But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, Sermons I. GOD'S JUSTICE IS GOOD AND DESIRABLE. It is the mistake of narrow, one-sided views to confine the idea of God's justice to his relations with sin and punishment, and to regard it solely as that which provokes his wrath. This mistake leads people t,, have a horror of the very notion of God's justice. They would be profoundly thankful if it could be blotted out of the list of his attributes. They regard it as solely inimical to them. Their supreme desire is to escape from its clutches. It is to them a most dreadful thing. How contrary is all this to the scriptural idea of the justice of God! In the Bible God's justice is welcomed with delight in contrast to the terrible injustice of man. It is God's righteousness, God's fairness, God's equal dealing. This must be good and desirable. II. THE JUSTICE OF GOD IS NOT ALWAYS APPARENT. Sometimes he seems to show himself in the same light as the unjust judges of imperfect human society. We cannot see the equity of his dealings. He even seems to be perverting judgment. Good men suffer, and evil men prosper. This is the common complaint of the Old Testament saints in their trouble (e.g. Psalm 73:3). But how is it possible if God is just? There is not only an apparent negligence that lets wrong be done among men unchecked. God himself appears to pervert justice in his own providential dealings, sending calamities to the innocent, and heaping favours on the guilty. This obvious fact was forced on the notice of men, and it raised most perplexing doubts at a time when temporal good was assumed to be the right reward of moral good. III. WE HAVE GOOD REASON TO TRUST THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 1. He is almighty. He has not the inducement to act unjustly that tempts the weak. Deceit and injustice are the refuges of feebleness. Cowards are unjust. Strength can afford to be magnanimous. 2. He is perfectly wise. He will not blunder into injustice, as the most immaculate human judge may do. 3. He is absolutely good. Our revelations of God's character should assure us that his justice must be without a flaw, even though all appearances are against it. The faith that will not bear a strain is worthless. If we cannot trust God when he seems to be acting hardly and unfairly, it is little that we trust him when we can see that all is going well. The goodness of God is our security; we must judge of events by what we know of God in Christ, not of God by what we appear to discover in events. 4. Justice is not always what we should expect. The principle must be simple and intelligible. We must believe that justice in God must be what we know as justice - only infinitely exalted. But the application of this justice may be beyond our conceptions. It may be just for God to do what looks to us now as unfair. Here we must trust and wait for the end. - W.F.A.
If thou wouldst seek unto God betimes. I. WHAT IS IT THAT GOD REQUIRETH? A diligent and speedy search. It is a work both in desire and labour to be joined with God. How must we search? Faithfully, humbly, continually. Whom we must seek. God, for four causes.1. Because we have nothing of ourselves, nor of any other creature. 2. Because none is so present as He. 3. Because none is so able to help as He. 4. Because there is none so willing to help as He. When we must seek. Early. "Even in a time when He may be found." II. HOW IS THE SEARCH TO BE MADE? In prayer. Prayer is a shield against the force of our adversary. Prayer hath ever been the cognisance, and the victory, and the triumph of the faithful; for as the soul giveth life to the. body, so prayer giveth life to the soul. III. WHAT EFFECT THIS SEEKING AND PRAYING SHOULD HAVE ON US. "If thou wert pure and upright." God's promises for the performance hereof yield unto us most plentiful matter of doctrine and consolation. In God's promises note His mercy, which exceedeth all His works. Note His bountiful kindness, His patience and long-suffering, and His love. God increase the love of these things in our hearts, and make us worthy of Christ's blessings, which He hath plentifully in store for us; that after He hath heaped temporal blessings upon us, He will give us the blessing of all blessings, even the life of the world to come. (H. Smith.) People Bildad, JobPlaces UzTopics Almighty, Betimes, Care, Compassion, Diligently, Early, Earnestly, Implore, Makest, Mighty, Plead, Request, Ruler, Search, Seek, Supplication, Wouldest, WouldstOutline 1. Bildad shows God's justice in dealing with men according to their works.8. He alleges antiquity to prove the certain destruction of the hypocrite. 20. He applies God's just dealing to Job. Dictionary of Bible Themes Job 8:3 1125 God, righteousness Library Two Kinds of Hope'Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.'--JOB viii. 14. 'And hope maketh not ashamed.'--ROMANS v. 5. These two texts take opposite sides. Bildad was not the wisest of Job's friends, and he gives utterance to solemn commonplaces with partial truth in them. In the rough it is true that the hope of the ungodly perishes, and the limits of the truth are concealed by the splendour of the imagery and the perfection of artistic form in which the well-worn platitude is draped. … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Beginning, Increase, and End of the Divine Life Whether all Merits and Demerits, One's Own as Well as those of Others, Will be Seen by Anyone at a Single Glance? The Hebrew Sages and their Proverbs The Eternity and Unchangeableness of God. Instruction for the Ignorant: Job Links Job 8:5 NIVJob 8:5 NLT Job 8:5 ESV Job 8:5 NASB Job 8:5 KJV Job 8:5 Bible Apps Job 8:5 Parallel Job 8:5 Biblia Paralela Job 8:5 Chinese Bible Job 8:5 French Bible Job 8:5 German Bible Job 8:5 Commentaries Bible Hub |