The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 127

1 O,r. iii. 8), they whom he h&s hired should be f&itbful in thl rendering or service to him (Rom. xii. 11; Eph. vi. 6, 7). 8. Since the natural life of tnan, even when taken at i1s best est&te, i~ &I together nnity (Ps. xxxix. 5, 11), it ie the part of wisdom. to aspire after t.hat life which will never disappoint (John iv. 14), never know &fflietion (He,·. vii. 16, li), &nd never p&!<!! away (1 John ii. 17). 4. Since it is certain that we must all go down into the ~rave (eh. xxx. 23; Ps. lxnix. 48; John ix. 4; Heb. ix. 27), it heC'omes us to prepare for that event (Ps. xxxix. 4; 2 Kings n:. 1; Phil. i. 21; 1 Pet. i. 17). 5. ~ince it is equ~lly certain t~at we shall all C?me up again out of our irraves (eh. x1x. 26; Dan. xn. 2; John :X1. 23, 24; Acts xuv. 15), it is lolly not to sl--ek before we die the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection (Phil. iii. 11). Ven:. 11-16.-Job to God: 2. The opening of the third controvdrsy. I. A DA :<GEnous RESOLUTION, 1. The :purport of it. To complain, not merely to repine ag~inst the misery of his lot, but to express his sense of Jehovah's cruelty in first afiiicting him and then vouchsafing him no response to his solemn aud po.thetic appeal. If murmurings against one's outward estate are sometimes natural and even excusable, they are always perilous, even where not actually sinful. Those who begin by finding fault with their portion, generally end by r,.ftecting on him by whom their portion has been bestowed. That Job did not curse God to his face, as the devil predicted, was a wonder, and was due more to grace than to himself. When the soul is in anguish it is better to be silent than to speak, to imitate David (Ps. xxxix. 9) than to copy Job. 2. The spirit of it. With vehemence: "I will speak ; " the tense expressing energy of language with passion: "In the anguish of my spirit;" with bitterness: "I will complain in the bitterness of my soul; "--all which were unwarrantable aggravations of his original offence, a.lthougb Job, by oom,cencing, "I also," "I for my par~," appeared to think he was not .tr-ansgressing the bounds of right. And certainly language as vehement, extraordinary, and audacious can be quot!'d from other- lips than Job's, language not usually blamed as sinful; e.g. Jeremiah's (xv. 18). Still, men are prone to forget tha1, in contending with God, they have absolu~ely n:o "right/' so called, and Cffl'tainly none to address him with irreverent presumption or insinuate aught against his loving-kindness or justice. 8. The reason of it. ".Therefore;" i,e. partly bec11.use his sufferings were great, and partly been.use his life was vanity; but chiefly because God was silent nnd did not condescend to liste_n·to his prayer;' not one of which reasons,nor even all of them together, were sufficient to'justify his violent pPoposal. Great sufi'erings are no excuse for ,great complainings, since they are in themselves no more than man deserves, are always sent in love, and are capable, if accepted with meek submission, of yielding the highest gooJ. So far from the transient and irre- vocable character or life inducing querulous behaviour, it should prompt man to turn its golden moments to the best account; while God's tiilenee cannot give man .the right to murmur, since God ever knows the best time to speak, whether in vindication of himself or in answering his people (Ps. L 3). II. A:N IRONICAL INTEBBOGATION. 1. The comparison ma<ie.· Almost impertinently, surely unbecomingly, Job asks whether God regarded him as a sea or a whale; i;e. as a mighty confl.ux of waters, a fierce, heaven-assaulting ocean, or as a huge aquatic monster, a great and terrible dragon of the prime, of which he was afraid and upon which accoroit,gly he required to set a watch. Job's int~ntion was to say that surely God did entertain such a notion of the poor emaciated skeleton upon whom he was heapi1,g such ~igantic calamit.ies. It was strangely irreverent, on Job's part, so to speak, and wholly untrue besides. God esteemed neither him nor any of bis intelligent creatures 11.8 a sea or a monster. God never speaks depreciatingly of man, and man never should of himself. Nor does God ever treat man like a sea or a whale, but always witb a due regard to hie intelligent and moral nature, in which respect iuon should copy God in dealing with himself. Least of all can it be Eaid that God is ever afraid of man; -the ooly being that man can really injure by his iusobordinatioil and wickedness is biwself. Yet, though inc_orrect in the sense iu tended by Job,. it is som'e- times sadly trne that the heart of ,man ia as restless (Isa. lvii. 20), insatiable (Eccles. i. 7), _violent (Jude 18), destructive (Jodi. :x.xiv. 7)~ noisy (Jer. vi. 23), lLB. the e~a, and as feroc10u.s and uogovernable as the great monsters 1t contams. 2. ~ :proof given. • As the turbulent <>eean requires to be bounded and restrained, and leviathan to be held in  THE BOOK OF JOB. 127