JOB 30


9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.

He found himself a universally abandoned pariah, cast out of the city, consigned to the refuse heap to die a lingering death: the butt of ridicule and abuse by the vilest class of the people, who tormented him for their depraved amusement.

Job was totally rejected, and driven "without the gate" by those who considered themselves the "Holy City."

In the raw meanness of ordinary human nature, everyone was gratified to see this mighty man, this presumed paragon of righteousness, crushed and humbled in the mire, and eager to add their own miserable quota to his overflowing misery.

They spit in his face, he says. Exactly the same thing is said of Christ (Matt. 26:67): the deepest degradation and insult. "Crucify him! Crucify him! He pretended to be so good!" It was his very God-attested goodness that so enraged the blind evil fury of the flesh against him.

Bro Growcott - Doth Job Fear God For Nought?



23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

THE condemnation of the race to death‭ (‬in other words,‭ ‬its mortality‭) ‬was arranged by God on account of sin.‭ ‬Adam sinned,‭ ‬and his posterity sin-all sin.‭ ‬In regard to babies,‭ ‬they are sinners in embryo-give them time and they inevitably develop into sinners.‭

Christ,‭ ‬the only sinless man,‭ ‬was made mortal for an object,‭ ‬clearly defined‭-

"‬Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,‭ ‬he also himself likewise took part of the same,‭ ‬that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,‭ ‬that is,‭ ‬the devil‭" (‬Heb.‭ ii. ‬14‭)‬.

There is not the slightest need to invent‭ (‬as some have done‭) ‬any complicated or metaphysical argument to explain the subjection by God of the race to death.‭ ‬The truth is simple and comprehensible.‭ ‬God visited Adam with death on account of sin,‭ ‬and He instituted the universal law of death on account of His foreknowing the sinning and sinful condition of Adam's offspring.

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, June 1899



Bro Thomas on Metaphysics 


"Metaphysics are capital things for 'doubtful disputation,' and admirably adapted to the development of 'sounding brass and tinkling cymbals".'

...as they say in Scotland, which has been befuddled and befooled by the science falsely so-called,

'Metaphysics, is when twa men talk thegither, and the ane who hears dinna ken what the ither says; and the ane who speaks dinna ken what he says himsel.'

The Christadelphian, TC April 1871


Metaphysics - Worldly philosopher arguing the relations of mind and matter


26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

In the midst of great wealth and well-being, and in the possession of the honour and distinction that belonged to a great eastern chief (or Emir), he is suddenly shorn of all his glory, and by a quick succession of overwhelming calamities, removed as it were from a throne to a dunghill. These calamities occurred in the following order: —

His 500 oxen and his 500 asses were suddenly carried off by a company of Sabean marauders, who also slew all the herdsmen (except one) with the sword.

His 7,000 sheep and all his shepherds (save one) were next consumed by fire from heaven.

He was next plundered of his 3,000 camels, by three bands of Chaldeans, who both carried off the camels, and killed all the drivers (except the one that escaped to tell the tale).

The next news that came was that a great wind had blown down the house of his eldest son, where the whole family of his sons and daughters were assembled together for a feast; only one servant escaping the general destruction.

He was finally afflicted with sore boils on his own person from head to foot. These appear to have been a species of malignant ulcers, something like the boils and blains in the ten plagues of Egypt (for it is the same word that is rendered boils in both cases).

Upon the occasion of the fourth calamity, Job prostrates himself upon the ground, with rent mantle and shaved head, uttering the most memorable words of resignation that ever fell from mortal lips (outside of Christ)—

"Yahweh gave," said he, "and Yahweh hath taken away; blessed be the name of Yahweh."

To which it is added that "in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." Then in the fifth and last calamity that befel him, when his wife would have had him "curse God and die"—"What," says he,

"shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"

And again it is said,

"in all this did not Job sin with his lips."

The Christadelphian, Oct 1888