Job’s Despair
February 8, 2022
Commentary
Based on his own experience, Job concludes that innocent people suffer and wicked people prosper (vv. 21-24). Several times he says he is innocent (6:10; 10:7; 16:17; 27:6) and accused God of unfairness. He asserted that he was innocent, and at the same time recognized that he was disregarding his own welfare because God would react negatively. Yet it no longer seemed to matter to him (v. 21). For the moment it appeared to Job that God would slay the “perfect” with the “wicked” (v. 22). The difference that doing right made didn’t seem to matter any more. In fact Job said, “God mocks at those who have fallen through calamity” (v. 23). From Job’s point of view, it looked as though God had forgotten the righteous and turned them over to judges whose faces were blinded to the difference between right and wrong (v. 24).
Job turned his attention back to his own case (vv. 25-35). He bemoaned the brevity of life. He feels that his case is useless and his days are fleeting. His days flew by with the speed of the swiftest runner, the fastest ship or the eagle after its prey (vv. 25-26). He seems to be guilty no matter what he does (vv. 27-31), and there is no one to mediate his case (vv. 32-35). His cry was, if only there was someone who could put his hand in the hand of God and who could put his other hand in my hand and bring us together.
Job compares his life to a runner, an Egyptian speedboat and an eagle. He thinks that God is so against him that he will toss him into the ditch (v. 3l). After expressing such a pessimistic outlook, Job turned back to the original argument of the chapter. If God were a man, then Job could approach Him and plead his case. But God is not man, and there is no mediator. This is where Jesus Christ enters the picture, since He is God and became man to reveal the Father (John 14:7-11) and to bring sinners to God (I Peter 3:18).
Application
While Job showed impatience toward God he never rejected or cursed him. In times of extended problems it is easy for me to become very impatient. Lord, help me to show more patience.
Job 9:21– 35 (NET)
21 I am blameless. I do not know myself. I despise my life.
22 “It is all one! That is why I say, ‘He destroys the blameless and the guilty.’
23 If a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks at the despair of the innocent.
24 If a land has been given into the hand of a wicked man, he covers the faces of its judges; if it is not he, then who is it?
25 “My days are swifter than a runner, they speed by without seeing happiness.
26 They glide by like reed boats, like an eagle that swoops down on its prey.
27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression and be cheerful,’
28 I dread all my sufferings, for I know that you do not hold me blameless.
29 If I am guilty, why then weary myself in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow-melt water, and make my hands clean with lye,
31 then you plunge me into a slimy pit and my own clothes abhor me.
32 For he is not a human being like I am, that I might answer him, that we might come together in judgment.
33 Nor is there an arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both,
34 who would take his rod away from me so that his terror would not make me afraid.
35 Then would I speak and not fear him, but it is not so with me.