Introduction:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Chapter 1:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Esther Psalms
Introduction to Job
Difference between Old and
New Testaments as to knowledge of redemption and a
Redeemer
The Chetubim, or
Hagiographa, in which I do not now comprehend Daniel
(though his book has a character distinct from the other
prophets) form a very distinct and interesting part of
divine revelation. None of them suppose an accomplished
and known redemption, in the New Testament sense of the
word, though like every blessing all is founded on it. In
Job a single passage gives a particular application of
the term: "I have found a ransom" (
Copher).
The Psalms recount we know, prophetically, the sorrows
and sufferings in which it was accomplished.
But redemption by blood is
known by faith, when accomplished, whether by the Jew or
the Christian. Isaiah prophesies of Israel's recognition
of it fully. There were also, as we know, shadows of it
under the law. But the knowledge of eternal redemption is
christian knowledge, or that of the Jews when they look
on Him whom they pierced. Till Christ's death, the veil
was unrent, the holiest unapproachable. There was
knowledge more or less clear of a Redeemer—of a
personal Redeemer to come; of God's favour towards those
that walked with Him, and the confidence of faith in Him
and in His promises. But there was no such knowledge of
sin as led, God being revealed, to the consciousness of
exclusion from His presence as a present state, nor of
such a putting of it away as reconciled us fully and for
ever to God by its efficacy, and brought us to Him.
The Poetical Books
the divinely given expression of man's experience under
God's government
The books we are treating
of are not prophecies of God's dealings or actings, save
as the Psalms express future deliverance by power and by
God's judgments; but they are the divinely given
expression of man's thoughts and feelings under the
government of God, [
1]
and the explanatory revelation of God before redemption
is fully known. This process has mainly gone on in
Israel; and hence they are in the main the various
expression of God's ways with Israel. Still, what was
carried out there, under revealed conditions and
prophetic communications in direct government, was what
was in principle true of God's ways everywhere, though
there specially displayed (the question of man's positive
righteousness being raised too there by the law, the
perfect rule of life for the sons of Adam).
The scope of the
book of Job
The Book of Job affords us
the example of the relationship of a godly man outside
and doubtless before Israel, and God's dealings with men
for good in this world of evil; but then it runs up, I
doubt not, into a clear type of Israel in result Those
ways are fully displayed in that people. And it is to be
remarked that, when Job practically feels the
impossibility of man's being righteous with God, he
complains of fear and having no daysman between them; and
Elihu, who takes up this ground in God's stead, explains
not redemption but chastising and government. These
things God wrought oftentimes with man (chap. 33, 36).
Ecclesiastes: Can
fallen man find happiness and rest in this world without
redemption?
Ecclesiastes estimates
this world under the same government, in its present
fallen state, and raises the question whether by any
means man can find happiness and rest there, with no
trace of the knowledge of redemption. Nor is there any
recognised relationship with God. It is always Elohim
(God), never Jehovah, fearing God and keeping His
commandments being the whole duty of man as such.
The standpoint of
the Song of Solomon and of Proverbs
The Song of Solomon
affords direct relationship with the Lord, the Son of
David, the ardent affections which belong to the
relationship with Christ; Proverbs, a guidance through
the mixed and entangled scene, and here all is on the
ground of relationship with Jehovah, God (Elohim) being
only once or twice mentioned in a way which does not
affect this (see more fully note to page 24). But none
place themselves on the ground of known redemption. They
do look for redemption by power. Hence, on the contrary,
Romans begins with the revelation of wrath from heaven,
not government, against all ungodliness, and
unrighteousness where truth was, against Gentile and Jew,
[
2] and brings in redemption, personal
justification, and righteousness—God's
righteousness. The case of Gentile and Jew is fully gone
into, and brought out as before God Himself, and wrath
from heaven the necessary consequence; complete
redemption by blood for heaven, and sovereign grace
reigning through righteousness and giving us a place with
the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven, together with the
result for Israel hereafter. All is made clear in the
light as God is in the light—His eternal redemption,
and heavenly places, though finally earth will be
blessed. But we are pilgrims and strangers here. This is
our place by redemption itself. To the Abrahams and
Davids it was so, by getting nothing of what was
promised, or else persecution under the government of God
upon the earth; so that under that order of things it was
after all a puzzle to both, though the final inheritance
of the land, the heir, and the judgment of the wicked,
known by revelation, met the puzzle in their minds.
Eternal
relationship and present, known redemption unknown in the
Poetical Books
But in Job, Psalms,
Ecclesiastes, which express men's feelings under it, this
puzzle is fully manifested. Faith and confidence in God
may get over it, or persevere through it; prophetic
testimonies may meet it; but it is there, and this earth
is the scene of the reply of God, even if their faith
might be sometimes forced to rise above it, nourished by
personal confidence in God. But a present fixed eternal
relationship with God even our Father through redemption,
in a wholly new scene into which we are brought by that
precious blood, whose shedding has glorified God Himself,
and reconciled us to Him, though yet in an unredeemed
body,—that was unknown. Much was learned, learned as
to God, and this was most precious. But the actual result
for Job was more camels and sheep, and fairer daughters;
in the Psalms, judgment of enemies, and deliverance
through mercy that endured for ever, and an earth set
free under heaven's judicial rule; in Ecclesiastes, as to
the perception of the present effect of government, that
man must fear God, keep His commandments, and leave it
there. Present known redemption is nowhere found. And oh
what a difference, an unbounded difference, this makes!
"As he is, so are we in this world." He who
redeemed us is gone to His Father and our Father, His God
and our God. Proverbs and the Song of Solomon have, as I
have said, another character, though referring to the
same scene: Proverbs, not man's feelings in the scene,
but God's guidance through it by the experience and
wisdom of divinely instructed authority; [
3] and the Song of Solomon, the
carrying the heart quite out of it all, though still in
it, not by known redemption, but by devoted affection to
Messiah, and of Messiah to Israel, by the revelation He
makes of Himself, indeed of His love to them to beget it
in Israel's heart.
These exercises of heart
have their place in us now, for we are in the world; but
in the consciousness of accomplished redemption and the
present care of a holy Father, the perfection of whose
ways, as seen in Christ, is the model of our conduct. We
can take joyfully the spoiling of our goods, knowing in
ourselves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring
substance; and glory in tribulation, because it works its
needed end, and the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us. This is another
case, and a blessed one it is.
I think these general
remarks will help us to understand the books which are
now about to occupy us. I turn to the books themselves.
Job, the upright
and righteous man, put to the test; his exercises and
God's dealings
After what I have said,
the Book of Job will not require a long
examination—not that it fails in interest, but
because when the general idea is once laid hold of, it is
the detail which is interesting, and detail is not our
present object.
In the Book of Job we have
one portion of those exercises of heart which this
division of the holy book supplies. These are not joyful
exercises, but those of a heart which, journeying through
a world in which the power of evil is found, and not
being dead to the flesh, not having that divine knowledge
which the gospel furnishes, not dead as to one's self
with Christ nor possessing Christ in resurrection, is not
capable of enjoying in peace, whatever its own conflicts
may be, the fruit of God's perfect love; but which
struggles with the evil or with the non-enjoyment of the
only real good, even while desiring to possess it; while,
by the means of these very revelations, the light of
Christ is cast upon these exercises, and the sympathy and
entering of His Spirit in grace into them practically is
touchingly developed. What is learned in them is what we
are—not committed sins; that was not Job's case, but
the soul itself is put before God.
[1] And these pass
into what Christ's were in His humiliation and
sufferings, and thus become prophecies of His sufferings,
but in the form of His feelings under them, and this of
infinite price to us.
[2] And note here Psalm 14, which he
quotes as proof of sin in the Jew, and Isaiah 59, both
end in deliverance in Jerusalem by power. In Romans it is
met by present justification by blood.
[3] It will much help the reader as to
the character of this book and Ecclesiastes to remark,
that in Proverbs the name Jehovah is always employed,
save in chapter 25: 2, where it is "Elohim,"
and "her God," chapter 2: 17. But this is not
an exception: that is, it is recognised relationship with
the revealed God of Israel. Whereas in Ecclesiastes
Jehovah is never found. It is always Elohim, the abstract
name of God without any idea of relationship: God as such
in contrast with man and every creature, and man having
to find out experimentally his we place and happiness as
such, without special revealed relationship with God. In
Job the editor, if I may so speak, or historian who gives
the dialogues, always uses Jehovah; but in the body of
the book Job, unless at any late once as to the
government of God (chap. 12: 9), and Elihu constantly,
use the name of Almighty, the Abrahamic name of God, or
simply God. The friends generally use God, or
particularly Eliphaz the Almighty, sometimes it is only,
He. Zophar, I think, uses no name. The dialogue is
characterised by God or Almighty.
Introduction:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Chapter 1:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Esther Psalms
This version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1995 by L. Hodgett. Used by permission. The files of the Synopsis found on this site may not be reproduced without permission from L. J. L. Hodgett, Stem Publishing. A special thanks to L. J. L. Hodgett and Stem Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Darby's Synopsis of the Old Testament.
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
