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Job Chapter
Twenty-five
Job 25
Chapter Contents
Bildad shows that man cannot be justified before God.
Bildad drops the question concerning the prosperity of
wicked men; but shows the infinite distance there is between God and man. He
represents to Job some truths he had too much overlooked. Man's righteousness
and holiness, at the best, are nothing in comparison with God's, Psalm 89:6. As God is so great and glorious, how
can man, who is guilty and impure, appear before him? We need to be born again
of water and of the Holy Ghost, and to be bathed again and again in the blood
of Christ, that Fountain opened, Zechariah 13:1. We should be humbled as mean,
guilty, polluted creatures, and renounce self-dependence. But our vileness will
commend Christ's condescension and love; the riches of his mercy and the power
of his grace will be magnified to all eternity by every sinner he redeems.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Job》
Job 25
Verse 1
[1] Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Answered — Not to that which Job spake last, but to that which
seemed most reprovable in all his discourses; his censure of God's proceedings
with him, and his desire of disputing the matter with him. Perhaps Bildad and
the rest now perceived that Job and they did not differ so much as they
thought. They owned that the wicked might prosper for a while. And Job owned,
they would be destroyed at the last.
Verse 2
[2] Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his
high places.
Dominion — Sovereign power over all persons and things.
Fear — Terror, that which justly makes him dreadful to all
men, and especially to all that undertake to dispute with him.
He — This clause, as well as the following verse, seems to
be added to prove God's dominion and dreadfulness: he keepeth and ruleth all
persons and things in heaven, in peace and harmony. The angels, though they be
very numerous, all own his sovereignty, and acquiesce in his pleasure. The
stars, tho' vast in their bulk, and various in their motions: exactly keep the
order which God hath appointed them: and therefore it is great folly for thee
to quarrel with the methods of God's dealings with thee.
Verse 3
[3] Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth
not his light arise?
Armies — Of the angels, and stars, and other creatures, all
which are his hosts.
Light — The light of the sun is communicated to all parts of
the world. This is a faint resemblance, of the cognisance and care which God
takes of the whole creation. All are under the light of his knowledge: all
partake of the light of his goodness: his pleasure is to shew mercy: all the
creatures live upon his bounty.
Verse 4
[4] How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be
clean that is born of a woman?
Man — The word signifies man that is miserable, which
supposes him to be sinful; and shall such a creature quarrel with that dominion
of God, to which the sinless, and happy, and glorious angels submit? God -
Before God's tribunal, to which thou dost so boldly appeal.
Verse 5
[5] Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the
stars are not pure in his sight.
Moon — The moon, tho' bright and glorious, if compared with
the Divine Majesty, is without any lustre or glory. By naming the moon, and
thence proceeding to the stars, the sun is also included.
Verse 6
[6] How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man,
which is a worm?
Worm — Mean, and vile, and impotent; proceeding from
corruption, and returning to it.
The son — For miserable man in the last branch he here puts the
son of any man, to shew that this is true even of the greatest and best of men.
Let us then wonder at the condescension of God, in taking such worms into
covenant and communion with himself!
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Job》
25 Chapter 25
Verses 1-6
Dominion and fear are with Him.
Ideas of God and man
I. Most exalted
ideas of god. He speaks of Him--
1. As the head of all authority. “Dominion and fear are with Him.”
2. As the maintainer of all peace. “He maketh peace in His high
places.” Who maintains the order of the stellar universe? He is peaceful in His
own nature, and peaceful in all His operations.
3. As the commander of all forces. “Is there any number of His
armies?” What forces there are in the universe, material, mental, moral!
4. As the Fountain of all light. “Upon whom doth not His light
arise?” He is the Father of lights.
5. As the perfection of all holiness. “How then can man be justified
with God?” In this chapter Bildad gives--
II. Most humbling
ideas of man. He represents him--
1. As morally degenerate. “How can he be clean that is born of a
woman?”
2. As essentially insignificant. He is a “worm.” How frail in body!
He is crushed before the moth. How frail his intellectual powers! Morally he is
“without strength.” Conclusion--
1. The glorious light of nature. There is no reason to believe that
Bildad had any special revelation from God.
2. The unsatisfactoriness of religious controversy. What has been the
effect of all the arguments on Job? Not correction of mistakes, but great
irritation and annoyance. (Homilist.)
Verses 1-6
Dominion and fear are with Him.
Ideas of God and man
I. Most exalted
ideas of god. He speaks of Him--
1. As the head of all authority. “Dominion and fear are with Him.”
2. As the maintainer of all peace. “He maketh peace in His high
places.” Who maintains the order of the stellar universe? He is peaceful in His
own nature, and peaceful in all His operations.
3. As the commander of all forces. “Is there any number of His
armies?” What forces there are in the universe, material, mental, moral!
4. As the Fountain of all light. “Upon whom doth not His light
arise?” He is the Father of lights.
5. As the perfection of all holiness. “How then can man be justified
with God?” In this chapter Bildad gives--
II. Most humbling
ideas of man. He represents him--
1. As morally degenerate. “How can he be clean that is born of a
woman?”
2. As essentially insignificant. He is a “worm.” How frail in body!
He is crushed before the moth. How frail his intellectual powers! Morally he is
“without strength.” Conclusion--
1. The glorious light of nature. There is no reason to believe that
Bildad had any special revelation from God.
2. The unsatisfactoriness of religious controversy. What has been the
effect of all the arguments on Job? Not correction of mistakes, but great
irritation and annoyance. (Homilist.)
Verse 4
How then can man be Justified with God?
On justification
I. What
justification is. The being accounted righteous though we are not so. When
brought into a justified state we are treated as if we were altogether
righteous. Whose is this righteousness? Whence is it derived? Not from
ourselves or any remaining excellence in human nature. We must be accounted
righteous, and justified with God, by other merits than our own. It is to the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are indebted.
II. How a man
cannot be justified.
1. Not by repentance.
2. Not by amendment of life.
3. Not by our sincerity.
4. Not by any works whatever of our own.
III. How alone he
can be justified. We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or
deservings. Why does faith alone, faith without works, justify us? Because
faith is the only medium by which we can receive Christ.
IV. Why a man can
be justified in no other way than the way in which he is justified.
1. It is God’s determination that “no flesh shall glory in His
sight.”
2. God has determined that His Son alone shall be exalted in the
justification of a sinner.
3. It is God’s determination to magnify His name and word above all
the philosophy and traditions of men.
4. It is a merciful God’s gracious determination to afford grounds of
the most abundant consolation to the humbled and believing sinner. (W.
Mudge, B. A.)
An all-important question
I. The
all-important question which our text proposes. “How can man be justified with
God?” It is a matter of some consequence to stand well with our brethren, to
bear what is called a good character before our fellow men; but to stand right
with God is a point on which our heaven depends.
II. The
difficulties it suggests.
1. The extreme holiness of God. The text says that there is not in
any of the shining orbs of heaven, there is not to God the beauty that we see.
So it is also with respect to moral excellency and spiritual perfection.
Characters that we call shining actions that we count pure, exalted, are not in
His eyes what they are in ours. In this Book it is said God “chargeth His
angels with folly,” and “the heavens are not clean in His sight.” How can man
be justified before that God who is so pure, so holy, so requiring--who sees
dimness in the moon, imperfection in the stars, folly in His saints?
2. Then another difficulty is the extreme unholiness of man, his
miserable baseness and corruption. Man is here called a worm. It is the very
proverb in our lips for weakness and for helplessness; a thing that every foot
may crush. But look at the place--the dunghill--where the worm is found. Look
at its vile habits and propensities. It is the emblem of spiritual baseness and
corruption. Man is spiritually vile in the sight of the most holy God. Put the
two statements of the text together. God so holy that the very moon and stars
have no glory in His eyes. Man so polluted that the filthy worm which crawls
upon the dunghill is considered a just emblem of his case and character. Then
how can man be justified with God?
III. The only way in
which so difficult a question can be answered. The Gospel supplies it. In
Christ alone is the question entirely satisfied. The answer is ready--by coming
unto Jesus; by casting the whole soul upon the Saviour’s merits; by ceasing
from that hopeless work of endeavouring “to establish our own righteousness,”
and by submitting ourselves unfeignedly to that which Christ hath wrought for
us. Are we doing this? Are we making Christ the “Lord our Righteousness,” by
looking only unto Him for recommendation in the sight of God? (A.
Roberts, M. A.)
Justification
1. The natural man builds his hope of justification at the day of
final reckoning on the law. The moral law contains the sum of our duty toward
God and toward man. If the law give life, it can do so only to those who fulfil
it in all its requirements. The law is exceeding broad. We stop not to inquire
whether it is possible for human strength to fulfil the law even in its letter,
but we ask you to reflect whether you have fulfilled it in its spiritual
extent. Many, finding that they cannot be justified by a law thus spiritual in
its nature and extensive in its requirements, go about to establish a
righteousness of their own upon a ground just as untenable. They conceive that
a law of such perfection is fitted only to perfect, sinless creatures; and that
to beings imperfect, and in their nature now inherently and habitually sinful,
it must relax its strictness, and lower its requisitions, and accept of
sincere, instead of complete obedience. But this is absurd as well as
unscriptural. Do the laws of human governments vary with the endless variety of
their subjects whose social relations they are appointed to direct? The laws of
heaven cannot stoop, because they are founded upon the immutable basis of their
truth and rectitude.
2. Repentance is the next ground to which the sinner betakes himself
in the persuasion that though the law of itself cannot give life, yet with this
addition it may do so. But is there anything in repentance, when considered by
itself, which can really form a ground of hope to the violator of the law? To
the eye of reason, apart altogether from revelation, there certainly is not.
The law is broken, and sorrow for its breach no more repairs the evil, than
sorrow for an injury done to a fellow mortal actually repairs that injury.
Repentance does nothing of itself to repair the breach which has been made by
transgression. Our repentance, so far from annulling law, can only be regarded
as a testimony, on our part of the justice of the Lawgiver in demanding that
atonement which blood only can supply. The sinner has no ground in revelation
for supposing that repentance of itself can atone for transgression.
3. A vague dependence on the mercy of God. Can anything be conceived
more impious or evidently delusive than such a hope as is here entertained?
What idea must they form of the character of God when they can derive from it
an excuse for past and a motive for future wickedness? Has God no attributes
but those of mercy and goodness, or are the other parts of His character
negatived by these?
4. The true answer is given by Jehovah. We are “justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Christ is the
fountain of all our hopes. By the perfect obedience of His life He has
magnified and even honoured the law, which had been dishonoured by man’s
transgression; He has satisfied its justice by the death of the Cross. (J.
Glasson.)
Man contending with God
Bildad in this place doth not speak of justification in that
strict Gospel sense as it imports the pronouncing of a man righteous for the
sake of Christ, or as if he supposed Job looked to be pronounced righteous for
his own sake. Bildad speaks of justification here, as to some particular act;
as for instance, if any man will contend with God, as if God had done him some
wrong, or had afflicted him more than there was need, is he able to make the
plea good, and give proof of it before the throne of God? There is a four-fold
understanding of that phrase, “with God.”
1. If any man shall presume to refer himself to the judgment of God,
shall he be justified? In this sense it is possible for a man to be justified
with God; and thus Job was justified by God at last against the opinions and
censures of his three friends.
2. To be justified with God is as much as this. If man come near to,
or set himself in the presence of God, shall he be justified? Man usually looks
upon himself at a distance from God; he looks upon himself in his own light,
and so thinks himself righteous; but when he looks upon himself in the light of
God, or as one that is near to God, will not all his spots and blemishes then
appear?
3. Can man be justified with God? That is, if man compare himself
with God, can he be justified? One may compare himself with another, and be
justified. But how can man be just or righteous compared with God, in
comparison of whom all our righteousness is unrighteous, and our very cleanness
filthy?
4. To be justified with God is against God. That is, if man strive or
contend with God, in anything, as if God were too hard and severe towards him,
either by withholding good from him, or bringing evil upon him, can man be
justified in this contention? Will God be found to have done him any wrong?
Taking the words in a general sense, observe that man hath nothing of his own
to justify him before God. There are two things considerable in man. His sin,
and his righteousness. All grant man cannot be justified by or for his sins;
nor can he at all be justified in or for his own righteousness. And that upon a
two-fold ground.
Accusations silenced
The Jews have a legend that Satan accuses men day and night
the whole year round, except on the day of atonement, and then he is utterly
silenced. The legend becomes fact in the atonement of Christ. This silences the
accuser ever, for it is “God that justifieth,” and who can condemn? They (the
saints) “overcome by the blood of the Lamb.”
Verse 6
Man, that is a worm-The worm
1. With peculiar emphasis we may say of the worm, it is “of the earth
earthy.” Springing out of it, boring into it, and feeding on it, or on that
which grows upon it,--it is a singular image of man, who was formed out of the
dust of the ground, and is destined to return to it, and who, alas! feeds on
it. All men may not be equally represented by that which belongs to the
extremely gross in character.
2. In the naturally repulsive character of a worm we have an
illustration of sin. The only thing that repels God from man is sin. To man’s
weakness, ignorance, poverty, and sorrow, the Creator can and does graciously
draw near; but from man’s sin He recoils. What sin is to God, it should be to
us--a repulsive thing--that which we should hate and flee from.
3. The carrion-worm and canker-worm afford us an illustration of the
injurious character of man as a sinner. What are the ravages of war but the
dread results of human carrion-worms revelling in human blood? What are the
restless activities, passions, and pursuits of men, but the ceaseless gnawing
of pride, envy, ambition, lust, anger, malice, deceit, and suchlike things--the
canker-worms of the soul, and the carrion-worms of the body?
4. Learn a lesson of humility from the different classes and pursuits
of worms. Some are great and some small; some attractive and some unsightly.
5. Worms are not without their use in the world, and some--such as
silkworms--are of great value. (Anon.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》