Job 10
This chapter is a continuation of Job's reply to his friend Bildad, but because of his extreme weariness and loathing of his life he bitterly complains to God.
He asks God not to condemn him, asking why he contends with him. He seems to reprove God, asking whether it is good that he is seemingly oppressing and despising Job - his creation - and yet being favourable to the wicked.
He seems to suggest that God is treating him as a man would in the way that he is looking for Job's sins. Job argues that God knows that he is not wicked, but that there is nobody that can deliver him from God, who though he created him is seemingly destroying him.
Job pleads with God to remember that he created him, forming his body and giving him life. He repeats from earlier that he knows that God marks his sin and will not acquit him from it. But he is confused, because whether he is wicked or righteous he cannot 'lift up his head'.
He complains that God's indignation against him increases, hunting him as a fierce lion and again bewails why he was given life wishing he had died at birth. He begs that God will leave him alone that he might have just a little comfort before he dies.
As I read the words of verse 2, 'I will say unto God, Do not condemn me' I was reminded of times when I have felt totally condemned by my guilty conscience before God, knowing the sins that I have committed, without excuse - and then the forgiving love he has shown me with a wonderful complete absence of condemnation.
As it says in Romans 8:1, 'There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit'.
But if we look closer at these words here, Job is not in this spirit. He is not saying to God, 'Please have mercy on me and forgive me for all the wrong things I have done'. No, he is saying, 'Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me...thou knowest that I am not wicked' (verses 2,7).
It is as if he is saying "I haven't done anything wrong so why is this happening to me?" - and indeed we have been supporting his case against his friends who felt sure he and his family must have done something wicked - because did not God say to Satan, that Job was upright, hating evil and blameless in his sight?
Job himself seems bewildered, despairing and reproachful towards God. He too, believes he has lived an upright life doing all the things he should do, and confessing any sins.
He reminds me of the rich man who came before Jesus and told him he had kept all of God's commandments, 'Master, all these have I observed from my youth' (Mark 10: 20); later, Job too speaks of all the good things he has done - being faithful to his wife, looking after the poor, orphans and widows, not trusting in his riches, not cursing, being hospitable, not being vindictive and confessing his sins (Job 31). As chapter 32:1 tells us Job was 'righteous in his own eyes' - he couldn't see that he had done anything wrong.
But what did Jesus say to the richman? 'One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions' (Mark 10: 21,22).
Without jumping ahead to the end chapters of Job when God speaks to him, what might he be lacking? It sounds as if Job thought God was unjust in allowing all the calamities to happen...but God knew his heart, his motives, and although outwardly his life was exemplary, God knew if he had been trusting in his own efforts for salvation, become proud of his uprightness or lost sight of his failings.
Perhaps we too feel contented that we 'tick all the boxes' so to speak, in living a good life. We feel confident that God has no space to condemn us, and we will go to heaven when we die. Perhaps we appear to other people to be living moral and good, kind lives, but God knows our every single thought and motive.
Does God look at you and me and say, 'One thing thou lackest'? Is there something in our lives which we think so much of - that we hold so closely to our heart - that we cling to rather than follow Jesus? Are we putting our trust in our behaviour rather than Jesus?
As James tells us in chapter 2:10, 'For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all'. Dear friend, are you pleased with your efforts to live a good life? Do we privately admit to ourselves that we think we are being virtuous? Do we forget, that just that very pride in ourselves condemns us in God's sight?
Let us remember that God tells us that in his sight 'all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' (Isaiah 64: 6); that 'by grace' we are 'saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God': not of works, lest any man should boast' (Ephesians 2:8).
May we be helped to notice our thoughts and motives - if untoward events occur to examine ourselves whether God is chastening us because of a particular sin or thing we are relying on or thinking too much of - and may we be given a spirit of humility to sit at the feet of the Lord in prayer, submission and trust.
And Praise God, that when his children come before him confessing their sins and trusting in Jesus, their Saviour for forgiveness and salvation, God looks at them with eyes of love. They are free from condemnation. Without meaning to sound irreverent, Jesus' life has 'ticked all the boxes' on their behalf.
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