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