Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc21/v21050

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 6KB | 117 lines

21052
 #8-13 Job seems to argue with God, as if he only formed and
 preserved him for misery. God made us, not we ourselves. How sad
 that those bodies should be instruments of unrighteousness,
 which are capable of being temples of the Holy Ghost! But the
 soul is the life, the soul is the man, and this is the gift of
 God. If we plead with ourselves as an inducement to duty, God
 made me and maintains me, we may plead as an argument for mercy,
 Thou hast made me, do thou new-make me; I am thine, save me.

21058
 #14-22 Job did not deny that as a sinner he deserved his
 sufferings; but he thought that justice was executed upon him
 with peculiar rigour. His gloom, unbelief, and hard thoughts of
 God, were as much to be ascribed to Satan's inward temptations,
 and his anguish of soul, under the sense of God's displeasure,
 as to his outward trials, and remaining depravity. Our Creator,
 become in Christ our Redeemer also, will not destroy the work of
 his hands in any humble believer; but will renew him unto
 holiness, that he may enjoy eternal life. If anguish on earth
 renders the grave a desirable refuge, what will be their
 condition who are condemned to the blackness of darkness for
 ever? Let every sinner seek deliverance from that dreadful
 state, and every believer be thankful to Jesus, who delivereth
 from the wrath to come.
21067
 * Zophar reproves Job. (1-6) God's perfections and almighty
 power. (7-12) Zophar assures Job of blessings if he repented.
 (13-20)

 #1-6 Zophar attacked Job with great vehemence. He represented
 him as a man that loved to hear himself speak, though he could
 say nothing to the purpose, and as a man that maintained
 falsehoods. He desired God would show Job that less punishment
 was exacted than he deserved. We are ready, with much assurance,
 to call God to act in our quarrels, and to think that if he
 would but speak, he would take our part. We ought to leave all
 disputes to the judgment of God, which we are sure is according
 to truth; but those are not always right who are most forward to
 appeal to the Divine judgment.

21073
 #7-12 Zophar speaks well concerning God and his greatness and
 glory, concerning man and his vanity and folly. See here what
 man is; and let him be humbled. God sees this concerning vain
 man, that he would be wise, would be thought so, though he is
 born like a wild ass's colt, so unteachable and untameable. Man
 is a vain creature; empty, so the word is. Yet he is a proud
 creature, and self-conceited. He would be wise, would be thought
 so, though he will not submit to the laws of wisdom. He would be
 wise, he reaches after forbidden wisdom, and, like his first
 parents, aiming to be wise above what is written, loses the tree
 of life for the tree of knowledge. Is such a creature as this
 fit to contend with God?

21079
 #13-20 Zophar exhorts Job to repentance, and gives him
 encouragement, yet mixed with hard thoughts of him. He thought
 that worldly prosperity was always the lot of the righteous, and
 that Job was to be deemed a hypocrite unless his prosperity was
 restored. Then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; that
 is, thou mayst come boldly to the throne of grace, and not with
 the terror and amazement expressed in ch. #9:34|. If we are
 looked upon in the face of the Anointed, our faces that were
 cast down may be lifted up; though polluted, being now washed
 with the blood of Christ, they may be lifted up without spot. We
 may draw near in full assurance of faith, when we are sprinkled
 from an evil conscience, #Heb 10:22|.
21087
 * Job reproves his friends. (1-5) The wicked often
 prosper.(6-11) Job speaks of the wisdom and power of God.
 (12-25)

 #1-5 Job upbraids his friends with the good opinion they had of
 their own wisdom compared with his. We are apt to call reproofs
 reproaches, and to think ourselves mocked when advised and
 admonished; this is our folly; yet here was colour for this
 charge. He suspected the true cause of their conduct to be, that
 they despised him who was fallen into poverty. It is the way of
 the world. Even the just, upright man, if he comes under a
 cloud, is looked upon with contempt.

21092
 #6-11 Job appeals to facts. The most audacious robbers,
 oppressors, and impious wretches, often prosper. Yet this is not
 by fortune or chance; the Lord orders these things. Worldly
 prosperity is of small value in his sight: he has better things
 for his children. Job resolves all into the absolute
 proprietorship which God has in all the creatures. He demands
 from his friends liberty to judge of what they had said; he
 appeals to any fair judgment.

21098
 #12-25 This is a noble discourse of Job concerning the wisdom,
 power, and sovereignty of God, in ordering all the affairs of
 the children of men, according to the counsel of His own will,
 which none can resist. It were well if wise and good men, who
 differ about lesser things, would see how it is for their honour
 and comfort, and the good of others, to dwell most upon the
 great things in which they agree. Here are no complaints, or
 reflections. He gives many instances of God's powerful
 management of the children of men, overruling all their
 counsels, and overcoming all their oppositions. Having all
 strength and wisdom, God knows how to make use, even of those
 who are foolish and bad; otherwise there is so little wisdom and
 so little honesty in the world, that all had been in confusion
 and ruin long ago. These important truths were suited to
 convince the disputants that they were out of their depth in
 attempting to assign the Lord's reasons for afflicting Job; his
 ways are unsearchable, and his judgments past finding out. Let
 us remark what beautiful illustrations there are in the word of
 God, confirming his sovereignty, and wisdom in that sovereignty:
 but the highest and infinitely the most important is, that the
 Lord Jesus was crucified by the malice of the Jews; and who but
 the Lord could have known that this one event was the salvation
 of the world?