Bible Commentaries

Job 20:11

The enduring effects of early transgression.

I. Notice, first, how difficult and almost impossible it is, in reference to the present scene of being, to make up by after-diligence for time lost in youth. It is appointed by God that one stage of life should be strictly preparatory to another, just as our own residence on earth is to immortality in the invisible world.

II. This truth is exemplified with reference to bodily health. The man who has injured his constitution by the excesses of youth cannot repair the mischief by after-acts of self-denial. He must carry with him to the grave impaired energies and trembling limbs, and feel and exhibit the painful tokens of premature old age.

III. The possession of the iniquities of youth affects men when stirred with anxiety for the soul, and desirous to seek and obtain the pardon of sin. The great battle which a man has to fight when endeavouring to conform himself to the will of God is a battle with his own evil habits. And what are habits but the entailment of the sins of youth?

IV. However genuine and effectual the repentance and faith of a late period in life, it is unavoidable that the remembrance of misspent years will embitter those which you consecrate to God. Even with those who have begun early it is a constant source of regret that they began not earlier. What then shall be said of such as enter the vineyard at the tenth hour, or the eleventh, but that they must be haunted with the memory of prostituted powers, and squandered strength, and dissipated time, and that they must sorrow frequently over sins for which they can make no amends?

V. By lengthening the period of irreligion, and therefore diminishing that of obedience to God, we almost place ourselves amongst the last of the competitors for the kingdom of heaven. The lesson to the young is to remember their Creator, and not to forget that what may be done hereafter can never be done so well as now.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2183.

Reference: Job 20—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., pp. 264, 321; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 261.