Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 42:10

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 42:10. The Lord turned the captivity of Job — The Vulgate has: Dominus quoque conversus est ad poenitentiam Job; "And the LORD turned Job to repentance." The Chaldee: "The WORD of the Lord (מימרא דיי meymera dayai) turned the captivity of Job." There is a remark which these words suggest, which has been rarely, if at all, noticed. It is said that the Lord turned the captivity of Job WHEN HE PRAYED FOR HIS FRIENDS. He had suffered much through the unkindness of these friends; they had criticised his conduct without feeling or mercy; and he had just cause to be irritated against them: and that he had such a feeling towards them, several parts of his discourses sufficiently prove. God was now about to show Job his mercy; but mercy can be shown only to the merciful; Job must forgive his unfeeling friends, if he would be forgiven by the Lord; he directs him, therefore, to pray for them, Job 42:8. He who can pray for another cannot entertain enmity against him: Job did so, and when he prayed for his friends, God turned the captivity of Job. "Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven."

Some suppose that Job, being miraculously restored, armed his servants and remaining friends, and fell upon those who had spoiled him; and not only recovered his own property, but also spoiled the spoilers, and thus his substance became double what it was before. Of this I do not see any intimation in the sacred text.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

God exalts Job (42:7-17)

The three friends, in spite of the truths mixed in with their speeches, are now declared wrong. Job, in spite of his rash speech and irreverent protest, is now declared right. In accusing Job of great sin, the three friends had not spoken the truth, whereas Job, in claiming to be upright and not guilty of great sin, is now proved to be truthful. The friends’ theory that suffering is always the result of personal sin is proved wrong, whereas Job’s desire for a just God is satisfied. The friends had relied upon traditional theories, whereas Job had searched for the truth. The friends talked about God, whereas Job talked to God (7-8).
Job was not haughty in victory, nor were the friends bitter in defeat. In loving forgiveness, Job prayed for the friends, and in humble repentance the friends asked God’s forgiveness by offering the sacrifices he demanded of them (9).
Apparently Job still did not know (and possibly never knew) that the main reason for his sufferings was an accusation made against him by Satan (see 1:11; 2:5). Now that Satan had been proved wrong, it was only fair that Job’s former prosperity and family happiness should return. At the same time it might have shown to Job’s fellow citizens, in the only way they understood, that God was pleased with Job. The turning point in Job’s sufferings came when he prayed for his critics. His disease was healed, good health returned, children were born to replace those who had died, and his wealth grew to twice that of former days (10-17).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE TURNING OF JOB’S CAPTIVITY

“And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends: and Jehovah gave Job twice as much as he had before.”

The “turning of Job’s captivity,” is an idiomatic expression having nothing whatever to do with one’s having been in prison or in captivity. The RSV should be followed here. It reads: “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends.” Some have criticized the epilogue as “spoiling the whole book,” seeing in it nothing but a reaffirmation of the evil doctrine that everyone gets exactly what he deserves in this life. Does not Job wind up getting twice as much as he ever had before? Such a viewpoint misses the whole point of the Book of Job.

“And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job… and gave Job twice as much as he had before” Why did God do this? Let it be remembered that Satan had challenged Job’s integrity; and Job successfully withstood every test, proving that he served God for his own sake, not merely for the prosperity that resulted; and, after Job had turned back Satan’s evil charge, it would not have been right for God to have left Job in perpetual suffering and poverty. God increased Job’s wealth, not because Job was His loyal servant, but because he was wealthy when the test started. Furthermore the vast increase of Job’s riches is here said to have taken place, “When he prayed for his friends.”

As we have meditated upon the Book of Job, striving to unlock the mysteries that are undoubtedly in it, a thought has come to us again and again, although we have sought a similar view in vain among the authors and scholars we have consulted. That thought is simply this: Job’s life, although not perfect in the infinite sense, nevertheless established the principle that the mortal flesh of man was not in itself incompatible with the truth that a sinless life could indeed be lived in it. And that, in some unknown way, might have been a contribution to the Eternal Truth that The Man, even the Christ, did indeed live a sinless life in mortal flesh.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And the Load turned the captivity of Job - Restored him to his former prosperity. The language is taken from restoration to country and home after having been a captive in a foreign land. This language is often applied in the Scriptures to the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, and some writers have made use of it as an argument to show that Job lived “after” that event. But this conclusion is unwarranted. The language is so general that it might be taken from the return from “any” captivity, and is such as would naturally be employed in the early periods of the world to denote restoration from calamity. It was common in the earliest ages to convey captives in war to the land of the conqueror, and thus make a land desolate by the removal of its inhabitants; and it would be natural to use the language expressive of their return to denote a restoration from “any” great calamity to former privileges and comforts. Such is undoubtedly its meaning as applied to the case of Job. He was restored from his series of protracted trials to a state of prosperity.

When he prayed for his friends - Or after he had prayed for his friends. It is not implied of necessity that his praying for them had any particular effect in restoring his prosperity.

Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before - Margin, “added all that” had been to “Job unto the double.” The margin is a literal translation, but the meaning is the same. It is not to be understood that this occurred at once - for many of these blessings were bestowed gradually. Nor are we to understand it in every respect literally - for he had the same number of sons and daughters as before; but it is a general declaration, and was true in all essential respects.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 42

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that you can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld from thee ( Job 42:1-2 ).

Pretty important: "I know God can do everything." Secondly, "I know that you can't hide a single thought from God."

The Bible says concerning Jesus that He didn't need anyone to come and tell Him of other people because He knew man and He knew what was in man. You can't hide any thoughts from God. The Bible tells us that some day our very thoughts are to be judged, for God is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of a man's heart. We are going to be judged not so much by what we do but by what motivated us to do the things that we did. Now you may be doing many right things but with a wrong motivation. Jesus said, "Take heed to yourself that you do not your righteousness before men to be seen of men" ( Matthew 6:1 ) to be looked upon by men as righteous and holy, and therefore you're doing your deeds in order to get this accolade of man is wrong. God's going to judge the motivation. Our works are to be tried by fire and many of them will be burned like wood, hay and stubble. Those that remain will be rewarded for, but much of our works, done out of wrong motivation, will not endure the testing of fire. God is a searcher of the thoughts, the intents of a man's heart.

So Job says, "Lord, I know that I can't hide any thought from You."

Who is he that hides the counsel without knowledge? therefore I have uttered what I ( Job 42:3 )

Now Job is confessing.

I have uttered what I did not understand; things that were too wonderful for me, which I did not know ( Job 42:3 ).

I've been talking, Lord, out of my hat. I don't even know what I was talking about.

Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, declare thou unto me. For I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye seeth thee ( Job 42:4-5 ).

And so Job, the discovery of God. "God, I've heard of You. I've been talking about things that I've heard, but now I see. My eye seeth Thee." It's always a glorious day in our lives when God is moved from our heads to our hearts. From just a knowledge to an experience. "I've heard of Thee, God, with my ears. I've heard people talk about You. I've talked about You. But, God, I was talking about things I didn't really know, I didn't really understand, I didn't really see. I've heard about You with the hearing of my ears, but now I really see You." And what a difference it makes when our eyes are open and we actually begin to see God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God" ( Matthew 5:8 ). And how glorious when our eyes behold, when the spiritual eyes are opened and I really begin to have a real experience with God in my life. And the scriptures are suddenly opened up. A whole new dimension of spiritual life is open to me as I am born again by the Spirit and come into the spiritual dimension. No longer just hearing about God, but now actually seeing, comprehending God. And in the discovery of God there comes the resultant discovery of self.

Wherefore I abhor myself, I repent in dust and ashes ( Job 42:6 ).

Daniel spoke about when God gave to him this revelation when he saw the glory of God in this revelation, he said, "Then was my comeliness turned into ugliness within me" ( Daniel 10:8 ). When Peter saw Jesus, he said, "Depart from me. I am a sinful man" ( Luke 5:8 ). When Isaiah saw the Lord, he said, "Woe is me, I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst people of unclean lips" ( Isaiah 6:5 ). Seeing God gives you the greatest insight on yourself you've ever had. So many times a person is, "Oh, I'm pretty good. I'm, you know... " Once they see God, that's all it takes to bring a man down to his knees begging for mercy, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." When I can see me as God sees me, a sinful, hopeless wretch, no longer looking at myself, deceiving myself, justifying myself, but seeing me as God sees me. But that can't happen until I first see God. "Lord, I've heard of You, now I see You, now I see me. I abhor myself."

And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD turned to his friends, to Eliphaz the Temanite, and he said, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against your two friends: for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that which ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job ( Job 42:7-8 ).

Now, let me say that God doesn't like you going around saying false things about Him. He doesn't appreciate that at all. Or going around speaking for Him things that He has not said. Now there are many people who are guilty of spreading false concepts about God. God does not look kindly upon that at all. And He told Eliphaz, "You guys haven't been speaking right about Me. Now, you offer, and you ask Job to pray for you. I'm going to listen to him; I won't listen you because you have not spoken things that are true about Me. And so you'd better get Job to pray for you."

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: and the LORD also accepted Job. And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all of his brothers, and all of his sisters ( Job 42:9-11 ),

Where were they, I wonder, when he was in affliction?

and all of they that had been his acquaintance before, and they did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima ( Job 42:11-14 );

Which means "a dove."

and the name of the second was Kezia ( Job 42:14 );

Which is a sort of a spice.

and the name of the third was Kerenhappuch ( Job 42:14 ).

Which means "a horn of paint." Now I don't know why they would call a girl "a horn of paint."

And in all of the land there were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. And after this Job lived for a hundred and forty years ( Job 42:15-16 ),

Now if Job indeed was a contemporary to Abraham as is thought, 180 years is not unusual. Abraham lived to be 180 years old. This was actually just about two generations after the flood. And so longevity was still common in those days. And so after this experience, Job lived for another 140 years.

and he saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even to four generations. ( Job 42:16 )

So he had his great great grandkids all around him.

So Job died, being old and full of days ( Job 42:17 ).

The interesting story of Job. A story that deals with the problems of pain, the problems of suffering. Why do the righteous suffer? Why are the ungodly oftentimes prosperous? And yet, though it deals with the issues, it doesn't come up with any firm answers. Righteous people often suffer, and what we know is we don't know the reason. Good people often experience pain; we don't know the reason. Godly people sometimes die young; we don't know the reason. Righteous people are often sick; we don't know the reason. Sinners are many times prosperous; we don't know the reason. Now because we don't know the reasons, we should not draw false conclusions as Job did. "It doesn't pay to try to live right. It doesn't pay to try to be good, because you're going to get afflicted anyhow." Those were wrong conclusions that Job drew from his experiences.

What we need to realize is that this present suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is going to be revealed in us when Jesus comes for us. So if we do experience hardship or suffering or disappointment, you can't compare it with the glory that God is going to bestow upon us eternally. "For this present suffering, which is but for a moment, worketh an exceeding eternal weight of glory" ( 2 Corinthians 4:17 ). Now, it is important that we remember that as God deals with us He always has eternity in mind. I always have today and tomorrow in mind. And I am oftentimes concerned with my present comfort, with my present ease, with my present prosperity. God is interested in my eternal comfort, in my eternal prosperity and He's dealing with me over the eternal things, where I am so often only thinking in the time things. But when God is working in your life, He's always got eternity in mind, for He wants you to enjoy the blessings of His kingdom forever.

Now, there may be things right now that are stumbling you and could drag you into the pit. And so God, because He loves you and wants you to be with Him eternally, will oftentimes take away something that could deter you or turn your mind from Him or to deter you from the path that He wants you to walk. And it isn't that God doesn't love you, it isn't that God is angry with you, it isn't that God is actually punishing you. God is looking out for your welfare because He knows so much better than you know about your life and about the world around you and about your weaknesses, and God is trying to shield you and protect you.

I can remember when my boys were small. They were fascinated with my shaving. And I would lather up my face and say, "Ho, ho, ho." You know. And they used to love to watch me shave. And as I would change the blades in the razor, they tried to grab the blade and I slapped their hands. And I said, "No, you can't play with that." "Oh, we want to play with it, Daddy." "No, you can't." "Ohhhhhh, mean Daddy." No, I wasn't mean. I love them. I knew the dangers of their playing with the razorblade; they didn't. It looked like it would be fun to take that and cut things with it. That would be a lot of fun. What they didn't realize is that they would be cutting their fingers, their hands. I knew that. I restrained them.

I think that many times we're yelling at God and angry with God, "Oh, God, I wanted that. Oh, Lord, You know I wanted that." You know, "Why don't You let me play with that?" And God knows that it could hurt you. God knows that it could destroy you. And God is always, always looking at you with the eternity in mind. And He deals with us with eternity in mind and thereby we do not always understand the present inconveniences or deprivations. But God, looking at the eternal, is working in you His eternal purposes. And if you keep that in mind, then you won't be troubled when you see the ungodly prospering, because you know they're going to be cut down in a moment. Then you won't be troubled when you may be going through a hard experience, because you know that God is working in your life in more exceeding, abundant reward in the kingdom. That is why we are told, "Count it all joy when you have these tribulations" ( James 1:2 ). "Oh, praise the Lord, I had the worst tribulation this week!" God's working; He must love me, putting me through the fire. Better that I go through the fire now, better that I be purified now that I might have remaining works rather than to watch all of my works go up in a puff of smoke and enter into heaven by the skin of my teeth. God loves you and God has eternity in His mind and He's dealing with you in light of eternity.

Father, we thank You for Your dealings with us. Forgive us, Lord, for our complaints, for our folly, for the foolish charges that we make against Thee. God, they are done out of the rashness of our own immaturity, our own lack of understanding. Help us to know Thy ways. Lead us in Thy paths. Lord, may we also have eternity in mind. In Jesus' name. Amen. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

III. EPILOGUE 42:7-17

The book closes as it opened, with a prose explanation by the inspired human writer. He gave us important information about Job’s friends (Job 42:7-9) and then Job’s fortunes (Job 42:10-17).

". . . Satan and Job’s wife (who are prominent in the prologue as agents of evil who try to get Job to curse God) are intentionally omitted in the epilogue. This deliberate omission emphasizes a major teaching of the book, namely, that man’s relationship to God is not a ’give-and-get’ bargain nor a business contract of mutual benefit." [Note: Parsons, p. 142.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

B. Job’s Fortune 42:10-17

Notice that God began to prosper Job again after he interceded for his friends (Job 42:10), not just after he repented. His willingness to pray for his enemies showed the genuineness of the transformation that had taken place in his heart. He no longer felt antagonistic toward God but accepting of his enemies (cf. Matthew 6:15).

The Lord increased all that Job possessed twofold (Job 42:10).

Female donkeys were more valuable than male donkeys because the females produced milk and foals. The names of Job’s daughters (Job 42:14) corroborate the statement that they were exceptionally beautiful (Job 42:15). "Jemimah" means "dove," "Keziah" means "perfume," and "Keren-happuch" means "horn of eye-paint." The reference to Job giving them an inheritance with their brothers, an unusual practice in the ancient Near East, reflects the extent of Job’s wealth and compassion. The 70 and 210 year figures are traditional. [Note: See Zuck, Job, p. 188.]

Does the fact that God eventually blessed Job materially in life for his godliness prove Job’s three friends were right after all? Is the basis of man’s relationship with God really retribution? No, God did not reward Job in life primarily because he was good but because God is gracious. [Note: Parsons, p. 145; Andersen, p. 294.] The basis of people’s relationship with God is grace. The Book of Job does not deny the fact that God blesses the righteous. However, it shows that this principle has exceptions if we look at life only this side of the grave. Because God is sovereign He can deal with anyone as He chooses for reasons only He knows. Nevertheless He always deals justly (cf. Romans 9:14).

"The restoration of Job’s prosperity was not the reward of his piety, but the indication that the trial was over. Any judge who left a defendant to languish in prison after he had been declared innocent would be condemned as iniquitous, and if Job’s trials had continued after he was acquitted it would have been similarly iniquitous." [Note: Rowley, p. 266.]

Job apparently lived 140 years after his affliction (Job 42:16), suggesting that God blessed him with twice the normal lifespan of "threescore years and ten" (Psalms 90:10 AV) after his trials ended. This assumes that Job was 70 when his trails began (the perfect age?) and that he lived twice as long after his trails ended. The Septuagint preserves a Jewish tradition that Job died at the age of 240, though a variant reading has 248. [Note: See Hartley, p. 543.]

"This chapter assures us that, no matter what happens to us, God always writes the last chapter. Therefore, we don’t have to be afraid. We can trust God to do what is right, no matter how painful our situation might be. . . .

"His [Job’s] greatest blessing was knowing God better and understanding His working in a deeper way." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 82.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And the Lord turned the captivity of Job,.... Not literally, in such sense as Lot's captivity was turned, Genesis 14:12; for Job's person was not seized on and carried away, though his cattle were: nor spiritually, being delivered from the captivity of sin; that had been his case many years ago, when first converted: but it is to be understood of his restoration from afflictions and calamities to a happy state; as of the return of his substance, his health and friends, and especially of his deliverance from Satan, in whose hands he had been some time, and by him distressed both in body and mind. But now his captivity was turned, and he was freed from all his distresses; and even from those which arose from the dealings of God with him, which he was now fully satisfied about; and this was done,

when he prayed for his friends; as he was directed to do. A good man will not only pray for himself, as Job doubtless did, but for others also; for his natural and spiritual friends, yea, for unkind friends, and even for enemies likewise: and the prayer of an upright man is very acceptable to the Lord; and many mercies and blessings come by it; and even prayer for others is profitable to a man's self; and sometimes he soon reaps the benefit of it, as Job now did. For when and while he was praying, or quickly upon it, there was a turn in his affairs: he presently found himself in better health; his friends came about him, and his substance began to increase; Satan had no more power over him, and the presence of God was with him. All which was of the Lord; and he enjoyed it in the way of prayer, and as the fruit of that;

also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before: or added to him double. Which chiefly respects his substance; his cattle, as appears from Job 42:12, and might be true both with respect to things temporal and spiritual. "Double" may denote an abundance, a large measure of good things; see Zechariah 9:12.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.   11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.   12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.   13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.   14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch.   15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.   16 After this lived Job a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.   17 So Job died, being old and full of days.

      You have heard of the patience of Job (says the apostle, James 5:11) and have seen the end of the Lord, that is, what end the Lord, at length, put to his troubles. In the beginning of this book we had Job's patience under his troubles, for an example; here, in the close, for our encouragement to follow that example, we have the happy issue of his troubles and the prosperous condition to which he was restored after them, which confirms us in counting those happy which endure. Perhaps, too, the extraordinary prosperity which Job was crowned with after his afflictions was intended to be to us Christians a type and figure of the glory and happiness of heaven, which the afflictions of this present time are working for us, and in which they will issue at last; this will be more than double to all the delights and satisfactions we now enjoy, as Job's after-prosperity was to his former, though then he was the greatest of all the men of the east. He that rightly endures temptation, when he is tried, shall receive a crown of life (James 1:12), as Job, when he was tried, received all the wealth, and honour, and comfort, which here we have an account of.

      I. God returned in ways of mercy to him; and his thoughts concerning him were thoughts of good and not of evil, to give the expected (nay, the unexpected) end,Jeremiah 29:11. His troubles began in Satan's malice, which God restrained; his restoration began in God's mercy, which Satan could not oppose. Job's sorest complaint, and indeed the sorrowful accent of all his complaints, on which he laid the greatest emphasis, was that God appeared against him. But now God plainly appeared for him, and watched over him to build and to plant, like as he had (at least in his apprehension) watched over him to pluck up and to throw down,Jeremiah 31:28. This put a new face upon his affairs immediately, and every thing now looked as pleasing and promising as before it had looked gloomy and frightful. 1. God turned his captivity, that is, he redressed his grievances and took away all the causes of his complaints; he loosed him from the bond with which Satan had now, for a great while, bound him, and delivered him out of those cruel hands into which he had delivered him. We may suppose that now all his bodily pains and distempers were healed so suddenly and so thoroughly that the cure was next to miraculous: His flesh became fresher than a child's, and he returned to the days of his youth; and, what was more, he felt a very great alteration in his mind; it was calm and easy, and the tumult was all over, his disquieting thoughts had all vanished, his fears were silenced, and the consolations of God were now as much the delight of his soul as his terrors had been its burden. The tide thus turned, his troubles began to ebb as fast as they had flowed, just then when he was praying for his friends, praying over his sacrifice which he offered for them. Mercy did not return when he was disputing with his friends, no, not though he had right on his side, but when he was praying for them; for God is better served and pleased with our warm devotions than with our warm disputations. When Job completed his repentance by this instance of his forgiving men their trespasses, then God completed his remission by turning his captivity. Note, We are really doing our business when we are praying for our friends, if we pray in a right manner, for in those prayers there is not only faith, but love. Christ has taught us to pray with and for others in teaching us to say, Our Father; and, in seeking mercy for others, we may find mercy ourselves. Our Lord Jesus has his exaltation and dominion there, where he ever lives making intercession. Some, by the turning of Job's captivity, understand the restitution which the Sabeans and Chaldeans made of the cattle which they had taken from him, God wonderfully inclining them to do it; and with these he began the world again. Probably it was so; those spoilers had swallowed down his riches, but they were forced to vomit them up again,Job 20:15; Job 20:15. But I rather understand this more generally of the turn now given. 2. God doubled his possessions: Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. It is probable that he did at first, in some way or other, intimate to him that it was his gracious purpose, by degrees, in due time to bring him to such a height of prosperity that he should have twice as much as ever he had, for the encouraging of his hope and the quickening of his industry, and that it might appear that this wonderful increase was a special token of God's favour. And it may be considered as intended, (1.) To balance his losses. He suffered for the glory of God, and therefore God made it up to him with advantage, and allowed him more than interest upon interest. God will take care that none shall lose by him. (2.) To recompense his patience and his confidence in God, which (notwithstanding the workings of corruption) he did not cast away, but still held fast, and that is it which has a great recompence of reward,Hebrews 10:35. Job's friends had often put their severe censure of Job upon this issue, If thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake for thee,Job 8:6; Job 8:6. But he does not awake for thee; therefore thou art not upright. "Well," says God, "though your argument be not conclusive, I will even by that demonstrate the integrity of my servant Job; his latter end shall greatly increase, and by that it shall appear, since you will have it so, that it was not for any injustice in his hands that he suffered the loss of all things." Now it appeared that Job had reason to bless God for taking away (as he did, Job 1:21; Job 1:21), since it made so good a return.

      II. His old acquaintance, neighbours, and relations, were very kind to him, Job 42:11; Job 42:11. They had been estranged from him, and this was not the least of the grievances of his afflicted state; he bitterly complained of their unkindness, Job 19:13-22; Job 19:13-22, c. But now they visited him with all possible expressions of affection and respect. 1. They put honour upon him, in coming to dine with him as formerly, but (we may suppose) privately bringing their entertainment along with them, so that he had the reputation of feasting them without the expense. 2. They sympathized with him, and showed a tender concern for him, such as becomes brethren. They bemoaned him when they talked over all the calamities of his afflicted state, and comforted him when they took notice of God's gracious returns to him. They wept for his griefs, and rejoiced in his joys, and proved not such miserable comforters as his three friends, that, at first, were so forward and officious to attend him. These were not such great men nor such learned and eloquent men as those, but they proved much more skilful and kind in comforting Job. God sometimes chooses the foolish and weak things of the world, as for conviction, so for comfort. 3. They made a collection among them for the repair of his losses and the setting of him up again. They did not think it enough to say, Be warmed, Be filled, but gave him such things as would be of use to him, James 2:16. Every one gave him a piece of money (some more, it is likely, and some less, according to their ability) and every one an ear-ring of gold (an ornament much used by the children of the east), which would be as good as money to him: this was a superfluity which they could well spare, and the rule is, That our abundance must be a supply to our brethren's necessity. But why did Job's relations now, at length, show this kindness to him? (1.) God put it in their hearts to do so and every creature is that to us which he makes it to be. Job had acknowledged God in their estrangement from him, for which he now rewarded him in turning them to him again. (2.) Perhaps some of them withdrew from him because they thought him a hypocrite, but, now that his integrity was made manifest, they returned to him and to communion with him again. When God was friendly to him they were all willing to be friendly too, Psalms 119:74; Psalms 119:79. Others of them, it may be, withdrew because he was poor, and sore, and a rueful spectacle, but now that he began to recover they were willing to renew their acquaintance with him. Swallow-friends, that are gone in winter, will return in the spring, though their friendship is of little value. (3.) Perhaps the rebuke which God had given to Eliphaz and the other two for their unkindness to Job awakened the rest of his friends to return to their duty. Reproofs to others we should thus take as admonitions and instructions to us. 4. Job prayed for his friends, and then they flocked about him, overcome by his kindness, and every one desiring an interest in his prayers. The more we pray for our friends and relations the more comfort we may expect in them.

      III. His estate strangely increased, by the blessing of God upon the little that his friends gave him. He thankfully received their courtesy, and did not think it below him to have his estate repaired by contributions. He did not, on the one hand, urge his friends to raise money for him; he acquits himself from that (Job 6:22; Job 6:22), Did I say, Bring unto me or give me a reward of your substance? Yet what they brought he thankfully accepted, and did not upbraid them with their former unkindnesses, nor ask them why they did not do this sooner. He was neither so covetous and griping as to ask their charity, nor so proud and ill-natured as to refuse it when they offered it; and, being in so good a temper, God gave him that which was far better than their money and ear-rings, and that was his blessing, Job 42:12; Job 42:12. The Lord comforted him now according to the days wherein he had afflicted him, and blessed his latter end more than his beginning. Observe, 1. The blessing of the Lord makes rich; it is he that gives us power to get wealth and gives success in honest endeavours. Those therefore that would thrive must have an eye to God's blessing, and never to out of it, no, not into the warm sun; and those that have thriven must not sacrifice to their own net, but acknowledge their obligations to God for his blessing. 2. That blessing can make very rich and sometimes makes good people so. Those that become rich by getting think they can easily make themselves very rich by saving; but, as those that have little must depend upon God to make it much, so those that have much must depend upon God to make it more and to double it; else you have sown much and bring in little,Haggai 1:6. 3. The last days of a good man sometimes prove his best days, his last works his best works, his last comforts his best comforts; for his path, like that of the morning-light, shines more and more to the perfect day. Of a wicked man it is said, His last state is worse than his first (Luke 11:26), but of the upright man, His end is peace; and sometimes the nearer it is the clearer are the views of it. In respect of outward prosperity God is pleased sometimes to make the latter end of a good man's life more comfortable than the former part of it has been, and strangely to outdo the expectations of his afflicted people, who thought they should never live to see better days, that we may not despair even in the depths of adversity. We know not what good times we may yet be reserved for in our latter end. Non, si male nunc, et olim sic erit--It may yet be well with us, though now it is otherwise. Job, in his affliction, had wished to be as in months past, as rich as he had been before, and quite despaired of that; but God is often better to us than our own fears, nay, than our own wishes, for Job's possessions were doubled to him; the number of his cattle, his sheep and camels, his oxen and she-asses, is just double here to what it was, Job 1:3; Job 1:3. This is a remarkable instance of the extent of the divine providence to things that seem minute, as this of the exact number of a man's cattle, as also of the harmony of providence, and the reference of one event to another; for known unto God are all his works, from the beginning to the end. Job's other possessions, no doubt, were increased in proportion to his cattle, lands, money, servants, c. So that if, before, he was the greatest of all the men of the east, what was he now?

      IV. His family was built up again, and he had great comfort in his children, Job 42:13-15; Job 42:13-15. The last of his afflictions that are recorded (Job 1:13-19; Job 1:13-19), and the most grievous, was the death of all his children at once. His friends upbraided him with it (Job 8:4; Job 8:4), but God repaired even that breach in process of time, either by the same wife, or, she being dead, by another. 1. The number of his children was the same as before, seven sons and three daughters. Some give this reason why they were not doubled as his cattle were, because his children that were dead were not lost, but gone before to a better world; and therefore, if he have but the same number of them, they may be reckoned doubled, for he has two fleeces of children (as I may say) mahanaim--two hosts, one in heaven, the other on earth, and in both he is rich. 2. The names of his daughters are here registered (Job 42:14; Job 42:14), because, in the significations of them, they seemed designed to perpetuate the remembrance of God's great goodness to him in the surprising change of his condition. He called the first Jemima--The day (whence perhaps Diana had her name), because of the shining forth of his prosperity after a dark night of affliction. The next Kezia, a spice of a very fragrant smell, because (says bishop Patrick) God had healed his ulcers, the smell of which was offensive. The third Keren-happuch (that is Plenty restored, or A horn of paint), because (says he) God had wiped away the tears which fouled his face, Job 16:16; Job 16:16. Concerning these daughters we are here told, (1.) That God adorned them with great beauty, no women so fair as the daughters of Job,Job 42:15; Job 42:15. In the Old Testament we often find women praised for their beauty, as Sarah, Rebekah, and many others; but we never find any women in the New Testament whose beauty is in the least taken notice of, no, not the virgin Mary herself, because the beauty of holiness is that which is brought to a much clearer light by the gospel. (2.) That their father (God enabling him to do it) supplied them with great fortunes: He gave them inheritance among their brethren, and did not turn them off with small portions, as most did. It is probable that they had some extraordinary personal merit, which Job had an eye to in the extraordinary favour he showed them. Perhaps they excelled their brethren in wisdom and piety; and therefore, that they might continue in his family, to be a stay and blessing to it, he made them co-heirs with their brethren.

      V. His life was long. What age he was when his troubles came we are nowhere told, but here we are told he lived 140 years, whence some conjecture that he was 70 when he was in his troubles, and that so his age was doubled, as his other possessions. 1. He lived to have much of the comfort of this life, for he saw his posterity to the fourth generation, Job 42:16; Job 42:16. Though his children were not doubled to him, yet in his children's children (and those are the crown of old men) they were more than doubled. As God appointed to Adam another seed instead of that which was slain (Genesis 4:25), so he did to Job with advantage. God has ways to repair the losses and balance the griefs of those who are written childless, as Job was when he had buried all his children. 2. He lived till he was satisfied, for he died full of days, satisfied with living in this world, and willing to leave it; not peevishly so, as in the days of his affliction, but piously so, and thus, as Eliphaz had encouraged him to hope, he came to his grave like a shock of corn in his season.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

Intercessory Prayer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Sermon

(No. 404)

Delivered on Sunday Morning, August the 11th, 1861 by the

Rev. C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends." Job 42:10 .

THE LORD turned the captivity of Job." So, then, our longest sorrows have a close, and there is a bottom to the profoundest depths of our misery. Our winters shall not frown for ever; summer shall soon smile. The tide shall not eternally ebb out; the floods retrace their march. The night shall not hang its darkness for ever over our souls; the sun shall yet arise with healing beneath his wings, "The Lord turned again the captivity of Job." Our sorrows shall have an end when God has gotten his end in them. The ends in the case of Job were these, that Satan might be defeated, foiled with his own weapons, blasted in his hopes when he had everything his own way. God, at Satan's challenge, had stretched forth his hand and touched Job in his bone and in his flesh, and yet the tempter could not prevail against him, but received his rebuff in those conquering words, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." When Satan is defeated, then shall the battle cease. The Lord aimed also at the trial of Job's faith. Many weights were hung upon this palm tree, but it still grew uprightly. The fire had been fierce enough, the gold was undiminished, and only the dross was consumed. Another purpose the Lord had was his own glory. And God was glorified abundantly. Job had glorified God on his dunghill; now let him magnify his Lord again upon his royal seat in the gate. God had gotten unto himself eternal renown through that grace by which he supported his poor afflicted servant under the heaviest troubles which ever fell to the lot of man. God had another end, and that also was served. Job had been sanctified by his afflictions. His spirit had been mellowed. That small degree of tartness towards others, which may have been in Job's temper had been at last removed, and any self-justification which once had lurked within, was fairly driven out. Now God's gracious designs are answered, he removed the rod from his servant's back, and takes the melted silver from the midst of the glowing coals. God doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men for nought, and he shows this by the fact that he never afflicts them longer than there is a need for it, and never suffers them to be one moment longer in the furnace than is absolutely requisite to serve the purposes of his wisdom and of his love. "The Lord turned again the captivity of Job." Beloved brother in Christ, thou hast had a long captivity in affliction. God hath sold thee into the hand of thine adversaries, and thou hast wept by the waters of Babylon, hanging thy harp upon the willows. Despair not! He that turned the captivity of Job can turn thine as the streams in the south. He shall make again thy vineyard to blossom, and thy field to yield her fruit. Thou shalt again come forth with those that make merry, and once more shall the song of gladness be on thy lip. Let not Despair rivet his cruel fetters about thy soul. Hope yet, for there is hope. Trust thou still, for there is ground of confidence. He shall bring thee up again rejoicing from the land of thy captivity, and thou shalt say of him, "He hath turned my mourning into dancing."

The circumstance which attended Job's restoration is that to which I invite your particular attention. "The Lord turned again the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends." Intercessory prayer was the omen of his returning greatness. It was the bow in the cloud, the dove bearing the olive branch, the voice of the turtle announcing the coming summer. When his soul began to expand itself in holy and loving prayer for his erring brethren, then the heart of God showed itself to him by returning to him his prosperity without, and cheering his soul within. Brethren, it is not fetching a laborious compass, when from such a text as this I address you upon the subject of prayer for others. Let us learn today to imitate the example of Job, and pray for our friends, and peradventure if we have been in trouble, our captivity shall be turned.

Four things I would speak of this morning, and yet but one thing; I would speak upon intercessory prayer thus first, by way of commending the exercise; secondly, by way of encouraging you to enlist in it; thirdly, by way of suggestion, as to the persons for whom you should especially pray; and fourthly, by way of exhortation to all believers to undertake and persevere in the exercise of intercession for others.

I. First, then, BY WAY OF COMMENDING THE EXERCISE, let me remind you that intercessory prayer has been practiced by all the best of God's saints. We may not find instances of it appended to every saint's name, but beyond a doubt, there has never been a man eminent for piety personally, who has not always been pre-eminent in his anxious desires for the good of others, and in his prayers for that end. Take Abraham, the father of the faithful. How earnestly did he plead for his son Ishmael! "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" With what importunity did he approach the Lord on the plains of Mamre, when he wrestled with him again and again for Sodom; how frequently did he reduce the number, as though, to use the expression of the Puritan, "He were bidding and beating down the price at the market." "Peradventure there be fifty; peradventure there lack five of the fifty; peradventure there be twenty found there; peradventure there be ten righteous found there: wilt thou not spare the city for the sake of ten?" Well did he wrestle, and if we may sometimes be tempted to wish he had not paused when he did, yet we must commend him for continuing so long to plead for that doomed and depraved city. Remember Moses, the most royal of men, whether crowned or uncrowned; how often did he intercede! How frequently do you meet with such a record as this "Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before God!" Remember that cry of his on the top of the mount, when it was to his own personal disadvantage to intercede, and yet when God had said, "Let me alone, I will make of thee a great nation," yet how he continued, how he thrust himself in the way of the axe of justice, and cried, "Spare them, Lord, and if not," (and here he reached the very climax of agonizing earnestness) "blot my name out of the Book of Life." Never was there a mightier prophet than Moses, and never one more intensely earnest in intercessory prayer. Or pass on, if you will, to the days of Samuel. Remember his words, "God forbid that I should sin against the Lord, in ceasing to pray for you." Or bethink you of Solomon, and of his earnest intercession at the opening of the temple, when, with outstretched hands he prayed for the assembled people; or if you want another royal example, turn to Hezekiah with Sennacherib's letter spread out before the Lord, when he prayed not only for himself, but for God's people of Israel in those times of straits. Think ye, too, of Elias, who for Israel's sake would bring down the rain that the land perish not; as for himself, miracles gave him his bread and his water, it was for others that he prayed, and said to his servant, "Go again seven times." Forget not Jeremy, whose tears were prayers prayers coming too intensely from his heart to find expression in any utterance of the lip. He wept himself away, his life was one long shower, each drop a prayer, and the whole deluge a flood of intercession. And if you would have an example taken from the times of Christ and his apostles, remember how Peter prays on the top of the house, and Stephen amidst the falling stones. Or think you, if you will, of Paul, of whom even more than of others it could be said, that he never ceased to remember the saints in his prayers, "making mention of you daily in my prayers," stopping in the very midst of the epistle and saying, "For which cause I bow my knee unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." As for the cloud of holy witnesses in our own time, I will hazard the assertion that there is not a single child of God who does not plead with God for his children, for his family, for the church at large, and for the poor ungodly perishing world. I deny his saintship if he does not pray for others.

But further, while we might commend this duty by quoting innumerable examples from the lives of eminent saints, it is enough for the disciple of Christ if we say that Christ in His holy gospel has made it your duty and your privilege to intercede for others. When he taught us to pray, he said, "Our Father," and the expressions which follow are not in the singular but in the plural "Give us this day our daily bread." "Forgive us our debts"; "Lead us not into temptation"; evidently intending to set forth that none of us are to pray for ourselves alone, that while we may have sometimes prayers so bitter that they must be personal like the Saviour's own "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me"; yet, as a rule, our prayers should be public prayers, though offered in private; and even in secret we should not forget the church of the living God. By the mouth of Paul how frequently does the Holy Ghost exhort us to pray for ministers! "Brethren," says Paul, "pray for us"; and then after exhorting them to offer prayers and supplications for all classes and conditions of men, he adds, "And for us also that we may have boldness to speak as we ought to speak." While James, who is ever a practical apostle, bids us pray for one another; in that same verse, where he says, "Confess your sins the one to the other," he says, "and pray one for another," and adds the privilege "that ye may be healed," as if the healing would not only come to the sick person for whom we pray, but to us who offer the prayer; we, too, receiving some special blessing when our hearts are enlarged for the people of the living God.

But, brethren, I shall not stay to quote the texts in which the duty of praying for others is definitely laid down. Permit me to remind you of the high example of your Master; he is your pattern; follow ye his leadership. Was there even one who interceded as he did? Remember that golden prayer of his, where he cried for his own people, "Father, keep them, keep them from the evil!" Oh what a prayer was that! He seems to have thought of all their wants, of all their needs, of all their weaknesses, and in one long stream of intercession, he pours out his heart before his Father's throne. Bethink you how, even in the agonies of his crucifixion, he did not forget that he was still an intercessor for man. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Oh, remember, brethren, it is your Saviour's example to you today, for there before the throne, with outstretched hands, he prays not for himself, for he has attained his glory; not for himself, for he rests from his labours, and has received his everlasting recompense; but for you, for the purchase of his blood, for as many as are called by his grace, yea, and for those who shall believe on him through our word

"For all that come to God by him,

Salvation he demands;

Points to the wounds upon his heart,

And spreads his bleeding hands."

Come, brethren, with such an example as this, we are verily guilty if we forget to plead for others.

But I will go a little further. If in the Bible there were no example of intercessory supplication, if Christ had not left it upon record that it was his will that we should pray for others, and even if we did not know that it was Christ's practice to intercede, yet the very spirit of our holy religion would constrain us to plead for others. Dost thou go up into thy closet, and in the face and presence of God think of none but thyself? Surely the love of Christ cannot be in thee, for the spirit of Christ is not selfish. No man liveth unto himself when once he has the love of Christ in him. I know there are some whose piety is comfortably tethered within the limits of their own selfish interests. It is enough for them if they hear the Word, if they be saved, if they get to heaven. Ah, miserable spirit, thou shalt not get there! It would need another heaven for thee, for the heaven of Christ is the heaven of the unselfish, the temple of the large-hearted, the bliss of living spirits, the heaven of those who, like Christ, are willing to become poor that others may be rich. I cannot believe it were a libel upon the cross of Christ, it were a scandal upon the doctrine which he taught if I could ever believe that the man whose prayers are selfish has anything of the spirit of Christ within him. Brethren, I commend intercessory prayer, because it opens man's soul, gives a healthy play to his sympathies, constrains him to feel that he is not everybody, and that this wide world and this great universe were not after all made that he might be its petty lord, that everything might bend to his will, and all creatures crouch at his feet. It does him good, I say, to make him know that the cross was not uplifted alone for him, for its far-reaching arms were meant to drop with benedictions upon millions of the human race. Thou lean and hungry worshipper of self, this is an exercise which would make another man of thee, a man more like the Son of Man, and less like Nabal the churl. But again; I commend the blessed privilege of intercession, because of its sweet brotherly nature. You and I may be naturally hard, and harsh, and unlovely of spirit, but praying much for others will remind us we have, indeed, a relationship to the saints, that their interests are ours, that we are jointly concerned with them in all the privileges of grace. I do not know anything which, through the grace of God, may be a better means of uniting us the one to the other than constant prayer for each other. You cannot harbour enmity in your soul against your brother after you have learned to pray for him. If he hath done you ill, when you have taken that ill to the mercy seat, and prayed over it, you must forgive. Surely you could not be such a hypocrite as to invoke blessings on his head before God and then come forth to curse him in your own soul. When there have been complaints brought by brother against brother, it is generally the best way to say, "Let us pray before we enter into the matter." Wherever there is a case to be decided by the pastor, he ought always to say to the brethren who contend, "Let us pray first," and it will often happen that through prayer the differences will soon be forgotten. They will become so slight, so trivial, that when the brethren rise from their knees they will say, "They are gone; we cannot contend now after having been one in heart before the throne of God." I have heard of a man who had made complaints against his minister, and his minister wisely said to him, "Well, don't talk to me in the street; come to my house, and let us hear it all." He went, and the minister said, "My brother, I hope that what you have to say to me may be greatly blessed to me; no doubt I have my imperfections as well as any other man, and I hope I shall never be above being told of them, but in order that what you have to say to me may be blessed to me let us kneel down and pray together." So our quarrelsome friend prayed first and the minister prayed next, both briefly. When they rose from their knees, he said, "Now, my brother, I think we are both in a good state of mind; tell me what it is that you have to find fault with." The man blushed, and stammered, and stuttered, and said, he did not think there was anything at all, except in himself. "I have forgotten to pray for you, sir," said he, "and of course I cannot expect that God will feed my soul through you when I neglect to mention you at the throne of grace." Ah, well, brethren, if you will exercise yourselves much in supplication for your brethren you will forgive their tempers, you will overlook their rashness, you will not think of their harsh words; but knowing that you also may be tempted, and are men of like passions with them, you will cover their faults, and bear with their infirmities.

Shall I need to say more in commendation of intercessory prayer except it be this, that it seems to me that when God gives any man much grace, it must be with the design that he may use it for the rest of the family. I would compare you who have near communion with God to courtiers in the king's palace. What do courtiers do? Do they not avail themselves of their influence at court to take the petitions of their friends, and present them where they can be heard? This is what we call patronage a thing with which many find fault when it is used for political ends, but there is a kind of heavenly patronage which you ought to use right diligently. I ask you to use it on my behalf. When it is well with you, then think of me. I pray you use it on the behalf of the poor, the sick, the afflicted, the tempted, the tried, the desponding, the despairing; when thou hast the King's ear, speak to him for us. When thou art permitted to come very near to his throne, and he saith to thee, "Ask, and I will give thee what thou wilt"; when thy faith is strong, thine eye clear, thine access near, thine interest sure, and the love of God sweetly shed abroad in thy heart then take the petitions of thy poor brethren who stand outside at the gate and say, "My Lord, I have a poor brother, a poor child of thine, who has desired me to ask of thee this favour. Grant it unto me; it shall be a favour shown unto myself; grant it unto him, for he is one of thine. Do it for Jesus' sake!" Nay, to come to an end in this matter of commendation, it is utterly impossible that you should have a large measure of grace, unless it prompts you to use your influence for others. Soul, if thou hast grace at all, and art not a mighty intercessor, that grace must be but as a grain of mustard-seed a shrivelled, uncomely, puny thing. Thou hast just enough grace to float thy soul clear from the quicksand, but thou hast no deep floods of grace, or else thou wouldst carry in thy joyous bark a rich cargo of the wants of others up to the throne of God, and thou wouldst bring back for them rich blessings which but for thee they might not have obtained. If thou be like an angel with thy foot upon the golden ladder which reaches to heaven, if thou art ascending and descending, know that thou wilt ascend with others' prayers and descend with others' blessings, for it is impossible for a full-grown saint to live or to pray for himself alone. Thus much on commendation.

II. We turn to our second point, and endeavour to say something BY WAY OF ENCOURAGEMENT, that you may cheerfully offer intercessory supplications.

First, remember that intercessory prayer is the sweetest prayer God ever hears. Do not question it, for the prayer of Christ is of this character. In all the incense which now our Great High Priest puts into the censer, there is not a single grain that is for himself. His work is done; his reward obtained. Now you do not doubt but that Christ's prayer is the most acceptable of all supplications. Very well, my brethren, the more like your prayer is to Christ's, the more sweet it will be; and while petitions for yourself will be accepted, yet your pleadings for others, having in them more of the fruits of the Spirit, more love, perhaps more faith, certainly more brotherly kindness, they will be as the sweetest oblation that you can offer to God, the very fat of thy sacrifice. Remember, again, that intercessory prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! Intercessory prayer has stayed plagues. It removed the darkness which rested over Egypt; it drove away the frogs which leaped upon the land; it scattered the lice and locusts which plagued the inhabitants of Zoar; it removed the murrain, and the thunder, and the lightning; it stayed all the ravages which God's avenging hand did upon Pharaoh and his people. Intercessory prayer has healed diseases; we know it did in the early church. We have evidence of it in old Mosaic times. When Miriam was smitten with leprosy, Moses prayed, and the leprosy was removed. It has restored withered limbs. When the king's arm was withered, he said to the prophet, "Pray for me," and his arm was restored as it was before. Intercessory prayer has raised the dead, for Elias stretched himself upon the child seven times, and the child sneezed, and the child's soul returned. As to how many souls intercessory prayer has instrumentally saved, recording angel, thou canst tell! Eternity, thou shalt reveal! There is nothing which intercessory prayer cannot do. Oh! believer, you have a mighty engine in your hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it now with faith, and thou shalt surely prevail. But perhaps you have a doubt about interceding for some one who has fallen far into sin. Brethren, did ye ever hear of men who have been thought to be dead while yet alive? Have ye never heard by the farmer's fire some old-fashioned story of one who was washed and laid out, and wrapped up in his shroud to be put into his coffin, and yet he was but in a trance and not dead? And have ye not heard old legends of men and women who have been buried alive? I cannot vouch for the accuracy of those tales, but I can tell you that spiritually there has been many a man given up for dead that was still within reach of grace. There has been many a soul that has been put into the winding sheet even by Christian people, given up to damnation even by the ministers of Christ, consigned to perdition even by their own kinsfolk. But yet into perdition they did not come, but God found them, and took them out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay, and set their living feet upon his living rock. Oh! give up nobody; still pray, lay none out for spiritually dead until they are lain out for dead naturally. But perhaps you say, "I cannot pray for others, for I am so weak, so powerless." You will get strength, my brethren, by the exertion. But besides, the prevalence of prayer does not depend upon the strength of the man who prays, but upon the power of the argument he uses. Now, brethren, if you sow seed you may be very feeble, but it is not your hand that puts the seed into the ground which produces the harvest, it is the vitality in the seed. And so in the prayer of faith. When you can plead a promise and drop that prayer into the ground with hope, your weakness shall not make it miscarry; it shall still prevail with God and bring down blessings from on high. Job! thou comest from thy dunghill to intercede, and so may I come from my couch of weakness; thou comest from thy poverty and thy desertion to intercede for others, and so may we. Elias was a man of like passions sweet word! of like passions, like infirmities, like tendencies to sin, but he prevailed, and so shalt thou; only do thou see to it that thou be not negligent in these exercises, but that thou pray much for others even as Job prayed for his friends.

Now that the air is very hot, and the atmosphere heavy and becalmed, our friends find it difficult to listen, more difficult even than the speaker finds it to preach. Now, that I may have your attention yet once again and a change of posture may do you all good will you stand up and put the text into use by offering an intercessory prayer and then I will go on again. It shall be this one:

"Pity the nations, O our God,

Constrain the earth to come;

Send thy victorious word abroad,

And bring the strangers home!"

(The congregation here rose, and sung the verse.)

III. The third head is A SUGGESTION AS TO THE PERSONS FOR WHOM WE SHOULD MORE PARTICULARLY PRAY. It shall be but a suggestion, and I will then turn to my last point. In the case of Job, he prayed for his offending friends. They had spoken exceedingly harshly of him. They had misconstrued all his previous life, and though there had never been a part of his character which deserved censure for the Lord witnessed concerning him, that he was a perfect and an upright man yet they accused him of hypocrisy, and supposed that all he did was for the sake of gain. Now, perhaps, there is no greater offence which can be given to an upright and a holy man, than to his face, to suspect his motives, and to accuse him of self-seeking. And yet, shaking off everything, as the sun forgets the darkness that has hidden its glory, and scatters it by its own beams, Job comes to the mercy seat, and pleads. He is accepted himself, and he begs that his friends may be accepted too. Carry your offending ones to the throne of God; it shall be a blessed method of proving the trueness of your forgiveness. Do not do that, however, in a threatening way. I remember having to deal faithfully with a hypocrite, who told me, by way of threatening, he should pray for me. It was a horrid threat, for who would wish to have his name associated with a prayer which would be an abomination to the Lord. Do not do it in that sense, as though like a supercilious hypocrite, you would make your prayer itself a stalking horse for your vain glory; but do it when you are alone before God, and in secret; not that you may gratify your revenge by telling the story out again, for that were abominable indeed; but that you may remove from your erring brother any sin which may have stained his garments, by asking the Lord to forgive him.

Again: be sure you take there your controverting friends. These brethren had been arguing with Job, and the controversy dragged its weary length along. Brethren, it is better to pray than it is to controvert. Sometimes you think it would be a good thing to have a public discussion upon a doctrine. It would be a better thing to have prayer over it. You say, "Let two good men, on different sides, meet and fight the matter out." I say, "No! let the two good men meet and pray the matter out." He that will not submit his doctrine to the test of the mercy seat, I should suspect is wrong. I can say that I am not afraid to offer prayer that my brethren who do not see "Believers' baptism" may be made to see it. If they think it is wrong, I wish that they would pray to God to set us right; but I have never heard them do that; I have never heard them pray to the Lord to convince us of the truth of infant sprinkling I wish they would, if they believe it to be scriptural, and I am perfectly willing to put it to the old test, the God that answereth by fire, let him be God, and whichever shall prevail, when prayer shall be the ultimate arbiter, let that stand. Carry your dear friends who are wrong in practice, not to the discussion-room, or to the debating-club, but carry them before God, and let this be your cry, "Oh! Thou that teachest us to our profit, teach me if I be wrong, and teach my friend wherein he errs, and make him right."

This is the thing we ought also to do with haughty friends. Eliphaz and Bildad were very high and haughty Oh! how they looked down upon poor Job! They thought he was a very great sinner, a very desperate hypocrite; they stayed with him, but doubtless they thought it very great condescension. Now, you sometimes hear complaints made by Christians about other people being proud. It will not make them humble for you to grumble about that. What if there be a Mrs. So-and-so who wears a very rustling dress, and never takes any notice of you because you cannot rustle too! What if there be a brother who can afford to wear creaking boots, and will not notice you in the street because you happen to be poor! Tell your Father about it; that is the best way. Why, you would not be angry, I suppose, with a man for having the gout, or a torpid liver, or a cataract in the eye; you would pity him. Why be angry with your brother because of his being proud? It is a disease, a very bad disease, that scarlet fever of pride; go and pray the Lord to cure him; your anger will not do it; it may puff him up and make him worse than ever he was before, but it will not set him right. Pray him down, brother, pray him down; have duel with him, and have the choice of weapons yourself, and let that be the weapon of all prayer; and if he be proud, I know this, if you prevail with God, God will soon take the pride out of his own child and make him humble as he should be. But particularly let me ask you to pray most for those who are disabled from praying for themselves. Job's three friends could not pray for themselves, because the Lord said he would not accept them if they did. He said he was angry with them, but as for Job, said he, "Him will I accept." Do not let me shock your feelings when I say there are some, even of God's people, who are not able to pray acceptably at certain seasons. When a man has just been committing sin, repentance is his first work, not prayer; he must first set matters right between God and his own soul before he may go and intercede for others. And there are many poor Christians that cannot pray; doubt has come in, sin has taken away their confidence, and they are standing outside the gate with their petitions; they dare not enter within the veil. There are many tried believers, too, that are so desponding that they cannot pray with faith, and therefore they cannot prevail. Now, my dear brethren, if you can pray, take their sins into court with you, and when you have had your own hearing, then say, "But, my Lord, inasmuch as thou hast honoured me, and made me to eat of thy bread, and drink from thy cup, hear me for thy poor people who are just now denied the light of thy countenance." Besides, there are millions of poor sinners who are dead in sin and they cannot pray, pray for them; it is a blessed thing that vicarious repentance and vicarious faith; which a saint may exert towards a sinner. "Lord, that sinner does not feel; help me to feel for him because he will not feel; Lord, that sinner will not believe in Christ, he does not think that Christ can save him, but I know he can, and I will pray believingly for that sinner, and I will repent for him, and though my repentance and my faith will not avail him without his personal repentance and faith, yet it may come to pass that through me he may be brought to repentance and led to prayer."

IV. Now, lest I should weary you, let me come to the closing part of my discourse. And, O God, lend us thy strength now, that this duty may come forcibly home to our conscience, and we may at once engage in this exercise! Brethren, I have to EXHORT YOU TO PRAY FOR OTHERS. Before I do it, I will ask you a personal question. Do you always pray for others? Guilty or not guilty, here? Do you think you have taken the case of your children, your church, your neighbourhood, and the ungodly world before God as you ought to have done? If you have, I have not. For I stand here a chief culprit before the Master to make confession of the sin; and while I shall exhort you to practice what is undoubtedly a noble privilege, I shall be most of all exhorting myself.

I begin thus, by saying, Brethren, how can you and I repay the debt we owe to the Church unless we pray for others? How was it that you were converted? It was because somebody else prayed for you. I, in tracing back my own conversion, cannot fail to impute it, through God's Spirit, to the prayers of my mother. I believe that the Lord heard her earnest cries when I knew not that her soul was exercised about me. There are many of you that were prayed for when you were asleep in your cradles as unconscious infants. Your mothers' liquid prayers fell hot upon your infant brows, and gave you what was a true christening while you were still but little ones. There are husbands here who owe their conversion to their wives' prayers; brothers who must acknowledge that it was a sister's pleading; children who must confess that their sabbath-school teachers were wont to pray for them. Now, if by others' prayers you and I were brought to Christ, how can we repay this Christian kindness, but by pleading for others? He who has not a man to pray for him may write himself down a hopeless character. During one of the revivals in America, a young man was going to see the minister, but he did not, because the minister had avoided him with considerable coldness. A remark was made to the minister upon what he had done, and he said, "Well, I did not want to see him; I knew he had only come to mock and scoff; what should I see him for; you do not know him as well as I do, or else you would have done the same." A day or two after there was a public meeting, where the preaching of the Word was to be carried on in the hope that the revival might be continued. A young man who had been lately converted through the prayers of another young man was riding to the worship on his horse, and as he was riding along he was overtaken by our young friend whom the minister thought so godless. He said to him, "Where are you going today, William?" "Well, I am going to the meeting, and I hear that you have been converted." "I thank God I have been brought to a knowledge of the truth," he answered. "Oh!" said the other, "I shall never be; I wish I might." His friend was surprised to hear him whom the minister thought to be so hard say that, and he said, "But why cannot you be converted?" "Why?" said the other, "you know you were converted through the prayers of Mr. K ." "Yes, so I was." "Ah," said the other, "there is nobody to pray for me; they have all given me up long ago." "Why," said his friend, "it is very singular, but Mr. K , who prayed for me, has been praying for you too; we were together last night, and I heard him." The other threw himself back in his saddle, and seemed as if he would fall from his horse with surprise. "Is that true?" said he. "Yes, it is." "Then blessed be God, there is hope for me now, and if he has prayed for me, that gives me a reason why I should now pray believingly for myself." And he did so, and that meeting witnessed him confessing his faith in Christ. Now, let no man of your acquaintance say that there is nobody to pray for him; but as you had somebody to plead for you, let poor souls of your acquaintance find in you a person to plead for them.

Then, again, permit me to say, how are you to prove your love to Christ or to his church if you refuse to pray for men? "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." If we do not love the brethren, we are still dead. I will aver no man loves the brethren who does not pray for them. What! It is the very least thing you can do, and if you do not perform the least, you certainly will fail in the greater. You do not love the brethren unless you pray for them, and then it follows you are dead in trespasses and sins. Let me ask you again how is it that you hope to get your own prayers answered if you never plead for others? Will not the Lord say, "Selfish wretch, thou art always knocking at my door, but it is always to cry for thine own welfare and never for another's; inasmuch as thou hast never asked for a blessing for one of the least of these my brethren, neither will I give a blessing to thee. Thou lovest not the saints, thou lovest not thy fellow men, how canst thou love me whom thou hast not seen, and how shall I love thee and give thee the blessing which thou askest at my hands?" Brethren, again I say I would earnestly exhort you to intercede for others, for how can you be Christians if you do not? Christians are priests, but how priests if they offer no sacrifice? Christians are lights, but how lights unless they shine for others? Christians are sent into the world, even as Christ was sent into the world, but how sent unless they are sent to pray? Christians are meant not only to be blessed themselves, but in them shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, but how if you refuse to pray? Give up your profession, cast down, I pray you, the ephod of a priest if you will not burn the incense, renounce your Christianity if you will not carry it out, make not a mock and sport of solemn things. And you must do so if you still refuse selfishly to give to your friends a part and a lot in your supplications before the throne. O brethren, let us unite with one heart and with one soul to plead with God for this neighbourhood! Let us carry "London" written on our breasts just as the high priest of old carried the names of the tribes. Mothers, bear your children before God! Fathers, carry your sons and your daughters! Men and brethren, let us take a wicked world and the dark places thereof which are full of the habitations of cruelty! Let us cry aloud and keep no silence, and give to the Lord no rest till he establish and make his Church a praise in the earth. Wake, ye watchmen upon Zion's walls, and renew your shouts! Wake, ye favourites of heaven, and renew your prayers! The cloud hangs above you, it is yours to draw down its sacred floods in genial showers by earnest prayers. God hath put high up in the mountains of his promise springs of love, it is yours to bring them down by the divine channel of your intense supplications. Do it, I pray you, lest inasmuch as you have shut your bowels of compassion and have refused to plead with God for the conversion of others, he should say in his wrath, "These are not my children. They have not my spirit. They are not partakers of my love, neither shall they enter into my rest." Why, there are some of you that have not prayed for others for months, I am afraid, except it be at a prayer meeting. You know what your night prayers are. It is, "Lord, take care of my family." You know how some farmers pray. "Lord, send fair weather in this part of the country. Lord, preserve the precious fruits of the field all round this neighbourhood. Never mind about their being spoilt anywhere else, for that will send the markets up." And so there are some who make themselves special objects of supplication; and what care they for the perishing crowd. This is the drift of some men's wishes, "Lord, bless the Church, but don't send another minister into our neighbourhood lest he should take our congregations from us. Lord, send labourers into the vineyard, but do not send them into our corner lest they should take any of our glory from us." That is the kind of supplication. Let us have done with such. Let us be Christians; let us have expanded souls and minds that can feel for others. Let us weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice; and as a Church and as private persons, we shall find the Lord will turn our captivity when we pray for our friends. God help us to plead for others! And as for you that have never prayed for yourselves, God help you to believe in the Lord Jesus! Amen.