Job Questions God
“Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul….. I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.” Job 7:11,16
Job had listened to Eliphaz, the first of his s0-called friends, who, instead of offering some sympathy for Job’s miserable condition, berate him for his supposed sins which had caused his painful situation. I am reminded of something that my Daddy used to say. He said that he would rather take a beating than have someone scold him verbally. Poor old Job. He had suffered a beating and a severe scolding. Job then replied to Eliphaz, wanting to know if there was any proof of the accusations made against him. Job maintained that he was a righteous man unjustly punished. He had just a few mores words for Eliphaz and then turned his attention to the LORD, venting his frustrations and wanting some answers.
Job asked about man’s appointed time on earth. Ecclesiastes 3:2 tells us that there is a time to be born and a time to die. Life is short and filled with sorrow. It seems like yesterday when we breathed our first breath, and it will seem like tomorrow when we take our last. Job compared a man’s life to that of a slave: he comes alive, he works, he suffers, and then he dies. We do not know how long Job had been suffering but it must have been for quite some time because he said that he had been living through months of emptiness, nothing for which to look forward, nothing but useless and weary time, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month. The days were long and difficult and the nights no better. It must have been difficult for his friends to look at him with his awful sores oozing pus and scabs covering his body. If he had any hope at all, it was that all this would come to an end soon in death. He was lower than a snake’s belly.
Job may have sensed that his friends were becoming weary of his complaints and thus he began to speak directly to the LORD. He asked Him to consider that his frailty and the brevity of life was like the wind, here today and gone tomorrow, as if the wind had come upon him suddenly without warning and took everything that he held precious from him and would soon take him as well as if he had never even existed. James 4:14b asks “For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Job’s futile outlook demonstrates that men and women cannot successfully base their hope in temporal, earthly things. There are some good and happy times in life, but as one gets older, he or she sees little good in what’s left of the earthly life. Believers can look forward to continual joy in heaven with the Lord and with those who have gone before them, but what thoughts do the unbelievers have as they age? Where do they turn for hope?
Job believed in God, but his pain caused him to speak his mind. He felt that all he had left was his voice, and he was determined to use it for what was left of his life to complain in the anguish of his spirit. I suppose that he felt that he would explode if he didn’t vent his misery through his words of bitterness. He didn’t hold back. Even so, God never threatened to destroy him. When the Hebrew people murmured while journeying to the promised land, God threatened to wipe them out, but Moses intervened. Their troubles had been of their own making, but Job’s troubles were due to the devil’s challenge to God to hurt Job so that he would curse God. Job was unaware of the fact that he was, I suppose, a “test case” to benefit the sovereignty of God, to reveal his own faith and knowledge, and to undermine the deceit of Satan. Job hated his life as it was now. He wanted God and everyone else to just leave him alone and let him die to escape his life of emptiness.
Job asked God the same question that King David did in Psalm 8:4 and one that many students of God’s word have asked throughout many generations (paraphrasing): “God, why do You care about man? Why did You create him when You knew beforehand how he would rebel and sin against You? Why does such a holy, glorious, and magnificent God deal with such a lowly, sinful, and pathetic creature as man?” God gave man dominion over the earth and made him just a little lower than the angels. He has nothing but love in His heart for His creation. He crowned man with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5). But why? Why does God care that men and women are made right before Him? In the old gospel song, “He Loves Me”, one line states: “…would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I”. Jesus came to earth to teach men and women the right way to live before God and then gave Himself for the final sacrifice so that folks could be forgiven and rise above their sinful lives into new lives lived for Christ. God never takes His eyes off of His people.
Job continued to question God by asking the question that has been asked many times by many people: “Why me LORD?” He wanted to know what he could do to appease God. Why was he made a burden to himself? He knew that God was a God of love and forgiveness who pardons sins of those who are repentant, so why not pardon him? He said that he would soon leave this earth, and when God looked for him, he would be gone. Job didn’t know it, but he wasn’t being punished for any specific sin. His was a unique situation.
Next week: Bildad’s Insinuations