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“Job Strikes Back!” • 2.7.21 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- In our previous study, we took note of the first reply made by Job's friend Eliphaz. He represents his friends locally and much of the wisdom of the age typologically.
- The assumption behind his premise is that Job has suffered as a result of some kind of secret sin. Calamity has befallen Job from God's hand. Calamity is a result of sin, therefore, Job has sinned.
- One can hardly imagine Job listening to this without bristling at his friend's arrogance! As we enter into chapter 6, we'll take note of Job's response to his friend. Verse 1.
Text
• Job 6:1-7 : "Then Job answered and said: 'Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea—Therefore my words have been rash. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; My spirit drinks in their poison; The terrors of God are arrayed against me. Does the wild donkey bray when it has grass, or does the ox low over its fodder? Can flavorless food be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? My soul refuses to touch them; They are as loathsome food to me." : Job can't begin to describe the weight of his grief. His friends just can't comprehend it's depth. Unless we have experienced the same, we cannot understand either.
- In the ancient world, wet sand was your standard for weight. Job proposes that his grief and calamity would outweigh all of the wet sand of the sea combined!
- It's an exclusive club to be in, but many in this room have felt what Job describes. Grief sits upon you and it only lifts when it lifts! To the person in grief, it feels like the weight of the world.
- There is a tangible heaviness to it which draws upon your strength physically and mentally. When it takes a hold of you, you really aren't thinking much about social graces or tact.
- When Eliphaz wonders about Job's strength of conviction or his ability to rouse himself from under his suffering, he has to understand that Job's pain is speaking more than he is!
- The pressure and the constant sorrow are venting out their poison from deep within him.
- That's why his words haven't seemed familiar to Eliphaz. This is why he is talking differently. This is why his words are "rash." The NLT uses the word "impulsive, the NIV, "impetuous."
- Job is sitting here in the dump with God's arrows imbedded in his body. With every breath, the bitterness of their poison takes a greater hold upon his spirit.
- Job feels like he is the prime target for all of God's machinery and weaponry! He feels as if every terrifying weapon in God's arsenal is aimed directly at him.
- Can you blame him for speaking the way that he has!? Why does Job feel the need to defend himself? He has something to complain about!
- Neither a donkey nor an ox complain when their food is before them. They complain when their food is absent from them!
- Job assumed that his friends would understand his heart, that they would take his words in stride and consider them in context, but they obviously did not!
- Job's friends have brought their "food" to their friend, but it was bland and truly tasteless! Thus far, they had utterly failed to bring any comfort to him!
- Their counsel is like eating an egg white without any seasoning! Job won't even look at that food. It makes him sick! The NLT reads, "I gag at the thought of eating it!" Verse 8.
• Job 6:8-13 : "Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant me the thing that I long for! That it would please God to crush me, that He would loose His hand and cut me off! Then I would still have comfort; Though in anguish I would exult, He will not spare; For I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What strength do I have, that I should hope? And what is my end, that I should prolong my life? Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze? Is my help not within me? And is success driven from me?" : Job can't stand the thoughts that plague him any longer and wishes that God would give him his request.
- What request? His request to die! That is what he longed for! "Would to God that He would simply crush me!"
- I can't help but think that Job was thinking about the death of his grown children in this statement. When you couple that with his friend's ill advised words, you can follow his reasoning.
- God allowed these young people to be crushed in their brother's home and Job, like any good Father, wishes that it would have been him instead! He is sad at their loss and guilty for his life!
- Survivor guilt, the guilt experienced by one who outlives their loved one, is powerful. When that is experienced by a parent of a child, that sense is multiplied ten fold!
- In this, Job views God as a prison guard, whose job it is to keep him where he was. He wants Him to release him from His hand and finish the job that He has started! "Let him cut me off!"
- If God did this soon, he could take some solace in the fact that He had remained faithful in spite of his anguish. This will be Job's victory! I like the NIV's take on this.
• Job 6:10 (NIV) : "Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One." : God had remarked that Job had held fast to his integrity. Keeping it until the end will be his goal!
- I pray that you hear these words. Even with the anticipation of greater pain, Job wants to remain faithful to the Lord until the end! Many of us can only promise that if things go our way.
- Our example here is quite the opposite. Through increasing pain and suffering, Job was resolved to hold fast to his belief! But that end had better come soon!
- He doesn't believe that he has the strength to hold on much longer! He's not made of stone or bronze and the strength within him is slipping away!
- Job does not believe that he will succeed if he doesn't die soon! Once again, this is how Job feels and this certainly reflects how we feel.
- Trials reveal to us that we are not as strong as we think we are. We are truly weak and vulnerable. When the difficulty is prolonged, each of us believes that our limits will be reached.
- The truth of the matter is that the Lord knows our limits. He knows how far we can go and He gives us grace to meet every moment! "He will hold you fast!"
- We must trust that if He has saved us, He will keep us, no matter what comes! Ours is to transfer our trust from our strength to His! He has the strength of stones and bronze! Verse 14.
• Job 6:14-23 : "To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away, which are dark because of the ice, and into which the snow vanishes. When it is warm, they cease to flow; When it is hot, they vanish from their place. The paths of their way turn aside, they go nowhere and perish. The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope for them. They are disappointed because they were confident; They come there and are confused. For now you are nothing, you see terror and are afraid. Did I ever say, ‘Bring something to me’? or, ‘Offer a bribe for me from your wealth’? or, ‘Deliver me from the enemy’s hand’? or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of oppressors’?" : Job sees himself as "afflicted," which describes a person "who is despairing" or "fainting." He expects that such a person would be treated with kindness.
- The next phrase is interpreted two ways and either interpretation is true. A Christian who fosakes the fear of the Almighty in his time of stuggle should be treated with kindness.
- On the other hand, if the friend coming to comfort a person is not a Christian, that person should also come armed with kindness and mercy. Either way, compassion is the bare minimum!
- What had Job's friends come with? Their spokesman has led with suspicion, assumption and false narratives derived from a faulty premise. He has digressed from there into false counsel.
- The blessing that they intended to bring never materialized and that's sad to consider, especially since these men came with that express desire. They've failed, but think of Job's part.
- He heard about their intent to visit and then saw them coming. Now, he wishes they hadn't!
- He paints this picture of a bubbling brook in the middle of a desert. That brook is an oasis to weary travellers. Job has been on a journey and his friends were supposed to be his oasis.
- Like the weary traveller, the sight of a watering hole brings great joy and relief, but when one gets closer and realizes there isn't any water, what is the heart's response?
- The brook is gone and the people that have put their hope in them are lost. What is Job saying? These men are supposed to be refreshing to him. Sadly, he has found them empty. Why?
- Because they have given into their own terror. They are afraid of the implications that are sitting right before their very eyes.
- Think about it: Why is Eliphaz so determined to expose the sin in Job's life? Why is he so convinced that this must be the case?
- Because if Job, the most righteous man they know, can be brought down without explanation, how much more can THEY be brought down! That is their terror!
- It is much safer to believe that Job had sinned, than to think that the supposed "good" could suffer without cause. That would ruin their worldview entirely!
- In the end, Job wishes that they had never come! He didn't ask for them to relieve him in any way because he knew they were incapable of it. What they were capable of, they chose not to offer!
- Job is being blunt and turns the tables on his opposing friends. Verse 24.
• Job 6:24-30 : "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; Cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove? Do you intend to rebuke my words, and the speeches of a desperate one, which are as wind? Yes, you overwhelm the fatherless, and you undermine your friend. Now therefore, be pleased to look at me; For I would never lie to your face. Yield now, let there be no injustice! Yes, concede, my righteousness still stands! Is there injustice on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern the unsavory?" : Job is willing to listen without interrupting if they can show him where he had gone wrong.
- They might be able to use powerful speech, as in the case of Eliphaz in chapters 4 & 5, but they haven't made their case! They haven't proven a single thing or established their case at all!
- Their rebuke was like a wind blowing through. It had no substance. They might have been able, by their power to overwhelm the orphan. They might be able to undermine their friend.
- But if they will look him in the eye, they will know that he wouldn't lie to them.
- They can go ahead and give up now because Job will not give up on claiming his own righteousness!
- They think that they will get him to concede to their position, but even here, in a body tortured by boils, he will have them concede!
• Job 6:29,30 (NLT) : "Stop assuming my guilt, for I have done no wrong. Do you think I am lying? Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong?" : Job will not be coerced or convinced of his guilt and he is right to think this way.
- He had not done anything to deserve what had happened to him. In that respect, he had not been guilty of wrong. But, let us also begin to consider where his heart is beginning to go.
- He is focused upon his own personal righteousness. This will be an issue going forward.
- Job has addressed his friends in chapter 6. In chapter 7, he does what his friends never do. In chapter 7, Job begins to address his God. Verse 1.
• Job 7:1-3 : "Is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man? Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade, and like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages, so I have been allotted months of futility, and wearisome nights have been appointed to me." : As Job speaks to the Lord, he acknowledges that life on earth is hard for any man, much less a believer.
- This word, according to a few commentators, refers to the service rendered by a person in the military. It is compulsory and challenging, as our days are compared that of the hireling.
- That would be an especially hard life, as one waits to be hired and then, must do whatever work is set before him.
- Job is thinking of the servant that is forced to work out in the sun, whose only desire is to sit under a shade tree. Who here hasn't spent a few hours in the hot sun?
- Who hasn't experienced the job that we took just for the sake of a paycheck? It's not what we want to do. It's not our "purpose" in life, but it's necessary for a season in our life.
- Job's argument is that God has assigned him work detail. He's in the thick of things, looking forward to a time of release.
- He's been working tirelessly to remain faithful mentally and spiritual. It's not been days or hours, but months without shade or wages!
- Does Job intend to tell us of the actual length of his test or is this hyperbole? Whether it is factual or not, the effect is the same: He has suffered without relief for a long time!
- These long days haven't issued in him getting much sleep, as the Lord has also appointed "wearisome nights" to him as well. They are nights of toil and labor that give his mind no rest.
- The trial is endless and the time to sit back and be relieved has been taken from him. V. 4.
• Job 7:4-11 : "When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be ended?’ For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn. My flesh is caked with worms and dust, my skin is cracked and breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life is a breath! My eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will see me no more; While your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be. As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore. Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul." : Who hasn't had a frustrating night or two, when sleep evades you? For some of us, we know what Job speaks of here.
- He tosses and turns, hoping that he will eventually wear out. The silence of the night can make it feel as if it will never end. This has been Job's reality for months! Is it any wonder?
- Sure, there is the weight of the mental anguish, but there is also the difficulty in his physical body! He describes his skin as a burroughing place for worms! Here, we are unable to relate!
- Some of his skin would heal, which would bring some level of comfort to him, only to break out again in painful, fresh eruptions. Job's nights crawl and his days reveal that his day is near!
- When Job talks about the "weaver's shuttle," he is speaking of the loom that is busily making cloth material. The context does not favor the quick passing of a day.
- Rather, the metaphor is of the weaver running out of material! Job can't see any hope in his life. It is just a breath that appears for a moment and is gone forever.
- He doesn't expect that he will see good again and soon, he won't be seen again by the living!
- He'll vanish like a cloud and go down to the grave, never to be remembered. Because this is his impending reality, Job doesn't feel like wasting his emotions.
- He is going to give them a full venting and won't apologize to them for it! This is a turning point for Job between he and God. From here, we will watch him begin to lose perspective.
- His pain is overwhelming him and when one begins to view God through that lens, man's reasoning begins to be a little skewed.
- Job will become increasingly belligerent as the book progresses. Verse 12.
• Job 7:12-16 : "Am I a sea, or a sea serpent, that You set a guard over me? When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ Then You scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my body. I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are but a breath." : Job wonders if he is so bad. Does God have to treat him like the sea or the sea creature?
- He feels boxed in, the way the sea is confined to it's borders or a sea creature is confined to the ocean. Both figures are meant to convey danger.
- Is Job that dangerous to others that God has to keep him under guard? He's a prisoner who cannot break free. Wherever he goes, his pain follows him.
- He thinks that he can escape his depression by sleeping it off. His bed or couch will bring him peace. It will ease his complaint, but if he gets to sleep, Job is terrified with dreams and visions.
- There is no doubt that Job was reliving the events of that traumatic day in his mind. No matter how he tried to turn away from the thoughts, they crept into his subconscious.
- It had gotten so bad that he would choose to die rather than live! There was nothing to love about his life any longer, much less to live for an entire lifetime!
- He just wants to be left alone for his final days and hopefully, die in peace! Verse 17.
• Job 7:17-21 : "What is man, that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart on him, that You should visit him every morning, and test him every moment? How long? Will You not look away from me, and let me alone till I swallow my saliva? Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, so that I am a burden to myself? Why then do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and You will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be.'" : With all that Job has gone through, he can't understand the nature of God's interaction with mankind.
- Why is man exalted, lifted up and declared important by God's actions of setting His heart upon them, visiting Him daily and testing him at every moment?
- Job is looking at this in a very strange way. He is not praising the Lord for his presence, but questioning Him. He begins by looking at man and it yields a nearly accusatory tone.
- When our theology is man centered, our conclusions concerning life will be very strange.
- When David asks this same question, he offers praise because he looks at the vast recesses of space and then wonders, "what is man that you are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:3,4)
- When we begin with God and the greatness of His creation, we can't help but bring Him praise. When we begin with ourselves and our present circumstance, we'll always be twisted.
- Instead of feeling comforted by God's presence, Job feels smothered by God's presence! Job doesn't sense a lack of God's presence, but wonders about His love!
- He feels that he barely has time to breathe! He wants to know what it is that he has done and why it is that he has become a target!
- If he has sinned, why won't God simply forgive him and wipe his slate clean? As Job lies down in the dust, God will seek to find him, but he won't be any longer!
- Once again, Job is right if he means that he won't experience God's presence in life. He's wrong if he believes that death is the end. Nobody dies and is not!
- Everyone lives, some raised to eternal life and glory, others raised to everlasting shame and contempt! God will not need to seek anyone diligently, for He alone knows man's final estate.
- Will they be at rest or will they be in torment? That decision is settled by people today!
- The effect will be carried on into eternity, where men will either live in their inheritance, won for them by the Son of God, or live out their sentence, in torment before Him eternally!
- For Job's sake, his meaning is clear: He wants all of this to end! He is becoming less and less concerned with what is true about death and the afterlife.
Conclusion
- Job is hanging on by a thread. He sees no hope, no chance for success
and no prospect for future good. He has nothing to lose, so he might as well
lodge his complaint.
- It's understandable, but sad, that Job begins to lose his perspective. When all you see or experience is pain, the truth of God's heart is obscured.
- Yet, even Job, in just a few seasons, would be thinking quite differently. His end will be far more hopeful than he thinks now and maybe that's the lesson that we can hold onto today.
- As Christians, our hope is rooted in a promise that cannot be broken, a salvation that has been purchased by the sinless Son of God.
- Our success is a foregone conclusion, as He promises that the one who is justified will be sanctified and that one will also be glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)
- We don't have to depend upon our strength. God has the strength of stones and bronze!
- God has prepared a place for us where His delights will be known forevermore! When you think of these truths, you can ask like David, "What is man, that you are mindful of Him?"
- I pray that we will succeed where Job failed and allow that question to drive us to praise!
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