Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 3.djvu/43

Rh for his glory) certainly will, blast and defeat all the designs of his and his people's enemies. How were the plots of Ahithophel, Sanballat, and Haman, baffled! The confederates of Syria and Ephraim against Judah, of Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, against God's Israel, the kings of the earth, and the princes, against the Lord and against his anointed, broken! The hands that have been stretched out against God, and his church, have not performed their enterprise, nor have the weapons formed against Zion prospered. Fourthly, That which enemies have designed for the ruin of the church, has often turned to their own ruin; (v. 13.) He takes the wise in their own craftiness, and snares them in the work of their own hands, Ps. vii. 15, 16.—ix. 15, 16. This is quoted by the apostle, (1 Cor. iii. 19.) to show how the learned men of the heathen were befooled by their own vain philosophy. Fifthly, When God infatuates men, they are perplexed, and at a loss, even in those things that seem most plain and easy; (v. 14.) They meet with darkness even in the day-time; nay, as it is in the margin, They run themselves into darkness by the violence and precipitation of their own counsels. See ch. xii. 20, 24, 25.

[2.] How he favours the cause of the poor and humble, and espouses that.

First, He exalts the humble, v. 11. Those whom proud men contrive to crush, he raises from under their feet, and sets them in safety, Ps. xii. 5. The lowly in heart, and those that mourn, he advances, comforts, and makes to dwell on high, in the munitions of rocks, Isa. xxxiii. 16. Zion's mourners are the sealed ones, marked for safety, Ezek. ix. 4.

Secondly, He delivers the oppressed, v. 15. The designs of the crafty are to ruin the poor: tongue, and hand, and sword, and all, are at work in order to this; but God takes under his special protection those who, being poor, and unable to help themselves, being his poor, and devoted to his praise, have committed themselves to him. He saves them from the mouth that speaks hard things against them, and the hand that does hard things against them; for he can, when he pleases, tie the tongue, and wither the hand.

The effect of this is, (v. 16.) 1. That weak and timorous saints are comforted: so the poor, that began to despair, has hope. The experiences of some are encouragements to others to hope the best in the worst of times; for it is the glory of God to send help to the helpless, and hope to the hopeless. 2. That daring threatening sinners are confounded; iniquity stops her mouth, being surprised at the strangeness of the deliverance, ashamed of its enmity against those who appear to be the favourites of Heaven, mortified at the disappointment, and compelled to acknowledge the justice of God's proceedings, having nothing to object against them. Those that domineered over God's poor, that frightened them, menaced them, and falsely accused them, will not have a word to say against them when God appears for them. See Ps. lxxvi. 8, 9. Isa. xxvi. 11. Mic. vii. 16.

17. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth; therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18. For he maketh sore, and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole. 19. He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. 20. In famine he shall redeem thee from death; and in war from the power of the sword. 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue; neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. 22. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth. 23. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. 24. And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin. 25. Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. 27. Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

Eliphaz, in this concluding paragraph of his discourse, gives Job (what he himself knew not how to take) a comfortable prospect of the issue of his afflictions, if he did but recover his temper, and accommodate himself to them.

Observe,

I. The seasonable word of caution and exhortation that he gives him; (v. 17.) "Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Call it a chastening, which comes from the father's love, and is designed for the child's good. Call it the chastening of the Almighty, with whom it is madness to contend, to whom it is wisdom and duty to submit, and who will be a God all-sufficient" (for so the word signifies) "to all those that trust in him. Do not despise it;" it is a copious word in the original. 1. "Be not averse to it. Let grace conquer the antipathy which nature has to suffering, and reconcile thyself to the will of God in it." We need the rod, and we deserve it; and therefore we ought not to think it either strange or hard if we feel the smart of it. Let not the heart rise against a bitter pill or potion, when it is prescribed us for our good. 2. "Do not think ill of it, do not put it from thee, (as that which is either hurtful, or, at least, not useful, which there is no occasion for, nor advantage by,) only because, for the present, it is not joyous, but grievous." We must never scorn to stoop to God, nor think it a thing below us to come under his discipline, but reckon, on the contrary, that God really magnifies man, when he thus visits and tries him, ch. vii. 17, 18. 3. "Do not overlook and disregard it, as if it were only a chance, and the production of second causes, but take great notice of it as the voice of God, and a messenger from Heaven." More is implied than is expressed: "Reverence the chastening of the Lord; have an humble, awful, regard to his correcting hand, and tremble when the lion roars, Amos iii. 8. Submit to the chastening, and study to answer the call, to answer the end of it, and then thou reverencest it." When God, by an affliction, draws upon us for some of the effects he has intrusted us with, we must honour his bill by accepting it, and subscribing it, resigning him his own when he calls for it.

II. The comfortable words of encouragement which he gives him, thus to accommodate himself to his condition, and (as he himself had expressed it) to receive evil from the hand of God, and not despise it as a gift not worth the accepting. If his affliction was thus borne,

1, The nature and property of it would be altered: though it looked like a man's misery, it would really be his bliss. Happy is the man whom God correcteth, if he make but a due improvement of the correction. A good man is happy, though he