Expositor's Bible: The Book of JobWatson, Robert A. (Robert Alexander)
Religion
Expositor's Bible: The Book of Job
Watson, Robert A. (Robert Alexander)
Bible. Job -- Commentaries
IV. Next he repudiates the idolatry of wealth and the sin of adoring
the creature instead of the Creator. Rich as he was, he can affirm
that he never thought too much of his wealth, nor secretly vaunted
himself in what he had gathered. His fields brought forth plentifully,
but he never said to his soul, Thou hast much goods laid up for many
years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. He was but a
steward, holding all at the will of God. Not as if abundance of
possessions could give him any real worth, but with constant gratitude
to his Divine Friend, he used the world as not abusing it.
And for his religion: true to those spiritual ideas which raised him
far above superstition and idolatry, even when the rising sun seemed
to claim homage as a fit emblem of the unseen Creator, or when the
full moon shining in a clear sky seemed a very goddess of purity and
peace, he had never, as others were wont to do, carried his hand to
his lips. He had seen the worship of Baal and Ishtar, and there might
have come to him, as to whole nations, the impulses of wonder, of
delight, of religious reverence. But he can fearlessly say that he
never yielded to the temptation to adore anything in heaven or earth.
It would have been to deny Eloah the Supreme. Dr. Davidson reminds us
here of a legend embodied in the Koran for the purpose of impressing
the lesson that worship should be paid to the Lord of all creatures,
"whose shall be the kingdom on the day whereon the trumpet shall be
sounded." The Almighty says: "Thus did We show unto Abraham the
kingdom of heaven and earth, that he might become of those who firmly
believe. And when the night overshadowed him he saw a star, and he
said, This is my Lord; but when it set he said, I like not those that
set. And when he saw the moon rising he said, This is my Lord; but
when he saw it set he said, Verily, if my Lord direct me not, I shall
become one of the people who go astray. And when he saw the rising sun
he said, This is my Lord; this is the greatest; but when it set he
said, O my people, verily I am clear of that which ye associate with
God; I direct my face unto Him who hath created the heavens and the
earth." Thus from very early times to that of Mohammed monotheism was
in conflict with the form of idolatry that naturally allured the
inhabitants of Arabia. Job confesses the attraction, denies the sin.
He speaks as if the laws of his people were strongly against
sun-worship, whatever might be done elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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