The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 649

adminlstra.tion, which, if it was not strictly retributive jusUce, 11s the friends alleged, was still less B heartless indifference to human happiness, as Job occBHionally seemed to insinuate, but; as Elihu maintained, a principle of grace; to misconstrue the purpose at which God aimed in hie affliction, and, B8 a consequence, to recklessly cha.rge Gnd with partiality, injustice, and enmity. Accordingly this, the last controversy to emerge, was the first which required to be disposed of; and this is done by Job's unconditional eurrenrler to Jehovnh. 1. A clear _recognitiQ11, of the Divine supremacy. "I kn,,w that thou canst do everything, and "that no thought can be withholden from thee." The conception of Jehovo.h'e omnipotence and omniscience, of bis infinite capability of elaborating plane and carrying them forward into execution, though not wliully unfo.miliar to the mind of the patriarch, now stands out before bi11 quickenerl imagi- nation with a luminosity which was previously wanting. The contemplation of a wisdom that could fashion and a power that could govern such strange and wondrous monsters as behemoth (the hippopotamus, or Nile-horse) and leviathan (the crocodile or alligator), had enabled him to see that in the higher sphere of man also similarly elaborated thoughts, counsels, plans, might be formed by the Supreme, and even projected into actual realization. 'l'bat Job's affliction was one such exquisitely fashioned thought of God had at last dawned upon the troubled soul of the patriarch. 2. ...1 humble acknowledgment of sin. "Who is he that hideth counsel without know- ledge?" So Jehovah at the opening of the theopba.ny had charged the patriarch with doing (eh. xxxviii. 2); and to this at length the patriarch, with sorrow in bis heart, BBsents. It is a sure sign that a man bas entered on the path of penitence when be owns himself prepared not alone to admit bis fault, but also to accept the rebukes of God (Lev. x.xvi. 41). So David did when God reproved him for his great transgression in the matter of Uriah. And here Job with perfect frankness concedes that God's language concerning him, however severe, was not undeserved; that in speaking a.B he did a.bout God and his transcendently glorious administration of mundane affairs he had simply been babbling in ignorance, talking a.bout sublimities immeasurably beyond his con- ception. "Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." 3. An earnest desire for Divine illumination. A. second time ta.king up the words of God (eh. xxxviii. 3), Job, as it seems to us, applies them to himself. Formerly he bad deemed himself qualified to answer God, so confident did he feel as to the fnlness of his knowledge and the clearness of his convictions. On this assumption God had challenged him to stand forth and submit to examination. Now, however, Job bas been brought to see what every one must be brought to see before he can be either wise or good, viz. his native ignorance, bis mental and moral dnrkness, bis comparative blindness, especially as regards the things of God. Hence, with the true spirit of a penitent, he exclaims, "Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." So did Asaph confess his ignorance and supplicate instruction (Ps. lxxiii. 22). So David (Ps. xxv. 4), and either he or a later Hebrew poet (Ps. cxix. 12, 18, 19, 27, 33). God instructs not the wise in their own conceits; or, if he does, the first lesson be i.mparls is to show them their folly. Hence the words of St. Paul (1 Cor. iii. 18). 4. A penitential expression Q/ self-abasement. The insight Job had gained from the Divine teaching had com- pletely revolutionized his soul. From being proud and self-confident, be had become humble and subdued. Prostrate in the dust of contrition, he was full of spiritual self- loathing. "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job felt asuarned of his behaviour in condemning God; be was not less ashamed of bis own moral weak- ness and imperfection. Thus practically he confessed that, in the controversy he had waged with God, the right lay with God, the wrong with him. II. TnE SETTLEMENT OF THE SECOND CONTROVERSY BETWEEN JoB AND THE THREE FRIENDS. (Vera. 7-9.) This controversy, as form3rJ_y explained (eh. ii. 11, homi- letics), turned upon the relation existing between sin and suffering; the frieuus main- taining that suffering, in the Divine administration, was so invariably connected with sin by the principle of a strictly retributive justice, that it was always possible to estimate the amount of an individual's guilt by the depth of his calamity; wliile Job, on tho other hand, not only resented the application of such a principle to himself, but contended that many facts existed which wel"e wholly irreconcilable with such a principle. On this controversy &lso Jehovah pronounces an authoritative verdict, to  666 THE BOOK OF JOB, [oe. nu. J.-17,