DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 7, 1880,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"My foot has held fast to His steps, His way have I kept and not
declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I
have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." Job
23:11,12.
THUS Job speaks of himself, not by way of boasting, but by way of
vindication. Eliphaz the Temanite and his two companions had brought
distinct charges against Job's character. Because they saw him in such
utter misery they concluded that his adversity must have been sent as a
punishment for his sin and, therefore, they judged him to be a
hypocrite who, under cover of religion, had exercised oppression and
tyranny. Zophar had hinted that wickedness was sweet in Job's mouth and
that he hid iniquity under his tongue. Eliphaz charged him with
hardness of heart to the poor and dared to say, "You have taken a
pledge from your brother for nothing and stripped the naked of their
clothing." This last, from its very impossibility, was meant to show
the extreme meanness to which he falsely imagined that Job must have
descended–how could he strip the naked?. He was evidently firing at
random.
As neither he nor his companions could discover any palpable blot in
Job upon which they could distinctly lay their finger, they bespattered
him right and left with their groundless accusations. They made up, in
venom, for the lack of evidence to back their charges. They felt sure
that there must be some great sin in him to have procured such
extraordinary afflictions and, therefore, by smiting him all over, they
hoped to touch the sore place. Let them stand as a warning to us never
to judge men by their circumstances and never to conclude that a man
must be wicked because he has fallen from riches to poverty.
Job, however, knew his innocence and he was determined not to give way
to them. He said, "You are forgers of lies, physicians of no value. O
that you would altogether hold your peace and it should be your
wisdom!" He fought the battle right manfully. Not, perhaps, without a
little display of temper and self-righteousness, but still, with much
less of either than any of us would have shown had we been in the same
plight and had we been equally conscious of perfect integrity. He has,
in this part of his self-defense, sketched a fine picture of a man
perfect and upright before God. He has set before us the image to which
we should seek to be conformed. Here is the high ideal after which
every Christian should strive and happy shall he be who shall attain to
it.
Blessed is he who, in the hour of his distress, if he is falsely
accused, will be able to say with as much truth as the Patriarch could,
"My foot has held His steps, His way have I kept and not declined.
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have
esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." I ask
you, first, to inspect the picture of Job's holy life, that you may
make it your model. After we have done this, we will look a little
below the surface, asking the question, "How was he enabled to lead
such an admirable life as this. Upon what meat did this great Patriarch
feed that he had grown so eminent."
We shall find the answer in our second head, Job's holy sustenance–"I
have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." May
He, who worked in Job His patience and integrity, by this, our
meditation, teach us the same virtues by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let us sit down before this sketch of JOB'S HOLY LIFE–it will well
repay a meditative study. Note, first, that Job had been, all along, a
man fearing God and walking after the Divine Rule. In the words before
us he dwells much upon the things of God–"His steps." "His way." "The
commandment of His lips." "The words of His mouth." He was
pre-eminently one that "feared God and eschewed evil." He knew God to
be the Lord and worthy to be served and, therefore, he lived in
obedience to His Law which was written upon his instructed conscience.
His way was God's way! He chose that course which the Lord commanded.
He did not seek his own pleasure, nor the carrying out of his own will.
Neither did He follow the fashion of the times, nor conform himself to
the ruling opinion or custom of the age in which he lived–fashion and
custom were nothing to him–he knew no rule but the will of the
Almighty. Like some tall cliff which breasts the flood, he stood out
almost alone, a witness for God in an idolatrous world. He acknowledged
the living God and lived "as seeing Him who is invisible." God's will
had taken the helm of the vessel and the ship was steered in God's
course according to the Divine compass of Infallible Justice and the
unerring chart of the Divine Will!
This is a great point to begin with. It is, indeed, the only sure basis
of a noble character. Ask the man who seeks to be the architect of a
great and honorable character this question–Where do you place God? Is
He second with you? Ah, then, in the judgment of Him whose view
comprehends all human relationships, you will lead a very secondary
kind of life, for the first and most urgent obligation of your being
will be disregarded. But is God first with you? Is this your
determination, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"? Do you
seek, first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness?
If so, you are laying the foundation for a whole or holy character, for
you begin by acknowledging your highest responsibility. In this respect
you will find that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
Whether the way is rough or smooth, uphill or down dale, through green
pastures or burning deserts, let God's way be your way! Where the fiery
cloudy pillar of His Providence leads, be sure to follow and where His
holy statutes command, there promptly go. Ask the Lord to let you hear
His Spirit speak like a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way,
walk you in it." As soon as you see from the Scriptures, or from
conscience, or from Providence, what the will of the Lord is, make
haste and delay not to keep His Commandments.
Set the Lord always before you. Have respect unto His statutes at all
times and in all your ways acknowledge Him. No man will be able to look
back upon his life with complacency unless God has been sitting upon
the throne of his heart and ruling all his thoughts, aims and actions.
Unless he can say with David, "My soul has kept Your testimonies and I
love them exceedingly," he will find much to weep over and little with
which to answer his accusers. We must follow the Lord's way, or our end
will be destruction! We must take hold upon Christ's steps, or our feet
will soon be in slippery places! We must reverence God's Word, or our
own words will be idle and full of vanity. And we must keep God's
Commandments, or we shall be destitute of that holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord.
I set not forth obedience to the Law as the way of salvation, but I
speak to those who profess to be saved already by faith in Christ Jesus
and I remind all of you who are numbered with the company of Believers
that if you are Christ's disciples you will bring forth the fruits of
holiness–if you are God's children you will be like your Father!
Godliness breeds God-likeness! The fear of God leads to imitation of
God and where this is not so, the root of the matter is lacking. The
Scriptural rule is, "by their fruits you shall know them," and by this
we must examine ourselves.
Let us now consider Job's first sentence. He says–"My foot has held
fast to His steps." This expression sets forth great carefulness. He
had watched every step of God, that is to say, he had been minute as to
particulars, observing each precept which he looked upon as being a
footprint which the Lord had made for him to set his foot in and,
observing, also, each detail of the great example of His God. In so far
as God is imitable He is the great example of His people, as He
says–"Be you holy, for I am holy"–and again, "Be you perfect, even as
your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." Job had observed the steps
of God's Justice that he might be just.
Job had observed the steps of God's mercy that he might be pitiful and
compassionate. He had observed the steps of God's bounty that he might
never be guilty of churlishness or lack of liberality. And he had
studied the steps of God's Truth that he might never deceive. He had
watched God's steps of forgiveness, that he might forgive his
adversaries and God's steps of benevolence that he might, also, do good
and communicate, according to his ability, to all that were in need. In
consequence of this he became eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
He delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and those that had
none to help. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon
him and he caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. "My foot," he
says, "has held fast to His steps." He means that he had labored to be
exact in his obedience towards God and in his imitation of the Divine
Character.
Beloved, we shall do well if we are, to the minutest point, observant
of the precepts and example of God in all things. We must follow not
only the right road, but His footprints in that road. We are to be
obedient to our heavenly Father not only in some things, but in all
things–not in some places but in all places, abroad and at home, in
business and in devotion–in the words of our lips and in the thoughts
of our hearts. There is no holy walking without careful watching.
Depend upon it, no man was ever good by chance, nor did anyone ever
become like the Lord Jesus by a happy accident. "I put gold into the
furnace," said Aaron, "and there came out this calf"–but nobody
believed him. If the image was like a calf it was because he had shaped
it with an engraving tool. If it is not to be believed that metal will,
of itself, take the form of a calf, much less will character assume the
likeness of God, Himself, as we see it in the Lord Jesus!
The pattern is too rich and rare, too elaborate and perfect to ever be
reproduced by a careless, half-awakened trifler! No, we must give all
our heart and mind and soul and strength to this business and watch
every step or else our walk will not be close with God, nor pleasing in
His sight. O to be able to say, "My foot has held fast to His steps!"
Notice here that the expression has something in it of tenacity. He
speaks of taking hold upon God's steps. The idea needs to be lit up by
the illustration contained in the original expression. You must go to
mountainous regions to understand it.
In very rough ways a person may walk all the better for having no shoes
on his feet. I sometimes pitied the women of Mentone coming down the
rough places of the mountains barefooted, carrying heavy loads upon
their heads, but I ceased to pity them when I observed that most of
them had a good pair of shoes in the basket at the top! And I
perceived, as I watched them, that they could stand where I slipped
because their feet took hold upon the rock, almost like another pair of
hands. Barefooted they could safely stand and readily climb where feet
encased after our fashion would never carry them!
Many Orientals have a power of grasp in their feet which we appear to
have lost from lack of use. An Arab in taking a determined stand,
actually seems to grasp the ground with his toes! Roberts tells us in
his well-known, "Illustrations," that Easterns, instead of stooping to
pick up things from the ground with their fingers, will pick them up
with their toes. And he tells of a criminal condemned to be beheaded,
who, in order to stand firm when about to die, grasped a shrub with his
foot. Job declares that he took fast hold of God's steps and thus
secured a firm footing. He had a hearty grip of holiness, even as David
said, "I have stuck unto Your testimonies." That eminent scholar, Dr.
Good, renders the passage, "In His steps will I rivet my feet." He
would set them as fast in the footprints of truth and righteousness as
if they were riveted there, so firm was his grip upon that holy way
which his heart had chosen.
This is exactly what we need to do with regard to holiness–we must
feel about for it with a sensitive conscience to know where it is and
when we know it, we must seize upon it eagerly and hold to it as for
our life. The way of holiness is often craggy and Satan tries to make
it very slippery. Unless we can take hold of God's steps we shall soon
slip with our feet and bring grievous injury upon ourselves and
dishonor to His holy name. Beloved, to make up a holy character, there
must be a tenacious adherence to integrity and piety. You must not be
one that can be blown off his feet by the hope of a little gain, or by
the threatening breath of an ungodly man–you must stand fast and stand
firm and against all pressure and blandishment you must seize and grasp
the precepts of the Lord and abide in them, riveted to them.
Standfast is one of the best soldiers in the Prince Immanuel's army and
one of the most fit to be trusted with the colors of His regiment.
"Having done all, still stand." To make a holy character we must take
hold of the steps of God in the sense of promptness and speed. Here
again I must take you to the East to get the illustration. They say of
a man who closely imitates his religious teacher, "His feet have laid
hold of his master's steps," meaning that he so closely follows his
teacher that he seems to take hold of his heels. This is a blessed
thing, indeed, when Divine Grace enables us to follow our Lord closely.
There are His feet and close behind them are ours. He takes another
step and we plant our feet where He has planted His.
A very beautiful motto is hung up in our infant classroom at the
Stockwell Orphanage, "What would Jesus do?" Not only may children take
it as their guide, but all of us may do the same, whatever our age.
"What would Jesus do?" If you desire to know what you ought to do under
any circumstances, imagine Jesus to be in that position and then think,
"What would Jesus do? for what Jesus would do, that ought I to do." In
following Jesus we are following God, for in Christ Jesus the
brightness of the Father's Glory is best seen. Our example is our Lord
and Master, Jesus the Son of God, and, therefore, this question is but
a beam from our guiding Star. Ask in all cases–"What would Jesus do?"
That unties the knot of all moral difficulty in the most practical way
and does it so simply that no great wit or wisdom will be needed.
May God's Holy Spirit help us to copy the line which Jesus has written,
even as scholars imitate their writing master in each stroke and line
and mark and dot. Oh, when we come to die and have to look back upon
our lives, it will be a blessed thing to have followed the Lord fully!
They are happy who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Blessed are they
in
life and death of whom it can be said–as He was, so were they, also,
in this world. Though misunderstood and misrepresented, yet they were
honest imitators of their Lord! Such a true-hearted Christian can say,
"He knows the way that I take. He tried me and I came forth as gold. My
foot has held fast to His steps." You will avoid many a sorrow if you
keep close at your Master's heels.
You know what came of Peter's following afar off–try what will come of
close walking with Jesus. Abide in Him and let His Words abide in you,
so shall you be His disciples. You dare not trust in your works and
will not think of doing so, but you will bless God that, being saved by
His Grace, you were enabled to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit by
a close and exact following of the steps of your Lord. Three things,
then, we get in the first sentence–an exactness of obedience, a
tenacity of grip upon that which is good and a promptness in
endeavoring to keep in touch with God and to follow Him in all
respects. May these things abound in us!
We now pass on to the second sentence. I am afraid you will say, "Spare
us, for even unto the first sentence we have not yet attained." Labor
after it then, Beloved. Forgetting the things that are behind, except
to weep over them, press forward to that which is before. May God give
you those sensitive grasping feet which we have tried to describe–feet
that take hold on the Lord's way–and may you throughout life keep that
hold, for "blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of
the Lord."
The next sentence runs thus–"His way have I kept"–that is to say, Job
had adhered to God's way as the rule of his life. When he knew that
such-and-such a thing was the mind of God, either by his conscience
telling him that it was right, or by a Divine Revelation, then he
obeyed the intimation and kept to it! He did not go out of God's way to
indulge his own fancies, or to follow some supposed leader–to God's
way he kept from his youth–even till the time when the Lord Himself
said of him, to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, a perfect
and an upright man, one that fears God and eschews evil?" The devil
could not deny it and did not attempt to do so, but only muttered,
"Does Job serve God for nothing? Have You not set a hedge about him and
all that he has?"
When Job uttered our text, he could have replied to the malicious
accuser that even when God had broken down his hedges and laid him
waste, he had not sinned nor charged God foolishly. He heeded not his
wife's rash counsels to curse God and die–he still blessed the Divine
Name even though everything was taken from him. What noble words are
those–"Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return
there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord." Though bereft of all earthly comfort, he did not forsake
the way of holiness, but still kept to his God! Keeping to the way
signifies not simply adherence, but continuance and progress in it.
Job had gone on in the ways of God year after year. He had not grown
tired of holiness, nor weary of devotion, neither had he grown sick of
what men call straight-laced piety. He had kept the way of God on and
on and on, delighting in what Coverdale's version calls God's, "high
street"–the highway of holiness. The further he went, the more
pleasure he took in it and the more easy he found it to his feet, for
God was with him and kept him–and so he kept God's way. "Your way have
I kept." He means that, notwithstanding the difficulties in the way he
persevered in it. It was stormy weather, but Job kept to the old road.
The sleet beat in his face, but he kept His way–he had gone that path
in fair weather and he was not going to forsake his God now that the
storms were out–and so he kept His way.
Then the scene changed, the sun was warm and all the air was redolent
with perfume and merry with the song of birds, but Job kept His way. If
God's Providence flooded Job's sky with sunshine, he did not forsake
God because of prosperity, as some do, but kept His way–kept His way
when it was rough, kept His way when it was smooth. When he met with
adversities, he did not turn onto a side road, but traveled the King's
highway, where a man is safest, for those who dare to assail him will
have to answer for it to a higher power. The high street of holiness is
safe because the King's guarantee is given that, "no lion shall be
there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up on it." The righteous
shall keep God's way and so Job did, come fair, come foul.
When there were others in the road with him and when there were none,
he kept His way. He would not even turn aside for those three good men,
or men who thought themselves good, who sat by the wayside and
miserably comforted, that is to say, tormented him! He kept God's way
as one whose mind is made up and whose face is set like a flint. There
was no turning him, he would fight his way if he could not have it
peaceably. I like a man whose mind is set upon being right with God, a
self-contained man, by God's Grace, who does not need patting on the
back and encouraging and who,
on the other hand, does not care if he is frowned at, but has counted
the cost and abides by it. Give me a man who has a backbone–a brave
fellow who has grit in him!
It is well for a professor when God has put some soul into him and made
a man of him, for if a Christian man is not a man as well as a
Christian, he will not long remain a Christian man. Job was firm–a
well-made character that did not shrink in the wetting. He believed his
God! He knew God's way and he kept to it under all circumstances from
his first start in life even until that day when he sat on a dunghill
and transformed it into a throne where he reigned as among all mere
men, the peerless prince of patience! You have heard of the patience of
Job and of this, as one part of it, that he kept the way of the Lord.
Now, dear Brothers and Sisters, on this second clause let me utter this
word of self-examination. Have we kept God's way? Have we got into it
and do we mean to keep it? Some are soon hot and soon cold. Some set
out for the New Jerusalem like Pliable, very eagerly, but the first
Slough of Despond they tumble into shakes their resolution and they
crawl out on the homeward side and go back to the world. There will be
no comfort in such temporary religion, but dreadful misery when we come
to consider it on a dying bed! Changeful Pliables will find it hard to
die! O to be constant even to the end, so as to say, "My foot has held
fast to His steps, His way have I kept." God grant us Grace to do it by
His Spirit abiding in us!
The third clause is, "And not declined," by which I understand that he
had not declined from the way of holiness, nor declined in the way of
God. First, he had not declined from it. He had not turned to the right
hand nor to the left. Some turn away from God's way to the right hand
by doing more than God's Word has bid them do–such as invent religious
ceremonies and vows and bonds and become superstitious–falling under
the bondage of priestcraft and being led into will-worship and things
that are not Scriptural. This is as truly wandering as going out of the
road to the left would be!
Ah, dear Friends, keep to the simplicity of the Bible! This is an age
in which Holy Scripture is very little accounted of. If a Church
chooses to invent a ceremony, men fall into it and practice it as if it
were God's ordinance! Yes and if neither Church nor Law recognize the
performance, yet if certain self-willed priests choose to burn candles
and to wear all sorts of bedizenments and bow and cringe and march in
procession, there are plenty of simpletons who will go whichever way
their clergyman chooses, even if he should lead them into downright
heathenism. "Follow my leader" is the game of the day, but, "Follow my
God," is the motto of a true Christian!
Job had not turned to the right. Nor had he turned to the left. He had
not been lax in observing God's Commandments. He had shunned omission
as well as commission. This is a very heart-searching matter, for how
many there are whose greatest sins lie in omission. And remember, sins
of omission–though they sit very light on many consciences and though
the bulk of professors do not even think them sins–are the very sins
for which men will be condemned at the last! How do I prove that? What
said the great Judge? "I was hungry and you gave Me no meat. I was
thirsty and you gave Me no drink; sick and in prison and you visited Me
not." It was what they did not do that cursed them, more than what they
did do. So look well to it and pray God that you may not decline from
the way of His precepts, from Jesus who, Himself is the one and only
Way.
Furthermore, I take it Job means that he had not even declined in that
way of God. He did not begin with running hard and then get out of
breath and sit by the wayside and say, "Rest and be thankful." No, he
kept up the pace and did not decline. If he was warm and zealous once,
he remained warm and zealous. If he was indefatigable in service, he
did not gradually tone down into a sluggard, but he could say, "I have
not declined." Whereas we ought to make advances towards Heaven, there
are many who are, after 20 years of profession, no more forward than
they were, but perhaps in a worse state! Oh, beware of a decline!
We were accustomed to use that term years ago to signify the
commencement of a consumption, or perhaps the effects of it and,
indeed, a decline in the soul often leads on to a deadly consumption.
In a spiritual consumption the very life of religion seems to ebb out
little by little. The man does not die by a wound that stabs his
reputation, but by a secret weakness within him which eats at the
vitals of godliness and leaves the outward surface fair. God save us
from declining! I am sure, dear Friends, we cannot, many of us, afford
to decline much, for we are none too earnest, none too much alive now!
This is one of the great faults of Churches–so many of the members are
in a decline that the Church becomes a hospital instead of a barracks.
Many professors are not what they were at first–they were very
promising young men, but they are not performing old men. We are
pleased to see the flowers on our fruit trees, but they disappoint us
unless they knit into fruit and we are not satisfied, even then, unless
the fruit ripens to a mellow sweetness. We do not make orchards for the
sake of blossoms–we want apples! And so it is with the garden of
Grace. Our Lord comes seeking fruit and instead He often finds nothing
but leaves. May God grant to us that we may not decline from the
highest standard we have ever reached. "I would," said the Lord of the
Church of Laodicea, "that you were either cold or hot."
Oh, you lukewarm ones, take that warning to heart! Remember, Jesus
cannot endure you–He will spit you out of His mouth–you make Him sick
to think of you. If you were downright cold He would understand you. If
you were hot He would delight in you. But being neither cold nor hot He
is sick at the thought of you! He cannot endure you and, indeed, when
we think of what the Lord has done for us, it is enough to make us sick
to think that anyone should drag on in a cold, inanimate manner in His
service, who loved us and gave Himself for us!
Some decline because they become poor–they even stay from worship on
that account. I hope none of you say, "I do not like to come to the
Tabernacle because I have no fit clothes to come in." As I have often
said, any clothes are fit for a man to come here if he has paid for
them! Let each come by all manner of means in such garments as he has
and he shall be welcome. But I know some very poor professors who, in
the extremity of their anxiety and trouble, instead of flying to God,
fly from Him. This is very sad. The poorer you are, the more you need
the rich consolations of Divine Grace. Do not let this temptation
overcome you, but if you are as poor as Job, be as resolved as he to
keep to the Lord's way and not decline.
Others fly from their religion because they grow rich. They say that
three generations will never come on wheels to a dissenting place of
worship and it has proven to be sadly true in many instances, though I
have no cause to complain of you as yet. Some persons, when they rise
in the world, turn up their noses at their poor friends. If any of you
do so, you will be worthy of pity, if not of contempt! If you forsake
the ways of God for the fashion of the world you will be poor gainers
by your wealth! The Lord keep you from such a decline! Many decline
because they conform to the fashion of the world and the way of the
world is not the way of God! Does not James say, "Know you not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, will be
a friend of the world is the enemy of God"?
Others wander because they get into ill company, among witty people, or
clever people, or hospitable people who are not gracious people. Such
society is dangerous! People whom we esteem, but whom God does not
esteem, are a great snare. It is very perilous to love those who love
not God. He shall not be my bosom friend who is not God's friend, for I
shall probably do him but little service and he will do me much harm.
May the Grace of God prevent your growing cold from any of these causes
and may you be able to say, "I have not declined." One more sentence
remains–"Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His
lips"–that is to say, as Job had not slackened his pace, so much less
had he turned back. May none of you ever go back.
This is the most cutting grief of a pastor, that certain persons come
in among us and even come to the front, who, after a while, turn back
and walk no more with us. We know, as John says, "They went out from
us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no
doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be
made manifest that they were not all of us." Yet what anguish it causes
when we see apostates among us and know their doom! Take heed, Brothers
and Sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in
departing from the living God! Let Lot's wife be a warning! Season your
souls with a fragment of salt from that pillar and it may keep you from
corruption.
Remember that you can turn back, not only from all the Commandments and
so become an utter apostate, but there is such a thing as backing at
single Commandments. You know the precept to be right, but you cannot
face it–you look at it and look at it and look at it and then go back,
back, back from it, refusing to obey. Job had never done so. If it was
God's command, he went forward to perform it. It may be that it seems
impossible to go forward in the path of duty, but if you have faith,
you are to go on whatever the difficulty may be. The slave was right
who said, "Massa, if God say, 'Sam, jump through the wall,' it is Sam's
business to jump and God's work to make me go through the wall." Leap
at it, dear Friends, even if it seem to be a wall of granite! God will
clear the road. By faith the Israelites went through the Red Sea as on
dry land. It is ours to do what God bids us, as He bids us, when He
bids us and no hurt can come of it. Strength equal to our day shall be
given, only let us cry, "Forward!" and push on.
Here just one other word. Let us take heed to ourselves that we do not
go back, for going back is dangerous. We have no armor for our back, no
promise of protection in retreat. Going back is ignoble and base. To
have had a grand idea and then to turn back from it like a whipped cur,
is disgraceful. Shame on the man who dares not be a Christian! Even
sinners and ungodly men point at the man who put his hand to the plow
and looked back and was not worthy of the kingdom. Indeed, it is fatal!
For the Lord has said, "If any man draw back, My soul shall have no
pleasure in him." Forward! Forward though death and Hell obstruct the
way, for backward is defeat, destruction, despair! O God, grant us of
Your Grace that when we come to the end of life we may say with joy, "I
have not gone back from Your Commandments." The Covenant promises
persevering Grace and it shall be yours–only be sure that you trifle
not with this Grace.
There is the picture which Job has sketched. Hang it up on the wall of
your memory and God help you to paint after this old master, whose
skill is unrivalled!
II. Secondly, let us take a peep behind the wall to see how Job came by
this character. Here we note Job's HOLY SUSTENANCE–"I have esteemed
the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." First, then, God
spoke to Job. Did God ever speak to you? I do not suppose Job had a
single page of inspired writing. Probably he had not even seen the
first books of Moses. He may have done so, but probably he had not. God
spoke to him! Did He ever speak to you? No man will ever serve God
aright unless God has spoken to him. You have the Bible and God speaks
in that Book and through it–but mind you, do not rest in the printed
letter without discerning its spirit. You must try to hear God's voice
in the printed letter.
"God has, in these last days, spoken unto us by His Son" but oh, pray
that this Divine Son may speak by the Holy Spirit right into your
heart! Anything which keeps you from personal contact with Jesus robs
you of the best blessing! The Romanist says he uses a crucifix to help
him to remember Christ and then his prayers often stop at the crucifix
and do not get to Christ–and in the same manner you can make an idol
of your Bible by using the mere words as a substitute for God's voice
to you. The Book is to help you to remember God, but if you stick in
the mere letter and get not to God at all, you misuse the sacred Word
of God. When the Spirit of God speaks a text right into the soul. When
God Himself takes the promise or the precept and sends it with living
energy into the heart–this is that which makes a man have a reverence
for the Word–he feels its awful majesty, its Divine supremacy and
while he trembles at it he rejoices and goes forward to obey because
God has spoken to him!
Dear Friends, when God speaks, be sure that you have open ears to hear,
for oftentimes He speaks and men regard Him not. In a vision of the
night when deep sleep falls upon men, God has spoken to His Prophets,
but now He speaks by His Word, applying it to the heart with power by
His Spirit. If God speaks but little to us, it is because we are dull
of hearing. Renewed hearts are never long without a whisper from the
Lord. He is not a dumb God, nor is He so far away that we cannot hear
Him! They that keep His ways and hold His steps, as Job did, shall hear
many of His Words to their soul's delight and profit! God's having
spoken to Job was the secret of his consistently holy life.
Then note that what God had spoken to him, he treasured it up. He says
in the Hebrew that he had hid God's Word more than ever he had hidden
his necessary food. They had to hide grain away in those days to guard
it from wandering Arabs. Job had been more careful to store up God's
Word than to store up his wheat and his barley! He was more anxious to
preserve the memory of what God had spoken than to garner his harvests!
Do you treasure up what God has spoken? Do you study the Word? Do you
read it? Oh, how little do we search it compared with what we ought to
do! Do you meditate on it? Do you suck out its secret sweets? Do you
store up its essence as bees gather the life-blood of flowers and hoard
up their honey for winter food?
Bible study is the metal that makes a Christian! It is the strong meat
on which holy men are nourished! It is that which makes the bone and
sinew of men who keep God's way in defiance of every adversary! God
spoke to Job and Job treasured up His Words. We learn from our version
of the text that Job lived on God's Word–he reckoned it to be better
to him than his necessary food. He ate it. This is an art which some do
not understand–eating the Word of the Lord. Some look at the surface
of the Scriptures. Some pull the Scriptures to pieces without mercy.
Some cut the heavenly bread into pieces and show their cleverness. Some
pick it over for plums, like children with a cake. But blessed is he
that makes it his meat and drink! He takes the Word of God to be what
is, namely, a Word from the mouth of the Eternal and he says, "God is
speaking to me in this and I will satisfy my soul upon it. I do not
need anything better than this, anything
truer than this, anything safer than this! And having got this, it
shall abide in me, in my heart, in the very bowels of my life. It shall
be interwoven with the warp and woof of my being."
But the text adds that he esteemed it more than his necessary food. Not
more than dainties only, for those are superfluities, but more than his
necessary food and you know that a man's necessary food is a thing
which he esteems very highly. He must have it. "What? Take away my
bread?" he asks, as if this could not be borne. To take the bread out
of a poor man's mouth is looked upon as the highest kind of
villainy–but Job would sooner that they took the bread out of his
mouth than the Word of God out of his heart! He thought more of it than
of his necessary food and I suppose it was because meat would only
sustain his body, but the Word of God feeds the soul. The nourishment
given by bread is soon gone, but the nourishment given by the Word of
God abides in us and makes us live forever! The natural life is more
than meat, but our spiritual life feeds on meat even nobler than
itself, for it feeds on the Bread of Heaven, the Person of the Lord
Jesus!
Bread is sweet to the hungry man, but we are not always hungry and
sometimes we have no appetite. But the best of God's Word is that he
who lives near to God has always an appetite for it and the more he
eats of it the more he can eat! I confess I have often fed upon God's
Word when I have had no appetite for it, until I have gained an
appetite. I have grown hungry in proportion as I have felt
satisfied–my emptiness seemed to kill my hunger–but as I have been
revived by the Word I have longed for more! So it is written, "Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be
filled"–and when they are filled they shall continue to enjoy the
benediction, for they shall still hunger and thirst, though filled with
Grace!
God's Word is sweeter to the taste than bread to a hungry man and its
sweetness never spoils, though it dwells long on the palate. You cannot
be always eating bread, but you can always feed on the Word of God. You
cannot eat all the meat that is set before you–your capacity is
limited that way and none but a glutton wishes it otherwise. But oh,
you may be ravenous of God's Word and devour it all and yet long for
more! You are like a little mouse in a great cheese and you shall have
permission to eat it all, though it is a thousand times greater than
yourself! Though God's thoughts are greater than your thoughts and His
ways are greater than your ways, yet may His ways be in your heart and
your heart in His ways! You may be filled with all the fullness of God,
though it seems a paradox. His fullness is greater than you and all His
fullness is infinitely greater than you, yet you may be filled with all
the fullness of God! So that the Word of God is better than our
necessary food–it has qualities which our necessary food has not.
No more, except this–you cannot be holy, my Brothers and Sisters,
unless you, in secret, live upon the blessed Word of God–and you will
not live on it unless it comes to you as the Word of His mouth. It is
very sweet to get a letter from home when you are far away. It is like
a bunch of fresh flowers in winter time. A letter from the dear one at
home is as music heard over the water. But half a dozen words from that
dear mouth are better than a dozen pages of manuscript, for there is a
sweetness about the look and the tone which paper cannot carry! Now, I
want you to get the Bible to be not a book, only, but a speaking
trumpet through which God speaks from afar to you so that you may catch
the very tones of His voice! You must read the Word of God to this end,
for it is while reading, meditating and studying and seeking to dip
yourself into its spirit that it seems, suddenly, to change from a
written book into a talking book or phonograph!
It whispers to you or thunders at you as though God had hidden Himself
among its leaves and spoke to your condition! It speaks as though
Jesus, who feeds among the lilies, had made the chapters to be lily
beds and had come to feed there! Ask Jesus to cause His Word to come
fresh from His own mouth to your soul and if it is so and you thus live
in daily communion with a personal Christ, my Brothers and Sisters, you
will then, with your feet take hold upon His steps! You will then keep
His way! You will then never decline or go back from His Commandments,
but you will make good speed in your pilgrim way to the Eternal City.
May the Holy Spirit daily be with you! May each of you live under His
sacred mist and be fruitful in every good word and work. Amen and amen.
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Perfect Sanctification