The prosperity of worldly people will fail them, when they expect to find safety and happiness in it. They seek to hold fast their estates, but God is plucking them out of their hands; and whose shall those things be which they have provided? or what the better will they be for them? The confidences of hypocrites will fail them; I tell you, I know you not. The house built on the sand will fall in the storm, when the builder most needs it, and had promised himself the benefit of it. When a wicked man dies, his expectation perishes. The ground of his hopes will prove false; he will be disappointed of the thing he hoped for, and his foolish hope, with which he buoyed himself up, will be turned into endless despair; and thus his hope will be cut off, his web, that refuge of lies, swept away, and he crushed in it.
3. They are here compared to a flourishing and well-rooted tree, which, though it do not wither of itself, yet will easily be cut down, and its place know it no more. The secure and prosperous sinner may think himself wronged when he is compared to a rush and a flag, he thinks he has a better root; "We will allow him his conceit," (says Bildad,) "and give him all the advantage he can desire, and yet bring him in suddenly cut off." He is here represented, as Nebuchadnezzar was in his own dream; (Dan. iv. 10.) by a great tree.
(1.) See this tree fair and flourishing, (v. 16.) like a green bay-tree, (Ps. xxxvii. 35.) green before the sun, that keeps its greenness in defiance of the scorching sun-beams, and his branch shoots forth under the protection of his garden-wall, and with the benefit of his garden-soil: see it fixed, and taking deep root, never likely to be overthrown by stormy winds, for his roots are interwoven with the stones; (v. 17.) it grows in firm ground, not as the rush, in mire and water. Thus does a wicked man, when he prospers in the world, think himself secure; his wealth is a high wall in his own conceit.
(2.) See this tree felled and forgotten notwithstanding; destroyed from his place, (v. 18.) and so entirely extirpated, that there shall remain no sign or token where it grew; the very place shall say, I have not seen thee; and the standers by shall say the same, I sought him, but he could not be found, Ps. xxxvii. 36. He made a great show and a great noise for a time, but he is gone of a sudden, and neither root nor branch left him, Mal. iv. 1. This is the joy, that is, this is the end and conclusion, of the wicked man's way, (v. 19.) this is that which all his joy comes to—The way of the ungodly shall perish, Ps. i. 6. His hope, he thought, would, in the issue, be turned into joy, but this is the issue, this is the joy, The harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow, Isa. xvii. 11. This is the best of it; and what then is the worst of it? But shall he not leave a family behind him to enjoy what he has? No, out of the earth, (not out of his roots,) shall others grow, that are nothing akin to him, and shall fill up his place, and rule over that for which he laboured. Others, namely, of the same spirit and disposition, shall grow up in his place, and be as secure as ever he was, not warned by his fall. The way of wordlings is their folly, and yet there is a race of them that approve their sayings, Ps. xlix. 13.
20. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil-doers; 21. Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. 22. They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling-place of the wicked shall come to nought.
Bildad here, in the close of his discourse, sums up what he had to say, in a few words, setting before Job life and death, the blessing and the curse; assuring him, that as he was, so he should fare, and therefore they might conclude, that as he fared, so he was.
1. On the other hand, if he were a perfect upright man, God would not cast him away, v. 20. Though now he seemed forsaken of God, he would yet return to him, and, by degrees, would turn his mourning into dancing, (Ps. xxx. 11.) and comforts should flow in upon him so plentifully, that his mouth should he filled with laughing, v. 21. So affecting should the happy change be, Ps. cxxvi. 2. They that loved him, would rejoice with him; but they that hated him, and had triumphed in his fall, would be ashamed of their insolence, when they see him restored to his former prosperity. God will not cast away an upright man; he may cast down for a time, but he shall not be cast away for ever; it is true, that, if not in this world, yet in another, the mouth of the righteous shall be filled with rejoicing. Though their sun should sit under a cloud, yet it shall rise again clear, never more to be clouded; though they go mourning to the grave, that shall not hinder their entrance into the joy of their Lord. It is true, that the enemies of the saints will be clothed with shame, when they see them crowned with honour. But it does not therefore follow, that, if Job were not perfectly restored to his former prosperity, he forfeited the character of a perfect man.
2. On the other hand, if he were a wicked man, and an evil doer, God would not help him, but leave him to perish in his present distresses; (v. 20. ) and his dwelling-place should come to naught, 22. And here, also, it is true that God will not help the evil-doers; they throw themselves out of his protection, and forfeit his favour; he will not take the ungodly by the hand, so it is in the margin, will not have fellowship and communion with them; for what communion between light and darkness? He will not lend them his hand to pull them out of the miseries, the eternal miseries, into which they have plunged themselves; they will then stretch out their hand to him for help, but it is too late, he will not take them by the hand: Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed. It is true, that the dwelling-place of the wicked, sooner or later, will come to naught. Those only who make God their dwelling-place, are safe for ever, Ps. xc. 1.—xci. 1. They who make other things their refuge, will be disappointed. Sin brings ruin on persons and families. Yet to argue, (as Bildad, I doubt, slily does,) that because Job's family was sunk, and he himself, at present, seemed helpless, therefore he certainly was an ungodly wicked man, was neither just nor charitable, as long as there appeared no other evidence of his wickedness and ungodliness. Let us judge nothing before the time, but wait till the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest; and the present difficulties of Providence be solved, to universal and everlasting satisfaction, when the mystery of God shall be finished.
CHAP. IX.
In this, and the following chapter, we have Job's answer to Bildad's discourse, wherein he speaks honourably of God, humbly of himself, and feelingly of his troubles; but not one word by way of reflection upon his friends, or their unkindness to him, nor in direct reply to what Bildad had said. He wisely keeps to the merits of the cause, and makes no remarks upon the person that managed it, nor seeks occasion against him. In this chapter, we have, I. The doctrine of God's justice laid down, v. 2. II. The proof of it, from his wisdom, and power, and sovereign dominion, v. 3..13. III. The application of it, in which, I. He condemns himself, as
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