Vers. 18-22.-Job to God: 2. An appeal, to God against God. I. A BUDLtllE I'KVOCATION. "0 earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place I" (ver. 18). I. The explanation of the language. The allusion seems to be to Gen. iv. 10, where the blood of Abel is represented as crying to God from the ii:round for vengeance upon its destroyer; and Job, in the lofty consciousness of his innocence while mome11tarily anticipating <leath, calls upon the earth not to drink up his blood: but to permit ils cry to "urge its way unhindered and unstilled towards heaven without finding a place of rest." But the student may consult the Exposition. 2. The import of the lanyuage. It contains a declaration on the part of Job that, thouah about to perish, he \VHS innocent; and, since he regarded God as the Author of all h: sufferings it was virtually an accusation of God as the Shedder of his innocent blood. The styl~ of address here emplo~'ed is certainly not one that a good man may with safety imitate. II. A CONFIDENT APPEAL. 1. To what quarted Not to his' friends who had mocked him (ver. 20), but to God himself who had assailed him, to whom nevertheless he clung as for dear life, and whom he describes by a threefold characteristic. (1) His name; Eloah, the All-powerful Supreme, in contrast to man, to strong men and weak men alike, who are all at the best but dust; the mighty Maker of this universal frame, who giveth power unto the faint, and to them that have no might increaseth strength (Isa. xl. 29), and who bath revealed himself most graciously as a Refuge for the oppressed (Ps. ix. 9; Deut. :u:xiii. 27; Jer. xvi. 19). (2) His occupation; that of a Vi'itness, an Eye-witness, whose eyes are in every place, beholding the evil aild the good (Prov. xv. 3), as those of Christ, the faithful Witness, are in the midst of the golden candlesticks (Rev. ii 1); and in particular whose eyes run to and fro ·throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose hearts are perfect toward him (2 Chron. xvi. 9). The thou~ht that God is a constant Eye-witness of everything on earth, and a silent Spectator of all that transpires within the deep places of the human heart, may fill the wicked with alarm, but is fraught with special comfort to the saint. (3) Bis dwelling-place; the heights, or heaven. God has three <lwelling- places--eternity, the Church, and the saint's heart (Isa. lvii 15); and he is never really absent from the third any more than from the second or the first. But when the saint, by reason of doubt, sorrow, or sin, cannot perceive him in the second or third, he may always find him in the first, seated on his high and glorious throne of grace. 2.. In what spirit? Clearly (1) with firm failh. "Behold, my Witness is in heaven;" the first personal pronoun pointing to the existence of appropriating faith. So David uys, "The Lord is my Shepherd" (Ps. xriii. 1). And (2) with confident expectation. "Behold! "--a note of triumph, as if a gleam of bright exultant hope had already begun to make sunshine in the sufferer's soul • ill A FERVENT SUPPLICATION. 1. The earnestness ef Job's prayers. They were: (1) Persistent. His friends mocked him, accused him of irnpiet.y, insinuated that he had abaadolled the habit of devotion; but, in spite of slander and misrepresentation, he continued "instant in prayer." Not fitful and intermitteat devotion succeeds with God, but habitual and continual. Therefore pray without ceasing. It is a high mark of grace to be e.ble to persevere in well-dning, and to keep on praying in face of ;ipposition and ridicule from friends. (2) ·Tearful. Job presented not cold, fo~l, Rad listless petitions to the throne of grace, but warm, urgent, and forceful entreaties. When the eye waters, the heart melts. It is the stream of penitential feeling, or the flood of believing desire, which, welling up from the soul's depths, sends liquid drops through the open gateway of the eye. David mourned after God with tears (Ps. xiii. 3). The father of the lunatic boy cried out with tears," Lord, I believe~ (Mark ix. 24). 2. The burden of Job'• prayer-a. (1) That God would plead with. himself in hel,alf of man; i.e. that he would vindicate Job agailll!t himself, by declaring him (Job) to OD, XVI, 1-22,] TIIE BO(JK OF JOB. 287
lie innoc~nt, Whnt Job here desired for himself has in a more exalted sense been done fur all men by Christ, who through his cross has made intercession for the transgressors not to demonstrate their sinlessness or integrity, but to eetablish their righteousnes~ before God. (2) '!'hat God would plead for the son of man against his frienrl ; i.e. for Job against hie friends, who wished to put him rlown a., IL hypocrite. This also Gl)d will do fur all, if not here, in s future world. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father " (Matt. xiii. 43). IV. A PATHETJO REASON. 1. The "brevity ef life's term. "When a few years are come" (ver. 22). The short period of life that still remained would soon be ended. Time.flies with all, but especially with the dying. 2. The hopelessness of rrv.m's return from the tomb. "Then I shall go the way whence I shall not return (cf. eh. x. 21). Learn: 1. That the God of faith alone is the true God. 2. That faith's God is found in the page of revelation and in Jesus Christ, not in the mere conceptions of the human mind. 3. That faith's God is the enemy of no man, but the Friend of all. 4. That the ear of faith's God is never heavy that it cannot hear, or his hand shortened that it cannot save.