Job 10 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?”
What is God’s nature? Is God kind and loving, or is He vicious and vindictive? Is God sitting in heaven simply waiting for the right time to torment us? These are the questions with which Job is now wrestling. When bad things happen, it’s natural to wonder if God is really sovereign and if He cares. Since God is immortal, how can He possibly understand our human struggles?
“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. 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.” All Job’s previous life, he has trusted God and has believed in God’s benevolent nature. Job fully realizes that God has carefully created him, but why would God create a man simply to destroy him?
“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.”
Now Job asks a question that has plagued humanity: why should God create us, only to destroy us? And why would God allow us to suffer? Why shouldn’t God allow sufferers to simply die quietly?
What Job does not know is God’s purpose in allowing him to suffer. Despite all Job’s fears, God does not want Job to die but to demonstrate fortitude and patience in the face of misery. God actually has a wonderful future planned for Job, one that will completely wipe out the memory of all the trials Job has endured. If Job were to die right now, he would simply become another nameless statistic and we would never hear about him.
God puts much more stress on us than we think that we can tolerate. One writer has compared the stress God places on his servants to the stress an archer employs when he pulls the string on a bow until he reaches the maximum point of stress. If we were the bow, we would complain bitterly as the archer continued to pull the string as far as it could go. “Archer!” we would say, “Why can’t you just allow me to relax a bit? Give me a little rest! Don’t pull so hard! I’m about to snap!” Left to ourselves, we would remain slack and unfit to effectively launch an arrow. But God knows us better than we know ourselves, and God knows how much stress is necessary to produce His desired results. God also knows the amount of strength He has already given us and the additional strength He will give us when necessary.
Live long enough and sooner or later, you WILL find yourself stretched to the max. At that point, you will find yourself echoing Job’s complaints. But there’s one aspect we don’t consider: God’s help. J. Hudson Taylor, Founder of the China Inland Mission, was fond of saying, “When God guides, He provides.” Taylor began as a missionary with a small London-based mission, but rapidly learned that the mission had no idea how much financial support was actually required for a single male missionary in China. In addition, Taylor realized that the ministry model his original mission had was not productive but encouraged missionaries to remain in large cities where they would associate primarily with other missionaries. In contrast, Taylor learned to minister from a veteran missionary who had adapted national dress and was ministering in Chinese.
Wikipedia tells us: “Taylor spent 54 years in China. The society he began was responsible for bringing in over 800 missionaries to the country who were responsible for starting 125 schools and directly responsible for more than 20,000 Chirstian conversions, as well as the establishment of more than 300 stations of work with more than 499 local helpers in more than all 18 provinces….Taylor was able to preach in 4 different Chinese dialects and wrote in the Wu dialect well enough to produce a colloquial edition of the New Testament written in it.”
Later, those continuing the work of China Inland Mission continued to expand the work so that by 1939 there were 1300 missionaries with more than 200,000 converts from all levels of Chinese society. Eventually with the Communist takeover, CIM had to withdraw from mainland China; however, the organization morphed into OMF International that continues to work in 40 countries throughout the world with 1400 workers.
How was Taylor able to accomplish so much? Isaiah 40:28-31 holds the answer. “Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”
By himself, James Hudson Taylor was a small British medical missionary struggling to find his place in the Kingdom of God. But Taylor had already learned to rely on God before he ever left England, and he believed that the God who had called him would continue to provide the resources, the people, and the opportunities. Although Taylor issued regular bulletins under the title “China’s Millions,” he never made appeals for funds but trusted God to provide. All CIM missionaries worked in the same fashion, trusting God to provide. OMF International remains a faith-based mission with workers depending on donations by supporters for their support.
Perhaps you share Job’s concerns right now. You feel as if God has stretched you as far as you can go; meanwhile, God wants you to allow Him to stretch you further. Remember Taylor’s motto: “Where God provides, He will provide,” and that includes providing the strength and the courage for you to continue until God reveals the bright future he has for you.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to continue to trust You, even when we feel stretched beyond our limits. Thank You for giving us the strength and courage to endure. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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