Job 20:28

The increase of his house— The revenue of his house shall be taken away: in the day of wrath which abideth him, it shall be cut off. Houbigant. Heath renders it, the abundance of his house shall roll away like the torrents, in the day of his fury.

REFLECTIONS.—1st, Zophar in haste rises to vindicate himself and his friends from the unjust aspersions, as he imagined, of cruelty and persecution, which Job cast upon them. Big with matter, his thoughts swelled in his bosom, and forced a vent at his lips. He interprets what he had heard as a high provocation; and, confident that reason was on their side, and solid understanding only with them, he speaks as under the influence of the spirit of wisdom, and therefore demands attention. Note; (1.) They who are most confident are seldom most in the right. (2.) Prejudice and pride make men interpret the kindest warning into an affront, and return it with insolence. (3.) The dictates of passion often pass for the voice of reason; so partial is every man apt to be in his own cause.

2nd, He here opens his argument. The destruction of the wicked is speedy and certain; and therefore, from Job's afflictions, this character must needs belong to him. He appeals to all antiquity, in proof of the doctrine that he was about to advance. Since the day when man was placed on the earth, the misery of the wicked had been uniform and perpetual; witness Cain, the flood, the destruction of Sodom, &c. The triumphing of the wicked was ever short, and the hypocrites joy momentary. Whether their character was abandoned wickedness or hypocritical profession, avowed irreligion or the form of godliness without the power of it, their damnation slumbered not. Though for a while, indeed, iniquity might be triumphant, and hypocrisy undetected, yet ruin final and eternal awaited them. Their prosperity shall be passing as the dream, unsubstantial as the forms of fancy in the visions of the night, and they shall be loathsome to the last degree. With surprise they who passed by them in their exaltation shall, at their return, enquire what is become of all their greatness, now buried with them in the grave, where no eye shall any more behold them. Note; (1.) However long a wicked man's prosperity, or a hypocrite's profession, lasts in this world, it may well be counted short and momentary, compared with the eternity which approaches. (2.) Sin and ruin, though not always in this life, shall, in the next, appear certainly inseparable. (3.) They who lift their heads to the clouds in sinful prosperity, or proud self-righteousness, only thus mount, in order to fall deeper into the pit of destruction, where, of all others, the hypocrite's portion will be the most terrible. See Matthew 24:51.

3rdly, In a variety of instances Zophar expatiates on the misery of the wicked in this world. His children shall seek to please the poor, or, being poor, shall please. Men will take pleasure to see them reduced, and the ill-gotten gain vanish, which by force their father shall be compelled to restore. Full of the sins of youth, his bones shall be rotten with diseases, and they shall not only bring him to the grave, but the curse of sin shall for ever rest upon him, dead as alive. Sweet as the draughts were of pleasurable iniquity, and delightful as was the indulgence of his appetites; cherished as his lusts were in his bosom, and concealed to save his character and credit among men, yet shall those acts of sin, which seemed so sweet in the prospect, and so transporting in the enjoyment, afterwards breed loathing; and pangs within shall succeed, bitter as gall to the conscience, and poisonous to the soul as the venom of the asp. The fruits of his insatiate covetousness, which he swallowed as a hungry man his food, he shall disgorge, either by his own terrified conscience compelling him to restitution, or by God's Providence restoring to the right owner the spoils of wickedness. Disease fatal as the poison of asps, and painful as the viper's bite, shall seize him, as the just wages of his iniquity. His affluence, in which he once gloried, and for which he laboured so long and unweariedly, shall fail him, like the streams of a brook dried up. When every one has got his own, nothing shall be left to comfort him. Because of his oppression he shall carry about with him a tormented conscience, and shall not save the smallest portion of his desirable acquisitions. He shall be reduced to pining hunger, and not the least pittance be left for his heirs: so universal shall be his desolations. Note; (1.) Youthful sins, however lightly accounted of, have terrible consequences. (2.) God often makes men's iniquities their present plague; and disease, deformity, pain, contempt, and loathing, are seen in this world to be the wages of sin. (3.) The sweetest sins produce the most bitter remembrances, both now in the pangs of conscience, and hereafter in hell, where the worm never dies. (4.) They dearly purchase present pleasure and greatness, who, for the sake of these, expose themselves to everlasting pain and contempt. (5.) The gains of covetousness and oppression are often short-lived: what is gotten by wickedness is very frequently squandered in profusion.

4thly, We have the wicked man brought to his final exit. In the midst of his sufficiency and abundance, the fears of want shall make him poor, and prevent him from the use of what he has; or his destruction shall then suddenly descend upon him, and the wicked shall spoil him, as the Chaldeans had done to Job. While the meat is yet in his mouth, and he is in the mid-pursuit of his lusts and covetousness, the wrath of an offended God, furious as the whirlwind, shall be hurled upon him, to crush him under the intolerable weight; and miseries, like a deluge of rain, shall beat upon him. When God pursues, flight will be vain: judgment upon judgment, terrible to feel, as unavoidable to escape, shall light upon him; the barbed arrow pierces him, the glittering sword strikes him through the liver; mortally wounded he falls; the terrors of death seize him, convulsive agonies of body, tormenting pangs of conscience; horrible the present anguish, but more intolerable the fears of futurity. Darkness utter and eternal awaits him, reserved for him among God's treasures of vengeance; the fire of hell unquenchable, which God himself hath kindled, shall consume him. Misery and ruin shall be entailed upon his posterity: his sins, however secret, shall be brought to light; or judgments immediately from God, as the burning of Sodom, shall proclaim his atrocious guilt, and all the powers of nature appear armed against him in God's quarrel. In this day of wrath his desolations shall be accomplished; and all that he hath shall finally perish with him. Such is the portion of the wicked man. Note; (1.) The wrath of God assuredly abides on the most joyous sinner, and he will shortly make him feel its fury. (2.) How terrible will be the hypocrite's disappointment who lies down dreaming of happiness, and awakes in hell! (3.) There is no escaping from God's pursuit: they who will not flee to him for mercy cannot fly from him in judgment. (4.) If wicked men would but consider their latter end, it would give a check to their revels, and awaken some salutary concern about escaping the wrath to come. (5.) The most secret sins cannot be long concealed; a judgment-day will unveil every man's heart and ways. (6.) The portion of the wicked is this certain, terrible, inevitable ruin; if not in time, yet, what is infinitely worse, in eternity.

The discourse of Zophar thus affords awakening truths; and though, as levelled against Job, it was grossly misapplied, yet it may minister abundant instruction, when considered as a warning against the ways and miserable end of the ungodly and the hypocrite.