The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 501

we may be 11nxiolll! about, our first anxiety should be to tee that our ways ·are right. • II. 1TB ABBOLU'l'E THOROUGHNE88. Job speAke of God u oounting all hie etep,. Therefore God takes note of every one of them. No false step can escape his notice. The little slip is not unseen by God. He sees ue stumble when we do not fall and observes how we stray for a brief time, even though we itfterwarde return to the ~ight path. Thie truth bas an encouraging 11ide to it. God knows how many steps we have taken; therefore' if the way is long and weary he has not forgotten us, and he can gin us reet and strength. He knows how many steps we have yet to take; therefore he will give us a sufficient supply of grace, whether the road be long or short, and he will not expect more of us than the length or brevity of life permits. III. ITS PROMPTING MOTrvE. God does not watch as a epy, like Satan when he ~as eager to detect some wea.kness in Job in order to inform against him (eh. i. 7-10) • nor with any design of ruining, like Satan who now goes about &s a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. v. 8); nor with cold curiosity, amusing himself with the frailties of hie children; nor with merely judicial insight, seeking for truth and dealing fairly, but with no sympathy or interest in his creatures. God watches with the most profound interest-with the interest of love. His watchfulness is like that of the mother who bends over the cradle, carefully noting every changing symptom ia her ailing child, IV. 1Tl5 ULTIIIIATE RESULTS. God does not watch for nothing. He is more than an inspector; he acts according to what he sees, aad his watching is followed by his doing. 1. Sin canMt go '11,npunished. '!'here is no eluding the eye of the great Watcher of men. The foolish notion tha.t secrecy may find a. door of escape is only a delusion when we have to dea.l with one who knows everything, to whom all secrets a.re open. 2. Nud cannot S'Uffer from negl.ect. The poor and suffering a.re forgotten among men, and miserable people drop out of sight after they have fallen into adversity, for great cities hide multitudes of unknown and solitary sufferers. Yet God counts every painful step in the path of disappointment, nnd as he knows all he will assuredly give the needful help. Because he saw the condition of men he provided for thoir recovery by redemption through the gift of his Son.-W. F. A. Ver. 6.-.An even balance. Job only desires to be weighed in an even balance. H~ fee'6 that his friends have judged him in anything but a fair manner, and he now craves for the true justice of God. L THE JUSTICE OF AN EVEN BALANCE JB GBEATLY TO BE DESIRED, People have taken a very narrow view of justice, so narrow a. view as to be practically false and most fallacious. Justice has been regarded as the power that punishes ein, and while, of course, this is true, this is not a description of the true nature and ultimate character of it, hut only a statement of one of its special functions-a function which would not exist if sin had not entered the world. Yet justice would have an ample field if there were no wickedness. It is not like the executioner, whose occupation would be gone with the cessation of lawlessness. Justice is righteousness. It is the principle that insists on seeing right done. Every lover of the good must desire to see such a principle flourish. Between man and man justice is fairness. When we say God deals justly we imply that he deals fairly. This may nut mean equality. For to load a mule with the same burden we would put on an elephant's back is not fair dea..1ing at all. Equity is not equality. But it is a suitable and proportionate dealing with eaoh individual II. 'JHE JUSTICE OF AN EVEN BALANCE lB BABE AllONG MEN. Job did not see it, aod therefore he greatly longed for it. Many things falsify the scales of justice. 1. Prejudice. Truth should be on one side of the scales-as in the Egyptian legend of weighing the souls of !:.he dead. But prejudice either pares the weight of truth and so lesaens its vai.ne, or adds its own weig 1t, 2. &lf-intere,t, Justice should be impartial; but men are not. A pure detachment of mind is very difficult to acquire. Instead of considering merit, people take account of what pleases them or what may be profitable to them. 3. Ig,wrance. When there is the utmost genuineness of desiro to weigh justly, we may m&ke a mistake simply because we do not put all the facta into the ecale.  oa.nu.1-40.] THE :BOOK 01.1' JOB. 1517