The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 459

HOMILE'l'IOS. Vere.. 1-25.-.Too's second para1,'le: 1. Regrelful, memories of bygone dciys. ·1. Due OF RELIGIOUS HAPPINESS. In tender elegiac strains Job resumes his '.tnnnoldruo of sorrow, caBting a pathetic glanoe upon "the times of yore," already ta.dcd in the far past and gone beyond recall; not the days of his youth (Authorized Version) but the autumn 1l0116on of his mature manhood, when, like a field that the Lord bad blessed (Gen. xxvii. 27), groaning beneath the exuberance of its harvest fruits, he was loaded with an abundance of good things (Ps. ciii. 1--5). Heaven's blessings were so many and so varied, l.lO ripe and so ready, that it seemed to him like a very time of vintage for his soul. But, ala~ I these bright days of golden sunshine were departed, carrying with them all the treasures of felicity they bad brought; and of these that which by its loss now struck the keenest pang of anguish into his melancholy soul was the blessed fellowship, the familiar, conficling, unreserved intercourse which he then enjoyed with Eloah, who, in the threefold capacit:v of Guardia.n, Guide, aud Friend, was an habitual Visitor at his tent. 1. As a Guardian. Then Eloah preserved, or protected, him, as Satan, in the opening of the fundamental controversy of the poem, complained (oh. i.. 10), ~nd as Eliphaz (eh. v. 11-21; x:r:ii. 25), followed by Zopbar (eh. xi. 18), asstir~li, him God would again do, if he returned in penitential submission to Eloah's waysQ, 'l'bis Divine guardianship must not be limited to the setting up of a fonce around the patriarch's estate, but extended to that of which it was a symbol, the casting of a shield a.round the patriarch's soul. In the happy days of old Job nestled beneath the, shadow of the Almighty's wings (Ruth ii. 12; Ps. xci. 1), body, soul, and spirit, feeling himself secure against calamity of every sort, inward or outward, spiritual or material. Wha.t God was to Job he likewise proved himself to be to David and other' Old Testament saints, and to-day offers himself to be to a.11 Christ's believing followers...:..; a. Defender 8t,"IW1St the charges of the Law, of conscience, or of Sa.tan (Ps. x..xxii. 1--6; l:xv. 3; b::x:xv. 2, 3; Isa. :xliv. 22; Rom. viiL 1, 31, 33); a Protector against the ills and t.emptations of life (Ps. :xlvL 1; :xlviii. 3; cxxi 3; Prov. iii. 6, 23, 2:¾:; Isa. [iy:. 14-17; Zeeb. iL 8; 2 '.l'bess. iii. 3; 1 Pet. iii. 13). 2. As a Guide. Job also recollects that, in the bright days whose departure he laments, Eloa.h's candle (or la.mp) shone above hls hea.d, enabling him to walk with perfect safety even in nights of thickest darkness. The allusion probably is to the custom of suspending lamp~ in rooms or tents over the head (Carey); and the meaning is that, while rejoicing in Hea,·en's favour and fellowship, Job's feet never stumbled in the pa.th of duty. · If perplexities arose around or before him, through Divine grace he was always able· to resolve them, threading his way through the deepest intricacies, and moving straight on in an even pa.th. This was no doubt owing partly to the circumsj;a.nce that liis consciousness of inward peace and sincerity permitted him to make the best possible UBe of \,is natural faculties, and partly to .the fact that he enjoyed the special illumi- nation of Heaven. If piety does not confer new powers, it ena.bles old ones to be turned to the best advantage. 'l'hen the singleness of aim which a good man possesses largely facilitates the discovery of light in times of da.rkness. And, finally, saints have special promises guaranteeing providential guidance when placed in situations of perplexity or peril (Ps. xxv. 8, 9; mii. 8; x.x.xvii. 23 ; cxii. 4). 3. .As a Friend. More pa.rticu- larly Jub mentions that, in the times of blessedness referred to," the secret," or favour (Cox), or blessed fellowship (Delitzsch), or counsel (Fry) of Eloah was upon his tent. Whether Job was honoured like Abraham to receive theopha.nies (Gen. xviii. 1, 2), so that be might actually speak of God being a Visitor at his tent (Ca.rey), the lang1:1,age (literally, "in the seat or cushion of God being at my tent") obviously poin ta to an intercourse of the most friendly and familiar kind between him and God-8_uch a dwelling together a.s Eliphaz affirmed should take ,place (eh. x..xii. 21) if Job and God were to be at peace. The friendship here depicted as having existed between Job and Eloa.h was rea.lized in the case of Abra.ham and Jehovah (2 Chron. xx. 7; Isa. xli. 8; Ja.s, ii. 23), and is in a certl).in r;ense still realized in the experience of Christians and the Saviour (John xv. 16). .A;1 one result of this friendly intercourse between Eloah and Job, Job became acquaintoo. with Eloah's counsel or secret purpose, as Abraham was infurwed of Jehovah's determination concerning Sodom (Gen. xviii. 17), as the att;-rlnt, ·t-25;] THE :aoott. OF JOB. 475