Protection of Grace.
Job 1:10 NASB
Have You not made a hedge ABOUT him
and his house and all that he has, on every side?
You have blessed the work of his hands,
and his possessions have increased in the land.
Study
In this verse we may see and learn
- That the protection which God gives to His people and servants annoys, frustrates, and worries Satan, and of all his instruments.
- That Satan, the father of lies, also sometimes speaks truth, if it is in his own advantage.
- That the people and servants of God dwell need God’s protection and blessings to keep standing in the midst of enemies, in the midst of dangers.
- That God Himself takes care to guard and protect His people.
- That the protecting fence is not only on every side about the person who follows Him, but also about his household, and about all that he has. Even his smallest, and least valuable posession was hedged about.
Satan thought that Job was a good man just because God took special care of him.
Satan will often say that of good men; and some of us have been guilty of repeating it.
We sometimes may think that God is protecting others better, or more than He protects us, and that the best people are as good as they are, just because of some special protection which God has granted them.
The word “hedge” denotes that which protects or guards.
Why does the farmer raise a hedge all round his field?
▪︎ It is to protect what belongs to him,
▪︎ it is to protect his cattle from wandering of,
▪︎ and it is to show what his property is.
God does this is putting a hedge ABOUT us for the same reasons
He seeks to protect all our lives.
There are many hedges, or fences that we hardly ever noticed, and therefore certainly have never properly valued.
God has given some of us a hedge in the example and teaching of good and pious parents;
▪︎ in the influence of good teachers;
▪︎ in the form of good companionships;
▪︎ in the discipline we have to undergo in the home,
▪︎ in the school,
▪︎ and in life.
A hedge not only shelters, it often keeps us from wandering.
Sometimes we do not like hedges; we should like to see more of the country, and wander at will.
A farmer is fencing his cattle in …
▪︎ to prevent they get lost in the desert and die there,
▪︎ to prevent they fall in a river and drown,
▪︎ to prevent they would walk on a nearby highway and die there
God’s way of fencing us in, is His way to protect us from dangers, even from dangers we don’t see, and from dangers we don’t even know they exist.
God’s way of fencing us in, is not always by sending us blessings which we are pleased to accept, but sometimes by sending us sorrow and trials.
God’s hedges keep us where He wants us, where He knows we are safe, and guard us against going astray.
That was the kind of hedge that Job did not like.
And That’s the kind of hedge that most of us don’t like either.
The farmer sometimes even plants thorns in his hedges, and we must not be surprised if God does this as well.
x O x
Hast not thou made an hedge about him?
i.e. “hedged him around, protected him, made a sort of invisible fence about him, through which no evil could creep.”
This was undoubtedly true.
God had so protected him.
But the question was not as to this fact, but as to Job’s motive.
Was it mere prudence? – the desire to secure a continuance of this protection?
And about his house
i.e. “his family” – his sons and daughters – the members of his household.
And about all that he hath on every side.
His possessions – land, houses, cattle, live stock of all kinds, furniture, goods and chattels.
Thou hast blessed the work of his hands (comp. Psalm 1:3, where it is said of the righteous man. that “whatsoever he doeth, it shall prosper”). So it was with Job.
God’s blessing was upon him, and success crowned all his enterprises.
“The work of his hands” will include everything that he attempted.
And his substance is increased in the land.
In the former clause we have the cause of God’s blessing;
in the latter the effect, a great increase in Job’s “substance,” or “cattle” (On the final number of his cattle, see verse 3).
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