The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 125

only determined the bounds of onr habitn.tion (Acts xvii. 26), but the number of our lnontbs (eh. xiv. 5), re~aining in his own hand our times (Ps. mi. 15), n.nd meaeurlng out our days (Ps. xxx1x. -1.). (2) That the nllotterl space of human life is in every Instance designed to be II season of service, not of en.so, enjoyment, or indulgence but of labour, endurance, and fatigue; not always hnrd in the sense alluded to by Job' viz. exacting, oppressive, exhausting, pitiless, but ever hard in the sense of being ca;nest, arduous, and continuous. Life was never meant for idleness. If God promises strength for the day, he first aseigns work to the day (Dent. xxxiii. 25). Christ recognized th11t the day of life was designed for toil (John ix. 4). (3) 'l'hat faithful work performed in time will in every instAncc meet with a just rewnrd. As the hired soldier roceived his pay, and the slave obtained his wagea, so will every one on earth be recompensed at last according to his works (Prov. xxiv. 12; Matt. xvi. 27; 2 Tim. iv. 14), In particular every faithful labourer in Christ's vineyard will receive his "penny" (Matt. x.x. 9). The d~trine of heavenly rewards is not inconsistent with the idea of free grace (Heb. xi. 26; xu. 2). (4:) That good men may sometimes Jong to be released from their labours not, however, like the bondman or the mercenary soldier, because they serve an exacting and alien taskmaster, who grinds them to the dust with oppression, but because, though not weary of their labours, they are weary in them, and would fain be at rest (cf. Paul, Phil. i. 23; 2 'Jim. iv. 6). 2. .A heritage of incessant misery. As realized in the experience of Job, this misery was: (1) Heaven-imposed in its origin; he having been made to possess (literally, "caused to inherit") it by compulsion, through the stern will of an unseen but relentless taskmaster, without himself having done anything to either originate or merit it (ver. 3)-a mode of representing human life which has n. superficial truthfulness about it in so far as it asserts that affliction is the almost uniform experience of man on earth, that nothing enters into the composition of human history, either collectively or individually, without the expressly given sanction of God, and that no amount of wisdom or endeavour on the part of man will enable him to eecape that particular earth-experience which by Divine wisdom and love has been assigned him 1111 his inherit&llce, but is radically false in insinuating that God acts capriciously and tyrannically, and alleging that man neither shapes nor deserves his particular lot, since no fact is more apparent then that men, as a sinful being, deserves more affliction than be gets, and that, to a large extent at least, every individual is the master of his own destiny. (2) Tedious in its continuance; Job characterizing his days of affliction as months of vanity;_ i.e. months which come without bringing relief to the sufferer, and go leaving nothing in their trail but disappointed hopes, each day seeming like a month in duration, and his sleepless nights as "nights of weariness," measured out to him oue by one in slow and solemn regularity, each one appearing to interminably lengthen Itself out as if it would never come to an end. Behold the subtle alchemy of grief, which can change the pace of time, and make that go with leaden feet which mostly flies with lightning wing. (3) Painful in its character; arising from a combination of troubles not often meeting in the same individual. (a) Extinction of hope by day; the absolute expiry of everything like expectation of betterment, which must have been a greater burden to the heart of Job than ever the elephantiasis was to his body: " We are kept alive by hope" (Rom. viii. 24); but within the soul of Job the principle of life was gone. (b) Want of sleep by night. A~ sleep is one of God's best gifts to man (Ps. cx.xvii. 2), restoring nature's exhausted powers, refreshing mind and body both (Eccles. v. 12; Jer. xxxi. 26; cf. Shakespeare, ' Heury IV.,' Part II. act iii. sc. 1), so is the want of it one of the heaviest afflictions that can befall a sufferer, a.rising sometimes from excessive labour, as with Jacob (Gen. xx.xi. 40); sometimes from intense bodily pain, as in the case of Job (v~r. 5); sometimes from disturbed thoughts, as with Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. ii. l), Ahasuerus (Est h. vi. 1), and wicked men (Prov. iv. 16); the restless tossings to and fro of the body keeping time with the inward agitations of the mind. (c) Bodily pain b~th day and night, springing from a loathsome malady, detailed (ver. 5) as breeding worms in his flesh, covering his skin with earth-coloured scales, causing it to stiffen and emit a purulent discharge, and commonly believed to be elephantiasis (see homileticR on eh. ii. 7). 3. .A period of excuding 'brevity. " My days are swifter than a weaver·s shuttle, and vanish without hope" (ver. 6); i.e. they flee more rapidly than the shuttle pa&llel! backwards and forwards in the warp of the weaver's web, and vanish without on. vu. 1-21.) THE BOOK OF JOB. 126