Job 10: 1 – 22
Leave Me Alone!
1“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.’ ”
In America we are prone to certain problems that are unique in which other countries do not have to deal with. Some of these epidemics are obesity, drugs [illegal and prescription], materialism, and the need to pay someone to listen to you [Psychology]. The church is not free from this ailment. We have all kinds of divisions, weird doctrines, and behaviors. One such warped doctrine is positive confession.
In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 we read the “there is nothing new under the sun.” The truth of this proverb can be seen in a growing phenomenon in the body of Christ which could be called the “faith movement.” It would seem that almost every believer (and lots of non-believers) has encountered this teaching at one time or another. It’s easy to recognize; one hears such affirmations as:
“You can have what you say.”
“The reason you haven’t been healed is that you don’t have enough faith.”
“We can write our own ticket with God if we decide what we want, believe that it’s ours, and confess it.”
“Get your faith out there, start confessing God’s Word. If we want God’s Word to work for us, we must side with it.”
The passage cited from Ecclesiastes is indeed pertinent; this “faith” teaching is not entirely new. It stems from an old problem–a problem that even the nation of Israel struggled with at times. A passage from Judges sums it up well:
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. – Judges 21:25
“Now just a minute,” some “faith” preaching brothers may say. “We’re not doing what’s right in our own eyes…we’re doing what God says. We’re walking by faith in His Word. We’re living out God’s perfect will.”
Perhaps that’s just the problem. It appears that the major problem with Christians who get caught up in the “faith” and “positive confession” movement is that they believe they know exactly what God wants at any given moment. They act as if the whole counsel of God could be (and is) fully revealed to them. They respond, at times, as if God had explained to them everything He thought, planned, or willed. Therefore, they indeed do what they think is right–what they think God’s will is–in their own perspective.
There is a popular church in Houston, Texas who teaches each week this kind of hogwash. I remember that a lot of people from New Orleans throughout Texas were devastated by hurricane Katrina and yet you hear the preaching that God has only good things for people. I guess the people who felt the storm’s wrath must have had God against them.
Poor Job was the original designer of Positive Confession and it didn’t work for him. It is a misunderstanding of God. We are going to see firsthand how Job is going to bounce back and forth in his thoughts in order to somehow gain control. He complains of the hardships he was under (verses 1-7), and then comforts himself with this, that he was in the hand of the God that made him, and pleads that (verses 8-13). He complains again of the severity of God’s dealings with him (verses 14-17), and then comforts himself with this, that death would put an end to his troubles (verses 18-22).
1“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?
Being daunted with the dread of God’s majesty, so that he could not plead his case with Him, Job resolves to give himself some ease by giving vent to his resentments. He begins: "My soul is weary of my life, weary of this body, and impatient to get clear of it, fallen out with life, and displeased at it, sick of it, and longing for death.’’
Job, being weary of his life and not having eased any other way, resolves to complain. He will not give a possible relief to his soul by taking his own life, but he will give way to the bitterness of his soul by harsh words. Amazingly Job will complain, but he will leave his complaint upon himself. He would not impeach God, nor charge him with unrighteousness or unkindness; but, though he knew not particularly the ground of God’s controversy with him and the cause of action, yet, in the general, he would suppose it to be in himself and willingly bear all the blame.
What are the charges against me, asks Job. If you look back at chapter 1:11 & 2:4 we are reminded that the charge against Job by Satan is that he might turn away from God if pressed to the limit.
When God afflicts us He contends with us, and when He contends with us there is always a reason. He Is never angry without a cause, though we often are. It is desirable for us to know what the reason of our sin is, in order that we may repent of it, mortify, and then forsake the sin for which God has a controversy with us. In enquiring it out, let conscience have leave to do its work and to deal faithfully with us. This truth however, should be pointed out. We learn from Romans 8:1I that it is the comfort of those who are in Christ Jesus that, though we are in affliction, there is no condemnation.
Job now reasons that it is unbecoming to the goodness of God, and the mercifulness of His nature, to deal so terribly with His creature as to lay upon him more than he can bear.
Job is saying "Lord, in Your dealing with me, You are oppressing Your own workmanship. Lord, what does all this mean? Your good character and nature prove that destroying me like this cannot cause You pleasure; and Your Name Is so Holy that what is happening to me cannot bring You any honor. So, why are You doing this to me? What profit is there in my blood?’’
Far be it from Job to think that God did him wrong, but he is quite at a loss how to reconcile God’s providences with His justice, as good men have often been, and must wait until God decides to reveal His reason. Let us therefore learn from Job’s life that we never harbor any wrong thoughts of our Great God, because there is never a cause for them.
Job is sure that God does not discover things, nor judge of them, as men do: He has not eyes of flesh, for He Is a Spirit. Eyes of flesh cannot see in the dark, but darkness hides not from God. Eyes of flesh are but in one place at a time, and can see but a little way; but the eyes of the Lord are in every place, and run to and fro through the whole earth. Many things are hidden from eyes of flesh, but nothing is, or can be, hidden from the eye of God, to which all things are naked and open.
Job is also sure that as God is not short-sighted, like man, so He Is also not short-lived: "Are thy days as the days of man, few and evil? Do they roll on in succession, or are they subject to change, like the days of man? Not by no means.’’
Men grow wiser by experience and more knowing by daily observation; with them truth is the daughter of time, and therefore they must take time for their searches, and, if one experiment fail, must try another. But it is not so with God; to him nothing is past, nothing future, but everything is present. The days of time, by which the life of man is measured, are nothing to the years of eternity, in which the life of God is wrapped up. He Is Eternal. Just think about this fact for some time - He always has existed.
He therefore thinks it strange that God should thus prolong his torture, and continue him under the confinement of this affliction, and neither bring him to a trial nor grant him a release, as if our Holy Lord must take time to enquire or investigate the seriousness of our crime. He was aware of Geneses chapter 11. Before we take a look at this scripture ask yourselves this question, ‘did our Holy Master actually have to investigate what mankind was doing on the earth by coming down and seeing for Himself?’
Our Holy Maker Is Omnipresent, that is, He Is Everywhere. In Psalm 139 beginning in verse 7 we read, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10.even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
I list this verse just to show that our Holy Creator can see all things so He does not have to personally travel down to earth to take a look at what is going on. Now let’s take a look at what Genesis chapter 11 says;
“1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.”
Now skip to chapter 18. The Lord again comes down to see if the sins of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had reached their fullness. 16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” 20 And the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
Do you see anything that might be happening here? Can you grasp how awesome and Great our Holy Magnificent Lord Is? No? Well what is happening in both situations? The answer is ‘Judgment’. Before our Merciful and Gracious Holy Ruler brings about the punishment that is rightly due to degenerate and filthy sinners. He takes into consideration His full knowledge of the limit He placed on the fullness of sin of individuals or nations has reached their fullness. He patiently waits for a repentance and turn around. If these conditions haven’t occurred, and have indeed gone to the point of no return then He now must act in Judgment.
Many scholars as we have pointed out in the introduction of this book feel that Job was around during the time of Abraham. It is very possible that Job was aware of the Lord’s investigation and Judgment of the five cities of the plain.
Job had already owned himself a sinner, and guilty before God; but he here stands to it that he was not wicked, not devoted to sin, not an enemy to God, and that he had not wickedly departed from his God.
We see the battle of Job’s mind. He tries to identify his physical and mental suffering. Again he thinks of the attributes of God and cannot come up with an answer as to why he thinks that God is doing all this evil to him. His attempt to comfort himself fails when he contemplates that everything will never turn around just like those at the Tower of Babel and those at Sodom and Gomorrah. He will stay penned in until he is destroyed. He thinks I have to just conclude that I am in this pit so I might as well accept it. Look again with me at his words - "But there is none that can deliver out of thy hand, and therefore there is no remedy; I must be content to lie there, waiting thy time, and throwing myself on thy mercy, in submission to thy sovereign will.’’
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:
In these verses we see, what ought to quiet us under our troubles—that it is to no purpose to contend with Omnipotence and what will abundantly comfort us—if we are able to appeal to God, as Job did.
When you are hurting like Job, you will be going over and over in your thoughts reasons as to why he was suffering. You do this sometimes when you are not feeling well. You wonder if you are starting to get a cold, so you break out the aspirin and herbal tea.
Job is trying to gain control over his emotions so he focuses his eyes on God as his Creator and preserver, and describes his dependence upon him as the author and upholder of his being. This is one of the first things we are all concerned to know and consider is that God made us. He made us, and not we. His hands have made and fashioned these bodies of ours and every part of them. The soul also, which animates the body, is his gift. Job takes notice of both here. Please notice the mention of ‘intricate unity’. Our Great God has made us into a body, spirit, and soul.
Job now comes right to the point with his Creator. He says to God that ‘although you have formed me with such incredible skill and labor, You are now about to destroy me!’
The body is made as the clay, cast into shape, according to the skill and will of the potter. We are earthen vessels, and soon broken in pieces. How dreadful an evil must sin be, when, on its account, God has pronounced the sentence of death on mankind; and that body, so curiously and skillfully formed, must be decomposed, and reduced to dust!
The formation of human bodies in the womb is described by an elegant similitude as we read in verse10. Though we come into the world naked, yet the body is itself both clothed and armed. The skin and flesh are its clothing; the bones and sinews are its armor, not offensive, but defensive. The vital parts, the heart and lungs, are thus clothed, not to be seen—thus fenced, not to be hurt. The admirable structure of human bodies is an illustrious instance of the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator. What a pity is it that these bodies should be instruments of unrighteousness which are capable of being temples of the Holy Ghost!
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.
On the face of it, Job has a powerful argument: If I being innocent am made to suffer so horribly, what good is all my righteousness? If some minor infraction can cause me condemnation with no chance for mercy, how can I hope to escape wrath? Why should I have been created for this torment?
Job is confounded at his state and circumstances. He beseeches God, “I know that thou art merciful, and do not afflict willingly the children of men; I know I have not wickedly departed from You; and yet I am treated by You as if I were an apostate from every good. I am therefore full of confusion. See my affliction; and bring me out of it in such a way that shall at once prove my innocence, the righteousness of Your ways, and the mercy of Your nature.
Job is trapped in this vise, he doesn't know what his sin is and so he cannot repent. It appears to Job that there is no exit; he is in a pit with now way out. God is crushing him without cause. As the hunters attack the king of beasts in the forest, so Job’s friends attack him. They assail him on every side.
Job feels as if he is being assaulted non-stop. He compares these three friends like an army attacking him. He says that he is being assaulted by successive troops; one company being wearied, another succeeds to the attack, so that he is harassed by continual warfare.
We need to remind ourselves what ‘righteousness’ is? It means that a person is right with God. The charge of injustice is a serious one if God is in a covenant with Job which guarantees a good life in this world based on good behavior. Job believes this to be the case. God has a much finer desire for Job, an eternal one which rises above this world. Without a relationship with God, Job's worldly righteousness has no eternal significance. Job's righteousness is the stumbling block in his way at the moment. Satan is focused on destroying Job's righteousness. When God has completed His lessons for His servant, He will restore all of Job's worldly comfort. Unfortunately for Job is that he didn’t know the ending of the chapter.
Job doesn't know some important facts. He doesn't know that God is pleased with him, and that he is not being punished. He doesn't know how desperately Satan wants his soul. And Job doesn't know the corruption in him that Satan is quietly cultivating.
One of the things which troubles Job the most is the disgrace that has befallen him - . I am full of disgrace. This discovery emanating from his heart wonderfully illustrates Job's agony over his fall from worldly regard. His agony over disgrace comes fully to the surface in chapter 30. Job doesn't realize how high he is in God's regard. We learn from the book of Jeremiah 29:11 what our Great and Holy God feels about us, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Job however is painfully aware of how low he is in the regard of men. His priorities are badly askew. I like Paul’s remarks as to what he feels about the opinions others may have of him. We read in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 4 this, “1 Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”
God is trying to lift Job to a much higher level, but Job is still earthbound. He is clinging to his accomplishments, he is clinging to the reward that he had among men. Like Lot (Genesis 19:15-23), he is being run out of his comfortable world. Like Lot's wife (Genesis 19:26), he is looking backwards. Mercifully, Job is not turned into a pillar of salt. “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
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.’ ”
Instead of thinking positive Job is in so much agony that he will cry out against our Holy God – ‘Leave me alone’ Folks this is a road we must never travel on. Many teachers do not cover hell. They like to cover all the features and benefits of heaven. This is all good. However, there is a hell and it also should be taught. One who is trying to get Job’s soul and all of mankind’s is Satan. He knows that his destiny ultimately is hell. One characteristic of hell is being ‘alone’. Satan is insane with this knowledge of his future and he wants to take as many humans as he can to hell with him. Being alone for eternity is not a good place to be.
Two things Job is pleading for; he pleads:
1. That life and its light were very short. Job believes that he has but a little time left to live so he asks the Lord to let him have some comfort of life while it still lasts.’’ This plea fastens on the goodness of God’s nature, the consideration of which is very comfortable to an afflicted spirit.
2. That death and its darkness were very near and would be very long. Job asks the Lord to let him have a little relief before he dies, that he may take leave of this world calmly, and not in such confusion as he presently was in.’’ Thus earnest should we be for grace, and thus we should plead, "Lord, renew me in the inward man; Lord, sanctify me before I die, for otherwise it will never be done.’’
See how he speaks here of the state of the dead. First of all it is a fixed state, where we shall not return ever again to live such a life as we now live. At death we must bid a final farewell to this world. Secondly death is described as a very melancholy state. There is no order there. No order is observed in bringing people to the grave, not the eldest first, not the richest, not the poorest, and yet everyone in his own order, the order appointed by the God of life. Also, there is no light there. In the grave there is thick darkness, darkness that cannot be felt indeed, yet cannot but be feared by those that enjoy the light of life. In the grave there is no knowledge, no comfort, no joy, no praising God, no working out our salvation, and therefore no light.
Job was so much ashamed that others should see his sores, and so much afraid to see them himself that the darkness of the grave, which would hide them and huddle them up, would upon that account be welcome to him.
But as we this chapter we need to realize that we have a different hope than others. Although the dust of the bodies of all of us who have put our trust in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ as He accomplished on the cross by pouring out His Holy Blood, though scattered, though mingled with other dust, will none of it be lost, for God’s eye is upon every grain of it and it shall be forth-coming in the great day.
