A35538:1237
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second, being the five last, chapters of the book of Job being the substance of fifty-two lectures or meditations / by Joseph Caryl ...
London: printed by M. and S. Simmons, 1666
Title page typeset from the transcription.
AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical Observations UPON The Thirty-eighth, T… › Chapter 38 › Verse 39-41
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Now the Lord puts the question, Who provideth for the Raven? As if he had said, I provide not only for the Kingly Lion, but for the carrion-eating Raven. The Lord made provision of food for Lions and Ravens, for all sorts of beasts, and birds, and creeping things, in the work of Creation; and in his works of providence, he makes all things ready, and brings them to hand for ⟨p. 295⟩their use and sustentation: He, as it were, dresseth and disheth out meat for all his creatures, and then sets it before them, that they may eat and be satisfied.
Who provideth for the Raven?
The Hebrew word rendered provideth, hath two significations,1 which wonderfully set forth the care of God towards this creature: First, the certainty of their provision, for the word signifies to establish; as if the Lord did give them a necessary, settled, or constant diet. Secondly, It notes the suitableness and pleasingness of their food to their nature and constitution, yea, to their gust and appetite; as if the Lord fitted their food, as we say, to their tooth or palate, and gave them not only meat, but savoury meat to them (like that which Isaac bespake of his son Esau) such as they love; for though the food of Ravens be unpleasant to us, yet it is pleasing and toothsome and savoury to them. What the Lord provides for Ravens, is to them dainties and delicacies; carrion is so to them, because 'tis suitable to their nature, & such as their stomach likes very well. The suitableness of any food to our taste and palate, makes it delightful to us: What makes sin, which is as odious as a carrion or corrupt thing to God and good men, pleasant to carnal and wicked men, but the suitableness of it to their nature? they can feed upon sin as heartily and hungrily, as a Raven doth upon a putrefied carcass. And what's the reason that the ways of God are so pleasant to a godly man? is it not because his heart is made (through grace) suitable to them? To do the will of God is meat and drink to a godly man; but his soul being in a right frame) can no more delightfully do, any thing that is sinfully evil, than he can delight to feed bodily upon putrefaction or poison.