The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 247

J, THE EAGER, UNSATISFIED ORY OF MEN APAUT FROM DIVINE REVJ;lLATION. II. THE PARTIAL UNFOLDING OF THE TRUTH IN THE EARLIER REVELATIONS. Ill. THE PERF.ftCT AND UNEQUIVOOAL BF.VELATION' MADE BY JEBUB OHRIST. or this last we may notice: 1. Christ's teachings all proceed on the assumption that there is a future Ii fe. 2. His teachings are constantly supported by an appeal to the future con- ditio_ns of ~eward_ and punishment. 3. Very much of his teaching w?uld be unmeaning and mexphcable m the absence of ~uch future. 4. But he crowns all his teaching by him- self becoming the Disputant, and affirming anddemonstrating the future life. "Dut that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the place concerning the bush, when he calleU1 the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him." 5. He crowns all by the raising of the dead to life, and by the example of bis own triumph over death. But Job had not this consolation, and he still abides in gloom, as must all who have not the perfect rrvelation of God.-R. G. • Vers. 1, 2.-77ie flower and the shadow. I, THERE IB A 0OMMON CHARA.~EB IN ALL HFM 1N LIFE. Job seems to be suffering from exceptional troubles. Yet he regards his condition as typical of that of mankind generally. He turns from himself to " man that is born of a woman." We differ in external circumstances, possessions, honours; in bodily, mental, and moral characteristics. But in our fundamental con- stitution we are alike. The points of resemblance are more numerous than the points of difference. 1. All born of women come in the common descent from the first parents. 2. All are frail and short-lived, 3. All suffer from the troubles of life. 4. All sin. 5. A.II have Christ for their brother, able and willing to be 11lso their Saviour. 6. All may enter the eternal life and dwell for ever in the love of God, on the same conditions of repentance and faith. II. MAN SB.ABEB THE CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURE. Job sees in -nature types of human life. We are a part of nature, and the laws of nature apply to us. This fact should save us from 8Jil.3.Zement when trouble comes upon ·us. It is just in the course of nature. We have not been singled out for a miracle of judgment. It is not that God is writing bitter things against us in particular. Ours is part of the general experience of all nature. Our greatest evil, however, is not that which befalls us in the course of nature, but that which we bring upon ourselves unnaturally: There is something monstrous about sin. We feel a gentle pathos in natural sorrow, but we recognize a terrible tragedy, a dark and dreadful curse, in our self-made sorrow of sin. That is infinitely worse than the fading of flowers and the fleeing of shadows. ' III. N ATU'BE SETS FORTH THE SAD SIDE OF LIFE. 1. Brevity. Man is "of few days." The age of nature is maintained by succession, not by continuance. The race goes on, the individnal passes. 2. Trouble. "Full of trouble." "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together" (Rom. viii. 22). The advance of nature is throu.,gb conflict and struggle. 3. Frai1ty. Man is born of a woman, " the weaker vessel" (1 Pet. iii. 7). The flower, which is the most beautiful thing in nature, is the most fragile. Crushed by a careless step, or nipped by frost, or withered by the very sun that drew out its life and painted its loveliness, it is yet the type· of human life. The most exquisite. flowers may be the most delicate, and the finest souls the most sensitive. The hot Southern eun quickly turns a garden into a desert. The same fate is found among the most cultivated and valued lives. The flowers are not saved by their beauty and fragrance. Some of the most precious lives are cut down in their prime. The scythe that mows the meadows cuts off the summer flowers in the height of their short-lived beauty. The rough, common fate of man is indiscriminate, laying low the best of men together with their less-valued companions 4. Unreality. A mere shadow! and a moving shadow 1 What could be more unsubstantial and transient? Yet the frailty and changefulness of life make our human existence appear no more real. CoNCLUSIOJi. Observe another side of the scene. The very melancholy of the picture suggests that it does not cover the whole field. Nature is not dissatisfied with her changefulaess. The flowers do not bewail their untimely end. Man a.lone looks with sorrow on his fate. The reason is that he is made for something greater. The Divine ins\;inct of i.IQmortality i11 in hilll,. He ie more than a pa.rt of no.ture, A ohillj orr. XIV. 1-22.] THE BOOK OF JOB. 257