The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 345

HOIDLETIOS. Ve!"B. 1-34.~ob lo Zophar: Audi alteram partem. I. THE BPIB.IT OP Jon's Bli:Pi,~. 1. 1ntense earnestness. Indicated by the respectful invitation addressed to his Jriend11 to attend t.o his discourse, the nervous reduplication. of the verb "hear," and the assur- ance that such behaviour on their part would more effectually console him than. all their eloquent and laboured harangues. Job's character of eminent so.nctity, Job's condition of extreme wretchedness, and Job's condemnation by the three friends, all entitled him to receive from them a generous and patient hearing. Good men and great sufferers are usually in earnest when they do speak, especially when justifying the ways of God to man, and are well worthy of being listened to for both their owi. aakes and their subject's. It is one of a saint's sweet.est consolations to be allowed to vindicate the cause of God and truth. 2. .Absolute confidence. So satisfied did Job feel that what he was about to advance was in perfect accord with truth and right, that he was completely indifferent to all personal considerations in the declaration of it. It might expose him to further ridicule and calumnious animadversion, might· intensify the suspicions already existing against him, and even lead to angrier and mor.e direct accusations. He was prepared to meet these for the sake of liberty to publish what in his inmost conscience he believed to be the truth. Job's example is well worthy of imitation. First, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind that what he purposes to speak is true, and then let him manifest the courage of his conviction_s by suffering for them if need. be. 3. Silf-;iustification. Job vindicates ·himself against the oft-repeated charge of impatience. (1) Admitting to his frien'ds that their accu- sation was substantially correct. His spirit had been "shortened'.' (ver. 4) by ~he perple¥Og enigma of Divine providence over which he had been. brooding, as after; wards was that of David (Pa. xxxvii. 1), of Asaph (Ps. l:u.iii. 3), of Jeremiah (xii. .1); as men's spirits arc sometimes shortened, irritated, and rendered impatient, by diffi.- culties (Numb. :x.xi. 4), temptations (Judg. xvi. 16), afflictions (Exod. vi. 9);.and as God, mure humano, represents his spirit as being shortened, filled with the impatience of compassion, through beholding the misery of man (Judg. x. 16). (2) Denying their right to impute blame to him on that account, seeing that his complaint was directed against,, not them, but God (ver. 4). It was not their lack of sympathy with his sufferings that annoyed him, or even their virulent aspersions of his character, but the apparent inequality of God's dealings with himself. A saint's greatest trials always cume from God. .A good man can live without the commiseration or approbation of his fellows, but not without the communion or favour of his God (Pe. xµ. 5). The hardfat problem a sanctified intelligence has to solve is not to account for th~ opprlls- siow. and in.jWltices of man, but to solve seeming inconsistencies in God's dispens~ tion.s. (8) Maintaining the perfect reasonableness of his behaviour in so, manifesting shortness of spirit under the awful mystery of Divine providenc.e. If they, his friends, were in 11J1y respect different from him, it WllS because they were ineapl\hle of discem- ing the mystery. They had simply shut their eyes upon the hard problem before which he (Job) staggered., and then affirmed, tha.t the problem did not exist. So, often, good people to-day, through lack of intellectual capacity or spiritual sincerity, either  't'tlE :eoolt o-r JO~. 850