The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 146

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. VerB. 1-22.-" Bhal,l not the Judge of all . . . do right," The supposed attack of J6b, by implication, upon the justice of God gives an opening for renewed admoni- tions and rebukes on the part of his friends. Bildad now comes forward and delivers a discourse full of noble faith, however its principles may be in this caee misapplied. Rebuking the grievous complaints of Job as a wind, full of noise and emptiness (ver. 2), he proceeds- !. To INSIST ON THE BIGBTEOUBNESB OF Gon. This is an axiom of his faith. God cannot do unrighteousness. It is impious to admit the thought for a single moment into the mind. He insists on the inflexibility of God's rectitude. He will not bend right and duty (ver. 3). There can be no twisting, deviation, compromise, with Gnd. His path is ever a straight line. Bildad will therefore rather draw an unfavo11rable conclusion about his friend than allow the slightest shadow to be cast on the splendour of the Supreme. Job may be guilty, nay, probably is so; but there ca.n be no probability of any failure of right in God. The principle may appear somewhat harshly and rigidly stated; and yet from the sincere, even if narrow and limited, point of view of Bildad no doubt he is in the right. Rather seek any explanation of sufferin~, or leave it in mystery, than bring a charge against the unbending righteousness of God. 1. .Application to the past and present. Following out this reasoning, the fate of Job's sons would seem to point to the fact that they had committed a deadly sin. .And so, too, Job's present sufferings lead to the inference that he is very far from pure. The terrilJle example of his sons should be his warning. Yet this is expressed with some kindliness and forbearance. It is put hypothetically: "if thy sons" (ver. 4). Bildad, though rigid in doctrine, is not untender at heart-a kind of character we often see exemplified in life. But we have the lesson again and again from the conduct of these friends that friendship demands intelligence as well as heart. There is a missing link in Bildad's reasoning, which destroys its power in the present case. 2. .Application to tha future. There is hope for the sufferer if he will but betake himself in humility and repentance to God. (1) There must be the seeking, striving, straining, agonizing effort of the whole soul to recover its lost treasure-peace with him. (2) There must be prayer, the sinc~re expression of this desire (ver. 5). In life and in thought there must be conversion from evil' and towards him, the Good and the Holy, the Gracious, and the Forgiving. The result will be the recovery of the lost happiness. (a) Innocence will be restored (ver. 6); grand hope and promise of the eternal gospel-the crimson stain may be removed from the heart and the hand, past sins and iniquities may be remembered no more. The possibility of a renovation of which men are tempted in themselves to despair. (b) Divine protection will be felt. God will watch over him (var. 6) or" awake for him." The Shepherd of Israel, who slumbers not, will guard him from evil by night and by day, in his going out and his coming in. (c) Peace will be in his home~tead-the peace whir,h dwells with right and innocence. Over garden and orchard, on fields and barns, and around the hearth, will be felt brooding the nameless presence of the favour of God. (d) There will be increase of prosperity (ver. 7). The little one will become a thousand. The seed of right, germinating and producing, will grow to waving harvests of internal joy, of external good. Such are the cheering deductions from Bildad's high pririciples, the suggestions of his profound faith. The righteous God will be true to the righteous man. Sin is the only root of sorrow, virtue and godliness the only secret of abiding and eternal bliss. II. APPEAL TO ANOIENT TRADITION. 1. The wisdom of the primeval fathers thti guide of to-day. Bildad founds this upon the fact that: (1) They lived to a greater age, according to the accepted tradition, than present men. 'l'hey therefore knew better the abiding laws of life than we of lesser insight, who are of yesterday and brief-lived like shadows (vers. 8, 9). (2) Their wisdom was that of ripe conviction (var. 10). They did not speak at second-hand nor repeat by rote what they had lee.rot. Theirs was the wisdom of the h aa.rt. Contempt is expressed in several places in this book for mere lip-wisdom, the froth of the mouth as opposed to the genuine utterances of the min,l (eh. xi. 2; xv. 3; xviii. 2). (3) There was therefore the stamp of sincerity on their wisdom. It came from men who had seen through life's illusions and ch":i.ts, :i.,,,J who had touched the foundation of things. 2. Specimens qf ancient wisdom. ( \' ~r. 11, se<J.) 148 THE BOOK OF JOB. [oh'. VIII, 1-22,