Job 10:22

REFLECTIONS

OUR views of Job in this chapter are various. In one part of it, we behold him in the exercise of grace. In another under the frettings of nature. Alas! What is man in his highest attainments, when for a moment he loseth sight of JESUS? My Brother! if you know anything of your own heart, you will know also, if so be that the LORD hath quickened you, to a new and spiritual life, that you are still in the body; and a body of sin and death, which drags down the soul. Much of nature as well as grace, is in the best of saints. If you have the spirit of CHRIST, you have also a body of flesh. If you have strong faith, you know what it is to have strong corruptions. And hence, were it not that perpetual communications are imparted, to keep the soul alive amidst the rubbish of corruption, what believer would be able to withstand long the many powerful foes of his salvation, which he hath to encounter?

We see Job, in this chapter, giving way to much impatience. But it will be a profitable view of the subject, if from the view we are led to see where our strength is, and by whom alone the best of men are kept, from similar backslidings. My Brother! it is JESUS alone that keeps his people in the hour, and from the power of temptation; and to have an eye steadfast upon him, to live to him, to believe in him, to delight ourselves in him, to lie passive in his hands, under every dispensation however trying, to be pleased with him as a sure friend when all things frown, as though he was turned to be our enemy; to depend upon his word, his faithfulness, his truth, when every method whereby he can be faithful, seems for the time to be lost; and like the prophet, when the fig trees blossom, and the fields fruit both fail; yet even then to live upon an unchangeable GOD in CHRIST, when all outward circumstances are changed; this, this is the patience of the saints. This is what GOD the FATHER is pleased with, in the grace of his dear Son, manifested in the faith of his people, and while the believer thus gives glory to GOD, GOD will give peace to the believer. Them that honor me, said GOD, I will honor. Oh! then for grace to live to his glory, in dark seasons as well as light, and to make CHRIST all and in all.