Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 3.djvu/93

Rh unkindness of his friends to him, and to justify his own complaints. Let us see what his case was.

1. He was a dying man, v. 1. He had said, (ch. xvi. 22.) "When a few years are come, I shall go that long journey." But here he corrects himself, "Why do I talk of years to come? Alas! I am just setting out on that journey, am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand; my breath is already corrupt, or broken off, my spirits are spent, I am a gone man." It is good for every one of us thus to look upon ourselves as dying, and especially to think of it when we are sick. We are dying, that is, (1.) Our life is going, for the breath of life is going. It is continually going forth, it is in our nostrils, (Isa. ii. 22.) the door at which it entered; (Gen. ii. 7.) there it is upon the threshold, ready to depart. Perhaps, Job's distemper obstructed his breathing, and short breath will, after a while, be no breath. Let the Anointed ofthe Lord be the breath of our nostrils, and let us get spiritual life breathed into us, and that breath will never be corrupted. (2.) Our time is ending; My days are extinct, are put out, as a candle, which, from the first lighting, is continually wasting and burning down, and will by degrees burn out of itself, but may by a thousand accidents be extinguished. Such is life. It concerns us, therefore, carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for the days of eternity, which will never be extinct. (3.) We are expected in our long home; The graves are ready for me. But would not one grave serve? Yes, but 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," graves in consort, the congregation of the dead. Wherever we go, there is but a step between us and the grave. Whatever is unready, that is ready; it is a bed soon made. If the graves be ready for us, it concerns us to be ready for the graves. The graves for me, so it runs; denoting not only his expectation of death, but his desire of it; "I have done with the world, and have nothing now to wish for but a grave."

2. He was a despised man; (v. 6.) "He," (that is, Eliphaz, so some, or rather God, whom he all along acknowledges to be the Author of his calamities) "has made me a by-word of the people, the talk of the country, a laughing-stock to many, a gazing-stock to all; and aforetime, or, to men's faces, publicly, I was as a tabret, that whoever chose might play upon;" they made ballads of him; his name became a proverb; it is so still, ''As poor as Job. He has now made me a by-word'', a reproach of men, whereas, aforetime, in my prosperity, I was as a tabret. Deliciae humani generis-The darling of the human race, whom they were all pleased with. It is common for those who were honoured in their wealth, to be despised in their poverty.

3. He was a man of sorrows, v. 7. He wept so much, that he had almost lost his sight; Mine eye is dim by reason of sorrow, ch. xvi. 16. The sorrow of the world thus works darkness and death. He vexed so much, that he had fretted all the flesh away, and was become a perfect skeleton; nothing but skin and bones; "All my members are 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."

II. The ill use which his friends made of his miseries; they trampled upon him, and insulted over him, and condemned him as a hypocrite, because he was thus grievously afflicted. Hard usage! Now observe,

1. How Job describes it, and what construction he puts upon their discourses with him. He looks upon himself as basely abused by them. (1.) They abused him with their foul censures, condemning him as a bad man, justly reduced thus, and exposed to contempt, v. 2. "They are mockers, who deride my calamities, and insult over me, because I am thus brought low. They are so with me, abusing me to my face, pretending friendship in their visit, but intending mischief. I cannot get clear of them; they are continually tearing me, and they will not be wrought upon, either by reason or pity, to let fall the prosecution." (2.) They abused him too with their fair promises, for in them they did but banter him. He reckons them (v. 5.) among those that speak flattery to their friends. They all came to mourn with him; Eliphaz began with a commendation of him, ch. iv. 3. They had all promised him that he would be happy, if he would take their advice. Now all this he looked upon as flattery, and as designed to vex him so much the more. All this he calls their provocation, v. 2. They did what they could to provoke him, and then condemned him for his resentment of it; but he thinks himself excusable when his eye continued thus in their provocation; it never ceased, and he could never look off it. Note, The unkindness of those that trample upon their friends in affliction, that banter and abuse them then, is enough to try, if not to tire, the patience even of Job himself.

2. How he condemns it. (1.) It was a sign that God had hid their heart from understanding, (v. 4.) and that in this matter they were infatuated, and their wonted wisdom was departed from them. Wisdom is a gift of God, which he grants to some, and withholds from others, grants at some times, and withholds at other times. Those that are void of compassion, are so far void of understanding. Where there is not the tenderness of a man, one may question whether there be the understanding of a man. (2.) It would be a lasting reproach and diminution to them; Therefore shalt thou not exalt them. Those are certainly kept back from honour, whose hearts are hid from understanding. When God infatuates men, he will abase them. Surely they who discover so little acquaintance with the methods of Providence, shall not have the honour of deciding this controversy! That is reserved for a man of better sense, and better temper, such an one as Elihu afterward appeared to be. (3.) It would entail a curse upon their families. He that thus violates the sacred laws of friendship, forfeits the benefit of it, not only for himself, but for his posterity. "Even the eyes of his children shall fail, and when they look for succour and comfort from their own and their father's friends, they shall look in vain, as I have done, and be as much disappointed as I am in you." Note, Those that wrong their neighbours, may, in the end, wrong their own children more than they are aware of.

3. How he appeals from them to God; (v. 3.) Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee, that is, "Let me be assured that God will take the hearing and determining of the cause into his own hands, and I desire no more. Let some one engage for God to bring on this matter." Thus they whose hearts condemn them not, have confidence toward God, and can, with humble and believing boldness, beg of him to search and try them. Some make Job here to glance at the mediation of Christ, for he speaks of a Surety with God, without whom he durst not appear before God, nor try his cause at his bar; for though his friends' accusations of him were utterly false, yet he could not justify himself before God but in a Mediator. Our English annotations give this reading of the verse, "Appoint, I pray thee, my Surety with thee, namely, Christ, who is with thee in heaven, and has undertaken to be my Surety: let him plead my cause, and stand up for me; and who is he then that will strike upon mine hand?" that is, "Who dares then contend with me? Who shall lay any thing to my charge,