the way, than the holding of favourite religious opinions, or an undue,
disproportioned estimation of certain doctrines or points of truth. And
this was the case here. Job prized certain points of truth, and his
friends had their favourites also. But each "knew but in part," and
darkened the perfect counsels of God. And by reason of this, they fell
out by the way. Job, sorely afflicted by stroke upon stroke, insisted on
it, that God acted _arbitrarily_; and having a right to do as He
pleased, did so. His friends would have it, that God dealt
_retributively_, and that therefore His way with Job convicted Job of
some unconfessed iniquity. Their doctrines also very much savoured of
human thoughts; they were not refined from the lees of man's
religiousness. They drew much from the traditions of the elders, and
from their own experiences and observations. They accredited that false
though favourite axiom in the morals of the world, that "honesty is the
best policy." "Who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the
righteous cut off?" is the challenge which their religion published. "I
have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. But He
is of one mind, and who can turn Him?" is the counsel of his heart. They
insinuate that if all were told, nothing would be too bad for him; and
he reproaches them, in the contempt and bitterness of a wounded spirit,
and an insulted character. "No doubt ye are the people, and wisdom shall
die with you."
Such was the strife of words, the bickering and debate, among them; as
sad a sample of falling out by the way as has ever been known, I may
say, among brethren.
Elihu, in whom was a "manifestation of the Spirit," at length enters the
scene, bringing the light of God to make manifest these forms of
darkness. He had listened to the discourses and controversies of these
brethren, but, in modesty and reserve, as became his years, in the
presence of ancient men, he had hitherto held his peace. He waited till
multitude of days, which should know wisdom, and speak of understanding,
had delivered sentence of truth. But now he speaks. The stirrings of the
Spirit constrain him. He is silent while it is a question between
himself and them, but he durst not surrender the rights of the Spirit in
him. He cannot respect any man's person now. In Job's day, God chose the
weak thing, as He has done ever since. Elihu was but a youth. Timothy
was the same. But the ancient men had failed. The stone of help lies in
another stripling of Bethlehem. For, from beginning to end it must be
known, that the good that is done upon the earth, He doeth Himself. "Not
by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." Eliphaz and
his companions shall not have it to say, "We have found out wisdom;" for
"God thrusteth him down, not man," said Elihu of Job.
Job was to be rebuked. He had argued the arbitrariness of the divine
hand in dealing with man, and, accounting for his present sufferings in
that way, he was so far "righteous in his own eyes." Elihu shows that
this was not so; that all was the holy discipline of One who, knowing
the end from the beginning, ever counsels the best for His people. Nor
will he, like the others, draw either from himself, or from the elders
or fathers. He will not, in the way of human religiousness, bow to any
names or traditions, however venerated, but, led of the Spirit, press on
in the path where the light of God shines.
Elihu will not join in laying to Job's charge what his conscience
truthfully resisted. But he will tell Job that the thoughts of
conscience are not to rule his judgment, or dictate his speeches; that
he should rather have allowed the divine wisdom in all this sore
discipline, than concluded on the divine arbitrariness in it, just
because conscience was clear. He tells Job this should have been his
word--"Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement,
I will not offend any more: that which I see not, teach Thou me: if I
have done iniquity, I will do no more."
"A mighty maze," philosophy will say, "but not without a plan." "God is
His own interpreter, and He will make it plain," a Christian poet will
say. And a true and beautiful thought that is. But inspired wisdom
counsels and teaches thus--"Although thou sayest thou shalt not see Him,
yet judgment is before Him; therefore trust thou in Him." Chapter xxxv.
14. For we are to know that purposes of wisdom and goodness rule every
event, though another day has so to declare it. "Judgment" is ever
"before Him," as Elihu says. And God is to be justified in the thoughts
of His children now, as He will be in the face of heaven and earth
by-and-by. Matt. xi. 19; Ps. li. 4; l. 4.
Such an one was Elihu. And it is a circumstance full of meaning and of
moral beauty, that Job does not answer him, as he had the others. Elihu
invited him to speak if he would. But he had a moral sense, a conscience
in the Holy Ghost, that witnessed to the authority with which this
minister of the Spirit spake. Very precious this is. How often, how
common, among the saints, is this! Yea, and even beyond their borders,
at times, the like authority is felt. How often has the presence of a
holy man controlled the ungodly. The multitudes in the villages of
Israel, after this manner, owned the Lord at times. They "were
astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority,
and not as the scribes." And the want of this is painful. Have we not
often, beloved, been grieved to see the heart and understanding of
others unmoved by that which has come to our own souls with all the
authority of truth, and in the freshness of the divine unction? But Job
gives us not this pain. And a man very dear to the saints he is, as he
was to the blessed Lord who was thus afflicting him. Elihu had spoken to
him in the Spirit, and his soul bowed to the authority of his word. He
could not treat Elihu as he had treated Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. He
may not be as yet humbled, but he cannot be angry; he may not as yet
make confession, but he will not reply. The Spirit of God in the
ministry of His servant had entered the scene, and Job will at least be
silent.[28]
[28] The knowledge of truth alone will never ensure happy or profitable
ministry. If we draw merely from our stores or possessions of
knowledge, we shall find ourselves confounded. The freshness of
the Spirit in us, and the exercise of our gift under Him, at the
time of ministry, are also needful.
The Lord, however, is He that teacheth to profit. There are diversities
of operations, but it is the same God that worketh all in all. Paul
plants, and Apollos waters, but it is God that giveth the increase. And,
in analogy with these truths, the action of this beautiful Book
proceeds. The voice of God from the whirlwind makes the testimony of the
gifted minister effectual to the conscience and heart of Job. In a
series of challenges as to natural things, that voice, mighty and yet
gracious, addresses him. It has been said, by those competent to
entertain such inquiries, that nothing in the whole compass of language
can equal, much less surpass, the inimitable grandeur and sublimity of
this address. And we can all see that it does that which it belongs to
divine power to do--the complainant is humbled. "I know that Thou canst
do everything." He confesses to Him whose mighty hand could exalt him in
due time, and, after he had suffered awhile, was well able to
strengthen, settle, and stablish him. 1 Peter v.
It was not the lesson of a sinner which Job had to learn. He knew
already the grace of God. It was the lesson of a saint he needed to be
taught, or taught more perfectly. It is for this, therefore, that the
Lord seats Himself in the whirlwind. Had Job then, and for the first
time, to learn the lesson of a sinner, the Lord would rather have
addressed him in "the still small voice," the tone which suits grace,
and in which it seeks and delights to be heard. But Job was already a
saved sinner. He knew already the _grace_, but had as yet to be taught
the _rights_, of God. And therefore the voice from the whirlwind. For
the saint has to count on such apparent roughness as the sinner never
gets. John was left in prison, when every sickness and disease among the
people was attended to. The Lord, in His walks of mercy and of
usefulness to all who needed Him, may often have passed near the prison
doors, but He did not open them, as He could have done, though He was,
all the while, giving sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf. Was
it that John was loved the less? No. Among them that were born of woman
there was none like him. And was it that Job was loved the less, because
he was addressed out of the whirlwind? No. There was none like him in
the earth, a perfect and an upright man. But already knowing the grace
of God, he was now to learn and own His rights. And he does learn them,
and confesses them. And he confesses them, and bows to them, before the
pressure of the mighty hand was removed, and while as yet it was heavy
upon him. That is much to be observed, much to be prized. For that is a
beautiful witness, that Job had learnt the lesson indeed, learnt it
spiritually, learnt it in the grace and energy of divine teaching. It is
easy and common to own the good of a chastisement when it is over, and
then to say, I would not have been without it. That is not above the
reach of nature. But while the burthen is still borne, to vindicate and
bless the hand that lays it on, that is something more. While as yet he
lay in the place of ashes and potsherds, and sore boils tormented his
body from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, Job said,
"Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay mine hand upon
my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I
will proceed no further."
Such was the moral, and such the issue, of this simple but important
action. A lesson had to be taught a child of God. Human wisdom, and
religion too, sets itself to teach it, but betrays its own weakness and
dishonour. A minister of the Spirit, in the light of the Lord, rebukes
the thought of man, exposing the wise and the scribe and the disputer of
this world, and applying the principles of the truth of God. And the
power of Him who worketh all in all seals the instruction. Human and
divine energies are thus displayed in the places and characters which
belong to them, the one abased, and the other magnified.
Such are the actors in the scene of this wondrous Book--angels, Satan,
the tried saint, and his brethren, the minister of God in the energy of
the Spirit, and the Lord Himself. They hold the place, and do the deeds,
which, as we have now seen, all Scripture assigns them respectively.
This Book, as I observed before, is an independent Book. The most so, I
may add, of any in the inspired volume. In the progress of revelation it
intimates nothing before it, nor does any other part of that revelation
find it necessary to it. Job's history is not linked with that of the
people of God, nor does it advance, in any way, the manifestation of the
purposes of God. But stranger and foreigner as it is, it speaks exactly
the same language. The same Spirit breathes here, the same light shines
here. And this is so, not only in the case of those who are introduced
as actors in the scenes, but also in the truths and doctrines assumed or
asserted. The corruption of nature as found in the seed of Adam--the
value of a sacrifice as a propitiation with God--a coming day of
judgment--resurrection and life--these are among the common thoughts
here. But more beautiful and striking than all is the knowledge it takes
of _the person and duty of the Kinsman_, a mystery well known in
Scripture, and, throughout Scripture, largely though silently referred
to, when too commonly not perceived--a mystery which shadows all the
great truths that are characteristic of the work of our redemption.
This subject is too great to be fully considered here, even had I the
grace and light to do so. But it is so happy a one, and suggested by our
Patriarch's well-known confession of his faith, that I cannot altogether
pass it by.
Our apostle says, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth
and cherisheth it." A necessary way of nature is here assumed, and
assumed with approval, by the Spirit of God. That regard to one's self
which each one of us is ready enough to render, is divinely sanctioned.
And then, on this very principle of nature, the apostle goes on to put
the Lord's nurture of the Church. "For no man ever yet hated his own
flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, _even as the Lord the Church_;
for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." Christ
is declared to act towards us on this instinctive verdict of nature,
that a man is to love his own body. The Holy Ghost, through the apostle,
would let our hearts embrace this joy, that the force of this first law
of nature is felt by Christ towards us, and the duty it imposes is owned
by Him. So that if I can understand my love for myself, I may understand
Christ's love to me. The duty I owe myself is acknowledged by my Lord as
due by Him to me. He can but nourish and cherish me, as I would nourish
and cherish myself.
Can any thought, I ask, respecting the place into which the love of the
Son of God has brought Him surpass this? Can the imagination form the
idea of a more intense and devoted affection? Impossible. If it could,
Christ would embody it, and His Spirit would reveal it, for His love
"passeth knowledge." But it cannot.
But though this may be the most marvellous expression of this love, yet
there is another of the same character. There is another duty owed on
the like claims of nature, which in like manner has been adopted and
acknowledged by the Lord--the duty of kindred or natural relations.
The Lord, the Son of God, became our Kinsman. "Forasmuch then as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took
part of the same." And He became this Kinsman that He might do for the
children the duties and services of a Kinsman. And what these duties
are, and how the Lord has answered and discharged them, we are told in
Scripture.
One principal duty was, to ransom a brother or his inheritance, if such
or either had been sold.
Now such a sold or forfeited condition is ours by nature, under the
ruins of Adam. Forfeiture of every thing is the simple idea that holds
our natural condition in the just light. We have forfeited life, and
with it all things, by the breach of those terms on which we held life,
and with it all things. We have incurred the debt of death. "In the day
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Adam did eat, and this law
demanded death. We sold ourselves under that sentence, and to that
penalty, and were debtors to die the death. But our Kinsman has paid the
price. Jesus died. He has counted out the money to the uttermost
farthing. In the language of the law, eye has gone for eye, life for
life, blood for blood. We have not been redeemed by corruptible things
as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ. The value of
that blood was well tried. The blood of bulls and of goats was not rich
enough. It would not do, it could not do. But "Lo, I come to do Thy
will, O God," tells us that He was satisfied who exacted, and could not
but exact, the full ransom or redemption-price. And now _we and our
inheritance stand repurchased by our Kinsman_.
This is the very principal in the great services of Christ for us. It is
largely noticed and foreshadowed by the law (Lev. xxv.), but it was
understood from the beginning. For sacrifice or vicarious offering
proceeded on this principle. And that was made known upon the entrance
of sin, or act of forfeiture. The coat of skin which covered Adam bore
witness that he stood in the value of a ransom, that the virtue of One
who had met the demand of God against him was now upon him.
But this is full of blessing--that the great mystery of the Kinsman or
Redeemer was known (published by the Lord, and believed by the sinner)
ere the law had shadowed it, or prophets proclaimed it.[29]
[29] The same Hebrew word signifies kinsman, redeemer, and avenger.
Another of these duties was this--to rescue or deliver a brother taken
captive.
In the previous case of ransom or repurchase, the Kinsman had to deal
with a rightful claimant, and to answer his demands. His brother or his
brother's inheritance had been sold, and had to be repurchased at a
price well and justly ascertained, according to the law of estimations.
But this duty of rescuing or delivering a brother is different. Here the
Kinsman has to do with a stranger or a foe; and by counterforce, or the
strength of a stronger arm, to perform this service.
But this, also, is our natural condition, our state under the ruins of
the fall. And this character of Kinsman-service, the Son of God,
partaker of our flesh and blood, renders us.
In this, however, His dealing is with our enemy. In the previous case of
repurchase He dealt with God, answering His righteous demands for us:
here, He answers the enemy for us. For while it is true that we had,
through disobedience, incurred the debt of death, the forfeiture of life
and all things, so as to need a ransom, it is also true that we had
suffered wrong at the hand of the Serpent, out of the results of which,
in bondage or captivity to the powers of darkness and corruption, our
Redeemer or Kinsman delivers us.
It was in this action that the Lord, in the days of His flesh, went
through the cities and villages of Israel. As the stronger man He had
then entered the strong man's house, spoiling his goods, and unloosing
his prisoners. And He will finish such work, and perfect His way as the
Kinsman-deliverer, when He, as the plague of death and hell's
destruction, rescues His sleeping saints. Then will take place the
_redemption_ of the _purchased_ possession. See Eph. i. 14.
And again I may say, Happy is it to know that this way of Christ, this
work of our great Kinsman, was also known in patriarchal days. When
Abraham heard that _his brother_ was taken captive, he armed his trained
servants, and brought again his brother Lot and his goods. Genesis xiv.
Five kings may fight with four in the vale of Siddim, the potsherds of
the earth may strive with their fellows; all this, in one sense, is no
concern of the heavenly stranger, though his tent may be pitched in the
neighbourhood. But the way of Christ, which becomes the principle of
conduct to His people, is everything to him--and that way must have been
then known, the service of the Kinsman-deliverer must have been then
quite understood among the elect household, for as soon as Abraham hears
of Lot, he is all action in a moment, and goes forth for the rescue of
his captured brother.
A kindred duty with this was, to avenge the blood of a murdered brother,
or relative.
This duty was recognized by the law, and kept in memory all through the
times of the nation. The ordinance touching the cities of refuge was a
relief against the abuse of it; and the famous parable of the woman of
Tekoah assumed the fact, that the whole system in Israel took knowledge
of it.
But, like the others, it was older than the law and the prophets.
Notices of Christ and His ways and His doings for us were the earliest
manifestations of the mind of God. Happy for our hearts to know this!
And, accordingly, this Kinsman-duty had been prescribed in very early
days. When the sword was committed to Noah, it was published. "At the
hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." But it was
understood as a divine principle even before then. Cain trembled before
this law, which, as his words intimate, must have then been known
everywhere. Genesis iv. 14. It was, indeed, a part of the very first
promise. "It shall bruise thy head" announced it. For that sentence told
the Serpent, that man's Kinsman, the Woman's Seed, would avenge on him
the wrongs done by him upon the family. And this duty Christ will
perform when He casts the old Serpent, "which is the Devil and Satan,"
with death and hell, into the lake of fire.[30]
[30] The Kinsman _delivering_ and the Kinsman _avenging_ deals with an
enemy or a wrong-doer, and not, as in the case of _repurchasing_,
with a righteous claimant. There is, however, this difference: in
the case of delivering, the Kinsman only rescues his brother or
relative out of the hand of the enemy; in the case of avenging, he
visits the blood of his brother or relative upon the head of the
enemy. Christ will deliver us from the hand of death at the
_beginning_ of the Kingdom (1 Corinthians xv. 54), He will avenge
us upon the head of death at the _close_ of the Kingdom. 1
Corinthians xv. 26.
Such are among the duties which a Kinsman, according to the mind and
reckoning of the Lord, owed, and such is the glorious performance of
them by our great Kinsman. And wondrous is it to be entitled thus to
write of Him! wondrous that the necessary and instinctive dictates of
nature are suggested by the Holy Ghost as the ground, warrant, and
character of the love of Christ to the Saints! that, as I said before,
whatever nature tells me I owe myself, that Christ tells me He owes me;
and now, I may add, whatever nature tells me my kindred owe me, that
also Christ tells me He owes me. And again I ask, Can any thought
respecting the place into which the love of the Son of God has brought
Him, surpass this? Can the imagination form the idea of a more intense
and devoted affection?
The Son of God became our Kinsman for the very end of performing all
these Kinsman-services for us. Hebrews ii., I believe, tells us that.
And these duties and services embody all the great materials in the
mystery of redemption. And, as we have now seen, they have been made
known from the beginning. Jesus did not wait till the Law presented Him,
in its shadows or swaddling-clothes, to the faith and joy of poor
sinners. The Law afterwards gave the things concerning Him a tabernacle,
but those things had been made known from the beginning. The fourth day,
in the course of creation, brought forth the Sun, which then became the
tabernacle of the light, but the light had been abroad through the
scene, the light had been shining, from the earliest moment of the first
day. Jesus was known in the garden of Eden, and borne on the breath of
the very first promise. And cheering this is to our spirits--happy to
track these notices of the common faith, these thoughts and truths of
God and His covenant, all along the line of the ages, linking the most
distant hearts of the elect in the fellowship of one joy, and giving
them one song for ever and ever.
Among the saints of the earlier days, our Job knew Him in this great
character of Kinsman or Redeemer. As rescuing him from the power of
death, or from captivity to the grave and corruption, Job celebrates
Him. It is a scripture well known, and much delighted in by the saints.
And well may it be so. All that ushers it forth to our hearing, and all
that sustains and accompanies it while we listen to it, give it an
uncommon character.
"Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin, worms destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and
mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed
within me."
What an apprehension of Christ in both His person and His work is here!
It is the faith and hope of our Gospel. Job knew he had a Redeemer, a
Redeemer then living, and thereafter to stand upon the earth manifested
in flesh, and that this Redeemer would achieve for him a glorious
victory over the power of death, and strength of corruption. And all
this fine apprehension of Christ is accompanied with the simplest
appropriating faith. "Whom I shall see for myself," says Job, "and mine
eyes shall behold, and not another." This is the confidence of Paul.
This is the liberty that is befitting the full revelation of the grace
of God. Paul and Job, in like spirit, knew the glorious redemption, and
knew it for themselves. "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
And what fervency is this with which the Holy Ghost enables the
patriarch to set his seal to all this precious confession of his faith!
Job would have all men know, and every generation of them, he would
publish it far and wide, he would tell it out without a fear that he
should ever have to cancel a letter of it, he would engrave it for
eternity and have it leaded in the rock, that he knew his Redeemer!
What "light of the Lord" was this in which the Patriarch walked! "O
house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." Job
walked there long before the house of Jacob, or the prophets of Israel,
knew of it. The light was abroad, and the Spirit led the elect into it,
from the beginning. And this occasion, recorded in the 19th chapter, was
a moment when that light beamed brightly in Job's soul. His face did not
then, like Stephen's, shine as an angel's in the presence of his
accusers. He had not, in that way, put on the garments of a child of
resurrection, but his spirit within was in the regions and liberty and
triumph of such a one.