07/01/2022 – Day 124 – Job – Chapters 35 & 36 / A very unusual event – I find myself taking issue with Matthew Henry’s commentary on this reading.
Within verses: 36 / Verses 5 14, Matthew Henry comments on pg 565 of his Bible commentary:
“Three things God intends when he afflicts us: — (1) To discover past sins to us. He shows them their work. Sin is our own work. (2) To dispose our hearts to receive present instructions; Then he opens their ear to discipline, v. 10. When God chastens he teaches (Psalms 94:12), and the affliction makes people willing to learn, softens the wax, that it may receive the impression of the seal; yet it does not do this of itself, but the grace of God working with and by it. (3) To deter and draw us off from iniquity for the future.
I think Matthew Henry is missing an important (4) So that we might glorify HIm through our suffering. Joni von Totta is an amazing warrior that has glorified Him in her life walk after being parlyzed from the neck down from a teenage diving accident. I would make the case that Job is a forerunner to Christ. No, his suffering is not salvific as Christ’s atonement was. But I would submit that God may have indeed “afflicted” Joni with that accident. I say that because if Matthew was still with us here in this world, he might explain the difference in that God did not afflict Joni.
Let’s look at Philippians 3:10: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and teh fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Or, how about an entire section, 1 Peter 4: 12 – 19, culminating in the last verse; ” So then , those who suffer according to God’s will, should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
And outside of this category of afflictions of God: 1) suffering from the sins of others; (2) random tragic events.
Matthew Henry seems to complement Elihu througout these two chapters, noting also to start the verses 15-23 section: “Elihu here comes more closely to Job; and …” If he is so close, why in the end does God commend his servant Job and chastise his three colleagues, including Elihu? Thoughts anyone?
Soli Deo Gloria!