The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 110

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-13.-Job to Eliphaz: 1. Apologies ana prayers. I. A DESPERATE MAN'S DEFENCE. 1. Job's calamities surveyed. (1) Their weight. Heavier than the sand of the seas. Employed elsewhere to depict what fa innumerable (Gen. xxii. 17; P.;. lxxviii. 27) and immeasurable (1 Kiugs iv. 29; Jer. xxxiii. 22), the sand upon the seashore is here selected to set forth the notion of incomparable weight (Prov. xxvii. 3). Like the ocean beach stretching away measureless and oppressive, the sorrow of the patriarch was intolerably burdensome. Scripture desi~ates as burdens afflictions and temporal calamities of all sorts, whether of individuals (Ps. Iv. 22; 2 King; ix. 25) or of nations (Isa. xv. 1; xvii. 1; x.ix. 1). Yet more crushing and intolerable even than these .is the burden laid by sin upon awakened and ~ensitive souls (Ps. xxxviii. 4). (2) Their intensity. Likened to the wounds of poisoned arrows, with a multitude of which Job describes himself as transfixed, not in body only, but in spirit too. Arrows are put in Scripture for afflictions, calamities, judgments, which, like them, are often swift (Zech. ix. 14), unexpected (Ps. xci. 5), sharp (Ps. xlv. 5), difficult to be .. removed (Ps. xxxviii. 1, 2), and deadly, especially when sent in wrath (Deut;·xxxii. 42). (3) Their effect. Exhaustiug; the veuom shot into Job's veins setting them on. fire, corrupting his blood, inflaming his flesh, enfeebling his spirit, and generally producing a sensation of constantly increasing ·weakness; terrifying, inspiring his trembling heart with ghostly alarms and paralyzing fears, which seemed to gather round him like a troop of pale spectres from the outlying posts of God's dominions, and to marshal themselves like a sable host against him; nanseating, causiug his soul to revolt against them as the stomach turns sickly at the sight of loathsome food. (4) Their origin. From God. This was the principal aggravation of the patriarch's misery. So loug as a sufferer can see God's face, the heaviest load of calamity will not crush him ; but when God's favour appears to be withdrawn, the spirit sinks like lend in the mighty waters (cb. ix. 13). 2. Job's grief Justified. (1) Compared with his calamities, it was not extravagant. His heated words (ver. 3) bnd not been disproportioned to the misery which had given them expression. Not balancing the two things his friend had unjustly accused him of-impatience and rage. Weighed together, the overwheb1ing character of his sorrow would "swallow up" bis words as a wholly inadequate utterance of his grief. That Elipbaz failed to estimate accurately the intensity of Job's sufferings was natural, since no man can put himself exactly in another's place, and only the heart that suffers can know its own bitterness (Prov. xiv. 10). Yet charity should have moved him to judge with leniency, and speak with tenderness of, a grief whose cause he did not comprehend. At the same time, it is hardly doubtful that Job's misery did not warrant the appalling outbw-st of eh. iii.; but men at all times (and especially in affliction) are readier to excuse themselves than others. (2) Considered in itself, it was not unnatural. It was not without cause. Even the senseless ass and the stupid ox were wise enough to hold their tongues when placed in circumstances of asinine and bovine lelicity; i.e. when they had plenty of food; and ~urely he had as much discernment as these irrational creatures, and could distinguish whether he was miserable or happy, and cry out or be silent accordingly. 'l'hen having a cause, it was likewise irrepressible, it being ne impossible for him not to complniu as it was for a person to eat what was unsavoury or tasteless without mu.king wry faces and giving vent to his displeasure. II. A HIBEBADLE HAN'B PRAYER. 1. Job's urgent request. "Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!" (ver. 8}-tbat thing being death (cf. eh. iii. 21). Job longed for death as a release from his sufferin~  10A THE BOOK 011' JOB, [C1J. '91, 1~0.