111 And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said, 2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man of much talk be justified? 3 Should thy fictions make men hold their peace? and shouldest thou mock, and no one make [thee] ashamed? 4 For thou sayest, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes. 5 But oh that +God would speak, and open his lips against thee; 6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, how that they are the double of what is realised; and know that +God passeth by [much] of thine iniquity!
7 Canst thou by searching find out +God? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? 8 [It is as] the heights of heaven; what wilt thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? 9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. 10 If he pass by, and shut up, and call to judgment, who can hinder him? 11 For he knoweth vain men, and seeth wickedness when [man] doth not consider it; 12 Yet a senseless man will make bold, though man be born [like] the foal of a wild ass.
13 If thou prepare thy heart and stretch out thy hands toward him, 14 If thou put far away the iniquity which is in thy hand, and let not wrong dwell in thy tents; 15 Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, and thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear: 16 For thou shalt forget misery; as waters that are passed away shalt thou remember it; 17 And life shall arise brighter than noonday; though thou be enshrouded in darkness, thou shalt be as the morning, 18 And thou shalt have confidence, because there shall be hope; and having searched about [thee], thou shalt take rest in safety. 19 Yea, thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; and many shall seek thy favour. 20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and [all] refuge shall vanish from them, and their hope [shall be] the breathing out of life.
121 And Job answered and said, 2 Truly ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you! 3 I also have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you; and who knoweth not such things as these? 4 I am to be one that is a derision to his friend, I who call upon +God, and whom he will answer: a derision is the just upright [man]. 5 He that is ready to stumble with the foot is a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
6 The tents of desolators are in peace, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand +God bringeth. 7 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowl of the heavens, and they shall tell thee; 8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. 9 Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this? 10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man. 11 Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food?
12 With the aged is wisdom, and in length of days understanding. 13 With him is wisdom and might; he hath counsel and understanding. 14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it is not built again; he shutteth up a man, and there is no opening. 15 Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; and he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. 16 With him is strength and effectual knowledge; the deceived and the deceiver are his. 17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and judges maketh he fools; 18 He weakeneth the government of kings, and bindeth their loins with a fetter; 19 He leadeth priests away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty; 20 He depriveth of speech the trusty, and taketh away the judgment of the elders; 21 He poureth contempt upon nobles, and slackeneth the girdle of the mighty; 22 He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out into light the shadow of death; 23 He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he spreadeth out the nations, and bringeth them in; 24 He taketh away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a pathless waste. 25 They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunkard.
131 Lo, mine eye hath seen all [this], mine ear hath heard and understood it. 2 What ye know, I know also: I am not inferior to you. 3 But I will speak to the Almighty, and will find pleasure in reasoning with God; 4 For ye indeed are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value. 5 Oh that ye would be altogether silent! and it would be your wisdom. 6 Hear now my defence, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips. 7 Will ye speak unrighteously for God? and for him speak deceit? 8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God? 9 Will it be well if he should search you out? or as one mocketh at a man, will ye mock at him? 10 He will certainly reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons. 11 Shall not his excellency terrify you? and his dread fall upon you? 12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your bulwarks are bulwarks of mire.
13 Hold your peace from me, and I will speak, and let come on me what [will]! 14 Wherefore should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand? 15 Behold, if he slay me, yet would I trust in him; but I will defend mine own ways before him. 16 This also shall be my salvation, that a profane man shall not come before his face. 17 Hear attentively my speech and my declaration with your ears. 18 Behold now, I have ordered the cause; I know that I shall be justified. 19 Who is he that contendeth with me? For if I were silent now, I should expire. 20 Only do not two things unto me; then will I not hide myself from thee. 21 Withdraw thy hand far from me; and let not thy terror make me afraid: 22 Then call, and I will answer; or I will speak, and answer thou me.
23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin. 24 Wherefore dost thou hide thy face, and countest me for thine enemy? 25 Wilt thou terrify a driven leaf? and wilt thou pursue dry stubble? 26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth; 27 And thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and markest all my paths; thou settest a bound about the soles of my feet;— 28 One who, as a rotten thing consumeth, as a garment that the moth eateth.
91 But Saul, still breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, came to the high priest 2 and asked of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, so that if he found any who were of the way, both men and women, he might bring [them] bound to Jerusalem. 3 But as he was journeying, it came to pass that he drew near to Damascus; and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven, 4 and falling on the earth he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? 5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he [said], I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. 6 But rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. 7 But the men who were travelling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but beholding no one. 8 And Saul rose up from the earth, and his eyes being opened he saw no one. But leading [him] by the hand they brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without seeing, and neither ate nor drank.
10 And there was a certain disciple in Damascus by name Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, [here am] I, Lord. 11 And the Lord [said] to him, Rise up and go into the street which is called Straight, and seek in the house of Judas one by name Saul, [he is] of Tarsus: for, behold, he is praying, 12 and has seen [in a vision] a man by name Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he should see. 13 And Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many concerning this man how much evil he has done to thy saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon thy name. 15 And the Lord said to him, Go, for this [man] is an elect vessel to me, to bear my name before both nations and kings and [the] sons of Israel: 16 for I will shew to him how much he must suffer for my name. 17 And Ananias went and entered into the house; and laying his hands upon him he said, Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with [the] Holy Spirit. 18 And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he saw, and rising up was baptised; 19 and, having received food, got strength. And he was with the disciples who [were] in Damascus certain days.
20 And straightway in the synagogues he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God. 21 And all who heard were astonished and said, Is not this he who destroyed in Jerusalem those who called on this name, and here was come for this purpose, that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?
(Read Acts 9:1-9)
So ill informed was Saul, that he thought he ought to do all he could against the name of Christ, and that he did God service thereby; he seemed to breathe in this as in his element. Let us not despair of renewing grace for the conversion of the greatest sinners, nor let such despair of the pardoning mercy of God for the greatest sin. It is a signal token of Divine favour, if God, by the inward working of his grace, or the outward events of his providence, stops us from prosecuting or executing sinful purposes. Saul saw that Just One, 14; 26:13. How near to us is the unseen world! It is but for God to draw aside the veil, and objects are presented to the view, compared with which, whatever is most admired on earth is mean and contemptible. Saul submitted without reserve, desirous to know what the Lord Jesus would have him to do. Christ's discoveries of himself to poor souls are humbling; they lay them very low, in mean thoughts of themselves. For three days Saul took no food, and it pleased God to leave him for that time without relief. His sins were now set in order before him; he was in the dark concerning his own spiritual state, and wounded in spirit for sin. When a sinner is brought to a proper sense of his own state and conduct, he will cast himself wholly on the mercy of the Saviour, asking what he would have him to do. God will direct the humbled sinner, and though he does not often bring transgressors to joy and peace in believing, without sorrows and distress of conscience, under which the soul is deeply engaged as to eternal things, yet happy are those who sow in tears, for they shall reap in joy.
(Read Acts 9:10-22)
A good work was begun in Saul, when he was brought to Christ's feet with those words, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And never did Christ leave any who were brought to that. Behold, the proud Pharisee, the unmerciful oppressor, the daring blasphemer, prayeth! And thus it is even now, and with the proud infidel, or the abandoned sinner. What happy tidings are these to all who understand the nature and power of prayer, of such prayer as the humbled sinner presents for the blessings of free salvation! Now he began to pray after another manner than he had done; before, he said his prayers, now, he prayed them. Regenerating grace sets people on praying; you may as well find a living man without breath, as a living Christian without prayer. Yet even eminent disciples, like Ananias, sometimes stagger at the commands of the Lord. But it is the Lord's glory to surpass our scanty expectations, and show that those are vessels of his mercy whom we are apt to consider as objects of his vengeance. The teaching of the Holy Spirit takes away the scales of ignorance and pride from the understanding; then the sinner becomes a new creature, and endeavours to recommend the anointed Saviour, the Son of God, to his former companions.
