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Job Chapter
Forty
Job 40
Chapter Contents
Job humbles himself to God. (1-5) The Lord reasons with
Job to show his righteousness, power, and wisdom. (6-14) God's power shown in
Behemoth. (15-24)
Commentary on Job 40:1-5
(Read Job 40:1-5)
Communion with the Lord effectually convinces and humbles
a saint, and makes him glad to part with his most beloved sins. There is need
to be thoroughly convinced and humbled, to prepare us for remarkable
deliverances. After God had shown Job, by his manifest ignorance of the works
of nature, how unable he was to judge of the methods and designs of Providence,
he puts a convincing question to him; Shall he that contendeth with the
Almighty instruct him? Now Job began to melt into godly sorrow: when his
friends reasoned with him, he did not yield; but the voice of the Lord is
powerful. When the Spirit of truth is come, he shall convince. Job yields
himself to the grace of God. He owns himself an offender, and has nothing to
say to justify himself. He is now sensible that he has sinned; and therefore he
calls himself vile. Repentance changes men's opinion of themselves. Job is now
convinced of his error. Those who are truly sensible of their own sinfulness
and vileness, dare not justify themselves before God. He perceived that he was
a poor, mean, foolish, and sinful creature, who ought not to have uttered one
word against the Divine conduct. One glimpse of God's holy nature would appal
the stoutest rebel. How, then will the wicked bear the sight of his glory at
the day of judgment? But when we see this glory revealed in Jesus Christ, we
shall be humbled without being terrified; self-abasement agrees with filial
love.
Commentary on Job 40:6-14
(Read Job 40:6-14)
Those who profit by what they have heard from God, shall
hear more from him. And those who are truly convinced of sin, yet need to be
more thoroughly convinced and more humbled. No doubt God, and he only, has
power to humble and bring down proud men; he has wisdom to know when and how to
do it, and it is not for us to teach him how to govern the world. Our own hands
cannot save us by recommending us to God's grace, much less rescuing us from
his justice; and therefore into his hand we must commit ourselves. The renewal
of a believer proceeds in the same way of conviction, humbling, and
watchfulness against remaining sin, as his first conversion. When convinced of
many evils in our conduct, we still need convincing of many more.
Commentary on Job 40:15-24
(Read Job 40:15-24)
God, for the further proving of his own power, describes
two vast animals, far exceeding man in bulk and strength. Behemoth signifies
beasts. Most understand it of an animal well known in Egypt, called the river-horse,
or hippopotamus. This vast animal is noticed as an argument to humble ourselves
before the great God; for he created this vast animal, which is so fearfully
and wonderfully made. Whatever strength this or any other creature has, it is
derived from God. He that made the soul of man, knows all the ways to it, and
can make the sword of justice, his wrath, to approach and touch it. Every godly
man has spiritual weapons, the whole armour of God, to resist, yea, to overcome
the tempter, that his never-dying soul may be safe, whatever becomes of his
frail flesh and mortal body.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Job》
Job 40
Verse 1
[1] Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Answered — Having made a little pause to try what Job could
answer. This is not said to be spoken out of the whirlwind, and therefore some
think God said it in a still, small voice, which wrought more upon Job, (as
upon Elijah) than the whirlwind did. Tho' Job had not spoken any thing, yet God
is said to answer him. For he knows mens thoughts, and can return a fit answer
to their silence.
Verse 2
[2] Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?
he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Reproveth — That boldly censureth his ways or
works; it is at his peril.
Verse 5
[5] Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice;
but I will proceed no further.
Answer — Speak again; I will contend no more with thee.
Twice — Often, the definite number being used indefinitely.
Verse 6
[6] Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind,
and said,
Whirlwind — Which was renewed when God
renewed his charge upon Job, whom he intended to humble more throughly.
Verse 8
[8] Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn
me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Wilt thou — Every word is emphatical, wilt
(art thou resolved upon it) thou (thou Job, whom I took to be one of a better
mind) also (not only vindicate thyself, but also accuse me) disannul (not only
question, but even repeal and make void, as if it were unjust) my judgment? My
sentence against thee, and my government and administration of human affairs?
Wilt thou make me unrighteous that thou mayst seem to be righteous?
Verse 10
[10] Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array
thyself with glory and beauty.
Deck — Seeing thou makest thyself equal, yea, superior to me,
take to thyself thy great power, come and sit in my throne, and display thy
Divine perfections in the sight of the world.
Verse 13
[13] Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in
secret.
Hide — Kill every one of them at one blow.
Bind — Condemn or destroy them. He alludes to the manner of
covering the faces of condemned persons, and of dead men.
In secret — In a secret place, bury them in
their graves.
Verse 15
[15] Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth
grass as an ox.
Behemoth — Very learned men take the leviathan to be the
crocodile, and the behemoth to be the river-horse, which may fitly be joined
with the crocodile, both being well known to Joband his friends, as being
frequent in the adjacent parts, both amphibious, living and preying both in the
water and upon the land. And both creatures of great bulk and strength.
Made — As I made thee.
Grass — The river-horse comes out of the river upon the land
to feed upon corn, and hay, or grass, as an ox doth, to whom also he is not
unlike in the form of his head and feet, and in the bigness of his body, whence
the Italians call him, the sea-ox.
Verse 16
[16] Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is
in the navel of his belly.
Strength — He hath strength answerable to his bulk, but this
strength by God's wise and merciful providence is not an offensive strength,
consisting in, or put forth by horns or claws, as it is in ravenous creatures,
but only defensive and seated in his loins, as it is in other creatures.
Verse 17
[17] He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his
stones are wrapped together.
Tail — Which though it be but short, yet when it is erected,
is exceeding stiff and strong.
Thighs — The sinews of his thighs. His thighs and feet are so
sinewy and strong, that one of them is able to break or over-turn a large boat.
Verse 19
[19] He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can
make his sword to approach unto him.
The chief — He is one of the chief of God's
works, in regard of its great bulk and strength.
Verse 20
[20] Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the
beasts of the field play.
Mountains — Though he lives most in the
water, yet he often fetches his food from the land, and from the mountains or
hills, which are nigh the river Nile.
Play — They not only feed securely, but sport themselves by
him, being taught by experience that he is gentle and harmless.
Verse 22
[22] The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows
of the brook compass him about.
Brook — Or, of the Nile, of which this word is often used in
scripture. His constant residence is in or near this river, or the willows that
grow by it.
Verse 23
[23] Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth
that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
River — A great quantity of water, hyperbolically called a
river.
Hasteth not — He drinks not with fear and
caution; but such is his courage, that he fears no enemy either by water or by
land. He drinks as if he designed, to drink up the whole river. He mentions
Jordan, as a river well known, in and nigh unto Job's land.
Verse 24
[24] He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through
snares.
Sight — Can any man take him in his eyes? Openly and by force?
Surely not. His strength is too great for man to overcome: and therefore men
are forced to use wiles and engines to catch him.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Job》
40 Chapter 40
Verses 1-24
Moreover, the Lord answered Job, and said.
Jehovah’s answer
Its language has reached, at times, the “high-water mark” of
poetry and beauty. Nothing can exceed its dignity, its force, its majesty, the
freshness and vigour of some of its pictures of nature and of life. But what
shall we say next? It is no answer, we may say, to Job’s agonised pleadings. It
is no answer to the riddle and problem which the experience and history of
human life suggests, even to ourselves. Quite true. There is no direct answer
at all. Even those partial answers, partial yet instructive, which have been
touched on from time to time by speaker after speaker, are not glanced at or
included in these final words. It is as though the voice of God did not deign
to repeat that He works “on the side of righteousness.” He only hints at it.
Job is not even told the purpose of the fiery trial through which he himself
has passed, of those in other worlds than his own who have watched his pangs.
No! God reveals to him His glory, makes him feel where he had, gone wrong, how
presumptuous he had been. That is all. He does not say, “All this has been a
trial of thy righteousness: thou hast been fighting a battle against Satan for
Me, and hast received many sore wounds.” Nothing is said of the truth, already
mooted and enforced in this Book, that suffering does its perfect work when it
purifies and elevates the human soul, and draws it nearer to the God who sends
or permits the suffering. Nor is any light thrown on that faint and feeble
glimmer of a hope not yet fully born into the world, of a life beyond the
grave; of a life where there shall be no more sorrow or sighing, where Job and
his lost sons and daughters shall be reunited. The thoughts that we should have
looked for, perhaps longed for, are not here. Those who tell us that the one
great lesson of the whole book is to hold up the patriarch Job as the pattern
of mere submission, mere resignation--those who search in it for a full
Thodice, a final vindication, that is, and explanation of God’s mode of
governing the world--those, lastly, who find ill it a revelation of the sure
and certain hope of a blessed immortality, can scarcely have studied either
Job’s language or the chapters before us today. One thought, and one only, is
brought into the foreground. The world is full of mysteries, strange,
unapproachable mysteries, that you cannot read. Trust, trust in the power, and
in the wisdom, and in the goodness of Him, the Almighty One, who rules it.
“Turn from the insoluble problems of your own destiny,” the voice says to Job,
and says to us. “Good men have said their best, wise men have said their
wisest. Man is still left to bear the discipline of some questions too hard for
him to answer. We cannot solve them. We must rest, if we are to rest at all, in
the belief that He whom we believe to be our Father in heaven, whom we believe
to have been revealed in His Son, is good, and wise, and merciful; that one
day, not here, the riddle will be solved; that behind the veil which you cannot
pierce, lies the solution in the hand of God.” (Dean Bradley.)
The Lord’s answer
I. A Divine
reproof that was effectual.
1. Observe the reproof. “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty
instruct Him?”
2. Observe the effect. What was the effect of this appeal? Here it
is. “Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I
answer Thee?” etc.
II. A Divine
comparison that was silencing.
1. It is a comparison between himself and the Great Creator. “Gird up
thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto Me.”
What is thy power to Mine? “Hast thou an arm like God?” What is thy voice to
Mine? Canst thou speak in a voice of thunder? What is thy greatness to Mine?
“Deck thyself with majesty,” etc. What is thy wrath to Mine? “Cast abroad the
rage of thy wrath.” What art thou in My presence? The only effective way of
hushing the murmurings of men in relation to the Divine procedure, is an
impression of the infinite disparity between man and his Maker.
2. It is a comparison between himself and the brute creation. “Behold
now behemoth.” Study this huge creature, and thou wilt find in many respects
thou art inferior to him. Therefore be humble, and cease to contend with Me. (Homilist.)
Verses 1-24
Moreover, the Lord answered Job, and said.
Jehovah’s answer
Its language has reached, at times, the “high-water mark” of
poetry and beauty. Nothing can exceed its dignity, its force, its majesty, the
freshness and vigour of some of its pictures of nature and of life. But what
shall we say next? It is no answer, we may say, to Job’s agonised pleadings. It
is no answer to the riddle and problem which the experience and history of
human life suggests, even to ourselves. Quite true. There is no direct answer
at all. Even those partial answers, partial yet instructive, which have been
touched on from time to time by speaker after speaker, are not glanced at or
included in these final words. It is as though the voice of God did not deign
to repeat that He works “on the side of righteousness.” He only hints at it.
Job is not even told the purpose of the fiery trial through which he himself
has passed, of those in other worlds than his own who have watched his pangs.
No! God reveals to him His glory, makes him feel where he had, gone wrong, how
presumptuous he had been. That is all. He does not say, “All this has been a
trial of thy righteousness: thou hast been fighting a battle against Satan for
Me, and hast received many sore wounds.” Nothing is said of the truth, already
mooted and enforced in this Book, that suffering does its perfect work when it
purifies and elevates the human soul, and draws it nearer to the God who sends
or permits the suffering. Nor is any light thrown on that faint and feeble
glimmer of a hope not yet fully born into the world, of a life beyond the
grave; of a life where there shall be no more sorrow or sighing, where Job and
his lost sons and daughters shall be reunited. The thoughts that we should have
looked for, perhaps longed for, are not here. Those who tell us that the one
great lesson of the whole book is to hold up the patriarch Job as the pattern
of mere submission, mere resignation--those who search in it for a full
Thodice, a final vindication, that is, and explanation of God’s mode of
governing the world--those, lastly, who find ill it a revelation of the sure
and certain hope of a blessed immortality, can scarcely have studied either
Job’s language or the chapters before us today. One thought, and one only, is
brought into the foreground. The world is full of mysteries, strange, unapproachable
mysteries, that you cannot read. Trust, trust in the power, and in the wisdom,
and in the goodness of Him, the Almighty One, who rules it. “Turn from the
insoluble problems of your own destiny,” the voice says to Job, and says to us.
“Good men have said their best, wise men have said their wisest. Man is still
left to bear the discipline of some questions too hard for him to answer. We
cannot solve them. We must rest, if we are to rest at all, in the belief that
He whom we believe to be our Father in heaven, whom we believe to have been
revealed in His Son, is good, and wise, and merciful; that one day, not here,
the riddle will be solved; that behind the veil which you cannot pierce, lies
the solution in the hand of God.” (Dean Bradley.)
The Lord’s answer
I. A Divine
reproof that was effectual.
1. Observe the reproof. “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty
instruct Him?”
2. Observe the effect. What was the effect of this appeal? Here it
is. “Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I
answer Thee?” etc.
II. A Divine
comparison that was silencing.
1. It is a comparison between himself and the Great Creator. “Gird up
thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto Me.”
What is thy power to Mine? “Hast thou an arm like God?” What is thy voice to
Mine? Canst thou speak in a voice of thunder? What is thy greatness to Mine?
“Deck thyself with majesty,” etc. What is thy wrath to Mine? “Cast abroad the
rage of thy wrath.” What art thou in My presence? The only effective way of
hushing the murmurings of men in relation to the Divine procedure, is an
impression of the infinite disparity between man and his Maker.
2. It is a comparison between himself and the brute creation. “Behold
now behemoth.” Study this huge creature, and thou wilt find in many respects
thou art inferior to him. Therefore be humble, and cease to contend with Me. (Homilist.)
Verse 2
Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him?
The equality of God’s dealings
While Job is held up as the model of patience and resignation
under God’s chastening hand, we are continually reminded of a certain
irritability and restlessness which surprises and distresses us. But a similar
difficulty is elsewhere found. David is the model of purity, while there is no
saint whose memory is so stained with impurity. Moses is emphatically the type
of meekness, while the salient point of his life which attracts our notice is extreme
irritability. Manly straightforwardness is the leading feature in the character
of Abraham, while a shuffling trick is the one fault by which his memory is
marked. Examine this apparent inconsistency in Job. He is brought before our
attention as a man deeply impressed with the sense of common fairness, and a
dread at seeing success awarded to the wicked, and adversity to the good. His
own ease fell under the latter clause, and with no selfish or interested view
he makes his own position the opportunity of impugning God’s providence. The
leading inconsistency which we have to reconcile is the fact that God should
have suspended the law of His moral kingdom in Job’s case, and awarded
suffering to the righteous. But if we look a little deeper, we shall see at
once that the fairness and justice of God were vindicated and asserted, not
infringed, in Job’s case. A challenge had been made by Satan which impugned the
justice of God’s estimate of His servant in heaping upon him so many and such
abundant blessings. No test could have been more severe than that to which Job
was put, and in the end the entire and humble submission of the patriarch to
the will of his Maker declared beyond controversy the justice of God’s estimate
of His servant, and manifested before Satan and the world the power of saving
grace. The object of God is not simply the reward of the good by prosperity,
and the punishment of the wicked, but it is also the vindication of His grace
and power by the subjection of man to His will, and the manifestation of the
sanctity of His elect. There is a seeming inconsistency between Job’s actual
life and the character given him. But it must be remembered that the character
of the man is generally not the upper surface which catches the eye. It is not
the irritated waves and billows of the sea, but that vast belt of waters which
girdles the earth below the ever-moving and heaving bosom of the deep, which
constitutes the nature of the ocean. That undercurrent of a man’s will and ways
is the result of many a contradiction to his natural disposition, and he does
not deserve the title of a peculiar character until he has vindicated his right
to it by overcoming the influences which are contradictory to it. The natural
tendency of Job was that of patient trust in God; it needed the contradiction
of circumstances most adverse to that disposition to test and confirm its
tendency. Lessons--
1. We little know the reason and cause of God’s dealing with us; we
see the handwriting on the wall, but we see not the hand. We know nothing of
remote and hidden causes; we only shall know them and understand them, when, at
the end of the world, the handwriting is interpreted. We are inclined to blame
God’s fairness. But He is fair, He is just. But it is in the whole and complete
fulfilment of His scheme that fairness is to be manifested--in the integrity of
the drama, not in the isolated scenes.
2. Note the apparent inconsistency of Job’s own character. He began
with implicit, unquestioning resignation; his after conduct betrays impatience,
and an inclination to argue against those who were apparently pleading the
cause of God. The key is found in the last chapter. At the end, his resignation
was the result of deep experience, of profound humiliation, and of personal
intercourse with God. It is so with us all. A man’s character involves the
whole octave--the highest note of it is played in youth, the deepest at the end
of the journey of life; the whole is played together in the perfect harmony of
heaven.
3. Where lay the fault of Job’s friends? They argued on false
premises, and in an improper manner. Censoriousness and love of prejudging
human actions are faults which interfere with God’s prerogative, and violate
the spirit of true charity.
4. Learn the power of intercession.
5. Very beautiful is the end of Job. Job is a type of the
resurrection. (E. Monte.)
Mystery in science and revelation
We may paraphrase the text as follows: Shall man, rebelling
against the authority of God, assume to be wiser than the All-wise? Shall he
pronounce the ways of God unequal in order to vindicate his own integrity? Is
it wisdom in men, surrounded by mysteries and conscious of ill-desert, to fly
in the face of heaven and lay their complaints against the God with whom they
contend? In that ancient poem, the Book of Job, are embedded some of the
profoundest discussions of the problems of life. Most of us are brought, at
times, face to face with the question which troubled the man of Uz, “Why is
this world one of sin and death?” Why is it that a loving and all-perfect God
has permitted such wide-wasting woe? for the suffering is not limited to
humankind, but reaches from the worm that crawls beneath our feet through all
gradations of animal life, through human and angelic existences up to the right
hand of the everlasting throne, where sitteth the crowned Sufferer who wept
over Jerusalem, and is the exalted Lamb of Sacrifice, slain from eternity. The
question, as I have said, is not new, but old as history. It has been turned
over in unnumbered shapes. It has been answered by numberless sages, but
reappears in the speculations of every thoughtful mind. It is the shadow that
follows us toward the sun, and will disappear only when we walk into the sun,
and know even as we are known. And I believe that sometimes nothing will quiet
the mind, troubled by the perplexing riddles of evil and pain, so effectually
as to consider why it is best for us not to know certain things, or to see how
our ignorance in the department of moral evil is equalled by our ignorance in other
spheres of truth. This is the lesson which the Lord taught Job. We are
surrounded in this world by mysteries which baffle us, or, if we explain one,
another lies back of it which defies explanation. These mysteries abound in the
realm of science. Says Henry Drummond, “A science without mystery is unknown; a
religion without mystery is absurd.” Modern investigation has answered many of
the questions which the Lord put to Job; vast additions to human knowledge have
been the spoils of hardy efforts; but the unknown is a vaster field now than
even then. The circle of knowledge is surrounded by an ever-widening zone of
mystery. Geology may have helped us to understand how the cornerstone of the
earth was laid, but the question now is, “What is that cornerstone? Whence came
it?” Every step backward leads us to mystery, where science closes her lips,
and faith speaks out the name of God. Man thinks of the immensities of nature,
and he is nothing. He thinks of the minuteness of atoms and molecules, and he
seems almost everything. We trespass continually on the domain of the
supernatural, the spiritual, the invisible, the Divine; and the Cross of Jesus
may well be seen wherever His hand has wrought in the mysteries of creation.
God does not think it best to give us completed knowledge, any more than He
gives us complete bodily strength, or complete soul development. He demands
work of us. Salvation is wrought out with fear and trembling, and we ought to
thank God that we are not treated as some rich men treat their sons. God does
not want spoiled and pampered children. (John H. Barrows, D. D.)
Verse 3-4
Behold, I am vile.
A humbling confession
Self-examination is of unspeakable importance. The most useful
knowledge of ourselves is not that which is physical, but that which is moral;
not a knowledge of our worldly affairs, but of our spiritual condition.
I. The
self-accusation. “Behold, I am vile.”
1. The quality acknowledged. “Vileness.” “Behold, I am vile.” “Vile,”
says Johnson in his Dictionary, is “base, mean, worthless, despicable, impure.”
There is nothing in the world to which this will so much apply as sin; and to
sin Job referred when he said, “Behold, I am vile.” He does not call himself
vile because he was a man reduced, poor, and needy; no man of sense ever would
do so. Character intrinsically does not depend Upon adventitious circumstances.
If poverty were vileness, as by their discourse some people seem to think, how vile
must the apostles have been, who said, “Even to this very hour, we hunger, and
thirst, are naked, are destitute, and have no Certain dwelling place!” How vile
must that be which leads God to hate the work of His own hands; which leads a
God of love to threaten to punish with everlasting destruction from His
presence and His power, and which would not allow of His pardoning without the
sacrifice of His own Son!
2. Who made this confession? Surely it was some very gross
transgressor? No. It was some newly-awakened returning penitent? No. It was
Job; a saint of no ordinary magnitude. What, then, do we learn from hence, but
that the most eminent saints are the most remote from vain thoughts of
themselves? We know that the nearer a man approaches to perfection in anything,
the more sensible he becomes of his remaining deficiency, and the more hungry
and thirsty he is after improvement. Take knowledge; advancement in knowledge
is like sailing down a river; it widens as you proceed, till you are out at
sea. A little knowledge puffs a man up, but Sir Isaac Newton was the most
modest of men. Not that there is no difference between a saint and a sinner.
Job does not mean to intimate that he loves sin, or that he lives in it. His
friends accused him of this, which he denied, saying, in his address to God,
“Thou knowest that I am not wicked.” “Behold, my witness is in heaven, and my
record is on high.” But he knew that sin, though it did not reign in him, yet
lived in him, yet opposed him, yet vexed him, yet defiled him; so that he could
not do the thing that he would.
3. When was the acknowledgment here uttered, “Behold, I am vile”? It
was immediately after God’s interview with him, God’s intercourse with him,
God’s addressing him. “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without
knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and
answer thou Me.” It was after God had further displayed Himself in the
perfection of several of His works; it was then that “Job answered the Lord,
and said, Behold, I am vile.” And what does this teach us but this--that the
more we have to do with God, the more we shall see and feel our unworthiness.
Those who have never been abroad to see great things are pleased with
littleness, but travelling expands and enlarges the mind, furnishes it with
superior objects and images; so that the man is no longer struck, upon his
return, with the little rivulet and the little hill, which seemed to astonish
him before he went from home, and during his infancy. And when a man has gone
far enough, so to speak, to be introduced to God Himself, he will be sure to
think afterward very little of himself. Yes, if anything can make us feel our
littleness, it must be a view of His wisdom; if anything can make us sensible
of our weakness, it must be the view of His almighty sovereignty; if anything
can make us feel our depravity, it must be the view of His spotless
purity,--the spotless purity of Him “who is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity, and in whose sight the very heavens are not clean.”
II. To observe how
this conviction is produced. You will observe here, that, our inquiry is not
after the fact itself. The fact itself is independent of our conviction, or of
our belief. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us”; and the heavens will reveal our iniquity, and the earth will
rise up against us. Yes, it is a truth, whether we acknowledge it or not, that
we are vile; vile by nature, and vile by practice. Let us, therefore, remark
the Author and medium alone of this discovery. As to the Author, we make no
scruple to say, that it is the Spirit of the blessed God; according to our
Saviour’s own declaration, “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall
convince the world of sin, because they believe not on Me.” All that is really
good in the souls of the children of men is from Him. From Him comes the first
pulse of life. Now as to the medium, or instrumentalities, we would observe
that these are, principally, the law and the Gospel. The law is one of the
principal instrumentalities; for “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” “Sin is
the transgression of the law.” The law is always to be used so; and for this
purpose the Gospel also is equally instrumental with it. The Gospel teaches us
the nature of our disease, by showing us the nature of our remedy. Now this
being the Author, and this being the medium of the discovery, observe the mode
in which it is accomplished. This is gradual. The thing does not take place all
at once; it is effected by degrees. Usually, indeed, it begins with a charging
home of one single sin upon the conscience of the man; the sin to which he has
been peculiarly addicted, and by which his conscience, therefore, is now
alarmed. It is increased by the various events, and by the various
dispensations of providence. Little do we know of ourselves, indeed, until we
are enlightened, until we meet with our own proper trial. The Christian often
supposes that he is worse, because he is wiser than he was. Because he sees
more of his inward corruptions, he thinks there are more. He resembles a man in
a disagreeable, loathsome dungeon; before the light enters he sees nothing
offensive; he knows not what there is there; but as the light enters he sees
more and more. “I have heard some people,” says Mr. Newton, “pray that God
would show them all the wickedness of their hearts. I have said to myself, It
is well that God will not hear their prayer; for if tie did, it would drive
them to madness or despair; unless at the same time they had a proportionate
view of the work, and the ability, and the love of their Lord and Saviour.”
III. Let us observe
the effects of this conviction.
1. One of these effects is evermore wonderment. As if a person had
been born and bred up in a subterranean place, and had been raised up and
placed upon the earth; the first emotion he would feel would be wonder. Peter
tells us that God calls us “out of darkness into His marvellous light.” Not
only “light,” but “marvellous light”; seeing as well as wondering. Nothing is
more wonderful to the man than what he now sees of himself. That he should have
acted in such an ungrateful, such a foolish, such a base manner as he has been
doing!
2. Humiliation will be another result of this discovery. Ignorance is
a pedestal upon which pride always stands. Self-complacency then will be at an
end, and the man will abhor himself, repenting in dust and ashes.
Self-justification will also be at an end, and the man will condemn himself.
3. The endearment of the Saviour is another result of this discovery.
Why is it there ate so many to whom He has no form nor comeliness, nor any
beauty that they should desire Him?--that they can read of Him, that they can
hear of Him, that they can talk of Him without feeling any attachment to Him?
Why is it, but that, to change the image, as Solomon says, “the full soul
loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet”? Or,
to use our Lord’s own words, “They that are whole need not a physician.”
4. Submission under afflictive dispensations of providence will be
another effect of this discovery. I remember Bunyan says, “Nothing surprised me
more when I was first awakened and enlightened, than to see how men were
affected by their outward troubles. Not that I was without my troubles, God knows
I had enough of them; but what was everything else beside compared to the loss
of my poor soul!” So will it be with us if we have the same views and the same
feelings. So it is, that an old divine says, “When a sense of sin lies heavy
upon the soul, the sense of trouble will be light.”
5. Then gratitude will be another result of this discovery of our
vileness. The proud are never grateful. Do what you will--heap whatever favours
you please upon them--what reward have you? what thanks have you? They only think
you are doing your duty; they think they are deserving of all this. But when a
man feels that he is unworthy of the least of all his mercies, how will he feel
with regard to the greatest of them?
6. Charity and tenderness towards the faults of others will be a
result from this conviction. There is a knowledge of human nature that is far
from being sanctified; so far from it that it is even an injury to him that
possesses it. Read Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees; read
Rochefoucauld’s Maxims; read some of Lord Byron’s works: do you
not perceive how they discover, how fully they discover, in a sense, the
vileness of human nature? Yes, and they love to dwell upon it; they love to
expose the nakedness of our common nature. They always speak of these things with
complacency; never with regret; never with anything like reproach of themselves
and others. But it is otherwise with the man who has been taught his depravity
at the foot of the Cross; who has there been made to say, with Job, “Behold, I
am vile.” Such a man will not look for perfection in others, because he is
conscious he is destitute of it himself.
IV. The relief of
this complaint. For I am persuaded there are persons who are saying,
“Well, whatever others may think of themselves, Job’s language is mine. I daily
feel it. Whether I am alone or in company--whether I am in the sanctuary or at
the table of the Lord”--nothing fits my lips but this acknowledgment, “Behold,
I am vile.” Is there any consolation for such? There is much every way.
1. Because God has commanded us, as ministers, to comfort you. We are
to tell those whom He has thus made sad that God has commanded them to make
merry. Because “the joy of the Lord is their strength.” They never feel
gratitude so well as when they are walking in the comforts of the Holy Ghost.
You do not remember that the Jews in their passage, when they crossed the Red
Sea, came to Marah, where the waters were bitter, as well as to Elim, where
there were twelve springs of water, and threescore and ten palm trees. You do
not remember in the immortal Pilgrim’s Progress that there were
in the way of the shining light the valley of humiliation and the valley of the
shadow of death, as well as the delectable mountains.
2. Remember that this experience is a mercy, and a great mercy; that
this experience is essential to all real religion; that it is previous to all
true consolation; that it is a proof of the Divine agency in you. “I will take
away the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.”
3. Remember that all in you is not evil now. Beware, therefore, that
you never depreciate not only what God has done for you, but what He has done
in you. The work of His Holy Spirit is called a good work; and it is a good
work.
4. As all is not vile in you now, so nothing will be vile in you
long. No. “The night is far spent, and the day is at hand”; and your warfare
will soon be accomplished. (W. Jay.)
Consciousness of sin the result of the manifestation of God
Jehovah’s mode of dealing with Job is very remarkable. He did not
enter at all upon the point about which the disputants could not agree. He said
nothing whatever about the dispensations of His providence. Nor did He declare
whom He chastened, and whom He left unchastened in the world. Of what, then,
did He speak? Of the great mysteries of creation and nature, as displaying His
glorious majesty, His creative power, His perfect wisdom. The result was
striking. Job was strongly convinced of his own ignorance and sinfulness.
I. Job’s deep
consciousness of sin. No words could express it more strongly than these,
“Behold, I am vile!” It is just the most eminent saints--just those who are
most advanced in the knowledge of God, who make use of such words. (See case of
Isaiah; and Psalms 51:3.) “Behold, I am
vile!” is no exaggerated statement; it is a state and a feeling to which we
ought all to be brought--a confession which we ought all to make. If we try to
analyse the state of mind expressed by these words, it is quite evident that it
is one in which the sinfulness of sin is most deeply felt--in which sin is
regarded with great abhorrence, and the sinner views himself with deep
self-abasement. There is a Scripture term that suits the idea--“self-loathing”
(Ezekiel 36:31). If we endeavour to go a
little deeper into this state of mind, we shall find that there are two
feelings, carefully to he distinguished from each other, which elicit this solemn
confession. The one is “remorse,” the other is “the consciousness of
ingratitude towards God.” There is a great difference between remorse and true
repentance. Remorse may, and often does, lead to repentance, but very often it
stops short of it. Remorse is repentance without grace--the working of the
natural heart; whereas repentance is a change of mind, showing itself in real
sorrow for sin. The chief difference between “the two lies in the motives. Have
you then felt the ingratitude of your heart? Have you realised that every act
of sin in which you indulge is an act of ingratitude towards God?
II. The
consequences of this deep consciousness of sin. One only is mentioned
here--silence before God. The natural heart is very prone to arraign God’s
ways. Never, in the language of the world, do you find such words as these, “I
will lay my hand upon my mouth.” But the true Christian places authority on her
right throne--in God, and not in man,--and aims continually at the grace of
silent submission. If you wish to be submissive, pray that you may feel your
utter sinfulness. You wish, it may be, to feel your utter sinfulness, pray that
God may be manifested to you by the Spirit in Jesus Christ through His Word. (George
Wagner.)
Indwelling sin
I. The fact that even
the righteous have in them evil natures. Job said, “Behold, I am vile.” He did
not always know it. All through the long controversy he had declared himself to
be just and upright. But when God came to plead with him, he at once put his
finger on his lips, would not answer God, but simply said, “Behold, I am vile.”
How many daily proofs you have that corruption is still within you! Mark how
easily you are surprised into sin. Observe how you find in your heart an awful
tendency to evil, that it is as much as you can do to keep it in check, and
say, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.” Then how wrong it is, if any
of us, from the fact of our possessing evil hearts, think to excuse our sins.
Some Christians speak very lightly of sin. There was corruption still
remaining, and therefore they said they could not help it. The truly loving
child of God, though he knows sin is there, hates that sin.
II. What are the
doings of this indwelling sin?
1. It exerts a checking power upon every good thing.
2. Indwelling sin not only prevents us from going forward, at times
it assails us, and seeks to obstruct us. It is not merely that I fight
indwelling sin; it is that indwelling sin makes an assault upon me.
3. The evil heart which still remaineth in the Christian, doth
always, when it is not attacking or obstructing, still reign and dwell within
him. My heart is just as bad when no evil emanates from it, as when it is all
over vileness in its external developments.
III. The danger we
are under from such evil hearts. It arises from the fact that the sin is within
us. Remember how many backers thy evil nature hath. Remember also that this
evil nature of thine is very strong and very powerful.
IV. The discovery
of our corruption. To Job the discovery was unexpected. We find most of our
failings when we have the greatest access to God.
V. If we are still
vile, what are our duties? We must not suppose that all our work is done. How
watchful we ought to be. And it is necessary that we should still exhibit faith
in God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Self-abasement
On the whole, the design of this portion of Scripture is to teach
men that, having a due respect to the corruption, infirmity, and ignorance of
human nature, they are to lay aside all confidence in themselves, they are to
labour continually after an unwavering and unsullied faith, which is the gift
of God only, and to submit, with becoming reverence, to the trials which He may
call them to endure in this their probationary state. In this book the state of
man as a fallen creature is to be manifested. Job’s expressions prove him, at
worst,, not to be an irreligious man, but a man possessed of integrity, and too
confident in it. And they give peculiar interest to his deep self-abasement and
repentance when convinced of sin . . . What further light, what directions,
does the Gospel supply in doing this necessary work of repentance and
self-humiliation? We are all in danger, while performing the very duties which
we owe to God, of placing too great a reliance upon them. Our virtues may be a
snare to us. We may misapply to the injury of our soul’s health those very
things which are set forth for our good. The great scope and end of Christian
doctrine is the consolation, not of those who are vainly puffed up with such
fleshly conceits, but of those whose hearts are overcharged with the burden of
their sins. There never was, nor is there, any mere man absolutely righteous
and free from sin. If Christ hath paid the ransom for all, then were all
captives and bondsmen of the great enemy, and under sentence of death. If one
have died for all, then were all dead in sin, and none is able to justify
himself. (J. C. Wigram, M. A.)
Verse 8
Wilt thou also disannul My judgment?
Wilt thou condemn Me, that thou mayest be righteous?
The excuses of sinners condemn God
I. Every excuse
for sin condemns God.
1. Nothing can be sin for which there is a justifiable excuse.
2. If God condemns that for which there is a good excuse, He must be
wrong.
3. But God does condemn all sin.
4. Consequently, every excuse for sin charges blame upon God, and
virtually accuses Him of tyranny. Whoever pleads an excuse for sin, therefore,
charges God with blame.
II. Consider some
of these excuses.
1. Inability. It is affirmed that men cannot do what God requires of
them. This charge is blasphemous against God. Shall God require natural
impossibilities, and denounce eternal death upon men for not doing what they
have no natural power to do? Never.
2. Want of time. If God really requires of you what you have not time
to do, He is infinitely to blame.
3. A sinful nature.
4. Sinners, in self-excuse, say they are willing to be Christians.
But this is insincere, if they persist in remaining in their sins.
5. Sinners say they are waiting God’s time.
6. They plead that their circumstances are very peculiar.
7. Or that their temperament is peculiar.
8. Or that their health is so poor they cannot get to meeting, and so
cannot be religions.
9. Another excuse takes this form--My heart is so hard, that I cannot
feel. Learn--
Verse 23
Behold, he drinketh up a river.
Christian confidence
We have often wondered what was meant by the singular action of
behemoth in Job 40:23, “Behold, he drinketh up a
river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.”
What does that mean? It means nothing. The revisers set forth the meaning very
clearly, “Behold, if a river overflow he trembleth not”; he is confident though
Jordan swell up to his mouth. That is just what men should be who put their
trust in God. “Behold, if a river overflow, he trembleth not”; he says, It is
all in the hand of God: the river is overflowing my meadows and carrying away
my hay harvest, I do not fear or fret, it is not my harvest, it is God’s. “He
is confident though Jordan swell up to his mouth”; he does not begin to fear
when he sees Jordan, but when Jordan doubles itself, swells, expands, rises,
floods over, and comes up to his very neck, and then to his chin, and then to
his very mouth, he says, I shall still be saved. Over the brimming river he
breathes his assurance of triumph through the power of God. (J. Parker, D.
D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》