PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Job
George Rawlinson [1812-1902] · 615,689 words · 663 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 181
ment for the immortality or the eoul. Hod that idea come within the horizon of Job'e vision, hie analogy would have afforded him profound comfort. 2. Gontraet between the careful production and preservation, and the seeming reckless destruction of tM creature. (Vera. 10-17.) On the one hand we see (vers. 10, 11) the m…
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Vers. 1-7.-The s11prliratonJ <::r,1/ of deep sorrow. This is the cry of one who declares," My soul is weary of my life." He opens his lips that the stream of hie "complaint" may flow forth unchecked. Yet is he humble and subdued, though he adopts Almost the tone of ~xpostulation. He bllS confessed himself to be uneq…
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Vera. 13-17.-The hidden purposes of aiftiction. Job has reasoned much, and he has asked for an explanation of the Divine purpose. "Wherefore contendest thou with me?" Doubtless he judges, as do bis friends, that suffering is the natural consequence and certain punishment of wrong-doing. But he is conscientious in affir…
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God seem to aot as though he he.cl man's limited vision? Questions of this sort seem to be perplexing Job. How can they be met? I. Goo SEES us TRULY AB WE ARE. It is no attribnte of infinity to be above seeing what is BmRII. Because God is infinite he can descend to the infinitely little as well as comprehend the infi…
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who W&ll merely indifferent to his oreatures would not from the first plan their deatruc- tiuu. l fit is su~,::ested thl\t God might do this to display his own glory, the reply is th11.t such 11.n action could disph1y no glory, but the reverse. 'l.'o say that God may do as he will with his own is irrele~ant. His absolu…
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thought, His tremendous troubles, and the cruel accusations of his friends, have driven him to the conclusion that God must havo conreived the idea of thus t"rmentin" him long before Job knew anything of it; that Gori m11st have hidden the u.rea.lrt~ purposu in his heart; that all the while Job wa~ compb1cently enjo…
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EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XI. amathite, 8.11d aald (see the comment on eh. ii 11). Vem. 1-20.-Zophar,the Na.a.mathite, the Ver. 2.---Shonld not the multitude of words &Lird of Job's comforters (eh. ii. 11), and be answered 1 A " multitude of words " i11 often reproved in Scripture, and taken as a probably the youngeet of…
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Ver. 1.-J!'or thou haat aald, Jlrly dootrine one sense, all men do well to profess them./ is pure. Job hl\d certninly not eBid this in selves" Agnostics "-not that they can kn()wl eo mBny words. In fBct, he hBd not spoken nothing of God, but that they can never', of his "dootrino" (np~), nor hBd he co.lled know him ful…
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prdencc, false seeming, much more oim be up thy taoe without spot. At present, detect l\otual wickedness; which 7,opbar Zophar implies, he could not do so. The 11.esumee to have been detected in Job's CASe. stain of many sins WI\B on him (vcrs. G, 11, Will he not then consider it? mthcr, euen 14). Yea, thou shalt be…
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knew that Job wholly repudiated. Yee, shall make suit unto thee. On the contra.ry &lion she.It dig about thee, Bo Scholtens, thy a.id shall be invoked, thy interferen~ who understtLnde it to menn thtLt Job ehe.11 on their behalf prayed for, by many. dig a moo.t o.rouad hls habito.tion, to mBke Ver. 20.-Had Zophar ended…
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II. ZoPHAB'B OPINIONS OONOERNING GoD. Zopbar suggests \hat, if God appeared to Job, he would be found: 1. Irresistiblf! m teaching. "Oh that God would speak, and open his lips against [or, 'with thee']" (ver. 6). Thy complaints would then be silenced by the convincing light of God's revelations I What Zophar hero de…
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ebould be derived from the etudy of eo grand a truth. 1. Sulnmssion. It should eilence all murmuringe against afflictive diepensations. 2. Repentamce. It ought to fill the human apirit with devout contrition. 3. Hope. It should teach man to "nccount the long-euffering of our God salvation." Vere. 1-12.-Zophar to Job: …
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V ors. 13-20.-Zophar to Job: 3. An exhortation to repentance. I. Tm: ACTINGB OF PEKITENCE. 1. Preparatioo of the heart. "If thou prepare [literally, •direct'] thy heart," i.e. towards God. True penitence is a heart-work, beginning in the heart, relating to the heart, and car,i.ed on by the heart, thongh not without D…
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the renunciation of ein (1 Sam. vii. 3; Pe. :u:xiv.14; Isa. i. 16; Iv. 7; Jer. vii. 5; Matt. iii. 8), And this renunciation must be complete, (1) 'fhe sin itself must be p11t aw11y; all kind of i ~ n wickednee~, secret iniquity, personal transgression, dome8tic wrong-doing, so far as thie latter lies within one's power…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-20.-" H'll,mble g(J'll,rselvu beneath the mighty hand of God." Zophal", the youngest of the friends, now comes forward once more to beat down the complaint of Job with the old arguments and commonplaces. To support his words, he does not appeal to a vision like Eliphaz, nor rely…
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again and again illustrated in Divine things the truth that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing," Ill. CHALLENGE TO HUM AN IGNORANCE: THE UNBEAR0HA BLENEBS 01!' Goo. (Vere. 7-9.) All measures of vastness, all ideas of infinity, a.re called in to impress this thought. The might and the wisdom of God are high as th…
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CMM/ul, hope in toil; the respect ancl homage of frienda and n1if,Of'e, For there 1B ROroe- thing magnetic in piety and goodness; it seems a kind of amber which attmcta to Itself, Buch will be, ever are, the fruits of a hen.rt free from guile, and at peace with God. Zophar'e ent.husiaetic picture ie fitted to kindle…
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Vers. 7-12.-Man humbled before God. Vain man reasons upon the ways of God, and presumes to penetra.t.e to .the depths of the Divine wil!dom, A profe.esed wisdom OH, xl. 1-20,] TtlE 1'ooK OP JOB. 203 --- -- - --------- lands him In folly. To see.le the hea\'en8 is as easy as to "find out the Almighty to perfection," t…
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Ver. 1.-Zophar, ~ man qf the world. After the Her nnd the pedant oome1 Zophnr, who poae11 u the man of the world. He oan pretend t.o no aupornnturo.l illu111inatio11, neither hu he any claim, to put forth on tho eoore of learning; but ho thi11k11 he knowa men, he prides himself on hi• oommon ■ense, the ways of the w…
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lie rurloly a<ldreAAeA Job 1111,. a man run of talk." Ho ha11 been trrltatt.d by the,. mult\tndo of wnrcla" that Job h11A poured forth. The very volume of the patri&rch'11 diBOO,irR11 provokus the mnn of the world to mnlce a roply. I. 'l'ma ovmmrr,ow 011' ll'Jllmt,mo ll'll'l'IJA Vlll'IT JIii A MUJ,T?TUDP: OJ' WORDII. …
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Ver. 7.-The unsearcJia:ble depth of God. It has been said that Zophar shows "some touch of the base courtier spirit and motive" in 1,thus eulogizing the wisdom of God. He seems to wish to secure God on his side. While he rebukes Job he flatters God. Nevertheless, though his motive may be unworthy, the question which…
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thought about him; and theology ie not e'imply the science of man's religion. We know God truly, ns far as our knowledge oxtends. Yet we know but a very little of God. 'l'herefore let us lenrn humility, patience, fe.ith. We can never know all, but we may know more, Therefore let us "follow on to know the Lord" (Hos. vi…
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EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XIl. u yon. " I, however, claim to have just ae much understanding [literally, 'heart'] as The diacomBe of Joh, here begun, oontinues you, and to be just as well entitled to spee.k, through three cbaptel'B ( eh. xii., :xiii., xiv.). and to claim attention ; " since I am not It is thought to form …
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there iR eontempt for misfortune; it (i.e. con- 6-12, 21; ii. 1-7; xxxviii. 1; xl 1, 3 6 • tempt) is readp for tl1em whose foot slippeth. xiii. 1, 7-12). The writer probo.hly re",:rd~ The meaning 1s, " I nm despisocl nncl scorned the name ae unfamiliar, if not unkno;n, to by you who sit nt ease, becr1uso mv foot hits …
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There oan be no opening, No other power nbjoots, and then lets them lie carried away Cft.n give releneo. oopti ve by their enemies. The latter i■ Yer. 15. -Behold, he withholdeth the perhaps the more probable sense. water1, 11nd they dry up. God, 11t his pie&• Ver. 19.-He leadeth princea away ■polled; !lnrt1, "Rlls…
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concooler.l, shall be one day mede known dimensions, and then after a while shrinking (Mott. x. 26). Many IU"e laid bare even in back A.gain to their original narrow limits. tho lifetime of their devisers. Egypt, Elam, Babylon, ancl the Hittite na- Ver. 23.-He inoreaeeth the nations, and tion were cnses in point. deat…
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:rhilo~ophy, are eerred up with the air of, and made to do duty for, original discoveries. Yet it i6 proper to remember that truth once apprehended by the mind docs not deteriorate, or become less ,·11luable, by Rge. Besides, it is of more consequence that a doctrine i;hould be true than that it should be new. Still…
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rent testimony of all paet e.gee, by the histories, e.g. of Abel, of Joseph, of David of Ohriet; while it is BUNtained by the voice of all contemporary observation. 2. The prosperous fortnnes of tlie bad. Apt illustrations were at hand in the seemingly unchanging sucoeee which waited on the footsteps of those marauding…
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tbe epvrow, and tbe robin? Onn greater plunderers be found than the vast aquatio monsters, the whale, the shark, and the crocodile, which roam through the deep, 11triking terror among the lesoor tiibes that haunt the seas? And yet "who k·noweth not in all these that the hand of Jehovah bath wrought this, in whOl!e han…
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eo, rel\eone Job, will the providential government of God be seen, when thoroucrhly examined, to reflect the matchless wisdom of hie omniscient mind, and attest the mensureleee force of his almighty hand, II, Ae ABSOLUTELY SOVEREIGN AND BESIBTLESS. "Behold, he breaketh down, and It cannot be built again: he shuttet…
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how, and l1mds us in ent~rpri8cB and modes of naUonal activity alien and opr,osed to lhO!!e towRrds which our subt.lest politicians supposed they were guiding us ' (Cox). (2) N alional movements. "He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: be enlarget,b the na.tinns, and strait.eneth them age.in" (ver. 23). The…
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a butt for la.ughter and scorn. He ce.lle now and God no longer hee.re (ver, 4). 2. Th 8 fojustice of human opinion. (Ver. 6.) "Contempt belongs to misfortune, in the opinion of the secure." A. true description of the opinion of the world. If "nothing succeeds like success," then nothing damns like failure in the commo…
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III. HE BRINGS NEW nrscoVERIBS OF TRUTH TO LIGHT, (Ver. 22.) This is the revelation of God in history, and its pa.ge is fall of illnstrstions. The calling of Abra..ha.m; the raising up of Moses; the deliverance of Israel; the elevation of David, the" rod out of his stem," the lowly Messiah; the progress of the go9pel a…
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Vera. 7-10.-The testimony of the creature to the Divine government. Job again vindicates himself in presence of his accusing friends. He professes his knowledge to be as theirs, and he even points them to the lower animals to find wisdom from them. The very beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, the fruitful field…
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being exposed, Now, irony is a method or showing a thin& in an unexpected liaht so tho.t, while admitting all its claims, we make it apparnnt that those very claim~ are o.bsurd, Slight failings will be best castigated with simple ridicule; more serious ones, if they are not great sine, with grave irony. III. PRETENTI…
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"In oontemplation of created things By steps we may ascend to God." (Milton.) 2. D.e grmler i.nt,,i/J,i,gen of man. "But ask now the beasts, and they sb~l teach ihee , , _ though those dull brutes knew: what u::an bad missed discovering, So the lord of creation is sent to be a pupil of hie humblest subjec~ Of cour…
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Vers. 13-25.-The wisdom and might of God. Job meets his friend's authoritative utterances of proverbs and worldly maxims by a citation of simil:u- sayings, but wiili a different import. It is not true that the righteous always prosper, and that th;i wicked always suffer. Such a primitive notion implies too authropocent…
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CHAPTER XIII. Ver. 8.-Burely I would 1111eak to the Almighty. It is not Job's wish t.o argue Vere. 1, 2.-The first two verses of eh. his case with his three friends, but to reason xiii. are closely connected with eh. xii., it ont with God. His friends, however, forming the natural termination to the first interfere w…
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If they do not do good, the harm that they oeedinga? Is not your real motive to ourry mn'\' do is ince.lcule.ble. ravour with him beoaUBe he is BO gree.t o.na "\' er. 6.--Hear now my rea■oning. As his powerful ? " Or a■ on'e man mooket.l:i lil1other, friends have not kept silenoe, but bave11poken, do ye eo mook him …
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ple.ined by the pe.re.llel in the second mem- be juatitied. I e.m confident, l.e., th11.t tho ber of the verse. The genere.l manning is, oe.UBe, if it be fully heard, will be rlec:ded "Why do I jeopardize everything-my body, in my favour. It will e.ppee.r that I he.ve taking it as it were between my teeth; and not b…
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he.d been mugbt t.o ~<'e the h!\nd of God in God's goodneBB and 001npa&sion underlleR the outwtLrd dispen81ltion" (' Short Studies,' tbo thought. vol. i. p. 800). He therefore e.ssumes thRt Ver. 26.-l'or thon wrltelt bitf.-er thinp God will he.ve e. particular oharge t.o mnke again■t me. The allusion seems to be to …
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and he had done it (eh, xii. 6, 14--25). What is more, he had observed in the world around him exemplillcaUone of everything he he.cl advanced (ver. 1); e.nd, unless they had been ne blind 11.e moles and os senseless e.s the ass to whose offspring they had com- pared him, they too must have frequently perceived the ea.…
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to be u valuelees and as ee.sily efi'Roed as similitudes traced upon the duet; "and your ramparts," i.e. the Rrguments behind which ye entrench yourselves, "ahall be ramparts of clay," as easily broken throup;h 88 mud walls. IL THE vo10E OF OUTRAGED INTEGRITY. 1. .An appeal,from, man to God. "Surely I would speak t…
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orror, eincerity and hypocriey, righteouenese and unrighteousness, Christ and Belia!, can be confederates, 9. H is better to revere God's holiness on earth than t1J trernhle beforo his glorious power in a future world. 10, It is a poor defence that even a good man finds in lies and deceptions. 11. It is preferable to p…
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the strictly forensic aenee of absolution and acoept.ance. not upon his own righteous• nesa, but upon the free favour of God, through the merit of his Redeemer (eh. xix. 26); but merely that inward consciousness of personal integrity which a good man may justly rely on as evidence of a gracious state, and by which h…
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And like St. Peter, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord" (Luke v. 8). Job folt that, unless hie mind were relieved from such paralyzing views of the overwhelming grandeur of hie invisible Judge, it would be utterly hopeless to expect he could even state hie case aright, much less win hie cause. Hence already…
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Ver. 28.-Ths kff.ow'ledge of sin. L MA.mi: ME TO KNOW THE REALITY OP BIN, in C118e I should de.ny it and be deceived. • • II. MAKE 1[11: TO E:Now '1'BE POWBB OF BIN, lest, being taken 'unawares; I should become its sl&ve. • Ill. M AXE ME TO KNOW THE HEINOUSNESS OF BIN, lest, making lighf of it, I sbouJ.~ be led to gl…
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innocence and right, the fear which the thought of the dread presence of the Divine must ever impress. LEssoNS. 1. Ho who is most confident in the BSSurance of his innocence before man will be the most humble and timid in the presence of God. 2. Faith must finally evercome fear in every true heart.-J. Vers. 23-28.…
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them, We may be mietaken, Our trust may rest on a deceitful founoation. Our staff may break and pierce our hand. But we 11lw11ye know that the character of Gorl is tmassailable. He bas an assured ground of confidence who trusts in the Name of the Lord, whose repose is in the Divine character. Absolute goodness, perfect…
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Vers. 1, 2.-Trite sayings. Job's complaint is that there was nothing new in hia friends' pret.entious harangues. All their pompous airs of superiority and authority did not deceive the patriarch, and prevent him from detecting the essentially commonplace cltaracter of their ideas. I. MosT SAYINGS ARE TRITE. It is n…
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Ver. 7.-Speaking wickedly for God. Here was the great fault and sin of the three friends. They affected to be God's advocates, yet they spoke wickedly. Thus they endeavoured to support their view of providence by uncharitable assumptions anJ. theories that were not in accordance with the facts. Such conduct was culpabl…
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For he knows the ein better than we know it, and he iB in clo~e contact with our con- sciences. The swa.kenerl conscience perceives sin with B shock of horror, and it is the Spirit of God tha.t awnkens conscience. 2. He will at lase. Sin cannot remain hidden for ever. The secrets of nil hearte must be dragged to the li…
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Ver. 26.-Swjfering for the Bina of ot1e'• yovt.\. Job ie perplexed. He cannot see what he has done to merit such terrible troubles as he is now experienoing. It cer- tai nly !'eems to him that no recent conduct of his oan be deserving the punishment from which, according t.o his friends, he is suffering. Can ii be t…
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herent weakness. He is "bom of a woman," neee e.nd inllrmity a.re recognized; but the who is "the weaker vessel" (1 Pet. iii. 7). uncleanness is material, e.nd removable by Ho is oonoeived by her in anolennness (Pe. material expiation (Lev. xii. 2-8). It is Ii. 5; oomp. below, ver. 4), brought forth in rather mcm'e …
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Vc?'ll. S, 9.-Though the root thereof wax established 0?<ler of nature ae it exists beforo old in the earth, a•d the etook thereof die his eyes. Till the heaven■ ]:,(, no more, they in the ground ; yet through the ecent of aha_ll not awake. Thie order of things, Job water it will bud, and bring forth boughs be!tcves…
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I would answer thee (see tho Revised Ver- oro.sh. There is also a remove.\ of rocks to sion). In that case, whon I quitted Hades, much grllater distnnces. by means of !{lC\eiers o.nd renewed my llfo, thou wouldst assuredly o.nd icebergs; but of these Job i~ not likely summon me to thee, o.nd I would respond to to have …
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HOMILETIOS. Vers. 1-6.-,Tob to God: 2. 'l'he deat,h-wail of humanity. I. THE WAIL OF HUllANITY IN THE EAR OF Gon. 1. The consUtutional frailty of man. Moses, in the Book of Genesis (i. 26; ii. 7), sets forth the dignity of man (Adam) e.s the crown of creation (PI!. viii. 6), e.s the handiwork of God (eh. x. 8; Ps. …
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11 ' 'Tis but &n hour &go elace it we.e nine: And o.fter one hour more, 'twill be eleven ; And eo, from hour to hour, we ripe o.nd ripe, And then, from hour to hour, we rot o.nd rot." (' As You Like It,' act ii. eo. 5.) 8. The intense severity of hwm/J,'11, sorroUJ. Besides being of few days, wom:\n-bom mnn is ful…
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Vers. 7-15.-Job to God: 3. .A glimpse into the life beyond. I. "IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?" No ! 1. The voice of nature is against it. "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again," etc. (vers. 7-9). But nothing like this occurs in the case of man, of whom rather the cheerless pr…
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solution, before which he sooner or la.ter succumbs, like the trees and the rocks the mounte.ins e.ncl the stree.ms. To expect, therefore, that o. dee.d man shall return t~ bis place on ee.rth is ILi! unscienUfic o.s to anticipa.te that the alluvie.l deposits of the plain she.II replnce t.hemselves upon the mountain's …
1,236 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.