Job’s Plea to God
“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me. Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as man sees? Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man, that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me? Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust? Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit. (Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant.)
Yet You concealed these things in Your heart, and I know that this was in Your mind: If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity. If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.
Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me. You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave. Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me! If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort, before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom, to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
Job is fed up! After all these years of serving God and of worshiping Him, Job feels he deserves better treatment than this. “Let me know why You prosecute me. Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?“ Job is seriously wondering if God has created him just to set him up for destruction. Does God play dice with the universe? “Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?”
Yet in the midst of all this angst, Job continues to affirm the goodness of God. “You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.” Job’s problem is not that he doesn’t believe in God; Job’s problem is that he does believe and now God is disappointing him. If Job didn’t believe in God in the first place, when all these calamities appeared, he would have followed his wife’s advice, cursing God and dying. But Job can’t die; despite all the despair, despite the running sores full of pus and all the other sicknesses, Job’s body refuses to quit.
“Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort, before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom, to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.” Job just wants the suffering to end! But God has other ideas.
APPLICATION: Recently a pastor friend shared a story about one of his friends who was in such despair that he ran his car off the 4th story of a parking garage in a suicide attempt. But the man didn’t die; instead, he lost both legs below the knees when they were crushed in the fall. Our friend and another church member visited this fellow in rehab and learned that even as his car was falling, he regretted the suicide attempt. Eventually, the man received two artificial legs and became so proficient in their use that nobody could tell there had ever been any problem. Before the accident, the man’s marriage was failing; afterwards, his wife helped nurse him back to health. After the man’s recovery, he and his wife did divorce but they have remained friends. God has healed this man’s body and his spirit and he has a moving testimony to the goodness of God and the way in which God delivered him even when he attempted suicide. Blessedly, the suicide attempt failed and the man has helped countless others who are at the brink of despair to make wiser choices.
God could have allowed the infections from Job’s sores to turn into overwhelming sepsis so that Job would become confused and finally die, but He did not; instead, God preserved Job’s life and his ability to think clearly. Why did God allow Job’s suffering to last as long as it did? God knew exactly what He wanted to work out in Job’s life. At the same time, God was looking down the centuries to see all the people who would ever gain encouragement and comfort from Job’s story. God doesn’t simply have 20/20 vision; God has infinity vision and God always, always, always has far more goals in mind than we can possibly imagine.
1 Corinthians 13:8-10 tells us, “Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect (complete) has come, then that which is in part will be done away.” Nobody ever has a handle on all wisdom or knowledge, no matter how intelligent or insightful they are. God is the only One who knows the human heart. God is the only One who knows the end from the beginning. And God can deliver us from our own lousy choices, even when we run cars off 4-story parking garages to try to kill ourselves.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to trust You so that when we suffer, we don’t lose hope. Help us continue to look to You as our only Source of deliverance. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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