Lenten Study Job Ch 10
The words of Job in chapter ten are nothing short of giving his depression voice. He is in despair, out of ideas for how to get out of the doghouse with God, and he just wants to be left alone to die. He would rather sit alone quietly than be with his friends at this point and asks them to leave by the end of the chapter.
"There was a man in the land of Uz" by andrevanb is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
1 “I loathe my own life; I will give full vent to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 10:1 (NASB)
How quickly Job forgets the good times. Just recently, he was living an amazing life. The memories of those times only bring pain now, and he would like it to stop.
I’m with Job on this one. I think it is a very fair request to know why his life has suddenly taken a turn.
3 ‘Is it right for You indeed to oppress, To reject the labor of Your hands, And to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked?
Job 10:3 (NASB)
Job answered this one earlier: yes, it is right when God does it because God decides right and wrong. Even here, we see Job still insisting he is righteous, and those who are moving against him are the wicked ones. He is right. Satan is the one moving against him, not God. God is allowing it to prove a point to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job?”
4 ‘Have You eyes of flesh? Or do You see as a man sees?
5 ‘Are Your days as the days of a mortal, Or Your years as man’s years,
6 That You should seek for my guilt And search after my sin?
Job 10:4-6 (NASB)
This is all rhetorical. Job knows none of this affects God in the slightest. That’s Job’s point too. Everyone’s looking at this from the perspective of God doing this for some human reason. God is not allowing Satan to do these things to Job for a human reason. He allows these things to happen for a divine reason, for God’s reason.
7 ‘According to Your knowledge I am indeed not guilty, Yet there is no deliverance from Your hand.
Job 10:7 (NASB)
Job knows God’s law. He knows he hasn’t broken any of God’s rules. Based on everything Job knows, he should not be punished by God for anything. Because he sees himself as not doing anything wrong, he believes it should all be ending, and it isn’t. God is not delivering him from his troubles for some reason.
8 ‘Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, And would You destroy me?
9 ‘Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again?
Job 10:8-9 (NASB)
Just a little bit ago, Job was asking God to end his life, and in these passages, it looks like Job isn’t as interested in dying now as he was. Perhaps he doesn’t want to die, just the trials and tribulations to end.
10 ‘Did You not pour me out like milk And curdle me like cheese;
Job 10:10 (NASB)
A very interesting analogy here. Making cheese is a process. It involves introducing outside elements at specific stages and taking concrete steps. It also takes time. There is no substitute for time in the process of making cheese. Fine cheeses are aged over long periods in very specific conditions. If nothing else, Job is undoubtedly going through a process here.
11 Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews?
12 ‘You have granted me life and lovingkindness; And Your care has preserved my spirit.
Job 10:11-12 (NASB)
Perhaps all those happy memories haven’t been forgotten. Maybe there is a little joy left in Job.
13 ‘Yet these things You have concealed in Your heart; I know that this is within You:
Job 10:13 (NASB)
This is a dangerous and prideful thing to say; to claim to know the mind of God. Job says he knows what God has hidden in His heart.
14 If I sin, then You would take note of me, And would not acquit me of my guilt.
Job 10:14 (NASB)
Job looks to God for justice rather than mercy in these next passages. He fully expects the punishment of God to descend on him if he sins. This is a position people of our day have entirely sidestepped. No one in the church today talks about God’s righteous punishment, but Job is. Job isn’t only talking about it but vociferously exclaiming that he fully expects that righteous punishment to fall on the guilty, whoever they may be.
15 ‘If I am wicked, woe to me! And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am sated with disgrace and conscious of my misery.
Job 10:15 (NASB)
Just punishment is expected, while humble acceptance and happiness that one is not being punished is also understood. Job explains that he understands punishment is fair when deserved and that those who walk in the law should be glad they have been spared that same punishment.
16 ‘Should my head be lifted up, You would hunt me like a lion; And again You would show Your power against me.
17 ‘You renew Your witnesses against me And increase Your anger toward me; Hardship after hardship is with me.
Job 10:16-17 (NASB)
Pride is clearly a sin to Job. He knows this. He has been explaining that to believe you are righteous and walk in a proud or arrogant manner, filled with the pride of doing the right thing, is wrong. Yet, we are reading Job’s words that seem filled with this pride of being righteous. Perhaps those words are not filled with pride but Job defending himself against what he sees as an unjust punishment? Maybe Job is just trying to make his case that he doesn’t deserve what is happening to him?
18 ‘Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died and no eye had seen me!
19 ‘I should have been as though I had not been, Carried from womb to tomb.’
20 “Would He not let my few days alone? Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer
21 Before I go—and I shall not return— To the land of darkness and deep shadow,
22 The land of utter gloom as darkness itself, Of deep shadow without order, And which shines as the darkness.”
Job 10:18-22 (NASB)
If he’s going to do everything right and still get punished, why has God created him in the first place? Why was he even born? He then addresses his friends and asks them to leave him alone so that he can drop back into his depression until death takes him.