Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1839
“For then shall you have your delight in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face unto God.” Job 22:26.
THE Lord said to Eliphaz and his friends, “you have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job has.” And, therefore, we must always regard what they said with careful discrimination. They were wise men according to their light, but they were quite at sea in their judgment of Job. However, in this particular verse, Eliphaz declared that which is taught in many other parts of Holy Scripture and we may profit by his utterance. God grant that by His Spirit we may fully experience the joys described in the words before us.
Eliphaz and his friends had judged Job from their own point of view, making their own experience to be the standard. They, themselves, had prospered and, therefore, they inferred that if a man served God, he must necessarily prosper in worldly things—and that if he did not succeed as they had done, he must have been guilty of great crimes. Though they could not discover any actual fault in Job, they concluded, without further evidence, that he must have been a hypocrite and have acted oppressively to his servants, or have been unmindful of the claims of the poor, or in some other way have brought upon himself the wrath of God. It never entered their mind that so terrible a sickness and such a list of dreadful calamities could have befallen any man except as a punishment for special sin. They inferred virtue from prosperity, and sin from adversity. Unrighteous and cruel logic! At once false and brutal! It renders men at once false witnesses and Pharisees, condemning the innocent because of their sorrows, and flattering themselves because of their ease.
To judge according to outward circumstances has been the tendency of men in all times—even David could not understand how it was that the wicked were so free from troubles while all day long he was, himself, plagued and chastened every morning. A right principle lay at the bottom of this wonder for, indeed, the Lord will reward the good and will punish the wicked, but a great mistake is made when we suppose that this life is the time for meting out rewards and punishments. God will, undoubtedly, when the time shall have fully come, discharge the full vials of His wrath upon the ungodly, but the present is a period of long-suffering, where the wicked spread themselves like a green bay tree. Unless God’s mercy shall lead them to repentance, they are in the same wretched condition as bullocks which are being fattened for the slaughter! Who envies them? Many of the ungodly have their portion in this life—they increase in riches—their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart can wish.
As for the children of God, it often happens that gall and wormwood are mingled with their drink—waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. We must not judge according to the sight of the eyes, or according to present conditions, or we shall make gross mistakes. The richest may be the most wicked and the poorest may be the most gracious. Those who suffer least may deserve to suffer most and those who are most afflicted in this life may have the highest glory in the life to come.
I suspect that Eliphaz and his friends had enjoyed smooth sailing. How could they judge the man who had done business amid tempests? Their mental life was not disturbed by great conflicts. They had not gone deeply into things, nor searched to the bottom of spiritual matters—they had no knowledge of their own hidden corruptions and had endured but little of the rod of chastisement and, consequently, they had been at ease. Their mistake was that they sat in judgment upon another who was more tried than themselves—and condemned him for being in sore distress. Their own serenity led them to judge the troubled one very harshly. This ought not to be. If any of us are inclined, thus, to judge and condemn, it is time that we put this mischievous spirit far from us. If we judge others, others will judge us. Two can always play at that evil game!
I remember a company of terribly despondent Believers who were, for years, a severe scourge to their happier Brethren. Having a deep sense of their inward corruptions, being sorely tempted of the devil and having only a weak and trembling faith, they tyrannized over others who were more happy than themselves. They judged that those who were not as much tempted as themselves did not exhibit the spot of God’s children. None were more bitter than these humble people in denouncing those who had not been as much humbled as themselves. Those who did not sit in the dust and groan to the same tunes as themselves, they judged to be very dubious Christians—and took care to scald them with that kind of hot pity which is not much different from contempt! This was as wrong as wrong can be. It is not to be endured that the sick should make themselves the standard of health; that dwarfs should set up to be the models of manhood! These worthy people set up a standard marked in very black ink and those who did not come up to so much grief and so much unbelief, they set aside as very questionable members of the Divine family.