What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?
The question is what anyone can do when God rises up and what answer can be given when He visits to judge, examine, and call to account. It expresses awareness of accountability before God and the seriousness of being called to answer for character and conduct. No one can hide from His visitation or offer an answer that evades His judgment. When God rises to judge, people will have no answer against Him.
One who despises or dismisses a servant's cause or complaint must answer to God for it, so that fair treatment of servants is a matter of responsibility before God. That responsibility rests on equality before the Creator, because God made the servant just as He made the master.
The verse shows Job living answerable to God for his wealth. Though one of the richest men of his day, he did not trust in his riches, put confidence in them, rejoice because his wealth was great, or become proud and highminded because of them. He trusted in the living God, remembered that God gave him power to get wealth, and held all subject to God's call. He looked upon wealth only as a means of blessing the poor, the needy, the fatherless, and the widow, and he feared answering God at His visitation for wrong use of what he had. The sin is not in being rich or having much, but in trusting in it, putting confidence in it, rejoicing in it, and being proud and highminded because of it, which denies the God that is above.
In its setting, the chapter's protestation of integrity is stronger evidence of honesty than merely being free from debts to others, since honest character is not proved by paying human creditors alone. Christ's willing endurance of the law's full penalties without complaint shows that the law and its sanctions are righteous, so that people will ultimately acknowledge this even if they bear its curse.
The verse points to the great day of judgment when God rises up to visit men. Its dread is presented as a reason to decide now to obey the truth and choose life and heaven. The dread is removed by entering into God's judgment now in this life by proving and narrowly scrutinizing one's own work and self in the light of the word of God by the Spirit of God. This means putting oneself through the severest tests that the law of God can demand and judging oneself in the light of God's presence. Everyone who does this safely passes the judgment beforehand, has rejoicing, lives constantly in the presence of God's judgment, has nothing to fear when God rises up, and will be led only in the way everlasting.
The question is what anyone can do when God rises up and what answer can be given when He visits to judge, examine, and call to account. It expresses awareness of accountability before God and the seriousness of being called to answer for character and conduct. No one can hide from His visitation or offer an answer that evades His judgment. When God rises to judge, people will have no answer against Him.
One who despises or dismisses a servant's cause or complaint must answer to God for it, so that fair treatment of servants is a matter of responsibility before God. That responsibility rests on equality before the Creator, because God made the servant just as He made the master.
The verse shows Job living answerable to God for his wealth. Though one of the richest men of his day, he did not trust in his riches, put confidence in them, rejoice because his wealth was great, or become proud and highminded because of them. He trusted in the living God, remembered that God gave him power to get wealth, and held all subject to God's call. He looked upon wealth only as a means of blessing the poor, the needy, the fatherless, and the widow, and he feared answering God at His visitation for wrong use of what he had. The sin is not in being rich or having much, but in trusting in it, putting confidence in it, rejoicing in it, and being proud and highminded because of it, which denies the God that is above.
In its setting, the chapter's protestation of integrity is stronger evidence of honesty than merely being free from debts to others, since honest character is not proved by paying human creditors alone. Christ's willing endurance of the law's full penalties without complaint shows that the law and its sanctions are righteous, so that people will ultimately acknowledge this even if they bear its curse.
The verse points to the great day of judgment when God rises up to visit men. Its dread is presented as a reason to decide now to obey the truth and choose life and heaven. The dread is removed by entering into God's judgment now in this life by proving and narrowly scrutinizing one's own work and self in the light of the word of God by the Spirit of God. This means putting oneself through the severest tests that the law of God can demand and judging oneself in the light of God's presence. Everyone who does this safely passes the judgment beforehand, has rejoicing, lives constantly in the presence of God's judgment, has nothing to fear when God rises up, and will be led only in the way everlasting.