Sunday, August 14
JOB SINKING DEEPER, AS HE TALKS TO GOD
Job 10
Down through the ages there has been a continual conflict between reason and revelation. What will be authoritative for our lives -- the logical conclusions of our minds, or the truths revealed to us by God through His Word? This question has not only occupied the minds of people in centuries past, but it is a question that must be faced today. Unfortunately, the question is rarely asked. Most people operate from general assumptions, and one of the most powerful assumptions is that man’s logical reasoning is the most valid basis for authority. Man’s reason, aided especially by the teachings of the Enlightenment, rules. For a large portion of professing Christianity, God’s revelation is subject to the reason of man.
Let me put it practically: If the Bible reveals something about God that does not seem logically correct to you, how do you handle it? For example, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). We would all have to agree that this is a very clear statement. It is not difficult for us to decide what Jesus meant. The difficulty comes at this point: what Jesus said does not fit in with the logical thinking of the individual nor with the logical conclusions of the world at large. Surely God would not condemn a man who has faithfully followed his own religion. Surely God would not condemn a person who has lived a good moral life and helped others, just because he didn’t follow Jesus. Who can believe that God would condemn one who lives in a remote culture and has not had the opportunity to respond to Jesus? Do we receive what Jesus said, or must we subject it to our own logic? If there is a conflict between our reasoning and what the Bible reveals, which do we choose?
That brings us to Isaiah 55:6-11…
Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Notice especially those words in verses 8-9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways.” According to these verses, must we submit our thoughts to God’s thoughts, or can we submit God’s thoughts to our reasoning? If we believe what the Bible says, the answer is obvious. Even in our present religious society, we must swim upstream and maintain that because “God’s foolishness” is wiser than men, our reasoning must never bring God’s revelation into question. What God says is true and right, whether we understand it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we can explain it or not. We must continually remind ourselves that He is God. He knows and understands things that our minds are not capable of grasping. Our God is not obligated to explain everything He says and does, nor to tailor His actions to our liking. Since He is Creator and we are creature, we do well to receive what He says and adjust our lives accordingly.
And that brings us back to Job. We are in chapter 10 this morning. Bildad spoke to Job in chapter 8; Job is responding in chapters 9-10. In chapter 9, he spoke primarily to Bildad. Here in chapter 10, Job turns his attention to the Lord Himself. We see this in Job 10:2, “I will say to God…” Then Job continues to speak to the Lord throughout the chapter.
We are seeing and will continue to see that Job is tempted to rely upon his own reasoning power. What will he think and do when God does not seem to act in a way that he can understand? How will he respond to his own experience with God, when it doesn’t seem to make any sense at all? These are questions that are very appropriate for what we are going to read in chapter 10. Though Job wasn’t privileged with as much divine revelation as we possess, he did have a mind that was as highly developed as our own.
Before we read this chapter together, notice verse 1, “My soul loathes my life, I will give free course to my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.” That is a pretty good preview of this entire chapter. Take the three statements of verse 1 in reverse order. “I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.” That is a good description of verses 2-7. “I will give free course to my complaint,” and he certainly does that in verses 8-17. “My soul loathes my life.” Job returns to this theme in verses 18-22.
Now let’s go ahead and read Job 10…
"My soul loathes my life; I will give free course to my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 2 I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; Show me why You contend with me. 3 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? 4 Do You have eyes of flesh? Or do You see as man sees? 5 Are Your days like the days of a mortal man? Are Your years like the days of a mighty man, 6 That You should seek for my iniquity And search out my sin, 7 Although You know that I am not wicked, And there is no one who can deliver from Your hand? 8 'Your hands have made me and fashioned me, An intricate unity; Yet You would destroy me. 9 Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again? 10 Did you not pour me out like milk, And curdle me like cheese, 11 Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews? 12 You have granted me life and favor, And Your care has preserved my spirit. 13 'And these things You have hidden in Your heart; I know that this was with You: 14 If I sin, then You mark me, And will not acquit me of my iniquity. 15 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! 16 If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, And again You show Yourself awesome against me. 17 You renew Your witnesses against me, And increase Your indignation toward me; Changes and war are ever with me. 18 'Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me! 19 I would have been as though I had not been. I would have been carried from the womb to the grave. 20 Are not my days few? Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort, 21 Before I go to the place from which I shall not return, To the land of darkness and the shadow of death, 22 A land as dark as darkness itself, As the shadow of death, without any order, Where even the light is like darkness.' "
I. Foolish Questions (2-7)
So we will begin with foolish questions. Verses 2-7 consist of a series of questions. They are foolish in that Job is questioning the wisdom of the Almighty Creator. Remember, Job has said in verse 1, “I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.” Such bitterness is certainly seen in these questions.
Job prefaces his questions with the brief statement of verse 2, “Do not condemn me; show me why You contend with me.” Remember that these chapters are in the context of a legal setting. We see again and again legal terms used by Job and his friends. We would say that a man has a right to hear the charges brought against him. That is exactly what Job is saying to God. He doesn’t believe it is right for God to find him guilty without even revealing what the charges are. Job is pleading for God to lay out the charges so that he can answer them.
Then Job launches into this series of questions. Job is like a courtroom lawyer interrogating God. Verse 3, “Does it seem good to You that You should oppress?” Job wants to know if God finds it pleasurable to bring all these afflictions upon him. He then continues, “That You should despise the work of Your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?” (3:b). Job feels that God is oppressing him by despising the work of His hands. After all, it was God who made him. Job will expand on this concept in the next section. His complaint is that God has no regard for the man he created. Rather than favoring him, Job contends that God is favoring the designs of the wicked. Again, we would have to conclude that Job is wrong in his thinking. He has drawn a conclusion that is not borne out in the things that God has revealed about Himself. The Lord never smiles on the counsel of the wicked. He never favors what the wicked do nor what they plan. Rather, the Lord says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful” (Ps. 1:1). So how does Job come to this conclusion? By looking at the things that are happening to him and finding no good reason for it. If he can’t find a logical reason for his affliction, then he can’t understand how God could have a reason. If there is a reason, he wants to know what it is.
Verse 4-5, “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?” Any of us can easily answer those questions. What is the answer? NO. God is not like any human being. He does not see as man sees. His days are not like those of mortal men, all of whom will one day come to the grave. The age span of the mightiest of men can never be like the years of Almighty God. If these questions can be answered so easily, then why does Job ask these things? Does he not know the answer? Job is hoping that God will look deeper than man looks. He figures that the Lord ought to have more insight into his spiritual condition than his three human friends. But in despair, he strongly implies that God was acting like a finite man who was limited by time.
Verse 6, “That You should seek for my iniquity and search out my sin?” Job was sure that his three friends were convinced of his great sin. But surely God looked deeper. He who created Job was capable of searching his life completely and identifying every iniquity and sin. God knows everything about every person He created. There is nothing hidden from his eyes. Not even the things in the depth of our being are hidden from Him. He sees and He knows. Job objects to the fact that God doesn’t seem to be any different than his friends. As they conclude that Job has committed great sins, so the Lord seems to have done the same. But it should not be so, for the Lord knows the truth. And that leads us to the next verse.
Verse 7, “Although You know that I am not wicked, and there is no one who can deliver from Your hand.” Because the Lord is able to search out the depths of a man, surely he knows that Job is not the wicked man his friends portray him to be. Job was absolutely confident that even when God searched every area of his life, He would find nothing that would deserve the kind of suffering he was presently enduring. The unspoken but implied question is this: “Why do you punish me like this, when you know that I am not guilty?”
Job has concluded that God could not possibly have any good reason for causing him to suffer this way. Nevertheless, he is fully aware that there is no higher court to which he can appeal. “There is no one who can deliver from Your hand.” In our system of justice it is common for men to appeal to a higher court, but there is no place of appeal for Job, for there is no one higher than God. No one can rescue from His hand.
So why do I call these foolish questions? They make a lot of sense, at least in the mind of Job. It is foolish to question God in such a way that tries to force God to think and act on our terms. No courtroom lawyer has a right to question God. Job was not questioning as a humble, penitent sinner before God. Rather, he was proceeding to interrogate the God of the universe.
II. Flawed Reasoning (8-17)
Now we move from Job’s foolish questions to his flawed reasoning. It is really more of the same, but the approach is a bit different. Rather than a series of questions, Job now focuses on one sustained theme. He seems to think that he has the power of well-reasoned logic on his side. His contention is basically this: “God, you have created me so that you can destroy me.” We would have to say that this is a rather serious charge to level against God.
Verse 8, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity.” Here again we see that Job is capable of speaking great truth. His words call to mind David’s words in Ps. 139:13-16…
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.
Job’s words are a good summary of David’s more detailed statement. He is absolutely right in saying that the Lord made him and fashioned him.
Job doesn’t stop there. Verse 8b, “Yet You would destroy me.” The ESV reads, “Your hands fashioned me, and now you have destroyed me altogether.” The NIV and the NASV render it as a question: “Will you destroy me?” [Translators must supply the punctuation]. Whether statement or question, the impact is the same. Job accuses God of creating him so that He might destroy him. That makes no sense to him; he can’t understand how it can be so.
Verse 9, “Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again?” It is difficult to read this without thinking of what God said to Adam after he and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Gen. 3:19, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Job was certainly subject to that judgment; he would certainly return to dust. However, Job was speaking of a more immediate judgment. In an accusing tone, he was asking the Lord if he was going to continue destroying him at the present time. The idea of verses 8-9 is simply this, “Why would You make me, if You were going to turn around and destroy me?”
Verses 10-11, “Did you not pour me out like milk, And curdle me like cheese, 11 Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews?” This is a rather poetic description of God forming a baby in the womb, much like what we read from Psalm 139. I don’t know why Job used these specific images of milk and cheese, but it does point to development. As liquid milk becomes a more solid cheese, so the human embryo develops steadily through its various stages. Then later the Lord provides skin, bones, veins, and muscles. Job is again simply reminding God of how personally and carefully He had made him.
Now Job turns from the strictly physical to the spiritual aspect in verse 12, “You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit.” Not only did God create his physical body, but He also chose to rain down upon him His covenant love. Let’s go back and read again the first five verses of the book of Job. Read Job 1:1-5…
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. 2 And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. 4 And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did regularly.
Job was richly blessed by God. Not only was it a physical thing, but Job recalls how God’s care had preserved his spirit. Now the big question is, “What happened? How can it be that You have suddenly turned against me?” Job could not understand how God could destroy all He had labored to accomplish in His servant.
Now verse 13, “And these things You have hidden in Your heart; I know that this was with you.” ESV, “Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose.” Do you catch what he is saying? Simply that God knew all along His plan to destroy Job, but He concealed the plan in His own heart and didn’t give Job so much as a clue. Job cannot understand why God would be so cruel as to be so kind to him for so long, while planning his destruction from the beginning.
Verses 14-15, “If I sin, then You mark me, And will not acquit me of my iniquity. 15 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!” Job returns to the truth that God is able to search out a man’s life and find his sin. He says that when God finds out his sin, He does not acquit him. He is not really talking about forgiveness. Rather, he is saying that God would not count him innocent of great sin. But Job has no quarrel with that. “If I am wicked, woe to me.” In other words, “If it is true that I have committed some great wickedness, then I will take the punishment I deserve.” But Job continues to contend that he has not done any great wicked deed that would occasion such great suffering. And that’s where his problem is. Even though he is innocent, he can’t lift up his head. He is full of disgrace and misery. How can it be this way?
Verse 16, “If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, and again You show Yourself awesome against me.” Some would say that the lifting up of the head is a symbol of arrogance and pride, but that is not the case with David, who said, “For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me…” (Ps. 27:5-6). Put Job’s statement in the context of the previous verse (15). “I can’t lift up my head… But even when I am able to lift my head, you hunt me down like a fierce lion would do.” As the power of the lion is great indeed, so Job sees God as showing His awesome power against His servant. The same power He used to create Job He is now using to hunt him down and destroy him. How different it was for David, who often described the Lord as his Shepherd.
Verse 17, “You renew Your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation toward me; changes and war are ever with me.” The witnesses he speaks of are the continual sufferings that come his way. They come one after another. One subsides, and the Lord sends another. The afflictions are witnesses in that they seem to testify to the world and even to Job’s three friends that he is a notoriously wicked sinner. Job sees this as another way that God increases His indignation against Job.
Then Job says, “Changes and war are ever with me” (17b). Interpretations of this statement differ. The changes may refer to the great changes that have occurred in Job’s circumstances. While he was a man of prosperity and dignity, now he has been reduced to a poor man who despises his own life. Or Job may be using the term to continue to speak of the onslaught of afflictions that are descending upon him. The word translated “changes” was used to speak of changes of clothes, as well as to soldiers keeping watch until they are relieved by a succeeding guard. This last usage fits well with “war,” which more literally refers to an army. Job pictures God sending his troops against him. This is what is behind the NIV translation: “your forces come against me wave upon wave,” as well as the ESV: “you bring fresh troops against me.”
As you can see, Job pursues his reasoning in great detail. His basic contention is that God has created him so that he can destroy him. Then he develops the details, picturing God as a fierce lion and as the commander bringing against him endless waves of troops. But Job’s reasoning is flawed. In spite of the way it appears to Job, God did not create him in order to destroy him. Again, God’s ways are higher than the ways of men and his thoughts are higher than ours.
Brothers and sisters, we must never let our circumstances inform us as to the character of God. Praise God that we have far more revelation than Job had. When we get to chapter 38 and God begins to speak to Job, you may argue with that, suggesting that Job had more revelation because God spoke to him directly. No, we have far more revelation than Job had. We have all of the scriptures. We have supreme revelation of the Son and what He did through His death and resurrection. Though God spoke directly to Job, He did not reveal as much as He has revealed to us. May we always look to the Lord’s revelation to form our view of Him.
III. Faulty Conclusion (18-22)
Job has asked his foolish questions and displayed his flawed reasons. Now we come to his last words of this discourse. What is his conclusion? As we will see, he adds to his foolish questions and his flawed reasoning a faulty conclusion. Let’s read it in 10:18-22…
'Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me! 19 I would have been as though I had not been. I would have been carried from the womb to the grave. 20 Are not my days few? Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort, 21 Before I go to the place from which I shall not return, To the land of darkness and the shadow of death, 22 A land as dark as darkness itself, As the shadow of death, without any order, Where even the light is like darkness.' "
So what is Job’s conclusion? He concludes that it would have been better if he had not been born of if he had died shortly after birth. “Why did you bring me out of the womb? If you chose to do that, then why didn’t you let me die before anyone laid eyes on me? Then I could have gone straight from the womb to the grave.” Does that sound familiar? Go back to chapter 3, where Job spoke to his friends the first time. 3:3-4, "May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.' 4 May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it.” Job wished he had never been born. 3:11-13, "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? 13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest.” If he had to be born, he wished he could have died at birth. Then he could have missed all the suffering that he is being forced to endure. Job’s thinking has not changed since chapter 3.
Now 10:20-21a, “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…” Now listen to Job. “I just have a few days left. Could you please just leave me alone and let me have a little peace and quiet before I die?” Do you detect a bit of self-pity in Job’s attitude? “This isn’t what I deserve, but if this is all there is, at lease give me a few moments of peace before I die.”
Listen again to his description of that land to which he will go. 21b-22, “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.” What a cheery outlook! If I count right, in this brief statement he uses “dark/darkness” four times and “the shadow of death” twice. He mentions light, but he says that the light is like darkness.
If you are counting, you will notice that this is the third time Job has spoken to his friends. If you prefer, this is Job’s third speech. Each time he has ended by speaking about death (the first time -- chapter 3 -- that is about all he talked about). Job believed that death was preferable to a life of suffering and agony. Obviously, he does not paint a rosy picture of death. Wednesday evening we sang…
There is coming a day when no heartaches shall come
No more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye.
All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
There'll be no sorrow there, no more burdens to bear,
No more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there;
That’s what Job was singing -- no heartaches, no tears, rest, no burdens, no sickness, no pain. He saw death as the absence of the suffering in life. But Job couldn’t sing the end of the second verse and the chorus…
And forever I will be with the One who died for me,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
Praise God that this is our song, when we truly know God through His Son Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
There are questions about the Old Testament conception of death and what comes afterward. If it weren’t for some later statements that Job made, we would get the idea that Job had little or no hope. But with all of our questions, we know two things. First of all, Job’s view was clouded by the pain and suffering he was enduring. He was not able to count it all joy when he encountered various trials (James 1:2). He did not glory in tribulations (Rom. 5:3). He did not consider his present troubles to be a light affliction (II Cor. 4:17).
The second thing we know is that God will enable us, His children, to endure the sufferings of this life with grace, and even with joy. But how can that be? If Job, a man who was blameless and upright, who blessed God after losing his ten children… if that man could only wish for death in the face of suffering, how can we hope to do better? This is where we look away from Job and look to Jesus. Someone might say that Job, because he lived before the cross, could not have done any better. We could argue about that, but what we can’t dispute about is what God expects of His children now. Like Paul, we can indeed say, “…We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:3-5 NKJV). Yes, we can count it all joy in the face of various trials. How can we do that? We can do it because we have Jesus living within us, because we are “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2).
I remind you that Jesus suffered far greater affliction than any man who ever lived, including Job. Just this week someone sent me an email about the death of Jesus. It goes on and on about the severe physical suffering that Jesus endured -- the beating, the nails, the bleeding, the humiliation from the crowd. Then suddenly comes the punch line: “Jesus had to endure this experience, so that you can have free access to God. So that your sins could be washed away.” NO! It isn’t true. All of that did not provide forgiveness for even one sin. Other men have endured similar physical treatment. In some senses Job’s physical suffering may have been greater than that of Jesus. After all, his suffering lasted for months. Some of the modern martyrs have had indescribable things done to them. Please hear me. The cross is not about the physical suffering of Jesus. You say, “Are you making light of it.” No, but it is a light thing compared to the real suffering. Jesus, who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. Because He bore our sins on the tree, He took upon Himself the wrath of God.
That’s why we who belong to Him are not the same any more. We are being transformed by the One who became our sacrifice and then rose from the grave to live forever more. And because He lives, we live also. We don’t just exist on this earth; we live in Him. And regardless of what comes our way, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (II Cor. 4:17-18). “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).
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