Charles Spurgeon Commentary Job 7
Charles Spurgeon Commentary
Job 7
Charles Spurgeon Commentary
Job 7
"Is there not a warfare to man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of a hireling?" — Job 7:1 (ASV)
Is there not a certain time for each one of us to live? Is there not an end to all the trouble and sorrow of this mortal state? "Woe is me," says Job, "will this sad condition of things never come to a close? Must it always be thus with me?"
"As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow, And as a hireling that looketh for his wages:" — Job 7:2 (ASV)
As a servant earnestly desires the shadow,
When the day will close, and he can go to his home.
"As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow, And as a hireling that looketh for his wages: So am I made to possess months of misery, And wearisome nights are appointed to me." — Job 7:2-3 (ASV)
And as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work: So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
If that is the case with any of you, dear friends, you ought to be comforted by the thought that a better man than you are underwent just what you are enduring, and underwent it so as to glorify God by it. Remember what the apostle James wrote, Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
But if our case is not so bad as Job's was, if we are in good health, and surrounded by God's mercy, let us be very grateful. Every morning that you wake after a refreshing night's rest, praise God for it, for it might have been far otherwise, for you might have had wearisome nights through pain and suffering.
"When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh." — Job 7:4-5 (ASV)
Such was the dreadful disease under which this man of God labored, for the worst of pain may happen to the best of men.
Sometimes, God plows his best fields most; and why should he not do so? Do not men try to do most with that which will yield most? And so God may most chasten those who will best repay the strokes of his hand. It is no token of displeasure when God smites us with disease; it may be an evidence that we are branches of the vine that bring forth fruit, or else he would not have taken the trouble to prune us.
"My days are swifter than a weaver`s shuttle, And are spent without hope." — Job 7:6 (ASV)
His spirits are sunk so low that he had no hope at all left—at least, there was none apparent just then. O you poor, tried children of God, I beseech you once again to see that you are only walking where others have gone before you! Mark their footprints, and take heart again.
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