193 lines
14 KiB
XML
193 lines
14 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Job.i" n="i" next="Job.ii" prev="Job" progress="0.41%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Job.i-p0.1">Job</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Job.i-Page_1" n="1"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Job.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Job.i-p1"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Job.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Job.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Job.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF</h5>
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<h2 id="Job.i-p1.4">J O B.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p2"><span class="smallcaps" id="Job.i-p2.1">This</span> book of
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Job stands by itself, is not connected with any other, and is
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therefore to be considered alone. Many copies of the Hebrew Bible
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place it after the book of Psalms, and some after the Proverbs,
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which perhaps has given occasion to some learned men to imagine it
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to have been written by Isaiah or some of the later prophets. But,
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as the subject appears to have been much more ancient, so we have
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no reason to think but that the composition of the book was, and
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that therefore it is most fitly placed first in this collection of
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divine morals: also, being doctrinal, it is proper to precede and
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introduce the book of Psalms, which is devotional, and the book of
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Proverbs, which is practical; for how shall we worship or obey a
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God whom we know not? As to this book,</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p3">I. We are sure that it is given by
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inspiration of God, though we are not certain who was the penman of
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it. The Jews, though no friends to Job, because he was a stranger
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to the commonwealth of Israel, yet, as faithful conservators of
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<i>the oracles of God</i> committed to them, always retained this
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book in their sacred canon. The history is referred to by one
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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
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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.
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13</scripRef>) is quoted by another apostle, with the usual form of
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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
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the ancients that this history was written by Moses himself in
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Midian, and delivered to his suffering brethren in Egypt, for their
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support and comfort under their burdens, and the encouragement of
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their hope that God would in due time deliver and enrich them, as
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he did this patient sufferer. Some conjecture that it was written
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originally in Arabic, and afterwards translated into Hebrew, for
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the use of the Jewish church, by Solomon (so Monsieur Jurieu) or
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some other inspired writer. It seems most probable to me that Elihu
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was the penman of it, at least of the discourses, because
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(<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,
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16</scripRef>) he mingles the words of a historian with those of a
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disputant: but Moses perhaps wrote the first two chapters and the
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last, to give light to the discourses; for in them God is
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frequently called <i>Jehovah,</i> but not once in all the
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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.
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9</scripRef>. That name was but little known to the patriarchs
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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
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Job wrote it himself, some of the Jewish writers themselves own him
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a <i>prophet among the Gentiles;</i> if Elihu, we find he had a
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spirit of prophecy which <i>filled him with matter and constrained
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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.
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18</scripRef>.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p4">II. We are sure that it is, for the
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substance of it, a true history, and not a romance, though the
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dialogues are poetical. No doubt there was such a man as Job; the
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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
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his prosperity and piety, his strange afflictions and exemplary
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patience, the substance of his conferences with his friends, and
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God's discourse with him out of the whirlwind, with his return at
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length to a very prosperous condition, no doubt is exactly true,
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though the inspired penman is allowed the usual liberty of putting
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the matter of which Job and his friends discoursed into his own
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words.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p5">III. We are sure that it is very ancient,
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though we cannot fix the precise time either when Job lived or when
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the book was written. So many, so evident, are its hoary hairs, the
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marks of its antiquity, that we have reason to think it of equal
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date with the book of Genesis itself, and that holy Job was
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contemporary with Isaac and Jacob; though not coheir with them of
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the promise of the earthly Canaan, yet a joint-expectant with them
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of the <i>better country,</i> that is, <i>the heavenly.</i>
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Probably he was of the posterity of Nahor, Abraham's brother, whose
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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.
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21</scripRef>), and in whose family religion was for some ages kept
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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.
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53</scripRef>, where God is called, not only <i>the God of
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Abraham,</i> but <i>the God of Nahor.</i> He lived before the age
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of man was shortened to seventy or eighty, as it was in Moses's
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time, before sacrifices were confined to one altar, before the
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general apostasy of the nations from the knowledge and worship of
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the true God, and while yet there was no other idolatry known than
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the worship of the sun and moon, and that punished by the Judges,
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<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>.
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He lived while God was known by the name of <i>God Almighty</i>
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more than by the name of <i>Jehovah;</i> for he is called
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<i>Shaddai—the Almighty,</i> above thirty times in this book. He
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lived while divine knowledge was conveyed, not by writing, but by
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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.
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18; v. 1</scripRef>. And we have therefore reason to think that he
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lived before Moses, because here is no mention at all of the
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deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, or the giving of the law. There
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is indeed one passage which might be made to allude to the drowning
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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.
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12</scripRef>): <i>He divideth the sea with his power, and by his
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understanding he smiteth through Rahab,</i> which name Egypt is
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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.
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9</scripRef>. But that may as well refer to the proud waves of the
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sea. We conclude therefore that we are here got back to the
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patriarchal age, and, besides its authority, we receive this book
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with veneration for its antiquity.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p6">IV. We are sure that it is of great use to
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the church, and to every good Christian, though there are many
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passages in it dark and hard to be understood. We cannot perhaps be
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confident of the true meaning of every Arabic word and phrase we
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meet with in it. It is a book that finds a great deal of work for
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the critics; but enough is plain to make the whole profitable, and
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it was all written for our learning.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p7">1. This noble poem presents to us, in very
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clear and lively characters, these five things among others:—(1.)
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<i>A monument of primitive theology.</i> The first and great
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principles of the light of nature, on which natural religion is
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founded, are here, in a warm, and long, and learned dispute, not
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only taken for granted on all sides and not the least doubt made of
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them, but by common consent plainly laid down as eternal truths,
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illustrated and urged as affecting commanding truths. Were ever the
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being of God, his glorious attributes and perfections, his
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unsearchable wisdom, his irresistible power, his inconceivable
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glory, his inflexible justice, and his incontestable sovereignty,
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discoursed of with more clearness, fulness, reverence, and divine
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eloquence, than in this book? The creation of the world, and the
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government of it, are here admirably described, not as matters of
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nice speculation, but as laying most powerful obligations upon us
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to fear and serve, to submit to and trust in, our Creator, owner,
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Lord, and ruler. Moral good and evil, virtue and vice, were never
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drawn more to the life (the beauty of the one and the deformity of
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the other) than in this book; nor the inviolable rule of God's
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judgment more plainly laid down, That <i>happy are the righteous,
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it shall be well with them;</i> and <i>Woe to the wicked, it shall
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be ill with them.</i> These are not questions of the schools to
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keep the learned world in action, nor engines of state to keep the
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unlearned world in awe; no, it appears by this book that they are
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sacred truths of undoubted certainty, and which all the wise and
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sober part of mankind have in every age subscribed and submitted
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to. (2.) It presents us with <i>a specimen of Gentile piety.</i>
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This great saint descended probably not from Abraham, but Nahor;
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or, if from Abraham, not from Isaac, but from one of the sons of
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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
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not from Jacob, but Esau; so that he was out of the pale of the
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covenant of peculiarity, no Israelite, no proselyte, and yet none
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like him for religion, nor such a favourite of heaven upon this
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earth. It was a truth therefore, before St. Peter perceived it,
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that <i>in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness
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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.
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35</scripRef>. There were <i>children of God scattered abroad</i>
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(<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
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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
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with <i>an exposition of the book of Providence,</i> and a clear
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and satisfactory solution of many of the difficult and obscure
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passages of it. The prosperity of the wicked and the afflictions of
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the righteous have always been reckoned two as hard chapters as any
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in that book; but they are here expounded, and reconciled with the
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divine wisdom, purity, and goodness, by the <i>end of these
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things.</i> (4.) It presents us with <i>a great example of
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patience</i> and close adherence to God in the midst of the sorest
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calamities. Sir Richard Blackmore's most ingenious pen, in his
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excellent preface to his paraphrase on this book, makes Job a hero
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proper for an epic poem; for, says he, "He appears brave in
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distress and valiant in affliction, maintains his virtue, and with
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that his character, under the most exasperating provocations that
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the malice of hell could invent, and thereby gives a most noble
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example of passive fortitude, a character no way inferior to that
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of the active hero," &c. (5.) It presents us with <i>an
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illustrious type of Christ,</i> the particulars of which we shall
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endeavour to take notice of as we go along. In general, Job was a
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great sufferer, was emptied and humbled, but in order to his
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greater glory. So Christ abased himself, that we might be exalted.
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The learned bishop Patrick quotes St. Jerome more than once speaking
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of Job as a type of Christ, who <i>for the job that was set before
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him endured the cross,</i> who was persecuted, for a time, by men
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and devils, and seemed forsaken of God too, but was raised to be an
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intercessor even for his friends and had added affliction to his
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misery. When the apostle speaks of the <i>patience of Job</i> he
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immediately takes notice of <i>the end of the Lord,</i> that is, of
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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>
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<p class="indent" id="Job.i-p8">2. In this book we have, (1.) The history
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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
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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>
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iii.</scripRef> (2.) A dispute between him and his friends upon
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them, in which, [1.] The opponents were Eliphaz, Bildad, and
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Zophar. [2.] The respondent was Job. [3.] The moderators were,
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<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>
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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.)
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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
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that <i>many are the afflictions of the righteous, but</i> that
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when the Lord <i>delivers them out of them all</i> the <i>trial of
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their faith will be found to praise, and honour, and glory.</i></p>
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</div2> |