The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 162

God haB no need to be o.rraid of any inveBtigation into his conduct, and just 118 little to npprehend that puny mrm oould outwit his infinite wisdom or overreach his almighty power. 4. DeBpairing of Divine acceptance. So hopeless does the contest seem to Job between a poor suffering creature like himself and a Being of infinite majesty like God, that he confesses the dire impossibility of being able to establish his Innocence before the tribunal of the skies. God's insufferable glory would so confound and stupefy him, that even if he were innocent, his own mouth would condemn him; were he guiltless, it would betray him (ver. 20); i.e. he won Id, throt1gh sheer terror and amazement (1 Pet. iii. 6), stumble out his own condemnation, and, conscious of his integrity, would yet confess himself guilty. What Job here asserts concerning his integrity or freedom from such transgression as Eliphaz and Bildad charged against him is certainly correct in the case of every one who would dare to maintain his moral purity in the sight of God. The clear revelation of God's majesty and holiness imparted to the awakened soul, when it appears as if standing face to face with God, renders it a hard task for man to uphold his sinlessness. If he attempted it, he would only stultify and condemn himself. Nay, he should not know his own soul (ver. 21), but only thereby demonstrate his ignorance of himself (cf. 1 John i. 8). Learn : 1. It is impossible to entertain too exalted a conception of the great and holy God with whom we have to do. 2. It is quite possible, even for the best of men, to misconstrue God's dealings with the soul, and to regard him as an adversary who is really a Friend. 3. It is well to remember, in every appearance of conflict between the Creator and the creature, that all the right lies upon the side of the former. 4. The nearer saints advance towards perfection, the readier they are to acknowledge their imperfection. 5. A humble and self-abased spirit before God is quite compatible with the maintenance of one's blamelessness before men. Vers. 21-35.-Job to Bildad: 4. Tlie cries of a. despa-iring soul. I. MAINTAINING BIB INNOCENCE. 1. .Attested by his conscience. " Though I were perfect ; " or, better, "I am guiltless" (ver; 21). Before God Job did not claim to be absolutely spotless, but merely to be free from such transgressions of the moral law as his friends insinuated he must have committed to render him obnoxious to those palpable tokens of Divine displeasure which had overtaken him. Against this, however, he protested as a wholly baseless aspersion of his character, declaring his determination to maintain his integrity at all hazards, a.y, even should it cost him his life. "Yet would I not know [literally, 'I know not,' i.e. 'I value not, ea.re not for'] my soul: I would despise [or, 'I despise'] my life " (ver. 21). Vehement asseveration such as this would, of course, have been out of place, and altogether unjustifiable, unless Job had had the clearest and most irre- fragable evidence of his own innocence behind it. But this Job professed to have in the inner testimony of his conscience, which declared him to be what Jehovah himself had already affirmed him to be-" a perfect man and an upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil" (eh. i. 8). It is by no means impossible for a good man to have a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men (Acts xxiii. 1; :uiv. 16). Decisions registered before the court of conscience are always in accordance with truth. Conscience may be stupefied through sin, and prevented from delivering its testimony (Eph. iv. 19). It may even be perverted and constrained to call evil good (Acts xxvi. 9). But where enlightened and free, it never fails to indicate the moral standing of the soul. Scripture distinctly recognizes the validity of the inner witness of conscience (Rom. viii. 16). And not unfrequently this witcoss is all that a good man can lean upon in times of adversity (e.g. Joseph, Gen. :uxix. 21; Daniel, i. 8; SS. Peter and John, Acts iv. 19; St. Paul, Titus ii. 17 ; cf. Shakespeare, 'Henry v'll1.,' act iii. BC. 2). When it is so, the evidence of circumstance and appenrance being all against him, he is fully warranted to rest upon it. If he trust it, it will rnpport him. 2. Not disproved by his su.fJ'o1·ings. The sole ground possessed by Eliphaz and Bildad for their calumnies was thnt Job bad 'ueen overtaken by evil fortunes. But, besides repel- ling the charges themselves as contradicted by the clear verdict of his own conscience, he likewise repudiates the foundation on which they were based as diametrically opposed to the plain facts of history. So far from appearances being against Job, rightly inter- rogated they were rather in his favour. So far from God's dealings with men being etrictly retributive, so that Job's guilt might warrnntably be inferred from his misery,  1116 'l'HE 'BOOK OF JOB. [cnt. IX. 1-86.