Job 1:22

In all this Job sinned not - He did not give way to any action, passion, or expression, offensive to his Maker. He did not charge God with acting unkindly towards him, but felt as perfectly satisfied with the privation which the hand of God had occasioned, as he was with the affluence and health which that hand had bestowed. This is the transaction that gave the strong and vivid colouring to the character of Job; in this, and in this alone, he was a pattern of patience and resignation. In this Satan was utterly disappointed; he found a man who loved his God more than his earthly portion. This was a rare case, even in the experience of the devil. He had seen multitudes who bartered their God for money, and their hopes of blessedness in the world to come for secular possessions in the present. He had been so often successful in this kind of temptation, that he made no doubt he should succeed again. He saw many who, when riches increased, set their hearts on them, and forgot God. He saw many also who, when deprived of earthly comforts, blasphemed their Maker. He therefore inferred that Job, in similar circumstances, would act like the others; he was disappointed. Reader, has he, by riches or poverty, succeeded with thee? Art thou pious when affluent, and patient and contented when in poverty?

That Job lived after the giving of the law, seems to me clear from many references to the rites and ceremonies instituted by Moses. In Job 1:5 , we are informed that he sanctified his children, and offered burnt-offerings daily to the morning for each of them. This was a general ordinance of the law, as we may see, Leviticus 9:7 ; : "Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin-offering and thy burnt-offering, and make an atonement for thyself and for the people." Leviticus 9:22 ; : "And Aaron lifted up his hands towards the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering the burnt-offering."

This sort of offering, we are told above, Job offered continually; and this also was according to the law, Exodus 29:42 ; : "This shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations." See also Numbers 28:3 , Numbers 28:6 , Numbers 28:10 , Numbers 28:15 , Numbers 28:24 , Numbers 28:31 .

This custom was observed after the captivity, Ezra 3:5 ; : "They offered the continual burnt-offering: and of every one that offered a freewill-offering." See also Nehemiah 10:33 . Ezekiel, who prophesied during the captivity, enjoins this positively, Ezekiel 46:13-15 ; : "Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt-offering unto the Lord; thou shalt prepare it every morning."

Job appears to have thought that his children might have sinned through ignorance, or sinned privately; and it was consequently necessary to make the due sacrifices to God in order to prevent his wrath and their punishment; he therefore offered the burnt-offering, which was prescribed by the law in cases of sins committed through ignorance. See the ordinances Leviticus 4:1-35; Leviticus 5:15-19 , and particularly Numbers 15:24-29 . I think it may be fairly presumed that the offerings which Job made for his children were in reference to these laws.

The worship of the sun, moon, and stars, as being the most prevalent and most seductive idolatry, was very expressly forbidden by the law, Deuteronomy 4:19 ; : "Take heed, lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven; and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them." Job purges himself from this species of idolatry, Job 31:26-28 ; : "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above."

He clears himself also from adultery in reference to the law enacted against that sin, Job 31:9-12 ; : "If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor's door; then let my wife grind to another: for this is a heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges." See the law against this sin, Exodus 20:14 , Exodus 20:17 ; : "Thou shalt not commit adultery: thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." Leviticus 20:10 ; : "The man that committeth adultery with another man's wife shall surely be put to death;" see Deuteronomy 22:22 . And for the judge's office in such cases, see Deuteronomy 17:9-12 ; : "Thou shalt come unto the priests and Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment." 1 Samuel 2:25 ; : "If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him."

The following will, I think, be considered an evident allusion to the passage of the Red Sea, and the destruction of the proud Egyptian king: Job 26:11 , Job 26:12 ; : "The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power; and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud." These, with several others that might be adduced, are presumptive proofs that the writer of this book lived after the giving and establishment of the law, if not much later, let Job himself live when he might. See other proofs in the notes.