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Job_1:1. There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
That was Job’s character before the trial which made him famous; perhaps, if it had not been for that trial, we should never have heard of him; now, as the apostle James wrote, “Ye have heard of the patience of Job.” God, by great; afflictions, gave to his servant that usefulness for which he had possibly prayed, without knowing how it would come to him. A long-continued life, of prosperity may not so truly glorify God as a life that is chequered by adversity; and God, who intended to put honour upon his servant, did as kings do when they confer the honour of knighthood, they strike with the, back or flat of the sword, so God smote the patriarch Job that he might raise him above his fellow men. The Lord intended to make him Job the patient, but to that end He must make him Job the sufferer. From this Book I learn what gospel perfection is. We are told that Job was perfect and upright, yet I am sure that he was not free from tendencies to evil, he was not absolutely perfect. As old Master Trapp says, “God’s people may be perfect, but they are not perfectly perfect;” and so it certainly was with Job. There were imperfections deep down in his character which his trials developed, and which the grace of God no doubt afterwards removed; but after the manner of speech that is used in Holy Scripture, Job was a “perfect” man; he was sincere, thorough-hearted, consecrated; and he was also “upright.” He leaned neither this way nor that way, he had no twist in him, he had no selfish ends to serve. He was “one that feared God.” Everybody could see that; and, consequently, he hated evil with all his heart.
Job_1:2. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
It was a great privilege to have such a family as this, but it brought to Job great responsibilities and many anxieties.
Job_1:3. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
A man may be a good man and a rich man, but it is not usually the case. I am afraid that what Mr. Bunyan says is all too true,-“ Gold and the gospel seldom do agree; Religion always sides with poverty.” Yet it should not be so, for God can give a man grace enough to use all his substance to his Lord’s glory. I wish that it were oftener the case that we could see a holy Job as well as a godly Lazarus, a company of men who would prove their consecration to God by never allowing their wealth to become their master, but being master of all their substance, and realizing constantly that it is all the Lord’s. This, after all, is the noblest heritage a man has with the exception of his God. Job, in adversity, could possess his soul in patience because, in his prosperity, he had not let his riches possess him, but he had possessed them.
Job_1:4. And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
This showed that it was not drunken riotousness, or they would not have wanted their sisters; the sweet, gentle, delicate influence of their sisters would tend to keep their feasting what it should be. Besides, they were the sons of a man of God, and so they would know how to keep their feasting within due bounds. Yet we are all mortal and fallible, and feasting times are dangerous times. The Puritans used to call fasting, soul-fattening fasting; but feasting, they might call soul-weakening feasting. Solomon truly said, “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting.” There is always a risk about feasting, and Job was therefore a little afraid about how his sons might have behaved.
Job_1:5. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts, Thus did Job continually.
They might have spoken unadvisedly with their lips, they might have even taken God’s name in vain, there ,night have been something about their conduct which was not altogether proper; so their father desired to put the sin of it; away. Observe Job’s resort to burnt offerings. He lived before the Jewish law was given, yet he felt the instinct concerning the need of a sacrifice which every believing heart feels when it approaches the holy God. I pray you, never give up that idea of coming to God by means of a sacrifice, for there is no other way of access. We may think as we will, but there is nothing else that will ever quiet the conscience, and bring us near to God, but the divinely-appointed sacrifice. And Job knew this; he did not think that his sons could be cleansed by his prayers alone, but he must offer burnt sacrifices according to the number of them all, that they might, every one have a share in, the blessings which those sacrifices typified.