the question, is pleasing in tone, free from Zophar's violence, and from the wordiness of Eliphaz. He does not repeat the old charges and insinuations against Job, but admonishes him to submission on grounds which are not calculated to cause any personal irritation, and which Job himself would be the first to admit. He brings the discussion, so far as his party is concerned, to a close. EXEGETICAL REMARKS. Ver. 2. 66 Dominion and fear are with Him." This means that the Almighty is the Universal Ruler, and as such should be regarded with reverence and fear. "He maketh peace in His high places." Up the infinite heights of the universe, amidst revolving worlds and systems He maintains peace. Though immense their magnitude, countless their multitudes, and incalculably swift their velocities, there is no clash or jar, all is harmony. Ver. 3.- 66 Is there any number of His armies?" His angels are called the army of heaven (Dan. iv. 35). The stars also are His hosts, which "He bringeth out by number and calleth them all by their names." "And upon whom doth not His light arise?" If he refers to stars, there is no constellation or member of a constellation, however remote, on which His rays do not fall; or if to celestial intelligences, there is not one that lives not in His light. Ver. 4.- "How then can man be justified with God?" How then can frail man be right with God? How can he think he has a right to find fault with the decrees of the Almighty, or challenge Him to enter into judgment with him, as Job had done? "Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?' Job himself had expressed the sentiment of these words (chap. iv. 17). Did Bildad mean to throw the question back for his own reflection, as if he believed Job maintained himself to be pure and holy? Ver. 5.-" Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight." Perhaps Bildad spoke these words to Job at night, when the moon shone in her brightness and the stars in their splendour. The idea he wishes to convey is, that the purest objects in the universe are impure as compared with God. Ver. 6.-" How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?" "A worm; a miserable reptile, bred in and supported by putrescent substances. What is man to God? A mere insect, nothing more. HOMILETICS. In this chapter Bildad gives us I. Most EXALTED ideas of GOD. He speaks of Him— First As the Head of all authority. Dominion and fear are with Him." There are great authorities, mighty rulers of the universe; but from Him they all derive their power, and compared to Him they are nothing and vanity. "He is the Most High: King of kings, and Lord of lords." speaks of Him He Secondly: As the Maintainer of all peace. "He maketh peace in His high places." Who maintains the order of the stellar universe? Who maintains order amongst celestial intelligences? He is the "God of peace." He is peaceful in His own nature, and peaceful in all His operations. He speaks of Him Thirdly As the Commander of all forces. "Is there any number of his armies?" What forces there are in the universe, material, mental, moral! They are all His hosts, He marshals and commands them all. He speaks of Him— Fourthly: As the Fountain of all light. Upon whom doth not his light arise?" All light, in both the physical and spiritual realms of being, streams from Him as from the central fount. He is "the Father of lights." He speaks of Him Fifthly As the Perfection of all holiness. "How then can man be justified. with God?" "Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness?" &c. In this chapter Bildad gives II. Most HUMBLING ideas of MAN. : He represents him— "How can he be clean that First As morally degenerate. is born of a woman? He seems to have had the idea of the Psalmist, who thought himself born in sin and “shapen in iniquity." We need no Bible to tell us that we are morally degenerate, that man in "honour abideth not. Morally he is in an abnormal state, like a sheep that has wandered from the fold. He represents him— Secondly: As essentially insignificant. He is a "worm.” How frail in body! He is crushed before the moth. Aye, and how frail in mind, too! How narrow his range of mental vision! How feeble his intellectual power! How weak in moral faculties-weak to resist the wrong and to pursue the right! Morally he is "without strength." CONCLUSION. - From this chapter two things are suggested First: The glorious light of nature. There is no reason to believe that Bildad had any special revelation from God. He was left to the light of nature and reason, albeit how grand are his conceptions of the Eternal, how true his ideas of man. "There is something truly sublime in this representation of the Supreme Ruler. His splendour darkens all; His radiant hosts are numberless; His light and purity surpass all created excellence; the heavenly bodies are eclipsed and retire before Him. And as for man, his impurity and meanness will not bear His inspection." Secondly: The unsatisfactoriness of religious controversy. Bildad here finishes a long, earnest, and able controversy which he and the other two friends of Job had with him. They have exhausted their argumentative force, they appear no more on the scene. But what has been the effect of the whole on Job? Not correction of mistakes, but great irritation and annoyance. And what was the effect of Job's arguments on them? Equally unsatisfactory. One might have thought that as these honourable men had nothing more to say, in thus closing they would have acknowledged their error, and yielded the palm of victory to the patriarch. But this they did not. They retired from the scene unimproved either, perhaps, in intelligence or in temper; and only mortified, it may be, at their failure. "Ye powers who rule the tongue, if such there are, The clash of arguments and jar of words, Worse than the mortal brunt of rival swords, Adopt his own, 'tis equally in vain, A noisy man is always in the right. I twirl my thumbs, fall back into my chair, Reply discreetly, 'To be sure!' 'No doubt!'"-Cowper. HOMILY NO. LIV. JOB'S THIRD ANSWER TO BILDAD. (1.) RIGHTEOUS SARCASM AND THE TRANSCENDENT GREATNESS OF GOD. "But Job answered and said," &c.-CHAP. XXxvi. 1–14. GENERAL NOTE.-Here Job begins a splendid series of addresses which extend to the close of chapter xxxi. This chapter may be regarded as closing the controversy, inasmuch as neither of the three friends appear again. It is supposed that at its close Job paused, expecting Zophar to re-enter, whose turn it was to speak, but as he did not, he resumes his magnificent discourse. EXEGETICAL REMARKS. Ver. 1. "But Job answered and said." 'Whenever," says Dr. Bernard, "any one of Job's friends had thought it necessary to remind him of the Omnipotence and Omnipresence of God, the unfortunate man not only immediately takes up these subjects himself, but generally dwells upon them at much greater length than his friend had done, with a view, probably, to make him. feel the impropriety of preaching that to him which he himself, as was well known, had been in the habit of preaching to others during the whole of his life. This custom of his we shall see him follow in the discourse he is about to deliver. Bildad had in his last speech brought forward no argument whatever, contenting himself with setting forth in a few words the unlimited power and profound wisdom of the Almighty this is felt by Job very keenly, and is looked upon by him as a real insult. He therefore replies." : Ver. 2.-" How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?" The patriarch here seems to mock Bildad in having said nothing but what was universally known. He means to say, What assistance hast thou given to him that has no strength, what help hast thou given to the arm that has no might? Job deals frequently in irony (chap. xvi. 21), and there is a breath of irony in these words. Ver. 3.-" How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom?" "As he had undertaken to give counsel to another, and to suggest views that might be adapted to elevate his mind in his depression, and to console him in his sorrows, he had a right to expect more than he had found in his speech." "And how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?" Plentifully means abundantly. The meaning is, What a multitude of words thou hast employed to tell me what I know! Thou hast said nothing new, nothing to meet the difficulties of the case. Ver. 4.-" To whom hast thou uttered words?" "The sense is, Do you attempt to teach me in such a manner on such a subject? Do you take it that I am ignorant of the perfections of God, that such remarks about Him would convey any real instruction?" "And whose spirit came from thee?" By whose spirit didst thou speak? Dost thou imagine that there is inspiration in thy words? Thy utterance is common-place, nothing more. Have not I myself proclaimed the boundless wisdom of God? Ver. 5. "Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof." The speaker here enters on a grand a grand representation of God, probably to show that his views of the majesty of the Almighty were not inferior to those propounded by Bildad in the preceding chapter. This verse has been variously translated. "The souls of the dead tremble (the places) under the waters and their inhabitants."-Magee. "The place where the giant monsters of the deep are formed, that which is be neath the waters, and the inhabitants thereof." Bernard. "The abode of departed spirits is always placed beneath the ground." Barnes. The "dead things" mean the shades of the dead, or departed spirits that dwell in Sheol, the great world of disembodied spirits. This great world is represented as being under the waters. The waters meaning perhaps the subterranean abyss. Who can tell the multitudes that people this unseen world? Conquerors, tyrants, &c., are there. “It should be translated, The shades tremble beneath the waters and their inhabitants."-Dr. Samuel Davidson. Ver. 6.-" Hell is naked before Him, and destruction hath no covering." "Hell," Hebrew, Sheol; Greek, one, Hades. The idea is, that the mighty world of departed men lies naked to the eye of God. "The eye of God is in every place." Ver. 7.-" He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." "He stretcheth out the north over a void; He hangeth the earth upon nothing."-Dr. Bernard. Job's idea seems to have been, that the earth hung in space, and had nothing to support it as Milton expresses it, "The earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung." Many of the ancients had the same astronomic notion; and modern science could scarcely reject the sublime description here given. Ver. 8.-"He bindeth up the waters in His thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. "That is, He collecteth the waters into the clouds, as it were, in bottles or vessels, which do not let them fall till He is pleased to send them drop by drop upon the earth."-Kitto. "He hath bound the waters in a garment." |