Job Chapters 6 and 7
Job is responding to Eliphaz. (See previous post)
Job begins by expressing how heavy his level of frustration is. I have also experienced high levels of frustration. No matter how much you hold on to God, it is a challenging experience to deal with things that you do not understand. Especially as those events continue or even get worse. I have learned to never day, "But at least it can't get any worse!" Job is learning the same. The experience is so heavy upon him that he wishes he were dead, that God would crush him and get it over with.
Verse 10 is an interesting one...
This would be my comfort;
I would even exult in pain unsparing,
for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
So we see that even in this crushing time, he will not slander his God. He finds comfort in this.
Verse 24 carries these words...
“Teach me, and I will be silent;
make me understand how I have gone astray.
At first I thought Job was speaking these words to God, but now I think they are a question for Eliphaz. Eliphaz has basically laid the blame for Job's treatment at Job's feet. That this was God's response for some secret sin of Job's. But Job is not accepting this. Teach me my error, show me where I have gone wrong, is Job's response to this line of thinking.
In verses 28-30, Job continues...
“But now, be pleased to look at me,
for I will not lie to your face.
Please turn; let no injustice be done.
Turn now; my vindication is at stake.
Is there any injustice on my tongue?
Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?
Does this cound like a guilty man? Or does it sound like a man who is honestly pleading to be shown his error, if there be one.
Chapter 7:1-6 reveal job's thinking...
“Has not man a hard service on earth,
and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle
and come to their end without hope.
To me, he is saying that God, and not Job is in control. (An early Calvinist, perhaps?) Job's misery was not his choice, nor was it a response for his behavior, but more a part of his "allotted months of emptiness." He was merely a slave in the hand of God
Job finishes with verses 16-22...
16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
17 What is man, that you make so much of him,
and that you set your heart on him,
18 visit him every morning
and test him every moment?
19 How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?
21 Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.”
Some of these verses remind me of Jesus, and perhaps what he felt in the garden. That was his human side showing, and perhaps that is just was is happening with Job here. He knows who God is and that God is sovereign and in control, but it is hard. He questions, "Why does God even care about man at all? Our lives are but a breath, a mist, so short in the realm of eternity. I love verse 20. Even though David knew that when he sinned, he sinned against God, Job shows us that our sin does not make God any lesser of a God
Verse 21 reminds me of Christ on the cross and in the tomb. Suffering for our transgressions, though He was innocent.
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