Job 13:27

A Prisoner In The Stocks

Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks. Job 13:27.

If you had lived a hundred years ago you would have been better able to appreciate this text. The punishment of the stocks has quite gone out of fashion, but if you had lived then you might often have seen a man sitting on a bench on the village green with his ankles and perhaps his wrists thrust through a wooden board in front of him. And possibly a crowd of little village boys would stand around making fun.

If you had asked anybody why that man was sitting there, they would have told you that he had been found guilty of some small offence such as trespassing or disturbing the peace and that he had been put in the stocks for a few hours as a punishment. Away in the New England States they even put people in the stocks for Sabbath-breaking. I fancy they would require a large supply of stocks nowadays if that law was still around!

Now I don't think the stocks could have been at all a comfortable form of punishment. I think you and I would have much preferred being put into prison for a day and being kept on bread and water. There you were set, with the boards firmly fixed down on your ankles and wrists, and there they sat for hours with your arms and legs held in one position until it pleased the powers that were to let you out. You must have felt very stiff and sore before you were released.

In our text Job says that God has put his feet in the stocks. What does he mean by that? Well, I think he just means that God has hedged him in on every side, that God has fixed him down in a certain position and that he can't move out of it. He can't alter his life, he can't alter his circumstances. He must just submit to God's way for him.

Now don't you think we are often placed very much as Job was? Our feet are put in the stocks.

At home we are often prevented from doing the things we want to do, and we don't at all like it. We want to go out on a certain day, and we have a bit of a cold and the rain is pouring, and mother says, “No, you must stay at home,” and we feel very sullen. Or we are reading a book or a website that we know we ought not to be reading, and father comes and takes it from us, and we are very angry. Or mother forbids us to make friends with certain boys and girls, and we feel very annoyed. Father and mother put our feet in the stocks.

At school it is just the same. We have to conform to certain rules, we have to prepare our lessons unless we wish to be left hopelessly behind and sometimes it is all very irritating. The schoolmaster puts our feet in the stocks.

And often the same thing holds good in life. We want to go out into the big world and fight our way, we want to do grand things and exciting things, and we are compelled to stay at home. We have brains; we want to go to the university or enter a profession, and we have to help father in his workshop to make money to buy bread and butter for the younger ones. We are clever, or artistic, or musical, and mother needs us at home to sweep and dust and wash the dishes. Or perhaps we are just fixed where we are by poverty, or ill-health, or a sick relative. God is putting our feet in the stocks. It is very hard to bear, and we are inclined to rebel.

Now if your feet are in the stocks (and I think everybody's are in one way or another), will you try to remember this? When we are restricted like that it is always for one of two reasons, and both of them are good.

1. Sometimes our feet are put in the stocks to keep us out of danger.

When the present King of Spain was six years old he had a birthday, just like every little boy or girl; but as he was an only child and a very important person besides, he received a great many presents. Among the presents were dozens and dozens of boxes of beautiful sweets. Everybody seemed to be trying to out do everybody else in the grandeur of those confections.

When the king saw them he wanted them all at once. His mother said, “No,” but she gave in to him so far. He was allowed to have one sweet out of each box. The rest were put past to be given away. The king began his feast, but before he had got half round the boxes he turned very sick and ill. For days he lay between life and death, rand it was only the good nursing he received that brought him round again.

The coloring matter that made some of the sweets look so attractive and pretty was slightly poisonous. If the Queen Mother had been wiser and had restricted her son to half a dozen sweets, all might have been well, but in the mistaken kindness of her heart she had allowed him a large number, and the result was nearly fatal.

Now when father and mother forbid you to do things you want to do, when they take away dangerous books from you, or keep you from bad companions, they are really removing poisoned sweets out of your reach. Some day you will realize what they have done for you and will thank them, although just at present you may find their restraint very hard to bear.

And God is just like father and mother. When He puts our feet in the stocks it is always for our good. He often puts them there to keep us back from the things that would hurt us. We may not be able to see it now, but some day we shall know and understand, and we shall thank Him for His wisdom and loving-kindness.

A famous minister tells the story of a little boy who wanted to go out one afternoon. The rain was falling fast and his governess suggested that they should pray for the rain to stop, but the little fellow asked, “Do you suppose God wants it to rain?” “Yes,” replied his governess. “Then,” said the small boy, “I think it would be safer to let Him have His own way.”

Yes, it is always safer to let God have His own way. He is far wiser than we are, and far more loving, and He will never send us anything that is not for our good.

2. Sometimes our feet are put in the stocks to make us stronger and better and more useful.

A South African minister tells us about a wonderful vine he saw growing out there. Never had he seen such a luxuriant vine. It spread far and wide and climbed over everything within its reach, but it had no fruit. Do you know the reason? It had not been pruned. It had been allowed to grow just as it liked, and it had grown all to leaves and tendrils.

And when father and mother restrain us and restrict us, when God puts our feet in the stocks, it is often to make us better, and purer, and stronger.

Don't rebel then, boys and girls, when things don't go just as you want them. Take it sensibly, take it like a big boy or girl, and you will become strong, and brave, and pure.