Job 27:10

Will he delight himself in the Almighty?.... That is, the hypocrite; no, he will not; he may seem to delight in, him, but he does not truly and sincerely; not in him as the Almighty, or in his

Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God? Alluding to Job 22:26. Always call - he may do so in times of prosperity, in order to be thought religious.

Will he be able to delight and satisfy himself with God alone, and with his love and favour, when he hath no other matter of delight? This I now do, and this a hypocrite cannot do, because his heart is chiefly set upon the world; and when that fails him, his heart sinks, and the thoughts of God are unsavoury and troublesome to him. He may by his afflictions be driven to prayer: but if God doth not speedily answer him, he falls into despair, and neglect of God and of prayer; whereas I constantly continue in prayer, notwithstanding the grievousness and the long continuance of my calamities.

Job 27:10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?Ver. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty?] viz. When trouble cometh upon him, as in the former verse. No, this is Christianorum propria virtus, a practice that none can skill of but God’ s people, saith Jerome, to rejoice in tribulation, and then to continue instant in prayer, Romans 12:12, for deliverance, with some confidence grounded upon former experience. Crux enim iis inuncta est, saith Bernard. Together with the cross, they have an unction from the Father; anointed they are with that oil of gladness, the Spirit of glory and of God, which resteth upon them, 1 Peter 2:14, and refresheth them amidst all their sorrows and sufferings; and hence their delight in the Almighty, yea, though he frown and lay upon them, as he did upon Job, with his own bare hand. Not so the hypocrite; for what reason? he hateth God in his heart, as doth every evildoer, John 3:20. Est enim talium poena Deus, utpote qui lux est: et quid talibus tam invisum? (Bernard.) God is light, and therefore hated as a punishment to such inauspicate night birds. He is holiness, but the hypocrite filthiness, as his name also importeth. How then can he delight himself in the Almighty? What complacence can there be, where is such an utter contrariety? They that love the Lord hate evil, Psalms 31:23, but so doth not any hypocrite; leave it he may, but not loathe it. Part with it he may (as Jacob did with Benjamin, lest otherwise he should starve; or as Phaltiel with Michal, lest he should lose his head), but his heart is glued to it still; he hath a month’ s mind to be doing, if he dare. Finally, he is without faith, and therefore without joy and peace of conscience. And as for his spider web of hope, a little wind bloweth it down. The world hath his heart, and so the love of the Father cannot be in him, 1 John 2:15. He leaneth upon the Lord, and saith, Is not the Lord among us? Micah 3:11, yet is he rooted in the delights of life. Like as the apricot tree leaneth against the wall, but is fast rooted in the earth. Will he always call upon God?] Heb. In every time? No, nor scarce at any time. Indeed, as beggars have learned to cant, so have some hypocrites to pray; Isaiah 26:16, "They have poured forth a charm when thy chastening was upon them." "When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired after God," Psalms 78:34. But this was only a prayer of the flesh for ease, and not of the Spirit for grace. They spoke God fair (as the devil did Christ) only to be rid of him. Thus Pharaoh, when on the rack, roared out a confession, and called for a prayer. Joab, in danger of death, hangs on the horns of the altar.

(10) Will he delight himself?—It is only the godly who can say, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison with Thee;” and again, “I will praise Thy name, because it is so comfortable;” but this man hath no promise that he can plead, and therefore no assurance of access at all times to the presence of God.

10. will he delight himself?] Or, doth he delight himself? The wicked man has no consolation, no resource, in the manifold conditions of life when men need higher help than their own; he has no pleasure in God nor fellowship with Him, and cannot appeal to Him. It is manifest that in these verses the speaker means to contrast his own condition of mind with that of the godless man. He has hope in God, in death and in trouble, for he delighteth himself in God at all times. Such words as those in Job 27:8; Job 27:10, are not out of place in the mouth of Job, comp. ch. Job 16:19 seq., Job 19:25 seq., Job 23:10 seq., Job 31:2-6. It is less easy, however, to combine what is implied in the words of Job 27:9, “Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?” with Job’s repeated complaints that God refused to hear him, e. g. ch. Job 13:24, Job 19:7, and many other passages. The only solution would be to consider that he had fought his way through to an assured trust in God, such as he had cherished during his past life (ch. Job 12:4 seq.), or rather, that such a trust here suddenly broke upon him and filled his mind, and enabled him to look now for release from his calamities and restoration—in a word to anticipate that issue of his afflictions which actually ensued. And such is the construction which some of the ablest commentators (e.g. Ewald) put upon the language. Such a change of view in regard to the issue of his afflictions implies a complete revolution in Job’s mind, for he had hitherto consistently and even pertinaciously (ch. Job 17:1-2; Job 17:10-16) contended that his malady was mortal, and continued to do this even so late as ch. Job 23:14, “For he will perform the thing appointed for me.” Such a revolution, however, may be conceived and admitted, provided Job’s subsequent utterances are in harmony with it. Unfortunately, however, they are not; for in ch. Job 30:20 he exclaims, “I cry unto thee and thou dost not hear me, I stand up and thou gazest at me”; and in Job 27:23 of the same chapter he says, “For I know that thou wilt bring me unto death” (i. e. through his present afflictions). Here he is found again occupying the same position in regard to his malady under the hand of God as he had consistently maintained throughout. It is very hard to reconcile such expressions with ch. Job 27:7-10, on the assumption that the last-named passage really belongs to Job.

Will he delight himself in the Almighty? - A truly pious man will delight himself in the Almighty. His supreme happiness will be found in God.

10. Delight himself — Same as in Job 22:26. If the ungodly have no such experience as his own, Job would have his friends infer that he must be righteous. Always — Hebrew, In all time.