The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away. Sermons
I. A PRINCIPLE OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENT AGAINST EVIL-DOING. It is frequently announced in Holy Scripture. God, the jealous God, visits "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." It is part of his holy and wise and just retribution. As he blesses the sons of the faithful for their fathers' sakes, so he visits upon the children the offences of their fathers. The evil-doer withers as a plant without water. "His roots shall be dried up beneath." Therefore his branches spread not; but they are "cut off." The remembrance of him perishes from the earth, and his name from the street (ver. 17). He dies away without descendant and without remembrance. II. This judgment is seen to be A NATIONAL CONSEQUENCE OF WRONG-DOING. For evil is visited in various ways by the avenging Nemesis that hovers over all life. Evil undermines the health; it tends to habits and pursuits which are destructive of the peace arid security and progress of home. It puts man in conflict with his neighbour, and so men drive the evil-doer "from light into darkness." He is "chased out of the world." Even should his posterity be perpetuated, it is lost to sight. It sinks down in the world till it sinks out of view. III. This judgment STANDS IN DIRECT CONTRAST TO THE LOT OF THE RIGHTEOUS - the man who knoweth God. Over his house is the Divine protection. "When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." The blessing of God rests upon the home and the doings of the righteous. Even though chastisement and calamity may fall upon him, they do not destroy him; rather, he, as a pruned tree, groweth the more and more fruitful God's promise is unto the good, and unto their children after them. The family of the good man has the advantage Of a holy example. They are screened from a thousand perils, while innumerable blessings descend upon them in response to the prayer of faith. This will in the end be proved to be true of Job. IV. These judgments STAND AS A WARNING TO ALL PARENTS. They make the duty of parental piety more and more obvious. They illustrate the solemn responsibility of heads of houses, since their doings descend in their effects upon their children. They owe it to their offspring that they so live as rightly and beneficently to affect their lives. The blessing of God which rests upon the just, and the curse and condemnation of God upon the evil, are warnings to all. Upon those the eye of God rests, but upon these the curse of God. The abodes of wickedness, over which no blessing from on high hovers, are abodes of death and destruction. "Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God." - R.G.
His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors. The world understands by the word "wicked" one who offends against the law of conscience, — one who breaks the second table of the law, the only table which it thinks important. Scripture means by it one who violates his relationship to God, — who transgresses the first table of the law. The term "wicked" has much more reference to the state of their hearts towards God than their state before man. Bildad shows the effects of wickedness.I. ON THE WICKED MAN HIMSELF (vers. 7, 8). The great point in these verses is the certainty with which he brings misery upon himself. His very sins are made his chastisement. II. ON HIS FAMILY (ver. 6). "The light shall be darkened in his tabernacle." In some Eastern countries a lamp is suspended from the ceiling of each room, and kept burning all the night, so that the house is full of light. And so, in the dwellings of the godly, there is light — the light of God's presence. But in the dwellings of the ungodly there is no such light, and no blessing. And with the absence of this there is also, very often, the absence of family union and love. Very different is the Christian's confidence. It rests upon a faithful and unchanging Saviour. Its roots strike deep into the everlasting hills. (George Wagner.) It shall bring him to the king of terrors. Under a threefold consideration.1. If we consider the antecedents, the forerunners or harbingers of death, which are pains, sicknesses, and diseases. 2. If we consider the nature of death. What is death? Death is a disunion; all disunions are troublesome, and some are terrible. Those are most terrible which rend that from us which is nearest to us. Death is also a privation, and a total privation. Death is such a privation, as from which there can be no return to nature. 3. In regard of the consequents. Rottenness and corruption consume the dead, and darkness covers them in the grave. We may ranks a threefold gradation of the terribleness of death.(1) To a godly man, when his spiritual state is unsettled.(2) When his worldly estate is well settled, when he hath deeply engaged in the creature, and his earthly mountain apparently stands strong.(3) Death is most terrible to those who, though they have the knowledge of God, and outwardly profess the Gospel of Christ, yet walk contrary to it. It should be our study, as it is our wisdom, to make this "king of terrors" a kind of "king of comfort" to us. Many believers have attained to this.A believer moves on these principles. 1. That death cannot break the bond of the covenant between God and us. 2. Death may break the union between the soul and the body, but it cannot break the union between the soul and Christ. This outlives death. 3. The apostle asserts that the sting of death is out. 4. Scripture calls death a sleep or rest. 5. Death puts a period to our earthly sorrows, and we have no reason to be sorry for that. 6. It is called a "going to God," in whom we shall have an eternal enjoyment. 7. It is a dying to live, as well as a dying from life. (Joseph Caryl.). Then Job answered and said. Homilist. I. JOB BITTERLY COMPLAINING.1. He complains of the conduct of his friends, and especially their want of sympathy. (1) (2) (3) (4) 2. He complains of the conduct of his God. God had "overthrown and confounded him": had "refused him a hearing and hedged up his way." He complains that he was utterly "deprived of his honours and his hope." God had even treated him as "an enemy, and sent troops of calamities to overwhelm him." God had put "all society against him." These complainings reveal — (1) (2) II. JOB FIRMLY CONFIDING. He still held on to his faith in God as the vindicator of his character. 1. His confidence arose from faith in a Divine vindicator. 2. A vindicator who would one day appear on the earth. 3. Whom he would personally see for himself, 4. Who would so thoroughly clear him that his accusers would be filled with self-accusation. "But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?" (Homilist.) Whether the Devil is the Head of all the Wicked? The Difference Between the Two Testaments. Whether the Fire of Hell is of the Same Species as Ours? The Desire of the Righteous Granted; A Few Sighs from Hell; Job |
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