mh_parser/vol_split/18 - Job/0 - Introduction.xml

<div2 id="Job.i" n="i" next="Job.ii" prev="Job" progress="0.41%" title="Introduction">
<h2 id="Job.i-p0.1">Job</h2>
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<p id="Job.i-p1"><b>AN</b></p>
<h3 id="Job.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
<h4 id="Job.i-p1.2">W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E
R V A T I O N S,</h4>
<h5 id="Job.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF</h5>
<h2 id="Job.i-p1.4">J O B.</h2>
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<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p2"><span class="smallcaps" id="Job.i-p2.1">This</span> book of
Job stands by itself, is not connected with any other, and is
therefore to be considered alone. Many copies of the Hebrew Bible
place it after the book of Psalms, and some after the Proverbs,
which perhaps has given occasion to some learned men to imagine it
to have been written by Isaiah or some of the later prophets. But,
as the subject appears to have been much more ancient, so we have
no reason to think but that the composition of the book was, and
that therefore it is most fitly placed first in this collection of
divine morals: also, being doctrinal, it is proper to precede and
introduce the book of Psalms, which is devotional, and the book of
Proverbs, which is practical; for how shall we worship or obey a
God whom we know not? As to this book,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p3">I. We are sure that it is given by
inspiration of God, though we are not certain who was the penman of
it. The Jews, though no friends to Job, because he was a stranger
to the commonwealth of Israel, yet, as faithful conservators of
<i>the oracles of God</i> committed to them, always retained this
book in their sacred canon. The history is referred to by one
apostle (<scripRef id="Job.i-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Jas.5.11" parsed="|Jas|5|11|0|0" passage="Jam 5:11">James v. 11</scripRef>) and
one passage (<scripRef id="Job.i-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.5.13" parsed="|Job|5|13|0|0" passage="Job 5:13"><i>ch.</i> v.
13</scripRef>) is quoted by another apostle, with the usual form of
quoting scripture, <i>It is written,</i> <scripRef id="Job.i-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.3.19" parsed="|1Cor|3|19|0|0" passage="1Co 3:19">1 Cor. iii. 19</scripRef>. It is the opinion of many of
the ancients that this history was written by Moses himself in
Midian, and delivered to his suffering brethren in Egypt, for their
support and comfort under their burdens, and the encouragement of
their hope that God would in due time deliver and enrich them, as
he did this patient sufferer. Some conjecture that it was written
originally in Arabic, and afterwards translated into Hebrew, for
the use of the Jewish church, by Solomon (so Monsieur Jurieu) or
some other inspired writer. It seems most probable to me that Elihu
was the penman of it, at least of the discourses, because
(<scripRef id="Job.i-p3.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.32.15-Job.32.16" parsed="|Job|32|15|32|16" passage="Job 32:15,16"><i>ch.</i> xxxii. 15,
16</scripRef>) he mingles the words of a historian with those of a
disputant: but Moses perhaps wrote the first two chapters and the
last, to give light to the discourses; for in them God is
frequently called <i>Jehovah,</i> but not once in all the
discourses, except <scripRef id="Job.i-p3.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.12.9" parsed="|Job|12|9|0|0" passage="Job 12:9"><i>ch.</i> xii.
9</scripRef>. That name was but little known to the patriarchs
before Moses, <scripRef id="Job.i-p3.6" osisRef="Bible:Exod.6.3" parsed="|Exod|6|3|0|0" passage="Ex 6:3">Exod. vi. 3</scripRef>. If
Job wrote it himself, some of the Jewish writers themselves own him
a <i>prophet among the Gentiles;</i> if Elihu, we find he had a
spirit of prophecy which <i>filled him with matter and constrained
him,</i> <scripRef id="Job.i-p3.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.32.18" parsed="|Job|32|18|0|0" passage="Job 32:18"><i>ch.</i> xxxii.
18</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p4">II. We are sure that it is, for the
substance of it, a true history, and not a romance, though the
dialogues are poetical. No doubt there was such a man as Job; the
prophet Ezekiel names him with Noah and Daniel, <scripRef id="Job.i-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.14.14" parsed="|Ezek|14|14|0|0" passage="Eze 14:14">Ezek. xiv. 14</scripRef>. The narrative we have here of
his prosperity and piety, his strange afflictions and exemplary
patience, the substance of his conferences with his friends, and
God's discourse with him out of the whirlwind, with his return at
length to a very prosperous condition, no doubt is exactly true,
though the inspired penman is allowed the usual liberty of putting
the matter of which Job and his friends discoursed into his own
words.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p5">III. We are sure that it is very ancient,
though we cannot fix the precise time either when Job lived or when
the book was written. So many, so evident, are its hoary hairs, the
marks of its antiquity, that we have reason to think it of equal
date with the book of Genesis itself, and that holy Job was
contemporary with Isaac and Jacob; though not coheir with them of
the promise of the earthly Canaan, yet a joint-expectant with them
of the <i>better country,</i> that is, <i>the heavenly.</i>
Probably he was of the posterity of Nahor, Abraham's brother, whose
first-born was <i>Uz</i> (<scripRef id="Job.i-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Gen.22.21" parsed="|Gen|22|21|0|0" passage="Ge 22:21">Gen. xxii.
21</scripRef>), and in whose family religion was for some ages kept
up, as appears, <scripRef id="Job.i-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.31.53" parsed="|Gen|31|53|0|0" passage="Ge 31:53">Gen. xxxi.
53</scripRef>, where God is called, not only <i>the God of
Abraham,</i> but <i>the God of Nahor.</i> He lived before the age
of man was shortened to seventy or eighty, as it was in Moses's
time, before sacrifices were confined to one altar, before the
general apostasy of the nations from the knowledge and worship of
the true God, and while yet there was no other idolatry known than
the worship of the sun and moon, and that punished by the Judges,
<scripRef id="Job.i-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.31.26-Job.31.28" parsed="|Job|31|26|31|28" passage="Job 31:26-28"><i>ch.</i> xxxi. 26-28</scripRef>.
He lived while God was known by the name of <i>God Almighty</i>
more than by the name of <i>Jehovah;</i> for he is called
<i>Shaddai—the Almighty,</i> above thirty times in this book. He
lived while divine knowledge was conveyed, not by writing, but by
tradition; for to that appeals are here made, <scripRef id="Job.i-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.8.8 Bible:Job.21.29 Bible:Job.15.18 Bible:Job.5.1" parsed="|Job|8|8|0|0;|Job|21|29|0|0;|Job|15|18|0|0;|Job|5|1|0|0" passage="Job 8:8,21:29,Job 15:18,Job 5:1"><i>ch.</i> viii. 8; xxi. 29; xv.
18; v. 1</scripRef>. And we have therefore reason to think that he
lived before Moses, because here is no mention at all of the
deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, or the giving of the law. There
is indeed one passage which might be made to allude to the drowning
of Pharaoh (<scripRef id="Job.i-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.26.12" parsed="|Job|26|12|0|0" passage="Job 26:12"><i>ch.</i> xxvi.
12</scripRef>): <i>He divideth the sea with his power, and by his
understanding he smiteth through Rahab,</i> which name Egypt is
frequently called by in scripture, as <scripRef id="Job.i-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.87.4 Bible:Ps.89.10 Bible:Isa.51.9" parsed="|Ps|87|4|0|0;|Ps|89|10|0|0;|Isa|51|9|0|0" passage="Ps 87:4,89:10,Isa 51:9">Ps. lxxxvii. 4; lxxxix. 10; Isa. li.
9</scripRef>. But that may as well refer to the proud waves of the
sea. We conclude therefore that we are here got back to the
patriarchal age, and, besides its authority, we receive this book
with veneration for its antiquity.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p6">IV. We are sure that it is of great use to
the church, and to every good Christian, though there are many
passages in it dark and hard to be understood. We cannot perhaps be
confident of the true meaning of every Arabic word and phrase we
meet with in it. It is a book that finds a great deal of work for
the critics; but enough is plain to make the whole profitable, and
it was all written for our learning.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p7">1. This noble poem presents to us, in very
clear and lively characters, these five things among others:—(1.)
<i>A monument of primitive theology.</i> The first and great
principles of the light of nature, on which natural religion is
founded, are here, in a warm, and long, and learned dispute, not
only taken for granted on all sides and not the least doubt made of
them, but by common consent plainly laid down as eternal truths,
illustrated and urged as affecting commanding truths. Were ever the
being of God, his glorious attributes and perfections, his
unsearchable wisdom, his irresistible power, his inconceivable
glory, his inflexible justice, and his incontestable sovereignty,
discoursed of with more clearness, fulness, reverence, and divine
eloquence, than in this book? The creation of the world, and the
government of it, are here admirably described, not as matters of
nice speculation, but as laying most powerful obligations upon us
to fear and serve, to submit to and trust in, our Creator, owner,
Lord, and ruler. Moral good and evil, virtue and vice, were never
drawn more to the life (the beauty of the one and the deformity of
the other) than in this book; nor the inviolable rule of God's
judgment more plainly laid down, That <i>happy are the righteous,
it shall be well with them;</i> and <i>Woe to the wicked, it shall
be ill with them.</i> These are not questions of the schools to
keep the learned world in action, nor engines of state to keep the
unlearned world in awe; no, it appears by this book that they are
sacred truths of undoubted certainty, and which all the wise and
sober part of mankind have in every age subscribed and submitted
to. (2.) It presents us with <i>a specimen of Gentile piety.</i>
This great saint descended probably not from Abraham, but Nahor;
or, if from Abraham, not from Isaac, but from one of the sons of
the concubines that were sent into the east-country (<scripRef id="Job.i-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Gen.25.6" parsed="|Gen|25|6|0|0" passage="Ge 25:6">Gen. xxv. 6</scripRef>); or, if from Isaac, yet
not from Jacob, but Esau; so that he was out of the pale of the
covenant of peculiarity, no Israelite, no proselyte, and yet none
like him for religion, nor such a favourite of heaven upon this
earth. It was a truth therefore, before St. Peter perceived it,
that <i>in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness
is accepted of him,</i> <scripRef id="Job.i-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.10.35" parsed="|Acts|10|35|0|0" passage="Ac 10:35">Acts x.
35</scripRef>. There were <i>children of God scattered abroad</i>
(<scripRef id="Job.i-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:John.11.52" parsed="|John|11|52|0|0" passage="Joh 11:52">John xi. 52</scripRef>) besides the
incorporated <i>children of the kingdom,</i> <scripRef id="Job.i-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Matt.8.11-Matt.8.12" parsed="|Matt|8|11|8|12" passage="Mt 8:11,12">Matt. viii. 11, 12</scripRef>. (3.) It presents us
with <i>an exposition of the book of Providence,</i> and a clear
and satisfactory solution of many of the difficult and obscure
passages of it. The prosperity of the wicked and the afflictions of
the righteous have always been reckoned two as hard chapters as any
in that book; but they are here expounded, and reconciled with the
divine wisdom, purity, and goodness, by the <i>end of these
things.</i> (4.) It presents us with <i>a great example of
patience</i> and close adherence to God in the midst of the sorest
calamities. Sir Richard Blackmore's most ingenious pen, in his
excellent preface to his paraphrase on this book, makes Job a hero
proper for an epic poem; for, says he, "He appears brave in
distress and valiant in affliction, maintains his virtue, and with
that his character, under the most exasperating provocations that
the malice of hell could invent, and thereby gives a most noble
example of passive fortitude, a character no way inferior to that
of the active hero," &amp;c. (5.) It presents us with <i>an
illustrious type of Christ,</i> the particulars of which we shall
endeavour to take notice of as we go along. In general, Job was a
great sufferer, was emptied and humbled, but in order to his
greater glory. So Christ abased himself, that we might be exalted.
The learned bishop Patrick quotes St. Jerome more than once speaking
of Job as a type of Christ, who <i>for the job that was set before
him endured the cross,</i> who was persecuted, for a time, by men
and devils, and seemed forsaken of God too, but was raised to be an
intercessor even for his friends and had added affliction to his
misery. When the apostle speaks of the <i>patience of Job</i> he
immediately takes notice of <i>the end of the Lord,</i> that is, of
the Lord Jesus (as some understand it), typified by Job, <scripRef id="Job.i-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Jas.5.11" parsed="|Jas|5|11|0|0" passage="Jam 5:11">James v. 11</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p8">2. In this book we have, (1.) The history
of Job's sufferings, and his patience under them (<scripRef id="Job.i-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.1.1-Job.2.13" parsed="|Job|1|1|2|13" passage="Job 1:1-2:13"><i>ch.</i> i., ii.</scripRef>, not without a
mixture of human frailty, <scripRef id="Job.i-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.1-Job.3.26" parsed="|Job|3|1|3|26" passage="Job 3:1-26"><i>ch.</i>
iii.</scripRef> (2.) A dispute between him and his friends upon
them, in which, [1.] The opponents were Eliphaz, Bildad, and
Zophar. [2.] The respondent was Job. [3.] The moderators were,
<i>First,</i> Elihu, <scripRef id="Job.i-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.32.1-Job.37.24" parsed="|Job|32|1|37|24" passage="Job 32:1-37:24"><i>ch.</i>
xxxii.-xxxvii.</scripRef> <i>Secondly,</i> God himself, <scripRef id="Job.i-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.38.1-Job.41.34" parsed="|Job|38|1|41|34" passage="Job 38:1-41:34"><i>ch.</i> xxxviii.-xli.</scripRef> (3.)
The issue of all in Job's honour and prosperity, <scripRef id="Job.i-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.42.1-Job.42.17" parsed="|Job|42|1|42|17" passage="Job 42:1-17"><i>ch.</i> xlii.</scripRef> Upon the whole, we learn
that <i>many are the afflictions of the righteous, but</i> that
when the Lord <i>delivers them out of them all</i> the <i>trial of
their faith will be found to praise, and honour, and glory.</i></p>
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