Job 14:20

Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

Man’s mittimus

I. The change. The human countenance an instructive book. All its changes are not of God’s working, or ordering. The sharp lines of greed, the curves of pride, the flush of sensuality, etc. These are the brands of sin and Satan; sin ploughs furrows as well as time.

1. There is the change made by time. From infancy to age the face is continually undergoing alteration. Smoothness gives place to wrinkles; freshness to the worn, wan hue of age. The mirror is a solemn teacher.

2. The change made by care. Job’s friends did not recognise him; sorrow dims the eye; anxiety makes its woe mark on features. Nehemiah before the king. Hezekiah.

3. The change by sickness. Pain prints the proofs of its presence there; in sunken eye and snowy pallor, sickness sets its seal upon the face.

4. The change by death. Death is a sculptor who carves his own image in the white marble of the dying frame.

5. The change by grace. The influence of religion on the countenance. The surface of a lake, when overspread with clouds or reflecting the shining of the sun. Who does not know some dear and saintly face, with little of earth and much of heaven in it, waiting at the Beautiful Gate until God opens the temple door for them, and they pass into the glory that excelleth? Stephen’s face before the Jewish council.

6. The change in glory. Resurrection glory. “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” But the change of grace, and the change in glory are only consequent on a “change of heart.”

II. The sending.

1. Who sends him? “Thou.” In God’s hands are the issues of life. When He says, “Go,” none may resist His mandate. Man’s folly in using life, ay, wasting it as though it were his own, and at his own disposal. “O spare me, that I may recover strength,” etc.

2. From what is he sent? From probation. Now is the day of salvation, only now. From possessions. We brought nothing into the world, and it is certain, etc. From privileges. Prayer, Word, Sanctuary, Sabbaths, etc. From pleasures. Rejoice, O young man, in the days, etc. From mercies. That flower does not bloom beyond the river. Let the Christian remember also that he is sent from--

(1) Temptation.

(2) Sorrow.

(3) Sin.

(4) Death.

3. Whither is he sent? “He giveth up the ghost, and where is he?”

(1) To the grave.

(2) To judgment.

(3) To heaven. To hell.

(4) To a fixed and final destiny. In order to answer this question we must inquire, How he died? For “them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”

4. Where is he sent? “If the goodman of the house had known,” etc. (J. Jackson Wray.)