Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 3.djvu/62

54 does not conclude this chapter with such awful expressions of God's wisdom and justice as he began with. They that indulge a complaining, humour, know not to what indecencies nay to what impieties, it will hurry them. The beginning of that strife with God is as the letting forth of water; therefore leave it off, before it be meddled with. When we are in trouble, we are allowed to complain to God, as the Psalmist, often, but must by no means complain of God, as Job here.

I. His complaint here of the passing away of the days of his prosperity is proper; (v. 25, 26.) "My days, that is, all my good days, are gone, never to return; gone of a sudden, gone ere I was aware: never did any courier that went express," (like Cushi and Ahimaaz,) "with good tidings, make such haste as all my comforts did from me; never did ship sail to its port, never did eagle fly upon his prey, with such incredible swiftness; nor does there remain any traces of my prosperity, any more than there does of an eagle in the air, or a ship in the sea," Prov. xxx. 19. See here, 1. How swift the motion of time is; it is always upon the wing, hastening to its period; it stays for no man. What little need have we of pastimes, and what great need to redeem time, when time runs out, runs on so fast towards eternity, which comes as time goes! 2. How vain the enjoyments of time are, which we may be quite deprived of while yet time continues! Onr day may be longer than the sun-shine of our prosperity; and when that is gone, it is as if it had not been. The remembrance of having done our duty will be pleasing afterward; so will not the remembrance of our having got a great deal of worldly wealth, when it is all lost and gone. They flee away, past recall; they see no good, and leave none behind them.

II. His complaint of his present uneasiness is excusable, v. 27, 28. 1. It should seem he did his endeavour to quiet and compose himself, as his friends advised him. That was the good he would do: he would fain forget his complaints and praise God, would leave off his heaviness and comfort himself, that he might be fit for converse both with God and man; but, 2. He found he could not do it; "I am afraid of all my sorrows; then when I strive most against my trouble, it prevails most over me, and proves too hard for me!" It is easier, in such a case, to know what we should do than to do it; to know what temper we should be in than to get into that temper, and keep in it. It is easy to preach patience to those that are in trouble, and to tell them they must forget their complaints, and comfort themselves; but it is not so soon done as said. Fear and sorrow are tyrannizing things, not easily brought into the subjection they ought to be kept in to religion and right reason.

III. But his complaint of God, as implacable and inexorable, was by no means to be excused. It was the language of his corruption. He knew better things, and, at another time, would have been far from harbouring any such hard thoughts of God as now broke in upon his spirit, and broke out in these passionate complaints. Good men do not always speak like themselves; but God considers their frame, and the strength of their temptations; gives them leave afterward to unsay it by repentance, and will not lay it to their charge.

Job seems to speak here,

1. As if he despaired of obtaining from God any relief or redress of his grievances, though he should produce ever so good proofs of his integrity; "I know thou wilt not hold me innocent; my afflictions have continued so long upon me, and increased so fast, that I do not expect thou wilt ever clear up my innocency by delivering me out of them, and restoring me to a prosperous condition. Right or wrong, I must be treated as a wicked man; my friends will continue to think so of me, and God will continue upon me the afflictions which give them occasion to think so; why then do I labour in vain to clear myself, and maintain my own integrity?" v. 29. It is to ne purpose to speak in a cause that is already pre-judged. With men it is often labour in vain for the most innocent to go about to clear themselves; they must be adjudged guilty, though the evidence be ever so plain for them: but it is not so in our dealings with God, who is the Patron of oppressed innocency, and to whom it was never in vain to commit a righteous cause.

Nay, he not only despairs of relief, but expects that his endeavour to clear himself would render him yet more obnoxious; (v. 30, 31.) "If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my integrity ever so evident, it will be all to no purpose, judgment must go against me, thou shalt plunge me in the ditch," (the pit of destruction, so some, or rather the filthy kennel, or sewer,) "which will make me so offensive in the nostrils of all about me, that my own clothes shall abhor me, and I shall even loathe to touch myself." He saw his afflictions coming from God, those were the things that blackened him in the eye of his friends, and, upon that score, he complained of them, and of the continuance of them, as the ruin, not only of his comfort, but of his reputation. Yet these words are capable of a good construction. If we be ever so industrious to justify ourselves before men, and to preserve our credit with them, if we keep our hands ever so clean from the pollutions of gross sin, which fall under the eye of the world; yet God, who knows our hearts, can charge us with so much secret sin as will for ever take off all our pretensions to purity and innocency, and make us see ourselves odious in the sight of the holy God. Paul, while a Pharisee, made his hands very clean; but when the commandment came, and discovered to him his heart-sins, made him know lust, that plunged him in the ditch.

2. As if he despaired to have so much as a fair hearing with God, and that were hard indeed.

(1.) He complains that he was not upon even terms with God; (v. 32.) "He is not a man, as I am. I could venture to dispute with a man like myself, (the potsherds may strive with the potsherds of the earth,) but he is infinitely above me, and therefore I dare not enter the lists with him, I shall certainly be cast off if I contend with him." Note, [1.] God is not a man as we are. Of the greatest princes we may say, "They are men as we are," but not of the great God. His thoughts and ways are infinitely above ours, and we must not measure him by ourselves. Man is foolish and weak, frail and fickle, but God is not. We are depending, dying, creatures; he the independent and immortal Creator. [2.] The consideration of this should keep us very low, and very silent, before God. Let us not make ourselves equal with God, but always eye him as infinitely above us.

(2.) That there was no arbitrator or umpire to adjust the differences between him and God, and to determine the controversy; (v. 33.) Neither is there any daysman. This complaint that there was not, is, in effect, a wish that there were, and so the LXX read it; O that there were a mediator between us! Job would gladly refer the matter, but no creature was capable of being a referee, and therefore he must even refer it still to God himself, and resolve to acquiesce in his judgment. Our Lord Jesus is the blessed Daysman, who has mediated between Heaven and earth, has laid his hand upon us both; to him the Father has committed all judgment, and we must: but this matter was not then brought to so clear a light as it is now by the