The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 64

thought of it: "I fee.red e. fee.r, and it came upon tne" (ver. 25; cf. "He that but fenrs" etc., 'Henry IV.,' pt. 2, act i. sc. 1). (6) Superfluous trouble; i.e. his misery ha,l n~t sprung upon him revelling in sinful and luxurious ease, which might have afforrled some justification for so appalling a visitation as had overtaken him; but when already he was a stricken man, another and a greater sorrow leapt forth upon him : " I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither WILS I quiet; yot trouble came" (ver. 26). 2. The perplexitiea of[.rovidence. To these he alludes when he describes himself as a man" whose way is hi , and whom God hath hedged in" (ver. 23). The term "way" is often put for course of life (Ps. i. 6; Prov. iv.19; Isa. xxvi. 7; Jer. x. 23); and a man's way may be said to be hid (i.e. to himself) when either its future character is concealed from his perception, or the reason for its present shape is not understood. Now, to all men a veil inscrn table separates the future, the immediate no less than the remote, from the present (Prov. xxvii, 1; Jas. iv. 14). The special ground of complaint felt by Job was, not so much tbat he had been subjected to adversity, but that he could not discern the reason of God's mysterious dealings with him; that his sufferings so engirt him like a lofty wall, that he not only knew not which way to tum, but that he failed to discover ::.ny way to turn. The like perplexity has frequently been experienced by God's people (cf. Jer. xii. 1 ; Ps. xiii. 5; lxxiii. 2; Lam. iii. 7). But it is unreasonable to expect that God's ways should be perfectly patent to the finite understanding. Man cannot always fathom the purposes or comprehend the plans of his fellow-creatures : how much less sho'.lld he think to gauge the counsel of him whose wisdom is "fold over fold" (eh. xi. 6); or discern the reason of every dark dispensation that is measured out by him whose judgments. are a great deep (Ps. xxxvi. 6) ! Hence God charges his saints, when they see that clouds and darkness surround his throne, that his footsteps are in the sea, and that his way is not known, to preserve their souls in patience, to decline to be perplexed, and to calmly trust their present way and future course to him who always walketh in the light, and who, out of the greatest entanglements and darkest riddles of life, is able to evolve his own glory and their good (Pa. xxxvii. 5; Isa. xxvi. 3, 4; Rom. viii. 28). II. QUERULOUS Ell'OSTULATION. "Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery," etc? (vers. 20, 23). The interrogation indicated: 1. .t1.stonishi11g presumption on the part of Job, not only in questioning the Supreme, seeing that he giveth no account of his doings unto any, and least of all to men (eh. x:x.x.iii. 13; Ps. xlvi. 10; Jer. xviii. 6; Dan. iv. 35); but much more in addressing to him such a question, which practically meant--vVhy should a man be sent into this world? or, if sent into it, why should he be kept in it, unless his existence is to be always encircled with the radiance of prosperity, and exhilarated with the wine of joy, and unless be is to be assisted both to pierce the veil of futurity and to penetrate the overshadowing clouds of the present? 2. Monstrous ingratitude; in first depreciating what, after Christ and sal- vation, is God's highest gift to man, viz. existence; in forgetting the manifold blessings he had enjoyed during the former period of his prosperity; and in overlooking the fact that he had some good gifts remaining still. But men are prone to forget past mercies (Ps. ciii. 2; cf. 'Troilus and Cressida,' act iii. sc. 3), and to appreciate what they have not more highly than what they have. True thankfulness magnifies the gifts it has received, and does not grudge that the great Giver still reserves something to bestow (cf. 'Timon of Athens,' act iii. sc. 6). 3. Extraordinary ignorance; in not discerning that the ultimate end and chief aim of life are not to render men happy, but to make them holy; not to make them wise as the gods (Gen. iii. 5), but to form them into sons of God (Heb, ii. 10); and that these sublime purposes may be secured as well through adversity as through prosperity. But perhaps the absence of gospel light should explain and extenuate in Job's case what in ours would be reprehensible in the extreme. III. MELANCHOLY EXULTATION. Job's vehement longing for death bespoke: 1. .An intense pressure of misery. Seeing that life is essentially joyous (Eccles. xi. 7), that men naturally cling to life above_ every earthly possessi_on (eh. ii. 4), and tb~t the intrinsic worth and happiness of life are a thousandfold rncreased by the ad~ht10n ~f Heaven's favour, it indicates an amount and degree of wretchedness transcendrng ordi- nary experience when e. man yearns for life's extinction, exults in the prospect of disso• lutioo, would be blithe to find a grave, however humble or obscure-  58 THE :BOOK OF JOB. [011. tn.1-86,