The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 178

Deity e.nd Scripture's explicit teAcbings as to the import of predostinntion. God never plots 11gainst either saint or sinner; but he never fails to plan for both-in which there should be comfort for the one (Rom. viii. 21!), and e. ce.utio-a for the other (Prov. X'\". 3, 11; Ps. xxxiii. 15). 2. The fourfold net. Job unfolds the nature of that plot which be conceives God to have devised against him. (1) On the supposition of hie i;innin1!. God had determined to mark it against him: "tr I sin, then thou mal'kest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity" (ver. 14). The hypothesis was nntural, since "there is not e. just me.n upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not" (Ps. xh·. 3; 1 Kings viii. 46; Rom. iii. 12), The inference was also correct in the sense t !1Rt God observeth all men's sins (Ps. xxxiii. 13-15; lxix. 5; Prov. xv. 3. Jlcb. h·. 13), e.nd can by no means acquit the guilty (Nah. i. 8; Exod. xx. 5 ! Rom. vi. 23); but e.s insinuating that God lay in wait to catch men in transgression' or that he WILS swift to note and punish sin, it was decidedly incorreot (Ps. cxxx'. ~; Neb. ix. 17; Exod. xxxiv. 6; Ps. lxxviii. 88). It is God's highest glory that, though he sees, he is now able not to mark, iniquity; that he can both remit the tres- pass and acquit the _sinner i~ consequei:ice of. Christ•~ propiti11tion (Ro!D· iii. 25, 26). (2) On the 11ssumptton of his perpet.ratrng heinous wickedness, then his punishment would simply be unspeakable: "If I be wicked, woe unto me I" It is still true that ob~tinate ~.J?d impenitent transgre_ssors will not ~scape the jus~ judgme~t of Almighty God (Isa. m. 11; xiv. 9; Prov. x1. 21; eh. xx:x1. 3; Matt. x.x1. 41; x.uv. 51; Rom. i. 18; ii. 8), but it is likewise a blessed truth that the most notorious offender may be forgiven (Isa. i. 18; Jer. nxiii. 8; 1 John i. 7, 9; 1 Tim. i. 15). (8) If he should prove to be forensically guiltless, he must still demean himself as if he were a criminal: " If I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head." Job's language here suggests two important truths-that no man, however conscious of innocence, can really lift up his head before God as if he were spotless; and that even those who can lift up their heads, throngh the righteousness of Jesus Christ, have no room for self- exaltation (Rom. iii. 27). (4) Should he venture to indulge in such a feeling, then God would redouble his attempts to abase him; hunting him like a wild beast,- " Thou hunt.est [literally, 'wouldst hunt'] me as a fierce lion: and again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me [ or, ' thou wouldst repeat thy miracles upon me •J "-prose- cuting him like a culprit,-" Thou renewest thy witnesses against me ; " besieging him like a fortress,-" Thou increasest [ or, • wouldst increase'] thine indignation against me, with host succeeding host against me." The imagery may set forth the intensity and variety of Job's_ sufferings; but it is likewise fitted to suggest the vehement, relentless, and unceasing opposition which God offers to all attempts on man's part to vindicate his own righteonsness. It is God's paramount aim, in providence and grace, to reduce man to e. position of self-abasement and self-condemnation; and for this end he employs all the supernatnral power of his Word and Spirit, all the evidence and testimony of the sinner's own heart and life, all the vicissitudes and trials of his ordinary providence. God's object in doing so is that he may be able to lift up the sinner's head. Learn : 1. That if God use.a rigour towards man, he doth it not of any cruelty, since man is God's handiwork. 2. That man, being God's handiwork, should never cease to praise his Maker. 3. That man's lowly origin should both keep him humble and remind him of his latter end. 4. That God's power and grace should be recognized in man's preservation as much as in man's formation. 5. That" all things are naked and manifest to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.n 6. That God, if swift to note, is still swifter to forgive, iniquity. 7. That the royal road to Heaven's favour and for- giveness is through humility and self-abasement. 8. That the end of all Divine discipline on earth is to humble man in preparation for eternal exaltation. Vers. 18-22.-Job to God: the progreBB of the third controversy : 3. .An old com- plaint renewed. I. A GREAT MERCY DESPIIIED. Life. "Wherefore then hast thou brou~ht me forth out of the womb?" (ver. 18). Job here announces an important truth, that the extraction of an infant from the womb is practically God's work (Ps. uii. 9; lxxi. 6), but likewise commits a sin in regarding as an evil fortune what, rightly pondered, should have been esteomed a valuable blessing. Life, as God Le.,wws it, is a r,recious gift; though frequ1mtly, as man makes it, it proves a dreadful  (m, lt. 1-22.] rm: B001t OF' JOB. 183