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Job Chapter
Seventeen
Job 17
Chapter Contents
Job appeals from man to God. (1-9) His hope is not in
life, but in death. (10-16)
Commentary on Job 17:1-9
(Read Job 17:1-9)
Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had
passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our
time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to
spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see the good use the righteous
should make of Job's afflictions from God, from enemies, and from friends.
Instead of being discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage this
faithful servant of God met with, they should be made bold to proceed and
persevere therein. Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end, will keep
their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and
discouragements they may meet with.
Commentary on Job 17:10-16
(Read Job 17:10-16)
Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope
of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those do not go wisely
about the work of comforting the afflicted, who fetch their comforts from the
possibility of recovery in this world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves,
and others, in distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his
love and grace, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life. See how Job
reconciles himself to the grave. Let this make believers willing to die; it is
but going to bed; they are weary, and it is time that they were in their beds.
Why should not they go willingly when their Father calls them? Let us remember
our bodies are allied to corruption, the worm and the dust; and let us seek for
that lively hope which shall be fulfilled, when the hope of the wicked shall be
put out in darkness; that when our bodies are in the grave, our souls may enjoy
the rest reserved for the people of God.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Job》
Job 17
Verse 1
[1] My
breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
The graves — He
speaks of the sepulchres of his fathers, to which he must be gathered. The
graves where they are laid, are ready for me also. Whatever is unready, the
grave is ready for us: it is a bed soon made. And if the grave be ready for us,
it concerns us, to be ready for the grave.
Verse 2
[2] Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their
provocation?
Are not — Do
not my friends, instead of comforting, mock me? Thus he returns to what he had
said, chap. 16:20, and intimates the justice of his
following appeal.
Verse 3
[3] Lay
down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with
me?
Surety —
These words contain, an humble desire to God that he would be his surety, or
appoint him a surety who should maintain his righteous cause against his
opposers.
Strike hands — Be
surety to me; whereof that was the usual gesture.
Verse 4
[4] For
thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt
them.
Hid —
Thou hast blinded the minds of my friends: therefore I desire a more wise and
able judge.
Therefore —
Thou wilt not give them the victory over me in this contest, but wilt make them
ashamed of their confidence.
Verse 7
[7] Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a
shadow.
As a shadow — I
am grown so poor and thin, that I am not to be called a man, but the shadow of
a man.
Verse 8
[8]
Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself
against the hypocrite.
Astonied — At
the depth and mysteriousness of God's judgments, which fall on innocent men,
while the worst of men prosper.
Yet —
Notwithstanding all these sufferings of good men, and the astonishment which
they cause, he shall the more zealously oppose those hypocrites, who make these
strange providences of God an objection to religion.
Verse 10
[10] But
as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man
among you.
Come —
And renew the debate, as I see you are resolved to do.
Verse 11
[11] My
days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
My days —
The days of my life. I am a dying man, and therefore the hopes you give me of
the bettering of my condition, are vain.
Purposes —
Which I had in my prosperous days, concerning myself and children.
Verse 12
[12] They
change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
They — My
thoughts so incessantly pursue and disturb me, that I can no more sleep in the
night, than in the day.
The light —
The day-light, which often gives some comfort to men in misery, seems to be
gone as soon as it is begun.
Darkness —
Because of my grievous pains and torments which follow me by day as well as by
night.
Verse 13
[13] If I
wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
Wait —
For deliverance, I should be disappointed; for I am upon the borders of the
grave, I expect no rest but in the dark grave, for which therefore I prepare
myself. I endeavour to make it easy, by keeping my conscience pure, by seeing
Christ lying in this bed, (so turning it into a bed of spices) and by looking
beyond it to the resurrection.
Verse 14
[14] I
have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother,
and my sister.
Corruption —
Heb. to the pit of corruption, the grave.
Father — I
am near a-kin to thee, and thou wilt receive and keep me in thy house, as
parents do their children.
Verse 15
[15] And
where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
Hope —
The happiness you would have me expect.
Verse 16
[16] They
shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
They — My
hopes, of which he spake in the singular number, verse 15, which he here changes into the plural, as is
usual in these poetical books.
Bars —
Into the innermost parts of the pit: my hopes are dying, and will be buried in
my grave. We must shortly be in the dust, under the bars of the pit, held fast
there, 'till the general resurrection. All good men, if they cannot agree now
will there rest together. Let the foresight of this cool the heat of all
contenders, and moderate the disputers of this world.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Job》
17 Chapter 17
Verses 1-16
The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean
hands shall be stronger and stronger.
The way of the righteous
It may seem a work of supererogation to say anything upon such a
subject as righteousness. But the subject labours under some obscurity. Many
seem to think that righteousness in the Old Testament means something entirely
different from righteousness in the New. We are enabled by the New Testament
distinctly to recognise that which is in itself eternal truth in the Old
Testament as well as the New. The righteousness of faith is grounded in the
loyalty of the soul to God, and consists in the manifestation of this loyalty
in words, in thoughts, and in deeds. Here, cleanness of hands is spoken
of--singleness of intent, perfect simplicity of motive, There is no
righteousness without this to some extent. The text speaks of the perseverance
of such a man. “He shall hold on his way.” Still, all promises concerning the
moral nature must necessarily be conditional. It does not follow with a
mechanical certainty that every righteous soul shall hold on his way. He has a
way. It is not everyone in this world that has a way in the sense of the text.
Some have no definite aim or way. Others have a way, but it is a wrong way. The
righteous shall hold on his way. His way is before him, clear and plain, though
steep. He has nothing to do but to keep on day by day in the Divinely appointed
path, for every step brings him nearer to the goal. And the strength here
spoken of is moral strength. It springs from energy of conviction, and grasp of
faith, and fervour of resolution, and depth of emotion. They are of the new
life, the sense of Divine life in the soul. If you will believe in God, do the
right, and leave everything to Him, you also shall find that the righteous
shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and
stronger. (J. A. Picton, M. A.)
The laws of spiritual progress
Weakness of all kinds is painful, inconvenient, and humiliating.
So much indeed is power valued by us, that not a little of the world’s hero
worship has been the ardent adoration of strength in some one of its three
principal manifestations, of either physical, or intellectual, or moral might.
And all three have a glory, though not an equal glory. Intellectual power, by
comparison with spiritual power, has had a large, and on the whole, a growing
share of glory assigned to it. But physical force has had the most extensive
sway in the world, and the longest reign. Look--
I. At the kind of
strength and progress that is promised in the text to the righteous. Our text
speaks of a strength whose greatest triumphs in this world are still future, as
Christ’s greatest triumphs in and over men are still future. It is a benign
strength this that lies calmly resting on the sure promises and unchanging
faithfulness of God. This kind of strength is moral and spiritual might,
active, aggressive, victorious goodness. The strength of our text is the
strength of right in vanquishing wrong, the strength of moral goodness in
overcoming moral evil, both in its possessor and around him. This spiritual
strength is counted weakness by the world, because its triumphs are not only
like itself, spiritual, but they are often not immediate. Men who walk by
sense, seeing not the things which are invisible, cannot wait God’s time and
way. And yet to conquer sin and self is man’s best and greatest triumph. Every
man’s noblest battlefield lies within, not without himself; lies within, not
without his fellow man. In harmony with the world’s prevailing false idea of
greatness, the idol gods, and the human heroes that men have made or chosen for
themselves, have for the most part been powerful, but not goad. Look at the
gods of the heathen. Superhuman in power always, but human, and almost
infra-human, in character often. It is not moral and spiritual power, but
grosser forms of power, that most people admire most. The suffering attitude of
Jesus seemed to His contemporaries, and still seems to the eye of the natural
man, the weakest of all Divine displays of power. And yet this in truth is not
only the highest kind of power, but it is the mightiest in moral result. For
the Cross of Christ is the very “power of God unto salvation.” Here in the
Cross of Christ we see more of the peculiar power of God “who is love,” than
anywhere else. Here lies the power of the Gospel. It is the revelation of God’s
rich grace and love to the evil. God instructs us to seek as our best personal
attainment, the possession of a goodness so strong, and pure, and lofty, that
evil from within, us and from without us shall flee away ashamed and vanquished
before its overcoming and subduing power. This strength needs to be all the
more diligently cultivated by us because it is not natural to us. In our fallen
state we are spiritually weak. But this best kind of strength may be obtained.
It is the life of God in the soul of man, and it re-creates in God’s image the
soul that it enters, and its presence becomes in part visible. The men in whom
this life not only exists, but is abundant, by their very presence, both at
rest and in action, exert a beneficent moral power and influence. These are the
men from whose moral being a felt virtue goes forth that good men seek, and bad
men shun. For there are men, every movement of whose mind creates currents of
healthful, healing, spiritual influence, and such God-inspired men are strong.
The text holds before us the encouraging prospect, that the really good man
shall, by the inherent laws of goodness, go on his way, and become stronger and
stronger in goodness, more and more successful in gaining victories over evil.
Intellectual greatness we ought all profoundly to revere as one of God’s best
gifts to man; but we ought not to dishonour the Holy God and His moral image in
man by an unholy worship of intellect as disjoined from goodness. How much even
in the service of religion is talent often exalted above grace! View the text
as a Divine direction, and also as a positive promise of success, to every
renewed soul that is trying to make progress in the Divine life, and asks by
what means he may become strong. An answer to this inquiry is much needed.
II. Who are they
that obtain the strength promised in the text? All do not. The man who would be
strong and hold on his way must be in God’s sense “righteous, and keep his
hands clean.”
1. The righteous,--the upright, honest, virtuous, pious. Our
obligations to God and man not only lie near together, but at many points
intersect and overlap each other. Righteousness is a name which covers over and
enters into the whole web of human duty. The Bible name “righteous” denotes a
well-defined class of men who are not now what they once were, but have been “born
again.” Our text does not speak of any man in his natural unrenewed state; but
it speaks of man when under a supernatural tuition, of man the subject of
Divine grace. Life comes before strength, and is more important. Get life, and
strength will fellow.
III. The laws that
regulate this growth of strength. The reasons why the righteous grow stronger
are both natural and supernatural. Note--
1. The operation of the natural law that the exercise of our
faculties strengthens them. This is a law of the mind as well as a law of the
body. The religion of the Bible perfectly harmonises with all Divine law. It is
a reasonable service which yet rises above reason. Mature piety is ordinarily
the ripened product of years well spent.
2. The righteous man who has clean hands holds on his way, and ever
grows stronger through the ordinary operation of the great law of habit. Habit
makes all things castor, and among others the most difficult Christian duties.
The law of habit comes into action in favour of duty as well as in favour of
sin.
3. The righteous man, and of clean hands, holds on his way, and waxes
stronger and stronger by the teachings of experience.
4. The righteous man holds on his way, because religion is a life of
which Christ is the source. But all life is much affected by food, climate, and
exercise; and so is this higher life. Divine truth is the fit food of this
life.
5. The great reason is that the righteous man’s God and Father holds
him up and strengthens him. And He is the living God. When others stumble and
fall, the righteous man rises and stands upright, because God strengthens and
upholds him. Clean hands, and such alone can lay a firm hold upon God, and
lovingly constrain Him in His visits to leave a blessing behind Him. Polluted
hands have no such power. The man who seeks and finds this Helper must hold on
his way and grow stronger. The whole atmosphere of Scripture is strongly
provocative of robust spiritual health. The Godward attitude continued in makes
weak men to become strong, and strong men to become stronger and stronger. (J.
C. Macintosh.)
The nature of the doctrine of the saint’s final perseverance
I. A character
spoken of. “Righteous.” As persons who are taught to discard their own
righteousness, and are clothed upon with the righteousness of another. Clad in
that righteousness, they are taught to live “soberly, righteously, and godly in
this present evil world.”
II. These righteous
ones are described as on their “way.” There is but one way, and Jesus is that
way--the way of acceptance with God, the way in which alone we can walk so as
to please God. It is the only way of happiness, and may be a way of
self-denial.
III. The promise.
“Shall hold on.” It is as positive as language can express it. He shall do it.
Discouragements he may have, and shall have; trial of his patience, his hope,
and his love--this he stands continually in need of, day by day, and hour by
hour; through want of watchfulness he may slumber; through want of diligence he
may stumble; withholding prayer, he ceases to fight; through self-confidence he
may fall; but “the righteous shall hold on his way.” It is the “mouth of the
Lord that hath spoken it.” (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The hope of Job
What does “righteous” mean? We understand by it one in whom there
is something more than a moral life; more than convictions of sin; more than
religious impressions; more than sensations of joy arising from the Word of
God; more even than one on whose mind there are certain influences of the
Spirit; for the grace of God may enlighten the understanding, arouse the
conscience, and move the affections, and yet with all this, the will may be
unsubdued, and there may be no full and complete surrender of the heart to God.
By the “righteous,” then, we understand one who believes with the heart in
Jesus. Nor is there any essential difference between the Old Testament and the
New in this; for the righteous under the first dispensation, believed in a
Saviour to come. The righteous now believe in a Saviour already come. A
righteous man is one who trusts in a Redeemer; who, in a special sense, belongs
to Christ, and in Christ to God. Of such an one the text speaks. It is a
difficult way on which he holds his way. The word “his” refers to the righteous
man, and yet it is God’s way. The way which God has marked out for him; the way
into which God has led him. It is no easy way. It is so narrow that you cannot
carry the world with you along it; so steep, that if self-indulgent, you will
never get up it; so rough, that if faint-hearted, you will fear the labour; and
so long, that it requires much perseverance. But it is a happy way, the only
happy way. It is a wonderful thing to see the righteous hold on his way; to see
him out of weakness made strong, defeat changed into victory, his soul
restored, his strength renewed. How are we to account for this triumph? The
secret lies not in himself, but in God the Father who loved him, the Son who
redeemed him, the Spirit who sanctifies him. (George Wagner.)
The saint’s perseverance
The Christian is frequently compared to a traveller; but no
traveller reaches his journey’s end merely by starting upon the road. If it
should be a journey of seven weeks’ length, if he shall sit down after
journeying six weeks, he certainly will not reach the goal of his desires. It
is necessary, if I would reach a certain city, that I should go every mile of
the road; for one mile would not take me there; nor if the city be a hundred
miles distant, would ninety-nine miles bring me to its streets. I must journey
all the length if I would reach the desired place. Frequently, in the New
Testament, the Christian is compared to a runner--he runs in a race for a great
prize; but it is not by merely starting, it is not by making a great spurt, it
is not by distancing your rival for a little time, and then pulling up to take
breath, or sauntering to either side of the road, that you will win the race:
we must never stop till we have passed the winning post; there must be no
loitering throughout the whole of the Christian career, but onward, like the
Roman charioteer, with glowing wheels, we must fly more and more rapidly till
we actually obtain the crown. The Christian is sometimes, by the apostle Paul,
who somewhat delights to quote from the ancient games, compared to the Grecian
wrestler, or boxer. But it is of little avail for the champion to give the foe
one blow or one fall: he must continue in the combat until his adversary is
beaten. Our spiritual foes will not be vanquished until we enter where the
conquerors receive their crowns, and therefore we must continue in fighting
attitude. It is in vain for us to talk of what we have done or are doing just
now, he that continueth to the end, the same shall be saved, and none but he.
The believer is commonly compared to a warrior--he is engaged in a great
battle, a holy war. Like Joshua, he has to drive out the Canaanites, that have
chariots of iron, before he can fully take possession of his inheritance; but
it is not the winning of one battle that makes a man a conqueror: nay, though
he should devastate one province of his enemies’ territories, yet, if he should
be driven out by-and-by, he is beaten in the campaign, and it will yield him
but small consolation to win a single battle, or even a dozen battles, if the
campaign as a whole should end in his defeat. It is not commencing as though
the whole world were to be cleared by one display of fire and sword, but
continuing, going from strength to strength, from victory to victory, that
makes the man the conqueror of his foe. The Christian is also called a disciple
or scholar. But who does not know that the boy by going to school for a day or
two does not therefore become wiser? If the lad should give himself most
diligently to his grammar for six months, yet he will never become a linguist
unless he shall continue perseveringly in his classic studies. The great
mathematicians of our times did not acquire their science in a single year;
they pressed forward with aching brow; they burnt the midnight oil and tortured
their brains; they were not satisfied to rest, for they could never have become
masters of their art if they had lingered on the road. The believer is also
called a builder, but you know of whom it was said, “This man began to build,
but was not able to finish.” The digging out of the foundation is most
important, and the building up of stone upon stone is to be carried on with
diligence; but though the man should half finish the walls, or even complete
them, yet if he do not roof in the structure, he becomes a laughing stock to
every passer-by. A good beginning, it is said, is more than half, but a good
ending is more than the whole. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning
thereof. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Christian’s persistency
That master allegorist, John Bunyan, has not pictured Christian as
carried to heaven while asleep in an easy chair. He makes Christian lose his
burden at the cross foot, he ascribes the deliverance of the man from the
burden of his sin, entirely to the Lord Jesus; but he represents him as
climbing the Hill Difficulty--ay, and on his hands and knees too. Christian has
to descend into the Valley of Humiliation, and to tread that dangerous pathway
through the gloomy horrors of the Shadow of Death. He has to be urgently
watchful to keep himself from sleeping in the Enchanted Ground. Nowhere is he
delivered from the necessities incident to the way, for even at the last he
fords the black river, and struggles with its terrible billows. Effort is used
all the way through, and you that are pilgrims to the skies will find it to be
no allegory, but a real matter of fact: your soul must gird up her loins; you
need your pilgrim’s staff and armour, and you must foot it all the way to
heaven, contending with giants, fighting with lions, and combating Apollyon himself.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Completing the good work
The present life is the only scene of probation of man; if he
should fail in the scene in which he is now placed, he fails forever. How
encouraging, then, to be assured that he who has begun the good work will carry
it on amid all the perils of our present state, until we reach the state where
no danger can arrive.
I. The character
of those who are here introduced. They have already commenced the course of the
Christian life. The expression “clean hands” denotes their freedom from those
pollutions which are connected with human nature in its unconverted state. The
language further suggests an open and honest profession of their attachment to
the ways of God and righteousness. The man who partakes of this character will
necessarily be concerned that he may hold on his way, and wax stronger and
stronger.
II. The
considerations which led you to separate yourself from the world and to devote
yourself to God. All these claims are now at hand, and possess all the claim
they ever possessed. Hold on your way, and look to the exercise of that
cleanness of spirit which every honest mind will be concerned to possess. Look
to the exercise of purity of intention, to the testimony which God has
connected with His Word, that it may come home to your heart, and work mightily
there. (R. Vaughan.)
Clean-handed righteousness
I. The persons
spoken of. The “righteous” are those who have “clean hands.” The former term
describes their state, the latter their character. Righteous is a forensic
term. There can only be two ways of being righteous--either by never having
sinned, or by being delivered, in some way or other, from the condemnation due
to sin. The former applies to the angels. For fallen man another kind of
righteousness must be devised, which is, the imputation of Christ’s
righteousness unto him.
II. What is said
concerning them? “Shall hold on his way.” They are going onward in the way to
heaven; in this way they meet many obstacles--as from false brethren, false
teachers, false waymarks. There are obstacles both in the way of faith and of
conduct. Nevertheless, they shall “hold on their way.” This must necessarily
follow.
1. From a consideration of the character of God. He is faithful and
immutable.
2. From a consideration of the death of Christ. He died for us, not
leaving it doubtful what effects would be produced by His death.
3. From a consideration of the nature and constitution of the
covenant of grace. It is God’s will that saints should have strong consolation,
upon the ground of their final perseverance.
4. From a consideration of the nature of real conversion, and the
work of God the Holy Spirit.
5. From a consideration of the intercession of Christ, which must be
ever prevalent.
6. From a consideration of the nature of that principle which is
implanted within them. It is an immortal principle; an “incorruptible seed.” (John
Davies.)
The godly man
Consider the character in the text.
I. He is
righteous. The character in the text is right with God. Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
II. He is holy. He
has “clean hands.” The hand is the instrument of action; it is moved by the
heart--the pulsations of which are right, and so he can lift them up to God
“without wrath or doubting.” He is not afraid for God to see them, nor for Him
to know the principles whence these actions emanate. A man has just as much
religion in his business as he has in his closet; the same in the counting
house as he has on his knees. There is no reason why labour should not be a
psalm, and commerce a ritual in the best sense of the word. The time shall come
when “holiness to the Lord” shall be written upon the bells of the horses; and
then, whether men eat or drink, or whatever they do, they “do all for the glory
of God.”
III. He is persistent.
“He shall hold on,” etc. At an important period of his existence, Gibbon said
of his prospects, “All is dark and doubtful.” Of this character’s future, all
is bright and hopeful--“Glory, honour, immortality, eternal life,” are in the
future. “He shall hold on his way.” The wind, and tide, and sea may be against
the steamers which reach your port, but through the power of the steam within,
they hold on their way. Outward circumstances may appear to be all against the
character of the text; but by the power of the principle within he “holds on
his way.” This is a moral duty. Final perseverance is an article for the code,
rather than for the creed. This is a law of the Divine life. The leaven is put
in to leaven the whole lump. You must go on, or recede; you cannot stand still.
The purest water that ever fell from heaven will corrupt if it be stagnant.
IV. He is growing.
The Bible beckons you on to better things, and urges you to “grow in grace, and
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is also confirmed by
experience. There is also a power in the habit of goodness. The more you
exercise faith, the easier you can do so. The more you do for God, the more
delightful becomes the exercise. In every conflict with hell in which you
conquer, you learn the tactics of war, and become mightier for further
engagements. What a bright vista opens before the soul which is morally right!
(G. Warner.)
The penitence of perfect Job
(verse 9, with Job 42:5-6):--
1. It is not possible to set out the salient features of Job’s
strength with even a slight approximation to completeness, without taking
into account the immense energy he derived from his burning consciousness of
unimpeachable integrity. Not that Job made no mistakes. He made many. He
misconceived God’s methods, misjudged God’s heart, flung censures to right of
him and censures to left of him, spoke rashly and petulantly. But never did he
sink into an insincerity, or clothe himself with a sham; but maintained an
unbroken consciousness of integrity of spirit and purity of heart. Integrity is
power. Sincerity is a high form of human energy. Righteousness as a passion of
the heart, and an element in character and life, is a manifest and undeniable
source of imperial force. Wickedness is, in spite of seeming strength, actual
imbecility.
2. Nevertheless, the closing picture of this hero, Job, is not that
of a conqueror, but a confessor; not of an enthroned prince, but a kneeling
penitent. This is not what we expected. The language of genuine sorrow and deep
self-abasement loads his lips, and his far-shining integrity is not worth a
moment’s lip defence by the side of his failure to keep the law of God.
Sincerity is good, but it is not sinlessness. Indisputable integrity of
purpose, and inflexible honesty of heart, are jewels of unspeakable worth, but
they will not atone for rash speech, misjudgment of God, and hatred of weak and
faulty men. Be true, by all means; but think of Job’s penitence, and remember
that the heroic virtue of integrity and wholeness, superlatively good as it is,
is not enough.
3. It is the special charm of Job’s story that it exhibits this
high-strung and strenuous integrity dwelling in the same spirit with the
acutest penitence and throbbing self-loathing. We can recognise these qualities
apart, and appreciate them in their singleness, but that they should blend in
the same life, tenant the same spirit, and be sources of power to the same
character, conflicts with our habitual thought. Yet the minds of culminating
power in the vast brotherhood of the world’s workers and redeemers, have not
been more deeply marked by their persistent devotion to purity of thought,
uncompromising fidelity to fact, and aspiration after perfection, than by their
quivering sensitiveness to the smallness of their achievements, acute sense of
personal fault, and prevailing consciousness--often attended by spasms of
weakening pain--of absolute failure. The righteous Job in his penitence
anticipates the Church of the first-born in heaven. It is fidelity to the
clearest laws of advancing human life which marries in one and the same
progressive spirit, inflexible consecration to reality and right, and deep and
true penitence for failure and sin.
4. Whence came this penitential mood? What induced this change of
feeling? The unexpected revolution is effected by the revelation of God to the
eye of the soul. “Mine eye seeth Thee.” He passes out of the realm of mere
“hearsays” about God, to that of inward experience and actual communion. The
eyes give fuller and clearer knowledge than the ear. Job knows God as he did
not know Him before. The character of his knowledge is changed,
heightened, vitalised, intensified, personalised.
5. Was not Job led to this renewing sight of God by the voice that
addressed, startled, and overwhelmed him out of the whirlwind, forcing in upon
his mind an oppressive and overwhelming conception of the creative and
administrative power of the Almighty? Is not the ear the way to the
spiritual eye, as surely as the sight of God is the way to repentance, and
repentance the way to life?
6. Here, then, is one signal value of the knowledge of God, even of
His immense power and greatness. It is the ground and spring of a true
conception of ourselves, of our limitations and possibilities, our actual
condition and ethical ideal.
7. Such God-inspired penitence swiftly vindicates itself in the pure
sincerity and holy brotherliness it creates, and the reconciliations it effects
between man and man, and man and his lot. Sin divides; repentance unites.
Humbled before the Lord, Job becomes a priest. Set the tree of penitence in
such a Divine soil, and it must bear this kind of fruit. (J. Clifford, D. D.)
The righteous holding on his way
I remind you that while final perseverance is necessary, it
is extremely difficult. The way itself renders if so. The way to heaven is no
smooth-shaven lawn.
1. It is a rough road, up hill, down dale, across rivers, and over
mountains.
2. Moreover, the road is long. It is a life-long road.
3. Besides that, the road is so contrary to fallen nature. It is a
way of faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The wise are not always wise:--All the ways of sin and error are
ways of folly.
But was not Job censorious and rigid, too bold and adventurous to speak thus
concerning men of such gravity, authority, and reputation for wisdom and
learning, yea for holiness too, as these three were? Job did not speak this
from any ill-will to his friends.
1. It is no fault to speak of men as we find them.
2. A wise man may do or speak that which is a just forfeiture of his
present reputation for wisdom.
3. Wise men are rarely to be found. There are store of subtle men,
and crafty men there are too many; but the wise man is a rare jewel.
4. Wise men are apt to show themselves unwise in expounding and
judging the providences and dealings of God towards men. The works of the most
wise God are all right, but few men are wise enough to pick out the right
meaning of them. This arises--
Verse 11
My purposes are broken off.
Broken purposes
What mental anguish is concentrated in these few words! They raise
the sufferings of Job from one of mere physical pain to one of mental despair:
Let us glance, first, at some objects of human ambition--their wreck, their
loss, and their gain.
I. The cherished
purposes of life. The generality of persons live without forming any purposes
at all. They drift along the current, and laying aside the strength and glory
of manhood are nothing but logs. The true purposes of life are not mere languid
dreams, or objectless hopes, or anticipations of pleasure, and we must not
confound these with the ambition alluded to by Job. But they are the thought
out plans and aspirations of a vigorous mind in true earnest.
1. Sometimes these purposes are selfish.
2. Sometimes these ambitions are philanthropic.
3. Sometimes these purposes are religious.
There is the longing to lead a notably pious life, to be a pattern
for others to copy, to bring up a godly family, to convert sinners, and to be
worthy soldiers of the cross.
II. The broken
purposes of life. How often are ambitions formed; how seldom are they realised!
Our purposes are always being broken. We have had a cherished plant, and longed
to see it flower. But the frost has nipped the bud, and it has withered and
drooped. We have had a loved child for whom we cherished a hope of carrying
forward the work of our lives. But the loved one had been taken from us
altogether or has turned out a sorrow instead of a joy. We have intended to go
hither or thither, but the storm has intervened and we have been left behind.
III. The hand of God
in the purposes of life. Job did not realise that his purposes had been cut off
by God, and that there was an object underlying the sorrow which filled his
heart. Neither do men understand that there may be a reason that they cannot
fathom which has hindered the success of their cherished hopes. Eternity will
show that man’s purposes are broken--
1. Because if successful they would have been injurious to ourselves.
Many souls have been saved by being kept from riches or power. Many have been
kept from ruin by having their cherished idol taken away.
2. Because they might work some evil for others. We often see
instances of misdirected philanthropy. But how seldom we can see behind the
scenes, and how little do we know what will really benefit our fellow creatures!
3. Because God sees that we are not fitted for the work,
4. Because He has higher and better purposes for us.
5. Because He desires to bring us to a state of perfect trust in
Himself. He crushes our plans to show us how weak, how foolish we are, and to
lay us low in humility. How much wiser are His arrangements! (J. J. S. Bird.)
Broken purposes
I. Men form
purposes. Mind is active and made to think. Men speculate and resolve. Pleasure
and wealth, honour and worldly position eagerly sought.
II. These purposes
not always fulfilled. Broken off as threads of the web cut off from the loom (Isaiah 32:1-20). Impossible to
realise. Providence intervenes; man proposeth, God disposeth. Greeks
represented the fates as spinning the threads of human life. Procrastination
prevents performance. Satan hinders (1 Thessalonians 2:18).
III. This is a sad
fact in experience. “My” purposes. Good resolutions formed and never carried
out; plans adopted and forsaken; principles never come to maturity, and life
wasted in attempting, and nothing done! (The Study.)
Broken purposes
The world is full of broken columns. Every heart carries its own
crowded cemetery. The cemeteries in which you lay dead flesh and bones are not
the true cemeteries. The graveyards are in the heart. “My purposes are broken
off”; this is the cry of a disappointed man; the muffled moan of a baffled
hope. It is not the peculiar cry of a Jew, or of a Gentile, of an Orientalist,
or an Occidentalist, it is simply the voice of universal man. God has
graciously enriched the world with example men; men who have been made to show
in their melancholy experience how vain is ambition, how uncertain is
expectation, how unstable is strength. Job is such man.
I. As revealing
the speculative side of human life. All men have purposes. Man cannot live by
history alone; he must strengthen himself by hope. Man puts out his hand and
plucks of the tree of tomorrow. Every man speculates concerning the future, and
feels himself inspired as he dwells on the charms of the coming time. Man’s
power of speculation always exceeds man’s power of realisation. The poetic
fancy is in advance of the toiling hand. The wanderer’s mind is at the
destination long before the wanderer’s foot has taken the first step of the
journey! The power of speculation and the power of realisation are not
coordinate. We paint many a fire which we never can enkindle. We plant olive
yards which bear no fruit, and dig wells which hold no water. Yet we would not
give up this power of projecting ourselves into the future! We would not like
to be barred in the small prison called “today.” Not a man but is pleasing himself
with some dream of fancy. Each is saying, “The times will change for the
better; the cold winds will die out; the sky will be a cloudless arch; I shall
walk on a carpet of violets through palaces of perfume.”
II. As disclosing
the real side of human experience. “Purposes”!--that is poetry; “Broken”! -
that is history! This is a sad combination of words! Life is full of half-built
towers. Men had begun to build, but were not able to finish. Life is a pile of
fragments. Nowhere is there aught complete. Life is all beginnings; there is no
finished pinnacle!
III. As suggesting
man’s true course as a speculatist and as a worker. “Go to now, ye that say
today or tomorrow,” etc. There is a “tonight” between today and tomorrow.
Learn--
1. All purposes against God must be broken off.
2. Form the loftiest purposes for God, and they will be fulfilled.
3. Remember the moral import of uncertainty. (Anon.)
If I wait, the grave is mine house.
The house of the grave
I. Describe the
house.
1. The grave is a very spacious house.
2. It is very dark and dreary.
3. It is a house of silence. It is empty.
4. It is the house of corruption.
5. It is the house of oblivion.
II. All men are going
to this house.
1. This lot is ours by the appointment of God.
2. Ever since God appointed death, He has been carrying mankind to
the grave in a constant and uninterrupted succession.
3. We not only see the mortality in others, but feel it coming upon ourselves.
III. Why we should
keep this serious truth in mind.
1. Because God requires men to keep their mortality in view.
2. God takes many methods to impress this important truth upon men’s
hearts.
3. It is necessary in order to their forming all their worldly
schemes with wisdom and propriety.
4. In order to form a just estimate of the world and its inhabitants.
5. In order to prepare them to endure the trials and afflictions of
the present life with patience and fortitude.
6. It will have a direct tendency to prepare men for death when it
comes. Improvement. Every way of thinking and acting is sinful, which tends to
banish the thoughts of death from our minds. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
And where is now my hope?
Where now my hope
I. Occasions in
life which force upon us this inquiry.
1. In those seasons when the troubles of life press heavily.
2. When our human dependencies have failed.
3. When the terrors of a guilty conscience seize us.
4. The question irresistibly presses upon all as death seems to
approach.
II. The
disappointment of those who have not provided against these seasons of trial.
1. All earthly hopes are, in their very nature, inadequate to our
exigencies.
2. All the hopes which are derived from the world and the creatures
are temporal in their duration.
3. If they could endure and go with us into eternity, or the separate
state of souls,--yet they would not stand the test of the final day of account.
III. See the
necessity of close self-exaltation.
1. This examination should refer to the object of our hope.
2. We should examine whether we have a well-grounded and scriptural
prospect of attaining to the object of our hope. It is possible that we may
practise self-delusion.
3. Your hope may be good as to its object, its foundation may be the
work of Jesus Christ, an anchor sure and steadfast, but have you a valid title
to appropriate that hope to yourself?
4. Inquire whether your hope has borne any trials. Application--
2. But, if our hope is found vain and weak, or absolutely false, it
is high time to abandon it and seek a better. (The Evangelist.)
Hope held out to anxious inquirers
I. The inquiry.
“Where is my hope?”
1. Is your hope in the world? This is the case with multitudes. Then
your hope is set on that which is not good.
2. Is your hope in sin? Is that possible? The pleasures of sin are
but for a season, the pains of sin are for eternity.
3. Is your hope in your works? This was the case with the ancient
Pharisees. They “went about to establish their own righteousness,” but failed
in the attempt. All who are “of the works of the law” are under it as a
covenant; and as such it requires perfect obedience, or there is no
justification by it.
4. Is your hope in your knowledge? “Knowledge puffeth up.” “The
Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”
5. Is your hope in Christ? Then it is in the right place. The hope of
Job was in him--the Redeemer; so was the hope of the primitive Christians.
II. The cases in
which inquirers are warranted to hope. We are not warranted to hold out hope in
every case. You must be made to feel your guilt, before you will give up your
false hope. You must be made to feel your insufficiency before you will apply
to Christ for relief.
1. If you repent you are warranted to hope.
2. If you believe, you are warranted to hope.
3. If you obey, you are warranted to hope.
4. If you love Christ, you are warranted to hope.
5. So you are, if you love the house of prayer.
6. And if you love the brethren.
7. And if you seek the Divine glory.
III. The qualities
of the hope which the gospel inspires.
1. It is a Divine hope.
2. A lively hope.
3. A joyful hope.
4. A liberal hope.
5. A permanent hope.
In conclusion, let us consider the inquiry in the text in
reference to ourselves, and thus endeavour to make a suitable improvement of
the subject. Where is now my hope? (Thomas Hitchin.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》