Introduction
‘I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. I say to God: Do not declare me guilty, but tell me what charges you have against me. Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked? Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees? Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a strong man, that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin—though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand? “Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you moulded me like clay. Will you now turn me to 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 gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.’ Job 10:1-12
Job Continues With His Response
Because Job had by this time reasoned that he was guilty of something, He now begins by asking God to stop tormenting him or show him his sin. He praises God for His creation but in the next breath charges God as being inconsistent. In other words, he still didn’t trust that God would do what is right, Genesis 18:25.
Even though the questions seem like insults, Job asserted that it wasn’t logical for God to oppress that which He created, and at the same time shine with favour on the wicked. He asks, does God have eyes of flesh, God is spirit, John 4:24. ‘Eyes’ is a metaphor that refers to God’s knowledge of Job’s predicament.
He says that no one can deliver him, God could, but please note that Job didn’t question the existence of an all-powerful and benevolent God.
Because he was frustrated with his life and didn’t understand what was going on, he only sought to understand the plan of God in reference to his existence and suffering. The answer to Job’s supposed predicament is in the fact that God can do all that can be done.
Notice Job says man is like a vessel of clay, shaped by a potter. Man is like cheese, poured out by a cheesemaker and man is like a garment, woven by a weaver.
Job knows that God is the Potter and he is the clay, Psalm 139:14 and he knows that man comes from the dust of the earth, Genesis 2:7 / Psalms 103:14.
He thinks that God is trying to destroy him, Job 2:6, Job questioned why God would have created man in the first place. The answer is in the fact that God is a God of love. We cannot point the finger at God and say you don’t know what it is like because He does.
‘But this is what you concealed in your heart, and I know that this was in your mind: If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished. If I am guilty—woe to me! Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, for I am full of shame and drowned in my affliction. If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion and again display your awesome power against me. You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me; your forces come against me wave upon wave. “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness, to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.” Job 10:13-22
Remember Job has got no idea that Satan is the one behind his suffering and so, he now seeks to understand the concealed purposes of God. What confuses him was that regardless of his righteous living, he had to suffer such great trouble in his life, John 16:33 / 2 Timothy 3:12.
Job began to conclude that God’s infliction in his life was His judgment, that he was in some way guilty. If God had inflicted him because of some guilt, then he questioned why God created him in the first place, Romans 8:18.
He feels like he’s being hunted down, being stalked like a lion.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘As the hunters attack the king of beasts in the forest, so my friends attack me. They assail me on every side.’
Job then goes back to his death wish but in the end, he wants God to simply leave him alone. Notice the words he uses to describe how’s he feeling.
Mason, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Finally, he resorts to using no less than four different Hebrew words for ‘darkness,’ translated variously as ‘midnight black,’ ‘the shadow of death,’ ‘the land of murk and chaos,’ ‘where confusion reigns,’ ‘where light itself is like the dead of night,’ and so on. Job masses these words together, piling one on top of another for a cumulative effect as solemn and impressive as anything in Shakespeare.’
Job must have been glad God didn’t leave him alone or let him die.
