The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 413

from bis enlted position he surveys the whole panorama. of existence, e.nd e.dministere the affairs of the universe. 3. He e:urta active infl= over all. God iR not 110 urnnmenta.l figure-head. He not only reigns, he rules. His government is absolute; not despotic, only because it is paternal. II. Goo's RULE 18 A NECESSITY OP' THE UNIVERSE. The worlds could not go on without it. Confusion and chaos would follow if he withrlrew his ha.nd. 1. It i8 needed in hea'llen. Even there it is God who keeps the 1Jeace. The best-tempered Hucioty needs order and government to save it from falling into confusion. Hca.ven would become a babel of disorder if no regulating power were supreme there. The highest intelligences and the purest spirits require a regulative influence to keep them all in harmony. However well its harps are tuned, a.nd however perfect is its music, the celestial orchestra needs one great leader. 2. Much more is it needed on earth. If heavenly beings cannot live aright without Divine guidance a.nd rule, much more i~ this the case with earthly creatures, who are weak, ignorant, a.nd sinful. If God makes hia rule felt in maintaining the perfect order of heaven, assuredly he must make it felt in rectifying the wild disorder of earth. HI. Gon't1 RULE SECURES PEACE, 1. It maintains "peace in high places." There is peace above, though at present there may be confusion below. The heavens are calm though the earth is storm-tossed. The changeless blue sky is above the shifting rack' of clouds. Stars keep to their spheres. Angels perform their functions. The blessed dead are at rest. If we do but look high enough we shall see peace. 2. It will bring ''peace on earth." When heaven touches earth the peace of heaven comes down among men. If God can keep peace among the greatest beings, surely he can establish it among puny mortals. He can reconcile all enmity or crush all opposition. Christ has come from the peace of heaven to be" our Peace" (Eph. ii. 14).-W. F. A. Ver. 3.-The innumerable armies of God. I. THEIR VAST NUMBERS. We can see no limit to the physical universe. The starry hemisphere dazzles us with its multi- tudinous splendour, but the telescope greatly increases our idea. of its vastness, resolving fleecy mist into galaxies of worlds, and discovering distant suns invisible to the naked eye; and photography carries the process much further, and peoples the interstellar spaces of the telescope with hosts of still more remote stars. It is not reasonable to suppose that all these worlds are destitute of life, that our little planet is the solitary home of Jiving creatures in a terrific desert of dead worlds. But if the material world be peopled, this may be but a small part of the universe. There may be other realms of existence unseen by ,the eye of sense; there may be material worlds that do not contain properties that ·can .be detected by any of our five senses, although they are perceptible to the different senses of different orders of beings; and there may be creatures of God existing in regions that are not material, spirits that do not require what w:e understand by bodies. The revelation of Scripture gives us glimpses of inhabitants of other worlds than ours. It is reasonable to think that the great God rules over hosts of such beings. II. TBEIR ORDERLY ARRAY. They are armies, not mobs. As the physical universe is regulated by law and maintained in order, it is most probable that the same is true of the unseen universe. All that is revealed about God's heavenly hosts shows them to us in obedience to God's will. It is a human figure of speech that represents them as constituting armies. Milton's poetry, added to the visions of the Apoca- lypse, have impressed our imaginations with military conceptions of the angelic hosts. But we do not know what tasks may be laid upon those armies of God in subduing the evil of the universe. We may be sure that the vulgar thirst for glory, the pride of brute strength, and the cruel rage of bloodshed that characterize our hideous wars, cannot be found among the hosts of heaven. Therefore the military idea of the angels needs to be received with caution. We are directed rather to the higher warlike qualities, e.g. discipline and obedience joined to courage and strength. III. THEIR ])1vINE LIGHT. They all have their light from God. On what earthly multitudea does the sun rise every day I Yet there is light for all. But an infini- tesimal proportion of the sunlight and heat is received by our world ; by far the greater quantity of it is scattered through realms of spac~. God's light ?f love reaches all his creatures. There are no remote a11d dark reg10ns of the umverse that lie 128 THE BOOK OF JOB. [cm. XXVI, 1-1',