Bible Commentaries

Changes of Fortune

Job 30:8-10). That was the past condition of affairs in Job's social circle. He was chief, king, dominant at all times and under all circumstances. Job was the towering and overshadowing figure wherever he went. He remembered all that perhaps too vividly. Compare what you find in the thirtieth chapter—"But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock" ( Job 30:1). That is the present report.

Verily Job is a man who has seen the extremes of life. One of two things must be the result of this double experience: either he will be soured, and come out of the whole process with a bitter nature, an unkind, unresponsive heart, he will shake off the very kind of people to whom he once responded benevolently and liberally; or this other thing will happen: he will be a richer Job 30:20-21).

This is true, and not true. When Job said that God answered not his cry, Job spoke the truth; when he inferred that God would not answer his cry or could not, he did injustice to God. It may be perfectly true that God has not answered a single prayer that we have ever offered to him, and yet what if the blame be in the prayer and not in the hearer? Who thinks of fastening the controversy upon the prayer? In all the argument against the uses of prayer, who has fixed himself with deadly criticism upon the prayer? Who has not rather knocked at the door of heaven, and said, It is fastened on the inner side, and all the bleeding hands that ever knocked upon it in earnest entreaty spent their strength in vain? A truer voice says, "Ye have not because ye ask not, or because ye ask amiss." Let the criticism begin at the right point, and spend itself upon the right centre, then we have no fear of the issue. Judge the earth by winter, and you will say, Thou rebel earth, thou sinning clod, thou guilty star, thy sun hath forsaken thee; he would never allow this snow and ice to lie upon thee and cover thee with this white pall if he cared for thee: thou art a sinful earth. Judge the earth by summer, and how different! a flower blooming at every corner, every pore of the earth an outlet of life and beauty. Which is the right standard of judgment? Neither, How then are we to judge? By taking both into account. God moves in circles; he sitteth upon the circle of the earth; his eternity is a circle, significant of completeness, inclusiveness, incapability of amendment. What then must we do with all these unanswered prayers to which Job calls attention? Better blame the prayer than blame the Lord to whose mercy-seat it was addressed. We have a thousand unanswered prayers. Are there not men who can bless God that some prayers were never answered? Do we not live to correct our own supplications, so that if we had life to live over again there are some prayers we would never repeat? There is but one prayer; we find our way to that by many different roads: but the real prayer is the Lord's prayer,—not as commonly understood, but that final prayer, that Gethsemane cry—"Not my will, but thine, be done." That prayer is always answered. What know we as to the petty supplications Job may have addressed to the throne of grace? What if we turn the complaint back upon the suppliant and say, Thou didst not pray aright, thy heart was wrong; thou wast embittered, ungenerous, resentful, narrow-minded; thou didst not see the whole outspread purpose of love: fix thine eyes upon thyself, thou critic of God, nor charge the Almighty foolishly. There have not been wanting men of greatness and repute who have contended that God cannot be almighty or he would not allow certain evils to exist. Some of the greatest philosophers of our time have made that their creed Speaking even reverently of God, they have said, Nothing can be clearer than whatever attributes he may possess he cannot be omnipotent, or he would destroy evil, disease, and every form of vice and mischief. The argument does not commend itself to me as sound or good in any sense. There is more than almightiness in the providence that rules us. Who could worship sheer power, naked strength? who could live if there were nought but omnipotence? "Power belongeth unto God: also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy." God is not only all-mighty, he is all-wise; he is not only all-wise, he is all-patient; not only all-patient, but all-loving. We must not fix, therefore, the attention upon a single attribute, and argue from its singularity; we must not tear one attribute of the Almighty from another, and reason about it in its separateness. We ought to resent with some measure of indignation anything like a vivisection of God, a cruel and impious analysis, though done not irreverently; at the same time we must remember that God is all-mighty, all-wise, all-loving, according to the Christian conception of him. This being the case, he does not hurl his almightiness against his universe, or universe there would soon be none, for the heavens are not clean in his sight and his angels are charged with folly. Along with almightiness—not above it, but concurrently with it, giving it atmosphere, attempering it,—we find Job 30:25-26

Job did not always see the connection between cause and effect.—It is idle to deny that there are surprises in the working of this law in daily providence.—Events do not occur as we should have predicted.—It would even seem as if wheat brought forth tares, and thistles grew upon the vine.—The facts of life are very hard; they are moral mysteries, even such as trouble the conscience.—The assurance is that if we care for the poor the Lord will care for us; yet here is a man whose soul was grieved for the poor, and he himself was thrust down into the greatest distress.—The question arises whether we see the whole of the case, or whether at best we see but transient phases of things that are real and permanent.—It would seem as if every day we needed the comfort which arises from the exercise of patience in this matter of time.—The patriarch, having wept for him that was in trouble, expected that good would come, and whilst he stood at his door looking for the radiant angel to advance, behold, evil came upon him! a great dense cloud gathered over his head and discharged its floods upon his house.—Job was conscious of having done right, of having been kind, of having spared nothing of all his wealth from the cry of the poor and the needy: then said he to himself, "Light will surely come," and when he looked for the light the whole heaven blackened into a frown.—We must look at facts in all their reality and seriousness.—Within points that can be easily fixed, the argument of facts would often seem to be dead against the doctrine of a benign and watchful providence.—We have to wait for the latter end.—It is often a long time to wait, and many hearts break down in the weary process. Surely God will not be harsh with such hearts, for his trials are very many and very great.—We may learn a good deal from our inability as well as our ability in the matter of bearing trial.—It is right that our pride should be humbled and crushed, and that we should know ourselves to be but men. When the unbeliever taxes us with having done good, and yet with having received evil at the hand of the Lord, our reply should be a frank avowal of the fact, and our argument should be that as yet we know only in part.—There is a time in the process of germination when everything seems to be against the seed which has been sown: there is a point at which it is true, Thou fool! that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.—How absurd the suggestion that we too must die in order to live, we must become weak that we may be strong, we must empty ourselves that we may be filled of God.—No doubt, the atheist has occasions on which the argument seems to be wholly on his side.—Beyond all question, he can point to men of prayer who are doomed to poverty, men of faith who are slaves to circumstances, over-burdened and over-driven every day, their best toil coming back upon them like a mockery and a penalty.—So again and again we have to fall back upon the exhortation which bids us rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him; he knows exactly how much purification we need, how much disappointment is best for us, how many days we have to be in the prison of fear, in order to prepare us for the joy of liberty.—Not my will, but thine, be done: I long to see another process in providence, one which will bear more directly upon the belief of unwilling minds, and the surrender of reluctant wills; I long for thee, O God, to triumph, and to make manifest thy kingdom; but thou art wise and I am foolish; I came up from the emptiness and ignorance of yesterday, and will not dictate to the eternal God: O teach me from my heart to say, "Thy will, my God, be done!"