The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 184

God seem to aot as though he he.cl man's limited vision? Questions of this sort seem to be perplexing Job. How can they be met? I. Goo SEES us TRULY AB WE ARE. It is no attribnte of infinity to be above seeing what is BmRII. Because God is infinite he can descend to the infinitely little as well as comprehend the infinitely great. Moreover, be does not treat us as insignificant beings unworthy of hie notice, but he regards us as his children. The very lrairs of our heKd are numbered by God. His greatness is seen in the truth and thoroughness of his vision. He does not look through distorting media, nor does he only see one aspect of things, as is the case with us. He sees all round everything, and he looks throngh all things. 'l'here is no secret hidden from God. He understands what he sees, for hie infinite vision is accompanied by an infinite comprehension. II. Goo JUDGES us BY A nrnrrEn STANDARD THAN ouns. We are hampered by narrow ideas; our judgment is warped and cramped by prejudice and error. Our ignorance, folly, and sin even mar the very standards by which we judge. God's estimate is snpremely fair, and it is after the very highest and purest ideas of jndgrnent. III. Goo's STANDARD 01' JUOGMENT IS NOT ALIEN TO OURS. We might be dismayed by the very elevation and perfection of God's method of judgment, thinking it totally different from our own. If this were the case conscience would be a. delusion. But God is the Crea.tor of conscience, and though this is limite<l, and in a. measure perverted, still it retains the essential character given to it by God. "God made man in his own image" (Gen. i. 26). Therefore man's honest judgment must be a. reflection of God's judgment-. God sees ns we see, so far as we see truly. His judgment is jnst the correc- tion and perfection of our judginen t. IV. Goo HAS ENTERED IN'ro OUR LIFE THAT HE MAY BEE us WITH OUR OWN EYES. This seems to be part of the purpose of the Incarnation. Christ is a. brother-Man. He looks at us with human eyes. One with us by nature, he can perfectly understand ns. We cannot even understand our favourite dog when he turns to us his dumb, pathetic gaze, for he is of a different species. Christ became one with us, one of our species. Thus we can understand him, and he can perfectly sympathize with us. Apart from Christ, God seems to be distant and altogether different from ourselves. In Christ he is one with us, near to us, and able to regard ns with the eyes of a Brother. -W.F.A. Ver. 8.-0reation and its consequences. Job appeals to God as his Maker. He remonstrates with the Creator for apparently destroying his own work. If God had first made man, why should God turn on his creature to "swallow him up"? This is not so much an appeal to pity or justice, as one to reason and consistency. I. Gon IS THE CREATOR OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL MAN. Theologians were once divided between two theories of the origin of human souls, called respectively " Creationist" and " 'l'raducianist." The Creationists held that each soul was created by God ; the Traducianists that souls were derived by descent, were transmitted by birth from ancestral souls, and originally from Adam and Eve, just like the bodies they inhabit. Was it not unfair to confine the name" Creationist" to the former school? The idea of descent from parents does not exclude Divine action. 'l'he parent is not the creator. The original great Cause must be the Source of all that follows. If God only created once for all at the beginning of the world, still he created each individual, because ea.eh individual simply comes from that original creation. If it could be shown that man was not separately created, but that he derived his origin from lower creatures by evolution, he would be not the less created by God ; for how could the marvellous process . of evolution originate or progress, unless the Almighty aad A.II-wise bad started it? Nay, it is only reasonable to believe that God is ever creating. Not once for all, but in every stage of evolution, the Divine hand is working out the eternal plan. So also each individual life is moulded by that same Creative hand. God is working eternally, for the laws of nature nre but the wa.ys of God. He was as truly the Creator of Job as of Adam; and he makes each man now by means of birth as really as he made the first lifo out of inorganic matter. II. THE FA0T THA1' Goo llB THE CHEA.TOR OF EVERY MAN MUST AFFECT HlS TREAT- MEN1' OF ALL HIS 0REATUR1is. 1. He cannot have predestined them to ruin. 'l'o affil'm that he could do so is to say that the Creator is not God, l;>ut the devil. A god 190 l'HR BOOK OF JOB. [oa. x. 1-22.