(1) В¶ Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, (2) Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; (3) When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; (4) As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle; (5) When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
It should seem very evident from these expressions, for they are all gracious expressions, that the Patriarch was chiefly lamenting, not that he was in distress, but that the presence of the LORD was not with him as heretofore he had enjoyed it. I need not, I hope, remind the Reader, how much in this instance Job was a type of the LORD JESUS. The agonies of JESUS in the garden and on the cross, were all on this account. "O my GOD (was the prophetical language concerning CHRIST, as well as by CHRIST), I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not." Psalms 22:2. The several expressions here are all of a gracious kind. GOD'S punishment of Job, and his consciousness of it: The candle of the LORD shining upon him; meaning, no doubt, his HOLY SPIRIT: And the secret of GOD upon his tabernacle. Was not this secret of GOD another expression for what another servant of the LORD meant, when he said, The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant? Psalms 25:14. I do not presume to say so, but yet venture to ask, Is there not, in those several expressions, somewhat that hath reference to the glorious doctrine of the joint work and love of that Holy three, which bear record in heaven? The preservation and keeping of the believer is peculiarly referred unto the favor and mercy of the FATHER. John 17:11; 1 Peter 1:5. The candle shining, is a well known metaphor, for the lifting up the light of the HOLY SPIRIT on the head of GOD'S people. Numbers 6:26; Psalms 4:6. And is it not JESUS meant here, he whose name was Secret, and who is the whole of the covenant to his people? Judges 13:18; Isaiah 42:6.