Job 42

Response 1. The right manner of growth, is to grow less in one's own eyes (Psalm 22:6): I am a worm and no man. The sight of corruption and ignorance makes a Christian grow into a dislike of himself, he does vanish in his own eyes: Job abhorred himself in the dust (Job 42:6). Th…

As the painter mixes with his dark shadows bright colors; so the wise God mingles the dark and the bright color, crosses and blessings. The body is afflicted, but within is peace of conscience; there is a blessing: Joseph was sold into Egypt, and put in prison; there was the dar…

And Paul prays Philemon to forgive Onesimus, though he took upon himself to make satisfaction for all the wrong or damage that he had sustained (Epistle v. 18, 19). And when God was displeased with the friends of Job he prescribes a way to them, or what they shall do, and what t…

2. This love appears sometimes, in that they are so deeply sensible of it, when they see any wrong offered to the Lord, his name, ways, people, or institutions (Psalm 69:9). And that this is from love to God, and his ways, appears in that they are so ready to condemn themselves,…

He would not excuse miscarriages, yet for the general temper and bent of his heart he refers himself to God's omniscience. So Job 31:6, Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity; and yet elsewhere he says (Job 42:5, 6), Mine eye sees you, and therefo…

You have heard of the patience of Job (James 5:11), and seen the end the Lord brought about. Not only the gracious intention of the Lord in all his afflictions, but the happy outcome the Lord gave to all his afflictions, of which you have the account in Job 42:10: The Lord gave…

[Will you also annul my judgment, will you condemn me that you may be righteous?] As though in speaking so much of his own integrity, and in complaining expressions he would accuse God of injustice and condemn him as an unrighteous governor; and in Job's answer you find no sylla…

The strange woman is sweet: yet (Proverbs 5:4) her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword; goods evilly gotten are sweet for the present, yet their mouths shall be filled with gravel, that got them. But on the other side, the end of all the actions of this life is…

This was the first work he had to do upon their sin, and he spent forty days and forty nights about that work; when he saw it was a sin, and punished it as a magistrate, he satisfies not himself in so doing, but he gets to God, and wrestles with him about it, and lays his own so…

And whoever remains in any place, where he sojourns, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the free-will-offering for the house of God, that is in Jerusalem. So in a private instance (Job 42:10-11): "And the Lord t…

That the great God of such glorious majesty should take notice of worms, and behold us not only by visiting, overseeing, and governing the affairs of this lower world, but should condescend to this low estate of ours, in taking our flesh; whose excellency and majesty is so great…

Chapter 16:63. That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy Mouth any more, because of thy Shame; when I am pacified toward thee, for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord. Job 42:6. I abhor myself, and repent in Dust and Ashes. As we would therefore make th…

And a Casting off of outward shame, that is so from its Object, or Shame with respect to the Conscience and Judgement of Humane Kind, as those doe who proclaim their sins as Sodom and hide them not, is the highest Aggravation of sinning and Contempt of God; and the casting out o…

He pryed so far into that puzzling Mysterie of the Afflictions of the Righteous, and Prosperity of the wicked, till it begat envy towards them, and despondency in himself, Psalm 73. v. 3:13 and this was all he got by summoning Providence to the bar of reason. Holy Job was guilty…

It is clear that he had when he says (Job 31:24.) If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold you are my confidence; it had not been proper for him to deny that gold was his hope (in this sense) if he had not had gold in his possession; or to say he did not confid…

Verse 30: Oh, let not my Lord be angry, and I will speak. Verse 32; (Job 42:3) Therefore have I uttered that I understood not, things too wonderful for me, that I knew not. 3. Beware of murmuring and angry and fretting words against God; (Exodus 14:11) Were there no graves in Eg…

If others be causelessly or excessively angry with me, am not I justly requited for the like or more indecent passions. Charge it home therefore with sorrow and shame upon your consciences, aggravating the sin, and laying load upon yourselves for it, and you will find that the b…

1. Be much in thoughtfulness of the excellency of the majesty of God, and your infinite inconceivable distance from him; many thoughts of it cannot but fill you with a sense of your own vileness, which strikes deep at the root of any indwelling sin. When Job comes to a clear dis…

And one of the things that the Apostle mentions as attending that godly sorrow which is accompanied with repentance unto salvation never to be repented of, is revenge, yea what revenge (2 Corinthians 7:11) — they reflected on their miscarriages with indignation and revenge for t…

It comes from an Hebrew Radix, which imports Gods absolute, Eternal, and Independent being. 2. There is Majesty in Gods Looks. Job had but a glimpse of God, and he was even swallowed up with divine amazement, Job 42:5. Now mine Eye sees you, wherefore I abhorr my self. 3. There…

It reproves such as indeed think of God, but they have not Right Thoughts of him. As the Lord said to Eliphaz, Job 42:7. Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right; so some think of God, but they do not think of him the thing that is right. 1. They have Low unworthy Though…

And as affliction is an exercise for your benefit and spiritual improvement. The husbandman when he tears and rends the ground up with the plow, it is to make it more fruitful; the longer the metal is in the fire, the more pure it comes forth; in fact, sometimes you have your ou…

I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the Holy. (Job 42:5): I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Alas, a poor little hearsay knowledge avails not.

In respect of his goodness, nothing in us deserves that name; as lesser light in the view of a greater is a darkness. When Job had seen God, he could not look upon himself with any patience (Job 42:5-6): I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees you: the…

If a man come to a king, he will say if you had asked for yourself I would have granted you; it is a special honor to intercede for others, which God puts upon his choice servants (Genesis 20:7): Abraham shall pray for you and you shall live. (Job 42:8): My servant Job shall pra…

'Twas one of the errands he came into the world about; repent then not only for, but from dead works (Hebrews 6:1). Abhor both your sin and yourself, repenting as in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). Be full of indignation against, and take a full revenge upon your sin and self, as tru…

1. By hearing of him, for hence our faith comes by the Word. 2. By hearing thus from him, the mind also comes to have a true idea of God, as he reveals himself in the Word and means by the Spirit (Job 42:5). I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees yo…

But to see aright the sovereign [illegible] of his wisdom to guide them, and the all-sufficiency of his goodness far exceeding all created excellencies, and their [illegible] as a going from both these — if they be misguided in the one, they cannot but mistake the other. Job (Jo…

Some beggars have died rich; the poor in spirit, who have lain all their lives at the gate of mercy, and have lived upon the alms of free grace, have died rich in faith, heirs to a kingdom. 4. He that is poor in spirit, is lowly in heart: Rich men are commonly proud and scornful…

Gods wine of comfort is a cordial to the drooping spirit, not fuel for sin. When David was led into temptation first, he must be clad in sack-cloth and mourning, and then God takes it off, and puts on the garment of joy and praise, 1 Chronicles 21:10, 15. Job, though he exprest…

Turn this promise into a prayer; Lord give me grace to return to you with my whole heart. 5. Endeavour after clearer discoveries of God, Job 42. 5. Now mine eye sees you; wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes.

So it was with Josiah: the reason why his heart melted and he wept when he heard the book of the Law read, was because he had the spirit of compassion, which every one of us should have. So Job: 'Now I have seen you, I abhor myself' (Job 42). He was not thus before.

And: I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Of the publican: who standing far off would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast saying, Lord be merciful to me a sinner (Daniel 9:7; Job 39:36; Job 42:6; Luke 18:13). As for confession of sin to me…

1. By an experimental confession of his faith in Christ. 2. By a life answerable to that confession; to wit, a life of holiness — heart-holiness, family-holiness, (if he has a family,) and by conversation-holiness in the world; which in the general teaches him inwardly to abhor…

Those which declare all things to be equally easy to him, and nothing difficult; There is nothing too hard for you (Jeremiah 32:17; 2 Chronicles 14:11; 1 Samuel 14:6). Those which ascribe all power to him, by the titles of Almighty, All-sufficient (Genesis 17:1; Revelation 4:8,…

He has curiously and wonderfully wrought the frame of our bodies, so as to make them fit habitations for reasonable souls, and immortal spirits; he has made our very bodies vessels of honor, when of the very same clay he has made innumerable other creatures, of a much lower rank…

'I am more brutish than any man,' says a third (Proverbs 30:2). 'I abhor myself in dust and ashes,' says a fourth (Job 42:6). And as little esteem they have for their performances: 'All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6).

But sorrow and care, these most pierce; but these affections never pierce the heart, till first hatred and loathing of sin be wrought in a man (Romans 7:15). And this springs from a change wrought in the will, which makes us loathe ourselves for our sins (Job 40:3-4) and (Job 42…

And because God will have his children scoured by very homely instruments, a faithful soul despises no creature, but makes account God may make any creature an instrument of affliction to him; and though he be free from any distracting fear, yet that it may look the wind in the…

When you hate sin, as it is a dishonor to God, and a piercing of Christ, and a crucifying him (Psalm 51:5). You hate sin as sin; if you are grieved for sin, not as it is grievous to your conscience, and an amazement to your spirit, but as it is loathsome and filthy in the sight…

The many trials to which he was brought, and his patient enduring all (for he was overcome by none) manifests the extent of his patience: never any (Christ excepted) endured more, never any (the same excepted) more patiently endured all. The history itself, his own testimony, an…

Did not Saint James exhort to this, when he says, Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray for him (Philippians, verse 22; 2 Kings 19:4; Esther 4:16; Daniel 2:18; Genesis 20:7; Job 42:8; James 5:14). §. 145. Of motives to desire others'…

5 In this misery God supports his faith, that it fail not, and he then not forsake Christ (Job 13:15). 6 He feeling thus God's power to strengthen him, has experience of it in himself (Job 42:5-6). 7 From experience proceeds hope, that the grace of God shall never be wanting to…