A STUDY FROM THE BOOK OF JOB JOB 11:13-14 11:13 - “If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;” Zophar, as the other two, here encourages Job to hope for better times if he would but come to a better temper. He gives him good counsel - 11:13,14, as Eliphaz did - 5:8, and Bildad - 8:5. He would have him repent and return to God. Observe the steps of that return. He must look within, and get his mind changed and the tree made good. He must prepare his heart; there the work of conversion and reformation must begin. The heart that wandered from God must be reduced - that was defiled with sin and put into disorder must be cleansed and put in order again - that was wavering and unfixed must be settled and established; so the word here signifies. The heart is then prepared to seek God when it is determined and fully resolved to make a business of it and to go through with it. He must look up, and stretch out his hands towards God, that is, must stir up himself to take hold on God, must pray to him with earnestness and importunity, striving in prayer, and with expectation to receive mercy and grace from him. To give the hand to the Lord signifies to yield ourselves to him and to covenant with him - II Chron. 30:8. This Job must do, and, for the doing of it, must prepare his heart. Job had prayed, but Zophar would have him to pray in a better manner, not as an appellant, but as a petitioner and humble suppliant. 11:14 - “If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.” He must amend what was amiss in his own conversation, else his prayers would be ineffectual - 11:14: “If iniquity be in thy hand (that is, if there be any sin which thou dost yet live in the practice of) put it far away, forsake it with detestation and a holy indignation, steadfastly resolving not to return to it, nor ever to have any thing more to do with it. Eze. 18:31; Hosea 1`4:9; Isa. 30:22. If any of the gains of iniquity, any goods gotten by fraud or oppression, be in thy hand, make restitution thereof” (as Zacchaeus - Luke 19:8), “and shake thy hands from holding them” - Isa. 33:15. The guilt of sin is not removed if the gain of sin be not restored. He must do his utmost to reform his family too: “Let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles; let not thy house harbor or shelter any wicked persons, any wicked practices, or any wealth gotten by wickedness.” He suspected that Jobs great household had been ill-governed, and that, where there were many, there were many wicked, and the ruin of his family was the punishment of the wickedness of it; and therefore, if he expected God should return to him, he must reform what was amiss there, and, though wickedness might come into his tabernacles, he must not suffer it to dwell there - Psa. 101:3.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:38:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015