If we examine the world, we shall everywhere discover variety, changeableness, and succession. Our bodies, our relations, our conditions and circumstances are perpetually changing. But this diversity constitutes the beauty and the glory of providence. It displays the Divine perfections, by rendering their interposition necessary and obvious. It furnishes means by which the dispositions of men are tried, and their characters formed. It lays hold of their hope and fear, joy and sorrow; and exercises every principle of their nature, in their education for eternity. Providence is God in motion; God fulfilling, explaining, enforcing His own word.
I. In these words we see something good. Even in his greatest prosperity, Job thought of dying. Death is always an irksome consideration to the man of the world. He strives to banish it from his thoughts. But the believer keeps up a familiar acquaintance with it. It is far more difficult to maintain a right state of mind in pleasing and prosperous circumstances, than in trying and distressing scenes.
II. We see something desirable. Who does not wish to have his possessions and enjoyments continued; to escape painful revolutions in his circumstances? We talk of the benefit of affliction--but affliction, simply considered, is not eligible. We decry the passions,--but we are required to regulate the passions, rather than expel them. Temporal things are good in themselves and needful. Our error in desiring them consists in two things.
1. In desiring them unconditionally. In praying for temporal blessings, we are always to keep a reserve upon our wishes, including submission to the will of God, and a reference to our real welfare.
2. When we desire them supremely. For whatever be their utility, they are not to be compared with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Things are to be valued and pursued according to their importance.
III. We find something very common. It is affluence and ease cherishing confidence and presumption. It is a supposition that we shall have no changes because we feel none. The consequence is natural, and it is easily explained. Present things most powerfully impress the mind.
IV. Something very false and vain. “Then I said, I shall die in my nest.” Oh, Job! “Boast not thyself of tomorrow.” So ignorant are we of futurity, so erroneous are we in our calculations; so liable are we to mortifying vicissitudes. Whatever engages our affection may become a source of sorrow; whatever excites our hope may prove the means of disappointment. Such is the hard condition upon which we take all our earthly comforts. Are we secure from disappointment with regard to life; or health; or children; or friendship; or property? Observe, however, that we do not recommend you to cherish everlasting apprehension and gloom. It is displeasing to God when we pour the mercies He gives us to enjoy by mistrust. We may avoid solicitude, and not be guilty of the worldly confidence which we have condemned. It does require you--
1. To be moderate in your attachments, and sober in your expectations. The way to escape disappointment is to keep your hopes humble.
2. It calls upon you to seek a better ground of confidence, and to make the Lord your trust.
3. It calls upon you to seek after a preparation for all the changing scenes of life.
4. It calls upon you to look beyond this vain and mutable world to a state of solid and unchangeable happiness. (William Jay.)
The disappointments of life
We have here the sadness and lamentation of a disappointed man. Matters had turned out differently to his expectations. Many things conspired against Job, and the providence of God doomed him to disappointment. In the chapter before us, and in the next following, he speaks of the hopes that he once had, and the frustration of these hopes for which he now mourned, as he seated himself in the ashes, and clothed himself with sackcloth. Having regard to Job’s position and circumstances, none could say that his expectations were extravagant. But before old age came, he found himself with his nest torn to pieces, his reputation shattered, his prosperity perished, his influence destroyed, and foul disease threatening to sweep his body to an untimely grave. As we pass from one stage of life to another, we have to confess that many of our glowing expectations have turned out nothing but day dreams. Who has not had to mourn for frustrated hopes? These disappointments in life befall us under the providence of God; therefore we may be certain that they are meant for our instruction and discipline, as a test of principle for the maturing of our character and the promotion of our spiritual prosperity. These disappointments come in two ways.
1. We strive for that which we are never able to secure.
2. Disappointment comes to men when they reach the point for which they started, and then find it does not correspond with their expectations. Illustrate by the race for riches, or the desire for power. In the region of usefulness there is often disappointment. The same truth is illustrated in personal character. One thing this disappointment does--it drives us nearer to God. I can sometimes thank God for all the dark things in human life which prevent my leaning on anything but the One above, who is perfect both in wisdom and in love. (Charles Vince.)
Life; its hopes and disappointments, and their gracious design
(verses 18-20; 30:26, 31). It would be impossible to find a more admirable description of prosperity than that given in this chapter. Job fondly anticipated that all this prosperity and power would be continued to him. How different the result proved. Job’s experience has its counterpart in that of the children of men in general; in some, of course, more than in others, yet more or less in all. For some the disappointment of life is the disappointment of non-attainment. This may be illustrated in Abraham. What is God’s loving design in life’s disappointments? They form the medium whereby we reach higher blessings than those we miss. How was Job recompensed? Not by material blessings, which were but incidental. The true recompense lay in the purifying and perfecting of his character and life; in the spiritual blessings he reaped as the result of the discipline. So with ourselves. If rightly exercised by life’s adverse influences, we may find gain in every loss. The disappointments of life operate favourably by bringing us nearer to God. (S. D. Hillman.)
My root was spread out by the waters.--
The commendable and censurable in character
I.Here is something very good. In his greatest prosperity Job had thoughts of dying.
II. Here is something very desirable. Job desired a continuation of his providential mercies. The wrong in desiring worldly good is when we desire it unconditionally and supremely.
III. Here is something very common. Job in his affluence cherished confidence and presumption.
IV. Here is something very false. Job calculated on dying in his nest when the storm was gathering round him. (Homilist.)
