Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life? Sermons
I. The first part shows THE DIFFICULTY OR WELL-NIGH IMPOSSIBILITY OF CIRCUMVENTING AND CAPTURING THIS HUGE AND SLIPPERY CREATURE. (Vers, 1-7.) In language of irony and almost of taunt this fact is set forth. Here, then, is a mere creature of God before which man must feel his helplessness. If man cannot overcome the creature, how much less shall he pretend to vie with the Creator, make his imperfect will the rule of the world, and bend the pride of the wicked beneath him? II. The second part (vers. 8-34) is A DESCRIPTION IN DETAIL OF THE PARTS, THE ORGANS, THE TERRIBLE ASPECT, THE FURY, THE OBSTINATE POWER OF DEFENCE, AND THE PROUD DOMINION OF THIS TERRIBLE CREATURE OVER ALL OTHERS IN HIS RIVER-HAUNTS. Without at all straining the language or the sense, the crocodile may be regarded as the type or allegory of the wicked - in his destructive fierceness and passion, his callousness, his place of pride and worldly defences - the alarm and confusion which he spreads around him. So fearful and so real does wickedness seem in the high places of the earth. Inwardly, the good man may escape from its power and influence; outwardly, he seems exposed to its baneful sway, and seeks in vain for dominion over it. The leviathan is the symbol of those "kings of the children of pride." The conquest over the kingdoms of force and fraud is reserved for the Divine might of righteousness alone. The great lesson of this chapter is, then, that almighty power and justice are inseparable. Separate in thought for a moment these principles, and imagine either without the other to be associated with the nature of God, and we have a world that is horrible to contemplate - a world where force without right is the only law, or a world where right is ever vainly struggling against force. Put these cases before the mind, and we at once see that they are not only dreadful but impossible alternatives, Neither is that human world, in which, with all its mysteries and seeming inconsequences, pious and dutiful souls are thankful and content to live, the world that is firmly and broadly based upon the eternal will of absolute power and justice. Thus, too, we are taught the truth concerning ourselves. Till we know both our weakness and our moral frailty, we know nothing truly about ourselves. To be conscious of impotence in presence of evil is to confess that we are unrighteous. And this leads to that humble conviction of dependence in which is the great root of piety. Dependence, in the natural and in the moral life, is the law of our being. In the recognition of it, in the acceptance of those relations and the fulfilment of those duties which the gospel builds upon this foundation, consists man's health and peace. The thought of a God who is mere arbitrary power, as the gods and fates of the heathen, can never inspire loving trust or holiness. The thought of a God who is just, but not all-powerful, so that he cannot carry out his righteous purposes (as in ancient Manichaeism and in the strange theory, e.g., of J. S. Mill), can never support the feeble soul in the midst of the temptations of the world, in its struggle against evil. The foundation laid in Zion is built of no such crumbling material; it is raised upon a truth on which to rest is to be secure from disturbance, for upon it all the history of time and the life of mankind are built. "Praise, everlasting praise, be paid
Upon the earth there is not his like. The lion is often spoken of as "the king of the forest," or the "king of beasts," and in a similar sense the leviathan is here spoken of as at the head of the animal creation. He is afraid of none of them; he is subdued by none of them; he is the prey of none of them. The whole argument, therefore, closes with this statement, that he is at the head of the animal creation; and it was by this magnificent description of the power of the creatures which God had made, that it was intended to impress the mind of Job with a sense of the majesty and power of the Creator. It had the effect. He was overawed with the conviction of the greatness of God, and he saw how wrong it had been for him to presume to call in question the justice, or sit in judgment on the doings of such a Being. God did not, indeed, go into an examination of the various points which had been the subject of controversy; He did not explain the nature of His moral administration so as to relieve the mind from perplexity; but He evidently meant to leave the impression that He was vast and incomprehensible in His government, infinite in power, and had a right to dispose of His creation as He pleased. No one can doubt that God could, with infinite ease, have so. explained the nature of His administration as to flee the mind from perplexity, and so as to have resolved the difficulties which hung over the various subjects which had come into debate between Job and his friends. Why He did not do this is nowhere stated, and can only be the subject of conjecture. It is possible, however, that the following suggestions may do something to show the reasons why this was not done.1. We are to remember the early period of the world when these transactions occurred, and when this Book was composed. It was in the infancy of society, and when little light had gleamed on the human mind in regard to questions of morals and religion. 2. In that state of things it is not probable that either Job or his friends would have been able to comprehend the principles in accordance with which the wicked are permitted to flourish, and the righteous are so much afflicted, if they had been stated. Much higher knowledge than they then possessed about the future world was necessary to understand the subject which then agitated their minds. It could not have been done without a very decided reference to the future state, where all these inequalities are to be removed. 3. It has been the general plan of God to communicate knowledge by degrees: to impart it when men have had full demonstration of their own imbecility, and when they feel the need of Divine teaching; and to reserve the great truths of religion for an advanced period of the world. In accordance with this arrangement, God has been pleased to keep in reserve, from age to age, certain great and momentous truths, and such as were particularly adapted to throw light on the subjects of discussion between Job and his friends. They are the truths pertaining to the resurrection of the body; the retributions of the Day of Judgment; the glories of heaven and the woes of hell, where all the inequalities of the present state may receive their final and equal adjustment. These great truths were reserved for the triumph and glory of Christianity; and to have stated them in the time of Job would have been to have anticipated the most important revelations of that system. The truths of which we are now in possession would have relieved much of the anxiety then felt, and solved most of these questions; but the world was not then in the proper state for their revelation. 4. It was a very proper lesson to be taught men, to bow with submission, to a sovereign God, without knowing the reason of His doings. No lesson, perhaps, could be learnt of higher value than this. To a proud, self-confident, philosophic mind, a mind prone to rely on its own resources and trust to its own deductions, it was of the highest importance to inculcate the duty of submission to will and sovereignty. This is a lesson which we often have to learn in life, and which almost all the trying dispensations of providence are fitted to teach us. It is not because God has no reason for what He does; it is not because He intends we shall never know the reason: but it is because it is our duty to bow with submission to His will, and to acquiesce in His right to reign, even when we cannot see the reason of His doings. Could we reason it out, and then submit because we saw the reason, our submission would not be to our Maker's pleasure, but to the deductions of our own minds. Hence, all along, He so deals with man, by concealing the reason of His doings, as to bring him to submission to His authority, and to humble all human pride. To this termination all the reasonings of the Almighty in this Book are conducted; and after the exhibition of His power in the tempest, after His sublime description of His own works, after His appeal to the numerous things which are, in fact, incomprehensible to man, we feel that God is great — that it is presumptuous in man to sit in judgment on His works, and that the mind, no matter what it does, should bow before Him with profound veneration and silence. (Albert Barnes.). People JobPlaces UzTopics Age-during, Agreement, Bondman, Covenant, Forever, Servant, Shouldest, Slave, WiltOutline 1. Of God's great power in the leviathanDictionary of Bible Themes Job 41:1-11Library Covenant Duties. It is here proposed to show, that every incumbent duty ought, in suitable circumstances, to be engaged to in the exercise of Covenanting. The law and covenant of God are co-extensive; and what is enjoined in the one is confirmed in the other. The proposals of that Covenant include its promises and its duties. The former are made and fulfilled by its glorious Originator; the latter are enjoined and obligatory on man. The duties of that Covenant are God's law; and the demands of the law are all made … John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting Whether There is Hope in the Damned Whether the Good Will be Judged at the Judgment? Whether the Devil Can Induce Man to Sin of Necessity? Whether a Spell Can be an Impediment to Marriage? Whether by Divine Justice an Eternal Punishment is Inflicted on Sinners? [*Cf. Fs, Q , Aa ,4] Whether There is Sorrow in the Demons? Whether Fearlessness is a Sin? Whether the Devil is the Head of all the Wicked? On the Interior Man That the Ruler Should Be, through Humility, a Companion of Good Livers, But, through the Zeal of Righteousness, Rigid against the vices of Evildoers. How Sowers of Strifes and Peacemakers are to be Admonished. Whether Wisdom Should be Reckoned among the Gifts of the Holy Ghost? The Beginning of Justification. In what Sense Progressive. How the Humble and the Haughty are to be Admonished. Epistle Xliii. To Eulogius and Anastasius, Bishops. And for Your Fearlessness against them Hold this Sure Sign -- Whenever There Is... Degrees of Sin Job Links Job 41:4 NIVJob 41:4 NLT Job 41:4 ESV Job 41:4 NASB Job 41:4 KJV Job 41:4 Bible Apps Job 41:4 Parallel Job 41:4 Biblia Paralela Job 41:4 Chinese Bible Job 41:4 French Bible Job 41:4 German Bible Job 41:4 Commentaries Bible Hub |