Wesley Corpus

Chapter V Sin occasions destruction, ver. 1 - 5. Affliction is the common lot of mankind, ver. 6 - 7. In affliction we should fly to God, who is both able and willing to help, ver. 8 - 16. He will deliver them that trust in him, ver. 17 - 27. Call - Call them all as it were by their names: will not every good man confirm what I say If - Try if there be any one saint that will defend thee in these bold expostulations with God. Thou mayst find fools or wicked men, to do it: but not one of the children of God. Killeth - A man's wrath, and impatience, preys upon his spirit, and so hastens his death; and provokes God to cut him off. The foolish - The rash and inconsiderate man, who does not weigh things impartially. Envy, &c. - I perceive thou art full of envy at wicked men, who seem to be in a happier condition than thou, and of wrath against God; and this shews thee to be a foolish and weak man. For those men, notwithstanding their present prosperity, are doomed to great and certain misery. I have myself seen the proof of this. Foolish - The wicked man. Root - Not only prosperous for the present, but, as it seemed, firm and secure for the future. Suddenly - In a moment, beyond mine, and his own, and all other mens expectation. Cursed - l saw by the event which followed his prosperity, that he was a man accursed of God. Children - Whose greatness he designed in all his enterprizes, supposing his family would be established for ever. Safely - Are exposed to dangers and calamities, and can neither preserve themselves, nor the inheritance which their fathers left them. There is no question but he glances here, at the death of Job's children. Harvest - Which they confidently expect to reap after all their cost and labour, but are sadly and suddenly disappointed. The hungry - The hungry Sabeans eat it up. Thorns - Out of the fields: in spite of all dangers or difficulties in their way. The dust - It springs not up by merely natural causes, as herbs grow out of the earth: but from God.