Nor Charged God Foolishly. Job i, 22.
By J. Clarke
JOB had endured great trials; his children torn from him suddenly, and to aggravate his calamity, the treasures of a life of care and industry were swept away in a moment; then he was smitten with sore boils from head to foot, while his three friends reproached him as some vile criminal which the earth was too good to bear up. In all this sea of calamity, Job retained his uprightness, and continued to put his confidence in God. Though it was inexplicable to him why he should be the object of such severe rebukes, he expresses his unshaken hope in God, saying, “Though he slay me yet will I trust in him.” Though he wept and groaned in intensest agony of body and mind, bereaved of every earthly blessing except his wife, (and it may be doubted whether she was a blessing, for she exhorted him to curse God and die,) suspected by his friends of hidden crime, and left by God in a degree to Satan, truly his situation was deplorable; but through it all he saw the gleam of hope, for faith lighted up the gloom. By thus enduring his trials with patience and composure, and thus exercising faith in adverse times, he pleased God, and came forth from the furnace seven times purified, purged from the dross of the world, and so was fitted for far greater happiness and usefulness. The child of God who murmurs and frets under trials, does thus entirely frustrate the object designed, and thus renders necessary severer tests, and more excruciating pains, to cause the image of the Redeemer to shine forth; for faith must be exercised in the darkest night of trial; then it is most needed, and then it shines brightest, and it is then the strongest assurance and liveliest hope is experienced.