The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 98

HOMILIES BY VA RIO US AUTHORS. Vers. S-~7.-Refage from trouJJle in the thought ef God. Conclusion of l11iphaz'a address. His language suddenly changes into a gentler strain. It is like the clearing of a dark sky, revea.ling once more the deep blue; or the bend of a stream which baa been flowing through a stern gorge, now broadening out into n. sunlit lake. I. THE GREATNESS AND BENEFICEN0E OF Goo. (Vers. 8-16.) • Let men turn to him for comfort e.nd for strength. It is a bright gem of description. 1. God is the Supreme. (Ver. 8.) Let men look no lower than to the Highes~. With him is the final appeal. He is Judge of all the earth. Clouds and darkness are round about him; b_ut justice e.nd judg:ment are the habitation of his throne. 2. He is the great Worker. His scale and sphere of operation is vast, immeasurable, unsearchable (ver. 9). His mode of operation is wo1Jderful, past finding out. "His way is in the sea, his pe.th in the great waters, his footsteps who has known?" The grandeur and marvel of his deeds are. seen: (1) In nature. (Ver. 10.) One phenomenon is mentioned only as typical, in all important respects, of all the other tokens of his power in nature. It is the blessed gift of rain. Fur nothing in an Oriental clime speaks more powerfully to the senses and the feelings than this inestimable boon. Many other Scriptures witness this. "He gives the early and the latter rain;" "comes down like rain upon the mown grass," and "as showers that water the earth." 'Tis he who causes the refreshing showers to fall upon the fields of both the just and the unjust. The Fren_ch peasants say, a, they watch the rain falling on their vineyards, "Voici le vin qui descend du ciel.1" "-Here comes down the wine from heaven!" But what good things do not come down from heaven in the rain from the ever-blessing God? (2) In human life. In thi_s broad field, common experience gains many a lesson of the same kind. Not one of the traits in this exquisite description of which the intelligent observer cannot say, " This is true to life I" He is seen to be the Exalter of the lowly and the sorrowful (ver. 11). Who has not had brought home to him in many an instance the sense o{ this truth in the course of life? What tales of obscure and lowly worth rising iµto eminence; of deserted widows and orphans finding springs of help and succour marvellously opened to them in the hour of need can we not all tell? And we t/lke delight in these narratives because they convince us that the constitution of life is not. the mere mindless machinery which godless thinkers would make it out to be. We see that selfish craft and cunning are in the end disappointed and baffied (ver. 12). Lies and cheats do not prosper long. The proverbs of the world bear their witness; common experience suunps them with the mark of truth. And this, too, is no accident, but the result of the righteous operation of God. We see that men overreach them- selves and fall by their own snarts (ver.13). "Vaulting ambition doth o'erleap itself, and falls on t'other side." And the sight gives us a deep pleasure, whatever pity we may feel for the victim of his conceit and folly, because here again we receive a com- munication of the will of God. We see self-confident men plunged into perplexity, infatwi.ted, unable to steer their path aright, though the light is full and clear about them (ver. 14). There is a judicial blindness to be observed in certain cases; IIO that those who, in the pursuit of passion or interest, have ex;tinguiehed conscience, become at last unable to see e~n their own interest, and make suicidal mistakes, Here, too, is the finger of a higher Power. 8. The object of Di'IJiM operation. (Vere. 16, 16.) In both nature and human life it is one-to laaen suffering, to prof,ut jnnoc:enu, to <kliver fr,nn viulence and persecution. ll. T11E BLE8SlliG OF D1v1NE 0JUJ!TlBEIIEliT, (Vera. 17-27.) From the general CH. V, 1-27.] TIIE BOOK OF JOB.