(Continued from page 94.)

Division II (Chaps. 3-31).

The controversies of Job and his three friends, exhibiting the futility of human reason in explaining God's ways in affliction, and the deep-rooted self-righteousness of man's heart.

We have in this division the largest and, in many respects, the most complicated part of the book. It has been well named The Entanglement, for it is a mass of argument, denunciation, accusation, suspicion, partly correct theories, and withal flashes of faith and hope-all in the language of loftiest poetry, with magnificent luxuriance of Oriental metaphor. To the casual reader there may seem to be no progress, and but little clarity in the controversy. And it must be confessed that God's people at large seem to have gained little from these chapters beyond a few familiar, beautiful and oft-quoted verses.

But can we think that God would have permitted a useless book to be included in that "all scripture," which is profitable ? Let us then come with confidence to these controversies and patiently seek their meaning, see if we can trace an individuality in each speaker, and a progress in his declarations; whether we can mark a rise in the faith of Job, so nearly eclipsed, and a preparation for the unfolding of God's ways which follow after.

We add a word here as to the inspiration of the book. There can be no question as to this, for it is referred to both in the Old Testament (Ezek. 14:14, 20) and in the New (Jas. 5:11); it is also quoted in the New Testament (i Cor. 3:19). But inspiration is often mistaken for revelation, or the infallible statement of divine truth. We have the inspired record of what Satan said to Eve, and to our Lord; of the utterances of wicked men, like Pharaoh and Rabshakeh, but 110 one thinks of these words as being the truth of God. Similarly here we have an inspired record of what Job and his three friends said, but while most of it was true, at was out of place and misapplied. This is all perfectly plain.

The whole Division may be separated into three subdivisions, of unequal length.

Subdivision I.-Job's opening Lament (chap. 3).

Subdivision II. – The controversy with the three friends (chaps. 4-26).

Subdivision III.-Job's closing Monologue (chaps.27-31).

We need hardly point out the numerical appropriateness of these subdivisions :the first introduces the entire controversy; it is the beginning of all that is said afterwards. The second speaks of antagonism and the vain efforts of man to help, with glimpses of faith between. The third is the full display of Job's heart. Significantly he begins and closes the controversy.

I.-Job's opening Lament (chap. 3).

Perhaps that which strikes the reader most forcibly on entering upon this chapter, is the great contrast between it and the preceding one. Can this be the same man who meekly bowed his head to the successive strokes of adversity which fell so suddenly upon him ?-who bore the torture of his dread disease, and listened unmoved to his wife's solicitations to suicide? " Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ? "

For seven days he has sat silent with his friends, and when he begins to speak, it is not words of submission or trust that we hear, but curses and imprecations upon the day of his birth, and longing for death! What has made this great change ?

It might be thought that it was the long continuance of his sufferings which broke Job down; when first afflicted, he bore up under it, but ,,as weary days and nights followed each other with unvarying wretchedness, he gave way. But this hardly seems consistent with the calm dignity of the man as shown in the first two chapters.

In the light of his subsequent attitude, it seems more likely that Job's thoughts of God had much to do with this change. Previously, he had seen Him as the beneficent Ruler and Disposer of events. But it appears as we go on that Job allowed suspicions of God's justice and goodness to intrude. He felt himself as if in the hands of arbitrary power, suffering for what he had not done. He sees no way of escape, and therefore wishes for death. This seems to account for the great change in his words. It is also in keeping with the answers he gives his friends. As long as his sufferings were outward, or physical, Job was calm; but when doubts of God's goodness were entertained he collapsed. This will appear abundantly as we proceed; it is simply noticed here as suggesting the main theme of the book-the vindication of God, and His ways with men.

On the other hand, we must remember that even when in such anguish of soul as well as of body, Job did not fall as Satan predicted he would. He did not curse God, although sorely perplexed at His treatment. Ever and anon in the midst of greatest anguish, his faith shines forth in prayer or in confidence-illustrating the usually accepted translation of the words, " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him " (chap. 13:15).

Taking up now the lament, we may divide it into five parts.

First:Job curses the day of his birth (vers. 1-9).

Second:Wishes he had died in infancy (vers. 10-12).

Third:Death described as a rest (vers. 13-19).

Fourth:He longs for death (vers. 20-23).

Fifth:He is oppressed by terror (24-26).

(1) Job curses the day of his birth (vers. 1-9). Of only one man has it ever been said-by our Lord- " It had been good for that man if he had not been born" (Matt. 26:24). Judas was an apostate, the "son of perdition," into whose heart Satan entered, and who sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver, betrayed Him by a kiss, and then filled with remorse went and hanged himself, and "went to his own place." For a child of God to wish he had never been born indicates a complete, if but temporary, eclipse of faith.

Jeremiah, utterly oppressed by the hardness of the people's heart, and seeing the inevitable ruin into which they were drifting, uses language somewhat similar to Job's (Jer. 20:14-18). He curses not only the day of his birth, but the man who brought his father the news instead of slaying the child, and wishes he were overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah There is this to be said of Jeremiah's outburst:it was not merely because of his own sufferings as obliged to bring a message which the people refused-and therefore hated the messenger ; but is there not a measure of grief over the people's obduracy and inevitable doom ? Like Moses before and Paul afterwards, he longed supremely for the people's blessing. Failing to see this, he had rather not have been born. We justify none of these beloved servants of God, but they seem to occupy a higher moral plane than Job does here, when his own selfishness is but too evident.

Let us contrast all these godly men with the matchless Sufferer. "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour ? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." Ah, He never failed; the intensity of His sufferings but furnished the occasion for the exhibition of His sinless perfection.

In this first part Job curses the day of his birth, wishes that it could be blotted out of the calendar, because it allowed his birth. He desires that clay and night never come into remembrance-so that the very recurrence of the day that was a reminder of his existence might cease. Verse 8 has been translated, "Let those who curse the day curse it, who are skilled in stirring up leviathan," alluding to the heathen myth that a dragon devoured the sun and moon and so prevented the day. If this is correct, it shows how far Job had drifted in his thoughts, to turn thus to the superstitions of the heathen.

In what contrast to this is the joy of the believer in dwelling upon his spiritual birthday. How Paul loved to look back to the time when the light above the brightness of the sun shone into his darkened heart. " Who before was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious . . . and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus . . . Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen " (i Tim. i:13-17). So in the many persecutions and afflictions which befell him for the gospel's sake, we hear not the faintest approach to these lamentations of Job. When he and Silas were beaten, thrust into prison, their feet fast in the stocks, their thoughts were not of cursing the day of their birth, but songs in the night.

The contrast shows the difference between Old and New Testament light, but it shows too that even in Old Testament days God's children needed to learn the sweet uses of adversity, and not to despise the chastening of the Lord. S. R.

(To be continued)