I. It is not possible to set out the salient features of Job's strength without taking into account the immense energy he derived from his burning consciousness of unimpeachable integrity. Integrity is power. Sincerity is a high form of human energy. Righteousness as a passion of the heart and an element in character and life is a manifest and undeniable source of imperial force. The strongest of beings is the holiest, and we men reach the very spring-head of power as we become partakers of the Divine purity.
II. But, strange to tell, the closing picture of Job is not that of a conqueror, but a confessor, not of an enthroned prince, but of a kneeling penitent. The unexpected revolution is effected by the revelation of God to the eye of the soul. Job knows God as he did not know Him before. The character of his knowledge is changed, heightened, vitalised, intensified, personalised. God is no longer a voice crying in the wilderness, but a Presence in his heart and before his spiritual eye.
III. Here then is one signal value of the knowledge of God, even of His immense power and greatness. By the knowledge of God is the knowledge of self, in the knowledge of self is the knowledge of sin, through the knowledge of personal sin we come to repentance, and by a baptism in the fiery waters of repentance we pass to the reality and strength of life.
IV. Such God-inspired penitence swiftly vindicates itself in the pure sincerity and holy brotherhood it creates and the reconciliation it effects between man and men and man and his lot. The voice of prayer is exchanged for the clash of debate; the incense of reconciling sacrifice ascends in place of the smoke of anger and scorn.
J. Clifford, Daily Strength for Daily Living,p. 325.
References: Job 17:9. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiii., No. 749, and vol. xxiii., No. 1361; J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 435; J. A. Picton, Christian World Pulpit,vol. i., p. 211.Job 17:11. Old Testament Outlines,p. 94.Job 17:13. S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches,p. 201.Job 17:14. J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College,vol. ii., p. 169. Job 17 D. Moore, Penny Pulpit,No. 3171.
These words indicate two stages in acquaintance with God and spiritual things, the one defined by the hearing of the ear, and the other by the seeing of the eye. But it is the latter which is attended by thorough contrition and change of character.
I. Every man may be said to hear of God by the hearing of the ear to whom the Gospel is preached or who has in his hand the book of revelation. And if this hearing of the ear do not involve or ensure a change of heart or conduct, there are great advantages which it does bestow. Revelation is effectual in transforming the face of society even where it does not as a spiritual leaven pervade the inner life of a people. It is something it is a great deal to be able to say, "We have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear."
II. When the patriarch speaks of "abhorring himself," he indicates his sense of his own utter deficiency and worthlessness, his consciousness of being debased and very far gone in original sin. Our text involves an assertion that no clothing which men can weave for themselves without the disclosures and directions of the Bible will be of any use before God.
III. Great emphasis should be laid on these words, "Mine eye seeth Thee." Faith is that act of the soul which corresponds most nicely to the act of sight in the body. The passing from the possession of revelation to the exercise of eyesight is the mighty transition from being a nominal to being a real Christian. We need light from God in order to our seeing light. There is an incalculable difference between listening to a sound and having an eye in the heart.
IV. We may account for much of the slow progress of real Christians in piety on the principle that they are but seldom occupied with contemplations of the invisible world. Without these glimpses of futurity, piety will languish, and hope lose its vigour. There is nothing like a glimpse of heaven to make a man a humble, self-denying Christian.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2207.
I. These words may indeed be applied to any manifestation of God to His sinful creatures, but with a peculiar force and propriety may we consider them as applicable to "God manifest in the flesh" in Christ crucified. Nothing like this can set before us these two points combined together: God's hatred of sin and love for mankind. Other things might teach us these separately, but then either of these separately would profit us little without the other. Whatever therefore most humbles us and gives us low opinions of our own condition brings us nearer to Christ's Cross; whatever exalts and puffs us up with pride puts us farther from it. All the blessings which the Gospel holds out to faithful Christians are connected with the Cross of Christ, and may be best attained by meditating on it.
II. They who are made conformable unto the great doctrine of "Christ crucified" will receive the blessings of the kingdom both now and hereafter; but they who are not, Scripture declares in many ways, will not be admitted into that kingdom. All things preach this doctrine to the eye and ear of faith the disappointment, the vexation, the vanity, and heavy judgments attending all that is good in this world; but when Jesus Christ is Himself brought before us on the Cross, it teaches us as none of these can do. "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. iv., p. 169.
References: Job 42:5; Job 42:6. E. Garbett, Experiences of the Inner Life,p. 13; C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets,p. 21.Job 42:7. J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp,p. 263.Job 42:7-17. S. Cox, Expositor,1st series, vol. xii., p. 245; Ibid., Commentary on Job,p. 542.Job 42:10. R. Glover, Homiletic Magazine,vol. x., p. 290; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vii., No. 404, and vol. xxi., No. 1262; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount,p. 2.