I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed. Sermons
I. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE FOOLISH TO TAKE ROOT. "The foolish," in biblical phraseology, are worse than people of weak intellect; they are always regarded as morally degenerate. Their folly is the opposite to the wisdom of which the beginning is "the fear of the Lord." Though lacking in moral fibre as well as in mental stamina, such people still often contrive to achieve an astonishing amount of success in life. 1. They mall be favoured by circumstances. In this world men are not wholly dependent upon their own character and conduct. There is a general tide of prosperity that sweeps strong on its flood many who have had no hand in originating it. There is good fortune as well as misfortune, and the one is often as little deserved as the other. 2. They may be helped by Providence. God's grace is always greater than our deserts. He would win us by his goodness. The foolish man should see that this goodness of God is designed to lead him to repentance (Romans 2:4). Sometimes, however, the Divine temporal favour is in reality a method of judgment, a sunshine that ripens the effects of folly, so that they may appear in their fulness at the hastening harvest-time. 3. They may assist themselves. There is a kind of prosperity which good and wise men scorn, not being able to stoop to the degradation which leads to it. Then bad and foolish men step in, and, though grovelling in the dust, succeed in grasping some of the so-called good things of life. Much outward prosperity is not directly dependent on moral qualities. A man may be skilful in money-making without being either a saint or a philosopher. II. ALTHOUGH THE FOOLISH MAY TAKE ROOT, THEY WILL NOT BEAR GOOD FRUIT. We may be surprised at their temporal prosperity, but it is only temporal. For a while they live and grow, not simply flourishing a moment like a plucked flower that must soon fade, but actually striking roots into the ground, and thus strengthening their position and drawing nourishment to themselves. Still, at best, it is only the rooting in the soil that is thought of. This is but the first stage. Eliphaz was quite right in his surmise that the last stage would be very different, although he was in error as to the time, circumstances, and character of the great denouement. 1. No good fruit will follow. The foolish stock can only bring forth fruit of folly; and if it grows luxuriantly, it will not bear any better products. Its size will only multiply and coarsen its natural issue. Let bad and foolish men advance unimpeded as far as possible in their earthly prosperity, yet of real soul-prosperity they will have none, for they have not in them the life from which this springs. 2. The flourishing prosperity will come to an end. These noxious plants must be finally rooted up if they are not struck down earlier by the thunderbolts of judgment. Rapid growth is no promise of long endurance. The mistake of the old world was to look for the judgment on earth. It may come here. But if it does not, it is certain to come hereafter; for God is wise and good and almighty. Therefore beware of the delusion of temporal insanity. Look to the end. Look to the quality of the success attained. Let this be what Christ approves; i.e. like his success, which was victory through the cross. Then a fruitful root will sprout out of a "dry ground" (Isaiah 53:2). - W.F.A.
Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear It, and know thou it for thy good. Thus closed a forcible speech by Eliphaz the Temanite; it may be called his "summing up." He virtually says, "What I have testified in the name of my friends is no dream of theirs. Upon this matter we are specialists; and bear witness to truth which we have made the subject of research and experience. Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good." By this declaration he sets forth his teaching with authority, and presses it home. He persuades Job to consider what he had said, for it was no hasty opinion, but the ripe fruit of experience. I shall not follow Eliphaz; I am only going to borrow his closing words, and use them in reference to Gospel testimony; which is to us a thing known and searched out.I. To begin with, these words may well describe THE QUALIFICATION OF THE TEACHER. He will be poorly furnished if he cannot run in the line which Eliphaz draws in the words of our text. 1. He should have an intimate knowledge of his subject. How can he teach what he does not know? When we come to talk about God, and the soul, and sin, and the precious blood of Jesus, and the new birth, and holiness and eternal fife, the speaker who knows nothing about these things personally must be a poor driveller. A blind man, who is teaching others about colour and vision? A preacher of an unknown God? A dead man sent with messages of life? You are in a strange position. 2. I must add that he should have a personal experience of it, so that he can say, "Lo this, we have searched it, so it is." It is unseemly that an ignorant man should keep a school. It is not meet that a dumb man should teach singing. Shall an impenitent man preach repentance? Shall an unbelieving man preach faith? Shall an unholy man preach obedience to the Divine will? He who would learn to plough, must not be apprenticed to one who never turned a furrow. We must know the Lord, or we cannot teach His way. 3. What is wanted in a successful teacher is a firm conviction of the truth of these things, growing out of his having tested them for himself. He must say, with emphasis, "So it is." The Lord's Word must be true. Why do you "hope" about it? Believe it and enjoy it. But people will go hoping and hoping and limping; as if to be lame were the proper thing. A ministry of hesitation must be ruinous to souls. When Divine truth is held fast, then let it be held forth, and not till then. 4. Once more a needful qualification for a teacher of the Word is earnestness and goodwill to the hearer. We must implore each one of our hearers to give earnest heed. We must cry to him with our whole heart, "Hear it, and know thou it for thy good." Without love, there can be no real eloquence. The great Saviour's heart is love, and those who are to be saviours for Him must be of a loving spirit. True love will do the work when everything else has failed. Knowledge of our subject avails not without love to our hearers. There are three ways of knowing, but only one sort is truly worth the having. Many labour to know, merely that they may know. These are like misers, who gather gold that they may count it, and hide it away in holes and corners. This is the avarice of knowledge. Such knowledge turns stagnant, like water shut up in a close pond — above mantled with rank weed, and below putrid, or full of loathsome fife. A second class aspire to know that others may know that they know. To be reputed wise is the heaven of most mortals. One does not eat merely that others may know that you have had your dinner, and one should not know merely to have it known that you know. The third kind of knowledge is the one worth having. Learn to know that you may make other people know. This is not the avarice but the commerce of knowledge. Acquire knowledge that you may distribute it. Light the candle, but put it not under a bushel. Be taught that you may teach. This trading is gainful to all who engage in it. II. THE ARGUMENT FOR THE HEARER. "Lo this, we have searched it, so it is." The argument directed to the hearer is the experience of many, confirming the statement of one. "We have searched it, so it is." I should like to bear my own personal witness to a few things about which I am fully persuaded. "Lo this, we have searched it, so it is." 1. And my first witness is that sin is an evil and a bitter thing. I think I may speak for you and say, "We have searched this out, and we know that it is so." We have seen sin prove injurious to our fellow men. 2. I wish to testify to the fact that repentance of sin, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, bring a wonderful rest to the heart, and work a marvellous change in the whole life and character. 3. Next, we beg to bear our witness to the fact that prayer is heard of God. God does hear prayer. We bear our witness to that fact with all our strength, and therefore we say about it, "Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good." 4. Another testimony we would like to bear, namely, that obedience to the Lord, though it may involve present loss, is sure to be the most profitable course for the believing man to take. 5. We beg to say that the old-fashioned Gospel is able to save men, and to arouse enthusiasm in their souls. III. We have here THE EXHORTATION TO THE INQUIRER. 1. "This, we have searched it, so it is; hear it." But oh, if you wish to be saved, hear the Gospel! Let nothing keep you away from God's sanctuary, where the real Gospel is proclaimed. Hear it! If it is not preached exactly in the style which you would prefer, nevertheless, hear it. "Faith cometh by hearing." 2. The next thing that he says is, "Know it." Hear it and know it; go on hearing it until you know it. To know Christ is life eternal. 3. Our text means — know it in a particular way. "Know thou it for thy good." The devil knows a great deal. He knows more than the most intelligent of us; but he knows nothing for his good. All that he knows sours into evil within his rebellious nature.(1) How is a man to know anything for his good? This knowledge must first be a practical knowledge. Does the Word say "Repent"? If you want to know what repentance means, repent at once. If you want to know what faith is, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and when you have believed, you will know what believing is. The best way to know a virtue is to practise it.(2) To know a thing for our good is to know it for ourselves. "Know it for thy good." I find that one rendering is, "Know it for thyself." Another man's God is no God to me; he must be "my Lord and my God."(3) I must add that we only know things for our good when we know them believingly. To a sinner a promise is as dark as a threatening, if he does not believe it. ( C. H. Spurgeon.). But Job answered and said. We must come upon grief in one of two ways and Job seems to have come upon grief in a way that is to be deprecated. He came upon it late in life. He was in solid prosperity and positive and genuine comfort. Grief must tell heavily whenever it comes upon a man in such a condition. This accounts for his lamentation, and whine, and long-drawn threnody. He was not accustomed to it. Some have been born into trouble, and they have become acclimatised. Blessed are they who come upon grief in that method. Such a method appears to be the method of real mercy. Grief must come. The devil allows no solitary life to pass upward into heaven without fighting its way at some point or other. Grief delights in monologue. Job seems scarcely to lay himself down mentally upon the line adopted by Eliphaz. It is most difficult to find the central line of Job's speech. Too much logic would have spoiled the grief. Reasoning there is, but it comes and goes; it changes its tone; it strikes the facts of life as the trained fingers of the player might strike a chord of music. Note how interrogative is Job's speech. More than twenty questions occur in Job's reply. Grief is great in interrogation. Job is asking, "Are the old foundations still here? Things have surely been changed in the nighttime, for I am unaccustomed to what is now round about me." Notice how many misunderstandings there are in the speech of the suffering man! Job not only misunderstood his friends and his pain, he misunderstood all men, and the whole system and scheme of things. How suffering not rightly accepted or understood colours and perverts the whole thought and service of life! Job thinks life not worth living. So much depends on our mental mood, or our spiritual condition. Hence the need of our being braced up, fired, made strong. We are what we really are in our heart and mind. Keep the soul right and it will rule the body. The Bible never shrinks from telling us that there is grief in the world, and that grief can be accounted for on moral principles. The Bible measures the grief, never makes light of it. But it can be sanctified, turned into blessing. Any book which so speaks as it does deserves the confidence of men who know the weight and bitterness of suffering. Do not come to the Bible only for condolence and sympathy; come to it for instruction, inspiration, and then you may come to it for consolation, sympathy, tenderest comfort, for the very dew of the morning, for the balm of heaven, for the very touch of Christ.(J. Parker, D. D.) (Robert A. Watson, D. D.) Homilist. It was —I. UNAPPRECIATED BY MEN. This is the meaning of the first five verses. Eliphaz had no conception of the profundity and poignancy of Job's suffering. There are two things indicated here in relation to them. 1. They were unutterable. "My words are swallowed up." His whole humanity was in torture.(1) He suffered in body. "He was smitten with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of the head, and he took a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and sat down amongst the ashes."(2) He suffered in mind. "The arrows of the Almighty were within him, whose poison drank up his spirits." 2. They were irrepressible. "Doth the wild ass bray when tie hath grass? Or loweth the ox over his fodder?" The idea here is, I cannot but cry; my cries spring from my agonies. Had not the wild ass his grass, he would bray with a ravenous hunger; and had not the ox his fodder, he too would low in an agony for food; this is nature, and my cries are natural — I cannot help them. Who can be silent in torture? His suffering was — II. MISUNDERSTOOD BY FRIENDS. "Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?" This language seems to me to point to Job's impression of the address which Eliphaz had delivered to him. Job seemed to feel — 1. That the address of Eliphaz was utterly insipid. "Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt?" As if he had said, your speech lacks that which can make it savoury to me; it does not apply: you misunderstand my sufferings: I suffer not because I am a great sinner, as you seem to imply: my own conscience attests my rectitude: nor because I need this terrible chastisement, as you have said: you neither understand the cause nor the nature of my sufferings, therefore your talk is beside the mark. 2. That the address of Eliphaz was truly offensive. "The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meats." Does not this mean what Dr. Bernard says, "the things you speak — your unmeaning, insipid words and similes — are as the loathsomeness of my food, or are as loathsome to my soul as food now is to my body"? You intrude remarks on me that are not only tasteless, because of their unsuitability, but that are as disgusting as loathsome food. III. INTOLERABLE TO HIMSELF. He longed for death; he believed that in the grave he would have rest. 1. Though his life was unbearable, he would not take it away himself. He felt that he Was not the proprietor, only the trustee of his life. 2. He was not forgetful of his relation to his Maker. "I have not concealed the words of the Holy One." I have not shunned to declare my attachment to Himself and His cause. His sufferings did not obliterate his memory of his Creator, drive him from His presence, or impel him to blasphemy or atheism. No, he still held on. God was the Great Object in his horizon; he saw Him through the thick hot steam of his fiery trials. 3. Though his life was unbearable, he knew that it could not last long. "What is my strength that I should hope? and what is mine end that I should prolong my life?" etc. Whether God will loose His hand and cut me off, and thus put an end to my existence or not, I cannot endure long. I am not made "of stone or brass," and I cannot stand these sufferings long. However powerful the human frame may be, great sufferings must sooner or later break it to pieces. 4. Though his life was unbearable, he was conscious of an inner strength. "Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me?" No strength like this, physical strength is good, intellectual strength is better, but moral strength is the best of all. (Homilist.) People JobPlaces UzTopics Abode, Beheld, Curse, Cursed, Dwelling, Fool, Foolish, Habitation, Immediately, Mark, Myself, Perverse, Root, Straightway, Suddenly, TakingOutline 1. Eliphaz shows that the end of the wicked is misery;6. that man is born to trouble; 8. that God is to be regarded in affliction; 17. the happy end of God's correction. Dictionary of Bible Themes Job 5:3 4504 roots Library December 3 MorningI would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause.--JOB 5:8. Is anything too hard for the Lord?--Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.--Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.--Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and … Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path The Peaceable Fruits of Sorrows Rightly Borne The Death of the Christian "There is Therefore Now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. " The Christian Struggling under Great and Heavy Affliction. Letter xxxii (A. D. 1132) to Thurstan, Archbishop of York Whether we Ought to Pray to God Alone? Whether we Ought to Call Upon the Saints to Pray for Us? Whether it is Lawful to Imprison a Man? Whether the Beatitudes are Suitably Enumerated? Whether Envy is a Kind of Sorrow? Whether Envy is a Mortal Sin? Whether all Anger is a Mortal Sin? Whether the Particular Punishments of Our First Parents are Suitably Appointed in Scripture? Whether Sin Has a Cause? Afflictions and Death under Providence. Job 5:6-8. 'All Things are Yours' 2 Sam. 23:4-5. Without Clouds. Question Lxxxiii of Prayer Covenanting According to the Purposes of God. Directions to Awakened Sinners. The Figurative Language of Scripture. A Believer's Privilege at Death Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Israel Links Job 5:3 NIVJob 5:3 NLT Job 5:3 ESV Job 5:3 NASB Job 5:3 KJV Job 5:3 Bible Apps Job 5:3 Parallel Job 5:3 Biblia Paralela Job 5:3 Chinese Bible Job 5:3 French Bible Job 5:3 German Bible Job 5:3 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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