Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc21/v21200

Text File | 1994-03-01 | 7KB | 121 lines

21202
 #6-16 Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. What
 reason we have to bless God, that we are not making such
 complaints! Even good men, when in great troubles, have much ado
 not to entertain hard thoughts of God. Eliphaz had represented
 Job as unhumbled under his affliction: No, says Job, I know
 better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me. In this
 he reminds us of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and
 pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be
 comforted.

21213
 #17-22 Job's condition was very deplorable; but he had the
 testimony of his conscience for him, that he never allowed
 himself in any gross sin. No one was ever more ready to
 acknowledge sins of infirmity. Eliphaz had charged him with
 hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies prayer, the great act of
 religion, and professes that in this he was pure, though not
 from all infirmity. He had a God to go to, who he doubted not
 took full notice of all his sorrows. Those who pour out tears
 before God, though they cannot plead for themselves, by reason
 of their defects, have a Friend to plead for them, even the Son
 of man, and on him we must ground all our hopes of acceptance
 with God. To die, is to go the way whence we shall not return.
 We must all of us, very certainly, and very shortly, go this
 journey. Should not then the Saviour be precious to our souls?
 And ought we not to be ready to obey and to suffer for his sake?
 If our consciences are sprinkled with his atoning blood, and
 testify that we are not living in sin or hypocrisy, when we go
 the way whence we shall not return, it will be a release from
 prison, and an entrance into everlasting happiness.
21219
 * Job appeals from man to God. (1-9) His hope is not in life,
 but in death. (10-16)

 #1-9 Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed
 upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to
 God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the
 days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity.
 We see the good use the righteous should make of Job's
 afflictions from God, from enemies, and from friends. Instead of
 being discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage this
 faithful servant of God met with, they should be made bold to
 proceed and persevere therein. Those who keep their eye upon
 heaven as their end, will keep their feet in the paths of
 religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements
 they may meet with.

21228
 #10-16 Job's friends had pretended to comfort him with the hope
 of his return to a prosperous estate; he here shows that those
 do not go wisely about the work of comforting the afflicted, who
 fetch their comforts from the possibility of recovery in this
 world. It is our wisdom to comfort ourselves, and others, in
 distress, with that which will not fail; the promise of God, his
 love and grace, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life. See
 how Job reconciles himself to the grave. Let this make believers
 willing to die; it is but going to bed; they are weary, and it
 is time that they were in their beds. Why should not they go
 willingly when their Father calls them? Let us remember our
 bodies are allied to corruption, the worm and the dust; and let
 us seek for that lively hope which shall be fulfilled, when the
 hope of the wicked shall be put out in darkness; that when our
 bodies are in the grave, our souls may enjoy the rest reserved
 for the people of God.
21235
 * Bildad reproves Job. (1-4) Ruin attends the wicked. (5-10) The
 ruin of the wicked. (11-21)

 #1-4 Bildad had before given Job good advice and encouragement;
 here he used nothing but rebukes, and declared his ruin. And he
 concluded that Job shut out the providence of God from the
 management of human affairs, because he would not admit himself
 to be wicked.

21239
 #5-10 Bildad describes the miserable condition of a wicked man;
 in which there is much certain truth, if we consider that a
 sinful condition is a sad condition, and that sin will be men's
 ruin, if they do not repent. Though Bildad thought the
 application of it to Job was easy, yet it was not safe nor just.
 It is common for angry disputants to rank their opponents among
 God's enemies, and to draw wrong conclusions from important
 truths. The destruction of the wicked is foretold. That
 destruction is represented under the similitude of a beast or
 bird caught in a snare, or a malefactor taken into custody.
 Satan, as he was a murderer, so he was a robber, from the
 beginning. He, the tempter, lays snares for sinners wherever
 they go. If he makes them sinful like himself, he will make them
 miserable like himself. Satan hunts for the precious life. In
 the transgression of an evil man there is a snare for himself,
 and God is preparing for his destruction. See here how the
 sinner runs himself into the snare.

21245
 #11-21 Bildad describes the destruction wicked people are kept
 for, in the other world, and which in some degree, often seizes
 them in this world. The way of sin is the way of fear, and leads
 to everlasting confusion, of which the present terrors of an
 impure conscience are earnests, as in Cain and Judas. Miserable
 indeed is a wicked man's death, how secure soever his life was.
 See him dying; all that he trusts to for his support shall be
 taken from him. How happy are the saints, and how indebted to
 the Lord Jesus, by whom death is so far done away and changed,
 that this king of terrors is become a friend and a servant! See
 the wicked man's family sunk and cut off. His children shall
 perish, either with him or after him. Those who consult the true
 honour of their family, and its welfare, will be afraid of
 withering all by sin. The judgments of God follow the wicked man
 after death in this world, as a proof of the misery his soul is
 in after death, and as an earnest of that everlasting shame and
 contempt to which he shall rise in the great day. The memory of
 the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot, #Pr
 10:7|. It would be well if this report of wicked men would cause
 any to flee from the wrath to come, from which their power,
 policy, and riches cannot deliver them. But Jesus ever liveth to
 deliver all who trust in him. Bear up then, suffering believers.
 Ye shall for a little time have sorrow, but your Beloved, your
 Saviour, will see you again; your hearts shall rejoice, and your
 joy no man taketh away.