Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Job
Book: Job
Chapter: 4
Overview:
Eliphaz reproves
Job.
(1-6) And maintains that
God's judgments
are for the wicked.
(7-11) The
Vision of
Eliphaz.
(12-21)
1-6 Satan undertook to prove
Job a
Hypocrite By afflicting him;
and his friends concluded him to be one because he was
So
afflicted, and showed impatience. This we must keep in mind if
we would understand what passed.
Eliphaz speaks of
Job, and his
afflicted condition, with tenderness; but charges him with
weakness and faint-heartedness. Men make few allowances for
those who have taught others. Even pious friends will count that
only a touch which we feel as a wound. Learn from hence to draw
off the mind of a sufferer from brooding over the affliction, to
look at the
God of mercies in the affliction. And how can this
be done
So Well as
By looking to
Christ Jesus, in whose
unequalled sorrows every
Child of
God soonest learns to forget
his own?
7-11 Eliphaz argues, 1. That good men were never thus ruined.
But there is one event both to the righteous and to the wicked,
Ec 9:2, both in
Life and
Death; the great and certain
difference is after
Death. Our worst mistakes are occasioned
By
drawing wrong views from undeniable truths. 2. That wicked men
were often thus ruined: for the proof of this,
Eliphaz vouches
his own observation. We may see the same every
Day.
12-21 Eliphaz relates a
Vision. When we are communing with our
own hearts, and are still, Ps 4:4, then is a time for the Holy
Spirit to commune with us. This
Vision Put him into very great
fear. Ever since
Man sinned, it has been terrible to him to
receive communications from
Heaven, conscious that he can expect
No good tidings thence. Sinful
Man! shall he pretend to be more
just, more pure, than
God, who being his Maker, is his
Lord and
Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of
Man! How
great the patience of
God! Look upon
Man in his
Life. The very
foundation of that
Cottage of
Clay in which
Man dwells, is in
the
Dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but
upon the
Dust. Some have a higher
Heap of
Dust to stand upon
than others but still it is the
Earth that stays us up, and will
shortly
Swallow us up.
Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering
distemper, which consumes like a
Moth, be sent to destroy him,
he cannot resist it. Shall such a
Creature pretend to blame the
appointments of
God? Look upon
Man in his
Death.
Life is short,
and in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength,
learning, not only cannot secure them from
Death, but these
things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or
power, continue after them. Shall a weak, sinful, dying
Creature, pretend to be more just than
God, and more pure than
his Maker?
No: instead of quarrelling with his
Afflictions, let
him wonder that he is out of
Hell. Can a
Man be cleansed without
his Maker? Will
God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from
guilt? or will he do
So without their having an interest in the
Righteousness and gracious help of their promised
Redeemer, when
angels, once ministering spirits before his
Throne, receive the
just recompence of their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming
impunity of men for a short time, though living without
God in
the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen
angels, and is continually overtaking them. Yet careless sinners
note it
So little, that they expect not the change, nor are
Wise
to consider their latter
End.