Jó 23
Charles Spurgeon · Citado em PreceptAustin
Jó 23:10-11
Spurgeon: He narrowly inspects their actions, words, and thoughts. As men, when intently and narrowly inspecting some very minute object, almost close their eyelids to exclude every other object, so will the Lord look all men through and through. God sees each man as much and as perfectly as if there were no other creature in the universe. He sees us always; He never removes His eye from us; He sees us entirely, reading the recesses of the soul as readily as the glancings of the eye. Is not this a sufficient ground of confidence, and an abundant answer to the solicitations of despondency? My danger is not hid from Him; He knows my extremity, and I may rest assured that He will not suffer me to perish while I rely alone on Him. Wherefore, then, should I take wings of a timid bird, and flee from the dangers which beset me? Psalm 11:5 The LORD examines (bachan; LXX = exetazo = intently, carefully examine, scrutinize) the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates. Spurgeon on Ps 11:5: The Lord tries the righteous: He doth not hate them, but only tries them. They are precious to Him, and therefore He refines them with afflictions. None of the Lord's children may hope to escape from trial, nor, indeed, in our right minds, would any of us desire to do so, for trial is the channel of many blessings. It is my happiness below Not to live without the cross; But the Saviour's power to know, Sanctifying every loss. "Trials make the promise sweet; Trials give new life to prayer; Trials bring me to his feet Lay me low, and keep me there." "Did I meet no trials here -- No chastisement by the way -- Might I not, with reason, fear I should prove a cast away?" Unbelievers may escape the rod, Sunk in earthly vain delight; But the true born child of God Must not -- would not, if he might." William Cowper Is not this a very cogent reason why we should not distrustfully endeavour to shun a trial? -- for in so doing we are seeking to avoid a blessing. Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. Psalm 139:23 Search (red = commands) me, O God, and know my heart; Try (Bachan) me and know my anxious thoughts; Spurgeon: Exercise any and every test upon me. By fire and by water let me be examined. Read not alone the desires of my heart, but the fugitive thoughts of my head. Know with all penetrating knowledge all that is or has been in the chambers of my mind. What a mercy that there is one being who can know us to perfection! He is intimately at home with us. He is graciously inclined towards us, and is willing to bend his omniscience to serve the end of our sanctification. Let us pray as David did, and let us be as honest as he. We cannot hide our sin: salvation lies the other way, in a plain discovery of evil, and an effectual severance from it. Proverbs 17:3 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests (bachan) hearts. Jeremiah 6:27 "I have made you an assayer and a tester among My people, That you may know and assay (bachan; LXX = dokimazo) their way." Jeremiah 17:10 "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test (bachan; LXX = dokimazo) the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds. Jeremiah 20:12 Yet, O LORD of hosts, You Who test (bachan; LXX = dokimazo) the righteous, Who see the mind and the heart; Let me see Your vengeance on them; For to You I have set forth my cause. Zechariah 13:9 (Context = Terminus of 3.5 years of Great Tribulation) "And I will bring the third part (of Jews = the believing remnant) through the fire, Refine (tsaraph) them as silver is refined, And test (bachan; LXX = dokimazo) them as gold is tested (bachan). They will call on My name (Because of His outpouring of the Spirit of grace - Zech 12:10), And I will answer them; I will say, 'They are My people,' And they will say, 'The LORD is my God (fulfillment of His New Covenant promise in Je 31:31 32 33 esp v33)'" Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test (bachan = command) Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament notes that… In only five of the occurrences is bachan used without explicit theological reference. These are found in Ge 42:15-16; Ezek 21:13; Job 12:11; 34:3. All of the remaining occurrences (twenty-two times), except three, refer to God’s examination of his people. In the exceptions, it is God Who is tested. It is evident that this is abnormal procedure. In Ps 95:9 the people are reminded of the folly of testing God at Meribah. In Malachi, it is only because of the people’s apathy that God calls them to test him (Mal 3:10, 15). As is indicated in Hebrews (see notes Hebrews 12:5; 12:6; 12:7; 12:8), part of the privilege of being God’s people is that of being tested (Jer 20:12; Ps 11:5; Ps 139:23). Unlike the Egyptian doctrine where the heart is weighed after death, Yahweh continually assays the hearts of his people that in the end they may come forth as gold (Zech 13:9; Job 23:10). (Harris, R L, Archer, G L & Waltke, B K Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Moody Press) When metals are refined and purified they are heated to extremely high temperatures to remove the impurities or dross. Warren
Jó 23:10-11
Spurgeon writes that… Here the true Job comes to the front. You get the gracious man once more on his feet. He staggered a little; but he stands firm now: “When he bath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” So will you, my tried sister, my afflicted brother. The trial of your faith is but for a time; there will come an end to this furnace-work; and when God has tried you, tested you, and taken away your dross, (Ed: Dross = impurities separated from silver, etc., by the process of melting -- the scum that forms on the surface of metal subjected to smelting) he will bring you forth, and you will be pure gold, meet for the Master’s use. “In the furnace God may prove thee, Thence to bring thee forth more bright; But can never cease to love thee: Thou art precious in his sight: God is with thee, God thine everlasting light.” It is grand to be able to say that while you are in the fire. It is very easy to say it about another man who is in the furnace; but when you are in there yourself, then to say, “I shall come forth as gold,” is the sublimity of faith! It is a very simple matter to say, “If I were again put into the fire, I know I should come forth as gold;” but it is when the burning heat is melting you, when you seem yourself to be shriveled up in the crucible, and so little of you is left, then is the time still to say, “When the Lord hath finished his work upon me, when he hath thoroughly assayed me, I shall come forth as gold.” This is beautiful faith on the part of Job. It is very easy for us to read these lines, and to say, "No doubt, tried men do come out of the furnace purified like gold;" but it is quite another thing to be ourselves in the crucible, and to read such a passage as this by the light of the fire, and then to be able to say, "We know it is true, for we are proving its truth even now." This is the kind of chapter that many a broken heart has to read by itself alone. Many a weeping eye has scanned these words of Job, and truly blessed has that troubled one been who has been able to chime in with the sweet music of this verse: "He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Dt 8:2 — "And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Ps 17:3 — Thou hast tried my heart; Thou hast visited me by night; Thou hast tested me and dost find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress. Pr 17:3 — The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests hearts. 1Pe 1:7 — that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ C H Spurgeon addresses the purpose of trials in the believer's life in his message on Job 23:10 entitled Whither Goest Thou?… Trials are no evidence of being without God, since trials come from God. Job says, "When he hath tried me." He sees God in his afflictions. The devil actually wrought the trouble; but the Lord not only permitted it, but he had a design in it. Without the divine concurrence, none of his afflictions could have happened. It was God that tried Job, and it is God that tried us. No trouble comes to us without divine permission. All the "dogs of affliction" are muzzled until God sets them free. Nay, against none of the seed of Abraham can a dog move its tongue unless God permits. Troubles do not spring out of the ground like weeds that grow randomly, but they grow orderly as plants set in the garden. God appoints the weight and number of all our adversities. If He declares the number ten they cannot be eleven. If He wills that we bear a certain weight, no one can add half an ounce more. Since Every trial comes from God, afflictions are no evidence that you are out of God's way. Besides, according to the text, these trials are tests: "When he hath tried me." The trials that came to Job were made to be proofs that the patriarch was real and sincere. Did not the enemy say: "Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face" [Job 1:10]. The devil will have it that as dogs follow men for bones, so do we follow God for what we can get out of Him. The Lord lets the devil see that our love is not bought by temporal goods; that we are not mercenary followers, but loving children of the Lord, so that under dire suffering we exclaim, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" [Job 13:15]. By the endurance of grief our sincerity is made manifest, and it is proven that we are not mere pretenders, but true heirs of God. Once more upon this point: if you have met with troubles, remember they will come to an end. The holy man in our text says, "When he hath tried me." As much as to say, He will not always be doing it; there will come a time when He will have done trying me. Beloved, put a stout heart to a steep hill and you will climb it before long. Put the ship in good trim for a storm; and though the winds may howl for a while, they will at length sob themselves asleep. There is a sea of glass for us after the sea of storms. Only have patience and the end will come. Many a man of God has lived through a hundred troubles when he thought one would kill him; and so will it be with you. You young beginners, you that are bound for the kingdom, but have only lately started for it, be not amazed if you meet with conflicts. If you very soon meet with difficulties, be not surprised. Let your trials be evidence to you rather that you are in the right, than that you are in the wrong way; for what son is there whom his father does not chasten? (He 12:7-note) He that will go to hell will find many to help him thither; but he that will go to heaven may have to cut his way through a host of adversaries (cp Acts 14:22 where Paul and Barnabas were "strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."). Pluck up courage (cp Jn 16:33 Jesus encouraged His fearful small band of disciples declaring "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."). The rod is one of the tokens of the child of God. If thou were not God's child you might be left unchastened; but inasmuch as you are dear to Him, He will whip you when you disobey (He 12:5,6-note). If thou were only a bit of common clay God would not put you into the furnace; but as you are gold and He knows it, you must be refined; and to be refined it is needful that the fire should exercise its power upon you (cp 1Pe 1:6-note;1Peter 1:7-note). Because you are bound for heaven you will meet with storms on your voyage to glory (cp 1Th 3:2, 3- notes; 1Th 3:4 - note - "and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know. ). HAVE YOU CONFIDENCE IN GOD AS TO THESE STORMS? Can you say, in the language of the text, "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold"? If you are really trusting in Jesus, if He is everything to you, you may say this confidently; for you will find it true to the letter. If you have really given yourself up to be saved by grace, do not hesitate to believe that you will be found safe at the last. I do not like people to come and trust Christ with a temporary faith as though He could keep them for a day or two, but could not preserve them all their lives. (cp Ro 5:9, 10-notes Ro 5:9; 5:10 "saved from the wrath…saved by His life") Trust Christ for everlasting salvation: mark the word "everlasting." I thank God, that when I believed in His Son Jesus Christ, I laid hold upon final perseverance: I believed that where He had begun a good work He would carry it on and perfect it in the day of Christ (Php 1:6-note "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."). I believed in the Lord Jesus, not for a year or two, but for all the days of my life, and to eternity. I want your faith to have a hand of that kind, so that you grasp the Lord as your Savior to the uttermost. I cannot tell what troubles may come, nor what temptations may arise; but I know in Whose hands I am, and I am persuaded that He is able to preserve me (2Ti 1:12-note), so that when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. I go into the fire, but I shall not be burned up in it; "I shall come forth." Like the three holy children, though the furnace be heated seven times hotter, yet the Son of man will be with me in the furnace (Da 3:25), and "I shall come forth" with not even the smell of fire upon me (Da 3:27). Yes, "I shall come forth," and none can hinder me. It is good to begin with this holy confidence, and to let that confidence increase as you get nearer to the recompense of the reward (cp Jas 1:12-note 2Cor 4:17-note, 2Co 4:18-note, He 10:34-note He12:28, 29-note). Hath He not promised that we shall never perish? Shall we not, therefore, come forth as gold? This confidence is grounded on the Lord's knowledge of us. "He knows the way that I take" [Job 23:10]: therefore, "when he hath tried me, shall come forth as gold." If something happened to us which the Lord had not foreseen and provided for, we might be in great peril; but He knows our way even to the end, and is prepared for its rough places. If some amazing calamity could come upon us which the Lord had not reckoned upon, we might well be afraid of being wrecked; but our Lord's foreseeing eye hath swept the horizon and prepared us for all weathers. He knows where storms do lurk and cyclones hide away; and He is at home in managing tempests and tornadoes. If His far-seeing eye has spied out for us a long sickness and a gradual and painful death, then He has prepared the means to bear us through. If He has looked into the mysterious unknown of the apocalyptic revelation, and seen unimaginable horrors and heart melting terrors, yet He has forestalled the necessity which He knows is coming on. It is enough for us that our Father knows what things we have need of and "when he hath tried us, we shall come forth as gold." Amen. On affliction 1. The best saints have in them a mixture of dross. 2. Trials, and sometimes fiery trials, are necessary to separate the dross from the gold. God has various methods of trying mankind. 3. The prospect of being benefited and brightened by affliction, reconciles believers to the severest of trials. “Tribulation worketh patience.” “Patience worketh experience.” “Experience worketh hope.” It may be that we are so often afflicted, because we have so much dross, that requires the fire, and many times a fierce fire, to separate it from the metal. (S. Lavington.) The purification of the mind by troubles and trials The afflictions of life, though often grievous enough in themselves, become much more so by that state of doubt and perplexity into which the mind of the sufferer is brought by them. He is tempted to despair, as thinking God has forsaken him; or to impiety, as imagining there can be no God who governs the world in wisdom and righteousness. In such a case, a wrong notion of human life is at the bottom of those desponding and murmuring thoughts, which arise in our hearts, on finding ourselves encompassed and oppressed by a larger share than ordinary of its cares and troubles. We look not forward as we ought to do. This life is no more than a preparation for another. There is no need to prove that this life is a state of trial. In general, we sink under temptation, because we do not sufficiently accustom ourselves to expect, and are therefore unprepared to encounter it. With this idea--that the present life is a state of trial--firmly impressed upon our minds, we should then stand armed for the fight, and by Divine assistance be enabled to overcome. Of the temptations or trials to which we are subject, some proceed from without, and others from within. The world endeavours at one time to seduce, at another to terrify us from the performance of our duty. Another source of trouble and uneasiness is that produced by the cross tempers, untoward dispositions, and other failings of those about us. Other trials have their origin from within, from the frame, or constitution either of body or mind. Either sickness or melancholy. Time would fail to enumerate all the different temptations that arise in our minds. They are as many and as various as our different passions and propensities, each of which will, at times, strive for the mastery, and all of which are to be kept, with a strong and steady hand, in due subordination and obedience. (J. Horne.) Saints compared to gold I. Gold is generally found buried in the earth, mixed with sand or other material, and therefore requires to be dug out and separated from those materials. So Christians have been taken out from the elements of this world. They have been hewn from nature’s quarry by the hammer of God’s Word and made separate (Ephesians 2:1, etc.). II. Gold, though regarded as a pure metal, has yet some dross in it. At the same time, there is not any metal more free from dross and rust than gold. Christians, though holy and precious to God, are not without sin; there is some dross of corruption in the best of them. III. Gold is refined in the fire, by which it is rendered pure, solid, and strong. Christians are put into the fire, or furnace of affliction, to purge and to refine them from their dross (Zechariah 13:9; 1 Peter 4:12-13; 1 Peter 1:7). IV. Gold is precious. It is esteemed the most valuable on earth. Hence things of very great value are in the Scriptures represented by gold. Christians are a precious people, the excellent ones in all the earth. God esteems them as His portion. V. Gold is very pliant. You may bend and work it as you please. So are Christians. God having infused His grace into their hearts, they have hearts of flesh; and God, by putting them into the fire, makes them more resigned and teachable, while others rebel and repine. VI. Gold, though it be frequently put in the furnace, loses nothing but the dross. The fire purifies it and cannot destroy its precious nature. However fierce and raging the flames, gold retains its excellency. So the people of God endure the trial. They are not burned up or consumed in the furnace of affliction, though heated sevenfold. VII. Gold is often formed into vessels for the pleasure, honour, and use of princes. So God forms His people for most excellent service--vessels of honour to hold the treasure of the Gospel, to communicate it to others (2 Corinthians 4:7), and are stewards of the Gospel. VIII. To obtain gold, men endure much fatigue, losses, sacrifices, etc. So Jesus Christ endured great pain and loss for His people. He laid down His life for them. IX. Gold is useful. It is that by which we obtain what is essential for life, etc. So Christians are useful--in their families, neighbourhood, to the world at large. They seek the salvation of sinners and the glory of God. The purposes of God, in reference to the diffusion of His glory in the world, will not be affected without them. (Homilist.) So what is the value of perseverance in the context of trials? James teaches us… James 1:2 Consider (aorist imperative = Do it without hesitation! Make certain to to this!) it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance (see study of hupomone) . 4 And let endurance (see study of hupomone) have its perfect result, that you may be perfect (see study of teleios) and complete (see study of holokleros) lacking in nothing. James uses the verb form of perseverance (hupomeno) a few verses later writing… Blessed is a man who perseveres (present tense = as their lifestyle, not perfectly - Job was not perfect - but as the general tenor of their life) under trial (see study of peirasmos); for once he has been approved (see study dokimos), he will receive the crown (stephanos) of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love (see study agapao) (present tense = not perfectly for we are sinners but as one's general Spirit enabled practice lifestyle) Him. Fanny Crosby's Secret of Endurance in Her "Job-like" Experience Fanny Crosby was not born blind but like the blind man in John 9, her blindness would also turn out to be for the glory of God (John 9:24), "in order that the works of God might be displayed in" her (cp Jesus' words in John 9:3)! In May of 1820, when she was six weeks old, Fanny caught a cold, and her eyes became slightly inflamed. The regular physician in Putnam County, New York, was out of town, and a man posing as a doctor gave her the wrong treatment. Within days, her eyesight was destroyed, and the man fled town in a panic. Fanny was never bitter about the stranger's intervention. I have not for a moment in more than eighty-five years felt a spark of resentment against him, because I have always believed… that the good Lord… by this means consecrated me to the work that I am still permitted to do. And so this precious saint lived for almost a century a testimony of God's amazing grace, living into her nineties, composing over 9,000 beloved hymns of praise and worship, as well as over 1,000 secular poems. On her 92nd birthday (she died at the age of 95 in 1915) she cheerfully said If in all the world you can find a happier person than I am… What enabled Fanny Crosby to experience such joy in the face of what the natural man terms a "tragedy"? At an early age made the choice to "rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4). In fact, Fanny carried out a resolution she made when she was only 8 years old… How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't. To weep and sigh because I'm blind, I cannot and I won't. And yet what "secret" lay behind Fanny's ability to consider it all joy? What was Fanny Crosby's "secret of success"? Dear reader, I submit that it was the same secret that Job had come to understand and to which he testified in Job 23:12! Like Job, from a young age, Fanny Crosby had dedicated herself to imbibing the Word of God and before she was ten years old, she had memorized most of the New Testament and more than five books of the Old Testament! By some accounts she eventually came to know the entire Bible BY HEART! (see Fanny Crosby: Her Early Education Experience). These words from one of her final hymns express the foremost hope of her life And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story - saved by grace. G Campbell
Jó 23:10-11
Spurgeon adds that… It looks very hard to believe that a child of God should be tried by the loss of his Father’s presence, and yet should come forth uninjured by the trial. Yet no gold is ever injured in the fire. Stoke the furnace as much as you may, let the blast be as strong as you will, thrust the ingot into the very center of the white heat, let it lie in the very heart of the flame; pile on more fuel, let another blast torment the coals till they become most vehement with heat, yet the gold is losing nothing, it may even be gaining. I shall ask four questions of every man within reach of my voice. God knoweth the way that you take. I will ask you first: Do you know your own way? Secondly: Is it a comfort to you that God knows your way? Thirdly: Are you tried in the way? And, if so, fourthly: Have you confidence in God as to the result of that trial? Can you say with Job, ‘When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold’? Job 23:11 My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside. (NASB: Lockman) English of the Septuagint: And I will go forth according to his commandments, for I have kept his ways; and I shall not turn aside from his commandments, Amplified: My foot has held fast to His steps; His ways have I kept and not turned aside. (Amplified Bible - Lockman) BBE: My feet have gone in his steps; I have kept in his way, without turning to one side or to the other. KJV: My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. NJB: My footsteps have followed close in his, I have walked in his way without swerving; Young's Literal: On His step hath my foot laid hold, His way I have kept, and turn not aside, MY FOOT HAS HELD FAST TO HIS PATH: My foot - 1Sa 12:2 3 4 5 Ps 18:20 21 22 23 24. 44:18. Acts 20:18, 19, 33, 34. 2Co 1:12. 1Th 2:10) (His path - Job 17:9) NET - My feet have followed His steps closely Observe Job's repeated affirmation of his obedience to God - he strings together four statements that attest to his obedience (3 in this verse and 1 in Job 23:12). Such was the godly prophet Samuel's testimony before Israel… 1Sa 12:2 "Now, here is the king walking before you, but I am old and gray, and behold my sons are with you. And I have walked before you from my youth even to this day Matthew Poole… My foot hath held, i.e. made a free and fixed choice, and taken fast hold of them; been firmly and strongly settled, and resolved to continue in them, as the word signifies. His steps; either, 1. Actively, the steps or ways in which God himself walks; the paths of holiness, justice, mercy, etc., wherein he walked with or after God, as the phrase is, Ge 5:24; 2Ki 23:3, following his example. Or, 2. Passively, the steps or paths which God hath appointed men to walk in, as Job 21:14. Held fast (0270) ('achaz) means to seize, grasp, hold firmly and in this context speaks of Job's tenacity in holding to God's ways. As a corollary - Job held to God's ways because he held fast to God's Words which in turn held him fast! Beloved, this dynamic is still valid today! It begs the question - are you holding fast His faithful, trustworthy Word? Be honest - are you setting aside time to savor the Scriptures? I did not say scan them or speed read them. To suck on the pure honey from one verse is better than to superficially sample an entire chapter or book (see the advantages God promises for meditation - Ps 1:2-) 'Achaz is used in Genesis 22:13 to describe the "ram caught ('achaz) in the thicket by his horns." What a great picture of how firmly all believers should grip the Word of Life which speaks of the Lamb of God, the Incarnate Word, our Jehovah Jireh: The LORD Who Provides! 'Achaz - 63 verses - acquire property(1), acquired property(1), attached(1), bolt(1), catch(1), caught(3), drawn(2), fastened(3), grasp(2), grasped(1), grasps(1), gripped(1), grips(1), handle(1), have possessions(1), held(4), held fast(1), hold(3), holding(1), inserted(1), lay hold(1), obscures(1), possessed(1), seized(10), seizes(3), take hold(6), take possession(1), taken(2), taken hold(3), takes hold(2), took(1), took hold(3), trapped(1), wielders(1). Gen 22:13; 25:26; 34:10; 47:27; Exod 4:4; 15:14f; Num 31:30, 47; 32:30; Deut 32:41; Josh 22:9, 19; Judg 1:6; 12:6; 16:3, 21; 20:6; Ruth 3:15; 2 Sam 1:9; 2:21; 4:10; 6:6; 20:9; 1 Kgs 1:51; 6:6, 10; 1 Chr 13:9; 24:6; 2 Chr 9:18; 25:5; Neh 7:3; Esth 1:6; Job 8:17; 16:12; 17:9; 18:9, 20; 21:6; 23:11; 26:9; 30:16; 38:13; Ps 48:6; 73:23; 77:4; 119:53; 137:9; 139:10; Eccl 2:3; 7:18; 9:12; Song 2:15; 3:4, 8; 7:8; Isa 5:29; 13:8; 21:3; 33:14; Jer 13:21; 49:24; Ezek 41:6 First use - Gen 22:13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. W F A in his homily on Job 23:11, 12 uses Job as an illustration of a faithful life… Its course. 1. A course of conduct. Job speaks of his foot holding, etc. He is reviewing his actions. It would have been of little use for him to have vindicated his creed and his sentiments if his conduct had been faithless. The most important question is as to how a man lives, not as to what he thinks or how he feels. 2. A continuous course. It is a way, and Job has had to keep to it. A momentary spasm of virtue will not satisfy the requirements of the Divine Law. To achieve a single heroic deed that makes the world ring with one’s fame, and then sink into idle apathy, is not the way to earn the commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” 3. A Divine course. It is easy to persist in one’s own way. The difficulty is to leave that and to accept and follow faithfully in God’s way. Yet he has marked out the course of service for every one of his people, and the plain duty is to find it and follow it. 4. An arduous course. It is not easy to keep to God’s steps. The way is narrow (Mt. 7:13, 14). Many temptations urge us to forsake it for flowery paths or for the broad road. The Christian life is a course of self-denial. The path leads uphill. Even while we only think of standing still we are really slipping back. It is a mistake to suppose that the Christian life is necessarily a growth and a progress. There is danger of worse than stagnation, of declension and decay. We may have done well in the past, and yet have been hindered later on in life. To be true Christians we must be ever watchful, earnest, active in pressing forward along God’s way. (The pulpit commentary) Spurgeon exhorts us first with a general exhortation regarding one's path and the relationship with holiness and godliness … Let us sit down before this sketch of JOB'S HOLY LIFE: it will well repay a meditative study. Note, first, that Job had been all along a man fearing God and walking after the divine rule. In the words before us he dwells much upon the things of God- "His steps," "His way," "the commandment of his lips," "the words of His mouth." He was pre-eminently one that "feared God and eschewed evil." (Job 1:1) He knew God to be the Lord, and worthy to be served, and therefore he lived in obedience to His law, which was written upon his instructed conscience. His way was God's way; he chose that course which the Lord commanded. He did not seek his own pleasure, nor the carrying out of his own will: neither did he follow the fashion of the times, nor conform himself to the ruling opinion or custom of the age in which he lived: fashion and custom were nothing to him, he knew no rule but the will of the Almighty. Like some tall cliff which breasts the flood, he stood out almost alone, a witness for God in an idolatrous world. He owned the living God, and lived "as seeing him who is invisible." (see note Hebrews 11:27) God's will had taken the helm of the vessel, and the ship was steered in God's course according to the divine compass of infallible justice and the unerring chart of the divine will. This is a great point to begin with; it is, indeed, the only sure basis of a noble character. Ask the man who seeks to be the architect of a great and honorable character this question- Where do you place God? Is he second with you? Ah, then, in the judgment of those whose view comprehends all human relationships you will lead a very secondary kind of life, for the first and most urgent obligation of your being will be disregarded. But is God first with you? Is this your determination, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"? (see note Joshua 24:15) Do you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? (see note Matthew 6:33) If so, you are laying the foundation for a whole or holy character, for you begin by acknowledging your highest responsibility. In this respect you will find that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10) Whether the way be rough or smooth, uphill or down dale, through green pastures or burning deserts, let God's way be your way. Where the fiery cloudy pillar of His providence leads be sure to follow, and where His holy statutes command, there promptly go. Ask the Lord to let you hear His Spirit speak like a voice behind you saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it." (Isaiah 30:21) As soon as you see from the Scriptures, or from conscience, or from providence, what the will of the Lord is, make haste and delay not to keep His commandments. Set the Lord always before you. Have respect unto His statutes at all times, and in all your ways acknowledge Him. No man will be able to look back upon his life with complacency unless God has been sitting upon the throne of His heart and ruling all His thoughts, aims, and actions. Unless he can say with David, "My soul hath kept thy testimonies and I love them exceedingly," (Ps 119:167) he will find much to weep over and little with which to answer his accusers. We must follow the Lord's way, or our end will be destruction; we must take hold upon Christ's steps, or our feet will soon be in slippery places; we must reverence God's words, or our own words will be idle and full of vanity; and we must keep God's commands, or we shall be destitute of that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord (see note Hebrews 12:14). I set not forth obedience to the law as the way of salvation; but I speak to those who profess to be saved already by faith in Christ Jesus, and I remind all of you who are numbered with the company of believers that if you are Christ's disciples you will bring forth the fruits of holiness, and if you are God's children you will be like your Father. Godliness breeds God-likeness. The fear of God leads to imitation of God, and where this is not so, the root of the matter is lacking. The scriptural rule is "by their fruits ye shall know them," (Mt 7:20-note) and by this we must examine ourselves. Let us now consider Job's first sentence. He says: "My foot hath held His steps." This expression sets forth great carefulness. He had watched every step of God, that is to say, he had been minute as to particulars, observing each precept, which he looked upon as being a footprint which the Lord had made for him to set his foot in; observing, also, each detail of the great example of His God; for in so far as God is imitable He is the great example of His people, as He saith- "Be ye holy, for I am holy" (see notes 1 Peter 1:15; 16): and again, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (see note Matthew 5:48) Job had observed the steps of God's justice, that he might be just; the steps of God's mercy, that he might be pitiful and compassionate; the steps of God's bounty, that he might never be guilty of churlishness or want of liberality; and the steps of God's truth, that he might never deceive. He had watched God's steps of forgiveness, that he might forgive his adversaries; and God's steps of benevolence, that he might also do good and communicate, according to his ability, to all that were in need. In consequence of this he became eyes to the blind and feet to the lame; he delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless and him that had none to help. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him, and he caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. "My foot," he saith, "hath held his steps": he means that he had labored to be exact in his obedience towards God, and in his imitation of the divine character. Beloved, we shall do well if we are to the minutest point hourly observant of the precepts and example of God in all things. We must follow not only the right road, but His footprints in that road. We are to be obedient to our heavenly Father not only in some things, but in all things: not in some place but in all places, abroad and at home, in business and in devotion, in the words of our lips and in the thoughts of our hearts. There is no holy walking without careful watching. Depend upon it, no man was ever good by chance, nor did anyone ever become like the Lord Jesus by a happy accident. "I put gold into the furnace," said Aaron, "and there came out this calf," but nobody believed him. If the image was like a calf it was because he had shaped it with a graving tool; and if it is not to be believed that metal will of itself take the form of a calf, much less will character assume the likeness of God himself, as we see it in the Lord Jesus. The pattern is too rich and rare, too elaborate and perfect, ever to be reproduced by a careless, half-awakened trifler. No, we must give all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength to this business, and watch every step, or else our walk will not be close with God, nor pleasing in his sight. O to be able to say, "My foot hath held his steps." Notice here that the expression has something in it of tenacity, he speaks of taking hold upon God's steps. The idea needs to be lit up by the illustration contained in the original expression. You must go to mountainous regions to understand it. In very rough ways a person may walk all the better for having no shoes to his feet. I sometimes pitied the women of Mentone coming down the rough places of the mountains barefooted, carrying heavy loads upon their heads, but I ceased to pity them when I observed that most of them had a capital pair of shoes in the basket at the top; and I perceived as I watched them that they could stand where I slipped, because their feet took hold upon the rock, almost like another pair of hands. Barefooted they could safely stand, and readily climb where feet encased after our fashion would never carry them. Many Orientals have a power of grasp in their feet which we appear to have lost from want of use. An Arab in taking a determined stand actually seems to grasp the ground with his toes. Roberts tells us in his well-known "Illustrations" that Easterns, instead of stooping to pick up things from the ground with their fingers, will take them up with their toes; and he tells of a criminal condemned to he beheaded, who, in order to stand firm when about to die, grasped a shrub with his foot. Job declares that he took hold of God's steps, and thus secured a firm footing. He had a hearty grip of holiness, even as David said, "I have stuck unto thy testimonies." (Ps 119:31) That eminent scholar Dr. Good renders the passage, "in His steps will I rivet my feet." He would set them as fast in the footprints of truth and righteousness as if they were riveted there, so firm was his grip upon that holy way which his heart had chosen. This is exactly what we need to do with regard to holiness: we must feel about for it with a sensitive conscience, to know where it is, and when we know it we must seize upon it eagerly, and hold to it as for our life. The way of holiness is often craggy, and Satan tries to make it very slippery, and unless we can take hold of God's steps we shall soon slip with our feet, and bring grievous injury upon ourselves, and dishonor to his holy name. Beloved, to make up a holy character there must be a tenacious adherence to integrity and piety. You must not be one that can be blown off his feet by the hope of a little gain, or by the threatening breath of an ungodly man: you must stand fast and stand firm, and against all pressure and blandishment you must seize and grasp the precepts of the Lord, and abide in them, riveted to them. Standfast is one of the best soldiers in the Prince Immanuel's army and one of the most fit to be trusted with the colors of His regiment. "Having done all, still stand." (see note Ephesians 6:13) To make a holy character we must take hold of the steps of God in the sense of promptness and speed. Here again I must take you to the East to get the illustration. They say of a man who closely imitates his religious teacher, "his feet have laid hold of his master's steps," meaning that he so closely follows his teacher that he seems to take hold of his heels. This is a blessed thing indeed, when grace enables us to follow our Lord closely. There is His foot, and close behind it is ours; and there again He takes another step, and we plant our feet where He has planted his. A very beautiful motto is hung up in our infant class-room at the Stockwell Orphanage, "What would Jesus do?" Not only may children take it as their guide, but all of us may do the same, whatever our age. "What would Jesus do?" If you desire to know what you ought to do under any circumstances, imagine Jesus to be in that position, and then think, "What would Jesus do? for what Jesus would do that ought I to do." In following Jesus we are following God, for in Christ Jesus the brightness of the Father's glory is best seen. Our example is our Lord and Master, Jesus the Son of God, and therefore this question is but a beam from our guiding star. Ask in all cases- "What would Jesus do?" That unties the knot of all moral difficulty in the most practical way, and does it so simply that no great wit or wisdom will be needed. May God's Holy Spirit help us to copy the line which Jesus has written, even as scholars imitate their writing master in each stroke, and line, and mark, and dot. Oh, when we come to die, and have to look back upon our lives, it will be a blessed thing to have followed the Lord fully. They are happy who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Blessed are they in life and death of whom it can be said,-as He was so were they also in this world. Though misunderstood and misrepresented, yet they were honest imitators of their Lord. Such a true-hearted Christian can say, "He knoweth the way that. I take. He tried me, and I came forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps." Many a sorrow will you avoid if you keep close at your Master's heel. You know what came of Peter's following afar off; try what will come of close walking with Jesus. Abide in Him, and let His words abide in you, so shall you be His disciples (John 8:31). You dare not trust in your works, and will not think of doing so, yet will you bless God that, being saved by His grace, you were enabled to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, by a close and exact following of the steps of your Lord. Three things, then, we get in the first sentence (1) an exactness of obedience, (2) a tenacity of grip upon that which is good, and (3) a promptness in endeavoring to keep touch with God, and to follow him in all respects. May these things be in us and abound. We now pass on to the second sentence. I am afraid you will say, "Spare us, for even unto the first sentence we have not yet attained." Labour after it then, beloved; forgetting the things that are behind except to weep over them, press forward to that which is before. (see notes Philippians 3:13; 3:14) May God give you those sensitive grasping feet which we have tried to describe: feet that take hold on the Lord's way, and may you throughout life keep that hold; for "blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." (Ps 119:1) Spurgeon… He fought the battle right manfully; not, perhaps, without a little display of temper and self-righteousness, but still with much less of either than any of us would have shown had we been in the same plight, and had we been equally conscious of perfect integrity. He has in this part of his self-defense sketched a fine picture of a man perfect and upright before God. He has set before us the image to which we should seek to be conformed. Here is the high ideal after which every Christian man should strive; and happy shall he be who shall attain to it. Blessed is he who in the hour of his distress, if he be falsely accused, will be able to say with as much truth as the patriarch could, “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” I ask you, first, to inspect the picture of Job’s holy life, that you may make it your model. After we have done this, we will look a little below the surface, asking the question, “How was he enabled to lead such an admirable life as this? Upon what meat did this great patriarch feed that he had grown so eminent?” We shall find the answer in our second head, Job’s holy sustenance- “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” May He, who wrought in Job his patience and integrity, by this our meditation teach us the like virtues by the power of the Holy Ghost. I HAVE KEPT HIS WAY AND NOT TURNED ASIDE: Job 17:9. Ps 36:3 Ps125:5. Zeph 1:6. Lk 8:13 14 15. Ro 2:7. 2 Pe 2:20 2122) Kept (08104) (shamar/samar) means to watch over carefully, to guard or be on one's guard. The first use of shamar/samar in Ge 2:15 is notable, for God clearly instructed Adam and Eve to "keep" (guard, watch over) the garden of Eden and we see the consequences of their failure to obey God's instruction. TWOT - The basic idea of the root is “to exercise great care over.”… Secondly it expresses the careful attention to be paid to the obligations of a covenant, to laws, statutes, etc. This is one of the most frequent uses of the verb. Thus in Gen 18:19 Abraham is to command his children to keep the way of the Lord, that is, give careful heed to God’s ways (cf. also Ex 20:6; Lev 18:26; Deut 26:16; Ezek I 1:20). It should be noted that the observance of God’s laws was not to be a matter of theory only or of perfunctory compliance. The expression “to do them” is frequently appended, such as in Ezek 37:24. Proverbs 4:21 states they are to be kept in the heart… A third ramification is “take care of,” “guard.” This involves keeping or tending to things such as a garden (Gen 2:15), a flock (Gen 30:31), a house (2Sam 15:16)… A fourth category is the meaning “regard” “give heed to.” It is used of a man’s attitude of paying attention to, or reverence for, God or others. Thus in Hos 4:10, Israel has abandoned paying heed to God. (Harris, R L, Archer, G L & Waltke, B K Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Moody Press) The Septuagint (LXX) translates shamar/samar with the verb phulasso which means to watch, to carry out the function as a military guard or sentinel (cp Ac 23:35, 28:16), to keep watch, to have one's eye upon lest one escape, to guard a person that he might remain safe (from violence, from another person or thing, from being snatched away, from being lost). The NT uses phulasso of guarding truth (eg, 1Ti 5:21, 6:20, 2Ti 1:14-note) Phulasso is the verb used to describe the shepherds "keeping watch (phulasso) over their flock by night (Lk 2:8), which congers up the image of savage wolves seeking to devour the helpless sheep. The parallels with the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd Who keeps watch over His sheep should not go unnoticed. David uses shamar twice in his attestation that he had conducted himself with righteousness before the LORD… Psalm 18:20 (notes) The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. 21 For I have kept (shamar/samar) the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all His ordinances were before me, And I did not put away His statutes from me. 23 I was also blameless with Him, And I kept (shamar/samar) myself from my iniquity. Spurgeon comments on v21: I have and I have not, both of which must be blended in a truly sanctified life; constraining and restraining grace must each take its share. The words of this verse refer to the saint as a traveller carefully keeping to the ways of the Lord, and not wickedly, that is, designedly, willfully, persistently, defiantly forsaking the ordained pathway in which God favors the pilgrim with his presence. Observe how it is implied in the expression, and have not wickedly departed from my God, that David lived habitually in communion with God, and knew him to be his own God, whom he might speak of as "my God." God never departs from his people, let them take heed of departing from him. Matthew Poole… His way have I kept, and not declined; the same thing with that in the former part of the verse, in different expressions. Spurgeon comments on Job's declaration I HAVE KEPT HIS WAY… Job had adhered to God's way as the rule of his life. When he knew that such-and-such a thing was the mind of God, either by his conscience telling him that it was right, or by a divine revelation, then he obeyed the intimation and kept to it. He did not go out of God's way to indulge his own fancies, or to follow some supposed leader: to God's way he kept from his youth, even till the time when the Lord himself said of him Hast thou considered my servant Job, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? (Job 1:8) The Lord held out Job's character to the devil, who could not deny it, and did not attempt to do so, but only muttered, Doth Job serve God for nought? Hast thou not set a hedge about him and all that he hath? (Job 1:9) When he uttered our text Job could have replied to the malicious accuser that, even when God had broken down his hedges and laid him waste, he had not sinned nor charged God foolishly. He heeded not his wife's rash counsels to curse God and die (Job 2:9), but he still blessed the divine name even though everything was taken from him (Job 1:21). What noble words are those: 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. (Job 1:21) Though bereft of all earthly comfort, he did not forsake the way of holiness, but still kept to his God. Keeping to the way signifies not simply adherence, but continuance and progress in it. Job had gone on in the ways of God year after year. He had not grown tired of holiness, nor weary of devotion, neither had he grown sick of what men call straight-laced piety. He had kept the way of God on, and on, and on, delighting in what Coverdale's version calls God's "high street" or the highway of holiness. The further he went the more pleasure he took in it, and the more easy he found it to his feet, for God was with him and kept him, and so he kept God's way. "Thy way have I kept." He means that notwithstanding the difficulties that were in the way, he continued to persevere in it. It was stormy weather, but Job kept to the old road; the sleet beat in his face, but he kept his way: he had gone that path in fair weather, and he was not going to forsake his God now that the storms were out; and so he kept his way. Then the scene changed, the sun was warm, and all the air was redolent (exuding fragrance) with perfume, and merry with the song of birds, but Job kept his way. If God's providence flooded his sky with sunshine he did not forsake God because of prosperity, as some do, but kept his way. He kept his way when it was rough, kept his way when it was smooth. When he met with adversities he did not turn into a bye-road, but traveled the King's highway, where a man is safest, for those who dare to assail him will have to answer for it to a higher power. The high street of holiness is safe because the King's guarantee is given that "no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon." The righteous shall hold on his way, and so did Job, come fair, come foul. When there were others in the road with him, and when there were none, he kept his way. He would not even turn aside for those three good men, or men who thought themselves good, who sat by the wayside and miserably comforted, that is to say, tormented him; he kept God's way, as one whose mind is made up and whose face is set like a flint. There was no turning him, he would fight his way if he could not have it peaceably. I like a man whose mind is set upon being right with God, a self-contained man by God's grace, who does not want patting on the back and encouraging, and who on the other hand does not care if he is frowned at, but has counted the cost and abides by it. Give me a man who has a backbone; a brave fellow who has grit in him. It is well for a professor when God has put some soul into him, and made a man of him for if a. Christian man is not a man as well as a Christian, he will not long remain a Christian man. Job was firm: a well-made character that did not shrink in the wetting. He believed his God, he knew God's way, and he kept to it under all circumstances from his first start in life even until that day when he sat on a dunghill and transformed it into a throne, whereon he reigned as among all mere men, the peerless prince of patience. Ye have heard of the patience of Job (Jas 5:11), and of this as one part of it, that he kept the way of the Lord. Now, dear brethren, on this second clause let me utter this word of self-examination. Have we, kept God's way? Have we got into it and do we mean to keep it still? Some are soon hot and soon cold; some set out for the New Jerusalem like Pliable (yielding readily to others), very eagerly, but the first slough (place of deep mud or mire) of despond (being cast down, losing heart or hope) they tumble into shakes their resolution, and they crawl out on the homeward side and go back to the world again. There will be no comfort in such temporary religion, but dreadful misery when we come to consider it on a dying bed. Changeful Pliables will find it hard to die. O to be constant even to the end, so as to say, "My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept." God grant us grace to do it, by his Spirit abiding in us. (Job 23:11-12 Fair Portrait of a Saint) I have… Not Turned aside (05186) (natah) means to stretch out (hand, arm, staff Ex 7:19) or spreading one's tent or with the nuance of to turn as in the present passage (Nu 20:17; 21:22; 22:23, 26, 33; 2Sa 6:10). The Septuagint (LXX) translates natah with the verb ekklino which means to turn away from or aside as deviating from the right path (Ro 3:12). Josephus has a use that refers to staying clear of prickly shrubs! Hartley states that Job rests his confidence in a redemptive outcome to his trial solidly on his faithful obedience to God. He has directed his feet to follow the steps God has laid out for him without any deviation. (Hartley, J. E. The Book of Job. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament . Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co) The psalmist uses shamar/samar in a similar declaration of obedience to the Lord… Psalm 44:18 Our heart has not turned back, And our steps have not deviated (natah) from Your way Spurgeon as usual offers insightful comments noting: Heart and life were agreed, and both were true to the Lord's way. Neither within nor without had the godly sufferers offended; they were not absolutely perfect, but they were sincerely free from all wilful transgression. It was a healthy sign for the nation that her prophet poet could testify to her uprightness before God, both in heart and act; far oftener the case would have worn quite another color, for the tribes were all too apt to set up other gods and forsake the rock of their salvation. Thomas Brooks: Upright hearts will hold on in the ways of God, and in the ways of well doing, notwithstanding all afflictions, troubles, and discouragements, they meet withal. Hints for pastors and laypersons: (1) The position of the heart in religion -- it comes first. (2) The position of the outer moral life in religion -- it follows the heart. (3) Necessity of the agreement of the two. (4) The need that both should be faithful to God. Spurgeon comments on Job's declaration… I HAVE NOT TURNED ASIDE Job had not declined from the way of holiness, nor declined in the way. First, he had not declined from it. He had not turned to the right hand nor to the left. Some turn away from God's way to the right hand by doing more than God's word has bidden them do; such as. invent religious ceremonies, and vows, and bonds, and become superstitious, falling under the bondage of priest craft, and being led into will-worship, and things that are not Scriptural. This is as truly wandering as going out of the road to the left would be. Ah, dear friends, keep to the simplicity of the Bible. This is an age in which Holy Scripture is very little accounted of. If a church chooses to invent a ceremony, men fall into it, and practice it as if it were God's ordinance. Ay, and if neither church nor law recognize the performance, yet if certain self-willed priests choose to burn candles, and to wear all sorts of bedizenments, and bow, and cringe, and march in procession, there are plenty of simpletons who will go whichever way their clergyman chooses, even if he should lead them into downright heathenism. "Follow my leader" is the game of the day, but "Follow my God" is the motto of a true Christian. Job had not turned to the right. Nor had he turned to the left. He had not been lax in observing God's commandments. He had shunned omission as well as commission. This is a very heart-searching matter; for how many there are whose greatest sins lie in omission. And remember, sins of omission, though they sit very light on many consciences, and though the bulk of professors do not even think them sins, are the very sins for which men will be condemned at the last. How do I prove that? What said the great Judge? "I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink, sick and in prison and ye visited me not." It was what they did not do that cursed them, more than what they did do. So look ye well to it, and pray God that you may not decline from the way of his precepts, from Jesus who, himself is the one and only way. Furthermore, I take it Job means that he had not even declined in that way. He did not begin with running hard and then get out of breath, and sit by the wayside and say, "Rest and be thankful;" but he kept up the pace, and did not decline. If he was warm and zealous once he remained warm and zealous; if he was indefatigable in service, he did not gradually tone down into a sluggard, but he could say, "I have not declined." Whereas we ought to make advances towards heaven, there are many who are, after twenty years profession, no forwarder than they were, but perhaps in a worse state. Oh, beware of a decline. We were accustomed to use that term years ago to signify the commencement of a consumption (tuberculosis), or perhaps the effects of it; and indeed, a decline in the soul often leads on to a deadly consumption. In a spiritual consumption the very life of religion seems to ebb out by little and little. The man does not die by a wound that stabs his reputation, but by a secret weakness within him, which eats at the vitals of godliness and leaves the outward surface fair. God save us from declining. I am sure, dear friends, we cannot many of us afford to decline much, for we are none too earnest, none too much alive now; but this is one of the great faults of churches, so many of the members are in a decline that the church becomes a hospital instead of a barracks. Many professors are not what they were at first: they were very promising young men, but they are not performing old men. We are pleased to see the flowers on our fruit-trees, but they disappoint us unless they knit into fruit, and we are not satisfied even then unless the fruit ripens to a mellow sweetness. We do not make orchards for the sake of blossoms, we want apples. So is it with the garden of grace, our Lord comes seeking fruit, and instead thereof he often finds nothing but leaves. May God grant. to us that we may not decline from the highest standard we have ever reached. "I would," said the Lord of the church of Laodicea, "that thou wert either cold or hot." Oh, you lukewarm ones take that warning to heart. Remember, Jesus cannot endure you; he will spue you out of his mouth; you make him sick to think of you. If you were downright. cold he would understand you; if you were hot he would delight in you; but being neither cold nor hot he is sick at the thought of you, he cannot endure you; and indeed, when we think of what the Lord has done for us, it is enough to make us sick to think that any one should drag on in a cold, inanimate manner in his service, who loved us, and gave himself for us. Some decline because they become poor: they even stay from worship on that account. I hope none of you say, "I do not like to come to the Tabernacle because I have not fit clothes to come in." As I have often said, any clothes are fit for a man to come here in if he has paid for them. Let each come by all manner of means in such garments as he has, and he shall be welcome. But I do know some very poor professors who, in the extremity of their anxiety and trouble, instead of flying to God, fly from him. This is very sad. The poorer you are, the more you want the rich consolations of grace. Do not let this temptation overcome you, but if you are as poor as Job, be as resolved as he to keep to the Lord's way and not decline. Others fly from their religion because they grow rich. They say that three generations never will come on wheels to a dissenting place of worship, and it has proved to be sadly true in many instances, though I have no cause to complain of you as yet. Some persons when they rise in the world turn up their noses at their poor friends. If any of you do so you will be worthy of pity, if not. of contempt. If you forsake the ways of God for the fashion of the world you will be poor gainers by your wealth. The Lord keep you from such a decline. Many decline because they conform to the fashion of the world, and the way of the world is not the way of God. Doth not James say, "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Others wander because they get into ill company, among witty people, or clever people, or hospitable people, who are not gracious people. Such society is dangerous. People whom we esteem, but whom God does not esteem, are a great snare. It is very perilous to love those who love not God. He shall not be my bosom friend who is not God's friend, for I shall probably do him but little service, and he will do me much harm. May the grace of God prevent your growing cold from any of these causes, and may you be able to say, "I have not declined." (Job 23:11-12 Fair Portrait of a Saint) Spurgeon… Job 23:11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Happy Job, to be able to say that, and to speak the truth; but there is a touch of self about it which we cannot quite commend. Be holy; but do not claim to be holy. Be thou steadfast before God, firm in thine obedience to him; but do not mention it; for thy hope lies somewhere else. Yet we cannot condemn Job for declaring that he had kept God's way. His friends were pleading against him, so he felt that he must defend himself. You cannot talk like that in the time of trouble if you have not led a sincere, and upright, and gracious life. those battles into which men come in the Valley of Humiliation, are often brought about by their tripping when they are going clown the hill. Our sins find us out at length; but if God enables us to walk uprightly, then we feel very confident,—not in our own uprightness, but in God's love and grace. It is a great thing to be able to say that, as Job truly could, for we have the witness of the Spirit of God that Job was "perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil." It was not self-righteousness that made him speak as he did; he had the right to say it, and he did say it. Pulpit Commentary Homily on Job 23:8-12 (The pulpit commentary) (See also sermons) (See also more sermons) Job 23:8 9 10 11 12.—Job to Eliphaz: A child of light walking in darkness. I. The child of light. That Job was entitled to be so described will appear from a consideration of: 1. The creed he professed. It is obvious that Job believed in: (1) The existence of God. He was not one of those fools who in their hearts say, “No God! ” (Ps 14:1). Throughout this, as throughout his previous discourses, the personality of God is assumed, and indeed is frequently referred to without being named. (2) The providence of God. As little was the patriarch one of those practical atheists to whom he himself had alluded (Job 21:14). Eliphaz insinuated such a charge against the suffering saint whom he pretended to comfort. But Job implicitly repelled the imputation by recognizing that God’s presence, if unseen, was still around him, and God’s hand, though ever veiled, was always working. (3) The authority of God. Job recognized that the supreme Lawgiver for man was this invisible but omnipresent and continually working Deity, the commandment of whose lip and the word of whose mouth was the perpetually and universally binding rule of life and obedience, rather than the inward resolves, purposes, determinations of the individual, as is commonly but mistakenly supposed by the natural heart (ch. 21:15; Exod. 5:2; Jer. 18:12; Luke 19:14). (4) The omniscience of God. Job believed not simply that God exercised a general superintendence over mundane affairs, but that his inspection of the world embraced a knowledge of particulars. Like Hagar in the wilderness, he could say, “Thou God seest me!” (Gen. 16:13). Like David, he could sing, “I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me” (Ps 40:17). Like Jeremiah, he could pray, “Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me” (Jer 18:23). Like Peter, he could protest, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee” (Jn 21:17). Job regarded his whole life as lying continually beneath the eye of God: “He knoweth the way that is with me.” So God’s eyes are always upon the ways of man (Job 34:21), and in particular of the righteous (Ps. 1:6). It is the part of a good man to walk before God (Ge. 17:1), and to rejoice that he can say, “All my ways are before thee” (Ps 119:168). 2. The character he maintained. Besides being an intellectual believer in God, Job was: (1) An earnest seeker after God. Not content with knowing that God’s presence filled the universe around him, and that God’s hand was constantly working beside him in the mysterious phenomena of nature and providence (Job 9:11), Job desired a visible manifestation of and a personal acquaintance with this unseen Deity. Many believe in God’s existence, character, and work who never seek to know God himself, or make the slightest effort to secure his favour. Such a visible manifestation of God as Job craved, and afterwards obtained (Job 38:1), has been vouchsafed to men in Christ, the Image of the invisible God (2Co 4:4; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3), in whom alone, accordingly, God can now be found. (2) A faithful servant of God. Recognizing his allegiance to God, Job not only used means to acquaint himself with God’s will, as all saints should do, but accepted that will as the rule and pattern of his life: (a) cheerfully, making God’s way his way, like the Messianic Sufferer (Ps. 40:7, 8), and like Christ (John 6:38); (b) perpetually, adhering to God’s commandment always (Ps. 119:44), rendering obedience not alone to precepts which accorded with his inclination, but to every word that proceeded from God’s mouth (Ps. 119:88); (c) firmly, holding, fast to God’s steps by his foot, resisting all attempts to cause him to decline or turn aside (Ps. 44:18; 119:31); (d) appreciatingly, esteeming the words of God’s mouth more than his necessary food (Authorized Version), like David (Ps 19:10; Ps 119:72), Jeremiah (Jer 15:16), Daniel (Da 6:5, 10), Mary (Luke 10:39 40 41 42), and New Testament believers generally (1Pe 2:2); according to another translation, (e) carefully, treasuring up God’s Word in his breast, like the Hebrew psalmist (Ps. 119:11); and (f) sacrificingly, preferring God’s commandments to the inclinations, resolves, and purposes of his own heart, when at any time these came into collision, like St. Paul (Ro 7:22);—all which proclaimed Job a genuinely pious man. (Ed Note: other translations have "more than my necessary food.") II. The child of light in darkness. The passage exhibits Job in three different situations. 1. Encompassed by the darkness. The darkness alluded to not the cloud of outward pain and distress by which Job was overshadowed, but the inward mental and spiritual obacuration which these occasioned—the horrible eclipse which his faith suffered, the terrible revulsion of unrequited love which his soul experienced. A genuine believer and lover of God, who was conscious in his inmost soul of sincerity, who with admirable fortitude had shunned every evil way, and who with unrelaxing tenacity had adhered to the path of truth and right, preferring on every occasion God’s will to his own, he had yet lost all sense of the Divine favour as well as all consciousness of the Divine presence. Though he earnestly longed to meet and made frantic efforts to obtain an interview with God, it was always in vain. “Behold, I go eastward, but he is not there; and westward, but I perceive him not. Northwards where he worketh, but I behold him not; he turneth aside southwards, and I see him not.” Job meant that he looked in all directions for some visible manifestation of God before which he might come and plead his cause. Job’s spiritual desolation and fruitless longing after God are not without their counterparts in the experiences of Old Testament saints and New Testament believers (Isa. 50:10; John 20:14), who sometimes, like David on account of sin (Ps. 30:7), or like Ethan through calamity (Ps 89:46), of like Mary through bereavement (Jn 20:14), or like the travelers to Emmaus through spiritual dejection (Lk 24:17), are altogether unable to realize the comfortable shining of God’s favour and Christ’s love upon their souls. Job’s inward condition had its highest exemplification in the soul-desertion of Christ upon the cross. 2. Supported in the darkness. As God did not leave Christ entirely without consolations in the hour of his great sorrow, so neither does he leave any of his people (Isa 43:2; He 13:5). Job was upheld in the gloom by three considerations. (1) The knowledge of God’s presence. He could not see God, but he was perfectly aware that God could see him. Though God seemed far removed, Job knew that he was close at hand—if a veiled presence, yet still a presence. So Christ believed his Father to be nigh though his face was hid. And faith should teach saints to believe in the continual encompassing of God’s gracious presence, even when all inward sense of that presence has departed from the soul. (2) The consciousness of personal integrity. David could not, have enjoyed this when he lost God’s favour in consequence of sinning with Bathsheba. It is a terrible aggravation to the soul’s distress to know that through personal transgression one has relapsed into the gloom. On the other hand, the calm clear persuasion that one’s conduct has been such as not only conscience but God commends, must prove a rock of adamant. beneath the fainting spirit. (3) The discernment of God’s purpose in affliction. This seemingly a new discovery to the patriarch. Formerly inclined to view his misfortunes as a token of Divine anger, he now regards them as sent for his trial, as designed to test his spiritual character as fire is employed to assay gold. So God did tempt Abraham (Ge 22:1), and so believers are subjected to manifold temptations for “the trial” of their faith (1Pe 1:7). That saints are so tried proves them to be saints. This thought, conjoined with the gracious purpose aimed at in affliction, makes it possible for God’s people to glory in tribulations (Ro 5:3; 1Pe 1:6; Jas 1:12). 3. Emerging from the darkness. Indirectly alluded to, but contemplated as certain. (1) At what time? “When he hath tried me,” when the process of assaying has been completed, but not till then. Trouble and adversity are not removed from a child of God till they have done their work in him (Ro 5:3; He 12:11) as well as for him (2Co 4:17). But the great Refiner never keeps a soul in the furnace longer than is needful to accomplish its purification and salvation (Mal 3:3). (2) In what manner? “As gold;” i.e. true as gold and shining like gold. Sincere saints are never injured by affliction, as pure gold is never hurt by the refiner’s pot. Heat only evinces the genuine quality of precious metal, and the fires of adversity only manifest the saint’s integrity of character. Adulterated metal is always harmed by the process of assaying, and untrue disciples are without fail detected in times of persecution and seasons of affliction (Mt. 24:12). But the sufferings of this present life only serve to refine and purify, to burnish and beautify, the faithful disciple and humble believer. (3) With what result? That he no longer walks in darkness, but in the light of God’s countenance, in the enjoyment of his friendship and favour for evermore. Learn: 1. It is better to be a child of light walking in darkness than a child of darkness walking in light, i.e. in the sparks of his own kindling. 2. Though God’s way is sometimes hid from a saint, the saint’s way is never hid from God. 3. It is a special privilege which the good man enjoys that he is never afflicted but with an eye to his improvement. 4. The severest season of trial through which a follower of God may be called to pass is certain to have an end. 5. The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. 6. The only way to happiness for man is the way of God. 7. It is a sure mark of wisdom to prefer God’s commandment to the wishes or resolves of self. (The pulpit commentary)
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Spurgeon writes that… Job was a happy man to be able to say that. I hope that many of you could say the same. If you were tried with great bodily pain and depression of spirit, you could say, through divine grace, “I have not turned away from God.” These are days when we want men of principle; men who can put their foot down, and keep it down, men who cannot be turned aside. They call this firmness, “bigotry.” (Obstinate or blind attachment to a particular creed) It is, however, only another name for Christian manliness. If you dare to do right, and face a frowning world, you shall have God’s commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Go to page 6 for beginning of exposition on Job 23) I have not departed (See Spurgeon's exposition of this phrase below) - This is the fourth affirmation Job makes that he has obeyed God's Word (see Job 23:11-note). In New Testament language, Job was obedient to the command of James to… Prove (present imperative) = command to make this your habitual practice, your lifestyle) yourselves doers (poietes - in classic Greek = "poets") of the word, and not merely hearers (akroates = one who sits passively listening to a speaker) who delude (paralogizomai in the present tense = they continually mislead, deceive, beguile) themselves. (Jas 1:22-note) RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEARING & OBEYING GOD'S WORD Job heard God and he obeyed God. The result was that he did not just know about God but that he really knew God. He knew His character. He knew he could trust Him (see Ro 10:17-note for relationship between hearing the Word and faith). Jesus taught on the relationship between obeying the truth and knowing the truth explaining that… If any man is willing (speaks of a purposeful decision of one's will) to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself. (John 7:17) Comment: We don't really know the Bible unless we are willing to obey the Bible. We won't really know God's will unless we are willing to do God's will. Jesus is saying that if His hearers were willing to do God's will, they would be enabled (by His Spirit - this is implied for it is He Alone who can supernaturally illumine the supernatural Word, cp Jn 16:13) to arrive at the correct judgment about what Jesus was teaching. This same principle permeates all of Scripture - read, do, know is the immutable order which maximizes our spiritual growth in Christ likeness. Am I truly willing? (is this my continual attitude?) Will I follow through ("to do")? If so, then I shall know (ginosko) or have an experiential knowledge of God's word and will. Merrill Tenney adds that - "there must be a definite act of the human will to do God’s will, a settled, determined purpose to fulfill it. Spiritual understanding is not produced solely by learning facts or procedures, but rather it depends on obedience to known truth. Obedience to God’s known will develops discernment between falsehood and truth (Ed: Cp Heb 5:14-note)." (Bolding added) Jamieson words it slightly different - "A principle of immense importance, showing, on the one hand, that singleness of desire to please God is the grand inlet to light on all questions vitally affecting one’s eternal interests, and on the other, that the want of his, whether perceived or not, is the chief cause of infidelity amidst the light of revealed religion." In the last part of Job 23:12 we can also see that Job's hunger for God's Word was related to his obedience to God's Word. It follows that our hunger for the Word of God will be in direct proportion to our obedience to the Word of God. In summary, because Job obeyed God's Word, he knew the God of the Word. And even though he could not see Him (Job 23:8, 9), he knew enough of God's character to know that although he was being sorely tried, God's purpose was not to destroy him but to remove the dross and bring him forth as pure gold (Job 23:10). Job had a Hebrews 11 type faith exhibiting "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb 11:1). James has an additional description of Job writing… Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. (Jas 5:11) It is my personal belief that because Job treasured God's Word, he knew God's character and it grew not only his trust (faith) but also in his endurance. Job's example of faith and patience is what the writer of Hebrews desired for all his readers (and by way of application for all believers)… And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:11, 12) Oswald Chambers says this of Job We must get hold of the great souls, the men who have been hard hit -- hit and have gone to the basis of things and whose experiences have been preserved for us by God, that we may know where we stand. (Ed: Job is one of those men and faith and endurance deserve our imitation!) Not - This word signifies negation, in this case Job's denial that he had disobeyed the Lord. The Septuagint (LXX) translation makes his denial even more emphatic for the Greek version translates the Hebrew word for not (lo) using two negatives (ou me). This could be paraphrased something like "no, never have I departed." Clearly, Job was not sinless (1Jn 1:8 2Chr 6:36 Ec 7:20 Jas 2:10) for only one Man fulfilled that strict rule (2Co 5:21-note He 7:26-note He 4:15-note), but he was zealous to follow the Lord and to not deviate from what he knew God had commanded (cp God's assessment of him in Job 1:1). The Disciple's Study Bible notes that To identify God's commandments is not enough. The transition of character they can bring begins when one feeds upon them and finds sustenance for one's soul from them. They must become our greatest treasure even in (Ed: I would say "especially in") dark days of suffering. (Disciple's Study Bible) Matthew
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Spurgeon comments (extracted from his sermon Fair Portrait of a Saint) on Job's declaration that he had not departed or turned back from the command of His lips (which implies God spoke to Job, quite likely audibly - God speaks to us today through His written Word and His indwelling Spirit)… Job declares that he had not slackened (slowed down, become negligent in) his pace, and much less had he turned back from God's commands. May none of you ever go back. This is the most cutting grief of a pastor, that certain persons come in among us, and even come to the front, who after a while turn back and walk no more with us. We know, as John says They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (1Jn 2:19) And yet what anguish it causes when we see apostates (One who has forsaken the profession to which he or she had before adhered) among us and know their doom. Take heed (present imperative - command for continually being on the lookout) brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12-note) Let Lot's wife be a warning. Season your souls with a fragment of salt from that pillar, and it may keep you from corruption. Remember that you can turn back, not only from all the commandments, and so become an utter apostate, but there is such a thing as backing at single commandments. You know the precept to be right, but you cannot face it; you look at it, and look at it, and look at it, and then go back, back, back from it, refusing to obey. Job had never done so. If it was God's command he went forward to perform it. It may be that it seems impossible to go forward in the path of duty, but if you have faith you are to go on whatever the difficulty may be. The black man was right who said, "Massa, if God say, 'Sam, jump through the wall'; it is Sam's business to jump, and God's work to make me go through the wall." Leap at it, dear friends, even if it seem to be a wall of granite. God will clear the road. By faith the Israelites went through the Red Sea as on dry land. It is ours to do what God bids us, as He bids us, when He bids us, and no hurt can come of it. Strength equal to our day shall be given, only let us cry "Forward!" and push on. Here just one other word. Let us take heed to ourselves that we do not go back, for going back is dangerous. We have no armor for our back, no promise of protection in retreat. Going back is ignoble and base. To have had a grand idea and then to turn back from it like a whipped cur, is disgraceful. Shame on the man who dares not be a Christian. Even sinners and ungodly men point at the man who put his hand to the plough and looked back, and was not worthy of the kingdom. Indeed, it is fatal; for the Lord has said, If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. (Hebrews 10:38-note) Forward! Forward! though death and hell obstruct the way, for backward is defeat, destruction, despair. O God, grant us of Thy grace that when we come to the end of life we may say with joy, "I have not gone back from Thy commandment." Amen. The covenant promises persevering grace, and it shall be yours, only look ye well that ye trifle not with this grace. There is the picture which Job has sketched. Hang it up on the wall of your memory, and God help you to paint after this old master, whose skill is unrivalled. (Read the entire sermon - Fair Portrait of a Saint) W F A on Job 23:11, 12 discusses a faithful life, first dealing with its course (See notes on Job 23:10) and then in the section below its inspiration, answering the question "How is it possible to be faithful, keeping continuously to God’s way?" and gives a two part answer… 1. By the guidance of revelation. Job has been following God’s commandments. We cannot follow God’s way without the aid of light from heaven. Instinct and conscience are our natural guides; but instinct is blind, and conscience has been in some cases perverted. Therefore God has given us “the more sure word of prophecy.” God’s Word is a lamp to the feet of his people. This is its chief object. Difficulties are felt as to certain questions about the Bible, e.g. how to reconcile Genesis with geology, how to settle the relation of the Law to the prophets, how to harmonize the gospel narratives. But these questions do not touch the main purpose of the Bible, which is to be a guide to conduct. The righteousness of the ten commandments, the blessedness of the sermon on the mount, and above all, the glory of Christ, still shine from the sacred page as beacon-lights undimmed by the clouds of controversy that gather about quite secondary points. 2. In the power of affection. Job has set a supreme value on the words of God’s mouth. Their truth and goodness and beauty won the heart of the author of the hundred and nineteenth psalm. We have still greater attractions in the New Testament. Christ, the living Word of God, draws men to himself by his love and by his sacrifice of himself, so that when he is known and loved faithfulness becomes possible for his sake. Christians are called to walk, not only in the steps which God has marked out for them, but in those which Christ has trodden, which he has made sacred by his own presence. (The pulpit commentary) I HAVE TREASURED THE WORDS OF HIS MOUTH: Job 22:22 Ps 19:9,10 119:11,103,127 Jer 15:16 Jn 4:32,34 1Pe 2:2 LAYING UP PRICELESS TREASURE Many commentators see Job's assertion in this passage as a direct response to Eliphaz's accusation/recommendation in the previous chapter… Please receive instruction from His mouth and establish His words in your heart. (Job 22:22) Matthew
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Spurgeon - The best thing in the best place: — I. THE WORD OF GOD IS THE BEST THING. 1. Because it is Divine. 2. It is good throughout. 3. It is the root of all good. 4. It is most prized at last. II. PUT IT IN THE BEST PLACE. It is of no good to any of us until it is there, — that is, in the heart. III. Here is THE BEST PURPOSE, “That I might not sin against Thee.” Does some one fancy that there could be a higher reason, a nobler purpose, than that? If you will think it over you will come to the conclusion that the Christian has no nobler ambition than to live without sin. “That I might not sin against Thee!” — there is no higher ambition than to live on earth the life of heaven. But, how does hiding God’s Word in the heart promote holiness, how does it prevent sin? 1. It discovers sin. If you know God’s Word well, you are on the high road to the easy discovery of God’s will, for it is the revelation of the Divine will. By these testimonies you will know what God approves and delights in. It will be equally plain what He abhors and detests. These are the balances of the sanctuary. 2. It announces sin. It tells you where the evil is, and when you may expect it. It is a sort of tocsin that warns you of impending danger; an alarum timed to startle you just when the danger is close, and there is yet time to escape. 3. It points out the way of escape, it reveals the secret door in the wall, when your only safety is in flight. It is the chart on which is marked every shoal, and every quicksand, and every rock; and the safe channels, too. 4. It arms us against the danger. If kept in the heart, it keeps the heart. 5. It strengthens and nerves the spirit. 6. It reveals to us the path of duty. (Spurgeon.) Alexander
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Spurgeon notes that what God had spoken to him he treasured up. He says in the Hebrew that he had hid God’s word more than ever he had hidden his necessary food. They had to hide grain away in those days to guard it from wandering Arabs. Job had been more careful to store up God’s word than to store up his wheat and his barley; more anxious to preserve the memory of what God had spoken than to garner his harvests. Do you treasure up what God has spoken?” (Quoted by Dave
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Spurgeon comments: The pleasures arising from a right understanding of the divine testimonies are of the most delightful order; earthly enjoyments are utterly contemptible, if compared with them. The sweetest joys, yea, the sweetest of the sweetest falls to his portion who has God's truth to be his heritage. David invites us… O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Ps 34:8). Spurgeon comments: Make a trial, an inward, experimental trial of the goodness of God. You cannot see except by tasting for yourself; but if you taste you shall see, for this, like Jonathan's honey, enlightens the eyes. That the Lord is good. You can only know this really and personally by experience. There is the banquet with its oxen and fatlings; its fat things full of marrow, and wine on the lees well refined; but their sweetness will be all unknown to you except you make the blessings of grace your own, by a living, inward, vital participation in them. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Faith is the soul's taste; they who test the Lord by their confidence always find him good, and they become themselves blessed. The second clause of the verse, is the argument in support of the exhortation contained in the first sentence. Psalm 119 affirms a similar delight in God's Word writing… How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Ps 119:103) Spurgeon comments: How sweet are thy words into my taste. He had not only heard the words of God, but fed upon them: they affected his palate as well as his ear. God's words are many and varied, and the whole of them make up what we call "the word": David loved them each one, individually, and the whole of them as a whole; he tasted an indescribable sweetness in them. He expresses the fact of their sweetness, but as he cannot express the degree of their sweetness he cries, "How sweet!" Being God's words they were divinely sweet to God's servant; He who put the sweetness into them had prepared the taste of His servant to discern and enjoy it. David makes no distinction between promises and precepts, doctrines and threatenings; they are all included in God's words, and all are precious in his esteem. Oh for a deep love to all that the Lord has revealed, whatever form it may take. Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. When he did not only eat but also speak the word, by instructing others, he felt an increased delight in it. The sweetest of all temporal things fall short of the infinite deliciousness of the eternal word. Honey itself is outstripped of the Lord Widen the Psalmist fed on it he in sweetness by the word found it sweet; but when he bore witness of it it became sweeter still. How wise it will be on our part to keep the word on our palate by meditation and on our tongue by confession. It must be sweet to our taste when we think of it, or it will not be Sweet to our mouth when we talk of it. Jonathan Edwards: How sweet are thy words unto my taste! etc. There is given to the regenerated a new, supernatural sense, a certain divine, spiritual taste. This is in its whole nature diverse from any of the other five senses, and something is perceived by a true saint in the exercise of this new sense of mind, in spiritual and divine things, as entirely different from anything that is perceived in them by natural men, as the sweet taste of honey is diverse from the ideas men get of honey by looking on it or feeling of it. Now the beauty of holiness is that which is perceived by this spiritual sense, so diverse from all that natural men perceive in them; or, this kind of beauty is the quality that is the immediate object of this spiritual sense; this is the sweetness that is the proper object of this spiritual taste. The Scripture often represents the beauty and sweetness of holiness as the grand object of a spiritual taste and a spiritual appetite. This was the sweet food of the holy soul of Jesus Christ, John 4:32,34. "I have meat to eat that ye know not of… My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." I know of no part of the Holy Scriptures where the nature and evidence of true and sincere godliness are so fully and largely insisted on and delineated, as in the 119th Psalm. TREASURING THE WORD OF GOD Our Lord Jesus Christ laid down an important principle about our hearts and our treasure writing that "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Mt 6:21) What is it that you treasure? Whatever or whoever that is will tell you where the passion of your heart lies. Let's apply Job's "Passion Principle" to our lives -- "I have treasured the word of God more than ____________." What is in that blank for you? What is it that makes your pulse quicken when you think of doing it? Is it racing down a slope on fresh powder? … hiking the majestic Rockies? … watching your favorite football team on Sunday afternoon? … eating a barbeque meal with your family all around you? You know what fills that blank for you. It may not be "bad" things, but it is just not the best thing. The best thing is bathing in the Father's Word, basking in light of His glorious life giving truths, chewing the cud of His word which is more precious than gold, sweeter than even the honey from the honey comb. Why? Ultimately it is so that we might know God better and be more like His beloved Son… And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. (John 17:3 cp 2Pe 3:18) Tony Evans comments that… So important was the Word of God to Job that he said, “I have treasured the words of [God’s] mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). In other words, what God had to say was more important to Job than his fried chicken, greens, and cornbread. It was more important to him than three meals a day. It was the fuel by which Job lived his life, and by which he was sustained during his severe trial. We live in a time of trial as a people today. Our need for the Word of God is critical, because we are watching a generation “perish for the lack of knowledge.” We live in a world of theory. Everyone has an idea and will get mad at you if you think you have the ultimate idea. It’s hard today to stand up and say, “This is truth,” without getting an argument. Someone will retort, “Who do you think you are?” People no longer believe there is a final word—even from God (Evans, A. T. Our God is Awesome. Chicago: Moody Press) F B
Jó 23:12
Spurgeon writes… let us take a peep behind the wall to see how Job came by this character. Here we note Job's HOLY SUSTENANCE, "I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." First, then, God spoke to Job. Did God ever speak to you? I do not suppose Job had a single page of inspired writing. Probably he had not even seen the first books of Moses; he may have done so, but probably he had not. God spoke to him. Did he ever speak to you? No man will ever serve God aright unless God has spoken to him. You have the Bible, and God speaks in that book and through it; but mind you do not rest in the printed letter without discerning its spirit. You must try to hear God's voice in the printed letter. "God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son"; but oh, pray that this divine Son may-speak by the Holy Ghost right into your heart. Anything which keeps you from personal contact with Jesus robs you of the best blessing… You can make an idol of your Bible by using the mere words as a substitute for God's voice to you. The book is to help you to remember God, but if you stick with the mere letter, and fail to get to God at all, you misuse His sacred word. When the Spirit of God speaks a text right into the soul, when God Himself takes the promise or the precept -and sends it with living energy into the heart, this is that which makes a man have a reverence for the word: he feels its awful majesty, its divine supremacy, and while he trembles at it he rejoices, and goes forward to obey because God has spoken to him. Dear friends, when God speaks be sure that you have open ears to hear, for often he speaks and men do not regard him. In a vision of the night when deep sleep falls upon men God has spoken to his prophets, but now he speaks by His word, applying it to the heart with power by His Spirit. If God speaks but little to us it is because we are dull of hearing. Renewed hearts are never long without a whisper from the Lord. He is not a dumb God nor is He so far away that we cannot hear Him: they that keep His ways and hold His steps, as Job did, shall hear many of His words to their soul's delight and profit. God's having spoken to Job was the secret of his consistently holy life. Then note, that what God had spoken to him he treasured up. He says in the Hebrew that he had treasured God's word more than ever he had treasured his necessary food. They had to hide grain away in those days to guard it from wandering Arabs. Job had been more careful to store up God's word than to store up his wheat and his barley; more anxious to preserve the memory of what God had spoken than to garner his harvests. Do you treasure up what God has spoken? Do you study the Word? Do you read it? Oh, how little do we search it compared with what we ought to do. Do you meditate on it? Do you suck out its secret sweets? Do you store up its essence as bees gather the life-blood of flowers, and hoard up their honey for winter food? Bible study is the metal that makes a Christian; this is the strong meat on which holy men are nourished; this is that which makes the bone and sinew of men who keep God's way in defiance of every adversary. God spake to Job, and Job treasured up his words. JOB ATE GOD'S WORD We learn from our version of the text that Job lived on God’s word: he reckoned it to be better to him than his necessary food. He ate it. This is an art which some do not understand-eating the Word of the Lord. Some look at the surface of the Scriptures, some pull the Scriptures to pieces without mercy, some cut the heavenly bread into dice pieces, and show their cleverness, some pick it over for plums, like children with a cake; but blessed is he that makes it his meat and drink. He takes the Word of God to be what is, namely, a Word from the mouth of the Eternal, and he says, God is speaking to me in this, and I will satisfy my soul upon it; I do not want anything better than this, anything truer than this, anything safer than this, but having got this it shall abide in me, in my heart, in the very bowels of my life, it shall be interwoven with the warp and woof of my being. But the text adds that he esteemed it more than his necessary food. Not more than dainties only, for those are superfluities, but more than his necessary food, and you know that a man’s necessary food is a thing which he esteems very highly. He must have it. What, take away my bread? says he, as if this could not be borne. To take the bread out of a poor man’s mouth is looked upon as the highest kind of villainy: but Job would sooner that they took the bread out of his mouth than the word of God out of his heart. He thought more of it than of his needful food, and I suppose it was because meat would only sustain his body, but the word of God feeds the soul. The nourishment given by bread is soon gone, but the nourishment given by the word of God abides in us, and makes us to live for ever. The natural life is more than meat, but our spiritual life feeds on meat even nobler than itself, for it feeds on the bread of heaven, the Person of the Lord Jesus. Bread is sweet to the hungry man, but we are not always hungry, and sometimes we have no appetite; but the best of God’s word is that he who lives near to God has always an appetite for it, and the more he eats of it the more he can eat. I do confess I have often fed upon God’s-word when I have had no appetite for it, until I have gained an appetite. I have grown hungry in proportion as I have felt satisfied: my emptiness seemed to kill my hunger, but as I have been revived by the word I have longed for more. So it is written, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled:” (Mt 5:6-note) and when they are filled they shall continue to enjoy the benediction, for they shall hunger and thirst still though filled with grace. God’s word is sweeter to the taste than bread to a hungry man, and its sweetness never cloys, though it dwells long on the palate. You cannot be always eating bread, but you can always feed on the word of God. You cannot eat all the meat that is set before you, your capacity is limited that way, and none but a glutton wishes it otherwise; but oh, you may be ravenous of God’s word, and devour it all, and yet have no surfeit (disgust caused by excess intake). You are like a little mouse in a great cheese, and you shall have permission to eat it all, though it be a thousand times greater than yourself. Though God’s thoughts are greater than your thoughts, and His ways are greater than your ways, yet may His ways be in your heart, and your heart in His ways. You may be filled with all the fullness of God, though it seems a paradox. His fullness is greater than you, and all His fullness is infinitely greater than you, yet you may be filled with all the fullness of God (cp Eph 3:19-note). So that the Word of God is better than our necessary food: it hath qualities which our necessary food hath not. No more, except it be this: you cannot be holy, my brethren, unless you do in secret live upon the blessed word of God, and you will not live on it unless it comes to you as the word of His mouth. It is very sweet to get a letter from home when you are far away: it is like a bunch of fresh flowers in winter time. A letter from the dear one at home is as music heard over the water; but half a dozen words from that dear mouth are better than a score pages of manuscript, for there is a sweetness about the look and the tone which paper cannot carry. A SPEAKING TRUMPET Now, I want you to get the Bible to be not a book only but a speaking trumpet, through which God speaks from afar to you, so that you may catch the very tones of His voice. You must read the word of God to this end, for it is while reading, meditating, and studying, and seeking to dip yourself into its spirit, that it seems suddenly to change from a written book into a talking book or phonograph; it whispers to you or thunders at you as though God had hidden Himself among its leaves and spoke to your condition; as though Jesus who feeds among the lilies had made the chapters to be lily beds, and had come to feed there. Ask Jesus to cause his word to come fresh from His own mouth to your soul; and if it be so, and you thus live in daily communion with a personal Christ, my brethren, you will then with your feet take hold upon His steps (Job 23:11, 12a); then will you keep His way, then will you never decline or go back from His commandments, but you will make good speed in your pilgrim way to the eternal city. May the Holy Ghost daily be with you. May every one of you live under His sacred bedewing ( to moisten in a gentle manner with any liquid), and be fruitful in every good word and work. Amen and amen. (Read the full sermon - Job 23:11-12 Fair Portrait of a Saint) REPROOF FOR NOT TREASURING GOD'S WORD Charles Simeon reproves us for not treasuring God's Word like Job… How much fuller a revelation of God’s mind do we possess! Doubtless Job’s views, both of himself as a sinner, and of Christ as a Saviour, were, in many respects, clear and just (Job 9:20, 21 and Job 19:25 26 27). But how incomparably richer is that discovery of God’s revealed will, which is transmitted to us in the writings of the Old and New Testament! There is nothing concealed from us, which it would be for our advantage to know. All the eternal counsels of God, as displayed in the covenant of grace, are exhibited to our view, together with all the wonders of redeeming love. How highly, then, should these be estimated by us! If Job felt such regard for the partial revelations vouchsafed to him, what should not we feel towards this complete system of divine truth, which we are privileged to enjoy? But how low is the esteem in which it is held by us! Not only is “our necessary food” preferred before it, but every base indulgence: the gratifications of sense which are most sinful, and the acquisition of objects which are most worthless, have a greater preponderance in our minds than either the Law of Moses or “the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.” Let us only look back, and see how faint have been our desires after divine knowledge, and how feeble our endeavours to obtain it. In truth, every book has been preferred before the sacred volume: and, with almost every one amongst us, the perusal of a novel or a newspaper would be resorted to, at any time, to occupy a leisure hour, rather than God’s blessed word. To what is our ignorance of heavenly subjects to be ascribed, but to this? And to what else must our disobedience to God’s commandments be traced? We love not God’s word, and therefore we do not study it: we explore not its contents, and therefore we neither know it nor obey it. Though it ought to be our meditation and delight all the day, with many the sacred volume is scarcely ever read at all: and with those who do occasionally take it into their hands, it is read only in a superficial manner, and without that veneration and love which it deserves. I say, then, that Job may well rise up in judgment against us, to condemn us for our grievous neglect of that sacred volume, which even “the angels in heaven desire to look into.” APPLICATION Redeem, then, the time which you have lost, for the attainment of divine knowledge—Were the salvation of your soul out of the question, God’s blessed word deserves more attention than any other book: for there is no other book whose contents are so curious, so instructive, so edifying in every view. But, when the salvation of your soul depends on your obedience to it, what shall I say? (Ed: Simeon is not saying obedience saves but that it does demonstrate one's salvation is genuine) Methinks, you should be studying it day and night, in order to obtain all its proffered benefits, and to comply with all its most reasonable demands. In public, when it is opened to you in the ministration of the Gospel, “receive it, not as the word of man, but as the word of the living God.” (1Th 2:13) And in your secret chamber study it, as it were, upon your knees; and implore of God the teaching of His Holy Spirit, in order that you may be able to comprehend its mysterious contents. In a word, esteem the revelation of your God as Job esteemed it: and then, like Job, shall you have a record on high, that you pleased God, and that you were accepted of Him. (Job's Love to the Word of God) GEORGE MULLER TREASURED THE WORD MORE THAN HIS NECESSARY FOOD Listen to the words of the great saint of yesteryear, George Müller (1805–1898). Observe carefully what made him "tick" and methinks why God used him so mightily in His kingdom work. May the tribe of men like Job and Müller increase in our day of in which delight in the Word seems to be sorely wanting and/or waning. In his well known book Desiring God, John Piper (in a section he subtitles "How George Muller Started His Day") writes… In 1841 Muller made a life-changing discovery. The testimony of this from his autobiography has proved to be of tremendous value in my life, and I pray that it will also bear fruit in yours: While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now … more than forty years have since passed away. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental, communion with the Lord. I began therefore, to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake or preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man. The difference between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer… But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word. It often now astonished me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God: and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts… I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God (Ed: Oh, for such a healthy, holy fear!), commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials and the temptations of the day come upon one! (quoted from John Piper's book Desiring God - Pdf can be downloaded)