Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc18/v20900

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 9KB | 152 lines

20900
 #12-21 Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our
 own hearts, and are still, #Ps 4:4|, then is a time for the Holy
 Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great
 fear. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to
 receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect
 no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more
 just, more pure, than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and
 Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of man! How
 great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very
 foundation of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in
 the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but
 upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon
 than others but still it is the earth that stays us up, and will
 shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering
 distemper, which consumes like a moth, be sent to destroy him,
 he cannot resist it. Shall such a creature pretend to blame the
 appointments of God? Look upon man in his death. Life is short,
 and in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength,
 learning, not only cannot secure them from death, but these
 things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or
 power, continue after them. Shall a weak, sinful, dying
 creature, pretend to be more just than God, and more pure than
 his Maker? No: instead of quarrelling with his afflictions, let
 him wonder that he is out of hell. Can a man be cleansed without
 his Maker? Will God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from
 guilt? or will he do so without their having an interest in the
 righteousness and gracious help of their promised Redeemer, when
 angels, once ministering spirits before his throne, receive the
 just recompence of their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming
 impunity of men for a short time, though living without God in
 the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen
 angels, and is continually overtaking them. Yet careless sinners
 note it so little, that they expect not the change, nor are wise
 to consider their latter end.
20910
 * Eliphaz urges that the sin of sinners is their ruin. (1-5) God
 is to be regarded in affliction. (6-16) The happy end of God's
 correction. (17-27)

 #1-5 Eliphaz here calls upon Job to answer his arguments. Were
 any of the saints or servants of God visited with such Divine
 judgments as Job, or did they ever behave like him under their
 sufferings? The term, "saints," holy, or more strictly,
 consecrated ones, seems in all ages to have been applied to the
 people of God, through the Sacrifice slain in the covenant of
 their reconciliation. Eliphaz doubts not that the sin of sinners
 directly tends to their ruin. They kill themselves by some lust
 or other; therefore, no doubt, Job has done some foolish thing,
 by which he has brought himself into this condition. The
 allusion was plain to Job's former prosperity; but there was no
 evidence of Job's wickedness, and the application to him was
 unfair and severe.
20915
 #6-16 Eliphaz reminds Job, that no affliction comes by chance,
 nor is to be placed to second causes. The difference between
 prosperity and adversity is not so exactly observed, as that
 between day and night, summer and winter; but it is according to
 the will and counsel of God. We must not attribute our
 afflictions to fortune, for they are from God; nor our sins to
 fate, for they are from ourselves. Man is born in sin, and
 therefore born to trouble. There is nothing in this world we are
 born to, and can truly call our own, but sin and trouble. Actual
 transgressions are sparks that fly out of the furnace of
 original corruption. Such is the frailty of our bodies, and the
 vanity of all our enjoyments, that our troubles arise thence as
 the sparks fly upward; so many are they, and so fast does one
 follow another. Eliphaz reproves Job for not seeking God,
 instead of quarrelling with him. Is any afflicted? let him pray.
 It is heart's ease, a salve for every sore. Eliphaz speaks of
 rain, which we are apt to look upon as a little thing; but if we
 consider how it is produced, and what is produced by it, we
 shall see it to be a great work of power and goodness. Too often
 the great Author of all our comforts, and the manner in which
 they are conveyed to us, are not noticed, because they are
 received as things of course. In the ways of Providence, the
 experiences of some are encouragements to others, to hope the
 best in the worst of times; for it is the glory of God to send
 help to the helpless, and hope to the hopeless. And daring
 sinners are confounded, and forced to acknowledge the justice of
 God's proceedings.

20926
 #17-27 Eliphaz gives to Job a word of caution and exhortation:
 Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Call it a
 chastening, which comes from the Father's love, and is for the
 child's good; and notice it as a messenger from Heaven. Eliphaz
 also encourages Job to submit to his condition. A good man is
 happy though he be afflicted, for he has not lost his enjoyment
 of God, nor his title to heaven; nay, he is happy because he is
 afflicted. Correction mortifies his corruptions, weans his heart
 from the world, draws him nearer to God, brings him to his
 Bible, brings him to his knees. Though God wounds, yet he
 supports his people under afflictions, and in due time delivers
 them. Making a wound is sometimes part of a cure. Eliphaz gives
 Job precious promises of what God would do for him, if he
 humbled himself. Whatever troubles good men may be in, they
 shall do them no real harm. Being kept from sin, they are kept
 from the evil of trouble. And if the servants of Christ are not
 delivered from outward troubles, they are delivered by them, and
 while overcome by one trouble, they conquer all. Whatever is
 maliciously said against them shall not hurt them. They shall
 have wisdom and grace to manage their concerns. The greatest
 blessing, both in our employments and in our enjoyments, is to
 be kept from sin. They shall finish their course with joy and
 honour. That man lives long enough who has done his work, and is
 fit for another world. It is a mercy to die seasonably, as the
 corn is cut and housed when fully ripe; not till then, but then
 not suffered to stand any longer. Our times are in God's hands;
 it is well they are so. Believers are not to expect great
 wealth, long life, or to be free from trials. But all will be
 ordered for the best. And remark from Job's history, that
 steadiness of mind and heart under trial, is one of the highest
 attainments of faith. There is little exercise for faith when
 all things go well. But if God raises a storm, permits the enemy
 to send wave after wave, and seemingly stands aloof from our
 prayers, then, still to hang on and trust God, when we cannot
 trace him, this is the patience of the saints. Blessed Saviour!
 how sweet it is to look unto thee, the Author and Finisher of
 faith, in such moments!
20937
 * Job justifies his complaints. (1-7) He wishes for death.
 (8-13) Job reproves his friends as unkind. (14-30)

 #1-7 Job still justifies himself in his complaints. In addition
 to outward troubles, the inward sense of God's wrath took away
 all his courage and resolution. The feeling sense of the wrath
 of God is harder to bear than any outward afflictions. What then
 did the Saviour endure in the garden and on the cross, when he
 bare our sins, and his soul was made a sacrifice to Divine
 justice for us! Whatever burden of affliction, in body or
 estate, God is pleased to lay upon us, we may well submit to it
 as long as he continues to us the use of our reason, and the
 peace of our conscience; but if either of these is disturbed,
 our case is very pitiable. Job reflects upon his friends for
 their censures. He complains he had nothing offered for his
 relief, but what was in itself tasteless, loathsome, and
 burdensome.

20944
 #8-13 Job had desired death as the happy end of his miseries.
 For this, Eliphaz had reproved him, but he asks for it again
 with more vehemence than before. It was very rash to speak thus
 of God destroying him. Who, for one hour, could endure the wrath
 of the Almighty, if he let loose his hand against him? Let us
 rather say with David, O spare me a little. Job grounds his
 comfort upon the testimony of his conscience, that he had been,
 in some degree, serviceable to the glory of God. Those who have
 grace in them, who have the evidence of it, and have it in
 exercise, have wisdom in them, which will be their help in the
 worst of times.