Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1510
“His strength shall be starved.” Job 18:12.
Bildad was declaring the history of the hypocritical, presumptuous and wicked man. And he intended, no doubt, to insinuate that Job was just such a person—that he had been a deceiver and that, therefore, God’s Providence had at last revealed him and was visiting him for his sins. In this, Bildad was guilty of great injustice to his friend. All the three miserable comforters of Job were mistaken in the special aim of their discourses and yet, concerning the speeches of each one, it may be said that their general statements were, for the most part, true. They uttered truths, but they drew mistaken inferences and they were ungenerous in the imputations which they cast upon Job. It is true that, sooner or later, either in this world or the next, all conceivable curses fall upon the hypocrite and the ungodly man, but it is not true that when a Christian is in trouble, we are to judge that he is suffering for his sin! It would be both cruel and wicked for us to think so.
Nevertheless, because what Bildad said was, in the most part, true, though unkindly and wrongly applied, we feel ourselves quite at liberty to take a text out of his mouth. It is true of many persons that their strength shall be starved— and I shall speak concerning these words in three ways, noticing, first, that this is a curse which will surely be fulfilled upon the ungodly. Secondly, this is a discipline which God often exercises upon the self-righteous when He means to save them. And, thirdly—and it is grievous work to have to say it—this is a form of chastisement upon Believers who are not living near to God as they ought to be—their strength becomes starved or weak.
I. First we shall view our text as A CURSE WHICH WILL BE FULFILLED UPON THE UNGODLY. “His strength shall be starved.” It is not said that they are starved merely, but that their strength is. And if their strength is starved, what must their weakness be? When a man’s strength is bitten with hunger, what a hunger must be raging throughout the whole of his nature! Now, a large proportion of men make their gold to be their strength, their castle and their high tower and, for a while they rejoice in their wealth and find great satisfaction in gathering it, in seeing it multiplied and in hoping, by-and-by, that it shall come to great store.
But every ungodly man ought to know that riches are not forever and often they take to themselves wings and fly away! Men of colossal fortunes have dwindled down to beggars—they made great ventures and realized great failures. None are secure. As long as a man is in this world, he is like a ship at sea, he is still liable to be shipwrecked. O you that are boasting in your gold and calling your treasure your chief good, the day may come when your strength will be starved and, like the victims of famine, you will find yourselves helpless—you whose money answered all things and made you feel omnipotent!
But it will be said, of course, that it is not in every case that the ungodly man’s strength of wealth is starved and I willingly concede it. But it comes to pass in another fashion. How many there are who keep their wealth and yet, for all that, are very poor? It is not that the gold goes, but it stays by them and does not comfort them! I do not know which would be the worse of the two—to be hungry for lack of bread, or to have abundance of bread and yet remain hungry, eat whatever you might. Thousands in this world are precisely in that condition! They have all that heart could wish, if their heart were right, but it seems nothing to them because they have envy in their spirits.
Remember Haman. He is invited to the banquet of wine. He is a chief noble of the empire. He has his monarch’s favor. But all that avails him nothing because Mordecai sits in the gate. Envy has cankered his soul and if he were able to mount to the throne of Ahasuerus, himself, it would make no difference to him—he would be unhappy there—and all because one poor Jew will not bow to him! There are persons going up and down Cheapside every day who are intolerably wretched about a something which they would hardly like to mention to reasonable men. A wretched trifle frets them like a moth in a garment and all the glory of their position is eaten away—their strength is starved.
Where the canker does not happen to be envy, it may come to be a passion akin to it, namely, revenge. Alas, that we should have to talk of revenge as still existing upon this earth after Christ has been here and taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Yet there are ungodly men who even think it right to foster resentments. A word uncourteously spoken; a deed unkindly done will be laid up and an opportunity sought for retaliation. Or, if not, a hope will be cherished that some blight, or blow from God may fall upon the offender. And if that offender still bears himself aloft, lives right merrily and makes no recompense for the wrong done, the aggrieved one has eaten out his own heart with chagrin and the strength of his wealth has been starved!