The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1893-04-13
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
international Lesson for Aprn 10, 1904
Jobs Appeal to God--Job aB:l"10.


Jobs Appeal 30 God--Job aB:I.1N
GOLDEN TKxT-What l DO thou knowest not
now but thou shalt know hereafter.
REvrEw.-We should by review get clearly
before us the progress Of the poem up
to the close Of our last lesson. The good man
il suddenly assailed by terrible disasters and
af1iction Neither he nor his friends under.
stand the meaning. The problem IL too hard
for them Job knows he is innocent But his
friends declare that 10 say SO is TO olasphcme
God as an unjust Being, for o just God must re-
ward the righteous and punish the wicked. II,
therefore, he'punishes anyone, that fact proves
him to be wicked They do not see thaS there
may be other reasons for suffering
LESSON NOTES.
The Pyogress Of the Discussion. Each OF
Jobs three friends argues the case, and
to each of them Job replies in turn.
This is repeated three times, except that
in the last round of discussions Zophar
has nothing to say. The discussion
wakes warm as it proceeds. The friends
become excited and indignant at Jobs
refusal to confess his crimes. They ac-
cuse him again and again. They urge
him to confess and repent, promising
that God will restore His favor if Job
will only turn from his secret sins.
From their standpoint there is no possi-
BILE way of reconciling the suffering of
an innocent man with the justice and
goodness of God.
Value of Arguing. Arguing for the
sake of victory is of little value. 1t
generally confirms each party in its
own opinions, builds impenetrablc
walls around narrow and imperfect
views. The only hope is that some
s,-t,& och @1.<
But arguing for the sake of knowing
the whole truth, of seeing from every
point of view, of broadening knowl-
edge is of great value, and will be con-
Quoted without passion or bitter words.
Progress Of JOB TooGrd the Light.-At
first Job is absolutely overwhelmed
with his calamities, so unexpected, so
undeserved in comparison with those of
other people, and so terrible. This is
often the first effect of great sorrow,
of the setting of a great hope like the
sun in clouds and storm, before the
stars appear one by one with light FROM
Heaven. Silent sympathy and patient
waiting are all that can come at first
to one who longs to die because life
has nothing more for him (chaps. 8, 81.
Then follows state of bewilderment
because he cannot understand the JUS
tice and goodness of God. His friends
argue that everything in the world
comes by justice and desert; that pun
ishment has its sufficient cause in sin,
open or secret; and that thus in Gods
wrath we may read and measure mans
wickedness.
This means that Job is guilty beyond
most other men. But Job knows that
charge to be false. He is indignant,
but cannot understand.
So, in chapter 81, he declares more fully
that observation shows that those who
"Said unto God, Depart from u.s.
For we desire not the knowledge Of thy ways"
were yet prospered and preserved
from the common troubles of men.
The state of the world as to sin
and punishment is still vexed problem
to many. How can God suffer such in
justice to remain in His world? ''Why
does He not kill the devil?'' Why does
He not send His lightning to blast those
who are corrupting and destroying
men? Why are SO many good men un-
fortunate, and poor, and sick, and
lonely? Still, facing the problem" is
one step towards its solution, even
though we seem, in Carlyle's words, to
be shouting question after question
into the Sibyl-cave of destiny, and re-
ceivinR no answer but An echo" Only
those are hopeless who will not see and
feel.
Jobs next step was one of self as
sertion and of refusal to believe in such
God as his friends pictured 1t is the
godlike in Job, rising up in remon-
STRANGE against an apparently misgov-
erned world. He rebelled against a
fictitious Coda true Medusa's head,
the very look of which turned him to
stone-but carried his appeal to an
other God whom he was unable to de-
fine, but without whom he felt he could
not live.
Cleans Of Light from the True God.-
In Jobs earlier experience, when all
around him was Egyptian darkness
that could be felt" when he thought
" If wash myself with snow water,
And make my hands never SO clean;
Yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch
And my own clothes shall abhor me;"
then he larlented that
That might lay his hand upon us both"
-930-33
But later on (chap. 16) he seems as
sured that there is Daysman for him.
Even now behold, in Heaven is my Witness,
And mine Advocate is on high.
My friends are my scorners,
But unto God mine eye poureth tears,
That He would plead for man with God,
AS the son Of man for his neighbor."
A number of the writers on Job
speak as if Job lost his patience in this
discussion; that is, at the time when his
patience was most severely tried. But
it is these very expressions of deep
feeling which prove his patience. If he
had been r.arble statue OF being
''carved in ice," he would have shown
no strong feeling about his wongs, for
he would have had none. But it does
not require patience in such being to
keep from complaining. Job was fight
ing a terrible battle, but he held on till