(Continued from page 220.)

Job's reply to Eliphaz (chaps. 6, 7).

In his reply to Eliphaz, as well as in those to each of the others, it is to be noted that Job addressed them unitedly, instead of individually. There is, indeed, an answer to the last speaker in each case, but Job evidently recognizes a unity of sentiment in the attitude of all three; each is the mouth-piece of all; and the answer is accordingly addressed to them collectively.

There is a marked resemblance between this first reply of Job, and the lament with which he began (chap. 3). Other matters enter in here, and there may be, perhaps, a greater measure of self-control in the utterances to Eliphaz, but the burden is the same; his affliction is unspeakably great, there is no possible cure, therefore death would be a welcome relief. There is no gleam of hope amid the gloom; faith is almost completely eclipsed for the time, and there is the sense of God's wrath which is the forerunner of a doubt of His goodness and justice. As to the friends also, there is the recognition of their failure to act the part of friends, wh ch is paving the way for further alienation, ending in the rough recriminations which follow.

There are two general features in Job's reply, belonging respectively to the two chapters devoted to it (chaps. 6, 7). In chapter 6, the friends are more directly addressed, while in the latter half of the following chapter, he speaks to God. There is in the whole reply, however, a unity and continuity
that encourages us to seek its divisions according to their numerical order and significance.

(1) The reality of his sufferings (chap. 6:1-7).

(2) Longing for death at God's hand (vers. 8-13).

(3) Friends manifested as useless (vers. 14-23).

(4) Let them truly test him (vers. 24-30).

(5) The brevity of life (chap. 7:1-11).

(6) God his enemy (vers. 12-19).

(7) The appeal in view of sin (vers. 20, 21).

There is a certain measure of similarity between the contents of these divisions and those in the address of Eliphaz. In answer to the reproach for Job's despair, we have here his reason for it. Eliphaz speaks of God's favor to the righteous; Job rather craves death at His hand. Eliphaz has a solemn vision of the greatness and holiness of God; Job displays the inadequacy of his friends. In answer to the experience of the friends, Job desires that they would truly test him. In place of the exhortation to seek God, Job sets the misery and brevity of his life. Eliphaz reminds him of God's assured victory over all devices of the wicked, but Job can only reply that God is his enemy. The close of the friend's address is a beautiful declaration of the uses of affliction, but Job only answers that it does not seem to apply in his case, else why should not God forgive and show mercy? But we can compare the address and reply as we take up the latter in some detail.

(I) Eliphaz had reproached Job for succumbing to despair, but the patriarch asks him only to weigh his misery; it would be found, in the imagery elsewhere used of numerical greatness, as heavy as the sand of the sea. It is for this reason that his words are "rash"_which is probably the better rendering. Who can refrain from impetuous words when he is pierced with the arrows of the Almighty, and His terrors overshadow him ?

Here we have the element in his sufferings which in intensity probably exceeds their physical aspect. It was the sense that God's wrath was upon him, that the dreadful virus of His indignation was consuming him, that gave a poignancy to his grief. We know this was a mistake, and that it was but another proof of the love of God that His poor servant was being thus chastened. But he did not know it, and we should not be harsh with one who felt that the Lord was dealing bitterly with him. Necessarily he could not have the full light that is now ours, and could not therefore "count it all joy " that he had fallen into such straits. But we can appeal to his own words, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ?" What has turned him from this resting-place ? Dreadful doubts as to God's love and goodness have begun to gnaw at his heart with a pain beyond his bereavements and his sores.

One only, and He for no sin of His own, has felt the arrows of God piercing His holy soul. "Why hast thou forsaken Me? " He asks. But not for one moment does he doubt the holiness or goodness of God. "Thou art holy," suffices for Him, and in meekness He drinks the bitter cup; perfect in His sufferings, as in all else. God could not for a moment lay upon poor Job – though there was not another like him upon earth – the iniquity of mankind. Blessed be His name, of Another He can say, "I have found a ransom."

Job uses several figures to show that he has just cause for the complaints for which his friends reproach him. Even an ass or an ox will be content if he has his proper food. If he makes complaint, we know he has not received it. And can Job be expected to take his sufferings as if they were pleasant food-swallow them down, more nauseous than the slime of the egg? It is as though he said, "See what loathsome, things are set before me, and can you expect me to eat them without a murmur? " His "sorrowful meat" was the things that his soul abhorred.

But is this the language of faith-even of Old Testament faith? What of that noble army of martyrs who "were tortured, not accepting deliverance . . . had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings; yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment . . .destitute, afflicted, tormented" (Heb. 11:35-38)? Would we expect to hear from these the repining which fall from Job's lips? Paul could "take pleasure" in what fell upon him. But Job needs light, and must learn to trust God when he cannot understand Him.

(2) Job has but one thing to ask of God; that He would take his life. This, he says, would be a comfort, for his conscious rectitude would sustain him:he has not rejected God's words, has not been rebellious against Him. We have 'here, as throughout his long conflict, a statement of conscious uprightness. While true-as it was indeed the fruit of God's grace in him – Job is using this righteousness in a self-righteous way, to justify himself at the expense of God's righteousness; he follows this course until he gets more bold in it.

His friends indeed have no answer for it, but God will vindicate Himself.

This part closes with a pitiful plea of his utter weakness and helplessness, which should move the heart of his friends. Is his strength as the strength of stone or brass? Has he any help in himself?

(3) Most forcibly does the poor sufferer strike back at his unfeeling friends. It is a fundamental principle that pity should be shown to a sufferer by his friends, lest, under stress of trial – as some have rendered it-"he should forsake the fear of the Almighty." Agur therefore prayed that he might be preserved from extreme poverty, "Lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain " (Prov. 30:9). But the hard principle they were applying knew no mercy, felt no sympathy. At the time of his dire need they manifested themselves as utterly unfitted to be friends. The "brother born for adversity" they are not. These" brethren " are like a summer stream, swollen by melting snow and ice in winter, which gives promise of perennial supply for the thirsty, but when the troops of travelers come, they find only the dry stones to mock them. Yet he had asked nothing unreasonable at their hands-no money, nor rescue from the enemy, only a little sympathy.

If was indeed most disappointing. Eliphaz might speak in lofty language of the greatness and faithfulness of God, but what about himself; was he acting the part of a true friend ? As thus manifested, Job might say of them, "Lover and friend hast Thou put far from me." And when these failed, he could not add, "Thou art with me." How differently speaks Paul:"At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me . .. . Notwithstanding the Lord stood by me "'(2 Tim. 4:16, 17). Let us learn from Job's failure not to put the dearest earthly friend between us and God.

"Earthly friends may fail and leave us,
One day soothe, the next day grieve us,
But this Friend will ne'er deceive us,
Oh, how He loves!"

(4) Eliphaz had spoken of his observation and experience, Job now asks that true tests be applied to his own case. Let them prove, according to their rigid rule of " punishment for sin," that he is the sinner. Theories are all very well in their place, but if based on false premises they utterly fail. " How forcible are right words! " Let them teach him according to truth, and he will be silent; but of what value is all their arguing ? They are taking his poor, rash, desperate speeches, forced from him in the desperation of his sufferings, and treating them as if they were the well-considered statements of one who was propounding some philosophic principle. Why could they not make allowance for the anguish which wrings from him utterances which are as "windy words?" They were treating him in the same unfeeling way that :»arks those who would despoil the fatherless; for were they not trying to engulf him, their friend, and make him out to be like the wicked ? These are indeed strong words, but there is a good measure of justification for them. There was a studied heartlessness about the cold words of Eliphaz that seems to furnish ground for the bitterness of Job's charge. A little later it will be seen that they speak exactly as Job here accuses; he only anticipates their full meaning.

In contrast with their injustice, let them look deliberately at him:is he lying when he protests his uprightness? Let them return from their wholesale charges of evil against him, to the simple and self-evident fact that he is upright, with no iniquity that can explain the tortures to which he is now subjected. He can discern evil, and would not hide it, though it were in himself.

Thus he bids them " try again," as the word has been rendered, and be fair in their judgment, and see if they can explain the strange anomaly of a good man suffering as he does. It is as great a mystery to him as to them.

We have here the habitual state of Job's mind throughout all his controversy with his friends. There is a sense of moral rectitude, of genuine fear of God, which he cannot deny. It is the testimony of a good conscience, and it stands as a rock against all the outrageous suspicions and accusations. He holds fast his integrity, and thus proves the falseness of Satan's malicious charge, and the error of the friends' principles. Incidentally he disproves his own theory, for he too had thought as they. Indeed, his solution, from which he utterly shrank, was worse than theirs. For surely it is better that Job should fall than God's honor be touched.

(5) Having challenged his friends to test him, Job now returns to dwell upon his sufferings in view of the brevity of life. These sleepless nights of " tossings to and fro" through months of unrelieved pain, make him long for that "appointed time " for all flesh, with the eager desire of a hireling waiting for the close of his day's work. Already there are the harbingers of the grave upon him, the worm and the clod; any slight healing of his sores is but the signal for a fresh outbreak of loathsomeness. Like the swift passing of the shuttle in the weaver's loom, so pass his painful days. Soon they will see him no more, and his life will melt away as the cloud in the blue sky.

This is beautifully poetic, and true so far as man's view is concerned. "As a flower of the field so he flourisheth, for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more." It is the dirge of human existence since sin has brought in death. "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him" (Ps. 103:15-18). Ah, Job sees but the dark side, for while turning to God as he does here, it is' not of mercy but of wrath that he speaks.

(6) God is his enemy, watching as if he were the tossing sea, ready to overleap its bounds, or some monster of the waters to be taken and destroyed. Day and night His hand was heavy upon him. The fitful sleep as he tossed upon his couch was intolerable by reason of the terrifying dreams which God sent, so that strangling was preferable to the choking dread that filled his soul with terror. Poor sufferer! And he was attributing it to his best Friend!

So he abhors life, and would not live alway. He asks-but in how different a way from the Psalmist:What is poor, puny man that Thou shouldst thus afflict him, that he scarce has time to draw a quiet breath-"to swallow down my spittle ?" Sad indeed is the case of one who can find no relief even in God.

(7) At last Job will speak of his sin, though most briefly. "I have sinned;"but it is not the true acknowledgment of penitence, rather a hypothetical statement. Granted that I have sinned, what is that to Thee, O watcher of men? Why dost Thou seek me as a mark for thy weapons instead of pardoning and restoring me to my former prosperity ? Instead of that Thou watchest me until I shall sleep in the dust; then I shall be free from the intolerable burden of thy sore afflictions. Such seems to be the meaning of this concluding part. In the writhings of his soul-anguish, Job does not hesitate to accuse God. If he has sinned why does God punish instead of showing mercy ? Truly such challenges cannot be allowed to pass.

Thus the first reply closes. It is full of bitterness against man and God. Justified partly in what he says of man, Job appears throughout as one whose sufferings had absorbed him in selfishness. He sees no mercy in God, and therefore the only future he dwells upon is one of escape from His presence. This is not even an Old Testament view of the future, as we have already seen, but the one-sided view of a morbidly wretched man. We pity him, though, thank God, he no longer needs it, but we cannot endorse his unbelief. He too will ere long tell a different story, and out of his sorrow will come the morning of joy. S. R.

(To be continued.)