“In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”
I. Consider the nature of pious resignation to the will of God, in His afflictive dispensations towards us, as represented in what Job did upon the present occasion. The greatest favourites of heaven are often the subjects of the severest afflictions. Not only is affliction the common lot of all men, but adversity may be a greater token of the Divine favour and love than prosperity itself. Of Job it is said, “he arose”; that is, he did not sink under his afflictions so as to forget himself. He rose from his seat with all the dignity of true religion and heavenly composure of mind. He “rent his mantle.” An outward sign, in Eastern countries, of great distress, or of indignation. Thus Job testified the greatness of his sorrow and the depths of his humiliation as a sinful creature. “Shaved his head,” another expression of uncommon distress. “Tell down upon the ground,” bowing lowly and prostrate before the Majesty of heaven, with entire submission to the Divine will. “And worshipped,” not in appearance only, but in heart. So we see that pious resignation does not consist in the stupid insensibility of the hard hearted, nor in the monkish apathy of the Stoic; for there is neither virtue nor grace in bearing what we do not feel; and no chastening is for the present joyous, but grievous. People may suffer very much under their afflictions, and feel them very deeply, and be resigned to the will of God at the same time. Neither is an earnest desire to have our affliction removed inconsistent with the nature of holy submission. We may weep and mourn, and betray our inward distress by our outward emotions and conduct, and still be unfeignedly submissive to the will of God. External agitations are, in some cases, the almost unavoidable effect of strong natural affections. Insensibility, so far from being the ornament, is the disgrace of human nature.
II. A peculiar privilege of God’s people under His afflicting hand, which is exhibited to us in what Job said. “Naked came!” etc. Here is an interpretation of the true state of his mind, as evidential of a most excellent frame of heart. It is recorded to teach us what is our duty as creatures, and what is our privilege as Christians, if indeed we be partakers of the saving grace of God. Every good thing we have is the undeserved gift of God, to be received with gratitude, thanksgiving, and love, and to be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. It is not only our duty to justify the Lord in all His afflictive dispensations towards us; it is our privilege to praise God for them, and even bless Him for our afflictions. They will then prove unspeakable blessings to us.
III. A testimony by the Holy Ghost himself concerning the great excellency of patient resignation. “In all this,” etc. In all the behaviour of this servant of the Lord he acted not only like a man, but like a wise man, and like a holy man, a man of God. It was not his natural fortitude and courage, nor the strength of reason and argument that supported him, but the superior power of faith in. God, the nobler principle of Divine grace. He did not utter a repining word, entertain a hard thought, nor discover a fretful and impatient spirit. He neither arraigned the justice nor indicted the goodness of God, but acknowledged his own unworthiness and the Divine Sovereignty; confessed his obligations to his great Benefactor, and His undisputable right to do what He would with His own. Remember, then, that the Lord doth not willingly grieve nor afflict the children of men. Afflictions are always dealt out in number, weight, and measure. When the end in view is answered they will be removed. We should be more anxious to have our afflictions sanctified than taken away. Beware of the evil of impatience, murmuring, and discontent. Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?(C. de Coetlogon.)
Charging God foolishly
The two opposite states of prosperity and adversity equally require our vigilance and caution; each of them is a state of conflict, in which nothing but unwearied resistance can preserve us from being overcome. There is no crime more incident to those whose life is embittered with calamities, and whom afflictions have reduced to gloominess and melancholy, than that of repining at the determinations of Providence, or of “charging God foolishly.” They are often tempted to unseemly inquiries into the reasons of His dispensations, and to expostulations about the justice of that sentence which condemned them to their present sufferings. They consider the lives of those whom they account happier than themselves with an eye of malice and suspicion, and if they find them no better than their own, think themselves almost justified in murmuring at their own state. The unreasonableness of this may be seen by--
I. Considering the attributes of God. Many of the errors of mankind, both in opinion and practice, arise originally from mistaken notions of the Divine Being. It is frequently observed in common life, that some favourite notion or inclination, long indulged, takes such an entire possession of a man’s mind, and so engrosses his faculties, as to mingle thoughts perhaps he is not himself conscious of with almost all his conceptions, and influence his whole behaviour. The two great attributes of our Sovereign Creator which seem most likely to influence our lives are His justice and His mercy. The justice of God will not permit Him to afflict any man without cause. Whether we suppose ourselves to suffer for the sake of punishment or probation, it is not easy to discover with what right we repine. If our pains and labours be only preparatory to unbounded felicity we ought to rejoice and be exceeding glad, and to glorify the goodness of God, who, by uniting us in the sufferings with saints and martyrs, will join us also in our reward. Since God is just, a man may be sure that there is a reason for his misery, and it will be generally found in his own corruption. He will therefore, instead of murmuring at God, begin to examine himself, and when he has found the depravity of his own manners it is more likely that he will admire the mercy than complain of the severity of his Judge. Then we may think of God not only as Governor, but as Father of the universe, a Being infinitely gracious, whose punishments are not inflicted to gratify any passion of anger or revenge, but to awaken us from the lethargy of sin, and to recall us from the paths of destruction. A constant conviction of the mercy of God firmly implanted in our minds will, upon the first attack of any calamity, easily induce us to reflect that it is permitted by God to fall upon us, lest we should be too much enamoured by our present state, and neglect to extend our prospects into eternity. Thus by familiarising to our minds the attributes of God we shall, in a great measure, secure ourselves against any temptation to repine at His arrangements, but shall probably still more strengthen our resolution and confirm our piety by reflecting.
II. By reflecting on the ignorance of man. It is by comparing ourselves with others that we often make an estimate of our own happiness, and even sometimes of our virtue. He that has more than he deserves is not to murmur merely because he has less than another. When we judge so confidently of others we deceive ourselves, we admit conjectures for certainties, and chimeras for realities. No man can say that he is better than another, because no man can tell how far the other Was enabled to resist temptation, or what incidents might concur to overthrow his virtue. Let everyone, then, whom God shall visit with affliction humble himself before Him with steady confidence in His mercy, and unfeigned submission to His justice. Let him remember that his sins are the cause of his miseries, and apply himself seriously to the great work of self-examination and repentance. (S. Johnson, LL. D.)
Job’s first victory
They are indeed conquerors under trouble who are kept free from sin and provocation in their hour of trial. For this was Job’s victory, that in all this Job sinned not. Albeit troubles do suggest temptations to many sins; yet the great sin to be avoided by the godly under trouble is, misconstructing of God and His dealing. Misconstructions of God do both reflect upon the infinite wisdom and deep counsels of God in ordering the lots of His people. And they also do proclaim their own folly, in their want of skill to judge aright of God’s proceeding, and in following a course which may well vex themselves, but cannot profit them at all. Whatever advantage saints do give to Satan over themselves in an hour of trial, yet by the power of grace they may be enabled so to walk as may refute all his calumnies of them, and make him a liar; even as God in the issue will, once for all, wipe off all the aspersions which Satan casts upon His followers. As God doth always take notice of His people’s carriage so especially under trouble; and whoever so keep their feet in time of trial, they are observed and commended by God. Saints ought not to measure God’s approbation of their way under trouble by any present comfortable issue; seeing the Lord may take notice of and commend the integrity of those whom yet He seeth is not fit to deliver: for Job is here commended, while the trial is not only continued, but growing upon him. (George Hutcheson.)
Patient Job and the baffled enemy
That is to say, in all this trial, and under all this temptation, Job kept right with God. During all the losses of his estate, and the deaths of his children, he did not speak in an unworthy manner. The text speaks admiringly of “all this”; and a great “all” it was. Some of you are in troubles many; but what are they compared with those of Job? Your afflictions are molehills contrasted with the Alps of the patriarch’s grief. Ah, if God could uphold Job in all this, you may be sure that He can support you. “All this” also alludes to all that Job did, and thought, and said. If in patience he can possess his soul when all the arrows of affliction are wounding him, he is a man indeed. May we ourselves so live that it may be said of us in the end, “In all this he sinned not. He swam through a sea of trouble.”
I. In all our affairs the main thing is, not to sin. It is not said, “In all this Job was never spoken against,” for he was spoken against by Satan in the presence of himself; and very soon he was falsely accused by men who should have comforted him. You must not expect that you will pass through this world, and have it said of you in the end, “In all this no one ever spoke against him.” Those who secure zealous lovers are pretty sure to call forth intense adversaries. The trimmer may dodge through the world without much censure; but it will seldom be so with an out-and-out man of God. Neither is it a chief point for us to seek to go through life without suffering, since the Lord’s servants, the best of them, are ripened and mellowed by suffering. Remember, if the grace of God prevents our affliction from driving us into sin, then Satan is defeated. Satan did not care what Job suffered, so long as he could but hope to make him sin; and he was foiled when he did not sin. If you conquer him in your hour of grief, you conquer indeed. If you do not sin while under the stress of heavy trouble, God will be honoured. He is not so much glorified by preserving you from trouble, as by upholding you in trouble. He allows you to be tried that His grace in you may be tested and glorified. Remember, furthermore, that if you do not sin, you yourself will be no loser by all your tribulations. Sin alone can injure you; but if you remain steadfast, though you are stripped, you will be clothed with glory; though you are deprived of comfort, you will lose no real blessing. True, it may not seem a pleasant thing to be stripped, and yet if one is soon going to bed, it is of no great consequence.
II. In all time of trial there is special fear of our sinning. It is well for the child of God to remember that the hour of darkness is an hour of danger. Suffering is fruitful soil for certain forms of sin. Hence it was needful for the Holy Spirit to give a testimony to Job that, “In all this he sinned not.”
1. For instance, we are apt to grow impatient.
2. We are even tempted to rebellion against God.
3. We may also sin by despair. An afflicted on said, I shall never look up again. I shall go mourning all my days.” Come, if you are as poor as Job, be as patient as Job, and you will find hope ever shining like a star which never sets.
4. Many sin by unbelieving speeches.
5. Men have been driven into a kind of atheism by successive troubles. They have wickedly argued--“There cannot be a God, or He would not let me suffer so.”
III. In acts of mourning we need not sin. Hearken: you are allowed to weep. You are allowed to show that you suffer by your losses. See what Job did. “Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped”; and “in all this Job sinned not.” The husband lamented sorely when his beloved was taken from him. He was right. I should have thought far less of him if he had not done so. “Jesus wept.” But there is a measure in the expression of grief. Job was not wrong in rending his garment: he might have been wrong if he had torn it into shreds. Do not restrain the boiling floods. A flood of tears without may assuage the deluge of grief within. Job’s acts of mourning were moderate and seemly--toned down by his faith. Job’s words also, though very strong, were very true: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither.” Job mourned, and yet did not sin; for he mourned, and worshipped as he mourned. Remember, then, that in acts of mourning there is not, of necessity, any sin.
IV. In charging God foolishly we sin greatly. “Job sinned not,” and the phrase which explains it is, “nor charged God foolishly.”
I. Here let me say that to call God to our judgment seat at all is a high crime and misdemeanour. “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”
2. In the next place, we sin in requiring that we should understand God. What? Is God under bonds to explain Himself to us?
3. We charge God foolishly when we imagine that He is unjust. “Ah!” said one, “when I was a worldling I prospered; but ever since I have been a Christian I have endured no end of losses and troubles.” Do you mean to insinuate that the Lord does not treat you justly? Think a minute, and stand corrected. If the Lord were to deal with you according to strict justice, where would you be?
4. Some, however, will bring foolish charges against His love.
5. Alas! at times, unbelief charges God foolishly with reference to His power. We think that He cannot help us in some peculiar trial.
6. We may be so foolish as to doubt His wisdom. If He be All-wise, how can He suffer us to be in such straits, and to sink so low as we do? What folly is this I Who art thou, that thou wouldst measure the wisdom of God?
V. To come through great trial without sin is the honour of the saints. There is no glory in being a feather-bed soldier, a man bedecked with gorgeous regimentals, but never beautified by a sear, or ennobled by a wound. All that you ever hear of such a soldier is that his spurs jingle on the pavement as he walks. There is no history for this carpet knight. He never smelt gunpowder in his life; or if he did, he fetched out his scent bottle to kill the offensive odour. Well, that will not make much show in the story of the nations. If we could have our choice, and we were as wise as the Lord Himself, we should choose the troubles which He has appointed us, and we should not spare ourselves a single pang. Who wants to paddle about a duck pond all his life? Nay, Lord, if Thou wilt bid me go upon the waters, let me launch out into the deep. The honour of a Christian, or, let me say, the honour of God’s grace in a Christian, is when we have so acted that we have obeyed in detail, not forgetting any point of duty. “In all this Job sinned not” neither in what he thought, or said, or did; nor even in what he did not say, and did not do: I feel that I must add just this. As I read the verse through, it looked too dry for me, and so I wetted it with a tear. “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly”; and yet I, who have suffered so little, have often sinned, and, I fear, in times of anguish, have charged God foolishly. Is not this true of some of you?(C. H. Spurgeon.)
