JOB 10
OPENS WITH WHAT JOB WOULD SAY TO GOD
Verses 1-7 tells us Job would ask God, "Why are You doing this?"
"My soul loathes my life;
I will give free course to my complaint,
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me;
Show me why You contend with me.
Does it seem good to You that You should oppress,
That You should despise the work of Your hands,
And smile on the counsel of the wicked?
Do You have eyes of flesh?
Or do You see as man sees?
Are Your days like the days of a mortal man?
Are Your years like the days of a mighty man,
That You should seek for my iniquity
And search out my sin,
Although You know that I am not wicked,
And there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?"
It seems that Job believed that he had NOT yet begun to complain. And we need to remember that God is the author of Job. This tells us that God DOES hear our cries, our thoughts, our groanings, and our tears...even though right now Job does not realize God is hearing every single word and thought of his righteous servant Job.
ANDERSON says it well, "Such a poem is called a complaint, a moaning appeal to God's compassion. The parallel phrase the bitterness of my soul describes misery, but not sourness."
Do not condemn me; show me why You contend with me...
SMICK explains it well, "The meaning of [do not condemn me] is literally 'treat a person as wicked.' That was Job's problem with God. It appeared to him that the Almighty was giving him what a wicked man deserved when he knew Job was not a wicked man."
It is a remarkable fact, apparently unobserved by commentators, but very revealing of Job's mind, that in none of his petitions does he make the obvious request for his sickness to be cured. As if everything will be all right when he is well again! That would not answer the question which is more urgent than every other concern: Why Lord? Show me how I have failed and shamed you and any wickedness I am unaware of.
The tried SAINT may ask as Job did, "Show me why You contend with me." Spurgeon suggested several answers:
- It may be that God is contending with you to show you His power to uphold you.
- It may be that God is contending with you go develop your graces.
- It may be that God is contending with you because you have some secret sin that is doing you great damage.
- It may be that God is contending with you because He wants you to enter the fellowship of His sufferings.
- It may be that God is contending with you to humble you.
The seeking SINNER might also ask as Job did, "Show me why You contend with me." Spurgeon suggested several answers to the seeking sinner:
- It may be that God is contending with you because you are not yet thoroughly awakened to your lost condition.
- It may be that God is contending with you in order to test your earnestness.
- It may be that God is contending with you because you are harboring one sin that you will not turn over to Him.
- It may be that God is contending with you because you do not yet thoroughly understand the plan of salvation.
Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, that You should despise the work of your hands...
Job vented more and more TO God. "Does this make you happy? I am the work of your hands, and look at how you are treating me!"
Do You have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?
Job clearly knew that God was not limited in His vision as humans are; yet by the facts Job had seen and experienced, it seemed like God saw him with the same shallow and superficial vision that his friends used.
Although You know that I am not wicked...
Job appealed to God's knowledge of Job and his character. Of course, God agreed with Job's self-estimation, even saying that Job was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1). But remember Job knows none of Job 1-2, which God himself shares with us.
Yet Job's present distress twisted his perception of God, to the point where he could not see what could only be seen by the eye of faith that goes beyond the sight of present circumstances.
Verses 8-12 tells us Job would ask, "I am Your creation: Why do You afflict me?"
" 'Your hands have made me and fashioned me,
An intricate unity;
Yet You would destroy me.
Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay.
And will You turn me into dust again?
Did you not pour me out like milk,
And curdle me like cheese,
Clothe me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with bones and sinews?
You have granted me life and favor,
And Your care has preserved my spirit.' "
Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity...
Job was a smart scientist and knew that God was the author of creation and specifically of mankind. He had the same understanding as the Psalmist who said, I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well (Psalm 139:14).
In mentioning You have made me like clay and will You turn me into dust again Job even seemed to understand that mankind came from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7).
In wonderful poetry, Job illustrated the fashioning of his body by three pictures:
- Man is like a vessel of clay, shaped by a potter (Job 10:9).
- Man is like a cheese, poured out by a cheese maker (Job 10:10).
- Man is like a garment, woven by a weaver (Job 10:11).
Yet You would destroy me...
Job knew that God created him; now he felt that God wanted to destroy him. What Job did not know is that God had strictly forbade this calamity to end in death (Job 2:6). We can sympathize with what Job felt, and we understand that he could not know this. Yet we also know the truth from the heavenly scene behind the earthly scene.
You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit...
Job could not deny God's past work in his life as creator and as preserver; yet all that made things more problematic, not less. The depth of his experience told him, "Why has the same God who created me and preserved me now so obviously abandoned me?"
In Job 10:12, Job actually thanked God for three wonderful things:
- Life (You have granted me life)
- Divine Favor (You have granted me … favor)
- Divine Visitation (Your care has preserved my spirit)
Verses 13-17 tells us Job asks God to reveal a sinful cause within Job himself.
"And these things You have hidden in Your heart;
I know that this was with You:
If I sin, then You mark me,
And will not acquit me of my iniquity.
If I am wicked, woe to me;
Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
I am full of disgrace;
See my misery!
If my head is exalted,
You hunt me like a fierce lion,
And again You show Yourself awesome against me.
You renew Your witnesses against me,
And increase Your indignation toward me;
Changes and war are ever with me."
These things You have hidden in Your heart; I know that this was with You...
Job begins to touch on the core of the problem that stirred inside of him. He knew that God knew all the causes and answers for Job's condition; yet God did not tell Job.
Again, because of Job 1 and 2, we are in the curious position of knowing what Job did not know. The causes and intentions of Job's present calamity were hidden in God and were hidden to Job, but God has shared with the reader of the Book of Job what Job himself did not know.
It is easy to read the Book of Job assuming that Job himself knew what happened in the heavenly realms as recorded in the first two chapters of the book. The reader of the Book of Job must resist this assumption and instead empathize with Job, knowing that it was just as difficult for him to comprehend the workings of the spiritual realm as it is for us.
If I am wicked, woe to me...
Job's friends insisted that the disasters of his life came upon him because of some particular iniquity or wickedness within him. Job protested that this was not the case; and here he again states the thought.
You hunt me like a fierce lion, and again You show Yourself awesome against me...
Job felt as though God were no help to him at all in his present distress. Instead, he felt as though he were prey for God, who came against him like a fierce lion.
Verses 18-22 tells us Job asks God to leave him alone.
'Why then have You brought me out of the womb?
Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me!
I would have been as though I had not been.
I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Are not my days few?
Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort,
Before I go to the place from which I shall not return,
To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,
A land as dark as darkness itself,
As the shadow of death, without any order,
Where even the light is like darkness.'"
Why then have You brought me out of the womb?
Job here returned to a theme first found in Job 3. He felt that it would be better if he had never been born.
Job FELT these thoughts because he could not see any sense in His suffering. His friends saw sense (Job suffered because he has sinned, and this is his proper correction), but Job knew they were wrong. We see sense because we know what Job did not know from the first two chapters of the book. Even though Job could not see it, it was real nonetheless.
It would have completely changed Job's situation if he could see by faith the invisible, or at least comfort himself in the understanding that there were invisible dynamics in heavenly places that made sense of his situation.
Cease! Leave me alone...
At this point in the story, Job would simply prefer that God would leave him alone. He did not recognize that it was only because God did not leave him alone that he had endured this far and was not completely destroyed by either the devil or despair.
MORGAN says it well, "As we read it we feel that the suggestions which Job made about God were entirely wrong: but we remember that they were not wicked, because they were honest."
To the land of darkness and shadow of death...
The Book of Job well reflects the difficult apprehension of the truth of the afterlife in the Old Testament. Statements of murky, near-despair like this are combined with occasional declarations of triumphant, confident faith (as in Job 19:25, I know that my Redeemer lives … and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God).
This cloudy understanding of the afterlife in the Old Testament does not surprise the reader of the New Testament, who knows that Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10).