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
Such is the Divine law perceived by our inspired author "through the
things that are made." The view of nature is still different from the
scientific, but there is certainly an approach to that reading of the
universe praised by M. Renan as peculiarly Hellenic, which "saw the
Divine in what is harmonious and evident." Not here at least does the
taunt apply that, from the point of view of the Hebrew, "ignorance is
a cult and curiosity a wicked attempt to explain," that "even in the
presence of a mystery which assails and ruins him, man attributes in a
special manner the character of grandeur to that which is
inexplicable," that "all phenomena whose cause is hidden, all beings
whose end cannot be perceived, are to man a humiliation and a motive
for glorifying God." The philosophy of the final portion of Job is of
that kind which presses beyond secondary causes and finds the real
ground of creaturely existence. Intellectual apprehension of the
innumerable and far-reaching threads of Divine purpose and the secrets
of the Divine will is not attempted. But the moral nature of man is
brought into touch with the glorious righteousness of God. Thus the
reconciliation is revealed for which the whole poem has made
preparation. Job has passed through the furnace of trial and the deep
waters of doubt, and at last the way is opened for him into a wealthy
place. Till the Son of God Himself come to clear the mystery of
suffering no larger reconciliation is possible. Accepting the
inevitable boundaries of knowledge, the mind may at length have peace.
And Job finds the way of reconciliation.
"_I know that Thou canst do all things,
And that no purpose of Thine can be restrained.
'Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge?'
Then have I uttered what I understood not,
Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
'Hear, now, and I will speak;
I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me.'
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee,
Wherefore I repudiate my words and repent in dust and ashes._"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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