Then Job answered and said. Job 9:1-4 Job's answer to Bildad J. Parker, D. D. Job was utterly unaware of the circumstances under which he was suffering. If Job had known that he was to be an example, that a great battle was being fought over him, that the worlds were gathered round him to see how he would take the loss of his children, his property, and his health, the circumstances would have been vitiated, and the trial would have been a mere abortion. Under such circumstances Job might have strung himself up to an heroic effort. If everything with us were plain and straightforward, everything would be proportionately easy and proportionately worthless. Trials, persecutions, and tests are meant for the culture of your strength, the perfecting of your patience, the consolidation of your hope and love. God will not explain the causes of our affliction to us, any more than He explained the causes of Job's affliction to the patriarch. But history comes to do what God Himself refrains from doing. What course does Job say he will take? A point of departure is marked in the tenth chapter. Now he speaks to Heaven. He will speak in the bitterness of his soul. That is right. Let us hear what Job's soul has to say. Do not be harsh with men who speak with some measure of indignation in the time of sorrow. We are chafed and vexed by the things which befall our life. Yet even in our very frankness we should strive at least to speak in chastened tones. Job says he will ask for a reason.Shew me wherefore Thou contendest with me? Job will also appeal to the Divine conscience, if the expression may be allowed ( Job 10:3 ). We must have confidence in the goodness of God. Job then pleads himself — his very physiology, his constitution ( Job 10:8-11 ). What lay so heavily upon Adam and upon Job, was the limitation of their existence. This life as we see it is not all; it is an alphabet which has to be shaped into a literature, and a literature which is to end in music. The conscious immortality of the soul, as that soul was fashioned in the purpose of God, has kept the race from despair. Job said, if this were all that we see, he would like to be extinguished. He would rather go out of being than live under a sense of injustice. This may well be our conviction, out of the agonies and throes of individual experience, and national convulsions, there shall come a creation fair as the noonday, quiet as the silent but radiant stars! ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Job's idea of God Homilist. I. He regarded Him as JUST. "I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?" His language implies the belief that God was so just, that He required man to be just in His sight. Reason asserts this; the Infinite can have no motive to injustice, no outward circumstance to tempt Him to wrong. Conscience affirms this; deep in the centre of our moral being, is the conviction that the Creator is just. The Bible declares this. Job might well ask how can man be just before Him? He says, not by setting up a defence, and pleading with Him; "if he will contend with Him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand." What can a sinner plead before Him? 1. Can he deny the fact of his sinfulness? 2. Can he prove that he sinned from a necessity of his nature? 3. Can he satisfactorily make out that although he has sinned, sin has been an exception in his life, and that the whole term of his existence has been good and of service to the universe? Nothing in this way can he do; no pleading will answer. He must become just before he can appear just before God. II. He regarded Him as WISE. "He is wise in heart." Who doubts the wisdom of God? The whole system of nature, the arrangements of Providence, and the mediation of Christ, all reveal His "manifold wisdom." He is wise, so that — 1. You cannot deceive Him by your falsehoods; He knows all about you, sees the inmost depths of your being. 2. You cannot thwart Him by your stratagems. His purposes must stand. III. As STRONG. "Mighty in strength." His power is seen in the creation, sustenance, and government of the universe. The strength of God is absolute, independent, illimitable, undecayable, and always on the side of right and happiness. IV. HE REGARDED HIM AS RETRIBUTIVE. There is a retributive element in the Divine nature — an instinct of justice. Retribution in human governors is policy. The Eternal retributes wrong because of His instinctive repugnance to wrong. Hence the wrong doer cannot succeed. The great principle is, that if a man desires prosperity, he must fall in with the arrangements of God in His providence and grace; and wisdom is seen in studying these arrangements, and in yielding to them. ( Homilist. ) But how should man be just with God. On justification George Jeans, M. A. With respect to the relation in which man stands with God, two considerations are essential: the one regarding ourselves, the other regarding our Maker. We are His creatures, and therefore wholly and undividedly His, and owe Him our full service. Our employing any part of ourselves in anything contrary to His wish, is injustice towards Him; and therefore no one who does so can be just with Him in this. But since our wills and thoughts are not in our own power, whatever we do, it is hopeless to endeavour to bring the whole man into the service of God. Such a perfect obedience as we confess we owe as creatures to our Creator, is utterly unattainable. Are we then to lower, not indeed our efforts, but our standard? Will God be satisfied with something less than absolute perfection? Since we are God's creatures, we owe Him a perfect and unsinning obedience in thought, word, and deed. And God cannot be satisfied with less. If His holiness and His justice were not as perfect as His mercy and His love, He would not be perfect, or in other words He would not be God. 1. That man cannot be justified by the law — that is, by his obedience to the law, or the performance of its duties, — is clear from its condition, "This do, and thou shalt live." It makes no abatement for sincerity; it makes no allowance for infirmity. Mercy is inadmissible here; it just asks its due, and holds out the reward upon the payment of it. 2. Neither can he be justified by a mitigated law; that is, by its being lowered till it is within reach. 3. Nor yet can he be absolved by the passing by of his transgressions through the forgetfulness (so to speak) of God; as if He would not be extreme to mark what was done amiss. 4. How then shall man be just with God? It must be in a way that will honour the law. Christ hath "magnified the law, and made it honourable" — (1) By keeping it entire and unbroken; and (2) By enduring its curse, as if He had broken it; becoming "sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." ( George Jeans, M. A. ) The mode of the sinner's justification before God W. Sparrow, D. D. How is man justified before God? We speak of man as he is now found in the world — fallen, guilty, and polluted. Man was made upright at the first. The first action of his nature, in its several parts, was in harmony with the laws pertaining to each, and so for a short time it continued. When I speak of the laws pertaining to each part, I mean those of matter and of mind, of body, sense, and intellect. God had laid a prohibition upon him, and to the observance of this He had promised His continued favour, and to the non-observance He attached the forfeiture of that favour. The trial here was not whether man would attain to the Divine favour, but whether he should retain it. The danger to be apprehended, for danger is involved in the very notion of a probation, was, that Adam might fall, not that he might not rise, as is the case with us, his descendants. How was Adam kept, as long as he stood in a state of acceptance before God; i.e. , how Adam was justified, so far as the term justification can be predicated of him? He continued in the Divine favour as long as he obeyed the law. He was justified by works. There is nothing evil necessarily in the idea of justification by works. Conscience naturally knows of no other mode of justification, and where that is impossible, she gives the offender over to condemnation and despair. Conscience knows of no justification but that of works. When it is possible, the first, the obvious, and the legitimate, the natural mode of securing the Divine favour is by a perfect obedience, in one's own person, to the Divine commands as contained in the moral law. How are Adam's posterity justified? Not in the same way that he was. Their circumstances are so different. He was innocent, they are guilty; he was pure, they are impure; he was strong, they are weak. The Gospel mode of justification cannot be by works. But what is it positively? A knowledge of this subject must embrace two things, namely, what God has done to this end — to make justification possible; and what man does when it is become actual. It has pleased God to save us, not arbitrarily, but vicariously. He has not cancelled our sin, as a man might cancel the obligation of an indebted neighbour, by simply drawing his pen across the record in his ledger. This may do for a creature in relation to his fellows. We are told in Holy Writ that God the Father has given His Son to be a "ransom" for us, a "sacrifice for our sins," a "mediator between Him and us," the "only name under heaven amongst men whereby we can be saved." The Father hath laid in His atoning death the foundation of our hopes, the "elect cornerstone" of our salvation. By the Holy Spirit and through that Son, He hath also granted to mankind, besides an offer of pardon, an offer of assistance, yea, assistance in the very offer. The mediatorship of the Spirit began the moment the Gospel was first preached to fallen Adam. So indeed did the Mediatorship of Christ, i.e. , God began immediately to have prospective regard to the scene one day to be enacted upon Calvary. But the mediatorship of the Spirit could not be one moment deferred. In order to render the salvation of men subjectively possible, the Spirit must be actually and immediately given. What then is necessary on the part of man? This may appear to some a dangerous way of viewing the subject. I am not about to establish a claim of merit on the part of man. When a man is justified, as justification takes place on the part of God, there must be something correlative to it on the part of man — man must do something also. This great act of God must find some response in the heart of man. There must needs be, in a fallen, guilty, and polluted creature, emotions which were at first unknown in Paradise. Deep penitence befits him, pungent sorrow, bitter self-reproach, and utter self-loathing. If we look to the honour of God, or the exigencies of His moral government, we come to the same conclusion. As His honour requires that the obedient should continue obedient, so does it require that, having disobeyed, they should repent, and cease to be disobedient: it is, in truth, the Same spirit in both cases, only adapted to the adversity of the circumstances. If God should, in mercy, justify the ungodly, it must be in such a manner as shall not conflict with these first and manifest principles; and the Gospel, therefore, must have some contrivance by which men may attain to justification without impairing the Divine government, or degrading the Divine character, or thinking highly of themselves. What then is that contrivance? It is not the way of works. What suits Adam in Paradise cannot suit us, driven out into the wilderness of sin and guilt. We are inquiring, as the correlative to justice and law on the part of God is obedience on the part of man, what is the correlative to merely and atonement? it cannot be that self-satisfied feeling which belongs to him who has fulfilled the law. His present obedience, however perfect, could not undo past disobedience. The correlative to the Divine acts of justification cannot be human acts in obedience to law. "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified." But may not man be justified by obedience to a mitigated law? Is not the Gospel, after all, only the moral law with some abatements designed to bring it down to the level of our infirmity? This is the most plausible and deceptive supposition that could be made. It suits exactly man's natural pride, his fondness for his idols, and has withal an air of mingled mercy and justice. But, however specious, it is utterly unfounded in reason or Scripture. It supposes the law, which we regard as a transcript of the Divine character, to be found faulty, and its requirements in consequence to be cut down to the true level. Neither the violation of the law, nor yet its observance in its original or any mitigated form, can be the ground of our justification before God, in our present state, what way then remains to this infinitely desirable object? Are we not shut up to the way of faith? "Being justified by faith." Nothing that is morally good either precedes justification, or is simultaneously instrumental of it; all real good follows it. By faith we understand a reliance upon Christ as our atoning sacrifice, and the Lord our righteousness, for acceptance before God. It is reliance on another. There is no self-reliance or self-complacence here. This principle consults and provides for every interest involved in a dispensation of mercy to fallen creatures through a Divine Redeemer. It humbles the sinner. It exalts the Saviour. Holiness is promoted. If such then be the nature and tendency of faith, if it be the sole instrument of justification, and if it is only in a state of justification that man can render real and acceptable obedience, how earnest and ceaseless ought to be our prayer, "Lord, increase our faith!" ( W. Sparrow, D. D. ) Atonement and modern thought John Smith, M. A. What extorted this cry from Job was a crushing consciousness of God's omnipotence. How could I, the impotent creature I am, stand up and assert my innocence before Him? What prompts the exclamation now is something quite different. We have lost even Job's sense of a personal relation to God. The idea of immediate individual responsibility to Him seems in this generation to be suffering eclipse. The prevailing modern teaching outside Christianity makes man his own centre, and urges him from motives of self-interest to seek his own well-being, and the good of the whole as contributory to his own. In the last resort he is a law unto himself. Such moral rules as he finds current in the world are only registered experiences of the lines along which happiness can be secured. They have a certain weight, as ascertained meteorological facts have weight with seamen, but that is all. He is under no obligation in the strict moral sense. The whole is a question of interest. Now we hold that all this is not true to fact. Obligation pressing upon us from without establishes an authority over us; and conscience, recognising obligation, yea, stamping the soul with an instinctive self-judgment, as it fulfils or refuses to fulfil obligations — these go with us wherever we go, into school, college, business, social relations, public duty. If we recognise our obligations, and conscientiously meet them, we secure our highest interests. But that by no means resolves obligation into interest. The two positions are mutually exclusive. If a man from mere self-interest were to do all the things which another man did from a sense of obligation, not a shadow of the peace and righteous approval of the latter would be his. The selfish aim would evacuate the acts of all their ennobling qualities. While the conscientious man would find himself by losing himself, the selfish man would be shut up in a cold isolation, losing himself — having no real hold on any other soul — because his aim all along has been to save and serve himself. But if this is the true view of life, we must accept all that flows from it. Let us trust our moral nature as we do that part of our nature which looks out to the world of sense. If I be really under obligation then I am free. Obligation has no meaning such as we attach to it, unless we pre-suppose freedom. If the moral is highest in me, if every faculty and interest of right is subject to its sway, then in simple allegiance to facts I must infer that the highest order of this world is a moral order. But once grant that, and you are in the region of personality at once. The moment you feel yourself under duty you know yourself a person, free, moral, self-conscious. You are face to face with a Divine Moral Governor, in whom all your lower moral obligations find their last rest, since He established them; and who, as your author and sustainer, has a right to the total surrender of your whole being. The supreme meaning of life for you is, meeting your obligations to your God. Being made by a God of holiness, we must suppose that we have been called into existence as a means of exemplifying and glorifying the right. The right is supreme over every merely personal interest of our own. We exist for the right. The man can be justified with himself only as he pleases God: With the consciousness of disobedience comes guilt, fear, estrangement. When this unfortunate ease ensues, as it has ensued in the ease of all, the first point is settling this question of right as between man and God. Before anything and everything else in religion, before sanctification, before even we consider in detail how our life is to be brought into union with God, comes the great question of our meeting and fulfilling the claims of God's law. Atonement is our first and most pressing concern. The Bible commits itself to three statements about you. Take the last first. By the works of the law, or by your own actions, you cannot be counted a perfectly just man in God's sight. Secondly, you cannot clear yourself of guilt for this result. Thirdly, you see the Bible occupies ground of its own, and you must judge it on its own ground Now consider the chief difficulty exercising men's minds at this hour. We live in a practical rather than in a theoretical age. We say — How can a mere arrangement, such as the atonement, rectify my relations with God, separate me from sin, and secure my actual conformity to God's will? Taking the Gospel way as it stands, I go on to show what a real root and branch all-round redemption and restoration it confers. Where men err is that they leave out of view the great personality of Christ. They forget that the redemption is in Him. ( John Smith, M. A. ) The demand of human nature for the atonement J. C. Jackson, D. D. 1. Our subject is the atonement, and facts in human nature which demand it. Religion can account for all its principles and doctrines by an appeal to the facts of our being. The doctrine of reconciliation with God through the atoning death of Jesus is confessedly the chief and, in some respects, the most obscure doctrine of the Christian religion. Nevertheless, belief in its general features is essential to any honest acceptance of the Gospel. Without discussing obscurities, I wish, in aid of faith, simply to point out how true it is to all the facts of human nature. 2. "How should man be just with God?" It is not a question that is raised by recent ethical culture or by the progress of man in moral development, as some have thought. It is as old as the human soul, as ancient as the sense of sin, as universal as humanity, and is heard in all the religions. Beneath the burning skies of primeval Arabia this mighty problem is debated by an Arab sheik and his three friends. First —(1) Bildad, the Shuhite, states the incontrovertible premise from which the discussion starts — a premise grounded in universal consciousness, and axiomatic in its truth: "Behold, God will not east away a perfect man, neither will He help the evildoer." That is to say, God makes an everlasting distinction between and a difference in His treatment of righteous and unrighteous men.(2) Then up speaks Job: "I know it is so of a truth. But how should man be just with God? If he will contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand!" "There is none that doeth good; no, not one."(3) Despondently, Job continues: "If God will not withdraw His anger, the proud helpers do stoop under Him. How much less shall I answer Him, and choose out nay words to reason with Him?" That is to say, all our repentances and righteousnesses, upon which we so much rely, are, for the nakedness of our need, but as filthy rags. The cry for mercy, instead of justice, must be our only plea.(4) Then Job continues again: "I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know Thou wilt not hold me innocent." "All my sorrows." There is the remorse, the hell that is in me, the sense of justice unsatisfied, "I am afraid of them!"(5) Then Job resumes once more: "Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that he might lay his hand upon both!" Ah, the blessed Christ, the Mediator, our Daysman, laying one hand on Justice and the other on our guilty heads, our Atonement, making God and man to be at one in peace — He had not come! "Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that He might lay His hand upon both!" Do you see now why Abraham and Job and all the ancient kings and prophets longed to see the day of Christ, and how hard it was for them to die without the sight? "We have no daysman!" Oh, the abysmal depth of longing in that word, "We have no daysman," and "How should man be just with God?" And then, for all we are told, that desert colloquy stopped there, in utter sadness and gloom. Oh, if some one of us had only been there, and had been able to smite out and drop into the abyss the years that intervened between Job's day and Christ's. Or, if we could have led John the Apostle up to that company of Job and his three friends, and could have bidden John speak up, with clear tone, on their debate, and had him say to those, ancient Arabs, as he said to us: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world!" But Paul says it again, in his exact, positive way, and insists upon it. "To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus!" And then they are satisfied. And now Job, and Bildad, and Zophar, and Elihu spring to their feet upon the desert sands, and with John and Paul lift their eyes and hands heavenward, and cry with one voice: "Unto Him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood — to Him be glory and dominion, and honour, and power, forever and ever. Amen." 3. I affirm, as a matter of Christian experience, that all the necessary features and implications of the orthodox doctrine of the atonement are true to the facts of human nature. When I say the orthodox view, I mean that view in the highest form of its statement, the substitutional view, namely, that Christ's death becomes an actual satisfaction to justice, to that sense of justice which exists in our own bosoms and in the bosoms of all intelligent creatures, and which, in the nature of things, must be a duplication of the sense of justice within the bosom of God Himself; that Christ's sufferings and death become an actual satisfaction to justice for our sins that are past, when we accept it as such by faith. And the proof that it is a satisfaction, the evidence that it does take away the sense of demerit, the feeling that we owe something to justice, is that we are conscious it does. The philosophers have sometimes voted consciousness down and out by large majorities, but it refuses to stay down and out. It comes back and asserts itself. "A man just knows it, sir," as Dr. Johnson said, "and that is all there is about the matter." All that we Christians can do, all that we need to do, is to have the experience of it, and then stand still, and magnificently and imperiously declare that it does, for we feel it to be so. Men may tell us that it ought not to be so; we will rejoin that it is so. They may say that our sense of right and wrong is very imperfectly developed, or we could not derive peace from the thought that an innocent Being has suffered in our stead. Against our experience the world can make no answer. We aver that man feels his sin needs propitiation, and that, if he will, he may find that the death of Christ meets that need. 4. Let us go outside distinctively Christian experience, and note some facts in human nature which show its trend toward the atonement in Jesus.(1) We aver that repentance and reformation alone will not satisfy the sense of right in man. Twenty-five years ago a friend of mine, a boy, under circumstances of great temptation, stole, and then had to lie to conceal the theft. He did not afterward have courage to confess and restore. The opportunity to own his sin and to make restitution soon passed away forever. Within a few years, he has assured me that the memory of that early, only theft yet lies heavily upon his soul, and that he can never feel at ease until that matter is somehow made right. Standing by this blazing fact in experience, I aver that the moral sense demands satisfaction, Repentance is not enough — he has repented. Reformation is not enough — he has never stolen since. Still he cannot answer God nor himself. He is not innocent, and the "proud helpers do stoop under him." Propitiation of his own sense of right was necessary. He and my friend go and stand beside Job in the desert yonder, and say with him, "I am afraid of my sorrows. I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent." They do not hold themselves innocent. Let me add some more specimens of the innermost feelings of representative men which look in the same direction. Byron was not a man given to superstition or flightiness. In his "Manfred," he is known to have spoken out the facts of his own guilty heart. There he says — "There is no power in holy men, Nor charms in prayer, nor purifying form Of penitence, nor outward look, nor fast, Nor agony, nor, greater than them all, The innate tortures of that deep despair Which is Remorse without the fear of hell, But all in all sufficient of itself Would make a hell of heaven — can exorcise From out the unbounded spirit the quick sense Of its own sins, sufferings, and revenge Upon itself." Now, recollect that this is poetry. In poetry we get the deepest philosophy — there the heart speaks. It has no voice but the voice of nature. Byron speaks true to nature when he declares not prayer, nor fast, nor agony, nor remorse, can atone for sin or satisfy the soul. Is there not in the confession of that volcanic spirit a fact which looks toward man's need of Calvary? I take down my Shakespeare and open it at "Macbeth," that awfulest tragedy of our tongue, matchless in literature for its description of the workings of a guilty conscience, to be studied evermore. Lady Macbeth — King Duncan having been murdered — walks in her sleep through her husband's castle at night bearing a taper in her hands. "Physician: How came she by that light? Servant : Why, it stood by her; she has light by her continually; 'tis her command." As she walks, she rubs her hands. A servant explains: "It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her to continue in this a quarter of an hour." Then Lady Macbeth speaks: "Yet here's a spot. What! will these hands ne'er be clean?...Here's the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!" Is there not something there which sounds like the echo of Job's words in the desert: "I am afraid of all my sorrows"? Does not Lady Macbeth, walking at night and repenting of her crime and washing her hands in dreams from Duncan's blood, look as if an accusing conscience and the sense of justice unsatisfied could make its own hell?(2) Still further, I aver that the moral sense is never appeased until atonement is somehow made. The atoning stroke must fall somewhere, even though it be upon himself, before a man can be at peace with himself. That is a profoundly instructive, because profoundly true, series of passages in Coleridge's tragedy of "Remorse," which sets out this fact. "The guilty and guilt-smitten Ordonio is stabbed by Alhadra, the wife of the murdered Isadore. As the steel drinks his heart's blood, he utters the one single word, 'Atonement!' His self-accusing spirit, which is wrung with its remorseful recollections, and which the warm and hearty forgiveness of his injured brother has not been able to soothe in the least, actually feels its first gush of relief only as the avenging knife enters, and crime meets penalty." Ordonio, shortly dying, expires saying — "I stood in silence, like a slave before her, That I might taste the wormwood and the gall, And satiate this self-accusing heart With bitterer agonies than death can give." That seems to say to me that nothing will give the soul peace but atonement of some kind. 5. I think, therefore, that if you could bring Job and his three friends, and my acquaintance who stole in his youth, and Byron, and Shakespeare, and Coleridge here today, they would see eye to eye, and agree upon some things in the name of facts in human nature.(1) They would agree that repentance alone does not make a man to be at peace. All this company had most bitterly repented.(2) They would agree that reformation was not sufficient.(3) They would agree that the guilty soul's remorse, its "biting back" upon itself, was its own hell, enough for its punishment.(4) They would agree that the mind so sternly demands that atonement be made, somewhere and somehow, that it will sooner offer its own bosom, as Ordonio did, than that its own sense of justice should go unsatisfied.(5) They would probably agree with Socrates, when he says to Plato, as some of you may have said today, "Perhaps God may forgive sin, but I do not see how He can, for I do not see how He ought." That is to say, "I do not see how the man who has sinned can ever be at peace."(6) And then I aver that, if the years between could be dropped out and Paul could join that company and say, "Behold the Lamb of God, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His "blood, to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, that He might Himself be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus" — if Paul could say that to them, and that company could accept Christ as their Daysman, transferring by sincere repentance and faith their guilt to Him, and consenting in their minds that He should discharge its penalty by His body and blood, then I aver, in the name of millions of Christians, that they would find peace. And I aver that this feeling of indebtedness to justice, which is alike in the bosom of God and the bosom of man, being satisfied, Job and his friends, and Byron, and Shakespeare, and Coleridge, and all sinful men would spring to their feet and say, with John and Paul and all that other company of the saved in heaven, "Unto Him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and dominion and honour and power, forever and ever. Amen!" Such are a few of the facts in the consciousness of men which a brief survey enables us to notice. The logic of human nature is Christ. No Humboldt, or Cuvier, or Darwin, with keen scientific eye, ever noted such an array of physical facts, all bearing toward one end in the physical world, as we find in the moral realm, all tending toward Jesus. claimed that the testimony of the mind was naturally Christian. His claim is just. Men may raft at these facts in consciousness; they may declare that they make God a Moloch, and that the doctrine of the atonement is the bloody invention of gross. minded men, but the facts remain still, and their scientific trend and drift is wholly toward the Blessed Man of Calvary. If anyone does not feel so now, he is drugged with sin; he has taken opiates; he is not himself. ( J. C. Jackson, D. D. ) Who hath hardened himself against God, and prospered? Job 9:4 Hardened against God James Parsons. This passage intimates — I. THAT APPEALS ARE ADDRESSED BY GOD TO MEN IN ORDER TO BRING THEM INTO ALLEGIANCE TO HIM. The conduct which is imputed to men is susceptible of explanation only as the existence of such appeals is assumed. 1. God has appealed to us by the instrumentality of conscience. Conscience is the testimony of secret judgment in the mind of a man as to the moral quality of his own thoughts and actions. The true dictates of conscience are conformable to the extensive

Benson Commentary Job 9:1 Then Job answered and said, Job 9:1 . Then Job answered and said — “In reply to Bildad, Job begins with hinting, that their opinions seemed a little to clash; Eliphaz had insisted, from revelation, that the common failings of men were a sufficient justification of providence, even in the most afflicting dispensations. Bildad says, if he were pure and upright, God would interpose in his behalf. Job replies, that all this is very true; but the difficulty is, to be thus pure and upright: ‘for I am not exempt from the common failings of men: if, therefore, they are sufficient to account for the great calamities which have befallen me, I am still without a remedy. As to God’s power and wisdom, I am as thoroughly convinced, and can give as many instances of it as you; and, therefore, I know it is in vain for me to contend with him, Job 9:2-13 . I have nothing left but to acknowledge my own vileness, and to make my supplication to him, Job 9:14-19 . But yet, as to any heinous crimes, beyond the common infirmities of human nature, these I disclaim; and let the event be what it will, I will rather part with my life than accuse myself wrongfully. And whereas you affirm, that affliction is an infallible mark of guilt, you quite mistake the matter; for afflictions are indifferently assigned to be the portion of the innocent and the guilty. God, indeed, sometimes in his anger destroys the wicked; but, doth he not as frequently afflict the innocent? The dispensations of providence, in this world, are frequently such, that, were it not that God now and then lets loose his fury against them, one would be almost tempted to imagine the rule of this world was delivered over into the hands of wicked men, Job 9:21-24 . As for my own part, my days are almost come to an end: it is therefore labour lost for me to plead the cause of my innocence: besides, that in the sight of God I must appear all vileness; so that it is not for such a one as me to pretend to put myself on a level with him. And, even though I were able to do so, there is no one that hath sufficient authority to judge between us, Job 9:25-33 . Yet, were it his pleasure to grant me a little respite, I could say a great deal in my own vindication; but, as matters stand, I dare not; for which reason my life is a burden to me, and my desire is, it may speedily come to an end, chap. 10. Job 9:1 , to the end. I would, however, expostulate a little with the Almighty.’ And here he enters into the most beautiful and tender pleading which heart can conceive; ending, as before, with a prayer, that his sufferings and life might soon come to a period; and that God would grant him some little respite before his departure hence.” — Heath and Dodd. Job 9:2 I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? Job 9:2 . I know it is so of a truth — Namely, as you say, that God must be just and righteous; that purity and uprightness are qualities belonging to him; that he cannot possibly be biased or prejudiced in judging and determining the state and condition of mankind. I am likewise satisfied, that the time we have to live here is too short to compass any considerable points of knowledge; and that, whenever he pleases, he can exercise his power so as to change our exalted mirth to most bitter weeping, our highest joy to the most abject sorrow: can bring the most insolent offender to shame, and dispossess the wicked of his strongest and most magnificent situation. But how — Hebrew, And how, should man — Enosh, weak, frail man, imperfect as he is, be just with God? — Be justified, or clear himself in God’s account. I know that no man is absolutely holy and righteous, if God be severe to mark what is amiss in him. Job 9:3 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. Job 9:3 . If he will contend with him — If God be pleased to contend with man, namely, in judgment, or to debate, or plead with him; he cannot answer him one of a thousand — One accusation among a thousand which God might produce against him. So far would he be from being able to maintain his own innocence against God, if God should set himself against him as his adversary. Job 9:4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? Job 9:4 . He is wise in heart — He is infinitely wise, and searcheth all men’s hearts and ways, and discovers a multitude of sins, which men’s short-sighted eyes cannot see; and therefore can charge them with innumerable evils, of which they thought themselves innocent, and sees far more malignity than men can discern in their sins. Mighty in strength — So that, whether men contend with God by wisdom or by strength, God will be conqueror. Who hath hardened himself, &c. — Obstinately contended with him. The devil promised himself that Job, in the day of his affliction, would curse and speak ill of God. But, instead of that, he sets himself to honour God and speak highly of him. As ill pained as he is, and as much as he is taken up with his own miseries, when he has occasion to mention the wisdom and power of God, he forgets his complaints, and expatiates, with a flood of eloquence, on that glorious subject. Job 9:5 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger. Job 9:5-6 . Which removeth the mountains — He proceeds to give particular evidences of the divine power and wisdom, which he mentioned Job 9:4 . And they — That is, the mountains, to which he figuratively ascribes sense and knowledge; know not — He removes them suddenly and unexpectedly ere they are aware of it. Which overturneth them in his anger — In token of his displeasure with men, that lived upon or near them. Which shaketh the earth — Great portions of it by earthquakes, or by removing islands. And the pillars thereof tremble — The deep and inward parts of it, which, like pillars, support those parts which appear to our view. Job 9:6 Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. Job 9:7 Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars. Job 9:7 . Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not — Nor are the heavens less subject to his power; for neither sun nor stars can shine if he forbid them. “Bishop Warburton supposes, that this alludes to the miraculous history of the people of God, such as the Egyptian darkness, and the stopping the sun’s course by Joshua. But surely there is no necessity, from the words themselves, to suppose any allusion of this kind, or, indeed, any thing miraculous, since God, by throwing a thick cloud over the sun and stars, can and does obscure them when he pleases.” — Dodd. And things in the Scriptures are often said to be or not to be, when they appear or disappear; of which some instances have been given in the former part of this work, and we shall have more hereafter in their proper places. Thus it is that the Chaldee Paraphrast understands the passage. And sealeth up the stars — That is, covereth and shutteth them up, that they may not shine, as in dark and dismal tempests, like that mentioned Acts 27:20 , when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days. Job 9:8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea. Job 9:8 . Which alone — That is, by his own single power, without any other help. Spreadeth out the heavens — He spread them out like a curtain, Psalm 104:2 , when he first created them, and he, in a manner, spreads them again every day; that is, keeps them spread for the comfort and benefit of this lower world, and does not roll and fold them up as he will do in due time. Or, as the same Hebrew word, ???? , natah, is rendered, Psalm 18:9 , boweth down the heavens; and so it is a further description of a black and tempestuous season, wherein the heavens seem to be brought down nearer to the earth. And treadeth upon the waves of the sea — That is, represseth and ruleth them, when they rage and are tempestuous: for treading upon any thing signifies, in the Scriptures, exercising power and dominion over it. Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. Job 9:9 . Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, &c. — Who ordereth and disposeth them, as the word making is sometimes used in the Scriptures; governeth their rising and setting, and all their influences. These he names as constellations of greatest eminence; but under them he seems to comprehend all the stars, which, as they were created by God, so are under his government. Arcturus is a northern constellation, near that called the Bear. Orion is a more southerly constellation, that rises to us in December. The Pleiades is a constellation not far from Orion, which we call the Seven Stars. By the chambers (or inmost chambers, as the word signifies) of the south, he seems to understand those stars and constellations which are toward the southern pole, which are called inward chambers, because they are for the most part hid and shut up from these parts of the world. Job 9:10 Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. Job 9:10 . Which doeth great things, &c. — Job here says the same that Eliphaz had said Job 5:9 , and in the original, in the very same words, with design to show his full agreement with him, touching the divine perfections. Job 9:11 Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not. Job 9:11 . Lo he goeth by me — Or besides, or before me, in my presence; that is, he worketh by his providence in ways of mercy or judgment. And I see him not — I see the effects, but I cannot understand the causes or grounds of his actions, for they are incomprehensible to me, or any other man: for though Job speaks only in his own person, yet he means to affirm it of all men, that such is the weakness of their understandings that they cannot search out God’s counsels and ways. The operations of second causes are commonly obvious to our senses; but, though God works by those causes, we see him not, nor can our finite minds fathom his counsels, apprehend his motions, or comprehend the measures he takes. He passeth on also — He goeth from place to place; from one action to another. But I perceive him not — He passes and acts invisibly and undiscerned. Job 9:12 Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou? Job 9:12 . Behold, he taketh away — If he determine to take away from any man his children, or servants, or estate, who is able to restrain him from doing it? Or, who dare presume to reprove him for it? And, therefore, far be it from me to quarrel with God, whereof you untruly accuse me. Job 9:13 If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him. Job 9:13 . If God will not withdraw his anger — There is nothing in the Hebrew for if . The words, literally rendered, are, God will not withdraw his anger; or, continuing the interrogation, used twice in the preceding verse, which Chappelow thinks ought to be continued, Will not God withdraw? &c. the consequence that follows is then quite natural and just; the proud helpers do ( then ) stoop under him — Those who undertake to uphold and defend one another against him fall, and are crushed by him; that is, his majesty is so dreadful that nothing can resist it, but every thing must submit that dares to oppose it. They are fitly called proud helpers, because it is a most proud, insolent, and presumptuous act to oppose themselves to the Lord God Almighty, and to his counsels and proceedings; or, helpers of pride, as it is in the Hebrew, because they give assistance to those who carry themselves proudly and stoutly toward God, under his correcting hand. Job 9:14 How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him? Job 9:14-15 . How much less shall I answer him — Since no creature can resist his power, and no man can comprehend his counsels and ways, how can I contend with him; answer his allegations and arguments produced against me? Whom though I were righteous — Though I had a most just cause, and were not conscious to myself of any sin; yet would I not answer — That is, I durst not undertake to plead my cause against, or maintain my integrity before him, because he knows me better than I know myself, and because I am wholly in his hands and at his mercy. But I would make supplication to my judge — That he would judge favourably of me and my cause, and not according to the rigour of his justice. Job 9:15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge. Job 9:16 If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice. Job 9:16 . If I had called — That is, prayed, as the word ????? , karati, commonly means, namely, unto my judge for a favourable sentence, as he had just said; and he had answered me — Had given me what I asked; yet would I not believe, &c. — So weak and imperfect are my best prayers; and, I am so infinitely below him, so obnoxious to him, and still so full of the tokens of his displeasure, that I would not believe he had done it because I had asked him; or, that it was owing to my prayers, but that he had bestowed the favour purely for his name’s sake. Bishop Patrick’s paraphrase is, “If I had made supplication, and he had granted my desire, I would not think my prayer had done the business.” Job 9:17 For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause. Job 9:17 . For he breaketh me with a tempest — As with a tempest; that is, unexpectedly, violently, and irrecoverably. This is the reason of his forementioned diffidence, that even when God seemed to answer his supplication in words, yet the course of his actions toward him was of a quite contrary nature and tendency. And multiplieth my wounds without cause — He does not mean, simply without any desert of his, as if he had been free from all sin, and perfectly innocent and holy, the contrary to which he oft declares; but without any special cause of such singular afflictions; without any peculiar and extraordinary guilt, such as his friends charged him with. Job 9:18 He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness. Job 9:18 . He will not suffer me to take my breath — My pains and miseries are continual, and I have not so much as a breathing time free from them; but filleth me with bitterness — My afflictions are not only long and uninterrupted, but also exceeding sharp and violent, contrary to the common course of God’s providence. Houbigant’s version of this and the two preceding verses shows their connection admirably well, and, according to Bishop Lowth, gives us the true sense of the passage. “But, if I should call that he might answer me, I could not easily believe that he would hear my voice; since he hath broken me with a tempest, and inflicted many wounds upon me without cause; nor hath given me space to take my breath, so hath he filled me with bitterness.” Job 9:19 If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead ? Job 9:19 . If I speak of strength — If my cause were to be decided by power; he is strong — Infinitely stronger than I; and if of judgment — If I would contend with him in a way of right; who shall set, &c. — There is no superior judge that can summon him and me together. Heath thus explains the words: “If I think to right myself by force, it is vain; for he is stronger than I: if I choose to decide our dispute by law, who hath authority to call us before him?” Job 9:20 If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say , I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Job 9:20 . If I justify myself — If I plead against God my own righteousness and innocence; my own mouth shall condemn me — God is so infinitely wise, and just, and holy, that he will find sufficient matter of condemnation from my own words, though spoken with all possible care and circumspection; or he will discover so much imperfection in me, of which I was not aware, that I shall be compelled to join with him in condemning myself. If I say, I am perfect — The words, I say, are not in the Hebrew, but seem to be properly supplied to complete the sense. The meaning is, If I were perfect in my own opinion, if I thought myself completely righteous and faultless; it shall prove me perverse — That is, my own mouth shall prove, as he had just said; or he, that is, God shall, who is easily understood from the former verses, where he is often mentioned. Job 9:21 Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life. Job 9:21 . Though I were perfect, &c. — Hebrew, ?? ??? , tam ani, the perfect I, would not know my soul — Namely, myself as the word ???? , nephesh, is rendered, Esther 4:13 ; or, my heart, or spirit. That is, my thinking myself perfect, or completely innocent and faultless, would be an evidence that I did not know myself. Or, the meaning of the verse is, Were I to be tried by infinite justice, however perfect I may now think myself, I should then be astonished at finding how little I knew myself, and what a multitude of faults God had taken notice of, which I had not perceived in myself; so that, when they were set before me, I should no longer insist upon, nor trust to, the integrity, either of my soul and heart, or of my life, so as any longer to attempt to justify myself before the pure eyes of the all- seeing God; but I would condemn myself and despise my life; would put no value upon it, nor be in any care about prolonging it, while it is loaded with these miseries. And, therefore, I abhor the thoughts of contending with my Maker, whereof you accuse me. Job 9:22 This is one thing , therefore I said it , He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. Job 9:22-23 . This one thing — In the other things which you have spoken of, God’s greatness, power, and justice, I do not contend with you; but this one thing I do, and must affirm against you. Therefore I said it — I did not utter it rashly, but upon deep consideration. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked — God sends afflictions promiscuously upon good and bad men. If the scourge slay suddenly — If some common judgment come upon a people, which destroys both good and bad: or if God inflict some grievous and unexpected stroke upon a holy person. He will laugh at the trial of the innocent — God will be pleased to see how the same, or a similar scourge, which is the perdition of the wicked, is only the trial of the integrity, faith, and patience of the innocent, that is, of his own people, and a means of their further purification and improvement. Job 9:23 If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he? Job 9:24 . The earth is given into the hand of the wicked — Hebrew, ???? , rashang, of the wicked man. The possession and dominion of a large portion of it are frequently given, by the great Lord and Proprietor of all, in the course of his providence, into the power of a wicked man. He covereth the faces of the judges thereof — The wicked man, by his power, or by gifts, corrupts the officers of justice, and thereby blinds their eyes, that they cannot discern between truth and falsehood, justice and unrighteousness. Thus Bishop Patrick: “So false is your discourse,” (the discourse of Job’s friends,) “that we see the government of the earth given into the hands of a wicked prince, who blinds the eyes of his judges.” The bishop conjectures Job meant some noted tyrant then living in those parts, whose great wickedness and great prosperity were well known, both to Job and his friends. Many commentators, however, think, that Job’s words are not to be considered as referring to any particular man, but as asserting this general truth, that as good men are often scourged, ( Job 9:23 ,) so the wicked are often advanced to great riches and power in the world. And they understand the next clause, He covereth the faces of the judges thereof, as intended of God’s blinding the eyes of the rulers and magistrates, that is, suffering them to be blinded, by withdrawing abused light and grace, and means of information, in which only sense can God be ever said to blind the minds of any. Indeed, as a learned writer justly observes, this expression, He covereth the faces, &c, means the same in Scripture phrase, as, The faces of the judges are covered, which, indeed, is the literal version of both the Syriac and Arabic interpreters. Thus, ??? ????? ??? ?????????? , ( Luke 12:20 ,) which is literally, They shall require thy soul of thee, is properly rendered, Thy soul shall be required, &c. The meaning, however, of the phrase of covering the faces of the judges, is understood by many, not of blinding their eyes, but of concealing their persons in obscurity. Thus Henry interprets the passage: “God, in his providence, advanceth wicked men, while he covers the faces of those who are fit to be judges, who are wise and good, and qualified for government, and buries them alive in obscurity; perhaps suffers them to be run down and condemned, and to have their faces covered as criminals, by those wicked ones, into whose hands the earth is given. We daily see this done; if it be not God that doth it, where, and who is he that doth it? To whom can it be ascribed, but to him that rules in the kingdoms of men, and gives them to whom he will?” Daniel 4:32 . Job 9:25 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. Job 9:25 . Now my days — The days of my life; are swifter than a post — Who rides upon swift horses; they see no good — I enjoy no good in them; seeing being often put for experiencing either good or evil. Thus Job now exemplifies in himself what he had said of the calamities which God frequently inflicts on good men. Job 9:26 They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey. Job 9:26 . As the swift ships — Hebrew, ships of desire; that is, such as are longed for, and long to be at their destined port, and crowd all the sail they can for that purpose. Or, as in the Chaldee paraphrase, ships loaded, pretiosis, with things of value; and are therefore named swift ships, because the more valuable the effects are, the more haste is made to return home for readier sale. The Hebrew may also be translated, ships of pleasure, which sail more swiftly than ships of burden. As the eagle that hasteth to the prey — Which generally flies most swiftly when hungry, and in sight of his prey. See here how swift the motion of time is! It is always upon the wing, hastening to its period. What little need have we of pastimes! What great need to redeem time, which runs out, runs on so fast toward eternity! And how vain are the enjoyments of time, which we may be deprived of, even while time continues. Our day may be longer than our sunshine: and when that is gone, it is as if it had never been. Job 9:27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself : Job 9:27-28 . If I say, I will forget my complaints, &c. — If I resolve within myself that I will cease complaining, and endeavour to take comfort. I am afraid of all my sorrows — Or, of my pains and griefs: I find all such endeavours vain; for if my griefs be suspended for a time, yet my fears continue. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent — I plainly perceive that thou, O God, (to whom he makes a sudden address, as he does also Job 9:31 ,) wilt not clear my innocence by removing those afflictions which make them judge me guilty of some great crime. Words proceeding from despair and impatience. Job 9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. Job 9:29 If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain? Job 9:29 . If I be wicked, &c . — The Hebrew, ???? ????? anochi ershang, is, I am, or, I shall be wicked, or guilty, without any supposition. That is, Whether I be holy or wicked, if I dispute with thee I shall be found guilty; or, I shall be treated as guilty; I shall not be acquitted, or exempted from punishment. Why then labour I in vain? — Since my friends will still continue to think and treat me as wicked, and thou wilt still continue to afflict me with the calamities and miseries which gave them occasion to think so, why should I use any efforts to clear myself, and vindicate my innocence? Why should I speak in a cause that is already prejudged? Or, why should I comfort myself with vain hopes of deliverance? With men it is often labour in vain for the most innocent to go about to clear themselves: they will be adjudged guilty, though the evidence be ever so plain for them. But it is not so in our dealings with God, who is the patron of oppressed innocence, and to whom it was never in vain to commit a righteous cause. Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; Job 9:30-31 . If I wash myself with snow-water, &c. — If I clear myself from all imputations, and fully prove my innocence before men; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch — That is, in miry and puddle water, whereby I shall become most filthy. As Job’s washing himself is to be understood only of his clearing himself judicially, and showing that he was innocent of the things laid to his charge, so God’s plunging him, &c., is not to be understood of his making him sinful and guilty, but of his proving him to be so, notwithstanding all the professions and evidences of his purity before men. And mine own clothes shall abhor me — I shall be so filthy, that my own clothes, if they had any sense in them, would abhor to touch me. Job saw that his afflictions, coming from the hand of God, were the things that blackened him in the eyes of his friends, and caused them to think him a wicked man; and therefore, on that account, as well as because of the pain and torment they gave him, he complained of them, and of the continuance of them. Observe, reader, if we be ever so industrious to justify ourselves before men, and to preserve our credit with them; if we keep our hands ever so clean from the pollutions of gross sin; yet God, who knows our hearts, can charge us with so much secret iniquity, and internal depravity, as must for ever cut us off from all hopes of ever being able to justify ourselves before him. Paul, while a Pharisee, had made his hands, as he thought, very clean, but when the commandment came, and discovered to him that his inward parts were very wickedness, he found himself plunged in the ditch. Job 9:31 Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. Job 9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Job 9:32-33 . For he is not a man as I am — But one infinitely superior to me in majesty and power, wisdom and justice. That I should answer him — That I should presume to debate my cause with him, or answer his allegations against me. That we should come together in judgment — Face to face, to plead upon equal terms. Neither is there any days-man — Or, umpire; that might lay his hand upon us both — Order and govern us in pleading, and oblige us to stand to his decision. The laying the hand on both parties implies a coercive power to enforce the execution of his decrees. This no one could have over the Almighty: it was in vain, therefore, to contend with him. Our Lord Jesus Christ is now the blessed daysman, who has mediated between heaven and earth, has laid his hand upon us both: to him the Father hath committed all judgment. But this was not made so clear then as it is now by the gospel, which leaves no room for such a complaint as this. Job 9:33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me: Job 9:34-35 . Let not his fear terrify me — The fear and dread of his majesty and justice. Let him not deal with me according to his perfect justice, but according to his grace and clemency. Then would I speak, and not fear — I would speak freely for myself, being freed from that dread, which takes away my spirit and courage. But it is not so with me — I am not free from his terror, and therefore cannot plead my cause with him. Job 9:35 Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Job 9:1 Then Job answered and said, X. THE THOUGHT OF A DAYSMAN Job 9:1-35 ; Job 10:1-22 Job SPEAKS IT is with an infinitely sad restatement of what God has been made to appear to him by Bildad’s speech that Job begins his reply. Yes, yes; it is so. How can man be just before such a God? You tell me my children are overwhelmed with destruction for their sins. You tell me that I, who am not quite dead as yet, may have new prosperity if I put myself into right relations with God. But how can that be? There is no uprightness, no dutifulness, no pious obedience, no sacrifice that will satisfy Him. I did my utmost; yet God has condemned me. And if He is what you say, His condemnation is unanswerable. He has such wisdom in devising accusations and in maintaining them against feeble man, that hope there can be none for any human being. To answer one of the thousand charges God can bring, if He will contend with man, is impossible. The earthquakes are signs of His indignation, removing mountains shaking the earth out of her place. He is able to quench the light of the sun and moon, and to seal up the stars. What is man beside the omnipotence of Him who alone stretched out the heavens, whose march is on the huge waves of the ocean, who is the Creator of the constellations, the Bear, the Giant, the Pleiades, and the chambers or spaces of the southern sky? It is the play of irresistible power Job traces around him, and the Divine mind or will is inscrutable. "Lo, He goeth by me and I see Him not: He passeth on, and I perceive Him not. Behold, He seizeth. Who will stay Him? Who will say to Him, What doest Thou?" Step by step the thought here advances into that dreadful imagination of God’s unrighteousness which must issue in revolt or in despair. Job, turning against the bitter logic of tradition, appears for the time to plunge into impiety. Sincere earnest thinker as he is, he falls into a strain we are almost compelled to call false and blasphemous. Bildad and Eliphaz seem to be saints, Job a rebel against God. The Almighty, he says, is like a lion that seizes the prey and cannot be hindered from devouring. He is a wrathful tyrant under whom the helpers of Rahab, those powers that according to some nature myth sustain the dragon of the sea in its conflict with heaven, stoop and give way. Shall Job essay to answer Him? It is vain. He cannot. To choose words in such a controversy would be of no avail. Even one right in his cause would be overborne by tyrannical omnipotence. He would have no resource but to supplicate for mercy like a detected malefactor. Once Job may have thought that an appeal to justice would be heard, that his trust in righteousness was well founded. He is falling away from that belief now. This Being whose despotic power has been set in his view has no sense of man’s right. He cares nothing for man. What is God? How does He appear in the light of the sufferings of Job? "He breaketh me with a tempest, Increaseth my wounds without cause. If you speak of the strength of the mighty, ‘Behold Me,’ saith He; If of judgment-‘Who will appoint Me a time?’" No one, that is, can call God to account. The temper of the Almighty appears to Job to be such that man must needs give up all controversy. In his heart Job is convinced still that he has wrought no evil. But he will not say so. He will anticipate the wilful condemnation of the Almighty. God would assail his life. Job replies in fierce revolt, "Assail it, take it away, I care not, for I despise it. Whether one is righteous or evil, it is all the same. God destroys the perfect and the wicked" ( Job 9:22 ). Now, are we to explain away this language? If not, how shall we defend the writer who has put it into the mouth of one still the hero of the book, still appearing as a friend of God? To many in our day, as of old, religion is so dull and lifeless, their desire for the friendship of God so lukewarm, that the passion of the words of Job is incomprehensible to them. His courage of despair belongs to a range of feeling they never entered, never dreamt of entering. The calculating world is their home, and in its frigid atmosphere there is no possibility of that keen striving for spiritual life which fills the soul as with fire. To those who deny sin and pooh-pooh anxiety about the soul, the book may well appear an old-world dream, a Hebrew allegory rather than the history of a man. But the language of Job is no outburst of lawlessness; it springs out of deep and serious thought. It is difficult to find an exact modern parallel here; but we have not to go far back for one who was driven like Job by false theology into bewilderment, something like unreason. In his "Grace Abounding," John Bunyan reveals the depths of fear into which hard arguments and misinterpretations of Scripture often plunged him, when he should have been rejoicing in the liberty of a child of God. The case of Bunyan is, in a sense, very different from that of Job. Yet both are urged almost to despair of God; and Bunyan, realising this point of likeness, again and again uses words put into Job’s mouth. Doubts and suspicions are suggested by his reading, or by sermons which he hears, and he regards their occurrence to his mind as a proof of his wickedness. In one place he says: "Now I thought surely I am possessed of the devil: at other times again I thought I should be bereft of my wits; for, instead of lauding and magnifying God with others, if I have but heard Him spoken of, presently some most horrible blasphemous thought or other would bolt out of my heart against Him, so that whether I did think that God was, or again did think there was no such thing, no love, nor peace, nor gracious disposition could I feel within me." Bunyan had a vivid imagination. He was haunted by strange cravings for the spiritually adventurous. What would it be to sin the sin that is unto death? "In so strong a measure," he says, "was this temptation upon me, that often I have been ready to clap my hands under my chin to keep my mouth from opening." The idea that he should "sell and part with Christ" was one that terribly afflicted him; and, "at last," he says, "after much striving, I felt this thought pass through my heart, Let Him go if He will. . . . After this, nothing for two years together would abide with me but damnation and the expectation of damnation. This thought had passed my heart-God hath let me go, and I am fallen. Oh, thought I, that it was with me as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me." The Book of Job helps us to understand Bunyan and those terrors of his that amaze our composed generation. Given a man like Job or like Bunyan, to whom religion is everything, who must feel sure of Divine justice, truth, and mercy, he will pass far beyond the measured emotions and phrases of those who are more than half content with the world and themselves. The writer here, whose own stages of thought are recorded, and Bunyan, who with rare force and sincerity retraces the way of his life, are men of splendid character and virtue. Titans of the religious life, they are stricken with anguish and bound with iron fetters to the rock of pain for the sake of universal humanity. They are a wonder to the worldling, they speak in terms the smooth professor of religion shudders at. But their endurance, their vehement resolution, break the falsehoods of the time and enter into the redemption of the race. The strain of Job’s complaint increases in bitterness. He seems to see omnipotent injustice everywhere. If a scourge ( Job 9:23 ) such as lightning, accident, or disease slayeth suddenly, there seems to be nothing but mockery of the innocent. God looks down on the wreck of human hope, from the calm sky after the thunderstorm, in the evening sunlight that gilds the desert grave. And in the world of men the wicked have their way. God veils the face of the judge so that he is blinded to the equity of the cause. Thus, after the arguments of his friends, Job is compelled to see wrong everywhere, and to say that it is the doing of God. The strophe ends with the abrupt fierce demand, -If not, who then is it? The short passage from the twenty-fifth verse to the end of chapter 9 ( Job 9:25-35 ) returns sadly to the strain of personal weakness and entreaty. Swiftly Job’s days go by, more swiftly than a runner, in so far as he sees no good. Or they are like the reed skiffs on the river, or the darting eagle. To forget his pain is impossible. He cannot put on an appearance of serenity or hope. God is keeping him bound as a transgressor. "I shall be condemned whatever I do. Why then do I weary myself in vain?" Looking at his discoloured body, covered with the grime of disease, he finds it a sign of God’s detestation. But if he could wash it with snow, that is, to snowy whiteness, if he could purify those blackened limbs with lye, the renewal would go no further. God would plunge him again into the mire; his own clothes would abhor him. And now there is a change of tone. His mind, revolting from its own conclusion, turns towards the thought of reconciliation. While as yet he speaks of it as an impossibility there comes to him a sorrowful regret, a vague dream or reflection in place of that fierce rebellion which discoloured the whole world and made it appear an arena of injustice. With that he cannot pretend to satisfy himself. Again his humanity stirs in him:- "For He is not a man, as I, that I should answer Him, That we should come together in judgment. There is no daysman between us That might lay his hand upon us both. Let Him take away His rod from me, And let not His terror overawe me; Then would I speak and not fear Him: For I am not in such case in myself." If he could only speak with God as a man speaks with his friend the shadows might be cleared away. The real God, not unreasonable, not unrighteous nor despotic, here begins to appear; and in default of personal converse, and of a daysman, or arbiter, who might lay reconciling hands upon both and bring them together, Job cries for an interval of strength and freedom, that without fear and anguish he may himself express the matter at stake. The idea of a daysman, although the possibility of such a friendly helper is denied, is a new mark of boldness in the thought of the drama. In that one word the inspired writer strikes the note of a Divine purpose which he does not yet foresee. We must not say that here we have the prediction of a Redeemer at once God and man. The author has no such affirmation to make. But very remarkably the desires of Job are led forth in that direction in which the advent and work of Christ have fulfilled the decree of grace. There can be no doubt of the inspiration of a writer who thus strikes into the current of the Divine will and revelation. Not obscurely is it implied in this Book of Job that, however earnest man may be in religion, however upright and faithful (for all this Job was), there are mysteries of fear and sorrow connected with his life in this world which can be solved only by One who brings the light of eternity into the range of time, who is at once "very God and very man," whose overcoming demands and encourages our faith. Now, the wistful cry of Job-"There is no daysman between us"-breaking from the depths of an experience to which the best as well as the worst are exposed in this life, an experience which cannot in either case be justified or accounted for unless by the fact of immortality, is, let us say, as presented here, a purely human cry. Man who "cannot be God’s exile," bound always to seek understanding of the will and character of God, finds himself in the midst of sudden calamity and extreme pain, face to face with death. The darkness that shrouds his whole existence he longs to see dispelled or shot through with beams of clear revealing light. What shall we say of it? If such a desire, arising in the inmost mind, had no correspondence whatever to fact, there would be falsehood at the heart of things. The very shape the desire takes-for a Mediator who should be acquainted equally with God and man, sympathetic toward the creature, knowing the mind of the Creator-cannot be a chance thing. It is the fruit of a Divine necessity inwrought with the constitution and life of the human soul. We are pointed to an irrefragable argument; but the thought meanwhile does not follow it. Immortality waits for a revelation. Job has prayed for rest. It does not come. Another attack of pain makes a pause in his speech, and with the tenth chapter begins a long address to the Most High, not fierce as before, but sorrowful, subdued. "My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint; I will speak in bitterness of my soul." It is scarcely possible to touch the threnody that follows without marring its pathetic and profound beauty. There is an exquisite dignity of restraint and frankness in this appeal to the Creator. He is an Artist whose fine work is in peril, and that from His own seeming carelessness of it, or more dreadful to conceive, His resolution to destroy it. First the cry is, "Do not condemn me. Is it good unto Thee that Thou shouldest despise the work of Thine hands?" It is marvellous to Job that he should be scorned as worthless, while at the same time God seems to shine on the counsel of the wicked. How can that, O Thou Most High, be in harmony with Thy nature? He puts a supposition, which even in stating it he must refuse, "Hast Thou eyes of flesh? or seest Thou as man seeth?" A jealous man, clothed with a little brief authority, might probe into the misdeeds of a fellow creature. But God cannot do so. His majesty forbids; and especially since He knows, for one thing, that Job is not guilty, and, for another thing, that no one can escape His hands. Men often lay hold of the innocent, and torture them to discover imputed crimes. The supposition that God acts like a despot or the servant of a despot is made only to be east aside. But he goes back on his appeal to God as Creator, and bethinks him of that tender fashioning of the body which seems an argument for as tender a care of the soul and the spirit life. Much of power and lovingkindness goes to the perfecting of the body and the development of the physical life out of weakness and embryonic form. Can He who has so wrought, who has added favour and apparent love, have been concealing all the time a design of mockery? Even in creating, had God the purpose of making His creature a mere plaything for the self-will of Omnipotence? "Yet these things Thou didst hide in Thine heart." These things-the desolate home, the outcast life, the leprosy. Job uses a strange word: "I know that this was with Thee." His conclusion is stated roughly, that nothing can matter in dealing with such a Creator. The insistence of the friends on the hope of forgiveness, Job’s own consciousness of integrity go for nothing. "Were I to sin Thou wouldst mark me, And Thou wouldst not acquit me of iniquity. Were I wicked, woe unto me; Were I righteous, yet should I not lift up my head." The supreme Power of the world has taken an aspect not of unreasoning force, but of determined ill-will to man. The only safety seems to be in lying quiet so as not to excite against him the activity of this awful God who hunts like a lion and delights in marvels of wasteful strength. It appears that, having been once roused, the Divine Enemy will not cease to persecute. New witnesses, new causes of indignation would be found; a changing host of troubles would follow up the attack. I have ventured to interpret the whole address in terms of supposition, as a theory Job flings out in the utter darkness that surrounds him. He does not adopt it. To imagine that he really believes this, or that the writer of the book intended to put forward such a theory as even approximately true, is quite impossible. And yet, when one thinks of it, perhaps impossible is too strong a word. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is a fundamental truth; but it has been so conceived and wrought with as to lead many reasoners into a dream of cruelty and irresponsible force not unlike that which haunts the mind of Job. Something of the kind has been argued for with no little earnestness by men who were religiously endeavouring to explain the Bible and professed to believe in the love of God to the world. For example: the annihilation of the wicked is denied by one for the good reason that God has a profound reverence for being or existence, so that he who is once possessed of will must exist forever; but from this the writer goes on to maintain that the wicked are useful to God as the material on which His justice operates, that indeed they have been created solely for everlasting punishment in order that through them the justice of the Almighty may be clearly seen. Against this very kind of theology Job is in revolt. In the light even of his world it was a creed of darkness. That God hates wrongdoing, that everything selfish, vindictive, cruel, unclean, false, shall be driven before Him-who can doubt? That according to His decree sin brings its punishment yielding the wages of death-who can doubt? But to represent Him who has made us all, and must have foreseen our sin, as without any kind of responsibility for us, dashing in pieces the machines He has made because they do not serve His purpose, though He knew even in making them that they would not-what a hideous falsehood is this; it can justify God only at the expense of undeifying Him. One thing this Book of Job teaches, that we are not to go against our own sincere reason nor our sense of justice and truth in order to square facts with any scheme or any theory. Religious teaching and thought must affirm nothing that is not entirely frank, purely just, and such as we could, in the last resort, apply out and out to ourselves. Shall man be more just than God, more generous than God, more faithful than God? Perish the thought, and every system that maintains so false a theory and tries to force it on the human mind! Nevertheless, let there be no falling into the opposite error; from that, too, frankness will preserve us. No sincere man, attentive to the realities of the world and the awful ordinances of nature, can suspect the Universal Power of indifference to evil, of any design to leave law without sanction. We do not escape at one point; God is our Father; righteousness is vindicated, and so is faith. As the colloquies proceed, the impression is gradually made that the writer of this book is wrestling with that study which more and more engages the intellect of man-What is the real? How does it stand related to the ideal, thought of as righteousness, as beauty, as truth? How does it stand related to God, sovereign and holy? The opening of the book might have led straight to the theory that the real, the present world charged with sin, disaster, and death, is not of the Divine order, therefore is of a Devil. But the disappearance of Satan throws aside any such idea of dualism, and pledges the writer to find solution, if he find it at all, in one will, one purpose, one Divine event. On Job himself the burden and the effort descend in his conflict with the real as disaster, enigma, impending death, false judgment, established theology and schemes of explanation. The ideal evades him, is lost between the rising wave and the lowering sky. In the whole horizon he sees no clear open space where it can unfold the day. But it remains in his heart; and in the night sky it waits where the great constellations shine in their dazzling purity and eternal calm, brooding silent over the world as from immeasurable distance far withdrawn. Even from that distance God sends forth and will accomplish a design. Meanwhile the man stretches his hands in vain from the shadowed earth to those keen lights, ever so remote and cold. Show me wherefore Thou strivest with me. Is it pleasant to Thee that Thou should’st oppress, That Thou should’st despise the work of Thy hands And shine upon the counsel of the wicked? Hast Thou eyes of flesh? Or seest Thou as man seeth? Thy days-are they as the days of man? Thy years-are they as man’s days, That Thou inquirest after fault of mine, And searchest after my sin, Though Thou knowest that I am not wicked, And none can deliver from Thy hand? Thine hands have made and fashioned me Together round about; and Thou dost destroy me. { Job 10:2-8 } The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.