Satan.
II. Christ is the
“Living One
” possessing life in Himself
and being the source of life to those
whom He came to redeem. As God
this is a title peculiarly appropriate to Him
for He possesses independent and eternal life. His existence as our Redeemer is
from everlasting to everlasting.
III. This living
Redeemer would at some future period make His appearance on the earth. The
resurrection of the dead is an event reserved for the second appearance of our
Redeemer at the last day. Notice the assured confidence with which the
patriarch interests himself in this living Redeemer
who was to stand at the
latter day upon the earth. He uses the language of appropriation
“My
Redeemer.” He infers the completion of his own redemption by Christ raising him
from the dead
and permitting him to enjoy the beatific vision of God. These
sublime truths are peculiarly fitted to comfort the children of God amid all
the sufferings
anxieties
and sorrows of life and death. (Peter Grant.)
The believer’s confidence
in the dominion of Christ after death
I. The subjection
of the body to the dominion of death. Man is composed of body and soul. Die we
must.
II. The subjection
of death to the dominion of Christ. Jesus came to destroy death; He will come
to complete His work. The resurrection of the dead will be universal.
III. The character
in which Christ will assert His dominion. Redeemer.
1. There was infinite love in the price of redemption.
2. There is omnipotent power in the application of this work.
3. There will be immutable fidelity in the completion of this work.
What a source of consolation in all the changes
troubles
and bereavements of
the world.
IV. The final
triumph of Christ over death will constitute the final happiness of all the
redeemed. The text admits of two senses.
1. I shall see God my Redeemer in this my body.
2. I shall see God in my flesh
i.e. in that flesh which He
assumed to become my Redeemer. (Edward Parsons.)
The staying power of
certitudes
Job’s triumphant assertion
of his confidence in God is deservedly ranked as the most important passage in
all his discourses. The flukes of his anchor have taken bold of the immovable
Rock of Ages; and the rage of the tempest
and the dashing waves and the
heaving sea
cannot tear his vessel from its moorings. Held by the strong grasp
of the invisible
he can defy all that is visible
and on the surface; and
Satan’s most furious assaults have no power to dislodge him
or unsettle his
well-grounded persuasion. My Redeemer shall arise last. Job and his friends had
been contending first. My Redeemer shall arise last; and He shall enter latest
on the scene. And He shall settle the matter unresisted
in His own way. And
this shall be the final settlement of this muchdisputed case. And none shall
come after Him to change what He has done. Abraham saw Christ’s day; and Job
rejoiced to see Christ’s day; and he was glad. It was the seed of Abraham to
whom the “Father of the faithful” looked forward. It was his Divine Redeemer
that gladdened the believing soul of the man of Uz. (William H. Green
D. D.)
Certitude
The sceptic beholds his
misgivings multiply and his doubts thicken. The believer as a rule sees them
all vanish. Schiller
the great German thinker
goes to his study
sits down as
usual to his desk
writes with that masterly ability which distinguished him
begins a new sentence
writes the word “But”--and then dies. The great
advocates of Scepticism always die with a doubt
expire with a “But.” The
Christian
however
grows in faith as he approaches death. “I know
that”--in my flesh
etc. Christ mine:--Dean Stanley tells us that Dr.
Arnold used to make his boys say
“Christ died for me
” instead of the more
general phrase
“Christ died for us.” “He appeared to me
” says one whose intercourse
with him never extended beyond these lessons
“to be remarkable for his habit
of realising everything that we are told in Scripture.” (Life of Dr. Arnold.)
Natural tendencies to
dissolution
There is in every living
organism a law of death. We are wont to imagine that Nature is full of life. In
reality it is full of death. One cannot say it is natural for a plant to live.
Examine its nature fully
and you have to admit that its natural tendency is to
die. It is kept from dying by a mere temporary endowment
which gives it an
ephemeral dominion over the elements--gives it power to utilise for a brief
span the rain
the sunshine
and the air. Withdraw this temporary endowment for
a moment and its true nature is revealed. Instead of overcoming Nature it is
overcome. The very things which appeared to minister to its growth and beauty
now turn against it and make it decay and die. The sun which warmed it withers
it; the air and rain which nourished it rot it. It is the very forces which we
associate with life which
when their true nature appears
are discovered to be
really the ministers of death. (H. Drummond.)
The law of justice
universal and unfailing
Whence came our sense of
justice? We can only say from Him who made us. He gave us such a nature as cannot
be satisfied nor find rest till an ideal of justice
that is of acted truth
is
framed in our human life
and everything possible done to realise it. Upon this
acted truth all depends
and till it is reached we are in suspense . . .
Justice there is in every matter. The truthfulness of nature at every point in
the physical range is a truthfulness of the over-nature to the mind of man
a
correlation established between physical and spiritual existence. Wherever
order and care are brought into view there is an exaltation of the human
reason
which perceives and relates. Is it of importance that each of the gases
shall have laws of diffusion and combination
shall act according to those
laws
unvaryingly affecting vegetable and animal life? Unless those laws
wrought in constancy or equity at every moment
all would be confusion. Is it
of importance that the bird
using its wings adapted for flight
shall find an
atmosphere in which their exercise produces movement? Here again is an equity
which enters into the very constitution of the cosmos
which must be a form of
the one supreme law of the cosmos. Once more
is it of importance that the
thinker should find sequences and relations
when once established
a sound
basis for prediction and discovery
that he shall be able to trust himself on
lines of research
and feel certain that
at every point
for the instrument of
inquiry there is answering verity? Without this correspondence man would have
real place in evolution
he would flutter an aimless unrelated sensitiveness
through a storm of physical incidents. Advance to the most important facts of
mind
the moral ideas which enter into every department of thought. Does the
fidelity already traced now cease? Is man at this point beyond the law of
faithfulness? This life may terminate before the full revelation of sight is
made; it may leave the good in darkness and the evil flaunting in pride; the
believer may go down to shame
and the Atheist have the last word. Therefore a
future life with judgment in full must vindicate our Creator. No one who lives
to any purpose or thinks with any sincerity can miss in the course of his life
one hour at least in which he shares the tragical contest
and adds the cry of
his own soul to that of Job
his own hope to that of ages that are gone
straining to the Goel who under
takes for every servant of God
“I know that
my Redeemer liveth
” etc. (R. A. Watson
D. D.)
In my flesh shall I see God.--
The general resurrection
Now
this clause of our
text has been understood by the Church of Christ throughout all ages
as
expressing Job’s assurance of the general resurrection of the body at the last
day
and such appears to be the plain
straightforward meaning of the passage.
Others
however
seem to think that Job
in these words
refers only to a
metaphorical resurrection
that is
a restoration to his former happiness and
prosperity. But if he expected such a resurrection
then his constantly longing
for the approach of death
as his only hope of relief
seems totally
inexplicable. It was under these circumstances of accumulated affliction that
Job uttered the words of the text. How strong is faith--how rich the
consolations of religion--how powerful that Divine influence which raised the
spirit of the patriarch superior to the ills of her earthly tabernacle
and
while
in near vision
contemplating the approach of “the last enemy
”
illumined and quickened by the Sun of Righteousness
to record her feelings
and embody her prospects. “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” The true state of the
case is here--Job looks toward the period when he should become a tenant of the
house appointed for all living
as the due of his sorrows; and his grief was
that he should sink into the grave in the estimation of his fellows as one
punished by God for his hypocrisy; but his joy was that there would be a
general resurrection of the body
which would be followed by a general
judgment
when the shades should be removed from his character--and that
character presented in its own unblemished rectitude. We say
then
that in the
text
Job directs our attention to the general resurrection. “In my flesh shall
I see God.” Now
unless Job’s body were remoulded
the statement in the text
could not be realised. Man was at first created with body and soul
and he will
live so throughout all eternity. The fact itself is certain; but how it shall
be brought about we do not know. Our bodies will then undergo some change. Our
bodies now are adapted to an earthly state; but the resurrection body will be
adapted to the heavenly state. These bodies will undergo many general changes;
this corruptible will put on incorruption; this mortal will put on immortality;
this dishonour will put on glory; this weakness will put on power
and so
forth. These bodies will undergo many particular changes; all blemishes
all
deformities
will be done away; all varieties
arising from climate
from
employment
from disease
and so on
will doubtless be done away. Now
doubtless
this will be met by a corresponding change in the conformation of
our bodies. Our bodies will then be made of imperishable materials. But
amid
all these changes
our bodies will be essentially the same; fashioned after the
glorious body of our ascended Lord and Master. Yes
when the archangel’s trump
shall sound
in the plenitude of omnipotence
these bodies which have long
reposed in the noiseless chambers of the grave
will rise
from their dusty
beds
superior to disease and death. Run in the same mould as that of Jesus
Christ--they will be adorned with living splendour--splendour and honour
surpassing the brightness of the noonday sun
and shall continue co-existent
with the ages of eternity. At this glorious period our bodies will be exempt
from those diseases which now desolate our world. We say
such a remoulding of
the fabric which sin has dissolved and destroyed
Job anticipated in the words
of the text; but he looked forward to another event
namely
the general
judgment. “And though
after my skin
worms destroy this body
yet in my flesh
shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself
and mine eyes shall behold
and
not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” The meaning of these
words
“Whom I shall see for myself
” is
I shall stand before His throne; I
shall plead my own cause; I shall be able to tell my own tale
and shall
receive from His hands a righteous reward. Now I am misrepresented by my
friends; now I am misconceived by my relatives; now I am treated as a hypocrite
by those of my own household. But a period is coming when I shall stand before the
bar of the Omniscient
when these clouds shall be dissipated by the brightness
of His appearance
and I shall appear before an assembled world--before angels
and before the spirits of just men made perfect
as the sincere and devoted
servant of the Most High. This
doubtless
had been a source of much
consolation and comfort to the patriarch
and would doubtless throw a kind of
calm over his troubled bosom when he thought of the day of restitution that was
coming. That day when he should see God on his side
not estranged
but as his
friend. This is often a source of much joy to Christians in general. It not
unfrequently happens that clouds of calumny overhang their character; often are
their actions and motives misconceived by their own Christian friends; often
are they misrepresented by the wicked and ungodly; but it should be a source of
joy to them that their record is on high--their testimony is with God; they
should not indulge a principle of revenge
but live like men having in prospect
the period of accounts
when all men shall receive according to the deeds done
in the body. (S. Hulme.)
Job and the resurrection
of the body
That God refrained from
uttering to the ancient world the promise of the resurrection is easily
understood. Many other important truths
cardinal truths
accepted by the
modern world and necessary to its life and movement
were withheld
and for the
same reason. The average human mind
even among His chosen people
was too
simple
feeble
and benighted to appreciate thoughts so transcendent and
refined. But this reason did not apply to a mind and soul like those of Job.
The mountain tops catch the glory of the coming sunlight long before it strikes
the levels below. We know that God did reveal it to Moses when
in the solitude
and silence of the wilderness
He spoke from the burning bush. Why should He
not reveal it to Job
His servant
His worshipper
His faithful friend
who was
fighting his forlorn battle with the foes
as it were
“of his own household
”
with the torment of his body and the anguish of his soul? (D. H. Bolles.)
Vision of God
There is a sense in which
reason and the Bible assure us God cannot be seen. He is the Unapproachable
the Invisible. There is a solemn sense in which He can be seen
and in which He
must be seen sooner or later. We make three remarks concerning this soul
vision--
I. It implies the
highest capability of a moral creature. The power to see the sublime forms of
the material universe
is a high endowment. The power to see truth and to look
into “the reason of things
” is a higher endowment far; but the power to see
God
is the grandest of all faculties. To see Him who is the cause of all
phenomena
the life of all lives
the force of all forces
the spirit and
beauty of all forms
--this faculty the human soul has. Depravity
alas! has so
closed it generally that there are none in their unregenerate state who see
God. Jacob said
“God is in this place and I knew it not.”
II. It involves the
sublimest privilege of a moral creature. “Blessed are the pure in heart
for
they shall see God.” “In Thy presence is fulness of joy.”
III. It includes the
inevitable destiny of a moral creature. All souls must be brought into
conscious contact with Him
sooner or later “we must all appear before His
judgment seat.” Every soul must open its eye and so fasten it upon Him that He
will appear everything to it
and all things else but shadows. The period of
atheism
religious indifferentism
ends with our mortal life. (Homilist.)
The sight of God incarnate
The happiness of heaven is
the seeing God; and because our Lord and Saviour is God incarnate
God the Son
made man
by taking to Himself a soul and body such as ours
therefore to see
Christ was
to faithful men
a kind of heaven upon earth
and losing sight of
Him
as they did at His Passion
was like being banished from heaven. Of
course
then
His coming in their sight again was the greatest happiness they
could have. I do not say that St. John
St. Mary Magdalene
and the rest
were
all of them at the time fully aware that He whom they had seen die
and whom
they now saw rise again
was the very and eternal God. They probably came by
slow degrees
some at one time
some at another
to the full knowledge of that
astonishing truth. But thus much they knew for certain
that they could not be
happy without seeing Him. The sight of God was the very blessing which Adam
forfeited in Paradise
and which poor fallen human nature
so far as it was not
utterly corrupt
has ever been feeling after and longing for. The holy men before
the time of our Lord’s first coming in the flesh
looked on
by faith
to the
happiness of seeing God. But the apostles
and those who were about Him when He
came
actually had that happiness. They enjoyed in their life time that
privilege which Job had to wait for till he came to the other world. In their
flesh they saw God. Some of them even touched God
and handled Him with their
hands. When they knew He was risen
it was their life and joy
the light of
their eyes
and their soul’s delight
their comfort
their hope
and their all
come back again after seeming to be lost. This is why Easter was so bright a
day to them. After forty days
He promised to send His Holy Spirit
which
should make Him really
though invisibly
nearer to them than He had been as
yet. Upon the faith of this promise we and all Christians even now live
and if
we have not forfeited our baptismal blessings
are happy. But our happiness is
so far dim and imperfect
in that we do not as yet see Christ. The apostles saw
Christ
but were not yet members of His body; we are members of His body
but
do not yet see Him. These two things
which are now separated
are to be united
in the other world; and
being united
they will make us happy forever. Behold
He has mixed up the account of His resurrection
so awful to sinners
with the
most affecting tokens of His mercy. From the moment of His rising to the hour
of His ascension
He is never weary of giving them signs
by which they might
know Him
however glorified
to be the same mild and merciful Jesus
the same
Son of Man
whom they had known so well on earth. Think not that our Master’s
condescending grace in all these things was confined to those disciples only.
Surely it reaches to us
and to as many as believe on Him through the apostles’
word. Though He be at the right hand of God
His human body and soul are there
with Him
and all His brotherly pity for the lost children of men
and tender
fellow feeling towards those who stand afar off and smite upon their breast.
All these blessings of our Lord’s presence are sealed and made sure to us with
the promise of the Holy Ghost
which makes us members of Him
in His baptism
first
and afterwards in the holy communion. (Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts
for the Times.”)
Job’s idea of resurrection
The question asked
concerning this passage is
does it refer to the Messiah
and to the
resurrection of the dead; or to an expectation which Job had
that God would
come forth as his vindicator in some such way as He is declared afterwards to have
done?
1. Arguments which would be adduced to show that the passage refers
to the Messiah
and to the resurrection from the dead.
2. The weighty arguments showing that the passage does not refer to
the Messiah and the resurrection.
Verse 28
But ye should say
Why persecute we him?
Toleration of intolerance
One of the hardest things in this world is
for the tolerant to
have to tolerate intolerance
for the liberal to have to endure illiberality
for the charitable to have to put up with bigotry. We can conceive of an
intolerant person being vexed by the intolerance of others; but it is because
their intolerance is not of the same kind as his own. To the abettors of particular
theological tenets
and the adherents of particular religious systems
such
terms as intolerance
illiberality
and uncharitableness
convey no meaning.
With them there are no such things. According to their notions
you cannot be
too intolerant
so long as you are orthodox; nor too illiberal
so long as you
are correct; nor too uncharitable
so long as you are on the right side; which
singularly enough
usually happens to be the strong side. Intolerance
in their
eyes
is nothing but consistency. It is hard to have to tolerate intolerance.
This is what the patriarch had to do
throughout and in addition to the sore
calamities permitted by the Almighty to fall upon him. It was a case in which
anyone might well have cried
“Save me from my friends.” The book is filled
with the recriminations of the friends on one side
and the remonstrances of
Job on the other. But the cause pleaded by the patriarch was the cause of
humanity at large
against Jewish and every other form of intolerance If you
see a man bearing good fruits in his life
knowing somewhat of himself and more
of God
--though he may not agree in all points with you
speak as you speak
or
use the forms you use
--do not suspect him
think the worse of him
or
disparage him; but say
rather
to the confusion of all who would do so
“Why
should I persecute him
seeing the root of the matter is found in him?” (Alfred
Bowen Evans.)
Seeing the root of the
matter is found in me.--
The root of the matter
I. What the
patriarch intended by the root that was in him. A root may be employed for any
principle from which effects proceed. Sometimes the metaphor is employed for a
good principle
as in the parable of the sower
where they who withered because
they “had not root
” lacked the good principle from which spiritual life
proceeds. We may find several points of analogy between the principle of faith
in the soul
and the root of any plant or tree which vegetates upon our earth.
1. The root is the menus of stability. So is faith. As the root
balances every plant
from the gigantic oak and the towering cedar
to the
hyssop that grows upon the wall
so faith balances and sustains the soul and
character of the Christian.
2. The root--and faith--are the channels of nourishment. As the
fibrous harts of the root of any plant absorb the moisture which the earth
supplies
so faith receives the Spirit which the Saviour imparts. Thus the idea
of vitality is intimately connected with faith in the rooting of the Divine
Word.
3. Faith is the source of spiritual production. Botanists tell us
that the root performs the part of a tender parent
by preserving the embryo
plant in its bosom; and thus all the stems
and leaves
and petals
and fruit
are found in the root. Here the analogy is very complete; because as the root is
the source of production to the plant
so faith is the source of every other
grace in the soul.
II. How the
patriarch manifested that this boot was in him.
1. By the confession which he uttered. Faith has ever been the parent
of a good confession. Job could say
“I know that my Redeemer liveth.”
2. By the satisfaction he avows. Faith in the Son of God satisfied
his mind under all the desolations.
3. By the disposition he displayed. What was his patience but the
result of faith?
III. What the
patriarch expected. Forbearance and sympathy from his fellow believers. Many of
us greatly err in entertaining uncharitable thoughts
and in using unguarded
words
in reference to them who have “the root of the matter in them.” (J.
Blackburn.)
Faith a root
Faith is the root of that tree whose flower and fruit is
righteousness. Not much fruit is produced without roots. Generally the roots
are hid
but they are always there. Sometimes they are unsightly
but they are
very necessary. He is a foolish gardener who neglects them
or allows beast or
insect to destroy them. So intimate is the relationship existing between belief
and righteousness. This utilitarian age may find fault with the careful culture
of a faith in the unseen
but these roots
so ugly in many eyes
have produced
some luscious fruit. While the world cries out so lustily for the fruits of
pure lives and noble deeds
why should it despise the roots from which the
finest virtues spring? Christian works are no more than animate faith and love
as the flowers are animate spring buds. (J. L. Jackson.)
The root of the matter
What is the meaning of “the root of the matter”? Everything would
seem to depend upon the root; if we go wrong there
we go wrong everywhere. Now
what do we mean by the “root”? Sometimes we talk of a radical cure. It simply
means a root cure; not a cure of symptoms
not an alleviation of pain for the
moment
but going right down to the root. If the root is right
the tree is
worth saving; if the root is right the man is saved. The root is the man. Not
your coat
but your character is you. Oh
if we could look at one another in
the root
there would be ten thousand times better men in the world than we
seem to think there are. But we cannot get men to look at root ideas
root
purposes. Now
the root is you; what you are in the root
that you really are
before God. The root is the verb out of which all the other words come. Here is
the verb; how am I to treat this long verb? Wring its tail off; that is the
first act in true grammar. Take off its tail
throw it away
there is the root
left; that is the thing you have got to deal with. Beware of artificial
qualifications
beware of human certificates
if above it all is not the
signature of God. So the root is the man. Do we always judge so? What do they say
about the man? His “oddities.” Well? His “eccentricities.” Well? His
“infirmities.” That is a little deeper
but not much. What of it? His
“peculiarities”--what of them? You have said nothing yet; that is not
criticism. What is the man’s purpose in life? Talk of that. “Oh
so good!” Then
that is the man
and why should you and I talk about his whimsicalities and his
oddities? Here is a man about whom they say
“You would mark
I am sure
his
want of polish; you would see that there was a great deal of gaucherie about
his whole air and manner.” Yes
I saw that. “You observed that he was not
metropolitan in his bearing
that there was a good deal of the agricultural
districts about him.” Yes
there was a good deal of the agricultural districts
about him. Well
what more? Are you going to put me off with that judgment? Oh
tell me what he is in his soul
in his root
in his first idea
in his grandest
aspiration. That is the man; that is how God judges us. And here is a man about
whom they say
“He made a great many slips
you know.” Yes
he did. What shall
we do with him? Will you say? Why do you not tell me about his truthfulness? We
are to be judged by our truthfulness
which is permanent
constant
all-pervasive
and not by our accidental alightings upon some great truth
and
naming it. Many a man has told the truth occasionally who is not filled with
the spirit of truth. And many men are misunderstood about this matter because
we look for the wrong points of judgment. Many a man is misunderstood through shyness;
he does not do himself justice. And many a man would be better in private life
would do himself more justice
but for timidity
for fear. He wants to be so
good
and so proper in all his outward behaviour and relations
that he
stumbles in the very act of trying excessively to walk uprightly. Do not
misjudge him; tie is a good soul. And many a man is misunderstood by poverty.
He has good judgment
he has a capacious mind
but he has no money
and he
thinks that poverty should slink off into the corner. My aim is to show you
that we must get to the root of a man before we can know what the man is. Look
not upon his outward appearance
but look
as God looks
on his heart. “The
root” means more than it seems to mean at first. It is not the fruit
but it
must bear fruit
or it must be cut up and burned. You cannot have this
wonderful
invisible
inscrutable root in you without having some proof of its
existence; you must grow something good. Now
what is your fruit? Here
again
is the danger of wrong social judgment. There is your whole world’s judgment
upon one another. We are trees of the Lord’s right-hand planting
and I believe
in fruit trees of all kinds. I do not believe in a Christianity so absolutely
hidden that it never makes itself seen or felt or known in any of the outgoing
and action of life. What is the root in a man? Christ
Christ received
personally
officially
atoningly
in all the grandeur and pathos of His
priestly character; not Christ the Example whom I can keep on a shelf
but Christ
the living God that I must hide in my heart if I would have Him at all. Here is
the hope of heterodoxy. It is in the root. You know you are curious in your
view of things
don’t you? Well
but what do you think of Christ? “Oh
I love
Him. Lord
Thou knowest all things
Thou knowest that I love Thee.” But do you
really and truly love Him? “Yes.” Then you are orthodox. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The root of the matter
I take up the expressive figure of our text to address myself to
those who evidently have the grace of God embedded in their hearts
though they
put forth tittle blossom and bear little fruit; that they may be consoled
if
so be there is clear evidence that at least the root of the matter is found in
them.
I. Our first aim
then will be to speak of those things which are essential to true godliness in
contrast
or
I might better say
in comparison with other things which are to
be regarded as shoots rather than as root and groundwork. The tree can do
without some of its branches
though the loss of them might be an injury; but
it cannot live at all without its roots: the roots are essential. And thus
there are things essential in the Christian religion. There are essential
doctrines
essential experiences
and there is essential practice.
1. With regard to essential doctrines. It is very desirable for us to
be established in the faith. But we are ever ready to confess that there are
many doctrines which
though exceedingly precious
are not so essential but
that a person may be in a state of grace and yet not receive them. A man with
weak eyesight and imperfect vision may be able to enter into the kingdom of
heaven; indeed
it is better to enter there having but one eye
than
having
two eyes and being orthodox in doctrine
to be cast into hell fire. But there
are some distinct truths of revelation that are essential. The doctrine of the
Trinity we must ever look upon as being one of the roots of the matter. A
Gospel without belief in the living and true God--Trinity in Unity
and Unity
in Trinity--is a rope of sand. As well hope to make a pyramid stand upon its
apex as to make a substantial Gospel when the real and personal Deity of the
Father
the Son
and the Holy Ghost is left as a meet or disputed point.
Likewise essential is the doctrine of the vicarious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Any bell that does not ring sound on that point had better be melted
down directly. So
again
the doctrine of justification by faith is one of the
roots of the matter.
2. Turning to another department of my subject; there are certain
root matters in reference to experience. It is a very happy thing to have a
deep experience of one’s own depravity. It may seem strange
but so it is
a
man will scarcely ever have high views of the preciousness of the Saviour who
has not also had deep views of the evil of his own heart. High houses
you
know
need deep foundations. Yet die you must
before you can be made partaker
of resurrection. This much
however
I will venture to say
you may be really a
child of God
and yet the plague of your own heart may be but very little
understood. You must know something of it
for no man ever did or ever will
come to Christ unless he has first learned to loathe himself
and to see that
in him
that is in his flesh
there dwelleth no good thing. It is a happy
thing
too
to have an experience which keeps close to Christ Jesus; to know
what the word “communion” means
without needing to take down another man’s
biography. But though all this be well
remember it is not essential. It is not
a sign that you are not converted because you cannot understand what it is to
sit under His shadow with great delight. You may have been converted
and yet
hardly have come so far as that. Now what is the root of the matter
experimentally? Well
I think the real root of it is what Job has been talking
about in the verses preceding the text--“I know
” saith he
“that my Redeemer
liveth.” There must be in connection with this the repentance of sin
but this
repentance may be far from perfect
and thy faith in Christ may he far from
strong; if Christ Jesus be thine only comfort
thy help
thy hope
thy trust
then understand
this is the root of the matter.
3. Did I not say that there was a root of the matter practically?
Yes
and I would to God that we all practically had the branches and the
fruits. These will come in their season
and they must come
if we are Christ’s
disciples; but nobody expects to see fruit on a tree a week after it has been
planted. It is very desirable that all Christians should be full of zeal. The
real root of the matter practically is this--“One thing I know; whereas I was
blind now I see; the things I once loved I now hate; the things I once hated I
love; now it is no more the world
but God; no more the flesh
but Christ; no
more pleasure
but obedience; no more what I will
but what Jesus wills.” There
are those who do certain duties with a conscientious motive
in order to make
themselves Christians--such as observing the Sabbath
holding daily worship of
God in their families
and attending the public services of the Lord’s house
with regularity. But they do not distinguish between these external acts--which
may be but the ornaments that clothe a graceless life
and those fruits of good
living that grow out of a holy constitution
which is the root of genuine
obedience. Some habits and practices of godly men may be easily counterfeited.
You may generally ascertain whether you have got the root of the matter by its
characteristic properties. You know a root is a fixing thing. Plants without
roots may be thrown over the wall; they may be passed from hand to hand; but a
root is a fixed thing. Well
now
if you have got the root of the matter you
are fixed to God
fixed to Christ
fixed to things Divine. If you are tempted
you are not soon carried away. Oh
how many professors there are that have no
roots! Get them into godly company
and they are such saints; but get them with
other company
and what if I say that they are devils! You have no roots unless
you can say
“O God! my heart is fixed
my heart is fixed; by stern resolve and
by firm covenant Thine I am; bind the sacrifice with cords
even unto the horns
of the altar.” Again
a root is not only a fixing thing
but a quickening
thing. What is it that first sets the sap a-flowing in the spring? Why
it is
the root. Ah! and you must have a vital principle; you must have a living
principle. Some Christians are like those toys they import from France
which
have sand in them; the sand runs down
and some little invention turns and
works them as long as the sand is running
but when the sand is all out it
stops. A root
too
is a receiving thing. The botanists tell us a great many
things about the ends of the roots
which can penetrate into the soil hunting
after the particular food upon which the tree is fed. Ah! and if you have got
the root of the matter in you
you will send those roots into the pages of
Scripture
sometimes into a hymn book
often into the sermon
and into God’s
Providence
seeking that something upon which your soul can feed. Hence it
follows that the root becomes a supplying thing
because it is a receiving
thing. We must have a religion that lives upon God
and that supplies us with
strength to live for God.
II. Wherever there
is the root of the matter there is very much ground for comfort. Sounds there
in my ears the sigh
the groan
the sad complaint--“I do not grow as I could
wish; I am not so holy as I want to be; I cannot praise and bless the Lord as I
could desire; I am afraid I am not a fruitful bough whose branches run over the
wall”? Yes
but is the root of the matter in you? If so
cheer up
you have
cause for gratitude. Remember that in some things you are equal to the greatest
and most full-grown Christian. You are as much bought with blood
O little
saints
as are the holy brotherhood. You are as much an adopted child of God as
any other Christian. You are as truly justified
for your justification is not
a thing of degrees. Though “less than nothing I can boast
and vanity confess
”
yet
if the root of the matter be in me
I will rejoice in the Lord
and glory
in the God of my salvation.
III. Wherever the
root of the matter is
there we should take care that we watch it with
tenderness and with love. If you meet with young professors who have the root
of the matter in them
do not begin condemning them for lack of knowledge.
People must begin to say “Twice two are four
” before they can ever come to be
very learned in mathematics. Now I ask you
by way of solemn searching
investigation
Have you the root of the matter in you? (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The substance of true religion
You will always understand a passage of Scripture better if you
carefully attend to its connection. Job in the verse before us is answering
Bildad the Shuhite. Now
this Bildad on two occasions had described Job as a
hypocrite
and accounted for his dire distress by the fact that
though
hypocrites may flourish for a time
they will ultimately be destroyed. In the
two bitter speeches which he made he described the hypocrite under the figure of
a tree which is torn up by the roots
or dies down even to the root. The
inference he meant to draw was this: you
Job
are utterly dried up
for all
your prosperity is gone
and therefore you must be a hypocrite. No
says Job
I
am no hypocrite. I will prove it by your own words
for the root of the matter
is still in me
and therefore I am no hypocrite. Though I admit that I have
lost branch
and leaf
and fruit
and flower
yet I have not lost the root of
the matter
for I hold the essential faith as firmly as ever; and therefore
by
your own argument
I am no hypocrite
and “Ye should say
Why persecute we him
seeing the root of the matter is found in me?” There is a something in true
religion which is its essential root.
I. Our first
thought will be that this root of the matter may be clearly defined. We are not
left in the dark as to what the essential point of true religion is: it can be
laid down with absolute certainty. This is the root of the matter
to believe
in the incarnate God
to accept His headship
to claim His kinship
and to rely
upon His redemption. Still look at the text further
and you perceive that the
root of the matter is to believe that this Kinsman
this Redeemer
lives. We
could never find comfort or salvation in one who had ceased to be.
II. This
fundamental matter is most instructively described by the words which I have so
constantly repeated “the root of the matter.” What does this mean?
1. First
does it not mean that which is essential? “The root of the
matter.” To a tree a root is absolutely essential; it is a mere pole or piece
of timber if there be no root. It can be a tree of a certain sort without
branches
and at certain seasons without leaves
but not without a root. So
if
a man hath faith in the Redeemer
though he may be destitute of a thousand
other most needful things
yet the essential point is settled: he that
believeth in Christ Jesus hath everlasting life.
2. The root
again
is not only that which is vital to the tree
it
is from the root that the life force proceeds by which the trunk and the
branches are nourished and sustained. There is hope of a tree if it be cut down
that it shall sprout again
at the scent of water it shall bud; so long as
there is a root there is more or less of vitality and power to grow
and so
faith in Christ is the vital point of religion; he that believeth liveth.
3. Again
it is called the “root of the matter” because it
comprehends all the rest; for everything is in the root. The holiness of heaven
is packed away in the faith of a penitent sinner. Look at the crocus bulb; it
is a poor
mean
unpromising sort of thing
and yet wrapped up within that
brown package there lies a golden cup
which in the early spring will be filled
with sunshine: you cannot see that wondrous chalice within the bulb; but He who
put it there knows where He has concealed His treasure. The showers and the sun
shall unwrap the enfoldings
and forth shall come that dainty cup to be set
upon God’s great table of nature
as an intimation that the feast of summer is
soon to come. The highest saintship on earth is hidden within the simplicity of
a sinner’s faith.
III. This root of
the matter may be personally discerned as being in a man’s own possession. Job
says to his teasing friends
“Ye should say
Why persecute we him
seeing the
root of the matter is found in me?” Notice the curious change of pronouns. “Ye
should say
Why persecute we him seeing the root of the matter is found in
him?” that is how the words would naturally run. But Job is so earnest to clear
himself from Bildad’s insinuation that he is a hypocrite
that he will not
speak of himself in the third person
but plainly declares
“The root of the
matter is found in me.” Job seems to say
“The vital part of the matter may or
may not be in you
but it is in me
I know. You may not believe me
but I know
it is so
and I tell you to your faces that no argument of yours can rob me of
this confidence; for as I know that my Redeemer liveth
I know that the root of
the matter is found in me.” Many Christian people are afraid to speak in that
fashion. They say
“I humbly hope it is so
and trust it is so.” That sounds
prettily; but is it right? Is that the way in which men speak about their
houses and lands? Do you possess a little freehold? Did I hear you answer
“I
humbly hope that my house and garden are my own”? What
then
are your title
deeds so questionable that you do not know?
1. Note well that sometimes this root needs to be searched for. Job
says
“the root of the matter is found in me
” as if he had looked for it
and
made a discovery of what else had been hidden. Roots generally lie underground
and out of sight
and so may our faith in the Redeemer. I can understand a
Christian doubting whether he is saved or not
but I cannot understand his
being happy while he continues to doubt about it
nor happy at all till he is
sure of it.
2. And note again
the root of the matter in Job was an inward thing.
“The root of the matter is found in me.” He did not say
“I wear the outward
garb of a religious man”; no
but “the root of the matter is found in me.” If
you
my hearers
are in the possession of the essence of true Christianity
it
does not lie in your outward profession. True godliness is not separable from
the godly man; it is woven into him just as a thread enters into the essence
and substance of the fabric.
3. When grace is found in us
and we do really believe in our
Redeemer
we ought to avow it; for Job says
“The root of the mutter is found
in me. I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Are there not some among you who have
never said as much as that?
4. The fact of our having the root of the matter in us will be a
great comfort to us. “Alas
” saith Job
“my servant will not come when I call
him
my wife is strange to me
my kinsfolk fail me
but I know that my Redeemer
liveth. Bildad and Zophar
and others of them
all condemn me
but my
conscience acquits me
for I know that the root of the matter is in me.”
Critics may find fault with our experience
and they may call our earnest
utterances rant
but this will not affect the truth of our conversion
or the
acceptableness of our testimony for Jesus. If the little bird within our bosom
sings sweetly it is of small consequence if all the owls in the world hoot at
us. There is more real comfort in the possession of simple faith than in the
fond persuasion that you are in a high state of grace.
5. This fact also will be your defence against opposers. Thus may you
answer them in Job’s fashion
“You ought not to condemn me; for
though I am
not what I ought to be
or what I want to be
or what I shall be
yet still the
root of the matter is found in me. Be kind to me
therefore.” If our friends
are sincere in their attachment to the Redeemer
let us treat them as our
brethren in Christ.
IV. This root of
the matter is to be tenderly respected by all who see it. “Ye should say
Why
persecute we him
seeing the root of the matter is found in me?”
1. What a rebuke this is to the persecutions which have been carried
on by nominal Christians against each other
sect against sect! How can those
who trust in the same Saviour rend and devour each other? If I believe
and
rest my soul on the one salvation which God has provided in Christ Jesus
have
charity towards me
for this rock will bear both thee and me. This should end
all religious persecutions.
2. But next it ought to be the end of all ungenerous denunciations.
If I know that a man is really believing in Jesus Christ
I may not treat him
as an enemy.
3. Further than this
the question is
“Why persecute we him?” We can
do that by a cold mistrust. Do not let us stand off in holy isolation from any
who have the root of the matter in them. Wherefore should we persecute such? (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Roots give fixity
A root is a fixing thing. Plants without roots may be thrown over
the wall; they may be passed from hand to hand; but a root is a fixing thing.
How firmly the oaks are rooted in the ground. You may think of those old oaks
in the park; ever so far off you have seen the roots coming out of the ground
and then they go in again
and you have said
“Why I what do these thick fibres
belong to?” Surely they belong to one of those old oaks ever so far away. They
had sent that root there to get a good holdfast
so that when the March wind
comes through the forest and other trees are torn up--fir trees
perhaps trees
that have outgrown their strength at the top
while they have too little hold
at bottom--the old oaks bow to the tempest
curtsey to the storm
and anon they
lift up their branches again in calm dignity; they cannot be blown down. Now if
you have got the root of the matter you are fixed
you are fixed to God
fixed
to Christ
fixed to things Divine. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》