Comfort From the Future
(No. 2676)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 27, 1900.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
JANUARY 30, 1881.
"You shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass
away." Job 11:16.
JOB'S misery was extreme and it seemed as if he could never forget it.
He never did forget the fact of it, but he did forget the pain of it.
That he had been utterly miserable would always remain recorded upon
the tablets of his memory, but the wretchedness itself would not
remain. It would be so entirely removed that it should be as a thing
that has been altogether forgotten. Nothing better can happen to our
misery than that it should be forgotten in the sense referred to in our
text, for then, evidently, it will be clean gone from us. It will be as
it is when even the scent of the liquor has gone out of the cask, when
even the flavor of the bitter drug lingers no longer in the medicine
glass, but has altogether disappeared. So is it with the sorrow that
has so effectually gone out of the mind that it is just as though it
had never been there.
If anyone here is in misery of any kind–whether it is misery of
physical pain, or misery of need, or misery of soul on account of sin,
or the loss of the light of God's Countenance–I can only pray for you,
dear Friend, that you may speedily forget your misery and only remember
it as waters that pass away. The thing goes to be done–it is quite
possible, and you may expect it. If you look carefully at the
connection of our text and give earnest attention to the matter, I do
not doubt that you will experience this blessed forgetfulness. When we
are in pain of body and depression of spirit, we imagine that we never
shall forget such misery as we are enduring. The sharp plowshare has
gone down so deeply that we think it has made a mark in the soul that
can never be erased. We seem to lie all broken in pieces, with our
thoughts like a case of knives cutting into our spirit, and we say to
ourselves, "We never shall forget this terrible experience." And yet,
by-and-by, God turns the palm of His hand towards us and we see that it
is full of mercy. We are restored to health, or lifted up from
depression of spirit and we wonder that we ever made so much of our
former suffering or depression. We remember it no more, except as a
thing that has passed and gone, to be remembered with gratitude that we
have been delivered from it, but not to be remembered so as to leave
any scar upon our spirit, or to cause us any painful reflection
whatever. "You shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that
pass away."
I. I am not going to limit the application of the text to Job and his
friends, for it also has a message for many of us at the present time.
And I shall take it, first, WITH REFERENCE TO THE COMMON TROUBLES OF
LIFE WHICH AFFECT BELIEVING MEN AND WOMEN.
These troubles of life, more or less, happen to us all. They come to
one in one shape and, perhaps, he thinks that he is the only man who
has any real misery. Yet they also come to others, though possibly in
another form. There is certainly a cross for every shoulder to bear.
Simon must not bear the cross alone and all the rest go free. There is
no road to Heaven without its stones, or without its Hill Difficulty.
And I think that there are few pilgrims from the City of Destruction
who get to the Celestial City without passing through the Valley of
Death and having to fight with giants and even with Apollyon, himself.
Cowper truly wrote–
"Thepath of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow
is unknown."
There is much joy in true religion. Wisdom's "ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to
them that lay hold upon her and happy is everyone that retains her."
But, still, notwithstanding the joy, in addition to it there is sorrow.
There is misery lurking close by the Believer's pathway and it is
always ready to pounce upon him somewhere between here and Heaven. The
Lord of the pilgrims was "a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."
And His disciples must expect to fare even as their Master fared while
here below–it is enough for the servant if he is as his Lord.
You, dear Friends, who are just now enduring misery, should seek to be
comforted under it. Perhaps you will ask me, "Where can we get any
comfort?" Well, if you cannot draw any from your present experience,
seek to gather some from the past. You have been miserable before, but
you have been delivered and helped. There has come to you a most
substantial benefit from everything which you have been called to
endure. You must be conscious that when you think of your troubles, you
can say, with Hezekiah, "O Lord, by these things men live, and in all
these things is the life of my spirit: so will You recover me, and make
me to live." Or you can say, with the Psalmist, "Before I was afflicted
I went astray: but now have I kept Your word." I believe that, very
often, God sends His very choicest love tokens to us in black-edged
envelopes–and many a time has it happened that the great rumbling
wagons of tribulation have been those which have brought the heaviest
weight of treasure to the doors of the saints! Do we ever learn much
without the rod? I fear we do not. Most of us are quickest learners, I
think, when we smart the most. Well, then, if affliction has been
profitable in the past, let us rest assured that it will be so in the
future.
Let us gather consolation, also, from the future. If, as the Apostle
truly says, "No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but
grievous," recollect how he goes on to say, "Nevertheless afterward it
yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are
exercised thereby." I have been trying to ring the changes on those two
words, during the last few weeks, while I have been laid aside by
illness–"nevertheless afterward"–"nevertheless afterward"–
"nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby." The Apostle James tells us that
"the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long
patience for it, until he receives the early and latter rain." He does
not complain because his corn is buried under the clods and covered
with the snow. But he lives upon hope and rejoices in the future
harvest, pleading the promise, "He that goes forth and weeps, bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him." In your own case, dear Friend, if you are a Believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, what will happen in the future? For it is
with that I would comfort you at this time. Why, this is what will
happen–"You shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that
pass away." How will that be?
Well, first, by the lapse of time. Time is a wonderful healer. Hearts
that seem as if they must break when first the trial comes, at last
grow quite used to it. Look through the veil of a few minutes. Gaze
through the longer vista of a few years and that which seemed dark as
tempest wears quite another aspect! Oh, if you whose hearts seem now
almost ready to burst, could but project yourselves only six months
ahead–if you could leap forward a year and then look back– probably
even in that time you would almost have forgotten your misery!
Yes, but there is something better than the lapse of years and that is
when, during a considerable time, you are left without trial. That is a
sharp pain you are now enduring, but what if you should have years of
health afterwards? Then you will forget your misery. That is a sad loss
which you have been called to suffer–it seems to you to be a crushing
dis-aster–but what if it should be succeeded by years of prosperity?
Remember how Job forgot his misery when, in a short time, he had double
as much of all that he possessed as he had before? He had back twice
the amount of all his former wealth. He had, again, a smiling family
around him, so he might well forget his misery. Year after year and,
perhaps, even to his death–it was so as far as we know–Job was again
a man who had a hedge made round about him and all that he had! And in
the happiness of his later life he might well forget his former misery.
Well, now, it is very likely to be so with you after you get through
this present struggle. Therefore, keep your heart up, believe in God,
have confidence in Him and all shall be well. There is wonderfully
smooth sailing on ahead for some of you when you are once over this
little stretch of broken water. If you can safely pass over this stony
portion of the road, it will be good traveling for you all the way to
Heaven! Remember that the horses' heads are towards home–you are
journeying to your Father's House, so be of good courage, for you shall
forget your misery and only remember it as waters that pass away!
And besides the lapse of time, and an interval of rest and calm, it may
be–it probably is the fact with God's people–that He has in store for
you some great mercies. When the Lord turns your captivity, you will be
like they that dream–and you know what happens to men who dream. They
wake up. Their dream is all gone, they have completely forgotten it. So
will it be with your sorrow! Through God's goodness, you will seem
suddenly to wake up out of a dreary dream and then you will begin to
laugh and soon your mouth will be filled with laughter. You will almost
despise your former depression of spirit! And when you see the abundant
mercy of God toward you, all your misery shall seem like a dream that
has gone, a vision of the night–unreal–that has melted into
nothingness! Some of you have no idea what is reserved for you–you
would not be weeping, but laughing, if you knew what God has in store
for you–I mean, even here below. It is good for us not to be able to
read the roll closed by the hand of God, but we may be sure that there
are such blessed things in it concerning our future that each Believer
may well say, "I will not be bowed down by the trials of the present,
but my spirit shall rejoice in God who does for me what eye has not
seen, nor ear heard and what my heart has never conceived."
Be of good courage, Brothers and Sisters, in these dark, dull times,
for, perhaps, this text is God's message to your soul, "You shall
forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away." It has
been so with many, many, many Believers in the past. What do you think
of Joseph sold for a slave, Joseph falsely accused, Joseph shut up in
prison? But when Joseph found out that all that trial was the way to
make him ruler over all the land of Egypt and that he might be the
means of saving other nations from famine, and blessing his father's
house, I do not wonder that he called his elder son "Manasseh." What
does that name mean? "Forgetfulness"–"for God said He has made me
forget all my toil, and all my father's house." Why, sitting on the
throne, feeding the nation and blessing his father and his brothers, he
must have thought that the being cast into the pit, being sold to the
Ishmaelites and being put into prison was not worth recollecting,
except for gratitude to God that it ever happened as a means to the
grand end of helping him into that position of usefulness!
And Joseph is not the only one who has had such an experience as that.
Read the Scriptures through and you will find that those whom God has
called and anointed to eminent service have been put, like the blades
of Damascus, into the fire and drawn through the fire again and again,
that in the day of battle they might strike on the northern iron and
steel and yet not turn their edge! These servants of the Lord have been
prepared for an immortal destiny by desperate griefs and–
"The deeper their sorrows, the louder they'll sing."
As a woman remembers no more her travail, for joy that a man is born
into the world, so has it happened to the Believer in the time of his
sorrow–he has forgotten it, cast it all away because of the greater
joy which God has brought out of it. Jabez is the child of sorrow, but
he is, therefore, more honorable than his brethren. The more stormy the
sea, the sweeter the haven. The rougher the road on earth, the better
the rest above. So, poor tried child of God, believe that this text is
intended to be a Divine message of comfort to your heart, "You shall
forget your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away."
Thus much on the first head.
II. I should be greatly rejoiced if, in the second place, I might speak
A CHEERING WORD TO POOR SOULS UNDER DISTRESS ON ACCOUNT OF SIN. I mean
you who long to be saved, yet cannot understand how it is to come to
pass, or who, understanding the plan of salvation, are somehow unable
to appropriate it to yourselves. You feel as if you have your eyes
bandaged and your feet fast fixed in the stocks, so that you cannot go
to Christ, cannot even look to Christ and, therefore, your souls are
full of sorrow. I want you, dear Friends, to especially notice what
Zophar recommends to a man who has sin upon him. Read the 13th, 14th,
15th and 16th verses of this chapter–"If you prepare your heart, and
stretch out your hands toward Him; if iniquity is in your hands, put it
far away, and let not wickedness dwell in your tabernacles. For then
shall you lift up your face without spot; yes, you shall be steadfast,
and shall not fear: because you shall forget your misery, and remember
it as waters that pass away." I recommend these words to you, also. But
I have something even better to recommend to you. Does any man here
say, "I cannot get peace with God. I am full of misery on account of
sin?" I know all about you, Friend. I have gone that road, long ago. I
have been splashed up to my very eyes in the mire of the Slough of
Despond and I sometimes get a little of its mud in my eyes even now.
Well, now, I exhort you, first of all, to look to Christ and lean on
Christ Trust in His atoning Sacrifice, for there, alone, can a troubled
soul find rest. If you say that, somehow, you cannot get peace, then I
shall have to ask you to see whether, perhaps, sin may not be lying at
the door. To use Zophar's expression, have you prepared your heart?
Have you gone to Christ with your whole heart and soul? Have you sought
Him with all your might? I hope you realize that repentance and faith
are very bad things to play with, for such play will damn a man's soul.
These are things to be earnestly used in a most solemn undertaking.
"The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence" in this matter. We can neither
repent nor believe with half our heart–it is our whole soul that is
required if salvation is to be ours. Now, have you sought the Lord with
all your heart? If you have, you will surely find Him. I am certain
that you will. And then, afterwards, "you shall forget your misery, and
remember it as waters that pass away." There was never a man yet who,
with all his heart, sought the Lord Jesus Christ, but sooner or later
found Him. And if you have been long in seeking, I lay it to the fact
that you have not sought with a prepared heart, a thoroughly earnest
heart, or else you would have found Him.
But, perhaps, taking Zophar's next expression, you have not stretched
out your hands toward the Lord, giving yourself up to Him like a man
who holds up his hands to show that he surrenders. You must come and
say, "My opposition is over. I now have no quarrel with God. I yield
unconditionally to Him." The word may refer to one who stretches out
his hands to grasp whatever may come from God within his reach. He
stretches out his empty hands, asking to have them filled. He stretches
out his entreating hands, pleading that God will bless him. Well now,
if you have done that, you shall get a blessing.
Further, you may and you shall forget your misery, provided you fulfill
one more condition mentioned by Zophar, and that is that you are not
harboring any sin. "If iniquity is in your hands, put it far away, and
let not wickedness dwell in your tabernacles." There is an
old-fashioned Grace that I am never ashamed to preach, though some, who
call themselves evangelists, have folded it up and put it away in the
back cupboard. They never mention this old-fashioned Grace which is
called repentance. Now, I learn from the Scriptures that repentance is
just as necessary to salvation as faith is– and the faith that has not
repentance going with it will have to be repented of one of these days.
A dry-eyed faith is a faith that will save no man. Peter's message was,
"Repent you, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out." And our Lord's own declaration was, "Except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish." He began His public ministry by crying, "Repent
and believe the Gospel," which means just this–that if any man is
living in sin, it is no use his praying, or pretending to believe until
he gives up that sin. If there is any passion that you are indulging,
any lust that is your master–if you are carrying on a wicked
business–if you are living in willful transgression of God's Law,
Christ can save you from your sins, but even Christ cannot save you in
your sins. If you will have your sin, you must be lost–so stands God's
decree. Christ must, by His Grace, separate you from your sin or else
you will be separated from Him forever. I want this to be a very
heart-searching word and, therefore, I say to any miserable man or
miserable woman here– "You shall forget your misery if you give up
your sin and trust in the sin-atoning Savior. Come, Friend, you shall
not say that I am flattering you, for I tell you plainly that you must
flee for your life from the dearest sin that now lays hold upon you."
"Oh" you say, "but how am I to do it?" Christ will help you. Trust Him
to help you. But if you say, "I will trust Him to save me," and yet
continue to live in sin, He will not save you. That is not the
salvation that we preach! We proclaim salvation from sin, for that is
the salvation which Jesus came to bring us. You must, as Zophar said to
Job, put your iniquity far away–and you must not let wickedness dwell
in your tabernacles–that is to say, in your tents, in your houses. I
know some men who will never get peace of conscience and rest of heart
while they let their wives live as they do, and while they allow their
children to live as they do. Some of you will not find mercy for
yourselves while you neglect your children's highest welfare as you do.
I know some men–I hope they are good men, but certainly they are not
good fathers–they are so peaceful and gentle that they never like to
utter a word of reproof. Their boys and girls may go where they like–I
might almost say that they may go to the devil if they like–yet their
father has not a word to say to them. Do you call that proper conduct
for a professedly Christian? There are some parents who allow their
children to do such things that God is grieved with them for their
children's sakes–and they will never get peace of mind till they set
their house in order. What? Is God coming to live where there is no
family prayer, where there is no care for His name or His day, where
there is no rebuke of open sin? It has filled me with unspeakable
sorrow when I have heard of Christian parents whose boys swear and
whose girls are allowed to go where, if they are not ruined, body and
soul, it is little short
of a miracle! Oh, do see that you let not wickedness dwell in your
tabernacles, you who are the people of God, and you who wish to be His,
if you would have Zophar's words to Job fulfilled in your experience,
"Then shall you lift up your face without spot; yes, you shall be
steadfast, and shall not fear: because you shall forget your misery,
and remember it as waters that pass away."
III. Now let me tell you HOW SWEETLY GOD CAN MAKE A SINNER FORGET HIS
MISERY. The moment a sinner believes in Jesus Christ with true heart
and repentant spirit, God makes him forget his misery,
first, by giving him a full pardon. All his sin is forgiven and,
therefore, he feels ready to dance for joy and he soon forgets his
misery. By faith, he gets a sight of the great, pardoning Lord and of
His atoning blood. He sees the Son of God suffering and dying for him
on the Cross and he is overjoyed at the Revelation of such a wondrous
redemption. He claps his hands and he forgets his misery.
Next, he rejoices in all the blessings that God gives with His Grace.
He reads that those whom Christ has pardoned "are justified from all
things," from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. He
learns that they are clothed with the robe of Christ's perfect
righteousness and he forgets his own nakedness while he rejoices that
he is so wondrously clothed. He feeds on the Bread of Heaven and
forgets his former hunger. He drinks of the Water of Life and forgets
his previous pangs of thirst. He enjoys the liberty of the sons of God
and he forgets the chains he used to wear as Satan's slave. He has
peace with God and he forgets the trouble that was such a burden on his
heart! He is so full of joy that there is no room for sorrow and if,
perchance, the tear of repentance still lingers in his eyes, it is not
sullen but sweet sorrow, and the tear glistens in the sunlight of God's
Countenance like a diamond, or like some choice pearl that slumbers in
its shell. Oh, Beloved, if you will but come to Christ and leave your
sin, whatever your misery is, you shall forget it! Or, if you do
remember it at all, it shall only be to remember it as the snow that
has melted and vanished, or as the rain that has soaked into the earth,
"as waters that pass away."
Now, dear Friends, all that I have been saying to the sinner is quite
as applicable to every backsliding child of God! It may be that some of
you who are here are Christians–that is, you have trusted in Christ to
save you–but you have got into a very sad state of heart. You have not
half the spiritual life that you once had and, therefore, you do not
glorify God as you once did. It is most grievous to think how many
professing Christians live at a poor dying rate–they seem to be barely
alive, or hardly that. Well, dear Brother or Sister, if you have become
miserable, I am rather glad that you have! That is part of the way
towards a better state of things. When a man cannot be happy in a
backsliding state, he will soon seek to get out of it! The hurt is a
part of the cure. Solomon says, "The blueness of a wound cleanses away
evil," and the chastisement which follows sin is often for the healing
of the sinner.
IV. I will bring my discourse to a close with this last reflection.
THIS TEXT WILL COME TRUE TO THE SICKENING, DECLINING, SOON-DEPARTING
BELIEVER.
Ah, dear Friend, when you first found out that the complaint from which
you are suffering really was consumption, what a chill seemed to come
over everything! When the physician said to you, very tenderly but very
faithfully, "I fear I cannot do much for you. I can perhaps give you a
little relief, but I dare not deceive you, for you have an incurable
dis-ease"–then, although you are a child of God, you endured a great
deal of misery and spent many long, sleepless nights looking forward
to, you scarcely knew what. Are you still in that state, my dear
Sister? As you get worse and worse, do your spirits continue to sink?
My dear Brother, as you gradually fade away, does the light seem to
fade, too? Well, then, listen!
If you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and if you are resting
alone upon Him, remember that in a very short time, "you shall forget
your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away." In a very,
very, very short time, your suffering and sadness will all be over! I
suppose the expression, "waters that pass away," signifies those rivers
which are common in the East and which we meet with so abundantly in
the South of France. They are rivers with very broad channels, but I
have often looked in vain for a single drop of water in them. "Then,"
perhaps you ask, "what is the use of such rivers?" Well, at certain
times, the mountain torrents come rushing down, bearing great rocks,
stones and trees before them–and then, after they have surged along
the riverbed for several days, they altogether disappear in the sea!
Such will all the sorrows of life and the sorrows even of death soon be
to you, dear Friend, and to me also. They will all have passed away and
all will be over with us here. The passage to the grave may be sharp,
but it must be short–
"The road may be rough, but it cannot be long,
So I'll smooth it with hope, and cheer it with song."
And then, you know, dear Friends, those waters that have passed away
will never come back again. Water that is spilt upon the ground can
never be gathered up again–and it is one of the charms of the heavenly
world that our sorrows will never reach us there. No more poverty, no
more cold, no more heat, no more sin, no more depression of spirits, no
more pain, no more forsaking of friends, no more sorrow of any kind,
for, "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." That is a very
beautiful expression–"Sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Here, they
keep clinging to us, one on one arm and the other on the other! Sorrow
and sighing will come with us wherever we go and we sometimes say to
them, "Now, you might go somewhere else, for we do not want you," yet
they still hold fast to us. But when we get up to the golden gate, no
sooner shall the eternal light flash on our eyes than we shall look in
vain for our old companions, for they will be gone! "Sorrow and sighing
shall flee away" and lest there should be any trace of their mournful
companionship left, we are expressly told that "God shall wipe away all
tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things
are passed away."
Thank God, we shall recollect our sorrows in Heaven only to praise God
for the Grace that sustained us under them! We shall not remember them
as a person does who has cut his finger and who still bears the scar in
his flesh. We shall not recollect them as one does who has been wounded
and who carries the bullet somewhere about him. In Heaven, you shall
not have a trace of earth's sorrow! You shall not have, in your
glorified body, or in your perfectly sanctified soul and spirit, any
trace of any spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing that shall show that
you ever had a pain on earth, or even that you ever committed a sin!
Some diseases, you know, leave marks on our hands or faces, so that we
say to our friends, "Do you see that lump? It was a time of terrible
pain that brought that up, and I fear it will not go away." Ah, but in
Heaven there will be no trace of anything like pain or sorrow of any
sort. All sorrow and suffering shall be gone and we shall forget our
misery, or only remember it as waters that have passed away, never to
come back again.
This is the sum and substance of all that I have been trying to say to
you–"Be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart, all you
that hope in the Lord." Christians do not live on the comforts of this
world–their inheritance is on the other side of Jordan. If you are
like Esau and can be content with red pottage, well, you may have it,
but you will lose the birthright if you do not prize it. But if you are
God's true Jacob, you will gladly give up the pottage to get the
promise of the future inheritance. Oh, what a blessed thing is the
faith that enables the soul to postpone the present in order to obtain
that blessed future! For what is the present, after all, but a fleeting
show, an empty dream? But the future is eternal and incorruptible,
reserved in Heaven at the right hand of God, where there are pleasures
forever-more!
Now that, by God's mercy, I again find myself in your midst after a
season of sore suffering, I desire to forget my miseries–and some of
them have been very sharp ones. I am so glad to be here, again, to see
you all, and I pray that it may be a long time before I am deprived of
the great privilege of speaking to you in the name of the Lord. I bless
God tonight and praise His name in the great congregation. And I ask
for every Brother and Sister that, when your time of misery comes, you
may be brought through it all and come out of the big end of the horn,
rejoicing in the cornucopia of God's bounty and blessedness, and
praising His name, as I do at this time with all my heart! Oh, may
every one of you find this text to be true to you, "You shall forget
your misery, and remember it as waters that pass away"! The blessing of
the Lord be with you all forevermore! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOB 11.
The words we are about to read were spoken by one of Job's three
friends–or what if I call them his three tormentors? These men did not
speak wisely and their argument was not altogether sound. But, for all
that, in the instance before us, Zophar the Naamathite spoke that which
was truthful. Although he made a great mistake in turning it against
Job, yet what he said was, in the main, correct, and we may learn from
it as we read it. Remember, dear Friends, that whenever you read the
words of these three men, you must take them with a good many grains of
salt. They are not to be
accepted as if they were God's Word, because they are not. Those three
men were mistaken in many points, yet very much of what they said was
weighty and valuable–and is still worthy of our careful consideration.
Verses 1-3. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Should not
the multitude of words be answered? And should a man full of talk be
justified? Should your lies make men hold their peace? And when you
mock, shall no man make you ashamed?This was a very bitter and cruel
speech. Zophar was not using the language of friendship, or even of
common courtesy. First, he charged Job with being a great talker, "a
man full of talk." No doubt Job did speak well and eloquently, but to
retort upon him that he was a man abundant in words was a very cruel
thing, especially when he was in such a condition of distress and
suffering. Yet, dear Friends, it is an evil thing to be men of tongue
and not of hand. It is a dreadful thing to be men–or, for that matter,
women–who are "full of talk" and, therefore, have no room for anything
else. There are some people who seem to think that simply by their
volubility they can carry all before them! In such a case we may say
with Zophar, "Should not the multitude of words be answered? And should
a man full of talk be justified?" But he went beyond these questions
and charged Job with downright lying because he had pleaded his own
inno-cence–"Should your lies make men hold their peace?" Zophar also
insinuated that Job fumed and frothed, as it were, and spoke folly,
which he certainly did not do, for he spoke in solemn, sober earnest if
ever a man did.
4. For you have said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in Your eyes.
Job did not say that. At least he did not say it in so many words. He
did endeavor to prove his own innocence of the false charges that were
brought against him, but he never said that he was clean in God's eyes.
5. 6. But oh that God would speak, and open His lips against you; and
that He would show you the secrets ofwis-dom, that they are double to
that which is!Oh, that God would enable you, dear Friends, to see your
sin and make you perceive that there is a double meaning in His Law–a
deep, underlying, spiritualmeaning, as well as that which is apparent
on the surface, so that a man may be guilty of transgression even when
he thinks it is not! Oh, that God would unveil the secrets of His
wisdom so as to make you see that He is wiser than all His works, that
His hidden wisdom is double that which you have been able to perceive
in Nature, or in Providence, and infinitely greater than He has ever
made it appear before men's eyes!
6. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity
deserves. That was a hard thing for Zophar to say to Job but, still, it
was true–and it is true in the case of all of us! "He has not dealt
with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities."
Even when a man sits down among the ashes, robbed of all his property
and bereaved of all his children–and when he has to scrape himself
with a potsherd because of his many boils–even then it may be truly
said to him, "God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves."
7. Can you, by searching, find out God? Can you find out the Almighty
unto perfection! What amazing questions these are! How they ought to
convict those who glibly talk of God as if they could measure Him with
a ruler and understood exactly what He ought to do and ought to be. We
are constantly meeting with statements that such-and-such a thing,
which is revealed in Scripture, cannot be true because it is
inconsistent with the modern idea of the benevolence of God! Our only
answer to the quibbler is, "Can you, by searching, find out God? Can
you find out the Almighty unto perfection?"
8. 9. It is as high as Heaven; what can you do? Deeper than Hell; what
can you know! The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader
than the sea. God is incomprehensible by any finite mind–and He is
Omnipotent, too.
10. IfHe cuts off, andshuts up, or gathers together, then who can
hinderHim?f He sees fit to destroy men, or for a while to make them
prisoners. Or if He pleases to gather them together and multiply them
like the hosts of Heaven, who can hinder Him?
11. For He knows vain men. He sees wickedness, also. Will He not then
consider it? Wickedness hidden under the veil of night, God sees as
clearly as in the blaze of noon. Wickedness which never comes out of
the heart, but tarries there, and does not lead into overt action, God
sees. "Will He not then consider it?" Of course He will!
12. For vain man–That is just what man is by nature! The best of men
are vanity–emptiness. "For vain man"– 12. Would be wise. He pretends
to wisdom. He wishes to be thought wise. He likes to wear a wise man's
title. "Vain
man would be wise."
12. Though man is born like a wild ass's colt As untamed, as ignorant,
as willful as a wild ass's colt are we by nature. Zophar seems to think
that he has sufficiently rebuked Job for pretending to be wise and for
complaining that God was dealing unjustly with him. So now he begins to
admonish him to repent.
13-18. If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward
Him; if iniquity is in your hands, put it far away, and let not
wickedness dwell in your tabernacles. For then shall you lift up your
face without spot; yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:
because you shall forget your misery, and remember it as waters that
pass away: and your age shall be clearer than the noonday; you shall
shine forth, you shall be as the morning. And you shall be secure,
because there is hope; yes, you shall dig about you, and you shall take
your rest in safety. I t is a great mercy when God enables men to
pursue their daily callings and to take their nightly rest in safety.
And it is a still greater mercy when they feel secure, whether they
live or die, because they have a good hope concerning the hereafter. It
is an unspeakable blessing when sin is washed away and a man can lift
up his face to God without spot, and walk in the light of Jehovah's
Countenance all the day long!
19, 20. Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; yes,
many shall make suit unto you. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail.
Carefully notice this very solemn prophecy–the eyes that have looked
upon sin with pleasure–the eyes that have flashed with lascivious
desire–the eyes that have dared to look towards God with defiance or
derision– "the eyes of the wicked shall fail."
20. And they shall not escape. To what place could they escape from
God, when He is everywhere? During the days when the Roman empire
extended all over the world, people said that the whole earth was one
great prison for Caesar's enemies. And the universe itself is a vast
prison for those who are condemned of God! Where shall they go to avoid
arrest? Where shall they flee to get beyond God's reach? They cannot
escape anywhere! There is neither hole nor corner, even in the bowels
of the mountains, or in the flinty hearts of the rocks, where a sinner
can hide himself from the hand of God! "They shall not escape."
20. And their hope. The last thing that ever dies, "their hope"–
20. Shall be as the giving up of the ghost Like death itself, their
hope shall be. Then, if "their hope shall be as the giving up of the
ghost," what hope is there for them? Let us not have our portion with
them, else we shall be as hopeless as they are!