mh_parser/vol_split/18 - Job/Chapter 14.xml

<div2 id="Job.xv" n="xv" next="Job.xvi" prev="Job.xiv" progress="7.50%" title="Chapter XIV">
<h2 id="Job.xv-p0.1">J O B</h2>
<h3 id="Job.xv-p0.2">CHAP. XIV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Job.xv-p1">Job had turned from speaking to his friends,
finding it to no purpose to reason with them, and here he goes on
to speak to God and himself. He had reminded his friends of their
frailty and mortality (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.13.12" parsed="|Job|13|12|0|0" passage="Job 13:12"><i>ch.</i>
xiii. 12</scripRef>); here he reminds himself of his own, and
pleads it with God for some mitigation of his miseries. We have
here an account, I. Of man's life, that it is, 1. Short, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.1" parsed="|Job|14|1|0|0" passage="Job 14:1">ver. 1</scripRef>. 2. Sorrowful, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.1" parsed="|Job|14|1|0|0" passage="Job 14:1">ver. 1</scripRef>. 3. Sinful, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.4" parsed="|Job|14|4|0|0" passage="Job 14:4">ver. 4</scripRef>. 4. Stinted, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.5 Bible:Job.14.14" parsed="|Job|14|5|0|0;|Job|14|14|0|0" passage="Job 14:5,14">ver. 5, 14</scripRef>. II. Of man's death, that it
puts a final period to our present life, to which we shall not
again return (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.7-Job.14.12" parsed="|Job|14|7|14|12" passage="Job 14:7-12">ver.
7-12</scripRef>), that it hides us from the calamities of life
(<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.13" parsed="|Job|14|13|0|0" passage="Job 14:13">ver. 13</scripRef>), destroys the
hopes of life (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.18-Job.14.19" parsed="|Job|14|18|14|19" passage="Job 14:18,19">ver. 18,
19</scripRef>), sends us away from the business of life (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.20" parsed="|Job|14|20|0|0" passage="Job 14:20">ver. 20</scripRef>), and keeps us in the dark
concerning our relations in this life, how much soever we have
formerly been in care about them <scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.10" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.21-Job.14.22" parsed="|Job|14|21|14|22" passage="Job 14:21,22">ver. 21, 22</scripRef>. III. The use Job makes of
all this. 1. He pleads it with God, who, he thought, was too strict
and severe with him (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.11" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.16-Job.14.17" parsed="|Job|14|16|14|17" passage="Job 14:16,17">ver. 16,
17</scripRef>), begging that, in consideration of his frailty, he
would not contend with him (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.12" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.3" parsed="|Job|14|3|0|0" passage="Job 14:3">ver.
3</scripRef>), but grant him some respite, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.13" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.6" parsed="|Job|14|6|0|0" passage="Job 14:6">ver. 6</scripRef>. 2. He engages himself to prepare for
death (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.14" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.14" parsed="|Job|14|14|0|0" passage="Job 14:14">ver. 14</scripRef>), and
encourages himself to hope that it would be comfortable to him,
<scripRef id="Job.xv-p1.15" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.15" parsed="|Job|14|15|0|0" passage="Job 14:15">ver. 15</scripRef>. This chapter is
proper for funeral solemnities; and serious meditations on it will
help us both to get good by the death of others and to get ready
for our own.</p>
<scripCom id="Job.xv-p1.16" osisRef="Bible:Job.14" parsed="|Job|14|0|0|0" passage="Job 14" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Job.xv-p1.17" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.1-Job.14.6" parsed="|Job|14|1|14|6" passage="Job 14:1-6" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.14.1-Job.14.6">
<h4 id="Job.xv-p1.18">Brevity and Frailty of Human
Life. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xv-p1.19">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xv-p2">1 Man <i>that is</i> born of a woman <i>is</i>
of few days, and full of trouble.   2 He cometh forth like a
flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth
not.   3 And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and
bringest me into judgment with thee?   4 Who can bring a clean
<i>thing</i> out of an unclean? not one.   5 Seeing his days
<i>are</i> determined, the number of his months <i>are</i> with
thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;   6
Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as a
hireling, his day.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p3">We are here led to think,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p4">I. Of the original of human life. God is
indeed its great original, for he <i>breathed into man the breath
of life</i> and in him we live; but we date it from our birth, and
thence we must date both its frailty and its pollution. 1. Its
frailty: <i>Man, that is born of a woman, is</i> therefore <i>of
few days,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xv-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.1" parsed="|Job|14|1|0|0" passage="Job 14:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>.
This may refer to the first woman, who was called <i>Eve,</i>
because she was the mother of all living. Of her, who being
deceived by the tempter was first in the transgression, we are all
born, and consequently derive from her that sin and corruption
which both shorten our days and sadden them. Or it may refer to
every man's immediate mother. The woman is the weaker vessel, and
we know that <i>partus sequitur ventrem—the child takes after the
mother.</i> Let not the strong man therefore glory in his strength,
or in the strength of his father, but remember that he is born of a
woman, and that, when God pleases, the <i>mighty men become as
women,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xv-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.51.30" parsed="|Jer|51|30|0|0" passage="Jer 51:30">Jer. li. 30</scripRef>. 2.
Its pollution (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.4" parsed="|Job|14|4|0|0" passage="Job 14:4"><i>v.</i>
4</scripRef>): <i>Who can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean?</i> If man be born of a woman that is a sinner, how can it
be otherwise than that he should be a sinner? See <scripRef id="Job.xv-p4.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.25.4" parsed="|Job|25|4|0|0" passage="Job 25:4"><i>ch.</i> xxv. 4</scripRef>. <i>How can he be
clean that is born of a woman?</i> Clean children cannot come from
unclean parents any more than pure streams from an impure spring or
grapes from thorns. Our habitual corruption is derived with our
nature from our parents, and is therefore bred in the bone. Our
blood is not only attainted by a legal conviction, but tainted with
an hereditary disease. Our Lord Jesus, being made sin for us, is
said to be <i>made of a woman,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xv-p4.5" osisRef="Bible:Gal.4.4" parsed="|Gal|4|4|0|0" passage="Ga 4:4">Gal.
iv. 4</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p5">II. Of the nature of human life: it is <i>a
flower,</i> it is a <i>shadow,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xv-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.2" parsed="|Job|14|2|0|0" passage="Job 14:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>. The flower is fading, and all
its beauty soon withers and is gone. The shadow is fleeting, and
its very being will soon be lost and drowned in the shadows of the
night. Of neither do we make any account; in neither do we put any
confidence.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p6">III. Of the shortness and uncertainty of
human life: Man is <i>of few days.</i> Life is here computed, not
by months or years, but by days, for we cannot be sure of any day
but that it may be our last. These days are few, fewer than we
think of, few at the most, in comparison with the days of the first
patriarchs, much more in comparison with the days of eternity, but
much fewer to most, who come short of what we call <i>the age of
man.</i> Man sometimes no sooner comes forth than he <i>is cut
down</i>—comes forth out of the womb than he dies in the
cradle—comes forth into the world and enters into the business of
it than he is hurried away as soon as he has laid his hand to the
plough. If not cut down immediately, yet <i>he flees as a
shadow,</i> and never continues in one stay, in one shape, but the
fashion of it passes away; so does this world, and our life in it,
<scripRef id="Job.xv-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.7.31" parsed="|1Cor|7|31|0|0" passage="1Co 7:31">1 Cor. vii. 31</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p7">IV. Of the calamitous state of human life.
Man, as he is short-lived, so he is sad-lived. Though he had but a
few days to spend here, yet, if he might rejoice in those few, it
were well (a short life and a merry one is the boast of some); but
it is not so. During these few days he is <i>full of trouble,</i>
not only troubled, but full of trouble, either toiling or fretting,
grieving or fearing. No day passes without some vexation, some
hurry, some disorder or other. Those that are fond of the world
shall have enough of it. He is <i>satur tremore—full of
commotion.</i> The fewness of his days creates him a continual
trouble and uneasiness in expectation of the period of them, and he
always hangs in doubt of his life. Yet, since man's days are so
full of trouble, it is well that they are few, that the soul's
imprisonment in the body, and banishment from the Lord, are not
perpetual, are not long. When we come to heaven our days will be
many, and perfectly free from trouble, and in the mean time faith,
hope, and love, balance the present grievances.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p8">V. Of the sinfulness of human life, arising
from the sinfulness of the human nature. So some understand that
question (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.4" parsed="|Job|14|4|0|0" passage="Job 14:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>),
<i>Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?</i>—a clean
performance from an unclean principle? Note, Actual transgressions
are the natural product of habitual corruption, which is
<i>therefore</i> called <i>original</i> sin, because it is the
original of all our sins. This holy Job here laments, as all that
are sanctified do, running up the streams to the fountain
(<scripRef id="Job.xv-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.51.5" parsed="|Ps|51|5|0|0" passage="Ps 51:5">Ps. li. 5</scripRef>); and some think
he intends it as a plea with God for compassion: "Lord, be not
extreme to mark my sins of human frailty and infirmity, for thou
knowest my weakness. <i>O remember that I am flesh!</i>" The
Chaldee paraphrase has an observable reading of this verse: <i>Who
can make a man clean that is polluted with sin? Cannot one? that
is, God. Or who but God, who is one, and will spare him?</i> God,
by his almighty grace, can change the skin of the Ethiopian, the
skin of Job, though clothed with worms.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p9">VI. Of the settled period of human life,
<scripRef id="Job.xv-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.5" parsed="|Job|14|5|0|0" passage="Job 14:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p10">1. Three things we are here assured of:—
(1.) That our life will come to an end; our days upon earth are not
numberless, are not endless, no, they are numbered, and will soon
be finished, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Dan.5.26" parsed="|Dan|5|26|0|0" passage="Da 5:26">Dan. v. 26</scripRef>.
(2.) That it is determined, in the counsel and decree of God, how
long we shall live and when we shall die. The number of our months
is with God, at the disposal of his power, which cannot be
controlled, and under the view of his omniscience, which cannot be
deceived. It is certain that God's providence has the ordering of
the period of our lives; our times are in his hand. The powers of
nature depend upon him, and act under him. In him we live and move.
Diseases are his servants; he kills and makes alive. Nothing comes
to pass by chance, no, not the execution done by a bow drawn at a
venture. It is therefore certain that God's prescience has
determined it before; for <i>known unto God are all his works.</i>
Whatever he does he determined, yet with a regard partly to the
settled course of nature (the end and the means are determined
together) and to the settled rules of moral government, punishing
evil and rewarding good in this life. We are no more governed by
the Stoic's blind fate than by the Epicurean's blind fortune. (3.)
That the bounds God has fixed we cannot pass; for his counsels are
unalterable, his foresight being infallible.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p11">2. These considerations Job here urges as
reasons, (1.) Why God should not be so strict in taking cognizance
of him and of his slips and failings (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.3" parsed="|Job|14|3|0|0" passage="Job 14:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>): "Since I have such a corrupt
nature within, and am liable to so much trouble, which is a
constant temptation from without, <i>dost thou open thy eyes</i>
and fasten them <i>upon such a one,</i> extremely to mark what I do
amiss? <scripRef id="Job.xv-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.13.27" parsed="|Job|13|27|0|0" passage="Job 13:27"><i>ch.</i> xiii.
27</scripRef>. And dost thou <i>bring me,</i> such a worthless worm
as I am, <i>into judgment with thee</i> who art so quick sighted to
discover the least failing, so holy to hate it, so just to condemn
it, and so mighty to punish it?" The consideration of our own
inability to contend with God, of our own sinfulness and weakness,
should engage us to pray, <i>Lord, enter not into judgment with thy
servant.</i> (2.) Why he should not be so severe in his dealings
with him: "Lord, I have but a little time to live. I must certainly
and shortly go hence, and the few days I have to spend here are, at
the best, full of trouble. O let me have a little respite!
<scripRef id="Job.xv-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.6" parsed="|Job|14|6|0|0" passage="Job 14:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. Turn from
afflicting a poor creature thus, and let him rest awhile; allow him
some breathing time, <i>until he shall accomplish as a hireling his
day.</i> It is appointed to me once to die; let that one day
suffice me, and let me not thus be continually dying, dying a
thousand deaths. Let it suffice that my life, at best, is <i>as the
day of a hireling,</i> a day of toil and labour. I am content to
accomplish that, and will make the best of the common hardships of
human life, the burden and heat of the day; but let me not feel
those uncommon tortures, let not my life be as the day of a
malefactor, all execution-day." Thus may we find some relief under
great troubles by recommending ourselves to the compassion of that
God who knows our frame and will consider it, and our being out of
frame too.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Job.xv-p11.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.7-Job.14.15" parsed="|Job|14|7|14|15" passage="Job 14:7-15" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.14.7-Job.14.15">
<h4 id="Job.xv-p11.5">Death Anticipated. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xv-p11.6">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xv-p12">7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut
down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof
will not cease.   8 Though the root thereof wax old in the
earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;   9 <i>Yet</i>
through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like
a plant.   10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth
up the ghost, and where <i>is</i> he?   11 <i>As</i> the
waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
  12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens
<i>be</i> no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their
sleep.   13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that
thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou
wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!   14 If a man
die, shall he live <i>again?</i> all the days of my appointed time
will I wait, till my change come.   15 Thou shalt call, and I
will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine
hands.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p13">We have seen what Job has to say concerning
life; let us now see what he has to say concerning death, which his
thoughts were very much conversant with, now that he was sick and
sore. It is not unseasonable, when we are in health, to think of
dying; but it is an inexcusable incogitancy if, when we are already
taken into the custody of death's messengers, we look upon it as a
thing at a distance. Job had already shown that death will come,
and that its hour is already fixed. Now here he shows,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p14">I. That death is a removal for ever out of
this world. This he had spoken of before (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.7.9-Job.7.10" parsed="|Job|7|9|7|10" passage="Job 7:9,10"><i>ch.</i> vii. 9, 10</scripRef>), and now he mentions
it again; for, though it be a truth that needs not be proved, yet
it needs to be much considered, that it may be duly improved.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p15">1. A man cut down by death will not revive
again, as a tree cut down will. What hope there is of a tree he
shows very elegantly, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.7-Job.14.9" parsed="|Job|14|7|14|9" passage="Job 14:7-9"><i>v.</i>
7-9</scripRef>. If the body of the tree be cut down, and only the
stem or stump left in the ground, though it seem dead and dry, yet
it will shoot out young boughs again, as if it were but newly
planted. The moisture of the earth and the rain of heaven are, as
it were, scented and perceived by the stump of a tree, and they
have an influence upon it to revive it; but the dead body of a man
would not perceive them, nor be in the least affected by them. In
Nebuchadnezzar's dream, when his being deprived of the use of his
reason was signified by the cutting down of a tree, his return to
it again was signified by the leaving of the stump in the earth
with a band of iron and brass to be <i>wet with the dew of
heaven,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xv-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Dan.4.15" parsed="|Dan|4|15|0|0" passage="Da 4:15">Dan. iv. 15</scripRef>. But
man has no such prospect of a return to life. The vegetable life is
a cheap and easy thing: the scent of water will recover it. The
animal life, in some insects and fowls, is so: the heat of the sun
retrieves it. But the rational soul, when once retired, is too
great, too noble, a thing to be recalled by any of the powers of
nature; it is out of the reach of sun or rain, and cannot be
restored but by the immediate operations of Omnipotence itself; for
(<scripRef id="Job.xv-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.10" parsed="|Job|14|10|0|0" passage="Job 14:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>) <i>man
dieth and wasteth, away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is
he?</i> Two words are here used for man:—<i>Geber, a mighty
man,</i> though mighty, dies; <i>Adam, a man of the earth,</i>
because earthy, gives up the ghost. Note, Man is a dying creature.
He is here described by what occurs, (1.) Before death: he
<i>wastes away;</i> he is continually wasting, dying daily,
spending upon the quick stock of life. Sickness and old age are
wasting things to the flesh, the strength, the beauty. (2.) In
death: <i>he gives up the ghost;</i> the soul leaves the body, and
returns to God who gave it, the Father of spirits. (3.) After
death: <i>Where is he?</i> He is not where he was; his place knows
him no more; but <i>is he nowhere?</i> So some read it. Yes, he is
somewhere; and it is a very awful consideration to think where
those are that have given up the ghost, and where we shall be when
we give it up. It has gone to the world of spirits, gone into
eternity, gone to return no more to this world.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p16">2. A man laid down in the grave will not
rise up again, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.11-Job.14.12" parsed="|Job|14|11|14|12" passage="Job 14:11,12"><i>v.</i> 11,
12</scripRef>. Every night we lie down to sleep, and in the morning
we awake and rise again; but at death we must lie down in the
grave, not to awake or rise again to such a world, such a state, as
we are now in, never to awake or arise <i>until the heavens,</i>
the faithful measures of time, shall <i>be no more,</i> and
consequently time itself shall come to an end and be swallowed up
in eternity; so that the life of man may fitly be compared to the
waters of a land-flood, which spread far and make a great show, but
they are shallow, and when they are cut off from the sea or river,
the swelling and overflowing of which was the cause of them, they
soon decay and dry up, and their place knows them no more. The
waters of life are soon exhaled and disappear. The body, like some
of those waters, sinks and soaks into the earth, and is buried
there; the soul, like others of them, is drawn upwards, to mingle
with the waters above the firmament. The learned Sir Richard
Blackmore makes this also to be a dissimilitude. If the waters
decay and be dried up in the summer, yet they will return again in
the winter; but it is not so with the life of man. Take part of his
paraphrase in his own words:—</p>
<verse id="Job.xv-p16.2">
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.3">A flowing river, or a standing lake,</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.4">May their dry banks and naked shores forsake;</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.5">Their waters may exhale and upward move,</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.6">Their channel leave to roll in clouds above;</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.7">But the returning water will restore</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.8">What in the summer they had lost before:</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.9">But if, O man! thy vital streams desert</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.10">Their purple channels and defraud the heart,</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.11">With fresh recruits they ne'er will be supplied,</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xv-p16.12">Nor feel their leaping life's returning tide.</l>
</verse>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p17">II. That yet there will be a return of man
to life again in another world, at the end of time, when <i>the
heavens</i> are <i>no more.</i> Then <i>they shall awake and be
raised out of their sleep.</i> The resurrection of the dead was
doubtless an article of Job's creed, as appears, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.19.26" parsed="|Job|19|26|0|0" passage="Job 19:26"><i>ch.</i> xix. 26</scripRef>, and to that, it should
seem, he has an eye here, where, in the belief of that, we have
three things:—</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p18">1. A humble petition for a hiding-place in
the grave, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.13" parsed="|Job|14|13|0|0" passage="Job 14:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>.
It was not only a passionate weariness of this life that he wished
to die, but in a pious assurance of a better life, to which at
length he should arise. <i>O that thou wouldst hide me in the
grave!</i> The grave is not only a resting-place, but a
hiding-place, to the people of God. God has the key of the grave,
to let in now and to let out at the resurrection. He <i>hides men
in the grave,</i> as we hide our treasure in a place of secresy and
safety; and he who hides will find, and nothing shall be lost. "O
that thou wouldst hide me, not only from the storms and troubles of
this life, but for the bliss and glory of a better life! Let me lie
in the grave, reserved for immortality, in secret from all the
world, but not from thee, not from those eyes which saw my
substance when first curiously wrought in <i>the lowest parts of
the earth,</i>" <scripRef id="Job.xv-p18.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.139.15-Ps.139.16" parsed="|Ps|139|15|139|16" passage="Ps 139:15,16">Ps. cxxxix. 15,
16</scripRef>. There let me lie, (1.) <i>Until thy wrath be
past.</i> As long as the bodies of the saints lie in the grave, so
long there are some remains of that wrath which they were by nature
children of, so long they are under some of the effects of sin;
but, when the body is raised, it is wholly past—death, the last
enemy, will then be totally destroyed. (2.) Until the <i>set
time</i> comes for my being remembered, as Noah was remembered in
the ark (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p18.3" osisRef="Bible:Gen.8.1" parsed="|Gen|8|1|0|0" passage="Ge 8:1">Gen. viii. 1</scripRef>), where
God not only hid him from the destruction of the old world, but
reserved him for the reparation of a new world. The bodies of the
saints shall not be forgotten in the grave. There is a time
appointed, a time set, for their being enquired after. We cannot be
sure that we shall look through the darkness of our present
troubles and see good days after them in this world; but, if we can
but get well to the grave, we may with an eye of faith look through
the darkness of that, as Job here, and see better days on the other
side of it, in a better world.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p19">2. A holy resolution patiently to attend
the will of God both in his death and his resurrection (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.14" parsed="|Job|14|14|0|0" passage="Job 14:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>): <i>If a man die,
shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait
until my change come.</i> Job's friends proving miserable
comforters, he set himself to be the more his own comforter. His
case was now bad, but he pleases himself with the expectation of a
change. I think it cannot be meant of his return to a prosperous
condition in this world. His friends indeed flattered him with the
hopes of that, but he himself all along despaired of it. Comforts
founded upon uncertainties at best must needs be uncertain
comforts; and therefore, no doubt, it is something more sure than
that which he here bears up himself with the expectation of. The
change he waits for must therefore be understood either, (1.) Of
the change of the resurrection, when the vile body shall be changed
(<scripRef id="Job.xv-p19.2" osisRef="Bible:Phil.3.21" parsed="|Phil|3|21|0|0" passage="Php 3:21">Phil. iii. 21</scripRef>), and a
great and glorious change it will be; and then that question, <i>If
a man die, shall he live again?</i> must be taken by way of
admiration. "Strange! Shall these dry bones live! If so, all the
time appointed for the continuance of the separation between soul
and body my separate soul shall wait until that change comes, when
it shall be united again to the body, <i>and my flesh also shall
rest in hope.</i>" <scripRef id="Job.xv-p19.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.16.9" parsed="|Ps|16|9|0|0" passage="Ps 16:9">Ps. xvi.
9</scripRef>. Or, (2.) Of the change at death. "<i>If a man die,
shall he live again?</i> No, not such a life as he now lives; and
therefore I will patiently wait until that change comes which will
put a period to my calamities, and not impatiently wish for the
anticipation of it, as I have done." Observe here, [1.] That it is
a serious thing to die; it is a work by itself. It is a change;
there is a visible change in the body, its appearance altered, its
actions brought to an end, but a greater change with the soul,
which quits the body, and removes to the world of spirits, finishes
its state of probation and enters upon that of retribution. This
change will come, and it will be a final change, not like the
transmutations of the elements, which return to their former state.
No, we must die, not thus to live again. It is but once to die, and
that had need be well done that is to be done but once. An error
here is fatal, conclusive, and not again to be rectified. [2.] That
therefore it is the duty of every one of us to wait for that
change, and to continue waiting all the days of our appointed time.
The time of life is an appointed time; that time is to be reckoned
by days; and those days are to be spent in waiting for our change.
That is, <i>First,</i> We must expect that it will come, and think
much of it. <i>Secondly,</i> We must desire that it would come, as
those that long to be with Christ. <i>Thirdly,</i> We must be
willing to tarry until it does come, as those that believe God's
time to be the best. <i>Fourthly,</i> We must give diligence to get
ready against it comes, that it may be a blessed change to us.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p20">3. A joyful expectation of bliss and
satisfaction in this (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.15" parsed="|Job|14|15|0|0" passage="Job 14:15"><i>v.</i>
15</scripRef>): Then <i>thou shalt call, and I will answer
thee.</i> Now, he was under such a cloud that he could not, he
durst not, answer (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.9.15 Bible:Job.9.35 Bible:Job.13.22" parsed="|Job|9|15|0|0;|Job|9|35|0|0;|Job|13|22|0|0" passage="Job 9:15,35,13:22"><i>ch.</i>
ix. 15, 35; xiii. 22</scripRef>); but he comforted himself with
this, that there would come a time when God would call and he
should answer. Then, that is, (1.) At the resurrection, "Thou shalt
call me out of the grave, by the voice of the archangel, and I will
answer and come at the call." The body is the <i>work of God's
hands,</i> and he will have a desire to that, having prepared a
glory for it. Or, (2.) At death: "Thou shalt call my body to the
grave, and my soul to thyself, and I will answer, Ready, Lord,
ready—Coming, coming; here I am." Gracious souls can cheerfully
answer death's summons, and appear to his writ. Their spirits are
not forcibly required from them (as <scripRef id="Job.xv-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:Luke.12.20" parsed="|Luke|12|20|0|0" passage="Lu 12:20">Luke xii. 20</scripRef>), but willingly resigned by
them, and the earthly tabernacle not violently pulled down, but
voluntarily laid down, with this assurance, "Thou <i>wilt have a
desire to the work of thy hands.</i> Thou hast mercy in store for
me, not only as made by thy providence, but new-made by thy grace;"
otherwise <i>he that made them will not save them.</i> Note, Grace
in the soul is the work of God's own hands, and therefore he will
not forsake it in this world (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p20.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.138.8" parsed="|Ps|138|8|0|0" passage="Ps 138:8">Ps.
cxxxviii. 8</scripRef>), but will have a desire to it, to perfect
it in the other, and to crown it with endless glory.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Job.xv-p20.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.16-Job.14.22" parsed="|Job|14|16|14|22" passage="Job 14:16-22" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.14.16-Job.14.22">
<h4 id="Job.xv-p20.6">Complainings of Job. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xv-p20.7">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xv-p21">16 For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou
not watch over my sin?   17 My transgression <i>is</i> sealed
up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.   18 And surely
the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out
of his place.   19 The waters wear the stones: thou washest
away the things which grow <i>out</i> of the dust of the earth; and
thou destroyest the hope of man.   20 Thou prevailest for ever
against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and
sendest him away.   21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth
<i>it</i> not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth
<i>it</i> not of them.   22 But his flesh upon him shall have
pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p22">Job here returns to his complaints; and,
though he is not without hope of future bliss, he finds it very
hard to get over his present grievances.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p23">I. He complains of the particular hardships
he apprehended himself under from the strictness of God's justice,
<scripRef id="Job.xv-p23.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.16-Job.14.17" parsed="|Job|14|16|14|17" passage="Job 14:16,17"><i>v.</i> 16, 17</scripRef>.
<i>Therefore</i> he longed to go hence to that world where God's
wrath will be past, because now he was under the continual tokens
of it, as a child, under the severe discipline of the rod, longs to
be of age. "When shall my change come? <i>For now thou</i> seemest
to me to <i>number my steps,</i> and <i>watch over my sin,</i> and
<i>seal it up in a bag,</i> as bills of indictment are kept safely,
to be produced against the prisoner." See <scripRef id="Job.xv-p23.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.34" parsed="|Deut|32|34|0|0" passage="De 32:34">Deut. xxxii. 34</scripRef>. "Thou takest all advantages
against me; old scores are called over, every infirmity is
animadverted upon, and no sooner is a false step taken than I am
beaten for it." Now, 1. Job does right to the divine justice in
owning that he smarted for his sins and transgressions, that he had
done enough to deserve all that was laid upon him; for there was
sin in all his steps, and he was guilty of transgression enough to
bring all this ruin upon him, if it were strictly enquired into: he
is far from saying that he perishes being innocent. But, 2. He does
wrong to the divine goodness in suggesting that God was extreme to
mark what he did amiss, and made the worst of every thing. He spoke
to this purport, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p23.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.13.27" parsed="|Job|13|27|0|0" passage="Job 13:27"><i>ch.</i> xiii.
27</scripRef>. It was unadvisedly said, and therefore we will not
dwell too much upon it. God does indeed see all our sins; he sees
sin in his own people; but he is not severe in reckoning with us,
nor is the law ever stretched against us, but we are punished less
than our iniquities deserve. God does indeed seal and sew up,
against the day of wrath, the transgression of the impenitent, but
the sins of his people he blots out as a cloud.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p24">II. He complains of the wasting condition
of mankind in general. We live in a dying world. <i>Who knows the
power of God's anger, by which we are consumed and troubled, and in
which all our days are passed away?</i> See <scripRef id="Job.xv-p24.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.90.7-Ps.90.9 Bible:Ps.90.11" parsed="|Ps|90|7|90|9;|Ps|90|11|0|0" passage="Ps 90:7-9,11">Ps. xc. 7-9, 11</scripRef>. And who can bear up
against his rebukes? <scripRef id="Job.xv-p24.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.39.11" parsed="|Ps|39|11|0|0" passage="Ps 39:11">Ps. xxxix.
11</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p25">1. We see the decays of the earth itself.
(1.) Of the strongest parts of it, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p25.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.18" parsed="|Job|14|18|0|0" passage="Job 14:18"><i>v.</i> 18</scripRef>. Nothing will last always, for
we see even mountains moulder and come to nought; they wither and
fall as a leaf; rocks wax old and pass away by the continual
beating of the sea against them. <i>The waters wear the stones</i>
with constant dropping, <i>non vi, sed sæpe cadendo—not by the
violence, but by the constancy with which they fall.</i> On this
earth every thing is the worse for the wearing. <i>Tempus edax
rerum—Time devours all things.</i> It is not so with the heavenly
bodies. (2.) Of the natural products of it. The things which grow
out of the earth, and seem to be firmly rooted in it, are sometimes
by an excess of rain washed away, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p25.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.19" parsed="|Job|14|19|0|0" passage="Job 14:19"><i>v.</i> 19</scripRef>. Some think he pleads this for
relief: "Lord, my patience will not hold out always; even rocks and
mountains will fail at last; therefore cease the controversy."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xv-p26">2. No marvel then if we see the decays of
man upon the earth, for he is of the earth, earthy. Job begins to
think his case is not singular, and therefore he ought to reconcile
himself to the common lot. We perceive by many instances, (1.) How
vain it is to expect much from the enjoyments of life: "<i>Thou
destroyest the hope of man,</i>" that is, "puttest an end to all
the projects he had framed and all the prospects of satisfaction he
had flattered himself with." Death will be the destruction of all
those hopes which are built upon worldly confidences and confined
to worldly comforts. Hope in Christ, and hope in heaven, death will
consummate and not destroy. (2.) How vain it is to struggle against
the assaults of death (<scripRef id="Job.xv-p26.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.20" parsed="|Job|14|20|0|0" passage="Job 14:20"><i>v.</i>
20</scripRef>): <i>Thou prevailest for ever against him.</i> Note,
Man is an unequal match for God. Whom God contends with he will
certainly prevail against, prevail for ever against so that they
shall never be able to make head again. Note further, The stroke of
death is irresistible; it is to no purpose to dispute its summons.
God prevails against man and he passes away, and lo he is not. Look
upon a dying man, and see, [1.] How his looks are altered: <i>Thou
changest his countenance,</i> and this in two ways:—<i>First,</i>
By the disease of his body. When a man has been a few days sick
what a change is there in his countenance! How much more when he
has been a few minutes dead! The countenance which was majestic and
awful becomes mean and despicable—that was lovely and amiable
becomes ghastly and frightful. <i>Bury my dead out of my sight.</i>
Where then is the admired beauty? Death changes the countenance,
and then sends us away out of this world, gives us one dismission
hence, never to return. <i>Secondly,</i> By the discomposure of his
mind. Note, The approach of death will make the strongest and
stoutest to change countenance; it will make the most merry smiling
countenance to look grave and serious, and the most bold daring
countenance to look pale and timorous. [2.] How little he is
concerned in the affairs of his family, which once lay so near his
heart. When he is in the hands of the harbingers of death, suppose
struck with a palsy or apoplexy, or delirious in a fever, or in
conflict with death, tell him then the most agreeable news, or the
most painful, concerning his children, it is all alike, he knows it
not, he perceives it not, <scripRef id="Job.xv-p26.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.21" parsed="|Job|14|21|0|0" passage="Job 14:21"><i>v.</i>
21</scripRef>. He is going to that world where he will be a perfect
stranger to all those things which here filled and affected him.
The consideration of this should moderate our cares concerning our
children and families. God will know what comes of them when we are
gone. To him therefore let us commit them, with him let us leave
them, and not burden ourselves with needless fruitless cares
concerning them. [3.] How dreadful the agonies of death are
(<scripRef id="Job.xv-p26.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.14.22" parsed="|Job|14|22|0|0" passage="Job 14:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>): <i>While
his flesh is upon him</i> (so it may be read), that is, the body he
is so loth to lay down,: <i>it shall have pain; and while his soul
is within him,</i> that is, the spirit he is so loth to resign, it
shall mourn. Note, Dying work is hard work; dying pangs are,
commonly, sore pangs. It is folly therefore for men to defer their
repentance to a death-bed, and to have that to do which is the one
thing needful when they are really unfit to do any thing: but it is
true wisdom by making our peace with God in Christ and keeping a
good conscience, to treasure up comforts which will support and
relieve us against the pains and sorrows of a dying hour.</p>
</div></div2>