Job 21

Job 21:1-3

my divine God, to whom the right of redemption belongs; he lives from everlasting to everlasting, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, when he appears incarnate for his people’s salvation; or rather above the earth, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven to judgment, with power and great glory, and all nations shall be assembled before him to receive their final doom: and though after my skin, we can defray this body in the grave, and corruption utter and universal confusion: this mortal tabernacle, yet in my flesh shall I see God. To the refurrection day, when, relicted from the dust my flesh shall be relicted, and with my bodily eyes shall I behold God manifest in the perils of my Redeemer, whom I shall see for myself, with joy uncontrabable, and mine eye, the eyes now dim with tears, shall behold his glory, and not another, or a stranger, an ungodly man, shall have no such delight or comfort in meeting him. Though my room, (or better without the Tough) My room are inclement within me, or in my before; my soul is consumed with eager longing for this day of my Redeemer’s appearance and glory. Note, (1.) The faith in an incarnate Redeemer was the only support of the saints of God in every age. (2.) The Lord Jesus hath offered himself to redeem for fallen man God’s forfeited favour, and the heavenly inheritance, and in him our right to both is restored. (3.) He ever liveth, therefore his people cannot perish, for his advocacy is all-prevailing for them, and his grace all-sufficient in them. (4.) A comfortable certainty of his intent in the Redeemer’s regard, is the believer’s privilege: he may say, He is mine, and add, I know it, by blessed and delightful experience. (5.) The hope of a judgment-day is the support of God’s suffering saints. (6.) Tho’ our bodies return to the dust, they are not left in the grave, but every particle locked up as in a treafure-house, and preserved against the refurrection-day. (7.) In the vision of the ever blessed God confails the glorious happiness of the redeemed. (8.) Every day which brings us nearer to our last day, our desires should be more enlarged, and our longing for it more eager, whilst we cease not to pray, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

3. He intimates the effect his declaration should have upon them. Instead of using him as they did, they should rather say, Why perfects we him, seeing the rest of the matter is in him? He is found in the faith, and appears to be no hypocrite. At last, they ought to tremble for the consequences, if they persevered to ill-uite him. Be ye afraid of the found of divine justice, for servile bringeth the punishment of the found; an offended God will draw it from the icabbard, that ye may know there is a judgment, and wee unto you if he let his face against you. Note, (1.) If a man have the root of the matter in him, and is found in fundamentals, letter differences should be overlooked. (2.) All perfectionism for conscience-like is desechable; and how especially guilty must it be, to oppress those who hold one faith, one hope, one God, one Redeemer with us, merely because they will not square every opinion to our own, or, however weak their objections, dislike our form of worship, dress, or ceremonies. (3.) In a day of judgment, legacy and creationism towards our brethren will be remembered, and if it defray not our hope, it will tarnish our crown.

C H A P. XX.

Our would have thought that faith an excellent confession of faith as I am made in the style of the foregoing chapter, should have justified his friends, or at least have mollified them; but they seem deaf to all his pleas. Zephyr in turn immediately rises up to reply. 1. Wish unavoid he introduces his dishonest, viz. 1—2. 3. The subject of it is nothing new, but Billed’s arguments expressed in ably language, viz. 4—19. This man all they could say, and this they rejoiced never to defied from, that he was miserably afflicted, and therefore must be visibly wicked; as if, however God may brainstorm with the ungodly here below, he never varied this method of his providence.

1. THEN answered Zephyr the Naamathite, and said, 2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make hafer: 3. I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

Zephyr in hafer rises to vindicate himself and friends from the unjust objections, as he imagined, of cruelty and perfection, which Job cast upon them. Big with matter, his thoughts swelled in his bosom, and forced a vent at his lips. He interprets what he had heard as an high provocation, and, confident that reason was on their side, and solid understanding only with them, he speaks as under the influence of the spirit of wisdom, and demands therefore attention. Note, (1.) They who are most confident, are seldom most in the right. (2.) Prejudice and guide make men interpret the kindest warning into an affront, and return it with indolence. (3.) The dictates of petition often pass for the voice of reason; so partial is every man apt to be in his own cause.

4. Knoweth thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, 5. That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? 6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds: 7. Yet he shall perish for ever, like his own dung: they which have seen him, shall say, Where is he? 8. He shall be away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. 9. The eye also which saw him, shall be due no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

Job 21:4-9

He here opens his argument. The destruction of the wicked is speedy and certain, and therefore, from Job’s afflictions this character must need belong to him. He appeals to all antiquity, in proof of the doctrine he was about to advance, v. 4. Since the day Adam was placed on the earth, the misery of the wicked had been uniform and perpetual; witness Cain, the flood, the destruction of Sodom, &c. The triumphing of the wicked was ever short, and the hypocrite’s joy momentary. Whether their character was abandoned wickedness or hypocritical profession, avowed irreligion or the form of godliness without the power of it, their damnation flumbered not, v. 5. Though for a while indeed iniquity might be triumphant, and hypocrisy unintended, v. 6, yet man shall and eternal awaited them, v. 7. Their prosperity shall be passing at the dream, unfulfurnish as the forms of fancy in the visions of the night, v. 8, and they shall be loathsome as their own dung, v. 7. With surprise they who passed by them in their exaltation, shall, at their return, enquire what is become of all their greatness, v. 7. now buried with them in the grave, where no eye shall any more behold them, v. 9. Note, (1.) However long a wicked man’s prosperity, or a hypocrite’s profession, falls in this world, it may well be counted short and momentary, compared with the eternity which approaches. (2.) Sin and ruin, though not always in this life, shall, in the next, appear certainly inseparable. (3.) They who lift their heads to the clouds in sinful prosperity, or proud self-righteousness, are only thus suffered to mount, in order to fall deeper into the pit of destruction, where, of all others, the hypocrite’s portion will be most terrible, See Mat. xxiv. 51.

10. His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods. 11. His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. 12. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; 13. Though he spare it, and forsake it not: but keep it still within his mouth. 14. Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of alps within him. 15. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall call them out of his belly. 16. He shall fuck the poison of alps: the viper’s tongue shall lay him. 17. He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. 18. That which he laboured for, shall be restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice slaves. 19. Because he hath oppressed, and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not. 20. Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. 21. There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

Job 21:7

—16. Job’s friends had insisted upon it, that there was no such thing as prosperous iniquity; at last, that it was momentary. Experience, says Job, contradicts your assertion: the wicked live and die in ease and affluence, yea, are hardened by it; yet this God often permits, without being either chargeable with want of wisdom or justice in his government of the world.

1. He describes their prosperity. Wherefore do the wicked live, if it be as you say? how do they become old, and are not cut off with any remarkable judgments, yea, are mighty in peace? so far from being desirous or desirous, they bear the sway in the world. How is this consistent with your assertions? yet there are undeniable instances of what I advance. Their families are built up, and they live to see them well settled. Their substance is protected, v. 8. and no rod of affliction upon them, v. 9. Their worldly affairs in the minutest instances prosper, v. 10. Their children are numerous as a flock, their houses are full of joy and mirth, and they devote to dance and song the jocund day, v. 11, 12. The hours pass along in pleasure and festival indulgence, and without a groan they go down to the grave, in a moment, without any of the miseries. Zopher had described; or quietly liquid and infidelity, without apparent fear or terror, v. 13. Note, (1.) No man is to be judged of by his outward prosperity; we must take in eternity to make a right estimate of man’s estate. None false acts obterm. (2.) Worldly wealth abused to gratify sensual appetite, is a curse instead of a blessing.

2. He suggests the ill effect of their prosperity; it hardened their hearts against God, and led them to indelibly. Therefore, because possessed of such wealth, and living, in consequence thereof, in a round of vanity and worldly lusts, they say unto God, Dopey from so; they wish to leave him far above out of their sight, and that no remembrance of him should disturb their conscience, and interrupt their joys; for we deploy not the knowledge of the ways. The paths of godliness appear forbidding and melancholy, compared with pleasure’s flowery way; and they wish for no unwelcome interruption, from grave inflows and religion’s needful restraints. Their lives make it their interest that God should not interfere with the concerns of men; and therefore, that perhaps not in words expressed, yet the sentiment of their hearts are, What is the Almighty? or who is he, that we should pray him? Perhaps there is no God; or, if there be, he earths not about the petty affairs of men: the terrors of his men are but the bugbears of priests, to frighten the mind of the superstitious; and what profit should we have if we pray unto him? a talk useless and unnecessary, whence nothing can be gone, he thinks his blinded sinner, left in indulgence, and endowed by diverse foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition and destruction. Note, (1.) A pleasure-loving world is ever jealous of the incroachments of religion, and wishes to be ignorant, left, coming for a moment to the light, they should not be able, wish such querrant of conscience, to return to the pursuit of their vanities. (2.) Irreligion is the parent of indelibly: we really persuade ourselves what we desire to believe. (3.) Though a wicked and careless world sees no profit in prayer, a child of God by bledged experience finds his richest acquisitions are got upon his knees.

3. Job puts in a caveat, not to be misinterpreted, as if in this indulgence of the wicked he concerned with, or approved of, their ways. No; he knew their slippery steps. Lo, their good is not in their hand; what they enjoy is transitory and fading; or, is it not in their hand? They have their portion in this life alone, and no hope hereafter; but the benefit of the wicked is for from me; I neither say as they say, nor do as they do. Note, When we are speaking with those we know to be captious, we need be the more explicit, that we may not be misunderstood.

4. How oft is the 1st candle of the wicked put out? and how oft cometh their destruction upon them? God distributed forthwith forrows in his anger. 18. They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carried away. 19. God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it. 20. His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 21. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst? 22. Shall any much God knowledge? seeing he judgment those that are high. 23. One death in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. 24. His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow. 25. And another death in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. 26. They shall lie down a alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

Job 21:10-21

In a variety of instances Zephyr expiates on the misery of the wicked in this world. His children shall lead to please the poor, or, being poor, shall please. Men will take pleasure to see them reduced, and the ill-gotten gain vanished, which by force their father shall be compelled to restore, v. 10. Full of the sins of youth, lust, drunkenness, gluttony, quarrels, his bones shall be rotten with diseases, and they shall not only bring him to the grave, but the curse of sin for ever rest upon him dead as alive, v. 11. Sweet as the thoughts were of pleasurable iniquity, and delightful as the indulgence of his appetites; cherished as his lusts were in his bosom, and concealed to save his character and credit among men, v. 12, 13. yet shall those acts of sin, that seemed to be found in the prophets, and so transporting to the enjoyment, bread afterwards loathing, and pangs within succeed, bitter as gall to the conscience, and poisonous to the soul as the reason of the alps, v. 14. The fruits of his infuriate covetousness, which he swallowed as a hungry man his food, he shall disgorge, either by his own terrified conscience compelling him to redimagine, or by God’s Providence restoring to the right owner the spoils of wickedness, v. 15. Disease, fatal as the poison of alps, and painful as the viper’s bite, shall seize him, as the just wages of his iniquity, v. 16.

Or, the poor shall express his children. Ver. 18. § Comp. xii, xiii. ¶ Comp. xii, xiii. Prov. ix. 16th. In the midst of his poison. Mat. xxvi. 5. Kings xii, xiii. 6. Ver. xix. 7. John. Crall. Or, the poor shall express his children. Ver. 18. § Comp. xii, xiii. ¶ Comp. xii, xiii. Prov. ix. 16th. In the midst of his poison. Mat. xxvi. 5. Kings xii, xiii. 6. Ver. xix. 7. John. Crall.

Bearcloth v. 16. His affluence, in which he once gloried, and for which he laboured so long and unweariedly, v. 17. shall fail him, like the firearm of a brook dried up. When each one hath got their own, v. 18. nothing shall be left to comfort him. Because of his oppression, he shall carry about with him a tormented conscience, v. 20. and shall dare not the finalist portion of all his defireable acquisitions. He shall be reduced to pining hunger, v. 21. and not the lewd pittance he left for his heirs: So universal shall be his desolations. Now, (1.) Youthful sins, however lightly accounted of, have terrible consequences. (2.) God often makes men’s iniquities their present plague; and disease, deformity, pain, contempt, and loathing, are seen in this world to be the wages of sin. (3.) The sweetest sins produce the most bitter remembrances, both now in the pangy of conscience, and hereafter in hell, where the worm never dies. (4.) They purchase present pleasure and guaranteed duty, who, for the sake of these, expose themselves to everlasting pain and contempt. (5.) The gains of covetousness and oppression are often shrewdified; what is gotten by wickedness, is usually squandered in profusion.

Job 21:17-26

Having described the prosperity of the ungodly, he maintains, Vnl. I.

1. The continuance of it. How oft is the candle of the wicked, his prosperity, yet are? doth it not often than to the last? How oft cometh destruction upon them? is not the very contrary seen to be the case? Doth God distribute forrows in his anger? no; he lives at ease, and knows no affliction. How oft, as his friends had suggested, are they as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carried away? experience shews the reverie to be true. Note, Though some instances of God’s interposition against the wicked appear, more commonly they live and die undisturbed in their possessions.

2. He answers an objection, that though themselves do not suffer, God layeth up iniquity for his children; but admitting it, that would not at all prove the conclusions Job’s friends would draw; for they require, that God should reward him in this life, and he should know it. Job you should be the destruction, and he should drink of the wrath of the Almighty, in his own person, according to their principles; for else, what pleasure, or what neglect hath he in his house after him? after death, when their joys or forrows cannot affect him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst, and he goes down to the grave.

Perhaps this whole passage may bear a different view, as a concession, that oftentures the wicked might suffer, but it was not always the case, and that were sufficient to invalidate their arguments. Note, (1.) A wicked payout entails the curse of God upon his family. (2.) There is a cup of trembling filled with the wine of the wrath of God, that will shortly be put into the hand of the ungodly.

3. He maintains the sovereignty of God in all these dissensions. Shall any much God knowledge? pretend to direct his procedure, seeing he judgment those that are high, who must shortly appear at his bar, when righteous judgment will be administered. Tell them it were presumption to judge of men’s character by their outward circumstances; for here men equally wicked have very different ends: one in the midst of prosperity, ease, and affluence, goes down to the grave; another, after long lingering in misery. Or it may intimate the different kinds of death men meet; some by a sudden and unexpected firefall, others wished by sickness and long decay: but in the dust all difference will be at an end, and the worms alike cover them. Note, (1.) God is sovereign and just; he doth indeed what he will, but what he will is always holy, just, and good. (2.) The strongest health is no protection from the throbs of sudden death: it becomes as each moment to be prepared. (3.) If we have ease and appetite, whilst others groan in pain, and loath their soul, let us be thankful, and improve the mercy before the evil days come. (4.) However the wicked die, they will meet in one place; whether they go from the palace or the dunghill, they will lie down in flames, and the worm that never dies shall alike prey upon them.

4. Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me. 28. For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling-places of the wicked? 29. Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens? 30. That the wicked is referred to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. 31. Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? 32. Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb. 33. The clouds of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him. 34. How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth + fallhood?

Job 21:27-30

1. Job intimates his thorough knowledge of his friends design in their former speeches. He saw they concluded him a hypocrite, though wrongfully, and that merely because his dwelling was desolate, as they argued was the constant case with the wicked, v. 28. Note, Men’s looks and inunders speak of plain as any language can.

2. He refers them to any traveller for confection of their assertions, who could give them fine proofs and tokens, that wicked men were generally in prosperity. This is not the place of recongnancy, but the next world; there they will receive according to their deeds, and every good man, a traveller to glory, would inform them, if they asked, that the wicked is referred to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath; certain and eternal ruin is the portion hereafter, though now they are great and prosper. Here they are too high to be reproved, and too mighty to be restrained by the arm of human justice, v. 31. but there they will be convicted and condemned, without the power of resistance. Here, notwithstanding their wickedness, they go in pomp to the grave, a gorgeous sepulchral monument, and attendant crowds do them honour even in the dust, to make the clouds of the valley sweet unto them, v. 32. but they shall awake to shame and everlasting

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