ableness and importance of a command, when we have occasion to claim the benefit of it, than when we have occasion to do the duty of it. See what is the duty we owe to our brethren in affliction. [1.] We should say and do all we can to strengthen them, suggesting to them such considerations as are proper to encourage their confidence in God, and to support their sinking spirits. Faith and patience are the strength of the afflicted; what helps these graces, confirms the feeble knees. [2.] To assuage their grief, the causes of their grief, if possible, or, however, their resentment of those causes. Good words cost nothing; but they may be of good service to those that are in sorrow, not only as it is some comfort to them to see their friends concerned for them, but as they may be so reminded of that which, through the prevalency of grief, was forgotten. Though hard words (we say) break no bones, yet kind words may help to make broken bones rejoice; and those have the tongue of the learned, that know how to speak a word in season to the weary.
6. Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged; and though I forbear, what am I eased? 7. But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company. 8. And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face. 9. He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. 10. They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me. 11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. 12. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. 13. His archers compass me round about; he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare ; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. 14. He breaketh me with breach upon breach; he runneth upon me like a giant. 15. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust. 16. My face is foul with weeping, and on mine eyelids is the shadow of death;
Job's complaint is here as bitter as any where in all his discourses, and he is at a stand whether to smother it or to give it vent. Sometimes the one, and sometimes the other, is a relief to the afflicted, according as the temper or the circumstances are; but Job found help by neither, v. 6. (1.) Sometimes giving vent to grief gives ease; but, "Though I speak," (says Job,) "my grief is not assuaged, my spirit is never the lighter for the pouring out of my complaint; nay, what I speak is so misconstrued as to be turned to the aggravation of my grief." (2.) At other times, keeping silence makes the trouble the easier and the sooner forgotten; but (says Job) though I forbear, I am never the nearer; what am I eased? If he complained, he was censured as passionate; if not, as sullen. If he maintained his integrity, that was his crime; if he made no answer to their accusations, his silence was taken for a confession of his guilt.
Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. O what reason have we to bless God, that we are not making such complaints! He complains,
1. That his family was scattered; (v. 7.) "He hath made me weary, weary of speaking, weary of forbearing, weary of my friends, weary of life itself; my journey through the world proves so very uncomfortable, that I am quite tired with it:" this made it as tiresome as any thing, that all his company was made desolate; his children and servants being killed, and the poor remains of his great household dispersed. The company of good people, that used to meet at his house for religious worship, was now scattered, and he spent his sabbaths in silence and solitude. He had company indeed, but such as he would rather have been without, for they seemed to triumph in his desolation. If lovers and friends are put far from us, we must see and own God's hand in it, making our company desolate.
2. That his body was worn away with diseases and pains, so that he was become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones, v. 8. His face was furrowed, not with age, but sickness; Thou hast filled me with wrinkles. His flesh was wasted with the running of his sore boils, so that his leanness rose up in him, that is, his bones, that were not seen, stuck out, ch. xxxiii. 21. These are called witnesses against him, witnesses of God's displeasure against him, and such witnesses as his friends produced against him to prove him a wicked man. Or, "They are witnesses for me, that my complaint is not causeless," or, "witnesses to me, that am a dying man, and must be gone shortly."
3. That his enemy was a terror to him, threatened him, frightened him, looked stern upon him, and gave all the indications of rage against him; (v. 9.) He tears me in his wrath. But who is this enemy? Either, (1.) Eliphaz; who showed himself very much exasperated against him, and perhaps had expressed himself with such marks of indignation as are here mentioned: at least, what he said tore Job's good name, and thundered nothing but terror to him; his eyes were sharpened to spy out matter of reproach against Job, and very barbarously both he and the rest of them used him. Or, (2.) Satan; he was his enemy, that hated him, and perhaps, by the divine permission, terrified him with apparitions, as (some think) he terrified our Saviour, which put him into his agonies in the garden; and thus he aimed to make him curse God. It is not improbable that this is the enemy he means. Or, (3.) God himself: if we understand it of him, the expressions are indeed as rash as any he used. God hates none of his creatures; but Job's melancholy did thus represent to him the terrors of the Almighty: and nothing can be more grievous to a good man, than to apprehend God to be his enemy. If the wrath of a king be as messengers of death, what is the wrath of the King of kings!
4. That all about him were abusive to him; (v. 10.) They came upon him with open mouth to devour him, as if they would swallow him alive, so terrible were their threats, and so scornful was their conduct to him. They offered him all the indignities they could invent, and even smote him on the cheek; and herein many were confederate, they gathered themselves together against him, even the abjects, Ps. xxxv. 15. Herein Job was a type of Christ, as many of the ancients make him: these very expressions are used in the predictions of his sufferings; (Ps. xxii. 13.) They gaped upon me with their mouths; and (Mic. v. 1.) They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek,
