The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 600

intelleotual and morn! do.rkneee of those by whom it is beheld. 2. Ign<Yrana affirmed. ExeoUy this wns the case with Joh, for the challenge is not addreRBed to the friends nnd still less to Elihu. Job had asserted more than once that the Divine governm,mi of tho world wns not in accordance (at any rate, not in visible accordance) with the eternRl principles of equity, adducing instances, as he supposed, which no amount of ingenuity could harmonize with absolutely imparfo1l justice. "But God pronounces that these words were 'without knowledge.' The instances that ,Job had appealed to as being obvious to tbe sight of all men of God's giving prosperity to the wicked, and causing the innocent to suffer wrongfully, and without redress, are pronounced to be untrue" (Fry). 3. Astonishment exrressed. " Who is this?" The words cnrry in them (1) "a rebuke or reprehension,"" as if God, pointing at Job, ha.d said, Is it you? I could not have believed that my servant Job would have so much forgotten himself;" and (2) "a slight or diminution," as though Job, otherwise a man of an excellent spirit," hnd been too bold with God, and therefore no wonder if God spake contemningly to bim" (Caryl). III. THE LoRn's DEMAND FROM Jon. 1. To display the cou1·age MJ 1iad previomJ,y t1aunted. "Gird up thy loins now like a man," i.e. like a valiant hero (a geber), a.s you frequently affected to be. Job bad formerly professed to be ready for an interview with God (eh.xiii. 18, 22); had complained that God acted towards him like an invisible assailant (eh. xix. 7), whom he knew not bow to meet or where to find (eh. xxiii. 3, 8, 9); nay, had declared that nothing would rejoice him more than to hear that his unseen adversary had opened a. tribunal for the bearing of his case and prep~red an indictment for the exposition of his guilt-that such an indictment he would wind around his brow like a regal crown, and march into God's presence with the stately steps of a prince (eh. mi. 35-37). Brave words, 0 Job I But most men, like Falstaff, are valiant in the absence of the foe. Jehovah had now come to ask Job to evince the sincerity of his bonRt. So will God one day come, upon the clouds of heaven, with gteat power and glory, to afford all the presumptuous ungodly an opportunity of showing whether they can meet without fear him whom they now despise without shame. 2. To recite the answers he had formerly professed to have prepared. Job had declared bis perfect indifference as to whether the .Almighty when he came should assume the position of assailant or defendant. If he preferred that Job shonld open the case, Job was ready; if he elected to assume the initiative, Job ba.d his defences at bar;id. "Well," exclaims Jehovah, "as you gave me the choice, I decide upon the latter. I am ready to begin the hearing of your cause. Therefore stand forth. I will demand of thee. and answer thou me! " "I will come shortly," wrote Paul to the Corinthio.ns (1 Cor. iv. 19), "if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which ,are puffed up, but the power." In the like spirit had Jehovah come to Job, to see whether the reality corresponded in any degree with the loud-sounding profession he bad made. Learn: 1. That God keeps the times and seasons of all things connected with his kingdom in his own band. 2. That nature with all its phenomena is under service to God. 3. That God's voice in nature, much more in the Word, and most of all in the conscience, is full of majesty. 4. That for God to answer any of his creatures, much more sinful dust and ashes, is an act of amazing condescension. 5. Tb.at God will not hide the faults of any of -his people when he enters into judgment with them. 6. That ignorance lies at the root of much, if not iwl, of man's misunderstanding of, and murmuring against, God's ways. Vers. 4-15.-Jehovah to Job : the first answer-the ea:amination : 1. Concerning the creation. I. THE CREATION OF THE EARTH THE HANDIWORK OF GoD. 1. An ezclusively Divine work. Jehovo.h claims not simply to have been the Framer of the mighty fabric of the globe, but to have shared the honour of that stupendous achieve- ment with no co-worker. Hence certainly not with Job. "Where wast thou when J established the earth?" Not taking part or even looking on, since thou wast not then in existence. 'rhat this terrestrial world, and Indeed the vast universe of which it forms a part lllmost infinitesimally small, bas not existed from eternity, and did not spring into being fortuitously and without adequate cause, but was summoned from the womb of nothingness by the fiat of Omnipotence, besides according witn ihe  616 TRR B001r OF JOB. [oil, xtxvm. 1..-..4,l