Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc21/v21400

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 6KB | 106 lines

21407
 #13-17 See what care and pains wicked men take to compass their
 wicked designs; let it shame our negligence and slothfulness in
 doing good. See what pains those take, who make provision for
 the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it: pains to compass, and then
 to hide that which will end in death and hell at last. Less
 pains would mortify and crucify the flesh, and be life and
 heaven at last. Shame came in with sin, and everlasting shame is
 at the end of it. See the misery of sinners; they are exposed to
 continual frights: yet see their folly; they are afraid of
 coming under the eye of men, but have no dread of God's eye,
 which is always upon them: they are not afraid of doing things
 which they are afraid of being known to do.

21412
 #18-25 Sometimes how gradual is the decay, how quiet the
 departure of a wicked person, how is he honoured, and how soon
 are all his cruelties and oppressions forgotten! They are taken
 off with other men, as the harvestman gathers the ears of corn
 as they come to hand. There will often appear much to resemble
 the wrong view of Providence Job takes in this chapter. But we
 are taught by the word of inspiration, that these notions are
 formed in ignorance, from partial views. The providence of God,
 in the affairs of men, is in every thing a just and wise
 providence. Let us apply this whenever the Lord may try us. He
 cannot do wrong. The unequalled sorrows of the Son of God when
 on earth, unless looked at in this view, perplex the mind. But
 when we behold him, as the sinner's Surety, bearing the curse,
 we can explain why he should endure that wrath which was due to
 sin, that Divine justice might be satisfied, and his people
 saved.
21420
 * Bildad shows that man cannot be justified before God.

 - Bildad drops the question concerning the prosperity of wicked
 men; but shows the infinite distance there is between God and
 man. He represents to Job some truths he had too much
 overlooked. Man's righteousness and holiness, at the best, are
 nothing in comparison with God's, #Ps 89:6|. As God is so great
 and glorious, how can man, who is guilty and impure, appear
 before him? We need to be born again of water and of the Holy
 Ghost, and to be bathed again and again in the blood of Christ,
 that Fountain opened, #Zec 13:1|. We should be humbled as mean,
 guilty, polluted creatures, and renounce self-dependence. But
 our vileness will commend Christ's condescension and love; the
 riches of his mercy and the power of his grace will be magnified
 to all eternity by every sinner he redeems.
21426
 * Job reproves Bildad. (1-4) Job acknowledges the power of God.
 (5-14)

 #1-4 Job derided Bildad's answer; his words were a mixture of
 peevishness and self-preference. Bildad ought to have laid
 before Job the consolations, rather than the terrors of the
 Almighty. Christ knows how to speak what is proper for the
 weary, #Isa 50:4|; and his ministers should not grieve those
 whom God would not have made sad. We are often disappointed in
 our expectations from our friends who should comfort us; but the
 Comforter, the Holy Ghost, never mistakes, nor fails of his end.

21430
 #5-14 Many striking instances are here given of the wisdom and
 power of God, in the creation and preservation of the world. If
 we look about us, to the earth and waters here below, we see his
 almighty power. If we consider hell beneath, though out of our
 sight, yet we may conceive the discoveries of God's power there.
 If we look up to heaven above, we see displays of God's almighty
 power. By his Spirit, the eternal Spirit that moved upon the
 face of the waters, the breath of his mouth, #Ps 33:6|, he has
 not only made the heavens, but beautified them. By redemption,
 all the other wonderful works of the Lord are eclipsed; and we
 may draw near, and taste his grace, learn to love him, and walk
 with delight in his ways. The ground of the controversy between
 Job and the other disputants was, that they unjustly thought
 from his afflictions that he must have been guilty of heinous
 crimes. They appear not to have duly considered the evil and
 just desert of original sin; nor did they take into account the
 gracious designs of God in purifying his people. Job also
 darkened counsel by words without knowledge. But his views were
 more distinct. He does not appear to have alleged his personal
 righteousness as the ground of his hope towards God. Yet what he
 admitted in a general view of his case, he in effect denied,
 while he complained of his sufferings as unmerited and severe;
 that very complaint proving the necessity for their being sent,
 in order to his being further humbled in the sight of God.
21440
 * Job protests his sincerity. (1-6) The hypocrite is without
 hope. (7-10) The miserable end of the wicked. (11-23)

 #1-6 Job's friends now suffered him to speak, and he proceeded
 in a grave and useful manner. Job had confidence in the goodness
 both of his cause and of his God; and cheerfully committed his
 cause to him. But Job had not due reverence when he spake of God
 as taking away his judgment, and vexing his soul. To resolve
 that our hearts shall not reproach us, while we hold fast our
 integrity, baffles the designs of the evil spirit.

21446
 #7-10 Job looked upon the condition of a hypocrite and a wicked
 man, to be most miserable. If they gained through life by their
 profession, and kept up their presumptuous hope till death, what
 would that avail when God required their souls? The more comfort
 we find in our religion, the more closely we shall cleave to it.
 Those who have no delight in God, are easily drawn away by the
 pleasures, and easily overcome by the crosses of this life.