Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 27:2

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 27:2. Who hath taken away my judgment — Who has turned aside my cause, and has not permitted it to come to a hearing, where I might have justice done to me, but has abandoned me to the harsh and uncharitable judgment of my enemies? There appears to be a great want of reverence in these words of Job; he speaks with a degree of irritation, if not bitterness, which cannot be justified. No man should speak thus of his Maker.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

27:1-31:40 JOB’S SUMMARY

The traditional teaching (27:1-23)

According to the established pattern of the debate, Zophar should speak next, but when he does not, Job proceeds to summarize his own position. He restates that, in spite of his suffering and bitterness, he is innocent of the great wrongdoing of which they accuse him, and he assures them that he intends to remain innocent (27:1-6).
Job knows as well as his friends do that the ungodly will, in the end, be punished and no final cry for mercy will save them. Moreover, the friends’ false accusations against Job put them in the class of the ungodly (7-10). They have been foolishly wasting their time in trying to teach Job the traditional doctrine concerning the punishment of the wicked. He knows all this so well that he could just as easily teach them (11-12). To prove his knowledge, Job quotes some of the traditional teaching for them to hear: the families of the wicked are wiped out (13-15), their wealth is plundered (16-17), their houses are destroyed (18-19), and their lives end in horror (20-23).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

JOB'S FINAL STATEMENT (Job 27-31):
JOB AGAIN SPEAKS OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

"And Job again took up his parable, and said, As God liveth who hath taken away my right, And the Almighty who hath vexed my soul (For my life is yet whole in me, And the Spirit of God is in my nostrils); Surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, Neither shall my tongue utter deceit. Far be it from me that I should justify you: Till I die, I will not put away mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. Let mine enemy be as the wicked, And let him that riseth up against me be as the unrighteous."

The next five chapters, beginning here, are Job's summary and restatement of all that he has been saying, As Dr. Hesser noted, "Bildad had just finished (Job 25); it was Zophar's time to speak. Job waited a moment for him to begin; but when it became clear that all of his friends had been silenced, Job `took up his parable,' that is, `his weighty discourse.'"R. B. Sweet Publishing Company, No. 216. p. 54.

"As God liveth who hath taken away my right,… who hath vexed my soul" (Job 27:2). Such words as these must be understood, not as any peevish criticism of God, but as the acknowledgment that, in the ancient sense, God does all that he allows. Men are not blaming God, when speaking of some terrible calamity, they say, "The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Job's oath that he is speaking the truth is found in the words, "as God liveth"; and his thus swearing by the living God is an eloquent testimony that Job does not attach any moral blame to God for what has happened to him, however impossible he finds it to understand. Heavenor called this, "The most extraordinary form of oath in the Scriptures."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 435. He is swearing by the very God who has permitted all of his misfortunes. We cannot agree with Hesser that, "Job was making a mistake"R. B. Sweet Publishing Company, op. cit., p. 54. in these words.

"The Spirit of God is in my nostrils" (Job 27:3). This is a declaration that Job is speaking by the Spirit of God; and this whole paragraph is an emphatic affirmation by Job of his integrity, of his keeping it till death, and that what he says is the truth. Blair agreed with this. "It suggests that he spoke with the authority of God."Blair, p. 225.

Andersen's summary of this opening paragraph is that, "Job had already said that his friends' allegations were nothing but falsehoods (Job 21:34), and he had challenged them to prove him a liar (Job 24:25). Both of these thoughts come together here in this paragraph."Footnote is not available

"All of the challenges of his friends have only served to crystallize and clarify Job's thoughts; and what he now says exhibits calm assurance and absolute certainty."Layman's Bible Commentary, Vol. 8, p. 116.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

As God liveth - A form of solemn adjuration, or an oath by the living God. “As certainly as God lives.” It is the form by which God himself often swears; see Ezekiel 14:16; Ezekiel 33:11, and is often employed by others; 1Sa 20:3; 1 Samuel 25:26.

Who hath taken away my judgment - Who hath rejected my cause, or who has refused me justice; that is, who has treated me as though I was guilty, and withholds from me relief. The language is forensic, and the idea is, that he would make his solemn appeal to him, even though he had rejected his cause. Perhaps there is implied here more than the solemnity of an ordinary oath. A man might be supposed to be willing to make his appeal to one who had shown himself friendly or favorable to him, but he would manifest more reluctance to making his appeal in an important case to a judge who had decided against him, especially if that decision was regarded as severe, and if that judge had refused to hear what he had to say in self-defense. But Job here says, that such was his confidence in his own sincerity and truth, that he could make his appeal to God, even though he knew that he had hitherto gone against him, and treated him as if he were guilty.

Who hath vexed my soul - Margin, as in Hebrew “made my soul bitter.” That is, who has greatly afflicted me; compare 2 Kings 4:27, margin, and Ruth 1:20.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 27

Job continued his answer and he said, As God lives, who has taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who has vexed my soul; All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, I'll not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live ( Job 27:1-6 ).

Job has now just had it with these guys. He said, "Look, I don't care what you say. As long as there is a breath in my mouth I am going to maintain my own integrity. My lips are not going to utter deceit. I'm not going to say I'm a sinner just to please you. God forbid that I should justify your speeches, the things that you are saying. 'Til I die I will not deny or remove my integrity from me. For my righteousness I hold fast. I'll not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live."

Now this is Job's response to his friends. Next week you'll see Job's response to God; quite different. Which shows to me an interesting thing. I think that it is a mistake for us to try to bring our friends under conviction. I think that oftentimes we are in the position of trying to make a person feel guilty. "Aren't you sorry for what you've done? That's horrible!" You know. And what is the response to that? It is the justifying of myself. I don't want you laying some guilt trip on me, you hypocrite. You've done just as bad. You see, and I'm going to justify myself. I'm not going to let others lay guilt trips on me. I don't like that; I resent that. And here these guys are trying to make Job guilty. "Oh, you know, you've done all these horrible things." He says, "Hey, I'm not going to justify you. I hold fast mine integrity. My righteousness, I maintain it."

But when God began to speak, it was a different story. Which tells me that rather than trying to make people feel guilty for what they have done, or what they are doing, it would be better that we just ask God to reveal Himself to them. And the conscious affect of God's revelation is always that of the revelation of myself to me. When I see me in God's light, then I cry, "Woe is me, for I am a sinful man." I see, then, my own wickedness. And Job, when God revealed Himself, then Job cried out for forgiveness. Different story.

So we need to take a lesson from this. Rather than building resentment by trying to make people feel guilty for what they have done, best that we just pray and ask God to bring the conviction of His Spirit upon their hearts. "God, reveal Yourself, Your righteousness to them that they might see themselves in Your light." And that will bring about a dramatic change of attitude. Whereas all of my endeavors will only create resentment and only cause the person to become more solidified in his position, maintaining his innocence, and so forth.

So Job's friends were totally unsuccessful in all of their arguments.

Let my enemy be as the wicked, and he that rises up against me as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained, when God takes away his soul? ( Job 27:7-8 )

Good question. "What is the hope of the wicked man, though he has gained the whole world, when God takes away his own soul?" Jesus said, "What should it profit a man if he gained the whole world and loses his own soul?" ( Matthew 16:26 ) Basically, that's what Job said. Jesus was sort of reiterating what Job had said, just putting it in different terms. What reward is there to the hypocrite if he gains everything, when God takes away his soul? What's left then?

Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God? I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are you altogether vain? ( Job 27:9-12 )

You've seen these things. You know they're true. How come you're so empty?

This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: if the offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep. Though he heap up silver as dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver ( Job 27:13-17 ).

In other words, he's never going to be able to enjoy it. You may lay up for yourself great wealth, but who's going to spend it? When you die, whose is it going to be? You're not going to take it with you. Now Job sees the place of the wicked and the place of the hypocrite. They are more or less accusing Job, "Hey, you know, you're saying that the hypocrite and the wicked have it great." Job says, "No, you misunderstand me. You know as well as I know that their day is coming. I'm not saying that that's the way to live. I know what the end of that kind of a life is. I'm not advocating that lifestyle, because they're going to get cut off. They're going to lose it all. They're going to get wiped out. He may prepare it, but someone else is going to put it on. The innocent will divide the silver."

He builds his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper makes. The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he opens his eyes, and he is not. Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest steals him away in the night. And the east wind carries him away, and he departs: as a storm hurls him out of his place. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand. Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place ( Job 27:18-23 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Job’s denial of his friends’ wisdom ch. 27

Since Job 27:1 begins, "Then Job continued . . .," Job may have paused and waited for Zophar to respond. However, we have no third speech by him in the text. Evidently Job proceeded to elaborate further on Bildad’s "wisdom" but broadened his perspective and addressed all three friends. "You" in Job 27:5; Job 27:11-12 is plural in the Hebrew text.

Job began by affirming his innocence (Job 27:1-6). For the first time he took an oath that his words were true. "As God lives" means that what he was saying was as certain as God’s existence. Job wished that his enemies would suffer the fate of the wicked (Job 27:7-23). In so saying, Job was claiming that he was on the side of the righteous, and all who were against him were wicked. Rowley regarded this section as Zophar’s third speech. [Note: Rowley, p. 175.]

"Imprecatory rhetoric is difficult for Westerners to understand. But in the Semitic world it is still an honorable rhetorical device. The imprecation had a juridical function and was frequently a hyperbolic (cf. Psalms 109:6-15; Psalms 139 [sic 137]:7-9) means of dealing with false accusations and oppression. Legally the false accusation and the very crimes committed are called down on the perpetrator’s head. Since his counselors had falsely accused Job of being wicked, they deserved to be punished like the wicked." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 971.]

Again Job called upon God. His friends never did, as far as the text records.

Some writers have regarded Job 27:13-23 as Zophar’s third speech. [Note: E.g., H. L. Ellison, A Study of Job, p. 88.] Still, this section is consistent with Job’s argument in the immediate context (Job 27:7-10) and previously (Job 24:18-25).

"In the following strophe Job now begins as Zophar (ch. xx. 29) concluded. He gives back to the friends the doctrine they have fully imparted to him. They have held the lot of the evil-doer before him as a mirror, that he may behold himself in it and be astounded; he holds it before them, that they may perceive how not only his bearing under suffering, but also the form of his affliction, is of a totally different kind." [Note: Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job , 2:72.]

Job asserted that the wicked would experience punishment eventually. Though he believed God was not being just with him, he could not escape the conviction that God must deal justly. It was this antinomy that made Job so uncomfortably anxious to obtain a reply from God. He agreed with his companions that God punishes the wicked. This is what normally happens in life (Job 27:13-23). Nonetheless he disagreed that this is always true in every case.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

[As] God liveth,.... Which is an oath, as Jarchi observes, and is a form of one frequently used, see 2 Samuel 2:27; and is used by God himself, who, because he can swear by no greater, swears by himself, and by his life, which ever continues, as in Ezekiel 18:3; and many other places; and so the Angel of the Lord, even the uncreated Angel,

Daniel 12:7; and so should men, when they swear at all, it should be in this manner, see Jeremiah 4:2; though this ought not to be but in cases of moment and importance, for the confirmation of the truth, and to put an end to strife, when it cannot be done any other way than by an appeal to God; as was the present case with Job, it being about hypocrisy, and want of integrity his friends charged him with; and such a case can only be determined truly and fully by God, who is here described as the living God, by whom men swear, in opposition to the idols of the Gentiles, which are of gold, silver, wood, and stone, and without life and breath, or to their deified heroes, who were dead men; but the true God is the living God, has life in and of himself, and is the fountain of life to others, the author and giver of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal, and who himself lives for ever and ever; and as such is the object of faith and confidence, of fear and reverence, of love and affection; all which swearing by him supposes and implies; it is a saying of R. Joshuah, as Jarchi on the place relates it,

"that Job from love served God, for no man swears by the life of a king but who loves the king;''

the object swore by is further described,

[who] hath taken away my judgment; not the judgment of his mind, or his sense of judging things, which remained with him quick and strong, notwithstanding his afflictions; nor correction with judgment, which continued with him; but, as the Targum paraphrases it,

"he hath taken away the rule of my judgment;''

that is, among men, his substance, wealth, and riches, his former affluence and prosperity, which while he enjoyed, he was reckoned a good man; but now all this being taken away by the hand of God as it was, he was censured as a wicked man, and even by his friends; or rather it is a complaint, that God had neglected the judgment of him, like that of the church in Isaiah 40:27; that he did not stir up himself to his judgment, even to his cause; did not vindicate him, though he appealed to him; did not admit him to his judgment seat, nor give his cause a hearing, and decide it, though he had most earnestly desired it; nor did he let him know the reason of his thus dealing and contending with him; yea, he afflicted him severely, though righteous and innocent, in which Job obliquely reflects upon the dealings of God with him; though he does not charge him with injustice, or break out into blasphemy of him; yet this seems to be one of those speeches which God disapproved of, and is taken notice of by Elihu with a censure,

Job 34:5;

and the Almighty, [who] hath vexed my soul; with whom nothing is impossible, and who could easily have relieved him from his distresses; and who was "Shaddai", the all-sufficient Being, who could have supplied him with all things temporal and spiritual he wanted; yet instead of this "vexed [his] soul" with adversity, with afflictions very grievous to him, his hand touching and pressing him sore: or, "hath made my soul bitter" b; dealt bitterly with him, as the Almighty did with Naomi, Ruth 1:20. Afflictions are bitter things, they are like the waters of Marah, they are wormwood and gall, they cause bitter distress and sorrow, and make a man go and speak in the bitterness of his soul; and these are of God, to whom job ascribes his, and not to chance and fortune; they were bitter things God appointed for him and wrote against him.

b המר נפשי "affecit amaritudine animam meam", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Michaelis; so Sept.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,   2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;   3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;   4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.   5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.   6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

      Job's discourse here is called a parable (mashal), the title of Solomon's proverbs, because it was grave and weighty, and very instructive, and he spoke as one having authority. It comes from a word that signifies to rule, or have dominion; and some think it intimates that Job now triumphed over his opponents, and spoke as one that had baffled them. We say of an excellent preacher that he knows how dominari in concionibus--to command his hearers. Job did so here. A long strife there had been between Job and his friends; they seemed disposed to have the matter compromised; and therefore, since an oath for confirmation is an end of strife (Hebrews 6:16), Job here backs all he had said in maintenance of his own integrity with a solemn oath, to silence contradiction, and take the blame entirely upon himself if he prevaricated. Observe,

      I. The form of his oath (Job 27:2; Job 27:2): As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment. Here, 1. He speaks highly of God, in calling him the living God (which means everliving, the eternal God, that has life in himself) and in appealing to him as the sole and sovereign Judge. We can swear by no greater, and it is an affront to him to swear by any other. 2. Yet he speaks hardly of him, and unbecomingly, in saying that he had taken away his judgment (that is, refused to do him justice in this controversy and to appear in defence of him), and that by continuing his troubles, on which his friends grounded their censures of him, he had taken from him the opportunity he hoped ere now to have of clearing himself. Elihu reproved him for this word (Job 34:5; Job 34:5); for God is righteous in all his ways, and takes away no man's judgment. But see how apt we are to despair of favour if it be not shown us immediately, so poor-spirited are we and so soon weary of waiting God's time. He also charges it upon God that he had vexed his soul, had not only not appeared for him, but had appeared against him, and, by laying such grievous afflictions upon him had quite embittered his life to him and all the comforts of it. We, by our impatience, vex our own souls and then complain of God that he has vexed them. Yet see Job's confidence in the goodness both of his cause and of his God, that though God seemed to be angry with him, and to act against him for the present, yet he could cheerfully commit his cause to him.

      II. The matter of his oath, Job 27:3; Job 27:4. 1. That he would not speak wickedness, nor utter deceit--that, in general, he would never allow himself in the way of lying, that, as in this debate he had all along spoken as he thought, so he would never wrong his conscience by speaking otherwise; he would never maintain any doctrine, nor assert any matter of fact, but what he believed to be true; nor would he deny the truth, how much soever it might make against him: and, whereas his friends charged him with being a hypocrite, he was ready to answer, upon oath, to all their interrogatories, if called to do so. On the one hand he would not, for all the world, deny the charge if he knew himself guilty, but would declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and take to himself the shame of his hypocrisy. On the other hand, since he was conscious to himself of his integrity, and that he was not such a man as his friends represented him, he would never betray his integrity, nor charge himself with that which he was innocent of. He would not be brought, no, not by the rack of their unjust censures, falsely to accuse himself. If we must not bear false witness against our neighbour, then not against ourselves. 2. That he would adhere to this resolution as long as he lived (Job 27:3; Job 27:3): All the while my breath is in me. Our resolutions against sin should be thus constant, resolutions for life. In things doubtful and indifferent, it is not safe to be thus peremptory. We know not what reason we may see to change our mind: God may reveal to us that which we now are not aware of. But in so plain a thing as this we cannot be too positive that we will never speak wickedness. Something of a reason for his resolution is here implied--that our breath will not be always in us. We must shortly breathe our last, and therefore, while our breath is in us, we must never breathe wickedness and deceit, nor allow ourselves to say or do any thing which will make against us when our breath shall depart. The breath in us is called the spirit of God, because he breathed it into us; and this is another reason why we must not speak wickedness. It is God that gives us life and breath, and therefore, while we have breath, we must praise him.

      III. The explication of his oath (Job 27:5; Job 27:6): "God forbid that I should justify you in your uncharitable censures of me, by owning myself a hypocrite: no, until I die I will not remove my integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go." 1. He would always be an honest man, would hold fast his integrity, and not curse God, as Satan, by his wife, urged him to do, Job 2:9; Job 2:9. Job here thinks of dying, and of getting ready for death, and therefore resolves never to part with his religion, though he had lost all he had in the world. Note, The best preparative for death is perseverance to death in our integrity. "Until I die," that is, "though I die by this affliction, I will not thereby be put out of conceit with my God and my religion. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." 2. He would always stand to it that he was an honest man; he would not remove, he would not part with, the conscience, and comfort, and credit of his integrity; he was resolved to defend it to the last. "God knows, and my own heart knows, that I always meant well, and did not allow myself in the omission of any known duty or the commission of any known sin. This is my rejoicing, and no man shall rob me of it; I will never lie against my right." It has often been the lot of upright men to be censured and condemned as hypocrites; but it well becomes them to bear up boldly against such censures, and not to be discouraged by them nor think the worse of themselves for them; as the apostle (Hebrews 13:18): We have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.

      Job complained much of the reproaches of his friends; but (says he) my heart shall not reproach me, that is, "I will never give my heart cause to reproach me, but will keep a conscience void of offence; and, while I do so, I will not give my heart leave to reproach me." Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. To resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us when we give them cause to do so is to affront God, whose deputy conscience is, and to wrong ourselves; for it is a good thing, when a man has sinned, to have a heart within him to smite him for it, 2 Samuel 24:10. But to resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us while we still hold fast our integrity is to baffle the designs of the evil spirit (who tempts good Christians to question their adoption, If thou be the Son of God) and to concur with the operations of the good Spirit, who witnesses to their adoption.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

A Vexed Soul Comforted

January 21 st 1883 by

C. H. SPURGEON

(1834-1892)

“The Almighty hath vexed my soul.” Job 27:2 .

The word “who” was put into this verse by the translators, but it is not wanted; it is better as I have read it to you, “The Almighty hath vexed my soul.” The marginal reading is perhaps a more exact translation of the original: “The Almighty hath embittered my soul.” From this we learn that a good man may have his soul vexed; he may not be able to preserve the serenity of his mind. We think, and think rightly, that a Christian man should “glory in tribulations also,” and rise superior to all outward afflictions; but it is not always so with us. There is a needs-be, sometimes, that we should be “in heaviness through manifold temptations.” Not only are the temptations needed for the trial of our faith, but it is even necessary that we should be in heaviness through them. I hardly imagine that the most quiet and restful believers have always been Unruffled; I can scarcely’ think that even those whose peace is like a river have always been made to flow on with calm and equable current. Even to rivers there are rapids and cataracts, and so, methinks, in the most smoothly-flowing life, there surely must be breaks of distraction and of distress. At any rate, it was so with Job. His afflictions, aggravated by the accusations of his so-called friends, at last made the iron enter into his very soul, and his spirit was so troubled that he cried, “The Almighty hath embittered my soul.”

It is also clear, from our text, that a good man may trace the vexation of his soul distinctly to God. It was not merely that Job’s former troubles had come from God, for he had borne up under them; when all he had was gone, he had still blessed the name of the Lord with holy serenity. But God had permitted these three eminent and distinguished men, mighty in speech, to come about him, to rub salt into his wounds, and so to increase his agony. At first, too, Sod did not seem to help him in the debate, although afterwards he answered all the accusations of Job’s friends, and put them to the rout; yet, for a time, Job had to stand like a solitary champion against all three of them, and against young Elihu, too; so he looked up to heaven, and he said, “’The Almighty hath embittered my soul.’ There is an end of the controversy; I can see whence all my trouble comes.”

Advancing a step further, we notice that, in all this, Job did not rebel against God, or speak a word against him. He swore by that very God who had vexed his soul. See how it stands here: “As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment, and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul.” He stood fast to it that this God was the true God, he called him good, he believed him to be almighty; it never occurred, to Job to bring a railing accusation against God, or to start aside from his allegiance to him. He is a truly brave man who can say with Job, “’Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.’ Let God deal with me as he will, yet he is good, and I will praise his name. What if he has vexed my soul? He hath a right to vex me, so I will not kick against the pricks. Let him grieve me, let him put gall and wormwood into my cup if so it shall please him; but still will I magnify his name, for he is good, and only good.” Here is the strength of the saints, here is the glory which God getteth out of true believers, that they cannot and will not be soured against their God.

Now go another step, and notice that this embittering of Job’s soul was intended for his good. The patriarch was to have his wealth doubled, and he therefore needed double grace that he might be able to bear the burden. He was also to be a far holier man than he had been at the first; perfect and upright as he seemed to be, he was to rise a stage higher. If his character had been deficient in anything, perhaps it was deficient in humility. Truly, Job was no proud man, he was generous, and kind, and meek; but, possibly, he had a little too high a notion of his own character, so even that must be taken away from him. Other graces must be added to those he already possessed; he must have a tenderness of spirit which appears to have been lacking; he must become as gentle as a maid. As he had been firm as a man of war; and, consequently, this bitterness of soul was meant to help him towards perfection of character. When that end was accomplished, all the bitterness was turned into sweetness. God- made the travail of his soul to be forgotten by reason of the joy that came of it. Job no longer thought of the dunghill, and the potsherd, and the lost sheep, and the consumed camels; he only thought of the goodness of God who had restored everything to him again, and given him back the dew of his youth, and the freshness of his spirit.

Child of God, are you vexed and embittered in soul? Then, bravely accept the trial as coming from your Father, and say, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Press on through the cloud which now lowers directly in your pathway; it may be with you as it was with the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, “they feared as they entered the cloud,” yet in theft cloud they saw their Master’s glory, and they found it good to be there. Fear not, have confidence in God; all your sorrows shall yet end in joy, and the thing which you deplore today shall be the subject of to-morrow’s sweetest songs. The Egyptians whom ye have seen today ye shall see no more for ever. Wherefore, be of good courage, and let your hearts be strengthened.

I am going to take the text right away from its connection; having explained it as it relates to Job, and those like to Job, I want to use it for the benefit of anyone else who can fitly use the expression, “The Almighty hath vexed my soul.” My sermon will be like an archer’s arrow; God knows where the heart is at which I am aiming. I draw the bow at a venture, the Lord will direct the bolt between the joints of the harness of the one it is intended to strike.

I. First, I shall speak upon A Personal Fact. Many a person has to say, “The Almighty hath embittered my soul.”

This happened to you, dear friend, perhaps, through a series of very remarkable troubles. Few persons were happier than Job, and few have found misfortunes tread so fast upon one another’s heels. What were the troubles in your case? It may be that one child was taken away, and then another, and yet a third; or, perhaps, your infant was carried to the grave, to be soon followed by its dear mother, and you are left to mourn alone. Bereavement has followed bereavement with you until your very soul is embittered. Or it may be that there is one ill at home, and you fear that precious life cannot be preserved; your cup seems full of trembling. Or, possibly, you have had a series of disasters in business such as you could not have foreseen or prevented. It seems, indeed, to you as if no man ever was so unsuccessful, you have not prospered in anything; wherever you have put your hand, it has been like the hoof of the Tartar’s horse which turns the meadow into a desert; nothing goes well with you. Perhaps you have desired to be a man of learning; you have worked very hard. and now your health is failing you, so that you cannot go through the examination for which you have been preparing. You ’would willingly die at your post if you had a hope of gaining the honor to which you aspire, but this is denied you; on the very doorstep of success, you are stopped; God seems to have embittered your life. Or you, of the tender heart, have been disappointed and rejected, and your love has been thrown away. Or you, of the energetic spirit, have been foiled and driven back a score of times, till you perceive that your attempts are fruitless. Or you, a man of true integrity, have been cruelly slandered, and you feel as if you could not bear up under the false charge that is in the air all around you. Ah, I know what that means! There are many like you, with whom the Almighty is dealing in all wisdom and goodness, as I shall have to show you.

It may be, however, that you have not had a succession of troubles, but you have had one trial constanty gnawing at your heart. It is only one, and that one you are half-ashamed to mention, for it seems so trifling when you try to tell it to another; but to you it is as when a wasp stings, and continues to sting, it irritates and worries you. You try patience, but you have not much of that virtue. You seek to escape from the trouble, but it is always boring into your very heart; it is only some one little thing, not the devil, only a messenger of Satan, one of his errand boys, one of the small fry of trouble. You cannot make out how you can be so foolish as to let it worry you, but it does. If you rise up early, or if you sit up late, it is still there tormenting you; you cannot get rid of it, and you cry, “The Almighty hath embittered my soul.” Time was when you would have laughed at such things, and put them aside with a wave of your hand; but now they follow you into business, they are with you at the desk, they come home with you, they go to bed with you, and they worry you even in your dreams.

Perhaps I have not yet hit the mark with you, my friend. It is neither a succession of troubles nor yet any one trouble; in fact, you haw) no trouble at all in the sense of which I have been speaking. Your business prospers, you are in fine health, your children are about you, everyone holds you in good esteem; yet your very soul is embittered. I hope that it has become saddened through a sense of sin. At one time you did not think that there was any fault to be found with you; but you have had a peep in the looking-glass of the Word, the Spirit of God holding the candle; you have had a glimpse of yourself, and your inner life, and your condition before God, and therefore your soul is vexed. Ah, many of us have gone through that experience; and, wretched as it is, we congratulate you upon it, we are glad that it is so with you!

Is it more than a sense of sin? Is it a sense of wrath as well? Does it strike you that God is angry with you, and has turned his hand against you, and does this seem to loosen the very joints of your bones? Ah, this is a dreadful state of heart indeed, to feel God’s hand day and night upon you, till your moisture is turned into the drought of summer! Yet again I congratulate you on it; for the pilgrim path to Heaven is by Weeping Cross, the road to joy and peace is by the way of a sense of sin and a sense of the Lord’s anger.

It may be that this is not exactly your case, but you are restless and weary. Somehow, you cannot be easy, you cannot be at peace. Someone recommended you to go to the play; but it seemed such a dull piece of stupidity, you came away worse than you went. Your doctor says that you must have a change of air. “Oh!” you cry, “I have had fifty changes of air, and I do not improve a bit.” You are weary even of that in which you once delighted. Your ordinary pursuits, which once satisfied you, now seem to be altogether stale, fiat, and unprofitable. The books that charmed your leisure have grown wearisome; the friends whose conversation once entranced you now seem to talk but idle chit-chat and frivolity.

Beside all that, there is an undefined dread upon you. You cannot tell exactly what it is like, but you almost fear to fall asleep, lest you should dream, and dreaming should begin to feel the wrath to come. When you wake in the morning, you are sorry to find that you are where you are, and you address yourself sadly to the day’s business, saying, “Well, I will go on with it, but I have no joy in it all. ’The Almighty hath embittered my soul.’“ This happens to hundreds, and they do not know what it means, they cannot understand it; but I hope that I may be privileged so to explain it that some may have to say that never did a better thing happen to them than when they fell into this state, that never in all their lives did they take so blessed a turning as when they came down this darksome lane, and began to murmur, “The Almighty hath embittered my soul.”

II. From this personal fact of which I have spoken, I want to Draw An Instructive, Argument, which has two edges.

The first is this. If the Almighty note that word, “Almighty” has vexed your soul as much as he has, how much more is he able to vex it! If he has embittered your life up to the present point, and he is indeed almighty, what more of bitterness may he not yet give you! You may go from being very low in spirit to being yet more heavy even unto despair. You may even come to be like Bunyan’s man in the iron cage, or like the demoniac wandering among the tombs. Remember what God has done in the case of some men, and if he can do that on earth, what can he not do in hell! If this world, which is the place of mercy, yet contains in it men so wretched that they would rather die than live, what must be the misery of those who linger in a state of eternal death, and yet from whom death for ever flies? O my God, when my soul was broken as between the two great millstones of thy justice and thy wrath, how my spirit was alarmed! But if thou couldst do this to me here, what couldst thou not have done to me hereafter if I had passed out of this world into the next with sin unforgiven? I want everyone who is in sore soul-trouble to think over this solemn truth, and consider what God can yet do with him.

Now turn the argument the other way. If it be the Almighty who has troubled us, surely he can also comfort us. He that is strong to sink is also strong to save. If he be almighty to embitter, he must also be almighty to sweeten. Draw, then, this comfortable conclusion, “I am not in such a state of misery that God cannot lift me right out of it into supreme joy.” It is congenial to God’s nature to make his creatures happy. He delights not in their sorrow; but if, when he does make them sorrowful, he can make life unendurable, if his anger can fill a man with terror so that he fears his own footfall, and starts at his own shadow, if God can do that on the one hand, what can he not do on the other? He can turn our mourning into music; he can take off from us the ashes and the sackcloth, and clothe us in beauty and delight. God can lift up thy head, poor mourner, sorrowing under sin and a fear of wrath. I tell thee, God can at once forgive thy sin, and turn away all his wrath, and give thee a sense of perfect pardon, and with it a sense of his undying love. Oh, yes, that word “Almighty” cuts both ways! It makes us tremble, and so it kills our pride; but it also makes us hope, and so it slays our despair. I put in that little piece of argument just by the way.

III. Now I come to my third point, which is more directly in my road; and that is this. Here is A Healthful Enquiry for everyone whose soul has been vexed by God.

The enquiry is, first, is not God just in vexing my soul? Listen. Some of you have long vexed him; you have grieved his Holy Spirit for years. Why, my dear man, God called you when you were but a boy! Or very gently he drew you while you were yet a young man; you almost yielded to the importunity of a dying friend who is now in heaven. Those were all gentle strokes, but you heeded them not, you would not return unto the Lord; and now, if he should see fit to lay his hand very heavily upon you, and vex you in his hot displeasure, have you not first vexed him, have you not ill-used him? If you would not come to him in the light, it is very gracious of him if he permits you to come in the dark. I do not wonder if he whips you to himself, seeing that you would not come when, like a father beckoning a little child, he smiled at you, and wooed you to him.

I might say to others, if God brings you to himself by a rough road, you must not wonder, for have not you many a time vexed your godly wife? When seeing friends who come to join the church, I am often struck with the way in which converts have to confess that, in former days, they made it very hard for their families. There are some men who cannot speak without an oath, and at the very name of Christ they begin to curse and to swear. They seem as if they hated their children for being good, and could not be too hard upon their wives because they try to be righteous in the sight of God. Well, if you vex God’s people, you must not be surprised if he vexes you. He will give you a hard time of it, it may be; and if it ends in your salvation, I shall not need to pity you however hard it may be for you. There is one thing more you may say to yourself, and that is, “It is much better to get to heaven by a rough road than to go singing down to hell.. O my God, tear me in pieces, but do save me! Let my conscience drive me to the very borders of despair, if thou wilt but give me the blood of Christ to quiet it. Only make sure work of my eternal salvation, and I will not mind what I have to suffer.” I shall bless God for you, dear friend, and you will bless God for yourself, too, if you be but brought to him, even though you have to say, “The Almighty hath vexed my soul.”

Another point of enquiry is this: What can be God’s design in vexing your soul? Surely he has a kind design in it all. God is never anything but good. Rest assured that he takes no delight in your miseries; it is no pleasure to him that you should sit, and sigh, and groan, and cry. I mean that such an experience in itself affords him no pleasure, but he has a design in it; what can that design be? May it not be, first, to make you think of him? You forgot him when the bread was plentiful upon the table, so he is going to try what a hungry belly will do for you when you would fain fill it with the husks that the swine do eat. You forgot him when everything went merry as a marriage peal; it may be that you will recollect him now that your children are dying, or your father is taken away; these trials are sent to remind you that there is a God. There are some men who go on, by the space of forty years together, and whether there be a God or not, is a question which they do not care to answer; at least, they live as if there were no God, they are practically atheists. This stroke has come that you may say, “Yes, there is a God, for I feel the rod that he holds in his hand. He is crushing me, he is grinding me to powder; I must think of him.”

It may be, too, that he is sending this trial to let you know that he thinks of you. “Ah!” you say, “I did not suppose that he thought of me; thought that surely he had forgotten such an one as I am.” But he does think of you, he has been thinking of you for many a day, and calling and inviting you to him, but you would neither listen nor obey; and now that he has come, he means to make you see that he loves you too well to let you be lost. You are having his blows right and left, to let you know that he thinks of you, and will not let you perish. When God does not care for a man, he flings the reins on to his neck, and says, “There! Let him go.” Now see how the horses tear away; you need not lash them, they will go as though they had wings, and could fly. Leave a man to himself, and his lusts drag him post haste to hell, he pants to destroy himself; but when God loves a man, he pulls him up, as you might pull your horse on to his haunches. He shall not do as he wills, the eternal God will not let him; in infinite mercy, he tugs at the rein, and makes the man feel that there is a mightier than he who will not let him ruin himself, But who will restrain him from rushing to his destruction. Am I speaking to any who are in this plight? Let them not kick against God, but rather be grateful that he condescends thus to meddle with their sinful souls, and check them in their mad career. I have spoken lately with some who were about to join this church, who, if friends had said, five or six months ago, that they would have been sitting on that chair talking to me about their souls, would have cursed them to their faces; yet they were obliged to come. The Lord had hold of them; they tried to break away, but he had them too firmly. They were served by my Lord and I, raster as a good fisherman will serve a salmon, if once it takes his bait; he lets it run for a while, and then pulls it up a bit, and then lets it go again; but he brings it to land at last; and I have had the pleasure of seeing many sinners thus safely caught by Christ. It may be, dear friend, that the Almighty is vexing you to let you see that he loves you.

May it not be also for another reason, that he may wean you entirely from the world? He is making you loathe it. “Oh!” you used to say, “I am a young man, and I must see life.” Well, you have seen it, have you not? And do you not think that it is wonderfully like death and corruption? That which is called “London life” is a foul, loathsome, crawling thing, fit only for the dunghill. Well, you have seen it, and you have had enough of it, have you not? Perhaps your very bones can tell what you gained by that kind of life. “Oh!” you said, “but I must try the intoxicating cup.” Well, what did you think of it the morning after you tried it? “Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contention? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.” I saw a man of that kind in the street, the other day. Once, he was a most respectable man, who could consort with others, and be esteemed by them. Now he is dreadfully down at the heel. I think I saw a too through each of his shoes, and he looked like the wretched being that he is. He shuffled from place to place as if he did not wish to be seen, and he did not lift himself up until he got into the gin palace to take another draught of hell-water; and then he seemed for a minute to be drawn straight again by that which made him crooked. You know the man; is he here to-night? Dear sir, have you not had sufficient strong drink? God has let you have enough of it that you may hate it from this hour, and flee away from it, never to desire to go back to it again.

I heard, at Boulogne, the story of a Frenchman who had been drinking heavily, and who threw himself into the harbor. Some sailors plunged in, and rescued him. The man was on the deck of a ship, and in a minute he broke away from his keepers, and jumped in again. It was not pleasant to be trying to save a madman again and again, yet they did get him out, and took him down below; but he rushed on deck, and jumped in a third time. A man there said,” You leave him to me.” So he jumped overboard, and seized hold of him, put his head under the water, and held him there; when he managed to get his head up again, his rescuer gave him another ducking, and then another, till he just about filled him up with water. He said to himself, “I will sicken him of it, so that he will never jump in here again.” He just diluted the eau-de-vie the man had taken, and then he dragged him on board ship, and there was no fear of his jumping overboard any more. And I believe that, sometimes, the Lord acts like that with men. He did so with me; he made sin to be exceedingly bitter to my soul, till I loathed it; and it has often given me a trembling even to think of those sins that then were pleasurable to me. It is a blessed thing to be plucked out of the water, and saved once for all, but a little of that sailor’s style of sousing the drunkard, a little of those terrors and alarms that some of us felt, is not lost; and when the Lord thus deals with sinners, it is with the design that they may never want to go back to those sins any more. They have had their full of them, and henceforth they will keep clear of them. It may be that the Almighty vexed some of you for this cause, that you might thenceforth hate sin with a perfect hatred.

Do you say, my friend, that I have not been describing you? You are still a gentleman, an excellent well-to-do man; you have done nothing wrong in the way of vice, but still you cannot rest. No; and God grant that you never may rest till you crone humbly to the Savior’s feet, confess your sin, and look to him alone for salvation! Then you shall rest with that deep “peace which passeth all understanding,” which shall “keep your heart and mind by Christ Jesus” forever and ever.

I think I hear someone say (and with that I will finish), “As the Almighty hath vexed my soul; what had I better do? I thought, sir, when I came in here that I was a castaway; but I see that I am the man you are looking after. I thought that I was too wretched to be saved, but now I perceive that it is to the wretched that you are preaching. It is for the mourning, the melancholy, and the desponding; what had I better do?” Do? Go home, and shut to your door, and have an hour alone with yourself and God. You can afford that; time; it is Sunday night, and you do not want the time for anything else. That hour alone with God may be the crisis of your whole life; do try it!

“And when I am alone with God, what had I better do?” Well, first, tell him all your grief. Then tell him all your sin, all you can remember. Hide nothing from him; lay it all, naked and bare, before him. Then ask him to blot it all out, once for all, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Tell him that you can never rest till you are at peace with him. Tell him that you accept his way of making peace, namely, by the blood of the cross. Tell him that you are willing to trust his dear Son for everything now, and to accept salvation freely as the gift of sovereign grace. If you do so, you will rise from your knees a happy man, and, what is more, a renewed man; I will stand bondsman for God about this matter. It there be this honest confession, this hearty. Prayer, and this simple acceptance of Christ as your Savior, the days of your mourning are ended, the daylight of your spirit shall be beginning, and I should not wonder if many of your present troubles come to an end; certainly, your heart-ache shall be ended, and ended at once. Oh, that you would accept my Savior! Sometimes, when I am thinking about my hearers and my work, I seem to take God’s part instead of yours, and to say, “O God, I have preached Christ to them; I have told them about thy dear Son, and how thy fatherly heart parted with him that he might die that men might live yet they do not care for him. They will not have thy Son: they will not accept the pardon that Jesus bought.” If the Lord were to say to me, “Then never go and say another word to them, they have so insulted me in refusing such a gift,” I have at times felt as if I would say, “Lord, that is quite right; I do not want to have anything more to do with them as they treat thee so shamefully.” But we have not reached that point yet, so once more I put it to you, have you not long enough delayed? Have you not long enough questioned? Have you not long enough turned away from the Savior? And now that the arrows of God are sticking in you, will you not ask him to draw them out? Will you not plead that the precious blood of Christ may be balm to heal your wounds? Oh, come to him! In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I beseech you, come! By amazing love and amazing pity, by wondrous grace that abounds over sin, come and Welcome! Jesus said, “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” Then, come unto him, and come now. Blessed Spirit, draw them; draw them now, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.