The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 208

rent testimony of all paet e.gee, by the histories, e.g. of Abel, of Joseph, of David of Ohriet; while it is BUNtained by the voice of all contemporary observation. 2. The prosperous fortnnes of tlie bad. Apt illustrations were at hand in the seemingly unchanging sucoeee which waited on the footsteps of those marauding caterans with which Arabia Deserts wns overrun. (1) As to character, they were notoriously wicked, in fact, flagrautly immoral, outrageously ungodly. They were: (a) Robbers of men, violent o.nd rapacioUB plunderers, who put might for right, "men of the arm" (eh, xxil. 8), acting on "The good old rule, the simple plan, The.t they should te.ke who he.ve the power, And they should keep who ce.n ; " like the Nephilim o.nd Gibborim of Noah's day, who deluged the world with immo- rality and violence (Gen. vi. 4). (b) Defiers of God, impudent and audacious sinners who openly and presumptuously trampled on Heaven's hws in order to obtain their unhallowed will, like the tower•builders of Babel (Gen. xi. 4), like Pharaoh (Exod. v. 2), like Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. 19-35), lika wicked men generally, whose foolish tongues" talk loftily," and" set themselves against the heavens," and "walk through the earth" (Ps. lxxiii. 8, 9), and whose carnal minds, inflamed with enmity against God (Rom. viii. 7), conspire against the Lord and his Anointed (Ps. ii. 2). (c) Wor• shippers of the sword, who had no deity but the dagger which they carried in their hands, as the glutton has no god but his belly (Phil. iii. 19); who, like Lamech, made ballads to their rapiers (Gen. iv. 23); like Laban, regarded brute force as the supreme power of the world (Gen. xxxi. 29); and like the ancient Chaldeans, took military strength for their god (Hab. i. 11). (2) As to fortune, it was as widely removed from that of the virtuous and pious as it could well be. (a) Their tents were peaceful. That is, their habitations were tranquil, their families were united and numerous; their domestic felicity was deep (cf. eh. xxi. 8-11; P8. xvii. 14; xlix. 11). (b) Their persons were secure. Calamity seldom, almost never, overtook them. 'Winds and hurricanes that desolated the righteous left them untouched (Ps. lxxiii. 4). (c) Their baskets were full. Retaining the Authorized Version (Carey and others), we under- stand Job to have said that God brought to them abundantly with his own hand, as if he had taken them under his especial protection. II. BY THE TEACHINGS OF THE CREATURES. 1. 1'he teachers. The entire circle of animate aud inanimate creation-everything on the earth, in the air, and in the sea. The natural and the supernatural, the visible and the invisible, the material and the spiritual, the mundane and the heavenly, are in God's universe so indissolubly linked together, and so wisely adjusted to each other, that the one is a picture or reflection of the other, tho earthly and material an emblem of the heavenly and spiritual. Hence all nature is full of subtle analogies to things and thoughts existing in the realms above it-the intellectual, the moral, the spiritual, the human, the celestial. Hence the wise student of nature may find " Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything." (' As You Like It,' act ii ec. 1.) Hence man is frequently counselled by Scripture writers to learn wisdom from the creatures. "Solomon sends us to the ant; Agur to the coney, the locust, the spider; Isaiah to the ox and the ass; Jeremiah to the stork, th,1 turtle-dove, the crane, the swallow; and the heavenly Teacher himself to the fowls of the air" (Thomas). Of all teachers Christ stood indisputably first in interpretiug the hidden thoughts of nature. 2. The teaching. While the creatures say much to man concerning God, his almighty power, unerring wisdom, unwearied goodness, and ever-watchful care; and concerning duty, reminding m1m that he, like them, should act in harmony with the laws of his nature, and in obedience to the will of his Creator (Ps. cxlviii. 7-13), they a.re here introduced as instructors on the subject of Divine providence. Among the lower creatures phenomenn exist analogous to those above described as occurring iu the higher world of men. How ofter is the harmless lamb devow-ed by the wolf, the kid by the panther, the gazollo by the tiger, the patient ass by the ferocious lion! Are uot the eagle, the vulluro, Lmd the hawk but as rapacious robbers swooping down upou the dove 214 THE BOOK OF JOB. [us. :ut. 1-26.