Which doeth great things past finding out.
Job’s idea of what God is to mankind
He regards the Eternal as--
I. Inscrutable.
1. In His works. “Which doeth great things past finding out.” How great are His works! great in their nature, minuteness, magnitude, variety, number. Ask the chemist, the astronomer, the entomologist, the physiologist, and the anatomist; and the more accurate and comprehensive their knowledge of the Divine workmanship is, the more ready will they be to acknowledge that “His works are past finding out, and wonders without number.”
2. He is inscrutable in His essence. “He goeth by me, and I see Him not; He passeth on also, and I perceive Him not.” I see His works, but I cannot detect the essence of the Worker.
II. As irresponsible. “Behold He taketh away, and who can hinder Him? Who will say unto Him, What doest Thou?”
III. As resistless. “If God will not withdraw His anger, the proud helpers do stoop under Him.”
1. God is an offendable Being. He is not an impassive existent, sitting at the head of the universe, utterly indifferent to the moral character of His creatures.
2. The proud have “helpers” and abettors. Were the whole universe to arm itself against Him, its opposition would be infinitely less than the opposition of the smallest insect to the eagle or the lion.
IV. As inexorable.
1. As uninfluenced by man.
(1) Uninfluenced by his appeals. The appeal of vindication has no power with Him. “How much less shall I answer Him, and choose out any words to reason with Him? Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer.” The appeal of prayer. But I would make supplication to my Judge. If I had called, and He had answered me; yet would not I believe that He had hearkened unto my voice.” A most melancholy mental mood is this! The patriarch represents Him as--
(2) Uninfluenced by his sufferings. “For He breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause. He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.”
2. As unapproached by human argument.
3. As too holy to encourage anyone to have confidence in his own virtues. Were the patriarch even a “perfect” man, he feels that to plead his virtues before a God so holy would not only be utterly useless, but impious and pernicious.
(1) It would involve self-condemnation. No condemnation is so terrible as the condemnation of a man’s moral self.
(2) It would prove self-ignorance. “Yet would I not know my soul.” Truly, a man who would dare to prove his merits before God would demonstrate thereby an utter ignorance of his own insignificance and moral character.
(3) It would secure self-contempt. “I would despise my life.” This would be the issue of such conduct. The Almighty is here represented--
4. As utterly regardless of the moral distinctions of society. “This is one thing, therefore I said it. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked,” etc. (verses 22-24). Here Job hits the main point now in discussion between him and his friends. Their position was that God dealt with men here according to their moral characters, and that Job suffered because he was wicked. The patriarch again refutes it, and asserts the broad fact that the perfect and wicked are treated alike. This is not the scene of retribution, it is the domain of discipline. (Homilist.)