ob complains of his hardships. (1-7) He pleads with God as
his Maker. (8-13) He complains of God's severity. (14-22)
Verses 1-7: Job, being weary of his life, resolves to complain, but he
will not charge God with unrighteousness. Here is a prayer that
he might be delivered from the sting of his afflictions, which
is sin. When God afflicts us, he contends with us; when he
contends with us, there is always a reason; and it is desirable
to know the reason, that we may repent of and forsake the sin
for which God has a controversy with us. But when, like Job, we
speak in the bitterness of our souls, we increase guilt and
vexation. Let us harbour no hard thoughts of God; we shall
hereafter see there was no cause for them. Job is sure that God
does not discover things, nor judge of them, as men do;
therefore he thinks it strange that God continues him under
affliction, as if he must take time to inquire into his sin.
Verses 8-13: Job seems to argue with God, as if he only formed and
preserved him for misery. God made us, not we ourselves. How sad
that those bodies should be instruments of unrighteousness,
which are capable of being temples of the Holy Ghost! But the
soul is the life, the soul is the man, and this is the gift of
God. If we plead with ourselves as an inducement to duty, God
made me and maintains me, we may plead as an argument for mercy,
Thou hast made me, do thou new-make me; I am thine, save me.
Verses 14-22: Job did not deny that as a sinner he deserved his
sufferings; but he thought that justice was executed upon him
with peculiar rigour. His gloom, unbelief, and hard thoughts of
God, were as much to be ascribed to Satan's inward temptations,
and his anguish of soul, under the sense of God's displeasure,
as to his outward trials, and remaining depravity. Our Creator,
become in Christ our Redeemer also, will not destroy the work of
his hands in any humble believer; but will renew him unto
holiness, that he may enjoy eternal life. If anguish on earth
renders the grave a desirable refuge, what will be their
condition who are condemned to the blackness of darkness for
ever? Let every sinner seek deliverance from that dreadful
state, and every believer be thankful to Jesus, who delivereth
from the wrath to come.
ob complains of his hardships. (1-7) He pleads with God as
his Maker. (8-13) He complains of God's severity. (14-22)