Job's response is in two parts. The first, chapter 9, is directed back against Bildad's speech. The second part, chapter 10, is Job returning to his own grief and pain.
9Then Job answered:
2 ‘Indeed I know that this is so;
but how can a mortal be just before God?
Bildad is giving Job
nothing he does not already know, that the good are blessed before the Lord and
the wicked are punished, he knows the argument.
3 If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength
—who has resisted him, and succeeded?—
5 he who removes mountains, and they do not know it,
when he overturns them in his anger;
6 who shakes the earth out of its place,
and its pillars tremble;
7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
who seals up the stars;
8 who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the Sea;
9 who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10 who does great things beyond understanding,
and marvelous things without number.
This is a litany
of the power of God, a poetic reflection on the powers that God manifests in
creation. The Bear and Orion and the Pleiades are all astrological references
that God will return to in Job 38, along with other parallels of what Job
recognizes in God.
11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
Who will say to him, “What are you doing?”
Job admits his
powerlessness before God.
13 ‘God will not turn back his anger;
the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.
14 How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
Here Job defies
the assumption of his friends. He claims innocence. There is no answer to a
crime to give to the Lord, there is only a cry for mercy-for it to stop.
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
17 For he crushes me with a tempest,
and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18 he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
Job does not even
believe he can receive a fair hearing from the Lord, not with this apparent punishment
dealt unjustly.
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20 Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21 I am blameless; I do not know myself;
I loathe my life.
From where Job is
sitting, in an ash heap scratching his sores with a potsherd, he cannot see how
the Lord would acknowledge his innocence.
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the eyes of its judges—
if it is not he, who then is it?
So from the point
of view of tragedy as punishment, God punishes everyone without distinction,
good and bad. Job does not see how, in all this, a fair hearing before the Lord
can even exist.
25 ‘My days are swifter than a runner;
they flee away, they see no good.
26 They go by like skiffs of reed,
like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27 If I say, “I will forget my complaint;
I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer”,
28 I become afraid of all my suffering,
for I know you will not hold me innocent.
Job speaks of
just ignoring the tragedy. His friends say that this must be punishment, but he
knows it is not, for he is innocent. If he ignores it, will it go away? If he
ignores it, he knows his friends will still think him guilty of something
worthy of the punishment.
29 I shall be condemned;
why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I wash myself with soap
and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 yet you will plunge me into filth,
and my own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,
that we should come to trial together.
33 There is no umpire between us,
who might lay his hand on us both.
This attitude of
ignoring it he takes from his friends and applies it to God, that there is no
one who can make things equal between them.
34 If he would take his rod away from me,
and not let dread of him terrify me,
35 then I would speak without fear of him,
for I know I am not what I am thought to be.
If God took the
tragedy, the punishment, away, Job says he could look God in the eye once more.
Because he knows he is not guilty.
10‘I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
He turns away
from the vain arguments from his friends. He is suffering and he gives vent to
it once more.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands
and favor the schemes of the wicked?
In other words,
if this is how God acts according to the presuppositions of his friends, God
favors the wicked? This is Job trying to impose some kind of logic on what has happened.
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as humans see?
5 Are your days like the days of mortals,
or your years like human years,
6 that you seek out my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7 although you know that I am not guilty,
and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?
In other words, if
God saw things like humans do, he would see no evil in Job to punish.
8 Your hands fashioned and made me;
and now you turn and destroy me.
9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay;
and will you turn me to dust again?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit.
Job is looking at
God as his creator, as the one it has been his delight to be faithful to.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart;
I know that this was your purpose.
14 If I sin, you watch me,
and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me!
If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
and look upon my affliction.
16 Bold as a lion you hunt me;
you repeat your exploits against me.
17 You renew your witnesses against me,
and increase your vexation towards me;
you bring fresh troops against me.
Despite his
knowledge that God is good, he cannot make sense of why God is doing this to
him.
18 ‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me,
19 and were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not the days of my life few?
Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort
21 before I go, never to return,
to the land of gloom and deep darkness,
22 the land of gloom and chaos,
where light is like darkness.’
Again, he is seeking
death to relieve his suffering, but still hopes for some comfort from his God. He still has faith but everything that he thinks he knows about his faith has been taken from him.
Pastor Peter
No comments:
Post a Comment