Job Chapter 10 Review

 

Chapter 10

Job 10:1 KJV  My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Job reiterates that he is tired of what his life has become.It's not clear who he is speaking to. 

It doesn’t seem to be Eliphaz or Bildad.  Maybe God?  Maybe just speaking to no

one in particular, just to vent his feelings.  I often make the mistake,

when my wife is speaking of her situation, that she is particularly speaking to me,

when she isn’t wanting answers, but just an ear to hear her feelings.

Job 10:2 KJV  I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;

shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

A shadow of the New Testament prayer of the publican:

Luke 18:13 KJV  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

Job feels judged and sentenced by the terrible things which have happened to him.  He’s asking for a review from God, so that he can correct those area in which he has been found lacking.

Job 10:3 KJV  Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

Job speaking to God, Is it right in your eyes that I should endure such affliction?  That You would reject/despise/spurn the product of your creation?  And magnify the plans of the morally wrong?

Job 10:4 KJV  Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? Job 10:5 KJV  Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days,

Job asking rhetorical questions, that he knows the answers of.  “No”, God doesn’t have eyes as man has.  His vision is never faulty.  “No”, God doesn’t measure time as man does.  Possibly reminding God that time passes differently for mankind, than it does for God.

Job 10:6 KJV  That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?

Job continues to misinterpret what is happening to him, as punishment rather than the lesson God is teaching satan on a most righteous and perfect man.

Job 10:7 KJV  Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

There is truth in Job’s words.  God does know that he is not wicked, but what Job. . . What we get wrong so often is that we are not the center of the universe.  Things happen which effect us, which have little to do with us.

I hike on trails in the woods.  As I hike, a small bird will flit from tree to tree in front of me.  I imagine in my mind that the wee bird thinks that I am pursuing him, when in fact we are coincidentally on the same path, and I have no interest in the bird.

Job 10:8 KJV  Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

It’s not difficult to understand Job’s quandary.  He has been a righteous man, and lived a righteous life.  To his credit, he recognizes that God is ultimately behind his difficulties, and it bewilders him.

Job 10:9 KJV  Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

It is impossible to say with certainty, but the allusion to dust, and clay brings to mind man’s creation by God, and many Biblical metaphors of our being clay and God being the potter forming us.

How much did Job know of the Creation account?  Job is thought to be the first book of the Bible which was written down.  Was there possibly an oral tradition of Genesis that Job heard.

Job 10:10 KJV  Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Job 10:11 KJV  Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews. Job 10:12 KJV  Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

Job speaks of his development in the womb.

Parallel verses in Psalm 139

13-16 KJV  For thou hast possessed my reins:

thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. 

(14)  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

marvellous are thy works;

and that my soul knoweth right well.  (15)  My substance was not hid from thee,

when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 

(16)  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my

members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as

yet there was none of them.

Job 10:13 KJV  And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.

Job speculates that God had the intent to cause him suffering after miraculously forming him in his mother’s womb.

Job 10:14 KJV  If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

If I sin, in even a minor way, then you God, will add it to my burden, and not allow me to escape.

Job 10:15 KJV  If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

I am totally befuddled.  No matter what I do, no matter which way I act I cannot find peace. . . see my misery. 

Job 10:16 KJV  For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

If I raise my head (previous verse), You would pursue me as a terrible lion, and would beset me with more amazing plagues.

Job 10:17 KJV  Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

I face ever new testimonies opposing me, and your assaults grow, with an ever renewed host which come against me. 

Job 10:18 KJV  Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

Why do I even exist?  Why was I created?  It would have been better off if I had never existed.

Job 10:19 KJV  I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

If my day of birth, and day of death were the same date, it would have been better.

Job 10:20 KJV  Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, Job 10:21 KJV  Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; Job 10:22 KJV  A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

Job’s utter despair. . . Hungering for the illusionary comfort of the grave.