The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 529

t.ion into which Hezekiah fookrd (fs11. xxxvi1i. 18)-the latter being the consequence as well as the liign of the former. III. THE REBtl'LT8 OF Dr,·r:i-"E !NSTRUCTION. 1. Em11,'Mipation. When the putpose aimed at by the Divine wRrnings, nfllictions, nod teachings is accomplished, the penitent i's liberated like II C'a.ptivc from his bonda.~e, like a prisoner from bis oonfinernent, this being in all probability the import of the·wotd translated" deliver," which occurs nowhere el~e; and this emancipation of the chastened soul is minutely depicted by the spea.ker. (1) It, primal source is the grace of God ('Ver. 24). To the true penitent God is pitifully inclined, regarding him with tender 1nercy and forgiving love; a.nd in this Divine emo- tion towards man all redemption has its ri~e (Ps. iii. 8; lxviii. 19, 20; h::xxvi. 15· Isa. xl,. 21; Eph. ii. 5, S; Titus ii. 11). Not that God either can or will pardon any ;n the ground sin,ply of their penitence, without the intervention of an atonement; but that, wherever genuine contrition exists, there God is merciful and gracious (Ps. Ii. 17; Isa. lvii. 15), while he neither is nor can be forgiving and benignant towards the impenitent and rebellious (Isa. i. 20). (2) Its essential nature is deliverance; both- physical and spiritual, both temporal and eternal (vide supra), the latter being symbolized by the former, the recovery of the soul to God's favour and fellowship by the restoration of the body to health and vigour. The sick man, who has been reduced by disease to a thin, feeble, emaciated, transparent skeleton, begins to put on flesh till his well'-Covered bones become fat and plump, a.s ir he had returned to the days of his youth like Na.a.man the Syrian (2 Kings v. 14); and in tbis is vouchsafed to him a visible token of God's returning favour. (3) Its meritorious ground is the ransom or redemption-price paid for getting free from captivity or deaih (Exod. xxi. 30; xxx. 12; Isa. xlii. 3), that ransom being not the repentance (Hofmann, Carey) or the sufferings (Umbreit} of the chastened one, but the mediat.orship.of the Angel (Delitzsch, Cook, Fry)-a thought in which "we readily recognize a presage of the mystery unveiled in the New Testament, that God was in CbTist reconciling the world unto himself." To pronounce such- a doctrine in the mouth of Elihu "an acachronism," is to forget the protevangel of Ede,;,. (Gen. iii. 15), and to gratuitously assume that outside the line of the chosen family in patriarchal times faith in this sublime gospel had become entirely extinct. To affirm that such an anachrotJism (so-called) is" rebuked by the plain a.lid obvious sense ofthe passage itself, and of the meaning and intention of the chapter in general" (Cox:), is· to demonstrate that oce has failed to distinctly grasp the scope and purpose both of this particular sec:ion and of Elihu's interlocution as a whole. If Elihu spoke by inspira- tion, wh.:y sl,ould not the Spirit of Christ which was in him (1 Pet. i. 11) have ·testi- fied before Land of 1;he work of him who, when he came to earth, was to give his life a ransom for many (Matt. xx. 28), and all the more that the finding of such a ransom was a work transcending human ability, and requiring as is here declared- the intervention of God himself? 2. .Acceptation. As a next result of Divine teaching, of accepted warnings, sanctified afflictions, improved instructions, the subdued penitent, uow admitted into the Divine favour, receives a recompense for his righteousness, i.e. a gracious reward for bis having turned to God in contrition (cf. Isa. lX:iv. 6), and for his upright conversation generally, or is bencefort;h regarded and treated as a righteous or justified person; the treatment accorded to him and the reward bestowed upon him bci11g the same, and comprised in three inestimable privileges. (1) Free_ access_ to G ud '; throne. '' He sb:ill pray ucto God "(ver. 26). Prayer is the language of the new- boru spirit (Acts ix. 11); a necessary characteristic of God's children (Hom. viii. 15); the im!Jerative duty of all men (Ps. !xii. 8; Isa. ]xv. 6; Luke xviii. 1); and a special JJriviI~ge uf believers (EJ,h. ii. 18; Heh. iv. 16; x. 22). The pardoned sinner enjoys the fullest liberty to address God in prayer when, where, and how he will (Phil. iv. 6; 1 Thess. v. 17), provided alwa)'l;, of course, he does so in faith (Heb. xi. 6), in the No.me of Jesus Chru;t (John xiv. 13, 14), and for things agreeable to God's will (1 John v. 14). (2) Certain enjoyment af God's favour. "Hil,"ie: God, "will be· favourable unto him" and to his petitions. God never says to any of the seed of Jacob, "Beek ye me in vain" (Isa. tlv. 19), but, on the contrary, expressly engages to fulfil the desires of them that fear him (Ps. lxxxi. 10; xci. 15; Isa. !xv: 24; Jer. xxtz:; 012- Zech. xiii. 9; Matt. vii. 7; John xvi. 28; 1 John v. 14). "The sacrifice of. the wicked .is an abomination to the Lord: but the :prayer of the ~frigl:it ie. his de1ight" (Prov. u. 8). "The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the pta.yer of the ~ti'. XXXIII, 1-83.J THE BOOK OF J0"8. 543