seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Job 7:1 “Do not mortals have hard service on earth?
Are not their days like those of hired laborers?
2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,
or a hired laborer waiting to be paid,
3 so I have been allotted months of futility,
and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
4 When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’
The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs,
my skin is broken and festering.
Are not their days like those of hired laborers?
2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,
or a hired laborer waiting to be paid,
3 so I have been allotted months of futility,
and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
4 When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’
The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs,
my skin is broken and festering.
6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and they come to an end without hope.
7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath;
my eyes will never see happiness again.
8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer;
you will look for me, but I will be no more.
9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone,
so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
10 He will never come to his house again;
his place will know him no more.
and they come to an end without hope.
7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath;
my eyes will never see happiness again.
8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer;
you will look for me, but I will be no more.
9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone,
so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
10 He will never come to his house again;
his place will know him no more.
11 “Therefore I will not keep silent;
I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit,
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep,
that you put me under guard?
13 When I think my bed will comfort me
and my couch will ease my complaint,
14 even then you frighten me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
15 so that I prefer strangling and death,
rather than this body of mine.
16 I despise my life; I would not live forever.
Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit,
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep,
that you put me under guard?
13 When I think my bed will comfort me
and my couch will ease my complaint,
14 even then you frighten me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
15 so that I prefer strangling and death,
rather than this body of mine.
16 I despise my life; I would not live forever.
Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them,
that you give them so much attention,
18 that you examine them every morning
and test them every moment?
19 Will you never look away from me,
or let me alone even for an instant?
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
you who see everything we do?
Why have you made me your target?
Have I become a burden to you?[a]
21 Why do you not pardon my offenses
and forgive my sins?
For I will soon lie down in the dust;
you will search for me, but I will be no more.”
that you give them so much attention,
18 that you examine them every morning
and test them every moment?
19 Will you never look away from me,
or let me alone even for an instant?
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
you who see everything we do?
Why have you made me your target?
Have I become a burden to you?[a]
21 Why do you not pardon my offenses
and forgive my sins?
For I will soon lie down in the dust;
you will search for me, but I will be no more.”
a. Job 7:20 A few manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition and Septuagint; most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text I have become a burden to myself.
The commentary this morning is from enduringword.com.
What is man, that You should exalt him… And test him every moment: Job felt at this moment that God’s attention was unwelcome. If all his calamity was from the hand of God, Job wondered why God could not simply leave him alone.
“The language of verse 17 is too similar to that of Psalm 8 to be a coincidence. Scholars are divided as to which came first.” (Andersen) It would seem best to say that the lines from Job came first, and that David in Psalm 8 re-worked Job’s painful theme into one filled with praise.
Job asked, “What is man?” but he didn’t wait for the answer. “Man is more than we guess, else God would never take such time and pains with him. When a lapidary spends years over a single diamond, the most careless observer begins to appraise properly its intrinsic value.” (Meyer)
Till I swallow my saliva: “An Arabic idiom, for one instant; Just as we say ‘The twinkling of an eye’ to express the same idea.” (Bullinger) Job wondered why God could not look away from him for just the smallest moment.
What have I done to You, O watcher of men: “Please, God, just leave me alone. How have I wronged You?” Job could not understand why he seemed to be God’s target; and if Job had sinned to cause all his suffering, he asked God “Why then do You not pardon my transgression?”
Job was so honest with God in passages like Job 7:20 that they seem to have been altered by Jewish scribes who were uncomfortable with his bold honesty with God. According to Smick, “Ancient scribal tradition and the LXX show the original reading” to be Have I become a burden to you? Most translations, following later Hebrew manuscripts, have it I am burden to myself. Yet probably the original text shows how deep Job’s grief is, feeling himself to be a burden to what feels like an unloving and uncaring God.
Job wondered why God bothered with him at all. “Its simple meaning was that God is so great that even if a man did sin, it cannot affect Him. The answer is that this was altogether too small a thought of God: the truth being that God is so great that He is affected, wounded, robbed by human sin. Job was, like his friends, hindered by a philosophy too narrow.” (Morgan)
Once more, we benefit from knowing the story-behind-the-story, which Job and his friends do not know at this point in the narrative. Job believed that God was against him and was punishing him, but it wasn’t true. “Job was not being punished; he was being honored. God was giving to him a name like that of the great ones of the earth. The Lord was lifting him up, promoting him, putting him into the front rank, making a great saint of him, causing him to become one of the fathers and patterns in the ancient Church of God. He was really doing for Job such extraordinarily good things that you or I, in looking back upon his whole history, might well say, ‘I would be quite content to take Job’s afflictions if I might also have Job’s grace, and Job’s place in the Church of God.’” (Spurgeon)
Now I will lie down in the dust, and You will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be: Job wished he could escape both life and God by going to the dust (his grave). This is one of his obviously pessimistic passages about the afterlife.
“All Job has known about God he still believes. But God’s inexplicable ways have his mind perplexed to the breaking-point. Job is in the right; but he does not know that God is watching with silent compassion and admiration until the test is fully done and it is time to state His approval publicly (Job 42:8).” (Andersen)
We like to talk about ‘having the faith to be healed,’ but what about having the faith to be sick?” (Mason)
I have heard that the reason men don't have the babies is they couldn't stand the pain. I've heard that youth is wasted on the young and ignorant. Well I've had babies and I've had to lay awake..... watching the clock tick the night by....... with a nagging headache or backache or muscle cramps...... So hanging in there is not an easy task sometimes.
Job says "I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't got to town and have a normal conversation..... All my friends do is remind me of my loss..... and then they say it's my fault!" His friends all say.... "you're human..... you make mistakes.... just throw another ox on the alter and let this one go.... you had to do something.... God just doesn't do this to an innocent man. You need to ask for forgiveness and let this one go"
Let this one go..... God is at the center of everything.... His rules are really simple.....
Love God with all your heart and sole
Love your neighbor as you would love yourself
If I disappoint God.... I'm letting Him down..... and I don't want to let God down..... If I don't have one of the rules right.... I need to know so I don't keep breaking it...... and when God does forgive me for something..... I need to stop hauling it around..... I need to let it go.
Job's friends didn't understand Job's relationship with God. Job looked to God for everything.... every morning Job started his day with God..... His friends.... they seem nice enough.... like they do their Bible studies to get ready for Sunday School.... once a week every week.... while Job.... he starts...and ends his day with God..... and mutters to Him all day long..... that's the difference here.... that's what Job doesn't understand..... what did he do???? He can't just let it go.... he's letting his God down.
