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Matthew Henry |
J O B
CHAP. XXVIII.
The strain of this chapter is very unlike the rest of this book. Job
forgets his sores, and all his sorrows, and talks like a philosopher or
a virtuoso. Here is a great deal both of natural and moral philosophy
in this discourse; but the question is, How does it come in here?
Doubtless it was not merely for an amusement, or diversion from the
controversy; though, if it had been only so, perhaps it would not have
been much amiss. When disputes grow hot, better lose the question than
lose our temper. But this is pertinent and to the business in hand.
Job and his friends had been discoursing about the dispensations of
Providence towards the wicked and the righteous. Job had shown that
some wicked men live and die in prosperity, while others are presently
and openly arrested by the judgments of God. But, if any ask the reason
why some are punished in this world and not others, they must be told
it is a question that cannot be answered. The knowledge of the reasons
of state in God’s government of the world is kept from us, and we must
neither pretend to it nor reach after it. Zophar had wished that God
would show Job the “secrets of wisdom”
(ch. xi. 6).
No, says Job, “secret things belong not to us, but things revealed,”
And here he shows,
I. Concerning worldly wealth, how industriously that is sought for and
pursued by the children of men, what pains they take, what contrivances
they have, and what hazards they run to get it,
II. Concerning wisdom,
In general, the price of it is very great; it is of inestimable value,
The place of it is very secret,
In particular, there is a wisdom which is hidden in God
and there is a wisdom which is revealed to the children of men,
Our enquiries into the former must be checked, into the latter
quickened, for that is it which is our concern.
| Extent of Human Discoveries. | B. C. 1520. |
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1 Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold
where they fine it.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out
of the stone.
3 He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all
perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
4 The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters
forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from
men.
5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is
turned up as it were fire.
6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath
dust of gold.
7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the
vulture’s eye hath not seen:
8 The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion
passed by it.
9 He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the
mountains by the roots.
10 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth
every precious thing.
11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that
is hid bringeth he forth to light.
12 But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of
understanding?
13 Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in
the land of the living.
Here Job shows,
1. What a great way the wit of man may go in diving into the depths of
nature and seizing the riches of it, what a great deal of knowledge and
wealth men may, by their ingenious and industrious searches, make
themselves masters of. But does it therefore follow that men may, by
their wit, comprehend the reasons why some wicked people prosper and
others are punished, why some good people prosper and others are
afflicted? No, by no means. The caverns of the earth may be discovered,
but not the counsels of heaven.
2. What a great deal of care and pains worldly men take to get riches.
He had observed concerning the wicked man
that he heaped up silver as the dust; now here he shows whence
that silver came which he was so fond of and how it was obtained, to
show what little reason wicked rich men have to be proud of their
wealth and pomp. Observe here,
I. The wealth of this world is hidden in the earth. Thence the silver
and the gold, which afterwards they refine, are fetched,
v. 1.
There they lay mixed with a great deal of dirt and dross, like a
worthless thing, of no more account than common earth; and abundance of
them will so lie neglected, till the earth and all the works therein
shall be burnt up. Holy Mr. Herbert, in his poem called Avarice,
takes notice of this, to shame men out of the love of money:–
| Money, thou bane of bliss, thou source of woe,
Whence com’st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine? I know thy parentage is base and low; Man found thee poor and dirty in a mine. Surely thou didst so little contribute To this great kingdom which thou now hast got That he was fain, when thou wast destitute, To dig thee out of thy dark cave and grot. Man calleth thee his wealth, who made thee rich, And while he digs out thee falls in the ditch. |
Iron and brass, less costly but more serviceable metals, are taken
out of the earth
(v. 2),
and are there found in great abundance, which abates their price
indeed, but is a great kindness to man, who could much better be
without gold than without iron. Nay, out of the earth comes
bread, that is, bread-corn, the necessary support of life,
v. 5.
Thence man’s maintenance is fetched, to remind him of his own original;
he is of the earth, and is hastening to the earth. Under it is
turned up as it were fire, precious stones, that sparkle as
fire–brimstone, that is apt to take fire–coal, that is proper to feed
fire. As we have our food, so we have our fuel, out of the earth. There
the sapphires and other gems are, and thence gold-dust is digged up;,
v. 6.
The wisdom of the Creator has placed these things,
1. Out of our sight, to teach us not to set our eyes upon them,
2. Under our feet, to teach us not to lay them in our bosoms, nor to
set our hearts upon them, but to trample upon them with a holy
contempt. See how full the earth is of God’s riches
and infer thence, not only how great a God he is whose the earth
is and the fulness thereof
(Ps. xxiv. 1),
but how full heaven must needs be of God’s riches, which is the city of
the great King, in comparison with which this earth is a poor
country.
II. The wealth that is hidden in the earth cannot be obtained but with
a great deal of difficulty.
1. It is hard to be found out: there is but here and there a vein
for the silver,
v. 1.
The precious stones, though bright themselves, yet, because buried in
obscurity and out of sight, are called stones of darkness and the
shadow of death. Men may search long before they light on them.
2. When found out it is hard to be fetched out. Men’s wits must be set
on work to contrive ways and means to get this hidden treasure into
their hands. They must with their lamps set an end to darkness;
and if one expedient miscarry, one method fail, they must try another,
till they have searched out all perfection, and turned every
stone to effect it,
v. 3.
They must grapple with subterraneous waters
(v. 4, 10, 11),
and force their way through rocks which are, as it were, the roots of
the mountains,
v. 9.
Now God has made the getting of gold, and silver, and precious stones,
so difficult,
(1.) For the exciting and engaging of industry. Dii laboribus omnia
vendunt–Labour is the price which the gods affix to all things. If
valuable things were too easily obtained men would never learn to take
pains. But the difficulty of gaining the riches of this earth may
suggest to us what violence the kingdom of heaven suffers.
(2.) For the checking and restraining of pomp and luxury. What is for
necessity is had with a little labour from the surface of the earth;
but what is for ornament must be dug with a great deal of pains out of
the bowels of it. To be fed is cheap, but to be fine is chargeable.
III. Though the subterraneous wealth is thus hard to obtain, yet men
will have it. He that loves silver is not satisfied with silver, and
yet is not satisfied without it; but those that have much must needs
have more. See here,
1. What inventions men have to get this wealth. They search out all
perfection,
v. 3.
They have arts and engines to dry up the waters, and carry them off,
when they break in upon them in their mines and threaten to drown the
work,
v. 4.
They have pumps, and pipes, and canals, to clear their way, and,
obstacles being removed, they tread the path which no fowl
knoweth
(v. 7, 8),
unseen by the vulture’s eye, which is piercing and quick-sighted, and
untrodden by the lion’s whelps, which traverse all the paths of the
wilderness.
2. What pains men take, and what vast charge they are at, to get this
wealth. They work their way through the rocks and undermine the
mountains,
3. What hazards they run. Those that dig in the mines have their lives
in their hands; for they are obliged to bind the floods from
overflowing
(v. 11),
and are continually in danger of being suffocated by damps or crushed
or buried alive by the fall of the earth upon them. See how foolish man
adds to his own burden. He is sentenced to eat bread in the sweat of
his face; but, as if that were not enough, he will get gold and silver
at the peril of his life, though the more is gotten the less valuable
it is. In Solomon’s time silver was as stones. But,
4. Observe what it is that carries men through all this toil and peril:
Their eye sees every precious thing,
v. 10.
Silver and gold are precious things with them, and they have them in
their eye in all these pursuits. They fancy they see them glittering
before their faces, and, in the prospect of laying hold of them, they
make nothing of all these difficulties; for they make something of
their toil at last: That which is hidden bringeth he forth to
light,
v. 11.
What was hidden under ground is laid upon the bank; the metal that was
hidden in the ore is refined from its dross and brought forth pure out
of the furnace; and then he thinks his pains well bestowed. Go to the
miners then, thou sluggard in religion; consider their ways, and be
wise. Let their courage, diligence, and constancy in seeking the wealth
that perisheth shame us out of slothfulness and faint-heartedness in
labouring for the true riches. How much better is it to get wisdom
than gold! How much easier and safer! Yet gold is sought for, but
grace neglected. Will the hopes of precious things out of the
earth (so they call them, though really they are paltry and perishing)
be such a spur to industry, and shall not the certain prospect of truly
precious things in heaven be much more so?
| The Excellency of Wisdom. | B. C. 1520. |
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14 The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It
is not with me.
15 It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be
weighed for the price thereof.
16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the
precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange
of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the
price of wisdom is above rubies.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it
be valued with pure gold.
Job, having spoken of the wealth of the world, which men put such a
value upon and take so much pains for, here comes to speak of another
more valuable jewel, and that is, wisdom and understanding, the
knowing and enjoying of God and ourselves. Those that found out all
those ways and means to enrich themselves thought themselves very wise;
but Job will not own theirs to be wisdom. He supposes them to gain
their point, and to bring to light what they sought for
(v. 11),
and yet asks, “Where is wisdom? for it is not here.” This their
way is their folly. We must therefore seek it somewhere else, and it
will be found nowhere but in the principles and practices of religion.
There is more true knowledge, satisfaction, and happiness, in sound
divinity, which shows us the way to the joys of heaven, than in natural
philosophy or mathematics, which help us to find a way into the bowels
of the earth. Two things cannot be found out concerning this
wisdom:–
I. The price of it, for that is inestimable; its worth is infinitely
more than all the riches in this world: Man knows not the price
thereof
(v. 13),
that is,
1. Few put a due value upon it. Men know not the worth of it, its
innate excellency, their need of it, and of what unspeakable advantage
it will be to them; and therefore, though they have many a price in
their hand to get this wisdom, yet they have no heart to it,
Prov. xvii. 16.
The cock in the fable knew not the value of the precious stone he found
in the dunghill, and therefore would rather have lighted on a
barley-corn. Men know not the worth of grace, and therefore will take
no pains to get it.
2. None can possibly give a valuable consideration for it, with all the
wealth this world can furnish them with. This Job enlarges upon
&c., where he
makes an inventory of the bona notabilia–the most valuable
treasures of this world. Gold is five times mentioned; silver comes
in also; and then several precious stones, the onyx and sapphire,
pearls and rubies, and the topaz of Ethiopia. These are the things that
are highest prized in the world’s markets: but if a man would give, not
only these, heaps of these, but all the substance of his house, all he
is worth in the world, for wisdom, it would utterly be contemned. These
may give a man some advantage in seeking wisdom, as they did to
Solomon, but there is no purchasing wisdom with these. It is a gift of
the Holy Ghost, which cannot be bought with money,
Acts viii. 20.
As it does not run in the blood, and so come to us by descent, so it
cannot be got for money, nor does it come to us by purchase. Spiritual
gifts are conferred without money and without price, because no money
can be a price for them. Wisdom is likewise a more valuable gift to him
that has it, makes him richer and happier, than gold or precious
stones. It is better to get wisdom than gold. Gold is another’s,
wisdom our own; gold is for the body and time, wisdom for the soul and
eternity. Let that which is most precious in God’s account be so in
ours. See
&c.
II. The place of it, for that is undiscoverable. Where shall wisdom
be found?
v. 12.
He asks this,
1. As one that truly desired to find it. This is a question we should
all put. While the most of men are asking, “Where shall money be
found?” we should ask, Where may wisdom be found? that we may
seek it and find it, not vain philosophy, or carnal policy, but true
religion; for that is the only true wisdom, that is it which best
improves our faculties and best secures our spiritual and eternal
welfare. This is that which we should cry after and dig for,
2. As one that utterly despaired of finding it any where but in God,
and any way but by divine revelation: It is not found in this
land of the living,
v. 13.
We cannot attain to a right understanding of God and his will, of
ourselves and our duty and interest, by reading any books or men, but
by reading God’s book and the men of God. Such is the degeneracy of
human nature that there is no true wisdom to be found with any but
those who are born again, and who, through grace, partake of the divine
nature. As for others, even the most ingenious and industrious, they
can tell us no tidings of this lost wisdom.
(1.) Ask the miners, and by them the depth will say, It is not in
me,
v. 14.
Those who dig into the bowels of the earth, to rifle the treasures
there, cannot in these dark recesses find this rare jewel, nor with all
their art make themselves masters of it.
(2.) Ask the mariners, and by them the sea will say, It is not in
me. It can never be got either by trading on the waters or diving
into them, can never be sucked from the abundance of the seas or the
treasures hidden in the sand. Where there is a vein for the silver
there is no vein for wisdom, none for grace. Men can more easily break
through the difficulties they meet with in getting worldly wealth than
through those they meet with in getting heavenly wisdom, and they will
take more pains to learn how to live in this world than how to live for
ever in a better world. So blind and foolish has man become that it is
in vain to ask him, Where is the place of wisdom, and which is
the road that leads to it?
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20 Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of
understanding?
21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close
from the fowls of the air.
22 Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof
with our ears.
23 God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place
thereof.
24 For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under
the whole heaven;
25 To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters
by measure.
26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the
lightning of the thunder:
27 Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and
searched it out.
28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that
is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
The question which Job had asked
(v. 12)
he asks again here; for it is too worthy, too weighty, to be let fall,
until we speed in the enquiry. Concerning this we must seek till we
find, till we get some satisfactory account of it. By a diligent
prosecution of this enquiry he brings it, at length, to this issue,
that there is a twofold wisdom, one hidden in God, which is
secret and belongs not to us, the other made known by him and
revealed to man, which belongs to us and to our children.
I. The knowledge of God’s secret will, the will of his providence, is
out of our reach, and what God has reserved to himself. It belongs
to the Lord our God. To know the particulars of what God will do
hereafter, and the reasons of what he is doing now, is the knowledge
Job first speaks of.
1. This knowledge is hidden from us. It is high, we cannot attain unto
it
(v. 21, 22):
It is hid from the eyes of all living, even of philosophers,
politicians, and saints; it is kept close from the fowls of the
air; though they fly high and in the open firmament of heaven,
though they seem somewhat nearer that upper world where the source of
this wisdom is, though their eyes behold afar off
yet they cannot penetrate into the counsels of God. No, man is wiser
than the fowls of heaven, and yet comes short of this wisdom. Even
those who, in their speculations, soar highest, and think themselves,
like the fowls of the air, above the heads of other people, yet cannot
pretend to this knowledge. Job and his friends had been arguing about
the methods and reasons of the dispensations of Providence in the
government of the world. “What fools are we” (says Job) “to fight in
the dark thus, to dispute about that which we do not understand!” The
line and plummet of human reason can never fathom the abyss of the
divine counsels. Who can undertake to give the rationale of Providence,
or account for the maxims, measure, and methods of God’s government,
those arcana imperii–cabinet counsels of divine wisdom? Let us
then be content not to know the future events of the Providence until
time discover them
and not to know the secret reasons of Providence until eternity
discover them. God is now a God that hideth himself
(Isa. xlv. 15);
clouds and darkness are round about him. Though this wisdom be
hidden from all living, yet destruction and death say, We have heard
the fame of it. Though they cannot give an account of themselves
(for there is no wisdom, nor device, nor knowledge at all in the
grave, much less this), yet there is a world on the other side
death and the grave, on which those dark regions border, and to which
we must pass through them, and there we shall see clearly what we are
now in the dark about. “Have a little patience,” says Death to the
inquisitive soul: “I will fetch thee shortly to a place where even this
wisdom will be found.” When the mystery of God shall be finished
it will be laid open, and we shall know as we are known; when the veil
of flesh is rent, and the interposing clouds are scattered, we shall
know what God does, though we know not now,
2. This knowledge is hidden in God, as the apostle speaks,
Known unto God are all his works, though they are not known to
us,
There are good reasons for what he does, though we cannot assign them
(v. 23):
God understands the way thereof. Men sometimes do they know not
what, but God never does. Men do what they did not design to do; new
occurrences put them upon new counsels, and oblige them to take new
measures. But God does all according to the purpose which he purposed
in himself, and which he never alters. Men sometimes do that which they
cannot give a good reason for, but in every will of God there is a
counsel: he knows both what he does and why he does it, the whole
series of events and the order and place of every occurrence. This
knowledge he has in perfection, but keeps to himself. Two reasons are
here given why God must needs understand his own way, and he
only:–
(1.) Because all events are now directed by an all-seeing and almighty
Providence,
He that governs the world is,
[1.] Omniscient; for he looks to the ends of the earth, both in
place and time; distant ages, distant regions, are under his view. We
do not understand our own way, much less can we understand God’s way,
because we are short-sighted. How little do we know of what is doing in
the world, much less of what will be done? But the eyes of the Lord
are in every place; nay, they run to and fro through the
earth. Nothing is, or can be, hidden from him; and therefore the
reasons why some wicked people prosper remarkably and others are
remarkably punished in this world, which are secret to us, are known to
him. One day’s events, and one man’s affairs, have such a reference to,
and such a dependence upon, another’s, that he only to whom all events
and all affairs are naked and open, and who sees the whole at one
entire and certain view, is a competent Judge of every part.
[2.] He is omnipotent. He can do every thing, and is very exact in all
he does. For proof of this Job mentions the winds and waters,
What is lighter than the wind? Yet God hath ways of poising it. He
knows how to make the weight for the winds, which he brings
out of his treasuries
(Ps. cxxxv. 7),
keeping a very particular account of what he draws out, as men do of
what they pay out of their treasuries, not at random, as men bring out
their trash. Nothing sensible is to us more unaccountable than the
wind. We hear the sound of it, yet cannot tell whence it comes, nor
whither it goes; but God gives it out by weight, wisely ordering
both from what point it shall blow and with what strength. The waters
of the sea, and the rain-waters, he both weighs and measures, allotting
the proportion of every tide and every shower. A great and constant
communication there is between clouds and seas, the waters above the
firmament and those under it. Vapours go up, rains come down, air is
condensed into water, water rarefied into air; but the great God keeps
an exact account of all the stock with which this trade is carried on
for the public benefit and sees that none of it be lost. Now if, in
these things, Providence be so exact, much more in dispensing frowns
and favours, rewards and punishments, to the children of men, according
to the rules of equity.
(2.) Because all events were from eternity designed and determined by
an infallible prescience and immutable decree,
When he settled the course of nature he foreordained all the operations
of his government.
[1.] He settled the course of nature. Job mentions particularly a
decree for the rain and a way for the thunder and
lightning. The general manner and method, and the particular uses
and tendencies, of these strange performances, both their causes and
their effects, were appointed by the divine purpose; hence God is said
to prepare lightnings for the rain,
Ps. cxxxv. 7; Jer. x. 13.
[2.] When he did that he laid all the measures of his providence, and
drew an exact scheme of the whole work from first to last. Then, from
eternity, did he see in himself, and declare to himself, the plan of
his proceedings. Then he prepared it, fixed it, and established it, set
every thing in readiness for all his works, so that, when any thing was
to be done, nothing was to seek, nor could any thing unforeseen occur,
to put it either out of its method or out of its time; for all was
ordered as exactly as if he had studied it and searched it out, so
that, whatever he does, nothing can be put to it nor taken from
it, and therefore it shall be for ever,
Eccl. iii. 14.
Some make Job to speak of wisdom here as a person, and translate it,
Then he saw her and showed her, &c., and then it is parallel
with that of Solomon concerning the essential wisdom of the Father, the
eternal Word,
&c. Before the earth was, then was I by him,
John i. 1, 2.
II. The knowledge of God’s revealed will, the will of his precept, and
this is within our reach; it is level to our capacity, and will do us
good
(v. 28):
Unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom.
Let it not be said that when God concealed his counsels from man, and
forbade him that tree of knowledge, it was because he grudged him any
thing that would contribute to his real bliss and satisfaction; no, he
let him know as much as he was concerned to know in order to his duty
and happiness; he shall be entrusted with as much of his sovereign mind
as is needful and fit for a subject, but he must not think himself fit
to be a privy-counsellor. He said to Adam (so some), to the
first man, in the day in which he was created; he told him plainly it
was not for him to amuse himself with over-curious searches into the
mysteries of creation, nor to pretend to solve all the phenomena of
nature; he would find it neither possible nor profitable to do so. No
less wisdom (says archbishop Tillotson) than that which made the world
can thoroughly understand the philosophy of it. But let him look upon
this as his wisdom, to fear the Lord and to depart from evil; let him
learn that, and he is learned enough; let this knowledge serve his
turn. When God forbade man the tree of knowledge he allowed him the
tree of life, and this is that tree,
We cannot attain true wisdom but by divine revelation. The Lord
giveth wisdom,
Prov. ii. 6.
Now the matter of that is not found in the secrets of nature or
providence, but in the rules for our own practice. Unto man he said,
not, “Go up to heaven, to fetch happiness thence;” or, “Go down to the
deep, to draw it up thence.” No, the word is nigh thee,
Deut. xxx. 14.
He hath shown thee, O man! not what is great, but what is
good, not what the Lord thy God designs to do with thee, but what
he requires of thee,
Mic. vi. 8.
Unto you, O men! I call,
Prov. viii. 4.
Lord, what is man that he should be thus minded, thus visited! Behold,
mark, take notice of this; he that has ears let him hear what the God
of heaven says to the children of men: The fear of the Lord, that is
the wisdom. Here is,
1. The description of true religion, pure religion, and undefiled; it
is to fear the Lord and depart from evil, which agrees with
God’s character of Job,
The fear of the Lord is the spring and summary of all religion.
There is a slavish fear of God, springing from hard thoughts of him,
which is contrary to religion,
There is a selfish fear of God springing from dreadful thoughts of him,
which may be a good step towards religion,
But there is a filial fear of God, springing from great and high
thoughts of him, which is the life and soul of all religion. And,
wherever this reigns in the heart, it will appear by a constant care to
depart from evil,
Prov. xvi. 6.
This is essential to religion. We must first cease to do evil, or we
shall never learn to do well. Virtus est vitium fugere–Even in our
flight from vice some virtue lies.
2. The commendation of religion: it is wisdom and
understanding. To be truly religious is to be truly wise. As the
wisdom of God appears in the institution of religion, so the wisdom of
man appears in the institution of religion, so the wisdom of man
appears in the practice and observance of it. It is understanding, for
it is the best knowledge of truth; it is wisdom, for it is the best
management of our affairs. Nothing more surely guides our way and
gains our end than being religious.
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