The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 175

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-7.-Job to God: the progress of the third controvtrrsy: 1. The pathetic wail of a crushed heart. I. SOBBING IN THE EAR OF Gon. 1. The moan of a desponding heart. "My soul is weary of [literally, 'loathes'] my life" (ver. 1). That which ha.d rendered existence a disgust to Job was partly his intense bodily affliction, but chiefly the overwhelming strangeness of the Divine conduct towards him. If only he ha.d been o.ble to realize that, notwithstantling all contrary appearances, he wa.s still a.n object of God's compassionate regard, he would have doubtless been able to endure with continued patience and exemplary submission the appalling calamities which had overtaken him. But the heavenward outlook of Job's spirit was obscured by gloomy clouds of doubt and fear. The conviction was beginning to force itself inward upon his soul that God was indeed turned lo be his Adversary; and if that were really so, Job felt that life would not be worth living. So David estimated. Gnd's favour as life, and God's loving-kindness as better than life (Ps. m. 5; !xiii. 3; cf. homiletics on eh. vi. 1-13). 2. The 11,tterance of a fainting spirit. "I will leave my complaint upon myself" (ver. 1); i.e. I will give it free scope, yield myself up to it, and permit it to take full possession of me. Job's complaiut wa.s that God wa.s treating him as guilty while he was inwardly conscious of being innocent. Had this been really so, Job would have had reason on his side. But as yet the Divine antagonism to which he alludetl was only an inference from his great sufferings. Hence the attitude assumed by Job was indefensible. Much more was it inexcusable to give way to a. spirit of railing against God. If angry feelings rose within him, it wa.s his paramount duty to repress them. The absence of gospel light, however, may serve in part to extenuate Job's offence. The Divine philosophy of a.flliction, a.s expounded by Christianity, was not understood by him. If, then, fainting under tribulation was wrong in the old Arabian patriarch, much more is it indefensible in a New Testament believer. 3. The resolve of an embittered soul. "I will speak in the bitterness of my soul" (ver. 1). Job was at this time intensely miserable. Life was o. burden. God was (or seemed to be) against him. His own spirit was stung with a keen sense of injustice. The result was that wild indignation against the Almighty was beginning to steal like a poison through his veins. His soul was fast getting set on fire of hell. In circum- stances such as these, it was extremely unwise in Job to resolve to speak. Safety would have been better secured by silence. The only favourable feature in the case was that Job meant not to fling a.broad his impassioned outcries on the wild winds, but to breathe them into the ea.r of God. If a saint or sinner should feel aggrieved with God, it is infinitely wiser to go direct with his complaint to God himself than to either brood over it in secret or tell it to the world. II. PLEADING BEFORE THE THRONE OF Gon. 1. Deprecating condemnation. "I will say unto God, Do not condemn me [literally, 'do not fasten guilt upon me']" (ver. 2). The words ma.y be regarded either as the cry of a saint who is conscious of his own inward moral and spiritual integrity, but who, through bodily affliction or Satanic temptation, or both combined, has become suddenly apprehensive of having forfeited. or lost the Di vine favour; or as the prayer of a sinful soul awakened for the fin;t time to a conviction of its guiltiness before God, which, in an agony of fear, it implores God not to fasten on it, but to cancel and forgive. In the tint of these two senses it was -ised by Job, and by saints similarly situated it may still be employed. No greater consternation can seize upon the mind of a child of God than that produced by the fear that God intends to condemn him. But such a fear is groundless. Whom God  180 THE BOOK OF JOB. [oH, X, 1-22,