by the death of one son; how hard then did it bear upon poor Job, who lost them all, and, in one moment, was written childless! [2.] They died suddenly: had they been taken away by some lingering disease, he had had notice to expect their death, and prepare for the breach; but this came upon him without giving him any warning. [3.] They died when they were feasting and making merry: had they died suddenly, when they were praying, he might the better have borne it; he would have hoped that death had found them in a good frame, if their blood had been mingled with their sacrifices; but to have it mingled with their feast, where he himself used to be jealous of them, that they had sinned, and cursed God in their hearts—to have that day come upon them at unawares, like a thief in the night, when perhaps their heads were overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness; this could not but add much to his grief, considering what a tender concern he always had for his children's souls, and that they were now out of the reach of the sacrifices he used to offer, according to the number of them all. See how all things came alike to all. Job's children were constantly prayed for by their father, and lived in love one with another, and yet came to this untimely end. [4.] They died by a wind of the Devil's raising, who is the prince of the power of the air; (Eph. ii. 2.) but it was looked upon to be an immediate hand of God, and a token of his wrath. So Bildad construed it; (ch. viii. 4.) Thy children have sinned against him, and he has cast them away in their transgressions. [5.] They were taken away when he had most need of them to comfort him under all his other losses. Such miserable comforters are all creatures; in God only we have a present help at all times.
20. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21. And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. 22. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
The Devil had done all he desired leave to do against Job, to provoke him to curse God; he had touched all he had, touched it with a witness; he whom the rising sun saw the richest of all the men in the east, before night was poor to a proverb. If his riches had been, as Satan insinuated, the only principle of his religion, now that he had lost his riches, he had certainly lost his religion; but the account we have, in these verses, of his pious deportment under his affliction, sufficiently proved the Devil a liar, and Job an honest man.
I. He conducted himself like a man, under his afflictions; not stupid and senseless, like a stock or stone, not unnatural and unaffected at the death of his children and servants; no, (v. 20.) he arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, which were the usual expressions of great sorrow, to show that he was sensible of the hand of the Lord that was gone out against him; yet he did not break out into any indecencies, nor discover any extravagant passion; he did not faint away, but arose, as a champion to the combat; he did not, in a heat, throw off his clothes, but very gravely, in conformity to the custom of the country, rent his mantle, his cloke, or outer garment; he did not passionately tear his hair, but deliberately shaved his head; by all which it appeared that he kept his temper, and bravely maintained the possession and repose of his own soul, in the midst of all these provocations. The time when he began to show his feelings is observable; it was not till he heard of the death of his children, and then he arose, then he rent his mantle. A worldly unbelieving heart would have said, "Now that the meat is gone, it is well that the mouths are gone too; now that there are no portions, it is well that there are no children;" but Job knew better, and would have been thankful if Providence had spared his children, though he had had little or nothing for them, for Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide. Some expositors, remembering that it was usual with the Jews to rend their clothes when they heard blasphemy, conjecture that Job rent his clothes in a holy indignation at the blasphemous thoughts which Satan now cast into his mind, tempting him to curse God.
II. He conducted himself like a wise and good man, under his affliction, like a perfect and upright man, and one that feared God, and eschewed the evil of sin more than that of outward trouble.
1. He humbled himself under the hand of God, and accommodated himself to the providences he was under, as one that knew how to want as well as how to abound. When God called to weeping and mourning, he wept and mourned, rent his mantle, and shaved his head; and, as one that abased himself even to the dust before God, he fell down upon the ground, in a penitent sense of sin, and a patient submission to the will of God, accepting the punishment of his iniquity. Hereby he showed his sincerity; for hypocrites cry not when God binds them, Job xxxvi. 13. Hereby he prepared himself to get good by the affliction; for how can we improve the grief which we will not feel?
2. He composed himself with quieting considerations, that he might not be disturbed, and put out of the possession of his own soul by these events: he reasons from the common state of human life, which he describes with application to himself; Naked came I (as others do) out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither, into the lap of our common mother, the earth; as the child, when it is sick or weary, lays its head in its mother's bosom. Dust we were in our original, and to dust we return in our exit, (Gen. iii. 19.) to the earth as we were; (Eccl. xii. 7.) naked shall we return thither, whence we were taken, namely, to the clay, Job xxxiii. 6. St. Paul refers to this of Job, (1 Tim. vi. 7.) We brought nothing of this world's goods into the world, but have them from others; and it is certain that we can carry nothing out, but must leave them to others. We come into the world naked; not only unarmed, but unclothed, helpless, shiftless, not so well covered and fenced as other creatures. The sin we are born in, makes us naked to our shame, in the eyes of the holy God. We go out of the world naked; the body does, though the sanctified soul goes clothed, 2 Cor. v. 3. Death strips us of all our enjoyments; clothing can neither warm nor adorn a dead body. This consideration silenced Job under all his losses. (1.) He is but where he was at first; he looks upon himself only as naked, not maimed, not wounded: he was himself still his own man, when nothing else was his own, and therefore but reduced to his first condition. Nemo tam pauper potest esse quam natus est—No one can be so poor as he was when born. Min. Felix. If we are impoverished, we are not wronged, nor much hurt, for we are but as we were born. (2.) He is but where he must have been at last, and is only unclothed, or unloaded rather, a little sooner than he expected. If we put off our clothes before we go to bed, it is some inconvenience, but it may be the better borne when it is near bed-time.
3. He gave glory to God, and expressed himself
Vol. III —C
