of God. And yet, asks Job, how is it possible that pnrity should be exacted or him? How can the product be diverse from the cause; the stream be of purer quality than the source? III. REASONING AND EXPOSTULATION FOUNDED ON T~IESE FACTS. (Vars. 5, 6.) If man, then, is so weak, and his life determined by so narrow bounds, were it not the part of Divine compassion and justice to give him some release and respite until his brief day of toil and suffering be altogether spent ( comp. eh. vii. 17; x. 20)? It seems to Job, in the confusion of his bewildered thought, that God is laying on him a special and extraordinary weight of suffering, which makes his lot worse than that of the common hireling. IV. FURTHER IMA.GE& OF DESPONDENCY. (Vers. 7-12.) Casting his eye upon the familiar scenes of nature, it seems that all things reflect the sad thought of the transi- ency and hopelessness of man's fate, and even to exaggerate it. I. Image of the tree. The tree may be hewn down, but scions and suckers spring from its well-nourished root; an image need by the prophet to symbolize the spiritual Israel. The stump of the oak represents the remnant that survives the judgment, and this is the source whence the new Ierael springs up after the destrnction of the old (Isa. vi. 13). But when man is broken down and falls like the trunk of the tree, there is an end of him. This is undoubtedly a morbid perversion of the suggestion of nature. She by the sprouting scion teaches at least the great truth of the continuity and perpetual self-renewal of life, if she can tell no more. 2. Image of the dried-up waters. (Ver. 11.) These forsake their wonted channels and flow in them no more (comp. eh. vii. 9). So, it seems to the eye of nature, man passes away in a mist from the earthly scene and leaves no trace behind. 3. Image of the a1Jidi11g heavens. (Ver. 12.) This is intro- duced, not in illustration of the transient life of man, but in contrast to it (comp. Ps. lxxxix. 29, 36, 37). The heavens appear eternally fixed, in contrast to the fluctuating scene below. They look calmly down, while man passes into the sleep of death, and into Sheol, whence there is no return. But when man rises into the full consciousness of his spiritual nature through the revelation of life and immortality, all seems passing compared with the life in God. The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, but God's salvation shall not be abolished. He that docth the will of God shall abide for ever.--J. Vere. 13-16....-Seif-defence before God: 3. Dawning of a new hope. The thoughts of the sufferer now carry him beyond the confines of the present life. He has just been speaking of Sheol, or Hades, as his destined end, and now the reflection occurs- What may happen then? It is the nature of thought to travel on and on, to know no bounds that it will not seek to overleap. It is perpetually asking, when one goal has been reached, for the after, the beyond. And in some such way must hurna.n thought have travelled towards the light of immortality, before the truth dawned by revela- tion on the world. Job evidently sees a glimmer or the truth, though it soon fades out, for want of definite knowledge, into darkness. I. LONGING FOB CONCEALMENT IN HADES FOB A BEA.SON, (Ver. 13.) The intense desire, eo frequently repeated, for a respite, marks the extremity of intolerable a.nguish. And if the source of it be God's wrath, perhaps in time his heart will relent. Then let the appointed judgment be held, and the decision be made. At least may the wrath of God not pursue him into the darkness of the other world! II. A FUTURE LIFE SUGGESTED. (Ver. 14.) For if there is to be a future judgment, there must be a future life to be the subject of it. l'erhaps this is the greatest ques- tion man can ask without the light of the gospel. But some preliminary answer is here suggested for a moment, though Job does not grasp it firmly, that the future life is guamnteed by the justice and the love of Goel. But it is observable how the very faintest thought of the possibility gives a new turn to feeling. Patience can only exist when there is hope. And Job feels he could patiently wait all the days of his earthly service were that hope assured. It awakens joy. A happy chang" must occur. The misunderstandings of the present will o\ear away. And with this is connected again the glimmering of- III. THE OONBOIOtJSNBBB OF MAN 1S ETERNAL RELATION TO Goo. The heart is mad11 for God. How gladly, when he appears from out ·the clouds and darkness that sur- round him, will the heart respond to his call I Clod yearns for man. Man is his 254 THE BOOK OF JOB. [arr. xiv. 1-22.
creature, his handiwork, bis offspring. He rannot but regsrd man with tenderness, with eternal interest.. Here again we find at the bottom of the patriarch's heart the germ of that faith which the bright rays of the gospel were to bring to flower (vcr. 16). The revolt of the h«i,rtfromfalse views of God. The picture of One who numbers bis steps, and has an eye only for his sins, is inconsistent with the filial consciousness of God (ver. 16). Yet there may be insufficient knowledge or faith to overcome this prevailing mood of despair (comp. eh. x. 8-12).-J.