An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828)/Job
AN
EXPOSITION,
WITH
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS,
OF THE BOOK OF
JOB.
This book of Job stands by itself, is not connected with any other, and is therefore to be considered alone. Many copies of the Hebrew Bible place it after the book of Psalms, and some after the Proverbs, which perhaps has given occasion to some learned men to imagine it to be written by Isaiah, or some of the later prophets. But, as the subject appears to have been much more ancient, so we have no reason to think but that the composition of the book was, and that therefore it is most fitly placed first in this collection of divine morals: also, being doctrinal, it is proper to precede, and introduce, the book of Psalms, which is devotional, and the book of Proverbs, which is practical; for how shall we worship or obey a God whom we know not?
As to this book,
I. We are sure that it is given by inspiration of God, though we are not certain who was the penman of it. The Jews, though no friends to Job, because he was a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, yet, as faithful conservators of the oracles of God committed to them, always retained this book in their sacred canon. The history is referred to by one apostle; (James, v. 11.) and one passage (ch. v. 13.) is quoted by another apostle, with the usual form of quoting scripture. It is written, 1 Cor. iii. 19. It is the opinion of many of the ancients, that this history was written by Moses himself in Midian, and delivered to his suffering brethren in Egypt, for their support and comfort under their burthens, and the encouragement of their hope that God would, in due time, deliver and enrich them, as he did this patient sufferer. Some conjecture that it was written originally in Arabic, and afterward translated into Hebrew, for the use of the Jewish church, by Solomon, (so Monsieur Jurieu,) or some other inspired writer. It seems most probable to me, that Elihu was the penman of it, at least of the discourses, because (ch. xxxii. 15, 16.) he mingles the words of an historian with those of a disputant: but Moses perhaps wrote the two first chapters and the last, to give light to the discourses; for in them God is frequently called Jehovah, but not once in all the discourses, except ch. xii. 9. That name was but little known to the patriarchs before Moses, Exod. vi. 3. If Job wrote it himself, some of the Jewish writers themselves own him a prophet among the Gentiles; if Elihu, we find he had a spirit of prophecy which filled him with matter, and constrained him, ch. xxxii. 18.
II. We are sure that it is, for the substance of it, a true history, and not a romance, though the dialogues are poetical. No doubt there was such a man as Job; the prophet Ezekiel names him with Noah and Daniel, Ezek. xiv. 14. The narrative we have here of his prosperity and piety, his strange afflictions and exemplary patience, the substance of his conferences with his friends, and God's discourse with him out of the whirlwind, with his return, at length, to a very prosperous condition, no doubt, is exactly true, though the inspired penman is allowed the usual liberty of putting the matter of which Job and his friends discoursed, into his own words.
III. We are sure that it is very ancient, though we cannot fix the precise time either when Job lived, or when the book was written. So many, so evident, are its hoary hairs, the marks of its antiquity, that we have reason to think it of equal date with the book of Genesis itself, and that holy Job was contemporary with Isaac and Jacob; though not co-heir with them of the promise of the earthly Canaan, yet a joint-expectant with them of the better country, that is, the heavenly. Probably, he was of the posterity of Nahor, Abraham's brother, whose first-born was Uz, (Gen. xxii. 21.) and in whose family religion was, for some ages, kept up, as appears, Gen. xxxi. 53. where God is called, not only the God of Abraham, but the God of Nahor. He lived before the age of man was shortened to 70 of 80, as it was in Moses's time; before sacrifices were confined to one altar; before the general apostasy of the nations from the knowledge and worship of the true God; and while yet there was no other idolatry known than the worship of the sun and moon, and that punished by the Judges, ch. xxxi. 26, 28. He lived while God was known by the name of God Almighty, more than by the name of Jehovah; for he is called Shaddai—the Almighty, above thirty times in this book: he lived while divine knowledge was conveyed, not by writing, but by tradition; for to that appeals are here made, ch. viii. 8.—xxi. 29.—xv 18.—v. 1. And we have therefore reason to think that he lived before Moses, because here is no mention at all of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, or the giving of the law. There is indeed one passage which might be made to allude to the drowning of Pharaoh, (ch. xxvi. 12.) He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab; which name Egypt is very frequently called by in scripture, as Ps. lxxxvii. 4.—lxxxix. 10., Isa. li. 9. But that may as well refer to the proud waves of the sea. We conclude therefore that we are here got back to the patriarchal age, and, beside its authority, we receive this book with veneration for its antiquity.
IV. We are sure that it is of great use to the church, and to every good Christian, though there are many passages in it dark and hard to be understood. We cannot perhaps be confident of the true meaning of every Arabic word and phrase we meet with in it. It is a book that finds a great deal of work for the critics; but enough is plain to make the whole profitable, and it was all written for our learning. This noble poem presents to us, in very clear and lively characters, these five things among others:—
1. A monument of primitive theology. The first and great principles of the light of nature, on which natural religion is founded, are here, in a warm, and long, and learned, dispute, not only taken for granted on all sides, and not the least doubt made of them, but by common consent plainly laid down as eternal truths, illustrated and urged as affecting commanding truths. Were ever the being of God, his glorious attributes and perfections, his unsearchable wisdom, his irresistible power, his inconceivable glory, his inflexible justice, and his incontestable sovereignty, discoursed of with more clearness, fulness, reverence, and divine eloquence, than in this book? The creation of the world, and the government of it, are here admirably described, not as matters of nice speculation, but as laying most powerful obligations upon us to fear and serve, to submit to, and trust in, our Creator, Owner, Lord, and Ruler. Moral good and evil, virtue and vice, were never drawn more to the life, (the beauty of the one and the deformity of the other,) than in this book; nor the inviolable rule of God's judgment more plainly laid down. That happy are the righteous, it shall be well with them; and wo to the wicked, it shall be ill with them. These are not questions of the schools, to keep the learned world in action, nor engines of state, to keep the unlearned world in awe; no, it appears by this book that they are sacred truths of undoubted certainty, and which all the wise and sober part of mankind have in every age subscribed and submitted to.
2. It presents us with a specimen of Gentile piety. This great saint descended, not from Abraham, but Nahor; or, if from Abraham, not from Isaac, but from one of the sons of the concubines that were sent into the east country; (Gen. xxv. 6.) or, if from Isaac, yet not from Jacob, but Esau; so that he was out of the pale of the covenant of peculiarity, no Israelite, no proselyte, and yet none like him for religion, nor such a favourite of heaven upon this earth. It was a truth, therefore, before St. Peter perceived it, that, in every nation, he that fears God, and works righteousness, is accepted of him, Acts X. 35. There were children of God scattered abroad, (John xi. 52.) beside the incorporated children of the kingdom, Matth. viii. 11, 12.
3. It presents us with an exposition of the book of Providence, and a clear and satisfactory solution of many of the difficult and obscure passages of it. The prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous, have always been reckoned two as hard chapters as any in that book; but they are here expounded, and reconciled with the divine wisdom, purity, and goodness, by the end of these things.
4. It presents us with a great example of patience, and close adherence to God, in the midst of the sorest calamities. Sir Richard Blackmore's most ingenious pen, in his excellent preface to his paraphrase on this book, makes Job a hero proper for an epic poem; for, (says he,) "He appears brave in distress, and valiant in affliction, maintains his virtue, and with that his character, under the most exasperating provocations that the malice of hell could invent, and thereby gives a most noble example of passive fortitude, a character no way inferior to that of the active hero," &c.
5. It presents us with an illustrious type of Christ, the particulars of which we shall endeavour to take notice of as we go along. In general, Job was a great sufferer, was emptied and humbled, but in order to his greater glory. So Christ abused himself, that we might be exalted. The learned Bishop Patrick quotes St. Jerom more than once speaking of Job as a type of Christ, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, who was persecuted for a time by men and devils, and seemed forsaken of God too, but was raised up to be an intercessor even for his friends that had added affliction to his misery. When the apostle speaks of the patience of Job, he immediately takes notice of the end of the Lord, that is, of the Lord Jesus, (as some understand it,) typified by Job, James v. 11.
In this book we have, (1.) The history of Job's sufferings, and his patience under them, (ch. i, ii.) not without a mixture of human frailty, ch. iii. (2.) A dispute between him and his friends upon them, in which, [1.] The opponents were Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. [2.] The respondent was Job. [3.] The moderators were, First, Elihu, ch. xxxii.··xxxvii. Secondly, God himself, ch. xxxviii.··xli. (3.) The issue of all in Job's honour and prosperity, ch. xlii. Upon the whole, we learn, that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but that, when the Lord delivers them out of all, the trial of their faith will be found to praise, and honour, and glory. CHAP. 1.
The history of Job begins here, with an account, I, Of his great piety in general, (v. 1.) and in a particular instance, v. 5. II. Of his great prosperity, v. 2..4. III. Of the malice of Satan against him, and the permission he obtained to try his constancy, v. 6..12. IV. Of the surprising troubles that befell him; the ruin of his estate, (v. 13..17.) and the death of his children, v. 18, 19. V. Of his exemplary patience and piety under these troubles, v. 20..22. In all which, he is set forth for an example of suffering affliction, from which no prosperity can secure us, but through which integrity and uprightness will preserve us.
1.THERE was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. 2. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. 3. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Concerning Job, we are here told,
I. That he was a man; therefore subject to like passions as we are. He was Ish, a worthy man, a man of note and eminency, a magistrate, a man in authority. The country he lived in was the land of Uz, in the eastern part of Arabia, which lay toward Chaldea, near Euphrates, probably not far from Ur of the Chaldees, whence Abraham was called. When God called one good man out of that country, yet he left not himself without witness, but raised up another in it to be a preacher of righteousness. God has his remnant in all places, sealed ones out of every nation, as well as out of every tribe of Israel, Rev. vii. 9. It was the privilege of the land of Uz to have so good a man as Job in it; now it was Arabia the Happy indeed: and it was the praise of Job, that he was eminently good in so bad a place; the worse others were round about him, the better he was.
His name Job, or Jjob, (some say,) signifies one hated, and counted as an enemy; others make it to signify one that grieves, or groans; thus the sorrow he carried in his name might be a check to his joy in his prosperity. Dr. Cave derives it from Jaab, to love, or desire, intimating how welcome his birth was to his parents, and how much he was the desire of their eyes; and yet there was a time when he cursed the day of his birth. Who can tell what the day may prove, which yet begins with a bright morning?
II. That he was a very good man, eminently pious, and better than his neighbours. He was perfect and upright. This is intended to show us, not only what reputation he had among men, (that he was generally taken for an honest man,) but what was really his character; for it is the judgment of God concerning him, and we are sure that is according to truth. 1. Job was a religious man, one that feared God, that is, worshipped him according to his will, and governed himself by the rules of the divine law in every thing. 2. He was sincere in his religion; he was perfect, not sinless; he himself owns, (ch. ix. 20.) If I say I am perfect, I shall be proved perverse. But, having a respect to all God's commandments, aiming at perfection, he was really as good as he seemed to be, and did not dissemble in his profession of piety; his heart was sound, and his eye single. Sincerity is gospel-perfection; I know no religion without it. 3. He was upright in his dealings both with God and man; was faithful to his promises, steady in his counsels, true to every trust reposed in him, and made conscience of all he said and did. See Isa. xxxiii. 15. Though he was not of Israel, he was indeed an Israelite without guile. 4. The fear of God reigning in his heart was the principle that governed his whole conversation. That made him perfect and upright, inward and entire for God, universal and uniform in religion; that kept him close and constant to his duty. He feared God, had a reverence for his majesty, a regard to his authority, and a dread of his wrath. 5. He dreaded the thought of doing what was wrong; with the utmost abhorrence and detestation, and, with a constant care and watchfulness, he eschewed evil, avoided all appearances of sin and approaches to it, and this, because of the fear of God, Neh. v. 15. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; (Prov. viii. 13.) and then, by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil, Prov. xvi. 6.
III. That he was a man who prospered greatly in this world, and made a considerable figure in his country. He was prosperous, and yet pious. Though it is hard and rare, it is not impossible, for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven: with God, even this is possible, and by his grace the temptations of worldly wealth are not insuperable. He was pious, and his piety was a friend to his prosperity; for godliness has the promise of the life that now is. He was prosperous, and his prosperity put a lustre upon his piety, and gave him, who was so good, so much greater opportunity of doing good. The acts of his piety were grateful returns to God for the instances of his prosperity; and, in the abundance of the good things God gave him, he served God the more cheerfully.
1. He had a numerous family; he was eminent for religion, and yet not a hermit; not a recluse, but the father and master of a family. It is an instance of his prosperity, that his house was filled with children, which are a heritage of the Lord, and his reward, Ps. cxxvii. 3. He had seven sons and three daughters, v. 2. Some of each sex, and more of the more noble sex, in which the family is built up. Children must be looked upon as blessings, for so they are, especially to good people, that will give them good instructions, and set them good examples, and put up good prayers for them. Job had many children, and yet he was neither oppressed nor uncharitable, but very liberal to the poor, ch. xxxi. 17, &c. Those that have great families to provide for ought to consider, that what is prudently given in alms is set out to the best interest, and put into the best fund for their children's benefit.
2. He had a good estate for the support of his family; his substance was considerable, v. 3. Riches are called substance, in conformity to the common form of speaking; otherwise, to the soul and another world, they are but shadows, things that are not, Prov. xxiii. 5. It is only in heavenly wisdom that we inherit substance, Prov. viii. 21. In those days, when the earth was not fully peopled, it was, as now, in some of the plantations, men might have land enough upon easy terms, if they had but wherewithal to stock it; and therefore Job's substance is described, not by the acres of land he was lord of, but,
(1.) By his cattle; sheep and camels, oxen and asses. The numbers of each are here set down, probably not the exact number, but thereabout, a very few under or over. The sheep are put first, because of most use in the family, as Solomon observes, (Prov. xxvii. 25, 26, 27.) Lambs for thy clothing, and milk for the food of thy household. Job, it is likely, had silver and gold, as well as Abraham; (Gen. xiii. 2.) but then men valued their own and their neighbours' estates by that which was for service and present use, more than by that which was for show and state, and fit only to be hoarded. As soon as God had made man, and provided for his maintenance by the herbs and fruits, he made him rich and great by giving him dominion over the creatures, Gen. i. 28. That, therefore, being still continued to man, notwithstanding his defection, (Gen. ix. 2.) is still to be reckoned one of the most considerable instances of men's wealth, honour, and power, Ps. viii. 6.
(2.) By his servants; he had a very good household or husbandry, many that were employed for him and maintained by him; and thus he both had honour and did good; yet thus he was involved in a great deal of care, and put to a great deal of charge. See the vanity of this world; as goods are increased, they must be increased that tend them and occupy them, and they will be increased that eat them; and what good has the owner thereof, save the beholding of them with his eyes? Eccles. v. 11.
In a word, Job was the greatest of all the men of the east; and they were the richest in the world: those were rich indeed who were replenished more than the east, Isa. ii. 6. margin. Job's wealth, with his wisdom, entitled him to the honour and power he had in his country, which he describes, ch. xxix. and made him sit chief. Job was upright and honest, and yet grew rich, nay, therefore grew rich; for honesty is the best policy, and piety and charity are ordinarily the surest ways of thriving. He had a great household and much business, and yet kept up the fear and worship of God; and he and his house served the Lord. The account of Job's piety and prosperity comes before the history of his great afflictions, to show that neither will secure us from the common, no, nor from the uncommon, calamities of human life. Piety will not secure us, as Job's mistaken friends thought, for all things come alike to all; prosperity will not, as a careless world thinks; (Isa. xlvii. 8.) I sit as a queen, and therefore shall see no sorrow.
4. And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day; and sent and railed for their three sisters, to eat and to drink with them. 5. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
We have here a further account of Job's prosperity and his piety.
I. His great comfort in his children is taken notice of as an instance of his prosperity; for our temporal comforts are borrowed, depend upon others, and are as those about us are. Job himself mentions it as one of the greatest joys of his prosperous estate, that his children were about him, ch. xxix. 5. They kept a circular feast at some certain times; (v. 4.) they went and feasted in their houses. It was a comfort to this good man, 1. To see his children grown up and settled in the world; all his sons were in houses of their own, probably married; and to each of them he had given a competent portion to set up with. They that had been olive-plants round his table, were removed to tables of their own. 2. To see them thrive in their affairs, and able to feast one another, as well as to feed themselves. Good parents desire, promote, and rejoice in, their children's wealth and prosperity, as their own. 3. To see them in health, no sickness in their houses; for that would have spoiled their feasting, and turned it into mourning. 4. Especially to see them live in love and unity, and mutual good affection; no jars or quarrels among them, no strangeness, no shyness one of another, no strait-handedness; but, though every one knew his own, they lived with as much freedom as if they had had all in common. It is comfortable to the hearts of parents, and comely in the eyes of all, to see brethren thus knit together; Behold, how good and how pleasant it is! Ps. cxxxiii. 1. 5. It added to the comfort, to see the brothers so kind to their sisters, that they sent for them to feast with them; who were so modest, that they would not have gone, if they had not been sent for. Those brothers that slight their sisters, care not for their company, and have no concern for their comfort, are ill-bred and ill-natured, and very unlike Job's sons. It seems their feast was so sober and decent, that their sisters were good company for them at it. 6. They feasted in their own houses, not in public houses, where they would be more exposed to temptations, and which were not so creditable.
We do not find that Job himself feasted with them; doubtless they invited him, and he would have been the most welcome guest at any of their tables; nor was it from any sourness or moroseness of temper, or for want of natural affection, that he kept away, but he was old and dead to those things, like Barzillai, (2 Sam. xix. 35.) and considered that the young people would be more free and pleasant, if there were none but themselves. Yet he would not restrain his children from that diversion which he denied himself. Young people may be allowed a youthful liberty, provided they flee youthful lusts.
II. His great care about his children is taken notice of as an instance of his piety: for that we are really, which we are relatively. Those that are good will be good to their children, and especially do what they can for the good of their souls. Observe, (v. 5. ) Job's pious concern for the spiritual welfare of his children.
1. He was jealous over them with a godly jealousy: and so we ought to be over ourselves and those that are dearest to us, as far as is necessary to our care and endeavour for their good. Job had given his children a good education, had comfort in them, and good hope concerning them; and yet he said, "It may be my sons have sinned in the days of their feasting, more than at other times; have been too merry, have taken too great a liberty in eating and drinking, and have cursed God in their hearts," that is, "have entertained atheistical, profane, thoughts in their minds, unworthy notions of God and his providence, and the exercises of religion." When they were full, they were ready to deny God, and to say, Who is the Lord? ready (Prov. xxx. 9.) to forget God, and to say, The power of our hand has gotten us this wealth, Deut. viii. 12, &c. Nothing alienates the mind more from God than the indulgence of the flesh.
2. As soon as the days of their feasting were over, he called them to the solemn exercises of religion: not while their feasting lasted; (Let them take their time for that; there is a time for all things;) but, when it was over, their good father reminded them that they must know when to take up, and not think to fare sumptuously every day; though they had their days of feasting the week round, they must not think to have them the year round; they had something else to do. Note, Those that are merry must find a time to be serious.
3. He sent to them to prepare for solemn ordinances, sent and sanctified them; ordered them to examine their own consciences, and repent of what they had done amiss in their feasting; to lay aside their vanity, and compose themselves for religious exercises. Thus he kept his authority over them for their good, and they submitted to it, though they were got into houses of their own. Still he was the priest of the family, and at his altar they all attended, valuing their share in his prayers more than their share in his estate. Parents cannot give grace to their children, (it is God that sanctifies,) but they ought, by seasonable admonitions and counsels, to further their sanctification. In their baptism they were sanctified to God; let it be our desire and endeavour that they may be sanctified for him.
4. He offered sacrifice for them, both to atone for the sins he feared they had been guilty of in the days of their feasting, and to implore for them mercy to pardon, and grace to prevent, the debauching of their minds, and corrupting of their manners, by the liberty they had taken, and to preserve their piety and purity.
For he, with mournful eyes, had often spy'd,
Scatter'd on Pleasure's smooth but treach'rous tide,
The spoils of virtue overpower'd by sense,
And floating wrecks of ruined innocence.
Sir R. Blackmore.
Job, like Abraham, had an altar for his family, on which, it is likely, he offered sacrifice daily; but, on this extraordinary occasion, he offered more sacrifices than usual, and with more solemnity, according to the number of them all, one for each child. Parents should be particular in their addresses to God for the several branches of their family; "For this child I prayed, according to its particular temper, genius, and condition;" to which the prayers, as well as the endeavours, must be accommodated.
When these sacrifices were to be offered, (1.) He rose early, as one in care that his children might not lie long under guilt, and as one whose heart was upon his work, and his desire towards it. (2.) He required his children to attend the sacrifice, that they might join with him in the prayers he offered with the sacrifice, that the sight of the killing of the sacrifice might humble them much for their sins, for which they deserved to die, and the sight of the offering of it up might lead them to a Mediator. This serious work would help to make them serious again, after the days of their gaiety.
Lastly, Thus he did continually; not only whenever an occasion of this kind recurred, for he that is washed, needs to wash his feet: (John, xiii. 10.) the acts of repentance and faith must be often renewed, because we often repeat our transgressions; but, all days, every day, he offered up his sacrifices, was constant to his devotions, and did not omit them any day. The occasional exercises of religion will not excuse us from those that are stated. He that serves God uprightly will serve him continually.
6. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. 7. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. 8. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? 9. Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 10. Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land: 11. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. 12. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thy hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
Job was not only so rich and great, but withal so wise and good, and had such an interest both in heaven and earth, that one would think the mountain of his prosperity stood so strong, that it could not be moved; but here we have a thick cloud gathering over his head, pregnant with a horrible tempest. We must never think ourselves secure from storms, while we are in this lower region.
Before we are told how his troubles surprised and seized him here in this visible world, we are here told how they were concerted in the world of spirits; that the Devil having a great enmity to Job for his eminent piety, begged and obtained leave to torment him. It does not at all derogate from the credibility of Job's story in general, to allow that this discourse between God and Satan, in these verses, is parabolical, like that of Micaiah, (1 Kings xxii. 19, &c.) and an allegory designed to represent the malice of the Devil against good men, and the divine check and restraint that malice is under. Only thus much further is intimated, that the affairs of this earth are very much the subject of the counsels of the unseen world. That world is dark to us, but we lie very open to it.
Now here we have,
I. Satan among the sons of God, (v. 6. ) an adversary (so Satan signifies) to God, to men, to all good. He thrust himself into an assembly of the sons of God, that came to present themselves before the Lord. This means, either, 1. A meeting of the saints on earth. Professors of religion, in the patriarchal age, were called sons of God; (Gen. vi. 2.) they had then their religious assemblies, and stated times for them. The king came in to see his guests; the eye of God was on all present: but there was a serpent in paradise, a Satan among the sons of God; when they come together, he is among them to distract and disturb them, stands at their right hand to resist them; the Lord rebuke thee, Satan! Or, 2. A meeting of the angels in heaven; they are the sons of God, ch. xxxviii. 7. They came to give an account of their negociations on earth, and to receive new instructions. Satan was one of them originally; but how art thou fallen, O Lucifer! He shall no more stand in that congregation; yet he is here represented as coming among them, either summoned to appear as a criminal, or connived at, for the present, though an intruder.
II. His examination, how he came thither; (v. 7.) The Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? He knew very well whence he came, and with what design he came thither; that, as the good angels came to do good, he came for a permission to do hurt; but he would, by calling him to an account, show him that he was under check and control. Whence comest thou? He asks this, 1. As wondering what brought him thither. Is Saul among the prophets? Satan among the sons of God? Yes, for he transforms himself into an angel of light, (2 Cor. xi. 13, 14.) and would seem one of them. Note, It is possible that a man may be a child of the Devil, and yet be found in the assemblies of the sons of God in this world, and there may pass undiscovered by men, and yet be challenged by the all-seeing God; Friend, how camest thou in hither? Or, 2. As inquiring what he had been doing before he came thither: the same question was perhaps put to the rest of them that presented themselves before the Lord, "Whence came you?" We are accountable to God for all our haunts, and all the ways we traverse.
III. The account he gives of himself, and the tour he had made. I come (says he) from going to and fro on the earth. 1. He could not pretend he had been doing any good, could give no such account of himself as the sons of God could, who presented themselves before the Lord, who came from executing his orders, serving the interest of his kingdom, and ministering to the heirs of salvation. 2. He would not own he had been doing any hurt; that he had been drawing men from their allegiance to God, deceiving and destroying souls; no, I have done no wickedness, Prov. xxx. 20. Thy servant went no whither. In saying that he had walked to and fro through the earth, he intimates that he had kept himself within the bounds allotted him, and had not transgressed his tether; for the dragon is cast out into the earth, (Rev. xii. 9.) and not yet confined to his place of torment. While we are on this earth, we are within his reach; and with so much subtlety, swiftness, and industry, does he penetrate into all the corners of it, that we cannot be in any place secure from his temptations. 3. He yet seems to give some representation of his own character. (1.) Perhaps it is spoken proudly, and with an air of haughtiness, as if he were indeed the prince of this world, as if the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them were his, (Luke iv. 6.) and he had now been walking in circuit through his own territories. (2.) Perhaps it is spoken fretfully, and with discontent; he had been walking to and fro, and could find no rest, but was as much a fugitive and a vagabond as Cain in the land of Nod. (3.) Perhaps it is spoken carefully; "I have been hard at work, going to and fro," or (as some read it) "searching about in the earth;" really in quest of an opportunity to do mischief. He walks about seeking whom he may devour. It concerns us therefore to be sober and vigilant.
IV. The question God puts to him concerning Job, (v. 8.) Hast thou considered my servant Job? As when we meet with one that has been in a distant place, where we have a friend we dearly love, we are ready to ask, "You have been in such a place; pray did you see my friend there?" Observe, 1. How honourably God speaks of Job; he is my servant. Good men are God's servants, and he is pleased to reckon himself honoured in their services, and that they are to him for a name and a praise, (Jer. xiii. l.) and a crown of glory, Isa. lxxxii. 3. "Yonder is my servant Job; there is none like him, none I value like him; of all the princes and potentates of the earth, one such saint as he is worth them all: none like him for uprightness and serious piety; many do well, but he excelleth them all; there is not to be found such great faith, no not in Israel." Thus Christ, long after held up the centurion and the woman of Canaan, who were both of them, like Job, strangers to that commonwealth. The saints glory in God; Who is like thee among the gods? And he is pleased to glory in them; Who is like Israel among the people? So here, none like Job, none in the earth, that state of imperfection; those in heaven do indeed far outshine him; those who are least in that kingdom are greater than he; but on earth there is none his like. There is none like him in that land: so some good men are the glory of their country.
2. How closely he gives to Satan this good character of Job, Hast thou set thy heart on my servant Job? Designing hereby, (1.) To aggravate the apostasy and misery of that wicked spirit; "How unlike him art thou!" Note, The holiness and happiness of the saints are the shame and torment ot the Devil and the Devil's children. (2.) To answer the Devil's seeming boast of the interest he had in this earth; "I have been walking to and fro in it," says he, "and it is all my own; all flesh have corrupted their way; they all sit still, and are at rest in their sins," Zech. i. 10, 11. "Nay hold," saith God, "Job is my faithful servant." Satan may boast, but he shall not triumph. (3.) To anticipate his accusations, as if he had said, "Satan, I know thine errand, thou art come to inform against Job; but hast thou considered him? Does not his unquestionable character give thee the lie?" Note, God knows all the malice of the Devil and his instruments against his servants; and we have an Advocate ready to appear for us, even before we are accused.
V. The Devil's base insinuation against Job, in answer to God's encomium of him. He cannot deny but that Job feared God, but suggests that he was mercenary in his religion, and therefore a hypocrite, (v. 9.) Doth Job fear God for naught? Observe, 1. How impatient the Devil was of hearing Job praised, though it was God himself that praised him. Those are like the Devil, who cannot endure that any body should be praised but themselves, but grudge at the just share of reputation others have, as Saul, (1 Sam. xviii. 5, &c.) and the Pharisees, Matth. xxi. 15. 2. How much at a loss he was for something to object against him; he could not accuse him of any thing that was bad, and therefore charges him with by-ends in doing good. Had the one half of that been true, which his angry friends, in the heat of dispute, charged him with, (ch. xv. 4.—xxii. 5.) Satan would, no doubt, have brought it against him now; but no such thing could be alleged, and therefore, 3. See how slily he censures him as a hypocrite; not asserting that he was so, but only asking, "Is he not so ?" This is the common way of slanderers, to suggest that, by way of query, which yet they have no reason to think is true; whisperers, backbiters! Note, It is not strange if those that are approved and accepted of God, be unjustly censured by the Devil and his instruments; if they are otherwise unexceptionable, it is easy to charge them with hypocrisy, as Satan charged Job, and they have no way to clear themselves, but patiently to wait for the judgment of God. As there is nothing we should dread more than being hypocrites, so there is nothing we need dread less than being called and counted so without cause. 4. How unjustly he accuses him as mercenary, to prove him a hypocrite. It was a great truth that Job did not fear God for naught; he got well by it, for godliness is great gain: but it was a falsehood that he would not have feared God if he had not got this by it, as the event proved. Job's friends charged him with hypocrisy, because he was greatly afflicted; Satan, because he greatly prospered. It is no hard matter for those to calumniate that seek an occasion. It is not mercenary to look at the eternal recompense, in our obedience; but to aim at temporal advantages in our religion, and to make it subservient to that, is spiritual idolatry, worshipping the creature more than the Creator, and is likely to end in a fatal apostasy; men cannot long serve God and mammon.
VI. The complaint Satan made of Job's prosperity, v. 10. Observe, 1. What God had done for Job. He had protected him, made a hedge about him, for the defence of his person, his family, and all his possessions. Note, God's peculiar people are taken under his special protection, they and all that belong to them; divine grace makes a hedge about their spiritual life, and divine providence about their natural life, so they are safe and easy. He had prospered him, not in idleness or injustice, (the Devil could not accuse him of them,) but in the way of honest diligence; Thou hast blessed the work of his hands; without that blessing, be the hands ever so strong, ever so skilful, the work will not prosper; but with that, his substance is wonderfully increased in the land: the blessing of the Lord makes rich; Satan himself owns it. 2. What notice the Devil took of it, and how he improved it against him. The Devil speaks of it with vexation; I see thou hast made a hedge about him, round about; as if he had walked it round, to see if he could spy ever a gap in it, for him to enter in at, to do him a mischief; but he was disappointed; it was a complete hedge. The wicked one saw it, and was grieved, and argued against Job, that the only reason why he served God was, because God prospered him. "No thanks to him to be true to the government that prefers him, and to serve a Master that pays him so well."
VII. The proof Satan undertakes to give of the hypocrisy and mercenariness of Job's religion, if he might but have leave to strip him of his wealth. "Let it be put to this issue," says he, v. 11. "make him poor, frown upon him, turn thine hand against him, and then see where his religion will be; touch what he has, and it will appear what he is. If he curse thee not to thy face, let me never be believed, but posted for a false accuser. Let me perish, if he curse thee not." So some supply the imprecation, which the Devil himself modestly concealed; but the profane swearers of our age impudently and daringly speak out. Observe, 1. How slightly he speaks of the affliction he desired that Job might be tried with; "Do but touch all that he has, do but begin with him, do but threaten to make him poor; a little cross will change his tone." 2. How spitefully he speaks of the impression it would make upon Job. "He will not only let fall his devotion, but turn it into an open defiance; not only think hardly of thee, but even curse thee to thy face." The word translated curse is barac, the same that ordinarily and originally signifies to bless; but cursing God is so impious a thing, that the holy language would not admit the name: but that, where the sense requires it, it must be so understood, is plain from 1 Kings xxi. 10··13. where the word is used concerning the crime charged on Naboth, that he did blaspheme God and the king.
Now, (1.) It is likely that Satan did think that Job, if impoverished, would renounce his religion, and so disprove his profession, and if so, (as a learned gentleman has observed in his Mount of Spirits,) Satan had made out his own universal empire among the children of men. God declared Job the best man then living: now, if Satan can prove him a hypocrite, it will follow that God had not one faithful servant among men, and that there was no such thing as true and sincere piety in the world, but religion was all a sham, and Satan was king de facto—in fact, over all mankind. But it appeared that the Lord knows them that are his, and is not deceived in any. (2.) However, if Job should retain his religion, Satan would have the satisfaction to see him sorely afflicted: he hates good men, and delights in their griefs, as God has pleasure in their prosperity.
VIII. The permission God gave to Satan to afflict Job for the trial of his sincerity. Satan desired God to do it, Put forth thy hand now. God allowed him to do it, (v. 12.) "All that he has is in thy hand; make the trial as sharp as thou canst, do thy worst at him." Now, (1.) It is matter of wonder that God should give Satan such a permission as this, should deliver the soul of his turtle-dove into the hand of the adversary, such a lamb to such a lion; but he did it for his own glory, the honour of Job, the explanation of Providence, and the encouragement of his afflicted people in all ages; to make a case, which, being adjudged, might be a useful precedent. He suffered Job to be tried, as he suffered Peter to be sifted; but took care that his faith should not fail, (Luke xxii. 32.) and then the trial of it was found unto praise, and honour, and glory, 1 Pet. i. 7. But, (2.) It is matter of comfort that God has the Devil in a chain, Rev. xx. 1. He could not afflict Job without leave from God first asked and obtained, and then no further than he had leave; "Only upon himself put not forth thine hand; meddle not with his body, but only with his estate." It is a limited power that the Devil has; he has no power to debauch men, but what they give him themselves, nor power to afflict men, but what is given him from above.
Lastly, Satan's departure from this meeting of the sons of God. Before they broke up, Satan went forth (as Cain, Gen. iv. 16.) from the presence of the Lord; no longer detained before him (as Doeg was, 1 Sam. xxi. 7.) than until he had accomplished his malicious purpose. He went forth, 1. Glad that he had gained his point; proud of the permission he had to do mischief to a good man; and, 2. Resolved to lose no time, but speedily to put his project in execution: he went forth now, not to go to and fro, rambling through the earth, but, with a direct course, to fall upon poor Job, who is carefully going on the way of his duty, and knows nothing of the matter. What passes between good and bad spirits concerning us, we are not aware.
13. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: 14. And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them; 15. And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 16. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burnt up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 17. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 18. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: 19. And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
We have here a particular account of Job's troubles:
I. Satan brought them upon him on the very day that his children began their course of feasting, at their eldest brother's house, (v. 13.) where, he having (we may suppose) the double portion, the entertainment was the richest and most plentiful. The whole family, no doubt, was in perfect repose, and all were easy, and under no apprehension of trouble, now when they revived this custom; and this time Satan chose, that the trouble, coming now, might be the more grievous; The night of my pleasure has he turned into fear, Isa. xxi. 4.
II. They all come upon him at once; while one messenger of evil tidings was speaking, another came; and, before he had told his story, a third, and a fourth, followed immediately. Thus Satan, by the divine permission, ordered it, 1. That there might appear a more than ordinary displeasure of God against him in his troubles, and by that he might be exasperated against Divine Providence, as if it were resolved, right or wrong, to ruin him, and not give him time to speak for himself. 2. That he might not have leisure to consider and recollect himself, and reason himself into a gracious submission, but might be overwhelmed and overpowered by a complication of calamities. If he have not room to pause a little, he will be apt to speak in haste, and then, if ever, he will curse his God. Note, The children of God are often heaviness, through manifold temptations: deep calls to deep, waves and billows, one upon the neck of another. Let one affliction therefore quicken and help us to prepare for another; for how deep soever we have drunk of the bitter cup, as long as we are in this world, we cannot be sure that we have drunk our share, and that it will finally pass from us. 3. They took from him all that he had, and made a full end of his enjoyments. The detail of his losses answers to the foregoing inventory of his possessions.
(1.) He had 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and a competent number of servants to attend them; and all those he lost at once, v. 14, 15. The account he has of this, lets him know, [1.] That it was not through any carelessness of his servants, for then his resentment might have spent itself upon them: the oxen were ploughing, not playing, and the asses not suffered to stray, and so taken up as waifs,*[1] but feeding beside them, under the servants' eye, each in their place; and they that passed by, we may suppose, blessed them, and said, God speed the plough. Note, All our prudence, care, and diligence, cannot secure us from affliction, no not from those afflictions which are commonly owing to imprudence and negligence. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman, though ever so wakeful, wakes but in vain; yet it is some comfort under a trouble, if it found us in the way of our duty, and not in any by-path. [2.] That it was through the wickedness of his neighbours the Sabeans, a sort of robbers, perhaps, that lived by spoil and plunder; they carried off the oxen and asses, and slew the servants that faithfully and bravely did their best to defend them, and one only escaped, not in kindness to him or his master, but that Job might have the certain intelligence of it by an eye-witness, before he heard it by a flying report, which would have brought it upon him gradually. We have no reason to suspect that either Job or his servants had given any provocation to these Sabeans to make this inroad; but Satan put it into their hearts to do it, to do it now, and so gained a double point, for he made both Job to suffer, and them to sin. Note, When Satan has God's permission to do mischief, he will not want mischievous men to be his instruments in doing it, for he is a spirit that works in the children of disobedience.
(2.) He had seven thousand sheep, and shepherds that kept them; and all those he lost at the same time by lightning, v. 16. Job was perhaps, in his own mind, ready to reproach the Sabeans, and fly out against them for their injustice and cruelty, when the next news immediately directs him to look upward; The fire of God is fallen from heaven. As thunder is his voice, so lightning is his fire: but this was such an extraordinary lightning, and levelled so directly against Job, that all his sheep and shepherds were not only killed, but consumed, by it at once, and one shepherd only left alive to carry the news to poor Job. The Devil, aiming to make him curse God and renounce his religion, managed this part of the trial very artfully, in order thereunto. [1.] His sheep, with which especially he used to honour God in sacrifice, were all taken from him, as if God were angry at his offerings, and would punish him in those very things which he had employed in his service. Having misrepresented Job to God as a false servant, in pursuance of his old design to set Heaven and earth at variance, he here misrepresented God to Job as a hard Master, who would not protect those flocks out of which he had so many burnt-offerings: this would tempt Job to say, It is in vain to serve God. [2.] The messenger called the lightning the fire of God, (and innocently enough,) but perhaps Satan thereby designed to strike into his mind this thought, that God was turned to be his enemy, and fought against him, which was much more grievous to him than all the insults of the Sabeans. He owns, (ch. xxxi. 23.) that destruction from God was a terror to him. How terrible then were the tidings of this destruction, which came immediately from the hand of God! Had the fire from heaven consumed the sheep upon the altar, he might have construed it into a token of God's favour; but the fire consuming them in the pasture, he could not but look upon it as a token of God's displeasure: there had not been the like since Sodom was burned.
(3.) He had three thousand camels, and servants tending them; and he lost them all at the same time by the Chaldeans, who came in three bands, and drove them away, and slew the servants, v. 17. If the fire of God, which fell upon Job's honest servants, who were in the way of their duty, had fallen upon the Sabean and Chaldean robbers who were doing mischief, God's judgments therein would have been, like the great mountains, evident and conspicuous; but when the way of the wicked prospers, and they carry off their booty, when just and good men are suddenly cut off, God's righteousness is like the great deep, the bottom of which we cannot find, Ps. xxxvi. 6.
(4.) His dearest and most valuable possessions were his ten children; and to conclude the tragedy, news is brought him, at the same time, that they were killed, and buried in the ruins of the house in which they were feasting, and all the servants that waited on them, except one that came express with the tidings of it, v. 18, 19. This was the greatest of Job's losses, and which could not but go nearest him; and therefore the Devil reserved it for the last, that, if the other provocations failed, this might make him curse God. Our children are pieces of ourselves; it is very hard to part with them, and touches a good man in as tender a part as any other. But to part with them all at once, and for them to be all cut off in a moment, who had been so many years his cares and hopes, went to the quick indeed. [1.] They all died together, and not one of them was left alive. David, though a wise and good man, was very much discomposed by the death of one son; how hard then did it bear upon poor Job, who lost them all, and, in one moment, was written childless! [2.] They died suddenly: had they been taken away by some lingering disease, he had had notice to expect their death, and prepare for the breach; but this came upon him without giving him any warning. [3.] They died when they were feasting and making merry: had they died suddenly, when they were praying, he might the better have borne it; he would have hoped that death had found them in a good frame, if their blood had been mingled with their sacrifices; but to have it mingled with their feast, where he himself used to be jealous of them, that they had sinned, and cursed God in their hearts—to have that day come upon them at unawares, like a thief in the night, when perhaps their heads were overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness; this could not but add much to his grief, considering what a tender concern he always had for his children's souls, and that they were now out of the reach of the sacrifices he used to offer, according to the number of them all. See how all things came alike to all. Job's children were constantly prayed for by their father, and lived in love one with another, and yet came to this untimely end. [4.] They died by a wind of the Devil's raising, who is the prince of the power of the air; (Eph. ii. 2.) but it was looked upon to be an immediate hand of God, and a token of his wrath. So Bildad construed it; (ch. viii. 4.) Thy children have sinned against him, and he has cast them away in their transgressions. [5.] They were taken away when he had most need of them to comfort him under all his other losses. Such miserable comforters are all creatures; in God only we have a present help at all times.
20. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21. And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. 22. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
The Devil had done all he desired leave to do against Job, to provoke him to curse God; he had touched all he had, touched it with a witness; he whom the rising sun saw the richest of all the men in the east, before night was poor to a proverb. If his riches had been, as Satan insinuated, the only principle of his religion, now that he had lost his riches, he had certainly lost his religion; but the account we have, in these verses, of his pious deportment under his affliction, sufficiently proved the Devil a liar, and Job an honest man.
I. He conducted himself like a man, under his afflictions; not stupid and senseless, like a stock or stone, not unnatural and unaffected at the death of his children and servants; no, (v. 20.) he arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, which were the usual expressions of great sorrow, to show that he was sensible of the hand of the Lord that was gone out against him; yet he did not break out into any indecencies, nor discover any extravagant passion; he did not faint away, but arose, as a champion to the combat; he did not, in a heat, throw off his clothes, but very gravely, in conformity to the custom of the country, rent his mantle, his cloke, or outer garment; he did not passionately tear his hair, but deliberately shaved his head; by all which it appeared that he kept his temper, and bravely maintained the possession and repose of his own soul, in the midst of all these provocations. The time when he began to show his feelings is observable; it was not till he heard of the death of his children, and then he arose, then he rent his mantle. A worldly unbelieving heart would have said, "Now that the meat is gone, it is well that the mouths are gone too; now that there are no portions, it is well that there are no children;" but Job knew better, and would have been thankful if Providence had spared his children, though he had had little or nothing for them, for Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide. Some expositors, remembering that it was usual with the Jews to rend their clothes when they heard blasphemy, conjecture that Job rent his clothes in a holy indignation at the blasphemous thoughts which Satan now cast into his mind, tempting him to curse God.
II. He conducted himself like a wise and good man, under his affliction, like a perfect and upright man, and one that feared God, and eschewed the evil of sin more than that of outward trouble.
1. He humbled himself under the hand of God, and accommodated himself to the providences he was under, as one that knew how to want as well as how to abound. When God called to weeping and mourning, he wept and mourned, rent his mantle, and shaved his head; and, as one that abased himself even to the dust before God, he fell down upon the ground, in a penitent sense of sin, and a patient submission to the will of God, accepting the punishment of his iniquity. Hereby he showed his sincerity; for hypocrites cry not when God binds them, Job xxxvi. 13. Hereby he prepared himself to get good by the affliction; for how can we improve the grief which we will not feel?
2. He composed himself with quieting considerations, that he might not be disturbed, and put out of the possession of his own soul by these events: he reasons from the common state of human life, which he describes with application to himself; Naked came I (as others do) out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither, into the lap of our common mother, the earth; as the child, when it is sick or weary, lays its head in its mother's bosom. Dust we were in our original, and to dust we return in our exit, (Gen. iii. 19.) to the earth as we were; (Eccl. xii. 7.) naked shall we return thither, whence we were taken, namely, to the clay, Job xxxiii. 6. St. Paul refers to this of Job, (1 Tim. vi. 7.) We brought nothing of this world's goods into the world, but have them from others; and it is certain that we can carry nothing out, but must leave them to others. We come into the world naked; not only unarmed, but unclothed, helpless, shiftless, not so well covered and fenced as other creatures. The sin we are born in, makes us naked to our shame, in the eyes of the holy God. We go out of the world naked; the body does, though the sanctified soul goes clothed, 2 Cor. v. 3. Death strips us of all our enjoyments; clothing can neither warm nor adorn a dead body. This consideration silenced Job under all his losses. (1.) He is but where he was at first; he looks upon himself only as naked, not maimed, not wounded: he was himself still his own man, when nothing else was his own, and therefore but reduced to his first condition. Nemo tam pauper potest esse quam natus est—No one can be so poor as he was when born. Min. Felix. If we are impoverished, we are not wronged, nor much hurt, for we are but as we were born. (2.) He is but where he must have been at last, and is only unclothed, or unloaded rather, a little sooner than he expected. If we put off our clothes before we go to bed, it is some inconvenience, but it may be the better borne when it is near bed-time.
3. He gave glory to God, and expressed himself upon this occasion with a great veneration for the Divine Providence, and an awful submission to its disposals; we may well rejoice to find Job in this good frame, because this was the very thing upon which the trial of his integrity was put, though he did not know it. The Devil said that he would, under his affliction, curse God; but he blessed him, and so proved himself an honest man.
(1.) He acknowledged the hand of God both in the mercies he had formerly enjoyed, and in the afflictions he was now exercised with: The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. We must own the Divine Providence, [1.] In all our comforts. God gave us our being, made us, and not we ourselves, gave us our wealth; it was not our own ingenuity or industry that enriched us, but God's blessing on our cares and endeavours; he gave us power to get wealth; not only made the creatures for us, but bestowed upon us our share. [2.] In all our crosses. The same that gave, hath taken away; and may he not do what he will with his own? See how he looks above instruments, and keeps his eye upon the First Cause; he does not say, "The Lord gave, and the Sabeans and Chaldeans have taken away; God made me rich, and the Devil has made me poor;" but, "He that gave, has taken;" and, for that reason, he is dumb, and has nothing to say, because God did it: He that gave all, may take which and when, how and how much, he pleases. Seneca could argue thus, Abstulit, sed et dedit—He took away, but he also gave; and Epictetus excellently, (cap. 15.) "When thou art deprived of any comfort, suppose a child taken away by death, or a part of thy estate lost, say not ἀπώλεσα ἀυτὸ—I have lost it; but, ἀπέδωκα—I have restored it to the right owner. But thou wilt object, (says he) κακὸς ὁ ἀφελομενος—He is a bad man, that has robbed me; to which he answers, τί δέ σοι μέλει—What is it to thee, by what hand he that gives remands what he gave?
(2.) He adores God in both. When all was gone, he fell down and worshipped. Note, Afflictions must not divert us from, but quicken us to, the exercise of religion. Weeping must not hinder sowing, nor hinder worshipping. He eyed not only the hand of God, but the name of God, in his afflictions, and gave glory to that, Blessed be the name of the Lord. He has still the same great and good thoughts of God that ever he had, and is as forward as ever to speak them forth to his praise; and can find in his heart to bless God, even when he takes away, as well as when he gives. Thus must we sing both of mercy and judgment, Ps. ci. 1. [1.] He blesses God for what was given, though now it was taken away. When our comforts are removed from us, we must thank God that ever we had them, and had them so much longer than we deserved. Nay, [2.] He adores God, even in taking away, and gives him honour by a willing submission; nay, he gives him thanks for good designed him by his afflictions, for gracious supports under his afflictions, and the believing hopes he had of a happy issue at last.
Lastly, Here is the honourable testimony which the Holy Ghost gives to Job's constancy and good conduct under his afflictions. He passed his trials with applause, v. 22. In all this. Job did not act amiss, for he did not attribute folly to God, nor in the least reflect upon his wisdom in what he had done. Discontent and impatience do, in effect, charge God with folly. Against the workings of these, therefore, Job carefully watched; and so must we, acknowledging, that as God has done right, but we have done wickedly, so God has done wisely, but we have done foolishly, very foolishly. They who not only keep their temper under crosses and provocations, but keep up good thoughts of God and sweet communion with him, whether their praise be of men or no, it will be of God, as Job here was.
CHAP. II.
We left Job honourably acquitted, upon a fair trial between God and Satan concerning him. Satan had leave to touch, to touch and take, all he had, and was confident that he would then curse God to his face; but, on the contrary, he blessed him, and so he was proved an honest man, and Satan a false accuser. Now, one would have thought, this had been conclusive, and that Job should never have had his reputation called in question again: but Job is known to be armour of proof, and therefore is here set up for a mark, and brought upon his trial, a second time. I. Satan moved for another trial which should touch his bone and his flesh, v. 1..5. II. God, for holy ends, permits it, v. 6. III. Satan smites him with a very painful and loathsome disease, v. 7, 8. IV. His wife tempts him to curse God, but he resists the temptation, v. 9, 10. V. His friends come to condole with him, and to comfort him, v. 11..13. And in this that good man is set forth for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.
1.AGAIN there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. 2. And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. 3. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. 4. And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life: 5. But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. 6. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; but save his life.
Satan, that sworn enemy to God and all good men, is here pushing forward his malicious prosecution of Job, whom he hated because God loved him, and did all he could to separate between him and his God, to sow discord, and make mischief, between them, urging God to afflict him, and then urging him to blaspheme God. One would have thought that he had enough of his former attempt upon Job, in which he was so shamefully baffled and disappointed; but malice is restless, the Devil and his instruments are so. They that calumniate good people, and accuse them falsely, will have their saying, though the evidence to the contrary be ever so plain and full, and they have been cast in the issue which they themselves have put it upon. Satan will have Job's cause called over again. The malicious, unreasonable, importunity of that great persecutor of the saints is represented, (Rev. xii. 10.) by his accusing them before our God day and night, still repeating and urging that against them which has been many a time answered: so did Satan here accuse Job day after day. Here is,
I. The court set, and the prosecutor, or accuser, making his appearance, (v. 1, 2.) as before, ch. i. 6, 7. The angels attended God's throne, and Satan among them. One would have expected him to come and confess his malice against Job, and his mistake concerning him; to cry, Peccavi—I have done wrong, for belying one whom God spake well of, and to beg pardon; but, instead of that, he comes with a further design against Job. He is asked the same question as before, Whence comest thou? And answers as before, From going to and fro in the earth; as if he had been doing no harm, though he had been abusing that good man.
II. The Judge himself of counsel for the accused, and pleading for him; (v. 3.) "Hast thou considered my servant Job better than thou didst, and art thou now at length convinced that he is a faithful servant of mine, a perfect and an upright man; for thou seest he still holds fast his integrity?" This is now added to his character as a further achievement; instead of letting go his religion, and cursing God, he holds it faster than ever, as that which he has now more than ordinary occasion for; he is the same in adversity that he was in prosperity, and rather better, and more hearty and lively in blessing God than ever he was, and takes root the faster for being thus shaken. See, 1. How Satan is condemned for his allegations against Job; Thou movedst me against him, as an accuser, to destroy him without cause. Or, "Thou in vain movedst me to destroy him, for I will never do that." Good men, when they are cast down, are not destroyed, 2 Cor. iv. 9. How well is it for us, that neither men nor devils are to be our judges, for perhaps they would destroy us, right or wrong; but our Judgment proceeds from the Lord, whose judgment never errs, or is biassed. 2. How Job is commended for his constancy, notwithstanding the attacks made upon him; "Still he holds fast his integrity, as his weapon, and thou canst not disarm him; as his treasure, and thou canst not rob him of that; nay, thine endeavours to do it make him hold it the faster; instead of losing ground by the temptation, he gets ground." God speaks of it with wonder, and pleasure, and something of triumph in the power of his own grace; Still he holds fast his integrity. Thus the trial of Job's faith was found to his praise and honour, 1 Pet. i. 7. Constancy crowns integrity.
III. The accusation further prosecuted, v. 4. What excuse can Satan make for the failure of his former attempt? What can he say to palliate it, when he had been so very confident that he should gain his point? Why, truly, he has this to say, Skin for skin, and all that a man has, will he give for his life. Something of truth there is in this, that self-love and self-preservation are very powerful commanding principles in the hearts of men. Men love themselves better than their nearest relations, even their children, that are pieces of themselves; will not only venture, but give, their estates to save their lives. All account life sweet and precious, and while they are themselves in health and at ease, they can keep trouble from their hearts, whatever they lose. We ought to make a good use of this consideration, and while God continues to us our life and health, and the use of our limbs and senses, we should the more patiently bear the loss of other comforts. See Matth. vi. 25.
But Satan grounds upon this an accusation of Job, slily representing him, 1. As unnatural to those about him, and one that laid not to heart the death of his children and servants, nor cared how many of them had their skins (as I may say) stripped over their ears, so long as he slept in a whole skin himself. As if he that was so tender of his children's souls, could be careless of their bodies, and, like the ostrich, hardened against his young ones, as though they were not his. 2. As wholly selfish, and minding nothing but his own ease and safety, as if his religion made him sour, and morose, and ill-natured. Thus are the ways and people of Gf;d often misrepresented by the Devil and his agents.
IV. A challenge given to make a further trial of Job's integrity; (v. 5.) "Put forth thine hand now, (for I find my hand too short to reach him, and too weak to hurt him,) and touch his bone and his flesh, (that is with him the only tender part, make him sick with smiting him, Mic. vi. 13.) and then, I dare say, he will curse thee to thy face, and let go his integrity." Satan knew it, and we find it by experience, that nothing is more likely to ruffle the thoughts, and put the mind into disorder, than acute pain and distemper of body. There is no disputing against sense. St. Paul himself had much ado to bear a thorn in the flesh, nor could he have borne it without special grace from Christ, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9.
V. A permission granted to Satan to make this trial, v. 6. Satan would have had God put forth his hand and do it; but he afflicts not willingly, nor takes any pleasure in grieving the children of men, much less his own children; (Lam. iii. 33.) and therefore, if it must be done, let Satan do it, who delights in such work: He is in thine hand, do thy worst with him; (but with a proviso and limitation;) only save his life, or his soul. Afflict him, but not to death. Satan hunted for the precious life, would have taken that if he might, in hopes that dying agonies would have forced Job to curse his God; but God had mercy in store for Job after this trial, and therefore he must survive it, and, however he is afflicted, must have his life given him for a prey. If God did not chain up the roaring lion, how soon would he devour us! As far as he permits the wrath of Satan and wicked men to proceed against his people, he will make it turn to his praise and their's, and the remainder thereof he will restrain, Ps. lxxvi. 10. "Save his soul," that is, "his reason;" (so some;) "preserve to him the use of that, for, otherwise, it will be no fair trial; if, in his delirium, he should curse God, that will be no disproof of his integrity. It would be the language not of his heart, but of his distemper."
Job, in being thus maligned by Satan, was a type of Christ, the first prophecy of whom was, that Satan should bruise his heel, (Gen. iii. 15.) and so he was foiled, as in Job's case. Satan tempted him to let go his integrity, his adoption; (Matth. iv. 6.) If thou be the Son of God. He entered into the heart of Judas who betrayed Christ, and (some think) with his terrors put Christ into his agony in the garden. He had permission to touch his bone and his flesh, without exception of his life, because by dying he was to do that which Job could not do; destroy him that had the power of death, that is the Devil.
7. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils, from the sole of his foot unto his crown. 8. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. 9. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die. 10. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
The Devil, having got leave to tear and worry poor Job, presently fell to work with him, as a tormentor first, and then a tempter. His own children he tempts first, and draws them to sin, and afterward torments, when thereby he has brought them to ruin; but this child of God he tormented with affliction, and then tempted to make a bad use of his affliction. That which he aimed at, was, to make Job curse God; now here we are told what course he took both to move him to it, and move it to him; both to give him the provocation, else it would be to no purpose to urge him to it, and to give him the information, else he would not have thought of it: thus artfully is the temptation managed with all the subtilty of the old serpent, who is here playing the same game against Job that he played against our first parents; (Gen. 3.) aiming to seduce him from his allegiance to his God, and to rob him of his integrity.
I. He provokes him to curse God, by smiting him with sore boils, and so making him a burthen to himself, v. 7, 8. The former attack was extremely violent, but Job kept his ground, bravely made good the pass, and carried the day: yet he is still but girding on the harness, there is worse behind; the clouds return after the rain; Satan, by the divine permission, follows his blow, and now deep calls unto deep.
1. The disease was very grievous with which Job was seized; Satan smote him with boils, sore boils, all over him, from head to foot; with an evil inflammation, so some render it; an erysipelas, perhaps, in a higher degree. One boil, when it is gathering, is torment enough, and gives a man abundance of pain and uneasiness. What a condition was Job then in, that had boils all over him, and no part free, and those of as raging a heat as the Devil could make them, and, as it were, set on fire of hell! The small-pox is a very grievous and painful disease, and would be much more terrible than it is, but that we know the extremity of it ordinarily lasts but a few days; how grievous then was Job's disease, who was smitten all over with sore boils or grievous ulcers, which make him sick at heart, put him to exquisite torture, and to spread themselves over him, that he could lay himself no way for any ease. If at any time we be exercised with sore and grievous distempers, let us not think ourselves dealt with any otherwise than as God has sometimes dealt with the best of his saints and servants. We know not how much Satan may have a hand (by divine permission) in the diseases with which the children of men, and especially the children of God, are afflicted; what infections that prince of the air may spread, what inflammations may come from that fiery serpent. We read of one whom Satan had bound many years, Luke xiii. 16. Should God suffer that roaring lion to have his will against any of us, how miserable would he soon make us!
2. His management of himself, in this distemper, was very strange, v. 8.
(1.) Instead of healing salves he took a potsherd, a piece of a broken pitcher, to scrape himself withal: a very sad pass this poor man was come to. When a man is sick and sore, he may bear it the better, if he be well tended and carefully looked after: many rich people have, with a soft and tender hand, charitably ministered to the poor in such a condition as this; even Lazarus had some ease from the tongues of the dogs that came and licked his sores; but poor Job has no help afforded him. [1.] Nothing is done to his sores but what he does himself, with his own hands. His children and servants are all dead, his wife unkind, ch. xix. 17. He has not wherewithal to fee a physician, or surgeon; and, which is most sad of all, none of those he had formerly been kind to had so much sense of honour and gratitude as to minister to him in his distress, and lend him a hand to dress or wipe his running sores, either because the disease was loathsome and noisome, or because they apprehended it to be infectious. Thus it was in the former days, as it will be in the last days; men were lovers of their own selves, unthankful, and without natural affection. [2.] All that he does to his sores is, to scrape them; they are not bound up with soft rags, nor mollified with ointment, not washed or kept clean: no healing plasters laid on them, no opiates, no anodynes, ministered to the poor patient, to alleviate the pain, and compose him to rest, nor any cordials to support his spirits; all the operation is the scraping of the ulcers, which, when they were come to a head, and began to die, made his body all over like a scurf, as is usual in the end of the small-pox. It would have been an endless thing to dress his boils one by one, he therefore resolves thus to do it by wholesale; a remedy which one would think as bad as the disease. [3.] He has nothing to do this with but a potsherd, no surgeon's instrument proper for the purpose, but that which would rather rake into his wounds, and add to his pain, than give him any ease. People that are sick and sore, have need to be under the discipline and direction of others, for they are often but bad managers of themselves.
(2.) Instead of reposing himself in a soft and warm bed, he sat down among the ashes. Probably he had a bed left him; (for, though his fields were stripped, we do not find that his house was burnt or plundered;) but he chose to sit in the ashes, either because he was weary of his bed, or because he would put himself into the place and posture of a penitent, who, in token of his self-abhorrence, lay in dust and ashes, ch. xlii. 6. Isa. lviii. 5. Jon. iii. 6. Thus did he humble himself under the mighty hand of God, and bring his mind to the meanness and poverty of his condition. He complains, (ch. ii. 5.) that his flesh was clothed with worms, and clods of dust; and therefore dust to dust, ashes to ashes. If God lay him among the ashes, there he will contentedly sit down; a low spirit becomes low circumstances, and will help to reconcile us to them. The Septuagint reads it, He sat down upon a dunghill without the city; (which is commonly said, in mentioning this story;) but the original says no more than that he sat in the midst of the ashes, which he might do in his own house.
II. He urges him, by the persuasions of his own wife, to curse God, v. 9. The Jews (who covet much to be wise above what is written) say that Job's wife was Dinah, Jacob's daughter: so the Chaldee paraphrase. It is not likely that she was; but, whoever it was, she was to him like Michal to David, a scoffer at his piety. She was spared to him, when the rest of his comforts were taken away, for this purpose, to be a troubler and tempter to him. If Satan leaves any thing that he has permission to take away, it is with a design of mischief. It is policy to send his temptations by the hand of those that are dear to us, as he tempted Adam by Eve, and Christ by Peter. We must therefore carefully watch, that we be not drawn to say or do a wrong thing by the influence, interest, or entreaty, of any, no not those for whose opinion and favour we have ever so great a value. Observe how strong this temptation was,
I. She banters Job for his constancy in his religion; "Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Art thou so very obstinate in thy religion, that nothing will cure thee of it? So tame and sheepish, as thus to truckle to a God, who is so far from rewarding thy services with marks of his favour, that he seems to take a pleasure in making thee miserable, strips thee, and scourges thee, without any provocation given? Is this a God to be still loved, and blessed, and served?"
Dost thou not see that thy devotion's vain?
What have thy prayers procur'd, but woe and pain?
Hast thou not yet thine int'rest understood?
Perversely righteous, and absurdly good?
Those painful sores, and all thy losses, show
How Heaven regards the foolish saints below.
Incorrigibly pious! Can't thy God
Reform thy stupid virtue with his rod?
Sir R. Blackmore.
Thus Satan still endeavours to draw men from God, as he did our first parents, by suggesting hard thoughts of him, as one that envies the happiness, and delights in the misery, of his creatures, than which nothing is more false. Another artifice he uses, is, to drive men from their religion, by loading them with scoffs and reproaches for their adherence to it: we have reason to expect it, but we are fools if we heed it: our Master himself has undergone it, we shall be abundantly recompensed for it, and with much more reason may we retort it upon the scoffers, "Are you such fools as still to retain your impiety, when you might bless God, and live?"
2. She urges him to renounce his religion, to blaspheme God, set him at defiance, and dare him to do his worst; "Curse God, and die; live no longer in dependence upon God, wait not for relief from him, but be thine own deliverer, by being thine own executioner, end thy troubles by ending thy life, better die once than be always dying thus; thou mayest now despair of having any help from thy God, even curse him, and hang thyself." These are two of the blackest and most horrid of all Satan's temptations, and yet such as good men have sometimes been violently assaulted with: nothing is more contrary to natural conscience than blaspheming God, nor to natural sense than self-murder; therefore the suggestion of either of these may well be suspected to come immediately from Satan. Lord, lead us not into temptation, not into such, not into any, temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
III. He bravely resists and overcomes the temptation, v. 10. He soon gave her an answer, (for Satan spared him the use of his tongue, in hopes he would curse God with it,) which showed his constant resolution to cleave to God, to keep his good thoughts of him, and not to let go his integrity.
See, 1. How he resented the temptations; he was indignant at having such a thing mentioned to him; "What! Curse God? I abhor the thought of it; get thee behind me, Satan." In other cases. Job reasoned with his wife with a great deal of mildness, even when she was unkind to him; (ch. xix. 17.) I entreated her for the children's sake of my own body. But when she persuaded him to curse God, he was much displeased; Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. He does not call her a fool, and an atheist, nor does he break out into any indecent expressions of his displeasure, as those who are sick and sore are apt to do, and think they may be excused; but he shows her the evil of what she said, that she spake the language of the infidels and idolaters, who, when they are hardly bestead, fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, Isa. viii. 21. We have reason to suppose, that, in such a pious household as Job had, his wife was one that had been well-affected to religion, but that now, when all their estate and comfort were gone, she could not bear the loss with that temper of mind that Job had; but that she should go about to infect his mind with her wretched distemper, was a great provocation to him, and he could not forbear thus showing his resentment. Note, (1.) Those are angry and sin not, who are angry only at sin, and take a temptation as the greatest affront; who cannot bear them that are evil, Rev. ii. 2. When Peter was a Satan to Christ, he told him plainly, Thou art an offence to me. (2.) If those whom we think wise and good, at any time speak that which is foolish and bad, we ought to reprove them faithfully for it, and show them the evil of what they say, that we suffer not sin upon them. (3.) Temptations to curse God ought to be rejected with the greatest abhorrence, and not so much as to be parleyed with: whoever persuades us to that, must be looked upon as our enemy, to whom if we yield it is at our peril. Job did not curse God, and then think to come off with Adam's excuse, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she persuaded me to it, (Gen. iii. 12.) which had in it a tacit reflection on God, his ordinance, and providence; no, if thou scornest, if thou cursest, thou alone shalt bear it.
2. How he reasoned against the temptation; Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil also? Those whom we reprove, we must endeavour to convince; and it is no hard matter to give a reason why we should still hold fast our integrity, even when we are stripped of every thing else. He considers that though good and evil are contraries, yet they do not come from contrary causes, but both from the hand of God; (Isa. xlv. 7. Lam. iii. 38.) and therefore that in both we must have our eye up unto him, with thankfulness for the good he sends, and without fretfulness at the evil. Observe the force of his argument,
(1.) What he argues for; not only the bearing, but the receiving, of evil; Shall we not receive evil? that is, [1.] "Shall we not expect to receive it? If God give us so many good things, shall we be surprised, or think it strange, if he sometimes afflict us, when he has told us that prosperity and adversity are set the one over-against the other?" 1 Pet. iv. 12. [2.] "Shall we not set ourselves to receive it aright?" The word signifies to receive as a gift, and denotes a pious affection and disposition of soul under our afflictions, neither despising them nor fainting under them, accounting them gifts; (Phil. i. 29.) accepting them as punishments of our iniquity; (Lev. xxvi. 41.) acquiescing in the will of God in them; ("Let him do with me as seemeth him good;") and accommodating ourselves to them, as those that know how to want as well as how to abound, Phil. iv. 12. When the heart is humbled, and weaned, by humbling weaning providences, then we receive correction, (Zech. iii. 2.) and take up our cross.
(2.) What he argues from; "Shall we receive so much good as has come to us from the hand of God, during all those years of peace and prosperity that we have lived; and shall we not now receive evil, when God thinks fit to lay it on us?" Note, The consideration of the mercies we receive from God, both past and present, should make us receive our afflictions with a suitable disposition of spirit. If we receive our share of the common good in the seven years of plenty, shall we not receive our share of the common evil in the years of famine? Qui sensit commodum, sentire debet et onus—He who feels the privilege, should prepare for the privation. If we have so much that pleases us, why should we not be content with that which pleases God? If we receive so many comforts, shall we not receive some afflictions, which will serve as foils to our comforts, to make them the more valuable; (we are taught the worth of mercies, by being made to want them sometimes;) and as allays to our comforts, to make them the less dangerous, to keep the balance even, and to prevent our being lifted up above measure? 2 Cor. xii. 7. If we receive so much good for the body, shall we not receive some good for the soul; that is, some afflictions, by which we partake of God's holiness; (Heb. xii. 10.) something which, by saddening the countenance, makes the heart better? Let murmuring, therefore, as well as boasting, be for ever excluded.
IV. Thus, in a good measure, Job still held fast his integrity; and Satan's design against him was defeated. In all this did not Job sin with his lips; he not only said this well, but all he said, at this time, was under the government of religion and right reason: in the midst of all these grievances, he did not speak a word amiss; and we have no reason to think, but that he also preserved a good temper of mind, so that though there might be some stirrings and risings of corruption in his heart, yet grace got the upper hand, and he took care that the root of bitterness might not spring up to trouble him, Heb. xii. 15. The abundance of his heart was for God, produced good things, and suppressed the evil that was there, which was out-voted by the better side. If he did think any evil, yet he laid his hand upon his mouth, (Prov. xxx. 32.) stifled the evil thought, and let it go no further; by which it appeared, not only that he had true grace, but that it was strong, and victorious; in short, that he had not forfeited the character of a perfect and upright man; for so he appears to be, who, in the midst of such temptation, offends not in word, Jam. iii. 2. Ps. xii. 3.
11 . Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him, and to comfort him. 12. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
We have here an account of the kind visit which Job's three friends made him in his affliction. The news of his extraordinary troubles spread into all parts; he being an eminent man, both for greatness and goodness, and the circumstances of his troubles being very uncommon. Some, who were his enemies, triumphed in his calamities; (ch. xvi. 10.—xix. 18.—xxx, 1, &c.) perhaps they made ballads on him: but his friends concerned themselves for him, and endeavoured to comfort him; a friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Three of them are here named, (v. 11.) Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. We shall meet with a fourth after, who, it should seem, was present at the whole conference, namely, Elihu; whether he came as a friend of Job, or only as an auditor, does not appear: these three are said to be friends, his intimate acquaintances, as David and Solomon had each of them one in their court, that was called the king's friend. These three were eminently wise and good men, as appears by their discourses; they were old men, very old, they had a great reputation for knowledge, and much deference was paid to their judgment, ch. xxxii. 6. It is probable that they were men of figure in their country—princes, or heads of houses. Now observe,
I. That Job, in his prosperity, had contracted a friendship with them: if they were his equals, yet he had not that jealousy of them; if his inferiors, yet he had not that disdain of them, which was any hinderance to an intimate converse and correspondence with them. To have such friends, added more to his happiness in the day of his prosperity, than all the heads of cattle he was master of. Much of the comfort of this life lies in acquaintance and friendship with those that are prudent and virtuous; and he that has a few such friends, ought to value them highly. Job's three friends are supposed to be all of them of the posterity of Abraham, which, for some descents, even in the families that were shut out from the covenant of peculiarity, retained some good fruits of that pious education which the father of the faithful gave to those under his charge. Eliphaz descended from Teman, the grandson of Esau; (Gen. xxxvi. 11.) Bildad (it is probable) from Shuah, Abraham's son by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 2. Zophar is thought by some to be the same with Zepho, a descendant from Esau, Gen. xxxi. 11. The preserving of so much wisdom and piety among those that were strangers to the covenants of promise, was a happy presage of God's grace to the Gentiles, when the partition wall should, in the latter days, be taken down. Esau was rejected; yet many that came from him inherited some of the best blessings.
II. That they continued their friendship with Job in his adversity, when most of his friends had forsaken him, ch. xix. 14. Two ways they showed their friendship,
1. By the kind visit they made him in his affliction, to mourn with him, and to comfort him, v. 11. Probably, they had been wont to visit him in his prosperity, not to hunt or hawk with him, not to dance or play at cards with him, but to entertain and edify themselves with his learned and pious converse; and now, that he was in adversity, they came to share with him in his griefs, as formerly they had come to share with him in his comforts. These were wise men, whose heart was in the house of mourning, Eccl. vii. 4. Visiting the afflicted, sick or sore, fatherless or childless, in their sorrow, is made a branch of pure religion and undefiled (Jam. i. 27.) and, if done from a good principle, will be abundantly recompensed shortly, Matth. xxv. 36. By visiting the sons and daughters of affliction, we may contribute to the improvement, (1.) Of our own graces; for many a good lesson is to be learned from the troubles of others; we may look upon them, and receive instruction, and be made wise and serious. (2.) Of their comforts; by putting a respect upon them, we encourage them, and some good word may be spoken to them, which may help to make them easy. Job's friends came, not to satisfy their curiosity with an account of his troubles, and the strangeness of the circumstances of them; much less, as David's false friends, to make invidious remarks upon him, (Ps. xli. 6··8.) but to mourn with him, to mingle their tears with his, and so to comfort him. It is much more pleasant to visit those in affliction, to whom comfort belongs, than those to whom we must first speak conviction.
Concerning these visitants, observe, [1.] That they were not sent for, but came of their own accord; (ch. vi. 22.) whence Mr. Caryl observes, that it is good mannners to be an unbidden guest at the house of mourning, and, in comforting our friends, to prevent their invitations. [2.] That they made an appointment to come. Note, Good people should make appointments among themselves for doing good, so exciting and obliging one another to it, and assisting and encouraging one another in it. For the carrying on of any pious design, let hand join in hand. [3.] That they came with a design (and we have reason to think it was a sincere design) to comfort him, and yet proved miserable comforters, through their unskilful management of his case. Many that aim well, by mistake, come short of their aim. 2. By their tender sympathy with him and concern for him in his affliction; when they saw him at some distance, he was so disfigured and deformed with his sores, that they knew him not, v. 12. His face was foul with weeping, (ch. xvi. 16.) like Jerusalem's Nazarites, that had been ruddy as the rubies, but were now blacker than a coal, Lam. iv. 7, 8. What a change will a sore disease, or, without that, oppressing care and grief, make in the countenance, in a little time! Is this Naomi? Ruth i. 19. So, Is this Job? How art thou fallen! How is thy glory stained and sullied, and all thine honour laid in the dust! God fit us for such changes!
Observing him thus miserably altered, they did not leave him, in a fright or loathing, but expressed so much the more tenderness toward him.
(1.) Coming to mourn with him, they vented their undissembled grief in all the then usual expressions of that passion; they wept aloud; the sight of them, (as is usual,) revived Job's grief, and set him a-weeping afresh, which fetched floods of tears from their eyes. They rent their clothes, and sprinkled dust upon their heads, as men that would strip themselves, and abase themselves, with their friend that was stripped and abased.
(2.) Coming to comfort him, they sat down with him upon the ground, for so he received visits; and they, not in compliment to him, but in true compassion, put themselves into the same humble and uneasy place and posture. They had many a time, it is likely, sitten with him on his couches, and at his table, in his prosperity, and were therefore willing to share with him in his grief and poverty, because they had shared with him in his joy and plenty. It was not a modish short visit that they made him, just to look upon him and be gone; but, as those that could have no enjoyment of themselves, if they had returned to their place, while their friend was in so much misery, they resolved to stay with him till they saw him mend or end, and therefore took lodgings near him, though he was not now able to entertain them as he had done, and they must therefore bear their own charges. Every day, for seven days together, at the hours in which he admitted company, they came and sat with him, as his companions in tribulation, and exceptions from that rule, Nullus ad admissas ibit amicus opes—They who have lost their wealth, are not to expect the visits of their friends.
They sat with him, but none spake a word to him, only they all attended to the particular narratives he gave of his troubles. They were silent, as men astonished and amazed; Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent—Our lighter griefs have a voice; those which are more oppressive, are mute; or, according to Sir R. Blackmore,
So long a time they held their peace, to show
A reverence due to such prodigious woe.
They spake not a word to him, whatever they said one to another, by way of instruction, for the improvement of the present providence. They said nothing to that purport to which afterward they said much—nothing to grieve him; (ch. iv. 2.) because they saw his grief was very great already, and they were loath at first to add affliction to the afflicted. There is a time to keep silence, when either the wicked is before us, and by speaking we may harden them, (Ps. xxxix. 1.) or when by speaking we may offend the generation of God's children, Ps. lxxiii. 15. Their not entering upon the following solemn discourses till the seventh day, may perhaps intimate that it was the sabbath-day, which, doubtless, was observed in the patriarchal age, and to that day they adjourned the intended conference, because, probably, then company resorted, as usual, to Job's house, to join with him in his devotions, who might be edified by the discourse. Or rather, by their silence so long, they would intimate, that what they afterwards said was well considered and digested, and the result of many thoughts. The heart of the wise studies to answer. We should think twice before we speak once, especially in such a case as this, think long, and we shall be the better able to speak short and to the purpose.
CHAP. III.
Ye have heard of the patience of Job, says the apostle, Jam. v. 11. So we have, and of his impatience too. We wondered that a man should be so patient as he was; (ch. i. and ii.) but we wondered also, that a good man should be so impatient as he is here in this chapter, where we find him cursing his day, and, in passion, I. Complaining thathe was born, v. 1..10. II. Complaining that he did not die as soon as he was born, v. 11..19. III. Complaining that his life was now continued when he was in misery, v. 20..26. In this, it must be owned that Job sinned with his lips, and it is written, not for our imitation, but our admonition, that he who thinks he stands, may take heed lest he fall.
1.AFTER this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. 2. And Job spake, and said, 3. Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. 4. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. 5. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. 6. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. 7. Lo, let that night be solitary; let no joyful voice come therein. 8. Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning. 9. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day: 10. Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
Long was Job's heart hot within him; while he was musing, the fire burned, and the more for being stifled and suppressed; at length, he spake with his tongue, but not such a good word as David spake after a long pause, Lord, make me to know my end, Ps. xxxix. 3, 4. Seven days the prophet Ezekiel sat down astonished with the captives, and then (probably on the sabbath-day) the word of the Lord came to him, Ezek. iii. 15, 16. So long Job and his friends sat thinking, but said nothing; they were afraid of speaking what they thought, lest they should grieve him, and he durst not give vent to his thoughts, lest he should offend them. They came to comfort him, but, finding his afflictions very extraordinary, they began to think comfort did not belong to him, suspecting him to be a hypocrite, and therefore they said nothing. But losers think they may have leave to speak, and therefore Job gives vent first to his thoughts. Unless they had been better, it had been well if he had kept them to himself.
In short, he cursed his day, the day of his birth, wished he had never been born, could not think or speak of his own birth without regret and vexation. Whereas men usually observe the annual return of their birth-day with rejoicing, he looked upon it as
- ↑ * Goods found, but unclaimed.——Ed.