The Book of Job
Book of Job, 57
Job’s Regret and Our Own
Job 29:2-4
Pastor’s Opening
If Job here refers to the temporal prosperity which he had lost, we cannot condemn him for his complaint, neither can we commend him. It is but the expression of a natural regret, which would be felt by any man who had experienced such great reverses. But there is everywhere in the expressions which he uses such a strain of spirituality, that we are inclined to believe that he had more reference to the condition of his heart than to the state of his property. His soul was depressed; he had lost the light of God’s countenance; his inward comforts were declining, his joy in the Lord was at a low ebb, this he regretted far more than anything besides.
Scripture Citation and Verse(s)
Job 29:2-4
“Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle.”
Main Theme(s)
I. Regrets are BITTER.
II. Regrets are not INEVITABLE.
III. Regrets as those Job experienced are COMMON.
IV. Common regrets are NEEDFUL.
V. However, regrets BY THEMSELVES ARE USELESS.
VI. Regrets, that are necessary, are HUMBLING.
VII. Regrets, when humbling, are PROFITABLE.
VIII. If so, these regrets OUGHT NOT TO BE CONTINUAL.
