Bible Commentaries

CONTENTS

This chapter brings us to the close of Job's history, in which we find the testimony which the Holy Ghost gave by his servant James, to be true. The end of the Lord concerning him is, that the Lord is very pitiful and gracious. Job submitteth himself to God. The Lord having reproved his servant for what was in him wrong, now prefers his cause in what he was right, and in making the three friends of Job submit themselves. The Lord blesseth the close of Job's life more than the beginning. Job's age and death.

(1) ¶ Then Job answered the LORD, and said, (2) I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. (3) Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. (4) Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. (5) I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. (6) Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

We have here Job's dutiful submission, and the very humble acknowledgment of himself before GOD. Nothing can display more fully the state of a true penitent before the LORD. In the expressions Job makes use of, the very inside of his heart seems to be turned out to view. Self loathing, and self-abhorring, are among the highest tokens of the real contrition which passed within. But what I beg the Reader particularly to observe with me is, the striking difference Job makes between human and divine teaching. All that men can say, all the preaching in the world, without GOD the SPIRIT condescends to instruct; will end just where it began, in the hearing of the ear. But if GOD takes up the cause, then, and not before, the LORD carries conviction to the heart. Reader, do you know the vast difference? Hath GOD the SPIRIT been your teacher? Hath it induced these blessed effects, like Job? Are you brought down in the deepest humiliation of soul, and is JESUS exalted to your view, and all human greatness come to nothing? Isaiah 2:17.

(7) ¶ And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

Observe how this is worded. The LORD doth not give sentence against those three men, until that he had first spoken to his servant Job: but, after that the LORD had brought Job into the state the LORD had intended, then, and not before, he proceeds to the reproof of Job's three friends. So that Job was cleared from hypocrisy though found in sin; and the LORD acknowledged him for his servant. Sweet consideration! though, as Elias was, a man of like passions, yet accepted in JESUS.

(8) Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Jobadiah (9) So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Jobadiah

Reader, observe into what an high rank Job is exalted. He is to be an intercessor at the sacrifice. But how an intercessor, unless as Aaron had been, as a type of the ever-blessed JESUS? For there is but one Mediator between GOD and men, the man CHRIST JESUS . 1 Timothy 2:5. And Reader, do not overlook how very strikingly in this instance Job typified the LORD JESUS for as the LORD had long hid his face, as it were, from Job, so the LORD JESUS was under the hidings of the FATHER, when, in the days of his flesh, on the cross he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matthew 27:46.

(10) ¶ And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. (11) Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and everyone an earring of gold. (12) So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

See how the LORD turned his affliction into joy. Believers in JESUS should never lose sight of GOD'S power, and GOD'S promises. The deepest afflictions are but the seed-time of a joyful harvest. To a child of GOD, there is no one event of his life but what the LORD is directing that event to good. JESUS is everlastingly pursuing the invariable object of his love concerning them. Doth a kind and affectionate earthly parent constantly pursue, without any departure from that plan, his children's good? Well then may we suppose that JESUS, whose wisdom and whose love are both engaged for this one purpose, is always doing that which shall ultimately accomplish it.

(13) He had also seven sons and three daughters. (14) And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. (15) And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.

It is remarkable that Job should have a second family of children, and the same in number and in sex as he had before. But this was GOD'S grace and love. The names of his daughters are given, because they were not without signification. Jemima signified the day; perhaps in allusion to a new day broke in upon Job's soul. Kezia signified a fragrant spice. Poor Job in his sorrows had been upon a dunghill. Kerenhappuch meant plenty and plentiful indeed were his supplies. The beauty of those women is spoken of also. This suited the old dispensation before the gospel. We read of the wives of the Patriarchs being fair, Sarah, and Rebekah, and Rachel; but no mention is made in the New Testament of the beauty of women. The beauty of holiness is the spiritual adorning, both of men and women, in the Gospel Church, and that is all in and from JESUS. Of him we truly read, that he was fairer than the sons of men, because grace was poured into his lips: and in him his Church is fair also. Psalms 45:2. Song of Solomon 4:7.

(16) After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. (17) So Job died, being old and full of days.

And thus end the lives of all: like Moses, and all the faithful gone before, having served in his day and generation, he fell asleep, and was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption. Precious JESUS! here, as in every other point of view of real importance, we are led to contemplate thee, whose years fail not, but who abidest a priest forever, and art the same yesterday, today, and forever.

REFLECTIONS

AND now, farewell Job. We have seen, in thy most instructive history the blessed truth confirmed, that the end of the LORD, in the events of his servants ministry and lives upon earth, is very pitiful and gracious, Sweetly, under the HOLY GHOST'S divine teaching, do we learn from hence, that the LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works; and especially in the lives of his servants, that he ordereth and arrangeth all things, as shall best promote his gracious designs in the furtherance of his own glory and his people's happiness. Satan may be permitted to exercise a certain degree of power; but how painful soever this may be, during the operation, to flesh and blood, the whole must and shall minister to the enemy's disgrace, to GOD'S faithful servants comfort, and to the display of the divine wisdom, love, and goodness. No temptation shall overtake them but what is common to man, and with every temptation the LORD will make a way to escape, until at length the GOD of peace will bruise Satan under their feet.

But before I take a last farewell of Job, let me look once more, and behold in how many things he bore a striking resemblance to my adorable Redeemer. Yes, thou blessed man of Uz, surely the HOLY SPIRIT graciously intended to teach the Church, in thy history, somewhat, however faint in the outlines, of what the Church forever must be delighted to dwell upon; of Him who is the first and last, and never-ceasing object of her affection. Was Job the greatest man of all the East? And what was JESUS, the wisdom-man, set up from everlasting, but the greatest of all, and LORD of all, that in all things he might have the preeminency? Was Job perfect and upright before GOD, one that feared GOD, and eschewed evil? And what wert thou, thou blessed JESUS, in thy human nature, but holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens? Was Job suddenly brought from a state of affluence to a state of poverty and sorrow? And can we overlook thee, thou adorable LORD JESUS, who, though rich, yet for our sakes didst become poor, that we through thy poverty might be made rich? Did Satan assault Job in his affliction, and buffet him in every direction? And can we forget thine unequalled temptations, O thou Prince of Sufferers, when from the river Jordan to the garden, and though the cross, Satan furiously made his attack on thee, in thy holy nature he could find no part vulnerable to his fiery darts? But oh! precious JESUS, what were the conflicts of the man of Uz compared to thine thou man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief? What persecution, from false friends, in Job's history, can bear resemblance to thine, when thou enduredst such a contradiction of sinners against thyself, lest thy people should be, weary and faint in their minds? Many of thy faithful servants, through thy grace enabling them, have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Yes, blessed JESUS! in all things it becometh thee to have the pre-eminence, in suffering as in glory, that thou mightest be the first-born among many brethren. It is sweet and precious to follow the teachings of the HOLY GHOST, and to trace, in the lives of thy people, in those early ages of thy Church, any outlines of character as typical of thee. It is highly profitable to eye Job shadowing forth some faint resemblance of thee in his original greatness, with which his history begins! in his humiliation, in his interceding for his friends, and in his final exaltation. But oh! blessed LORD, enable me to look through all these shades to thy bright manifestations, when coming from thy glory in heaven, and tabernacling upon earth in substance of our flesh, thou didst pass through sorrows, sufferings, reproaches, persecution bearing our sins in thine own body on the tree, and dying the just for the unjust, to bring us unto GOD. Hail, thou Almighty JESUS! now hath GOD our FATHER turned thy captivity, and blessed thee above thy fellows. Now hath he constituted and appointed thee as the Great High Priest and Intercessor for all thy redeemed; and thee, and them in thee, he accepts. And now hath be given thee a family of both Jew and Gentile, to bless thy name, to sing thy praise, and to adore thee forever. And now shall every knee bend before thee, and every tongue confess, that JESUS CHRIST is LORD, to the glory of GOD the FATHER.

I cannot close this part of my feeble labours, without desiring to fall down before the mercy seat in thankfulness for such distinguishing mercy as hath been manifested in permitting so unhallowed a pen to be thus employed, imploring pardon and forgiveness for all that is here offered. I find cause, at every review, to take shame in the consciousness how far, how very far short it comes of the divine original. Blessed Master, I would say, manifest thine accustomed compassion to the errors, of this humble work. Preserve all that read it from injury in the perusal: and, if it shall please thee to commission it for good but to one of thine, to the sovereignty of thy grace shall be all the glory, in condescending to make use of so poor an instrument to so great a service, to work in thy people both to will and to do according to thy good pleasure.