(Continued from page 9.)
Section 2. – The second addresses of the friends- suspicions and charges ; Job rises from despair to hope (chaps. 15-21).
There is practically little new in this second series of the friends' addresses. Indeed, the principle to which they were committed gave little room for new or wider thoughts. They could only reiterate their contention, cite the teachings of others and their own experience and observation, with varied, true and beautiful illustrations drawn from many sources. But the narrowness of their view vitiates all they say, for they are seeking to reach a conclusion entirely contrary to facts. We need not wonder therefore that the discussion loses the courtesy which to some extent marked its beginning, and takes on more the character of threatening and denunciation. They will make up in vehemence and brutality what they lack in proof; they will crush Job by the weight of their charges, and in this way vindicate their own attitude. It is noteworthy also that the appeal to God has less the ring of sincerity and of applicability in it. There is no progress, and each plows in the furrow made by his predecessor.
We may note also that no promises are held out to Job, as at the first, upon his repentance. In their eagerness to convict him they seem to lose sight of a possible recovery. And if the element of hope is wanting, what is left ? So their charges but tend to produce despair.
While they all follow the same line of thought, the individuality of each speaker is apparent. Eliphaz enlarges upon the principle that God surely punishes the evil-doer in this life; Bildad emphasizes this without even a semblance of argument; while Zophar with his accustomed vehemence depicts the inevitable doom of the wicked in spite of short-lived prosperity.
On the other hand Job meets each one on his own ground, and gives scorn for scorn, stroke for stroke, charge for charge. In addition, he enlarges upon the anomaly of his unspeakable sufferings in connection with his reiterated innocence. He not only charges his friends with hardness and impiety, but cannot hide the awful fact from himself that God is against him. It is this that burns in his soul- the suspicion that God is not good and just.
And yet the faint flashes of faith we have already seen, break out here into brighter hope. The very fact that he appeals to God, bringing his doubts and fears to Him, shows that faith has not failed, and cannot. Therefore we find here the noble outburst, which has expressed the faith of the saints of all ages-" I know that my Redeemer liveth."
Yet Job's enigma is not solved, and the dark shadow of death looms before him, with little to cheer. But we must not anticipate.
The section falls, as the first, into three parts, the address of each friend with Job's reply.
1. Eliphaz:the inevitable judgment of the wicked in this life. Job's reply (chaps. 15-17).
2. Bildad:the sure doom of the wicked. Job's reply (chaps. 18, 19).
3. Zophar:the certain and terrible doom of the wicked, in spite of short-lived prosperity. Job's reply (chaps. 20, 21).
I. Eliphaz' Address
As already remarked, Eliphaz loses in this second address the measure of courtesy and hopefulness he had shown at first. We may divide what he says into 5 parts:
(1) Job self-condemned (chap. 15:1-6).
(2) Is he wiser or better than others ? (vers. 7-13).
(3) The holiness of God (vers. 14-16).
(4) The experience of the wicked (vers. 17-24).
(5) Their retribution (vers. 25-35).
(1) Is it wisdom, he asks, for one who presumes to be wise, to pour out empty words like a blast of the east wind-a dry, withering thing ? Job had indeed laid himself open to the charge of casting off fear, in his intemperate language, which was the opposite of prayer or devotion. His own words, says Eliphaz, confirm the suspicions and charges of the friends-of wickedness and impiety. But in accusing Job of craftiness, he charges what is untrue ; for the poor sufferer had poured out his wretchedness with no regard for consequences. Whatever he is, Job is no hypocrite.
(2) He next challenges Job:Where has he gained superior wisdom to them? Has he been in the secret counsel of God from the beginning, before the earth and hills were made ? Only divine Wisdom, the eternal Son, could claim such a relation to God as that (Prov. 8). As for Job, he is like themselves, only with less experience than many to whom Eliphaz could appeal. Being no wiser than others, why does he refuse the "consolations of God " which these friends were ministering to him ? It certainly requires a stretch of imagination to call their galling words-like vinegar upon 'nitre -by such a tender term. The second part of this verse should probably reiterate the first, "And the word gently spoken to thee ?" Why, he asks, does Job's eyes flash the rebellion of his wayward heart, instead of bowing to the charges of the friends? This he reckons as turning from God-a charge of heresy against one who does not bow to his inquisitors-which is common enough.
(3) Eliphaz repeats the statement of his first address as to the holiness of God (chap. 4:17-19). Truly none is like unto Him in whose presence the seraphim veil their faces, as they cry, " Holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." If the very heavens are unclean in His sight, how much less is mortal sinful man! But is not Eliphaz one of these, as well as the poor sufferer ? Why then apply it to Job as though it proved him a sinner above all others ? This, surely, is more like crafty speech than all the hot utterances of Job. Let Eliphaz take his place beside Job and confess that he too is "abominable and filthy." The poor sufferer might have responded to that.
(4) Eliphaz next takes the familiar ground of experience and observation, calling to his aid those wise men whose freedom from foreign admixture made them especially authoritative. This wisdom, he assures Job, has discovered the wretchedness of the wicked. A sword, as of Damocles, ever hangs over their guilty head; even in outward prosperity the dreadful knell of doom sounds in their ear. The evil man has no hope of escaping the darkness; while he seeks his food, he expects the blow to fall
-the '" king of terrors " will smite him. Is Eliphaz trying to terrify Job, or is it an echo of the distant fears of his own heart ?
(5) He concludes the dreadful picture with a narration of the retributive consequences of awful impiety. This imaginary wicked person had stretched out his hand against the Almighty; with stiff neck, and thick bosses of wickedness as a shield, dared to defy God! He had enjoyed the temporary good things of life, his eyes stood out with fatness, he had lived in houses marked for desolation without a thought of change, but his substance fails, the darkness falls, the fire reaches him, and he perishes at the breath of God! Fearsome picture indeed-and he thinks he is describing Job ! We might say he is subjecting the poor distracted sufferer to the "third degree " of probing and accusation to make him cry out for very terror. He lingers over the picture:Let the wicked not trust in vanity, for it shall be his recompense. His branch shall wither, his fruit shall be cast" off, hypocrisy and bribery shall receive their appointed penalty!
Could anyone but an innocent man stand up under the awful thunder of such denunciation ? Were Job the man they have determined him to be, he must be crushed beneath the dreadful avalanche. But what has he to answer ?
Job's Reply
Two things strike us in his answer to Eliphaz:First, nothing that has been said has touched Job's conscience, and this accounts for his moral indignation against his accusers. Second, he is so occupied with his relationship to God that other things are of minor importance. This shows the reality of the man's faith-he must understand God. This indeed is the main theme of the entire book-the vindication of God's ways and of His holiness in dealing with men.
We may divide this reply, as we did the address of Eliphaz, into five parts:
(1) He reproaches them for their heartlessness (ch. 16:1-5).
(2) Under the wrath of God and the hatred of man (vers. 6-14).
(3) He appeals to God in it all (vers. 15-22).
(4) The experience of bitter trial (ch. 17:1-12).
(5) The dark outlook toward the grave(vers. 13-16).
(I) Eliphaz had spoken of their addresses to Job (of that part, doubtless, which promised restoration upon repentance) as "the consolations of God;" Job characterizes them as "miserable comforters." Is there to be no end of windy words? Had the friends not exhausted their stock of accusations ? What stirs up Eliphaz to speak further, with nothing new to say ? Job himself could easily treat them after their fashion, were conditions reversed; but he would on the contrary have sought to impart consolation.
The friends had certainly laid themselves open to this rebuke. They have violated all the God-given safeguards of friendship, had given the lie to all their former confidence, and treated Job as a stranger of whom they knew nothing, and whose past life could only be deduced from his present condition. It was indeed an outrage upon the name of friendship, and we can well sympathize with the disappointment and indignation of Job at such treatment. His life had been lived before them in
all uprightness, and now to be accused by them of hypocrisy was bitter indeed. How cruel is the goading of conscience under a false principle !
If we turn to another Sorrow, compared with which Job's anguish was as nothing, what do we find there but meekness, patience, confidence in God, in the face of bitter enmity from those who "laid things to my charge which I knew not;" "who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.1' In this, as in all else, there is none like Him.
(2) Turning to God, in whom he should have found abundant consolation, Job charges Him as the author of his misery and suffering, But his complaint and hot words give him no relief. " Thou hast made desolate all my company," or household. His emaciated body he counts as evidence of the wrath of God which tears him as would a beast ! Truly, Job does not measure his words. He sees only bitter suffering inflicted without cause, and is unwilling or unable to trust God in the dark. This is Job's great error, and linked with it a protestation of righteousness as if he deserved credit for that. Here lies something to be probed into, which all the insinuations and charges of his friends cannot touch. How can the root of this trouble be reached ?
In his blind misery Job links the scoffs of the ungodly, glad at his calamity, with the hand of God. It is difficult in these words of Job to separate between God and evil men; in his blurred view they are all acting together. What awful language to use of God:" He hath also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces "-like a wild beast rending its prey, or a mighty giant running upon a puny victim to destroy it.
Let us read the account of our Lord's sufferings at the hands of man and of God, and we find no confusing of the two, nor any charging God with evil. " Many bulls have compassed me:strong bulls "of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion . . . My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me:the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me:they pierced my hands and my feet . . . But be not Thou far from me, O Lord:O my strength, haste Thee to help me" (Ps. 22:12-19). God had been His trust from infancy; His soul still rested upon His goodness and righteousness when all the waves and billows of judgment rolled over Him.
"Oh, what a load was Thine to bear,
Alone in that dark hour;
Our sins in all their terror there,
God's wrath and Satan's power."
Let everything go-man's favor, life itself, and the smile of God-out of the gloom and thick blackness of God's forsaking we hear a cry reaching to the throne of the Eternal, " thou art holy." Blessed be God for One who, while suffering thus for us, did not swerve from perfect trust in Him who had forsaken Him for our sakes.
(3) Poor Job fails to see God in His unchanging love through all these sufferings, and each pang he endures, every tear he sheds, all the humiliation to which he is subjected, is a fresh charge against God. And yet, not altogether, for there is real faith in his heart. While he would let his blood cry for vengeance like Abel's, he instinctively knows there is a just God in heaven who has the record of his life, to whom he can appeal against the false charges of his friends. He knows, not fully, for He has not yet seen, that there is One who pleads for him before God. What he longs for, we know that we have-One that pleadeth for us with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor. We know a High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, who "ever liveth to make intercession."
But the very fact that Job longs for such an intercessor shows the faith hidden in his soul, which will soon say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Meanwhile he looks down to the grave, without a pause for God to speak to him.
(4) He is marked for death, his very breath declares the corruption for which the grave yawns; and "friends" stand by and mock!
In the next verse (ch. 17:3), Job turns from man to God. Men are ignorant and mere flatterers who cannot be trusted-or, as it has been rendered, " He who giveth his friends for spoil, the eyes of his children shall languish." Thus he threatens his friends for their disloyalty.
Again he mars his testimony by charging his misery upon God as well as man, and declaring that upright persons are stumbled by his sufferings. However, in spite of all, Job keeps on his steadfast way. In relation to the assault of the friends, however, there is a tone of self-complacency which is not exactly suitable to the truly lowly. Verse 10 seems to be a challenge to continue their assaults, since they utterly fail in the discernment which marks the wise. They are holding out light to him, if penitent, while he is drawing ever nearer to death.
(5) His face is now turned toward the gloom of death, with scant gleam of hope of anything beyond. Evidently his spirit has not yet found rest, and victory is not yet his. But, unlike the friends, he sometimes has his face in the right direction, and were his mouth but closed long enough to hear God speaking to him, he would see the full deliverance which comes to those who justify the Lord.
But how doleful are his thoughts; he is related to corruption and the worm, and hope finds little that is congenial amid such dark and gruesome surroundings. S. R.
(To be continued.)