The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 242

ein wae hie own Bon (Isa, !iii. 6, 10; Rom, iv. 25; 2 Cor. v. 21). In view of Ubriet't1 propitio.tory work he deah with men in a way of mercy even before the a.dvent ; eince the eo.crifice of Calvary God is in Christ reconciling the worlrl unto himself, not imputing unto men their trespasses (2 Cor. v. Hl). Yet the language of Job is true in tbo co.ee of sinners who are wilfully impenitent. Their iniquities are a.II observed by God, remembered by God, and, unless repented of and forgiven, will eventually be produced by God for their condemnation. 3. A strwnge contradictwn. A moment before exulting in the thought that God's affection for him 'when dead would be so great as to require the resuscitation of his lifeless boc!y (ver. 15), Job now pictures the same God as a malignant Adversary and an angry Judge. The two conceptions will not hold together, A little calm logic would have enabled Job to see this; but men are seldom logical at the grave's mouth or in the gra.sp of an awakened conscience. It were well for Christiane, and for men generally, to be distrustful of those representations 'of the Divine character ,which are cast up before the mind's eye by either the soul's fears or fancies, Pictures of the Deity evolved from the inner consciousness, whether by philosophers or theologians, are seldom congruous with one another, but are as variable as the passing moods of the changeful spirit. In the face of Jesus Christ alone can God be either fully or clearly seen; and there he is "without variableness, or shadow of turning." II. DESPAIRING OF HIS LIFE, Job foreseeB nothing for him but the early extinction of that hope of life which has hitherto sustained him; and that for two reasons. 1. Decay appeared to be the universal law of nature. The most stable things on earth were incapable of resisting this inherent tendency to dissolution. Mountains, rocks, stones, the very soil, yielded to the well-nigh omnipotent forces of nature (vers. 18, 19); how much less could weak and frail man overcome that all-pervading vim disintegra- tionis by which he was assailed, or escape that slow but inevitable destruction which engulfed all mundane things I "The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeou8 palaces," etc. (' Tempest,' act iv. sc, 1). 2. God seemed to have decreed his destruction. The con- sideration .of man's frailty, which might have been expected to move God to pity, in Job's estimation had rather stirred him to relentless severity. He had instituted laws against which even the most durable things of earth were unable to stand; "and," as if these same laws were not sufficient of themselves to accomplish his destruction, "thou destroyest the hope of man" (ver. 19). The hope of eluding death is a delusion (Heb. ix. 27). But if God destroys man's hope of life, he mercifully supplants it, in the cause of believers, with' a hope of immortality (1 Pet. i. 3). III. ANTICIPATING HIS DEMISE. This Job expected would be: 1. Irresistible. "Thou prevailest for ever," either overpowerest (Gesenius, Davidson, Carey) or seizest him (Delitzsch) "for ever" (ver. 20). The struggle of life against death, represented as a contest of man with God, who always proves the Victor (Eccles. vi. 10), so that "no man bath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, neither bath he power in the day of death" (Eccles. viii. 8), but from all men equally their breath is taken away, and they return to the dust (Ps. civ. 29). 2. Speedy. "And he pa.iseth," literally, "he goeth,'' i.e. into the unseen world. Notwithstanding all man's attempts to resist the d~cree of dissolution, not much is required to complete his subjugation. His removal is easily effected. Simply God speaks to him (Ps. xc. 3), or breathes upon him (Tua. xl. 7), and he moveth on, his valour overcome, his wisdom defeated, his strength paralyzed, his noble form prostrated in stillness and decay. 3. Humiliating, "Thou chaogest his countenance." Time writes wrinkles on the brow, care ploughs furrows on the cheek, affliction ages and enfeebles the most stalwart frame; but, 0 Death! for rudely marring and disfiguring the foir temple of the body, man accords thee the palm. Death, which is exaltation to the spirit, is degradation to the body. To the one the gateway of glory, it is also to the other, though only for a time, the door of dishonour. 4. Final. "'l'hou sendest him away,'' as it were into perpetual banishment, If the lo.nguagc implies that man continues to preserve a conscious existence after departing from the earth, it 9.S emphatically bars the wo.y against any return to the present life. IV. REALIZING •raE DISl!:MBODIED S'l'A'l'E. 1. .A complete sevemnce from mundane things. When man vanishes from this mortal scene, not only does the place which knows him now know him no more for ever (eh. vii. 10; xx. 9; Ps. ciii. 16), but he himself ho.s no more knowledge of the place. His connect!on with the world i8 262 THE BOOK OF JOB. ,.[oe, nv. 1-22,