Bible Commentaries

THINGS UNSEARCHABLE

‘I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause: which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number.’

Job 5:8-9

I. How many ‘unsearchable things’ we might study.—Why was the world so old before the glorious gospel of the grace of God was fully revealed? Or why had the disease proved so virulent, and so fatal to myriads, ere the remedy was made known? Why are so many millions still ignorant of the Saviour, though He has been fully revealed in all His glory to our fallen world for at least eighteen hundred years? Why do so few of those who hear the gospel of the Son of God really welcome it, and rejoice in its light, and exhibit its spirit, and adorn its doctrine? Why is so large a portion of Christendom Christian only in name? How has it happened that God’s people have so often been an afflicted and a poor people, while the wicked are exalted, or sit upon thrones, with the lives, perhaps, of millions at their mercy? How has the persecutor so often prospered, and the blood of God’s saints been shed by him like water?

II. To these, and a hundred other questions of a similar kind, various answers might be given.—Some of the inquiries are very baffling—others of them might be solved; but after all, the words of Eliphaz, in the text, contain the best explanation. There is no searching of His ways; He renders no account of His proceedings; and man’s best wisdom, when he cannot scan, is to be silent and adore—to ‘commit his cause unto God,’ Who will at last make crooked things straight and rough places smooth. We assume that we are omniscient, or, at least, that the Omniscient should make all things plain and level to our capacity. He insists, however, that we shall be still, and know that He is God. He sets limits to our power, and leaves us baffled, bewildered, and perplexed if we attempt to overstep our bounds.

III. Would we, then, be happy? Would we enjoy that contentment which, together with godliness, is great gain.—Then be it ours to bow to the Holy One and the Just, to imitate the Redeemer, Whose joy it was to see His God and our God glorified. The heavier any trial may be, the greater is our need of simple dependence on a covenant God, and the Holy One has made that man wise who thus waits on God, and has no will but His.

Illustration

‘Let us consider the closing verses of this chapter in the light of the Gospel. They describe the career of the good man, for whom some might even be prepared to die. They anticipate Psalms 91. And the experience of the saints witnesses to their literal truth. With one voice the holy ones of all ages affirm, “Lo this, we have searched it, so it is.” Whatever be our special need, let us claim its antidote.’