But it is not so with me— For thus I am not myself. Houbigant. But I am not sufficient master of myself. Heath.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Without a reflection on the insinuations of his unkind friend, Job enters directly into the argument.
1. He admits God's justice as a sure truth, nor dared to question how unequal a match he was for his Maker. Unable to stand before his bar, sinful man could not answer to one of a thousand of the charges that God could bring against him, but must plead guilty; nor can he resist the execution of his deserved sentence. Should he dare to plead for himself, God is wise in heart, and would detect the folly, and silence the sophistry of his arguments: should he dare to resist, God is mighty in power, yea, almighty to put his sentence in force, and every struggle is vain; for who ever hardened himself against him, in self-justification, or impious opposition, and prospered? Note; (1.) The knowledge of our own sinfulness, and especially of our fallen nature, will silence all self-dependance, and bring us to God through the infinite and alone merits of Jesus, for justification unto life. (2.) Though wicked men and devils harden themselves in rebellion against God, as if he was weak to punish them, or negligent about their iniquity, a few short days will detect their folly, and lay them trembling under the rod of judgment in the belly of hell.
2. He expatiates on the glorious evidences of God's wisdom and power: so far was he from cursing God, that he could, in the midst of his pains, delight to dwell on the contemplation of his divine perfections. (1.) His power how amazing! At his word the mountains leap from their rooted bases, and they know not whither they are hurled: if his anger burns, they are overturned as the mole-hill. Shaken by his arm, earth's loosened pillars tremble, and all the cumbrous load thereon sustained shakes like the leaf, and is as easily removed. The sun, that rose in glory at his word, shall, at his will, sink back into primaeval darkness, or, standing still in its course, withdraw from our hemisphere the light of day. Black with thick tempests, the lowering sky veils the bright stars, and their light is sealed up in darkness. Such works of wonder God wrought, when in the deluge the powers of earth and heaven were shaken; and works equally wonderous, whenever he pleases, he can still repeat, to scourge guilty mortals, and make his power be known. (2.) His wisdom how great! He alone spread the heavens over us with such admirable contrivance, and the waves of the sea beneath his feet retire to their appointed deep: yea, though they lift high their curling heads, their boundary is fixed, which they cannot pass.
Each constellation moves in its appointed order, and the southern stars, unseen by us in this hemisphere, rise and set in regular succession, as we return to, and go forth from, our chambers. Note; The heavens are an expanded volume, the stars legible characters, where man should read the wisdom, power, and glory of God. (3.) His agency is invisible, and his works unsearchable. We cannot comprehend their number, or fathom his mysterious ways. He passes by us, and we see him not. The effects of his wisdom and power are evident, while himself, his counsels, his agency, are hid and secret. (4.) His sovereignty is uncontrollable. Whatever he pleases he doth in the hosts of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. If he take away every gift that he has bestowed, who can hinder him, or make him restore it again? who dare plead with him, and say, What dost thou? may he not do what he will with his own? (5.) His anger is terrible: if God will not withdraw it, the proud helpers, or the helpers of pride, the stoutest sinners, the most exalted of the sons of pride, can neither support themselves, nor afford others the least succour: they do stoop under him, sinking down to the earth in affliction, or lower, crushed into hell under the insupportable load of his wrath. Note; How should we then fear to offend him, if such is the power of his anger?
2nd, Job applies to his own case the views of God's perfections which he had described, as a ground of self-abasement before him. However he could maintain his cause before man, as being in no wise a hypocrite, as was alleged, he could not vindicate himself before God as not being a sinner.
1. He owns his inability to stand the contest with God: he is too wise for man to plead with him; too mighty to be retired; and from his judgment no appeal can lie to any superior court. Note; There is no standing before God on the footing of our own deserts: in a covenant of grace, only, not of works, can the sinner be justified. Therefore,
2. However righteous he was as a magistrate, and sincere in profession as a good man, he resolves rather to cry for mercy than to plead his merits: not that he expected to be heard for his prayer's sake; but, if answered, he should ascribe it solely to God's rich grace, and not to the worth of his own supplications. Note; Mercy, not desert, must be our plea; nor can our best prayers make God our debtor.
3. Job had spoken rightly hitherto; but his infirmity now appears in the conclusion he draws, that while his afflictions were not removed, his prayers could not be answered; and, though acknowledging himself a sinner, he seems to think that his sufferings exceeded his deserts. He breaketh me with a tempest of afflictions, and multiplieth my wounds without cause, any such cause at least at his censorious friends had suggested. He will not suffer me to take my breath, I can scarcely pray or speak through the violence of my disease; but he filleth me with bitterness. Note; We must not judge that our prayers are rejected, because our sufferings remain: though we cannot now see why God deals with us thus, we shall be convinced by and by, that the greatest kindness God could do us was the continuance of our affliction.
3rdly, The grand point in dispute is, Whether the wicked are always miserable, and the innocent prosperous. This his friends affirm, and he as resolutely denies. This is one thing, singular as it may appear to you, yet certain and sure, and which from the fullest conviction I advance, God destroyeth the perfect and the wicked; eternally, indeed, the faithful cannot perish; but often they fall in the promiscuous ruin, when desolating judgments arise; and if the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. Not that God delights in the miseries of his people, but if he seem unconcerned for their sufferings, it is because he intends their trials for the increase of their graces, and the brightening of their crown. The earth, in general, is given into the hand of the wicked; they prosper, have dominion, and bear the sway. He covereth the faces of the judges thereof; gives them up to blindness of heart, and leaves them to execute their unrighteous decrees, to the oppression of the innocent: if not, if this be not fact and truth, where and who is he that can confute me? God hath the government of the world, and these things cannot be done but by his permission: sufferings, therefore, are no proof of his anger, nor prosperity of his favour. Note; (1.) Though the righteous here suffer with the wicked, they suffer not as the wicked; their afflictions are merciful corrections, not angry judgments, and the end of them not their ruin, but more abundant glory. (2.) It must silence our complaints under oppression, and suppress all envy at the prosperity of the wicked, that it is permitted for wise ends, which, though we know not now, we shall know hereafter.
4thly, His complaints mingle with his arguments.
1. He bewails his past prosperity fled, his present sorrows incurable. Swifter than a post on full speed his days of joy were hurried by, and now are succeeded by days of misery, which made the former forgotten, as if they had never been: they are gone, like ships that skim before the wind; and, as if labouring for an expression to set forth their velocity, fled as the eagle, when darting on his prey. In vain he sought to recover a glimpse of former comfort, or to compose himself under present afflictions; If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself, the attempt were fruitless; sorrows followed him close as his shadow, and he feared they would overwhelm him at last. Note; (1.) Time is rapid, our day expiring, all temporal good transitory; let us be wise then to redeem it, that when the present moment is lost in eternity, as the drop in the boundless ocean, our happy portion there may be secured. (2.) It is easier to know that we ought to submit, and to bid the miserable forget their complaints, than to exercise that silent resignation which is so evidently our bounden duty.
2. He despairs of being able to plead with God: either it is the language of humility, expressive of his worthlessness, or of his impatience and hard thoughts of God, as if he had cleansed his hands in vain. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent; I begin to despair of recovery, and expect, in the continuance of my afflictions, to be treated as if I be wicked, which will be believed, without doubt, if I perish in my suffering. Why then labour I in vain to clear myself, when the calamities that I suffer will plead against me in the eyes of the world, stronger than any arguments that I can urge will vindicate me. If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, use every effort to maintain my innocence, and shew my conversation never so blameless, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch of deep afflictions, and mine own clothes shall abhor me; my dearest friends will construe my case abominable, and my sufferings will make me a burden to myself. Note; (1.) The best of men have the lowest thoughts of themselves. (2.) The more a sinner goeth about to establish his own righteousness, instead of submitting to "the righteousness of faith," [Romans 4:13.] the more desperate his case grows.
3. He complains of the unequal contest. He is not a man, as I am; the potsherds may strive with the potsherds of the earth, but impossible it is, that I, a worm, should answer him, the glorious and infinite God, and that we should come together in judgment, or alike, on equal terms. He can have no superior, nor is there any court where the cause can be tried; neither is there any day's-man, or arbitrator, to whom the cause can be referred, and by whose decisions we must abide. Or, it may be rendered, O that there were a mediator, that might lay his hand upon us both, so as effectually to settle and adjust the dispute. Note; The Lord Jesus Christ appears to be the day's-man whom Job wanted: his hand is laid on both, to bring an offended God near in mercy to sinful man, and to incline man, a sinner, to return in humiliation to a pardoning God.
4. He wishes for a short respite, that he might speak for himself. Let him take his rod away from me, of chastisement that oppressed him, and let not his fear terrify me, that dread of his awful majesty which now overwhelmed him; then would I speak, in prayer and supplication, or plead for himself, and not fear him, as in his present state he did, God appearing as an enemy; or perhaps, daring as the challenge was, he would then maintain his cause without fear, and, though a sinner confessed, reason with him on the exceeding greatness of his sufferings; but it is not so with me; I am disabled by his terrors to speak before him; and I have no day's-man; or, I am not so with myself, so master of himself, as to be able, in his disordered state, to maintain his cause aright. Note; Even truly godly men, under sore trials, have spoken unadvisedly with their lips; therefore we had need ever pray, that we may not be led into temptation.