our charge. We shall be clothed with the robes of righteousness and salvation, adorned with the
graces of the Holy Spirit, and presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding
joy. May we learn the difference between justifying ourselves, and being thus justified by God
himself. Let the tempest-tossed soul consider Job, and notice that others have passed this dreadful
gulf; and though they found it hard to believe that God would hear or deliver them, yet he rebuked
the storm, and brought them to the desired haven. Resist the devil; give not place to hard thoughts
of God, or desperate conclusions about thyself. Come to Him who invites the weary and heavy
laden; who promises in nowise to cast them out.
Chapter 10
Chapter Outline
Job complains of his hardships. (1–7)
He pleads with God as his Maker. (8–13)
He complains of God's severity. (14–22)Verses 1–7
Job, being weary of his life, resolves to complain, but he will not charge God with
unrighteousness. Here is a prayer that he might be delivered from the sting of his afflictions, which
is sin. When God afflicts us, he contends with us; when he contends with us, there is always a
reason; and it is desirable to know the reason, that we may repent of and forsake the sin for which
God has a controversy with us. But when, like Job, we speak in the bitterness of our souls, we
increase guilt and vexation. Let us harbour no hard thoughts of God; we shall hereafter see there
was no cause for them. Job is sure that God does not discover things, nor judge of them, as men
do; therefore he thinks it strange that God continues him under affliction, as if he must take time
to inquire into his sin.
Verses 8–13
Job seems to argue with God, as if he only formed and preserved him for misery. God made
us, not we ourselves. How sad that those bodies should be instruments of unrighteousness, which
are capable of being temples of the Holy Ghost! But the soul is the life, the soul is the man, and
this is the gift of God. If we plead with ourselves as an inducement to duty, God made me and
maintains me, we may plead as an argument for mercy, Thou hast made me, do thou new-make
me; I am thine, save me.
Verses 14–22
Job did not deny that as a sinner he deserved his sufferings; but he thought that justice was
executed upon him with peculiar rigour. His gloom, unbelief, and hard thoughts of God, were as