Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1526
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, March 7, 1880
“My foot has held fast to His steps, His way have I kept and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” Job 23:11,12.
THUS Job speaks of himself, not by way of boasting, but by way of vindication. Eliphaz the Temanite and his two companions had brought distinct charges against Job’s character. Because they saw him in such utter misery they concluded that his adversity must have been sent as a punishment for his sin and, therefore, they judged him to be a hypocrite who, under cover of religion, had exercised oppression and tyranny. Zophar had hinted that wickedness was sweet in Job’s mouth and that he hid iniquity under his tongue. Eliphaz charged him with hardness of heart to the poor and dared to say, “You have taken a pledge from your brother for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.” This last, from its very impossibility, was meant to show the extreme meanness to which he falsely imagined that Job must have descended—how could he strip the naked?. He was evidently firing at random.
As neither he nor his companions could discover any palpable blot in Job upon which they could distinctly lay their finger, they bespattered him right and left with their groundless accusations. They made up, in venom, for the lack of evidence to back their charges. They felt sure that there must be some great sin in him to have procured such extraordinary afflictions and, therefore, by smiting him all over, they hoped to touch the sore place. Let them stand as a warning to us never to judge men by their circumstances and never to conclude that a man must be wicked because he has fallen from riches to poverty.
Job, however, knew his innocence and he was determined not to give way to them. He said, “You are forgers of lies, physicians of no value. O that you would altogether hold your peace and it should be your wisdom!” He fought the battle right manfully. Not, perhaps, without a little display of temper and self-righteousness, but still, with much less of either than any of us would have shown had we been in the same plight and had we been equally conscious of perfect integrity. He has, in this part of his self-defense, sketched a fine picture of a man perfect and upright before God. He has set before us the image to which we should seek to be conformed. Here is the high ideal after which every Christian should strive and happy shall he be who shall attain to it.
Blessed is he who, in the hour of his distress, if he is falsely accused, will be able to say with as much truth as the Patriarch could, “My foot has held His steps, His way have I kept and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” I ask you, first, to inspect the picture of Job’s holy life, that you may make it your model. After we have done this, we will look a little below the surface, asking the question, “How was he enabled to lead such an admirable life as this. Upon what meat did this great Patriarch feed that he had grown so eminent.”
We shall find the answer in our second head, Job’s holy sustenance—“I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” May He, who worked in Job His patience and integrity, by this, our meditation, teach us the same virtues by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let us sit down before this sketch of JOB’S HOLY LIFE—it will well repay a meditative study. Note, first, that Job had been, all along, a man fearing God and walking after the Divine Rule. In the words before us he dwells much upon the things of God—“His steps.” “His way.” “The commandment of His lips.” “The words of His mouth.” He was pre-eminently one that “feared God and eschewed evil.” He knew God to be the Lord and worthy to be served and, therefore, he lived in obedience to His Law which was written upon his instructed conscience. His way was God’s way! He chose that course which the Lord commanded. He did not seek his own pleasure, nor the carrying out of his own will.
Neither did He follow the fashion of the times, nor conform himself to the ruling opinion or custom of the age in which he lived—fashion and custom were nothing to him—he knew no rule but the will of the Almighty. Like some tall cliff which breasts the flood, he stood out almost alone, a witness for God in an idolatrous world. He acknowledged the living God and lived “as seeing Him who is invisible.” God’s will had taken the helm of the vessel and the ship was steered in God’s course according to the Divine compass of Infallible Justice and the unerring chart of the Divine Will!
This is a great point to begin with. It is, indeed, the only sure basis of a noble character. Ask the man who seeks to be the architect of a great and honorable character this question—Where do you place God? Is He second with you? Ah, then, in the judgment of Him whose view comprehends all human relationships, you will lead a very secondary kind of life, for the first and most urgent obligation of your being will be disregarded. But is God first with you? Is this your determination, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”? Do you seek, first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness?