Lenten Study Job Ch 9
Yet another of Job’s best friends has placed the blame for what is happening to Job squarely on his shoulders even though Bildad doesn’t know of anything Job might have done to deserve it. Job is having a tough time in life, and here come the three best friends he has, and so far, two of them are telling him they don’t know what he’s done, but he needs to repent of it so his life will get better. Job has run out of ideas to try to make things right with God as he sees God as the source for all his calamities.
"There was a man in the land of Uz" by andrevanb is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
1 Then Job answered,
Job 9:1 (NASB)
Now Job responds to Bildad.
2 “In truth I know that this is so; But how can a man be in the right before God?
Job 9:2 (NASB)
This is the wisest thing Job has said so far. No one is righteous, no, not one. That scriptural statement from Paul has backing here and elsewhere. How can you argue with God and win? That’s where Satan started. It is a precarious path.
10 as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
Romans 3:10-12 (NASB)Psalm 14:1-3
Psalm 53:1-3
That last verse, twelve, seems to say that no one does anything good ever. That’s not the point. The point is that even when we are doing things for the right reasons, we are still sinners with the right heart position. We can take no action that earns, builds, or acquires righteousness with God. Salvation is only found through faith in Jesus Christ. Period. Even in trying to keep the law as the Pharisees and Sadducees tried or when we follow His Word, we are doing so because we hope deep down there are consequences for going against God. That personal, altruistic instinct is at the center of fallen human nature and why we need a savior.
3 “If one wished to dispute with Him, He could not answer Him once in a thousand times.
Job 9:3 (NASB)
How can you argue with the God of Creation who made it all? How can you tell Him He did it wrong when He is the arbiter of what He wants? You cannot, and Job knows it. Keep that part in mind as we proceed through this study during Lent. It might become relevant later.
5 “It is God who removes the mountains, they know not how, 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 not to shine, And sets a seal upon the stars;
8 Who alone stretches out the heavens And tramples down the waves of the sea;
9 Who makes the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south;
10 Who does great things, unfathomable, And wondrous works without number.
Job 9:5-10 (NASB)
Job knows who God is. He knows what God is capable of, and he understands the power of the Father. He also gets Man’s place in creation with God as the Creator of All.
12 “Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him? Who could say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’
Job 9:12 (NASB)
If God decides to do a thing, who can stop Him? Who has the authority to question His actions as wrong if He decides things are to be a certain way? No one because no one is higher than God.
13 “God will not turn back His anger; Beneath Him crouch the helpers of Rahab.
Job 9:13 (NASB)
There is quite a bit of information online about who “Rahab” is. The bottom line is no one knows. What is certain is who or whatever Rahab is isn’t good. Some suggest Rahab is a euphemism for the proud people filled with pride. Others that it is another name for Egypt, specifically the overthrow of one Pharaoh or other, possibly the defeat of the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites as they fled Egypt. Another suggestion is that it might be yet another great sea monster like Leviathan and Behemoth. Whatever the case, Job believes they could not stand before God. If you would like to read more about who Rahab is believed to be, you can find one link for BibleHub HERE.
15 “For though I were right, I could not answer; I would have to implore the mercy of my judge.
Job 9:15 (NASB)
Job is suggesting a thing that cannot happen here. “For though I were right…” meaning he is going to argue with God. Job just said no one can argue with God and be right, and now he is suggesting he could be. It is more a point to illustrate that he would have to fall on God’s mercy because no one can be right if they oppose God.
16 “If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.
17 “For He bruises me with a tempest And multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 “He will not allow me to get my breath, But saturates me with bitterness.
Job 9:16-18 (NASB)
Verse sixteen suggests a thing that I simply cannot believe, that God was not listening. I believe Job is here ascribing a human characteristic to God that He simply does not and cannot possess. Job thinks God can act like a parent who is ignoring their child while they repeat the same phrase over and over and over. Finally, the parent turns and snaps, “What do you want?” at the child. God is incapable of this reaction. Not that God wouldn’t do this, but that He simply cannot do it towards His children, all of creation. Yes, I realize I just said there is something the omnipotent God of all creation cannot do, and I’m struggling with that, but I believe and stand by what I said above.
19 “If it is a matter of power, behold, He is the strong one! And if it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?
Job 9:19 (NASB)
Omnipotent and penultimate. There is no one higher or more powerful than God. Period.
20 “Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.
21 “I am guiltless; I do not take notice of myself; I despise my life.
22 “It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys the guiltless and the wicked.’
23 “If the scourge kills suddenly, He mocks the despair of the innocent.
Job 9:20-23 (NASB)
And Job steps into his pride. It isn’t entirely Job’s fault, though. Both Eliphaz and Bildad have blamed Job for the things that have befallen he and his family, which is unfair because Job didn’t do anything to cause this. Job knows this. However, Job also knows calamities such as what have happened to him do not befall people who do all the right things. Job is at a loss to figure out what is happening to him, but he bristles at the accusations from his friends because he knows they are wrong. Yet, he is still beset by God, and he cannot reconcile the two situations and deal with his grief at the same time.
24 “The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?
Job 9:24 (NASB)
This is interesting. For Job, this passage signals that Satan’s hand in these events never occurs to Job. This signals Job absolutely trusts the Word of God as true because the word says God protects the righteous. Job knows he is righteous. Job knows this because he has always been blessed living the way he has, and not a single thing has changed in how Job lives, his processes for living, what he does, what he thinks, and what he says. Nothing has changed on his end, yet he is still having all this bad stuff happen to him. It simply has to be coming from God, according to Job. This is an interesting approach for us to consider today. If we follow God’s Word and have been greatly blessed all our lives, are we living under God’s protection out of harm’s way? Has nothing bad ever happened? What is the definition of “something bad happening?” Is it the same for everyone?
25 “Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good.
26 “They slip by like reed boats, Like an eagle that swoops on its prey.
27 “Though I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my sad countenance and be cheerful,’
28 I am afraid of all my pains, I know that You will not acquit me.
29 “I am accounted wicked, Why then should I toil in vain?
30 “If I should wash myself with snow And cleanse my hands with lye,
31 Yet You would plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes would abhor me.
Job 9:25-31 (NASB)
Job is at his wit’s end. He doesn’t understand why any of this is happening to him. He doesn’t know of any action he can take to alleviate the problems and pain because he’s tried them all already, and nothing has worked. He is a hair’s breadth away from giving up because he believes God now hates him, and there is nothing he can think of to change God’s opinion.
32 “For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, That we may go to court together.
33 “There is no umpire between us, Who may lay his hand upon us both.
34 “Let Him remove His rod from me, And let not dread of Him terrify me.
35 “Then I would speak and not fear Him; But I am not like that in myself.
Job 9:32-35 (NASB)
This is that same moment as when Jesus was in the garden at Gethsemane. Christ knows what is about to happen to Him, and He does not want to go through with it. We know this because Jesus prays for God to take the task away from Him, but in the same breath, He adds that He will do whatever God wants. Job has reached that same stage that he is giving up, but even though he thinks he really should abhor God and His ways, he doesn’t and cannot bring himself to do so.
35 And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by.
36 And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”
Mark 14:35-36 (NASB)