They are destroyed from morning to evening, &c.— From morning until evening they are destroyed; for want of discernment they perish together: Heath; who renders the next verse thus: It not the excellence which was in them pulled up by the roots? They die, but not in wisdom. This seems to allude to the corruption of human nature by the fall.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Having heard Job's impatient complaint, Eliphaz can no longer keep silence.
1. He apologizes for the part that he is about to take, but hopes that Job will not be offended if he and his friends essay to apply some remedy to his disease; and, as they apprehended his wound needed to be laid open, he begs he will not think that unkindness, but friendship, dictates his discourse. He would not willingly grieve him; but he intimates, that in this case silence would be criminal, and that God's glory, as well as Job's good, required them to deal with him faithfully.
2. He suggests the unbecoming tenour of his conduct under his present trials, so contrary to the advice that himself had often given to others. Thou hast instructed many how they should walk before God, and taught them the submission due to his holy will: thou hast strengthened the weak hands that hung down as ready to faint, under the pressure of heavy afflictions; thy words have upholden him that was falling, either by temptation into sin, or by trouble into despair; and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees, encouraged them to support their burdens, and helped them with good advice, and kind consolation; but now it is come upon thee, the same trials which he had taught others how to bear; and thou faintest, or art weary, sinking under the burden as insupportable; it toucheth thee, as if Job's present griefs were but light afflictions, but a slight stroke of correction; and thou art troubled, like the raging sea which cannot rest. Hence he seems to intimate, that, as his present behaviour so little corresponded to his own advice, it was to be feared that his former conduct had been insincere. Note; To make light of others' trials, and to exaggerate their impatience under them, shews the absence of the spirit of love, which would be glad to plead the excuse of the tempted, and from their circumstances engage us to make the most candid allowances.
3. He charges him with hypocrisy in his former professions; insinuates, that his fear of God, his confidence in his regard, his hope of things unseen, and the uprightness of his ways, however exemplary they might have seemed, were but appearances; that at bottom there was nothing in them; and his present state, as he concludes, evidently proved this, since God would not afflict a truly righteous man, nor would such a one be thus impatient in his trouble. Note; (1.) The charge of hypocrisy is one which is the oftenest laid against God's people, and among the sorest to be borne. (2.) A censorious spirit is exceedingly sinful; they will have judgment without mercy, who have shewn no mercy. (3.) We must not judge of a man's state from a particular failing. He may be truly faithful at bottom, who on a violent temptation may yet be moved from his own steadfastness.
2nd, Eliphaz here lays down two positions in support of his former charge that Job must be a hypocrite because of his afflictions.
1. That the innocent and righteous never perish under such heavy visitations; but his case appeared desperate, therefore he was not innocent or righteous, as he pretended. Alas! Job, to whose experience he appealed, might easily have confuted him with the death of Abel, and the sufferings of Jacob. Note; The conclusions of the revilers of God's people are usually drawn from premises as weak and insufficient to support them.
2. That wickedness was ever attended with, or followed by, temporal punishment; and for this he vouches his own experience, in the case of sinners in general; who, sowing iniquity, and expecting to reap comfort, find the harvest misery; their crop blasted with the divine displeasure, and consumed as corn rooted up by the whirl-wind: and in particular he had seen the proud oppressors thus perish; who, ravening like lions, fierce and greedy of prey, filled their houses with spoil; but soon, by God's judgment, their teeth were broken, the old lion was famished with hunger, and their whelps, their families, were scattered abroad. Though he speaks of the case of others, there seems to be an oblique glance at Job's situation, as if, like this old lion, he had by extortion filled his den, but now was ready to perish for want, and his children had been slain by the breath of God. Hence he would infer his wickedness as the cause of his sufferings; but, whatever the experience of Eliphaz might be, greater and more numerous instances were easy to be collected, where the wicked prospered long, perhaps died in plenty, and saw no bitterness. Such was profane Esau's case; and Lamech seems a still more daring and prosperous sinner.
3rdly, To reprove Job's impatient complaints, Eliphaz proceeds to relate a vision from God. The purport of it is, from the view of the frailty, folly, and sinfulness of mortal man, to silence every murmur against his dispensations, and to lead his friend to more humble thoughts of himself.
1. He describes the manner of this revelation made to him: a thing, or a word of divine wisdom was secretly brought to me, stole upon me unawares, and mine ear received a little thereof; either his capacity was too weak to retain the whole, or what was revealed was but a small portion of the will of God. In thoughts of deep and serious meditation from visions of the night, which were vouchsafed him, when deep sleep falleth upon men, to whose spirit nevertheless God hath access, fear came upon me, and trembling; an awful sense of the Divine Majesty affected his mind, and communicated to his very body a sacred tremor, which made all my bones to shake, as if each sinew was unstrung, and every joint loosened. Note; (1.) God hath secret ways of access to the souls of men; his people know it, to their comfort; his enemies feel it, to their terror. (2.) Our highest attainments are poor and inconsiderable; we know but a part, a very little part of God's ways. (3.) When we lie down with good thoughts, we may hope that our very dreams shall be holy. (4.) Though most visions of the night are vain and incoherent, and that to be troubled by them would be superstitious folly; yet there are some, I doubt not, which bear the mark of God's hand, and deserve our solemn attention.
2. The messenger who brought it: a spirit, one of those bright angelic hosts who minister to the heirs of salvation, passed before my face; struck with surprise and dread, the hair of my head stood up, erect as the bristles of the porcupine. It stood still, as if prepared to speak, but I could not discern the form thereof, perhaps the brightness of the surrounding glory prevented him: an image was before my eyes, terrible to behold; there was silence, an awful pause, and then I heard a voice distinct and audible. Note; (1.) Though apparitions, in general, are the creatures of fear and folly, yet why should it be thought incredible that God may on important occasions thus send from the world of spirits? (2.) The weakness of our nature shudders, and the consciousness of guilt terrifies us, at the apprehension of a visit from the unseen world. (3.) When God is about to speak, silence and attention become our prostate souls before him.
3. The message is weighty and important: shall mortal man, sinful, and therefore weak and frail, be more just than God, or rather be just before God, pretend to affect innocence, or stand at his bar as righteous? Behold, note it with deep attention, he put no trust in his servants, his angels; did not place his confidence in them, as in any measure supporting the glory of his throne; he wanted them not: (nay, he chargeth them with folly; compared with himself, their wisdom is foolishness:) how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, in man, a worm, whose body is but a vessel of finer clay, whose foundation is in the dust, weak and tottering before every blast of disease or accident, which are crushed before the moth; if but such a weak worm push against it, so feeble is the structure, the house is broken through, or more easily crushed than the soft moth between our fingers. They are destroyed from morning to evening, thousands dying daily and continually, or every day their bodies hasten to their dissolution; they perish for ever, are cut off from the land of the living, no more to return, without any regarding it; they themselves little expecting it, and the living usually lay it not to heart. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away, or with them? all the endowments of their mind, the beauty, health, and strength of their bodies, and all their pomp, greatness, and affluence, vanish as the cloud of the morning; they die even without wisdom, it perishes with them; or forgetting to consider their latter end, they die unprepared. Now, if God puts no trust in the angels, and charges them with folly, how much less dependance can be placed on miserable, weak, and sinful man; and how much more chargeable is he with folly and frailty! man, therefore, can in nowise arrogate to himself a wisdom and righteousness beyond his maker, or think of appearing justified in the eyes of his purity. Note; (1.) To be discontent with the dispensations of God's providence is, in fact, to impeach his wisdom, justice, and goodness, as inferior to our own. (2.) If the angels are in God's sight thus weak and imperfect, and in some sense he places no confidence in them, what folly for man to make them the objects of worship, or to direct his prayer unto them! (3.) The more we consider the vanity and frailty of our life, and the nearness and certainty of death, the lowlier thoughts of ourselves it will beget in us. (4.) It were the height of folly, nay of madness, for a sinful dying worm to plead before God his worth and excellence. (5.) It is among the strong proofs of the insensibility and thoughtlessness bound up in the heart of a sinner, that amid such daily warnings around him, and such frequent notices within him, he lives so carelessly, and leaves death, with all its awful consequences, far out of his sight.