parable submh1sion I "In all thia Job sinned not with hie lip.1," 2. The entrance of wifely umpt.ation he enccunwed with: (1) Deserved rebuke. "Thou speakest ae one of the foolish women speaketh." Language distinctly bearing that the popular estimate of Job's wife, which makes her to have been a sort of Orient&! shrew, ie Incorrect, implying as it does that the patriarch was surprised to hear her talk so much out of character, not like a saint and the wife of a saint as she was, but like one of the foolish or ungodly women. Carried away by the tumultuousness of her womanly feeling, in a moment of passionate thoughtlessness she had lost her self-control, and given utteranoe to desperate words, which were such &s to call for censure; and the faithful husband, much as he loved his wife, and laden as he was himself with misery, diu not shrink from administering the needful admonition. (2) Lofty resignation. •• Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil P" The voice, not of stoical indifference, or of hea.rtless despair, or of cold, callous, reluctant acquiescence in a fate which cannot be escaped, but of intelligent and cheerful submission to a providence which he recognizes to be &t once righteous and good, "In all this Job sinned not with his lips." Learn: 1. That God's saints in this world have sometimes to endure trial upon trial 2. That periods of protracted suffering are spiritually more dangerous than sharp and sudden strokes of greater severity. 3. That the fiercest trials often arise at unexpected moments, and from least anticipated quarters. 4. That the most painful temptation a good man can experience is the temptation to renounce his religion. 5. Tha.t Satan's mercies (e.g. in sparing Job's wife) have always somewhat of crnelty in them. 6. That the greatest outward blessings may sometimes prove a snare--Job's wife, and Adam's. 7. That it is perilous for good men or women to give way to passion. 8. '.!.'hat in times of violent emotion & ~trong guard should be set upon the door of the lips. 9. That good people may sometimes give very bad advice. 10. That the devil's prime aim in tempting men is to make them renounce God, and die. 11. '.!.'hat God's people should on no account let go their integrity. 12. That those who have been recipients of God's mercies should not repine when for their good he changes the dispensatioD.
V ers. 9, 10.-Job and his wife. L .A. FOOLISH wollAB. II. A FAITHFUL HUSBAND. III. A TB:il""KFUL SAINT. IV. A SUBMISSIVE SUFFEBEB.. Vers. 9, 10.-Four voices. L THE VOICE OF FOLLY. "Curse God, and die." II. THE VOICE OF BEBUXE. " Thou speak.est as one of the foolish women speaketb." Ill. THE voICE OF GB.ATITtlDE. " We receive good at the hand of the Lord." IV. THE VOICE OF sUBmssroN. "Shall we not receive evil?" Vers. 9, 10 (along with Gen. iii 1-6).-Job and .;tdam: a parallel and a contrast. L A PARALLEL- L Both were tempted. 2. By Se.tan. 3. Through their wives. 4. To renounce their allegiance to God. II. A OONTJU.ST. 1. In the times of their temptation. Adam when at the summit of felicity; Job when in the depth of misery. 2. In the modes of their temptation. Adam assailed by the thought that God had unjustly deprived him of good; Job, by th~ suggestion that God had unrighteously afflicted him with evil. 3. In the results of their temptation. Adam fell; Job stood. See (1) in Adam the representa- tive of all men; and (2) in Joh the foreshadowing of the God-Man. Vers. ll-13.-17ie patriarch's third trial; or, the coming of the friend,. I. THE B.ONOUB.AJILE NAJIES THEY BOBE. 1. Eliphaz the Temanite. Probably a descondant of Teman, the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau by hie wi~e Adah (Gen. xxxvi. 1~, 11; 1 Chron. i. 35, 36) ; belonging to the race of Teman, which extended over a cons1de~able portion of Arabia, about midway between Palestine and the Euphrates ; very likely the oldest of the three .friends. 2. Budad the Shuhite. Perhaps sprung from Shuah, the youngest son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. x:xv. 2), and residing in a district of Arabia, not far from the Teinanite country; ma.y be reasonably supposed the second oldeet of the friand& 3. Zop J.ar the NaMIIIIIMl,e. Otherwise unknown except through Cltr, IT, 1-18,] THE BOO][ OF JOB. 41