_Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said._ THE FIRST COLLOQUY At this point we pass into the poem proper. It opens with three colloquies between Job and his friends. In form these colloquies closely resemble each other. But while similar in form, in spirit they differ widely. At the outset the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast strengthened the weak hands._ PREACHING EASIER THAN PRACTISING Behold, thou hast instructed many, etc. To do each day’s duty with Christian diligence, and to bear each day’s crosses with Christian patience; thou hast done it well. But how comes it now to pass that thy present doings sham... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope?_ THE CONFIDENCE OF A GODLY FEAR These words are understood by divers of the Hebrew writers for a direct and simple assertion, and they give it thus, “Will not, or would not thy fear be thy confidence, and the uprightness of thy ways thy hope?” As if... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who ever perished, being innocent?_ DIVINE RETRIBUTIONS This grand maxim, of a just and sure retribution at the hand of God, must be admitted to be sound and true. His blessing is over the righteous, and His face “against them that do evil.” Job takes exception to this as a rule of God’s provident... [ Continue Reading ]
_Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same._ SOWING AND REAPING Eliphaz speaks of himself here as an observer of God’s providence; and the result of his observations is, the discernment of the law, that “they who plow iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same.... [ Continue Reading ]
_In thoughts from the visions of the night._ THE SPECTRE’S QUESTION Disguise it how we may, this is a ghost story. I. Attempt to realise the spectre. Recollect that for every one of us spirit has clothed itself with shape and vesture, and that the basis of the whole world in which we live is spir... [ Continue Reading ]
_There was silence and I heard a voice._ SILENCE AND A VOICE 1. God’s humbling dispensations toward His people will all come to a good issue, and the close of all His dealings will still be sweet. For after all his humbling and fear, preparing Eliphaz for the vision, and assuring him that God was... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shall a man he more pure than his Maker?_ MAN COMPARED WITH GOD The sum of the assertion in this verse is, that no man can be more pure and just than God. Let a man be never so just or sincere, yet there ought no comparison be made betwixt his righteousness and God’s. Learn-- 1. God is most righ... [ Continue Reading ]
_And His angels He charged with folly._ FOLLY IN ANGELS “His angels He charged with folly.” Revelation conveys to us the highly interesting information that there is between the great Spirit and man, an intermediate order of spirits whose habitation is in the high and holy place. But the discoverie... [ Continue Reading ]
_Them that dwell in houses of clay._ THE FRAILTY AND MORTALITY OF MAN The great design of God in His Word and in His providence is to humble the pride and cure the fatal presumption of man. I. The impressive description here of our frail and mortal condition. Angels are pure spirits, men are part... [ Continue Reading ]
_They die, even without wisdom._ DYING IN IGNORANCE “Alas! while the body stands so broad and brawny must the soul be blinded, dwarfed, stupefied, almost annihilated? Alas! This too was a breath of God: bestowed in heaven, but on earth never to be unfolded. That there should one man die ignorant w... [ Continue Reading ]