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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
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Matthew Henry |
J O B
CHAP. I.
The history of Job begins here with an account,
I. Of his great piety in general
(ver. 1),
and in a particular instance,
II. Of his great prosperity,
III. Of the malice of Satan against him, and the permission he obtained
to try his constancy,
IV. Of the surprising troubles that befel him, the ruin of his estate
(ver. 13-17),
and the death of his children,
V. Of his exemplary patience and piety under these troubles,
In all this he is set forth for an example of suffering affliction,
from which no prosperity can secure us, but through which integrity and
uprightness will preserve us.
| Job’s Character and Possessions. | B. C. 1520. |
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1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and
that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and
eschewed evil.
2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three
thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred
she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the
greatest of all the men of the east.
Concerning Job we are here told,
I. That he was a man; therefore subject to like passions as we are. He
was Ish, a worthy man, a man of note and eminency, a magistrate,
a man in authority. The country he lived in was the land of Uz, in the
eastern part of Arabia, which lay towards Chaldea, near Euphrates,
probably not far from Ur of the Chaldees, whence Abraham was called.
When God called one good man out of that country, yet he left not
himself without witness, but raised up another in it to be a
preacher of righteousness. God has his remnant in all places,
sealed ones out of every nation, as well as out of every tribe of
Israel,
It was the privilege of the land of Uz to have so good a man as Job in
it; now it was Arabia the Happy indeed: and it was the praise of
Job that he was eminently good in so bad a place; the worse others were
round about him the better he was. His name Job, or Jjob,
some say, signifies one hated and counted as an enemy. Others
make it to signify one that grieves or groans; thus the sorrow he
carried in his name might be a check to his joy in his prosperity. Dr.
Cave derives it from Jaab–to love, or desire, intimating
how welcome his birth was to his parents, and how much he was the
desire of their eyes; and yet there was a time when he cursed the
day of his birth. Who can tell what the day may prove which yet begins
with a bright morning?
II. That he was a very good man, eminently pious, and better than his
neighbours: He was perfect and upright. This is intended to show
us, not only what reputation he had among men (that he was generally
taken for an honest man), but what was really his character; for it is
the judgment of God concerning him, and we are sure that is according
to truth.
1. Job was a religious man, one that feared God, that is,
worshipped him according to his will, and governed himself by the rules
of the divine law in every thing.
2. He was sincere in his religion: He was perfect; not sinless,
as he himself owns
(ch. ix. 20):
If I say I am perfect, I shall be proved perverse. But, having a
respect to all God’s commandments, aiming at perfection, he was really
as good as he seemed to be, and did not dissemble in his profession of
piety; his heart was sound and his eye single. Sincerity is gospel
perfection. I know no religion without it.
3. He was upright in his dealings both with God and man, was faithful
to his promises, steady in his counsels, true to every trust reposed in
him, and made conscience of all he said and did. See
Though he was not of Israel, he was indeed an Israelite
without guile.
4. The fear of God reigning in his heart was the principle that
governed his whole conversation. This made him perfect and upright,
inward and entire for God, universal and uniform in religion; this kept
him close and constant to his duty. He feared God, had a
reverence for his majesty, a regard to his authority, and a dread of
his wrath.
5. He dreaded the thought of doing what was wrong; with the utmost
abhorrence and detestation, and with a constant care and watchfulness,
he eschewed evil, avoided all appearances of sin and approaches
to it, and this because of the fear of God,
Neh. v. 15.
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil
and then by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil,
Prov. xvi. 6.
III. That he was a man who prospered greatly in this world, and made a
considerable figure in his country. He was prosperous and yet pious.
Though it is hard and rare, it is not impossible, for a rich man to
enter into the kingdom of heaven. With God even this is possible,
and by his grace the temptations of worldly wealth are not insuperable.
He was pious, and his piety was a friend to his prosperity; for
godliness has the promise of the life that now is. He was prosperous,
and his prosperity put a lustre upon his piety, and gave him who was so
good so much greater opportunity of doing good. The acts of his piety
were grateful returns to God for the instances of his prosperity; and,
in the abundance of the good things God gave him, he served God the
more cheerfully.
1. He had a numerous family. He was eminent for religion, and yet not a
hermit, not a recluse, but the father and master of a family. It was an
instance of his prosperity that his house was filled with children,
which are a heritage of the Lord, and his reward,
Ps. cxxvii. 3.
He had seven sons and three daughters,
v. 2.
Some of each sex, and more of the more noble sex, in which the family
is built up. Children must be looked upon as blessings, for so they
are, especially to good people, that will give them good instructions,
and set them good examples, and put up good prayers for them. Job had
many children, and yet he was neither oppressive nor uncharitable, but
very liberal to the poor,
&c. Those that have great families to provide for ought to consider
that what is prudently given in alms is set out to the best interest
and put into the best fund for their children’s benefit.
2. He had a good estate for the support of his family; his
substance was considerable,
v. 3.
Riches are called substance, in conformity to the common form of
speaking; otherwise, to the soul and another world, they are but
shadows, things that are not,
Prov. xxiii. 5.
It is only in heavenly wisdom that we inherit substance,
Prov. viii. 21.
In those days, when the earth was not fully peopled, it was as now in
some of the plantations, men might have land enough upon easy terms if
they had but wherewithal to stock it; and therefore Job’s substance is
described, not by the acres of land he was lord of, but,
(1.) By his cattle–sheep and camels, oxen and asses. The numbers
of each are here set down, probably not the exact number, but
thereabout, a very few under or over. The sheep are put first, because
of most use in the family, as Solomon observes
Lambs for thy clothing, and milk for the food of thy household.
Job, it is likely, had silver and gold as well as Abraham
(Gen. xiii. 2);
but then men valued their own and their neighbours’ estates by that
which was for service and present use more than by that which was for
show and state, and fit only to be hoarded. As soon as God had made
man, and provided for his maintenance by the herbs and fruits, he made
him rich and great by giving him dominion over the creatures,
Gen. i. 28.
That therefore being still continued to man, notwithstanding his
defection
(Gen. ix. 2),
is still to be reckoned one of the most considerable instances of men’s
wealth, honour, and power,
(2.) By his servants. He had a very good household or husbandry, many
that were employed for him and maintained by him; and thus he both had
honour and did good; yet thus he was involved in a great deal of care
and put to a great deal of charge. See the vanity of this world; as
goods are increased those must be increased that tend them and occupy
them, and those will be increased that eat them; and what good has
the owner thereof save the beholding of them with his eyes?
Eccles. v. 11.
In a word, Job was the greatest of all the men of the east; and
they were the richest in the world: those were rich indeed who were
replenished more than the east,
Isa. ii. 6.
Margin. Job’s wealth, with his wisdom, entitled him to the honour and
power he had in his country, which he describes
(ch. xxix.),
and made him sit chief. Job was upright and honest, and yet grew rich,
nay, therefore grew rich; for honesty is the best policy, and
piety and charity are ordinarily the surest ways of thriving. He had a
great household and much business, and yet kept up the fear and worship
of God; and he and his house served the Lord. The account of Job’s
piety and prosperity comes before the history of his great afflictions,
to show that neither will secure us from the common, no, nor from the
uncommon calamities of human life. Piety will not secure us, as Job’s
mistaken friends thought, for all things come alike to all;
prosperity will not, as a careless world thinks,
I sit as a queen and therefore shall see no sorrow.
| Job’s Solicitude for His Children. | B. C. 1520. |
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4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one
his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and
to drink with them.
5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone
about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in
the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the
number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have
sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
We have here a further account of Job’s prosperity and his piety.
I. His great comfort in his children is taken notice of as an instance
of his prosperity; for our temporal comforts are borrowed, depend upon
others, and are as those about us are. Job himself mentions it as one
of the greatest joys of his prosperous estate that his children were
about him,
ch. xxix. 5.
They kept a circular feast at some certain times
(v. 4);
they went and feasted in their houses. It was a comfort to this
good man,
1. To see his children grown up and settled in the world. All his
sons were in houses of their own, probably married, and to each of them
he had given a competent portion to set up with. Those that had been
olive-plants round his table were removed to tables of their own.
2. To see them thrive in their affairs, and able to feast one another,
as well as to feed themselves. Good parents desire, promote, and
rejoice in, their children’s wealth and prosperity as their own.
3. To see them in health, no sickness in their houses, for that would
have spoiled their feasting and turned it into mourning.
4. Especially to see them live in love, and unity, and mutual good
affection, no jars or quarrels among them, no strangeness, no shyness
one of another, no strait-handedness, but, though every one knew his
own, they lived with as much freedom as if they had had all in common.
It is comfortable to the hearts of parents, and comely in the eyes of
all, to see brethren thus knit together. Behold, how good and how
pleasant it is!
Ps. cxxxiii. 1.
5. It added to his comfort to see the brothers so kind to their
sisters, that they sent for them to feast with them; for they were so
modest that they would not have gone if they had not been sent for.
Those brothers that slight their sisters, care not for their company,
and have no concern for their comfort, are ill-bred, ill-natured, and
very unlike Job’s sons. It seems their feast was so sober and decent
that their sisters were good company for them at it.
6. They feasted in their own houses, not in public houses, where they
would be more exposed to temptations, and which were not so creditable.
We do not find that Job himself feasted with them. Doubtless they
invited him, and he would have been the most welcome guest at any of
their tables; nor was it from any sourness or moroseness of temper, or
for want of natural affection, that he kept away, but he was old and
dead to these things, like Barzillai
and considered that the young people would be more free and pleasant if
there were none but themselves. Yet he would not restrain his children
from that diversion which he denied himself. Young people may be
allowed a youthful liberty, provided they flee youthful lusts.
II. His great care about his children is taken notice of as an instance
of his piety: for that we are really which we are relatively. Those
that are good will be good to their children, and especially do what
they can for the good of their souls. Observe
(v. 5)
Job’s pious concern for the spiritual welfare of his children,
1. He was jealous over them with a godly jealousy; and so we ought to
be over ourselves and those that are dearest to us, as far as is
necessary to our care and endeavour for their good. Job had given his
children a good education, had comfort in them and good hope concerning
them; and yet he said, “It may be, my sons have sinned in the
days of their feasting more than at other times, have been too merry,
have taken too great a liberty in eating and drinking, and have
cursed God in their hearts,” that is, “have entertained
atheistical or profane thoughts in their minds, unworthy notions of God
and his providence, and the exercises of religion.” When they were
full they were ready to deny God, and to say, Who is the
Lord?
(Prov. xxx. 9),
ready to forget God and to say, The power of our hand has
gotten us this wealth,
Deut. viii. 12,
&c. Nothing alienates the mind more from God than the indulgence of the
flesh.
2. As soon as the days of their feasting were over he called them to
the solemn exercises of religion. Not while their feasting lasted (let
them take their time for that; there is a time for all things), but
when it was over, their good father reminded them that they must know
when to desist, and not think to fare sumptuously every day; though
they had their days of feasting the week round, they must not
think to have them the year round; they had something else to
do. Note, Those that are merry must find a time to be serious.
3. He sent to them to prepare for solemn ordinances, sent and
sanctified them, ordered them to examine their own consciences and
repent of what they had done amiss in their feasting, to lay aside
their vanity and compose themselves for religious exercises. Thus he
kept his authority over them for their good, and they submitted to it,
though they had got into houses of their own. Still he was the priest
of the family, and at his altar they all attended, valuing their share
in his prayers more than their share in his estate. Parents cannot give
grace to their children (it is God that sanctifies), but they ought by
seasonable admonitions and counsels to further their sanctification. In
their baptism they were sanctified to God; let it be our desire and
endeavour that they may be sanctified for him.
4. He offered sacrifice for them, both to atone for the sins he feared
they had been guilty of in the days of their feasting and to implore
for them mercy to pardon and grace to prevent the debauching of their
minds and corrupting of their manners by the liberty they had taken,
and to preserve their piety and purity.
| For he with mournful eyes had often spied,
Scattered on Pleasure’s smooth but treacherous tide, The spoils of virtue overpowered by sense, And floating wrecks of ruined innocence.–Sir R. BLACKMORE. |
Job, like Abraham, had an altar for his family, on which, it is likely,
he offered sacrifice daily; but, on this extraordinary occasion, he
offered more sacrifices than usual, and with more solemnity,
according to the number of them all, one for each child. Parents
should be particular in their addresses to God for the several branches
of their family. “For this child I prayed, according to its particular
temper, genius, and condition,” to which the prayers, as well as the
endeavours, must be accommodated. When these sacrifices were to be
offered,
(1.) He rose early, as one in care that his children might not lie long
under guilt and as one whose heart was upon his work and his desire
towards it.
(2.) He required his children to attend the sacrifice, that they might
join with him in the prayers he offered with the sacrifice, that the
sight of the killing of the sacrifice might humble them much for their
sins, for which they deserved to die, and the sight of the offering of
it up might lead them to a Mediator. This serious work would help to
make them serious again after the days of their gaiety.
5. Thus he did continually, and not merely whenever an occasion
of this kind recurred; for he that is washed needs to wash his
feet,
John xiii. 10.
The acts of repentance and faith must be often renewed, because we
often repeat our transgressions. All days, every day, he offered up his
sacrifices, was constant to his devotions, and did not omit them any
day. The occasional exercises of religion will not excuse us from those
that are stated. He that serves God uprightly will serve him
continually.
| Satan before God; Satan Permitted to Afflict Job. | B. C. 1520. |
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6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present
themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan
answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth,
and from walking up and down in it.
8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant
Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an
upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for
nought?
10 Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house,
and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the
work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath,
and he will curse thee to thy face.
12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is
in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So
Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Job was not only so rich and great, but withal so wise and good, and
had such an interest both in heaven and earth, that one would think the
mountain of his prosperity stood so strong that it could not be moved;
but here we have a thick cloud gathering over his head, pregnant with a
horrible tempest. We must never think ourselves secure from storms
while we are in this lower region. Before we are told how his troubles
surprised and seized him here in this visible world, we are here told
how they were concerted in the world of spirits, that the devil, having
a great enmity to Job for his eminent piety, begged and obtained leave
to torment him. It does not at all derogate from the credibility of
Job’s story in general to allow that this discourse between God and
Satan, in these verses, is parabolical, like that of Micaiah
&c.), and an allegory designed to represent the malice of the
devil against good men and the divine check and restraint which that
malice is under; only thus much further is intimated, that the affairs
of this earth are very much the subject of the counsels of the unseen
world. That world is dark to us, but we lie very open to it. Now here
we have,
I. Satan among the sons of God
(v. 6),
an adversary (so Satan signifies) to God, to men, to all
good: he thrust himself into an assembly of the sons of God that
came to present themselves before the Lord. This means either,
1. A meeting of the saints on earth. Professors of religion, in the
patriarchal age, were called sons of God
(Gen. vi. 2);
they had then religious assemblies and stated times for them. The King
came in to see his guests; the eye of God was on all present. But there
was a serpent in paradise, a Satan among the sons of God; when they
come together he is among them, to distract and disturb them, stands at
their right hand to resist them. The Lord rebuke thee, Satan!
Or,
2. A meeting of the angels in heaven. They are the sons of God,
ch. xxxviii. 7.
They came to give an account of their negotiations on earth and to
receive new instructions. Satan was one of them originally; but how
hast thou fallen, O Lucifer! He shall no more stand in that
congregation, yet he is here represented, as coming among them, either
summoned to appear as a criminal or connived at, for the present,
though an intruder.
II. His examination, how he came thither
(v. 7):
The Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? He knew very well
whence he came, and with what design he came thither, that as the good
angels came to do good he came for a permission to do hurt; but he
would, by calling him to an account, show him that he was under check
and control. Whence comest thou? He asks this,
1. As wondering what brought him thither. Is Saul among the
prophets? Satan among the sons of God? Yes, for he transforms
himself into an angel of light
and would seem one of them. Note, It is possible that a man may be a
child of the devil and yet be found in the assemblies of the sons of
God in this world, and there may pass undiscovered by men, and
yet be challenged by the all-seeing God. Friend, how camest thou in
hither? Or,
2. As enquiring what he had been doing before he came thither. The same
question was perhaps put to the rest of those that presented themselves
before the Lord, “Whence came you?” We are accountable to God for all
our haunts and all the ways we traverse.
III. The account he gives of himself and of the tour he had made. I
come (says he) from going to and fro on the earth.
1. He could not pretend he had been doing any good, could give no such
account of himself as the sons of God could, who presented
themselves before the Lord, who came from executing his orders,
serving the interest of his kingdom, and ministering to the heirs of
salvation.
2. He would not own he had been doing any hurt, that he had been
drawing men from the allegiance to God, deceiving and destroying souls;
no. I have done no wickedness,
Prov. xxx. 20.
Thy servant went nowhere. In saying that he had walked to and
fro through the earth, he intimates that he had kept himself within
the bounds allotted him, and had not transgressed his bounds; for
the dragon is cast out into the earth
and not yet confined to his place of torment. While we are on this
earth we are within his reach, and with so much subtlety, swiftness,
and industry, does he penetrate into all the corners of it, that we
cannot be in any place secure from his temptations.
3. He yet seems to give some representation of his own character.
(1.) Perhaps it is spoken proudly, and with an air of haughtiness, as
if he were indeed the prince of this world, as if the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them were his
(Luke iv. 6),
and he had now been walking in circuit through his own territories.
(2.) Perhaps it is spoken fretfully, and with discontent. He had been
walking to and fro, and could find no rest, but was as much a fugitive
and a vagabond as Cain in the land of Nod.
(3.) Perhaps it is spoken carefully: “I have been hard at work, going
to and fro,” or (as some read it) “searching about in the earth,”
really in quest of an opportunity to do mischief. He walks abut seeking
whom he may devour. It concerns us therefore to be sober and
vigilant.
IV. The question God puts to him concerning Job
(v. 8):
Hast thou considered my servant Job? As when we meet with one
that has been in a distant place, where we have a friend we dearly
love, we are ready to ask, “You have been in such a place; pray did you
see my friend there?” Observe,
1. How honourably God speaks of Job: He is my servant. Good men
are God’s servants, and he is pleased to reckon himself honoured in
their services, and they are to him for a name and a praise
and a crown of glory,
Isa. lxii. 3.
“Yonder is my servant Job; there is none like him, none I
value like him, of all the princes and potentates of the earth; one
such saint as he is worth them all: none like him for
uprightness and serious piety; many do well, but he excelleth them
all; there is not to be found such great faith, no, not in
Israel.” Thus Christ, long after, commended the centurion and the
woman of Canaan, who were both of them, like Job, strangers to that
commonwealth. The saints glory in God–Who is like thee among the
gods? and he is pleased to glory in them–Who is like Israel
among the people? So here, none like Job, none in earth,
that state of imperfection. Those in heaven do indeed far outshine him;
those who are least in that kingdom are greater than he; but on
earth there is not his like. There is none like him in that land;
so some good men are the glory of their country.
2. How closely he gives to Satan this good character of Job: Hast
thou set thy heart to my servant Job? designing hereby,
(1.) To aggravate the apostasy and misery of that wicked spirit: “How
unlike him are thou!” Note, The holiness and happiness of the saints
are the shame and torment of the devil and the devil’s children.
(2.) To answer the devil’s seeming boast of the interest he had in this
earth. “I have been walking to and fro in it,” says he, “and it is all
my own; all flesh have corrupted their way; they all sit still, and are
at rest in their sins,”
“Nay, hold,” saith God, “Job is my faithful servant.” Satan may boast,
but he shall not triumph.
(3.) To anticipate his accusations, as if he had said, “Satan, I know
thy errand; thou hast come to inform against Job; but hast thou
considered him? Does not his unquestionable character give thee the
lie?” Note, God knows all the malice of the devil and his instruments
against his servants; and we have an advocate ready to appear for us,
even before we are accused.
V. The devil’s base insinuation against Job, in answer to God’s
encomium of him. He could not deny but that Job feared God, but
suggested that he was a mercenary in his religion, and therefore a
hypocrite
(v. 9):
Doth Job fear God for nought? Observe,
1. How impatient the devil was of hearing Job praised, though it was
God himself that praised him. Those are like the devil who cannot
endure that any body should be praised but themselves, but grudge the
just share of reputation others have, as Saul
&c.) and the Pharisees,
2. How much at a loss he was for something to object against him; he
could not accuse him of any thing that was bad, and therefore charged
him with by-ends in doing good. Had the one half of that been true
which his angry friends, in the heat of dispute, charged him with
Satan would no doubt have brought against him now; but no such thing
could be alleged, and therefore,
3. See how slyly he censured him as a hypocrite, not asserting that he
was so, but only asking, “Is he not so?” This is the common way of
slanderers, whisperers, backbiters, to suggest that by way of query
which yet they have no reason to think is true. Note, It is not strange
if those that are approved and accepted of God be unjustly censured by
the devil and his instruments; if they are otherwise unexceptionable,
it is easy to charge them with hypocrisy, as Satan charged Job, and
they have no way to clear themselves, but patiently to wait for the
judgment of God. As there is nothing we should dread more than being
hypocrites, so there is nothing we need dread less that being called
and counted so without cause.
4. How unjustly he accused him as mercenary, to prove him a hypocrite.
It was a great truth that Job did not fear God for nought; he got much
by it, for godliness is great gain: but it was a falsehood that he
would not have feared God if he had not got this by it, as the event
proved. Job’s friends charged him with hypocrisy because he was
greatly afflicted, Satan because he greatly prospered. It is no hard
matter for those to calumniate that seek an occasion. It is not
mercenary to look at the eternal recompence in our obedience; but to
aim at temporal advantages in our religion, and to make it subservient
to them, is spiritual idolatry, worshipping the creature more than the
Creator, and is likely to end in a fatal apostasy. Men cannot long
serve God and mammon.
VI. The complaint Satan made of Job’s prosperity,
Observe,
1. What God had done for Job. He had protected him, made a hedge about
him, for the defence of his person, his family, and all his
possessions. Note, God’s peculiar people are taken under his special
protection, they and all that belong to them; divine grace makes a
hedge about their spiritual life, and divine providence about their
natural life, so they are safe and easy. He had prospered him, not in
idleness or injustice (the devil could not accuse him of them), but in
the way of honest diligence: Thou hast blessed the work of his
hands. Without that blessing, be the hands ever so strong, ever so
skilful, the work will not prosper; but, with that, his substance
has wonderfully increased in the land. The blessing of the Lord
makes rich: Satan himself owns it.
2. What notice the devil took of it, and how he improved it against
him. The devil speaks of it with vexation. “I see thou hast made a
hedge about him, round about;” as if he had walked it round, to see
if he could spy a single gap in it, for him to enter in at, to do him a
mischief; but he was disappointed: it was a complete hedge. The
wicked one saw it and was grieved, and argued against Job
that the only reason why he served God was because God prospered him.
“No thanks to him to be true to the government that prefers him, and to
serve a Master that pays him so well.”
VII. The proof Satan undertakes to give of the hypocrisy and
mercenariness of Job’s religion, if he might but have leave to strip
him of his wealth. “Let it be put to this issue,” says he
(v. 11);
“make him poor, frown upon him, turn thy hand against him, and then see
where his religion will be; touch what he has and it will appear what
he is. If he curse thee not to thy face, let me never be
believed, but posted for a liar and false accuser. Let me perish if he
curse thee not;” so some supply the imprecation, which the devil
himself modestly concealed, but the profane swearers of our age
impudently and daringly speak out. Observe,
1. How slightly he speaks of the affliction he desired that Job might
be tried with: “Do but touch all that he has, do but begin with him, do
but threaten to make him poor; a little cross will change his tone.”
2. How spitefully he speaks of the impression it would make upon Job:
“He will not only let fall his devotion, but turn it into an open
defiance–not only think hardly of thee, but even curse thee to thy
face.” The word translated curse is barac, the same that
ordinarily, and originally, signifies to bless; but cursing God
is so impious a thing that the holy language would not admit the name:
but that where the sense requires it it must be so understood is plain
form
where the word is used concerning the crime charged on Naboth, that he
did blaspheme God and the king. Now,
(1.) It is likely that Satan did think that Job, if impoverished, would
renounce his religion and so disprove his profession, and if so (as a
learned gentleman has observed in his Mount of Spirits) Satan
would have made out his own universal empire among the children of men.
God declared Job the best man then living: now, if Satan can prove him
a hypocrite, it will follow that God had not one faithful servant among
men and that there was no such thing as true and sincere piety in the
world, but religion was all a sham, and Satan was king de facto–in
fact, over all mankind. But it appeared that the Lord knows
those that are his and is not deceived in any.
(2.) However, if Job should retain his religion, Satan would have the
satisfaction to see him sorely afflicted. He hates good men, and
delights in their griefs, as God has pleasure in their
prosperity.
VIII. The permission God gave to Satan to afflict Job for the trial of
his sincerity. Satan desired God to do it: Put forth thy hand
now. God allowed him to do it
(v. 12):
“All that he has is in thy hand; make the trial as sharp as thou
canst; do thy worst at him.” Now,
1. It is a matter of wonder that God should give Satan such a
permission as this, should deliver the soul of his turtle-dove
into the hand of the adversary, such a lamb to such a lion; but he did
it for his own glory, the honour of Job, the explanation of Providence,
and the encouragement of his afflicted people in all ages, to make a
case which, being adjudged, might be a useful precedent. He suffered
Job to be tried, as he suffered Peter to be sifted, but took care that
his faith should not fail
and then the trial of it was found unto praise, and honour, and
glory,
1 Pet. i. 7.
But,
2. It is a matter of comfort that God has the devil in a chain,
in a great chain,
He could not afflict Job without leave from God first asked and
obtained, and then no further than he had leave: “Only upon himself
put not forth thy hand; meddle not with his body, but only with his
estate.” It is a limited power that the devil has; he has no power to
debauch men but what they give him themselves, nor power to afflict men
but what is given him from above.
IX. Satan’s departure from this meeting of the sons of God. Before they
broke up, Satan went forth (as Cain,
from the presence of the Lord; no longer detained before him (as
Doeg was,
than till he had accomplished his malicious purpose. He went forth,
1. Glad that he had gained his point, proud of the permission he had
to do mischief to a good man; and,
2. Resolved to lose no time, but speedily to put his project in
execution. He went forth now, not to go to and fro, rambling through
the earth, but with a direct course, to fall upon poor Job, who is
carefully going on in the way of his duty, and knows nothing of the
matter. What passes between good and bad spirits concerning us we are
not aware of.
| The Calamities Brought on Job; The Death of Job’s Children. | B. C. 1520. |
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13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were
eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were
plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
15 And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea,
they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I
only am escaped alone to tell thee.
16 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and
said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up
the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am
escaped alone to tell thee.
17 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and
said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the
camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants
with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell
thee.
18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and
said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine
in their eldest brother’s house:
19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness,
and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the
young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell
thee.
We have here a particular account of Job’s troubles.
I. Satan brought them upon him on the very day that his children began
their course of feasting, at their eldest brother’s house
(v. 13),
where, he having (we may suppose) the double portion, the entertainment
was the richest and most plentiful. The whole family, no doubt, was in
perfect repose, and all were easy and under no apprehension of the
trouble, now when they revived this custom; and this time Satan chose,
that the trouble, coming now, might be the more grievous. The night
of my pleasure has he turned into fear,
Isa. xxi. 4.
II. They all come upon him at once; while one messenger of evil tidings
was speaking another came, and, before he had told his story, a third,
and a fourth, followed immediately. Thus Satan, by the divine
permission, ordered it,
1. That there might appear a more than ordinary displeasure of God
against him in his troubles, and by that he might be exasperated
against divine Providence, as if it were resolved, right or wrong, to
ruin him, and not give him time to speak for himself.
2. That he might not have leisure to consider and recollect himself,
and reason himself into a gracious submission, but might be overwhelmed
and overpowered by a complication of calamities. If he have not room to
pause a little, he will be apt to speak in haste, and then, if ever, he
will curse his God. Note, The children of God are often in heaviness
through manifold temptations; deep calls to deep; waves and billows
come one upon the neck of another. Let one affliction therefore quicken
and help us to prepare for another; for, how deep soever we have drunk
of the bitter cup, as long as we are in this world we cannot be sure
that we have drunk our share and that it will finally pass from us.
III. They took from him all that he had, and made a full end of his
enjoyments. The detail of his losses answers to the foregoing inventory
of his possessions.
1. He had 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and a
competent number of servants to attend them; and all these he lost at
once,
The account he has of this lets him know,
(1.) That it was not through any carelessness of his servants; for then
his resentment might have spent itself upon them: The oxen were
ploughing, not playing, and the asses not suffered to stray and so
taken up as waifs, but feeding beside them, under the servant’s
eye, each in their place; and those that passed by, we may suppose,
blessed them, and said, God speed the plough. Note, All our
prudence, care, and diligence, cannot secure us from affliction, no,
not from those afflictions which are commonly owing to imprudence and
negligence. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman, though
ever so wakeful, wakes but in vain. Yet it is some comfort under
a trouble if it found us in the way of our duty, and not in any
by-path.
(2.) That is was through the wickedness of his neighbours the Sabeans,
probably a sort of robbers that lived by spoil and plunder. They
carried off the oxen and asses, and slew the servants that faithfully
and bravely did their best to defend them, and one only escaped,
not in kindness to him or his master, but that Job might have the
certain intelligence of it by an eye-witness before he heard it by a
flying report, which would have brought it upon him gradually. We have
no reason to suspect that either Job or his servants had given any
provocation to the Sabeans to make this inroad, but Satan put it into
their hearts to do it, to do it now, and so gained a double point, for
he made both Job to suffer and them to sin. Note, When Satan has God’s
permission to do mischief he will not want mischievous men to be his
instruments in doing it, for he is a spirit that works in the
children of disobedience.
2. He had 7000 sheep, and shepherds that kept them; and all
those he lost at the same time by lightning,
Job was perhaps, in his own mind, ready to reproach the Sabeans, and
fly out against them for their injustice and cruelty, when the next
news immediately directs him to look upwards: The fire of God has
fallen from heaven. As thunder is his voice, so lightning is his
fire: but this was such an extraordinary lightning, and levelled so
directly against Job, that all his sheep and shepherds were not only
killed, but consumed by it at once, and one shepherd only was left
alive to carry the news to poor Job. The devil, aiming to make him
curse God and renounce his religion, managed this part of the trial
very artfully, in order thereto.
(1.) His sheep, with which especially he used to honour God in
sacrifice, were all taken from him, as if God were angry at his
offerings and would punish him in those very things which he had
employed in his service. Having misrepresented Job to God as a false
servant, in pursuance of his old design to set Heaven and earth at
variance, he here misrepresented God to Jacob as a hard Master, who
would not protect those flocks out of which he had so many
burnt-offerings. This would tempt Job to say, It is in vain to serve
God.
(2.) The messenger called the lightning the fire of God (and
innocently enough), but perhaps Satan thereby designed to strike into
his mind this thought, that God had turned to be his enemy and
fought against him, which was much more grievous to him than all
the insults of the Sabeans. He owned
that destruction from God was a terror to him. How terrible then
were the tidings of this destruction, which came immediately from the
hand of God! Had the fire from heaven consumed the sheep upon the
altar, he might have construed it into a token of God’s favour; but,
the fire consuming them in the pasture, he could not but look upon it
as a token of God’s displeasure. There have not been the like since
Sodom was burned.
3. He had 3000 camels, and servants tending them; and he lost
them all at the same time by the Chaldeans, who came in three bands,
and drove them away, and slew the servants,
If the fire of God, which fell upon Job’s honest servants, who were in
the way of their duty, had fallen upon the Sabean and Chaldean robbers
who were doing mischief, God’s judgments therein would have been like
the great mountains, evident and conspicuous; but when the way of the
wicked prospers, and they carry off their booty, while just and good
men are suddenly cut off, God’s righteousness is like the great deep,
the bottom of which we cannot find,
4. His dearest and most valuable possessions were his ten children;
and, to conclude the tragedy, news if brought him, at the same time,
that they were killed and buried in the ruins of the house in which
they were feasting, and all the servants that waited on them, except
one that came express with the tidings of it,
This was the greatest of Job’s losses, and which could not but go
nearest him; and therefore the devil reserved it for the last, that, if
the other provocations failed, this might make him curse God. Our
children are pieces of ourselves; it is very hard to part with them,
and touches a good man in as tender a part as any. But to part with
them all at once, and for them to be all cut off in a moment, who had
been so many years his cares and hopes, went to the quick indeed.
(1.) They all died together, and not one of them was left alive. David,
though a wise and good man, was very much discomposed by the death of
one son. How hard then did it bear upon poor Job who lost them all,
and, in one moment, was written childless!
(2.) They died suddenly. Had they been taken away by some lingering
disease, he would have had notice to expect their death, and prepare
for the breach; but this came upon him without giving him any warning.
(3.) They died when they were feasting and making merry. Had they died
suddenly when they were praying, he might the better have borne it. He
would have hoped that death had found them in a good frame if their
blood had been mingled with their feast, where he himself used to be
jealous of them that they had sinned, and cursed God in their
hearts–to have that day come upon them unawares, like a thief in
the night, when perhaps their heads were overcharged with surfeiting
and drunkenness–this could not but add much to his grief, considering
what a tender concern he always had for his children’s souls, and that
they were now out of the reach of the sacrifices he used to offer
according to the number of them all. See how all things come
alike to all. Job’s children were constantly prayed for by their
father, and lived in love one with another, and yet came to this
untimely end.
(4.) They died by a wind of the devil’s raising, who is the prince
of the power of the air
(Eph. ii. 2),
but it was looked upon to be an immediate hand of God, and a token of
his wrath. So Bildad construed it
(ch. viii. 4):
Thy children have sinned against him, and he has cast them away in
their transgression.
(5.) They were taken away when he had most need of them to comfort him
under all his other losses. Such miserable comforters are all
creatures. In God only we have a present help at all times.
| Job’s Sorrow and Submission. | B. C. 1520. |
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20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head,
and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked
shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken
away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
The devil had done all he desired leave to do against Job, to provoke
him to curse God. He had touched all he had, touched it with a witness;
he whom the rising sun saw the richest of all the men in the east was
before night poor to a proverb. If his riches had been, as Satan
insinuated, the only principle of his religion now that he had lost his
riches he would certainly have lost his religion; but the account we
have, in these verses, of his pious deportment under his affliction,
sufficiently proved the devil a liar and Job an honest man.
I. He conducted himself like a man under his afflictions, not stupid
and senseless, like a stock or stone, not unnatural and unaffected at
the death of his children and servants; no
(v. 20),
he arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, which were
the usual expressions of great sorrow, to show that he was sensible of
the hand of the Lord that had gone out against him; yet he did not
break out into any indecencies, nor discover any extravagant passion.
He did not faint away, but arose, as a champion to the combat; he did
not, in a heat, throw off his clothes, but very gravely, in conformity
to the custom of the country, rent his mantle, his cloak, or outer
garment; he did not passionately tear his hair, but deliberately shaved
his head. By all this it appeared that he kept his temper, and bravely
maintained the possession and repose of his own soul, in the midst of
all these provocations. The time when he began to show his feelings is
observable; it was not till he heard of the death of his children, and
then he arose, then he rent his mantle. A worldly unbelieving heart
would have said, “Now that the meat is gone it is well that the mouths
are gone too; now that there are no portions it is well that there are
no children:” but Job knew better, and would have been thankful if
Providence had spared his children, though he had little of nothing for
them, for Jehovah-jireh–the Lord will provide. Some expositors,
remembering that it was usual with the Jews to rend their clothes when
they heard blasphemy, conjecture that Job rent his clothes in a holy
indignation at the blasphemous thoughts which Satan now cast into his
mind, tempting him to curse God.
II. He conducted himself like a wise and good man under his affliction,
like a perfect and upright man, and one that feared God
and eschewed the evil of sin more than that of outward
trouble.
1. He humbled himself under the hand of God, and accommodated himself
to the providences he was under, as one that knew how to want as well
as how to abound. When God called to weeping and mourning he wept and
mourned, rent his mantle and shaved his head; and, as one that
abased himself even to the dust before God, he fell down upon the
ground, in a penitent sense of sin and a patient submission to the
will of God, accepting the punishment of his iniquity. Hereby he
showed his sincerity; for hypocrites cry not when God binds
them,
ch. xxxvi. 13.
Hereby he prepared himself to get good by the affliction; for how can
we improve the grief which we will not feel?
2. He composed himself with quieting considerations, that he might not
be disturbed and put out of the possession of his own soul by these
events. He reasons from the common state of human life, which he
describes with application to himself: Naked came I (as others
do) out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither,
into the lap of our common mother–the earth, as the child, when it is
sick or weary, lays its head in its mother’s bosom. Dust we were
in our original, and to dust we return in our exit
(Gen. iii. 19),
to the earth as we were
(Eccl. xii. 7),
naked shall we return thither, whence we were taken, namely, to
the clay,
St. Paul refers to this of Job,
We brought nothing of this world’s goods into the world,
but have them from others; and it is certain that we can carry
nothing out, but must leave them to others. We come into the world
naked, not only unarmed, but unclothed, helpless, shiftless, not so
well covered and fenced as other creatures. The sin we are born in
makes us naked, to our shame, in the eyes of the holy God. We go out of
the world naked; the body does, though the sanctified soul goes
clothed,
Death strips us of all our enjoyments; clothing can neither warm nor
adorn a dead body. This consideration silenced Job under all his
losses.
(1.) He is but where he was at first. He looks upon himself only as
naked, not maimed, not wounded; he was himself still his own man, when
nothing else was his own, and therefore but reduced to his first
condition. Nemo tam pauper potest esse quam natus est–no one can be
so poor as he was when born.–Min. Felix. If we are impoverished,
we are not wronged, nor much hurt, for we are but as we were born.
(2.) He is but where he must have been at last, and is only unclothed,
or unloaded rather, a little sooner than he expected. If we put off our
clothes before we go to bed, it is some inconvenience, but it may be
the better borne when it is near bed-time.
3. He gave glory to God, and expressed himself upon this occasion with
a great veneration for the divine Providence, and a meek submission to
its disposals. We may well rejoice to find Job in this good frame,
because this was the very thing upon which the trial of his integrity
was put, though he did not know it. The devil said that he would, under
his affliction, curse God; but he blessed him, and so proved himself an
honest man.
(1.) He acknowledged the hand of God both in the mercies he had
formerly enjoyed and in the afflictions he was now exercised with:
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. We must own the
divine Providence,
[1.] In all our comforts. God gave us our being, made us, and not we
ourselves, gave us our wealth; it was not our own ingenuity or
industry that enriched us, but God’s blessing on our cares and
endeavours. He gave us power to get wealth, not only made the creatures
for us, but best owed upon us our share.
[2.] In all our crosses. The same that gave hath taken away; and may he
not do what he will with his own? See how Job looks above instruments,
and keeps his eye upon the first Cause. He does not say, “The Lord
gave, and the Sabeans and Chaldeans have taken away; God made me rich,
and the devil has made me poor;” but, “He that gave has taken;” and for
that reason he is dumb, and has nothing to say, because God did it. He
that gave all may take what, and when, and how much he pleases. Seneca
could argue thus, Abstulit, sed et dedit–he took away, but he also
gave; and Epictetus excellently (cap. 15), “When thou art deprived
of any comfort, suppose a child taken away by death, or a part of thy
estate lost, say not apolesa auto—I have lost it;
but apedoka—I have restored it to the right
owner; but thou wilt object (says he), kakos ho
aphelomenos—he is a bad man that has robbed me; to
which he answers, ti de soi melei—What is it to thee
by what hand he that gives remands what he gave?“
(2.) He adored God in both. When all was gone he fell down and
worshipped. Note, Afflictions must not divert us from, but quicken us
to, the exercises of religion. Weeping must not hinder sowing, nor
hinder worshipping. He eyed not only the hand of God, but the name of
God, in his afflictions, and gave glory to that: Blessed be the name
of the Lord. He has still the same great and good thoughts of God
that ever he had, and is as forward as ever to speak them forth to his
praise; he can find in his heart to bless God even when he takes away
as well as when he gives. Thus must we sing both of mercy and
judgment,
Ps. ci. 1.
[1.] He blesses God for what was given, though now it was taken away.
When our comforts are removed from us we must thank God that ever we
had them and had them so much longer than we deserved. Nay,
[2.] He adores God even in taking away, and gives him honour by a
willing submission; nay, he gives him thanks for good designed him by
his afflictions, for gracious supports under his afflictions, and the
believing hopes he had of a happy issue at last.
Lastly, Here is the honourable testimony which the Holy Ghost
gives to Job’s constancy and good conduct under his afflictions. He
passed his trials with applause,
In all this Job did not act amiss, for he did not attribute folly to
God, nor in the least reflect upon his wisdom in what he had done.
Discontent and impatience do in effect charge God with folly. Against
the workings of these therefore Job carefully watched; and so must we,
acknowledging that as God has done right, but we have done wickedly, so
God has done wisely, but we have done foolishly, very foolishly. Those
who not only keep their temper under crosses and provocations, but keep
up good thoughts of God and sweet communion with him, whether their
praise be of men or no, it will be of God, as Job’s here was.
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