Job 10-12 - Job Cries Out to God

Job Cries Out to God

Job 10:2 LSB - [2] "I will say to God, 'Do not account me as wicked; Let me know why You contend with me.

iv. The tried saint may ask as Job did, “Show me why You contend with me.” Spurgeon suggested several answers:

It may be that God is contending with you to show you His power to uphold you.

It may be that God is contending with you to develop your graces.

It may be that God is contending with you because you have some secret sin that is doing you great damage.

It may be that God is contending with you because He wants you to enter the fellowship of His sufferings.

It may be that God is contending with you to humble you.

v. The seeking sinner might also ask as Job did, “Show me why You contend with me.” Spurgeon suggested several answers to the seeking sinner:

It may be that God is contending with you because you are not yet thoroughly awakened to your lost condition.

It may be that God is contending with you in order to test your earnestness.

It may be that God is contending with you because you are harboring one sin that you will not turn over to Him.

It may be that God is contending with you because you do not yet thoroughly understand the plan of salvation.

vi. Though it was not the case with Job, it is true that God often contends with both saints and sinners to deal with their sin. “Trials often discover sins — sins we should never have found out if it had not been for them. We know that the houses in Russia are very greatly infested with rats and mice. Perhaps a stranger would scarcely notice them at first, but the time when you discover them is when the house is on fire; then they pour out in multitudes. And so doth God sometimes burn up our comforts to make our hidden sins run out; and then he enables us to knock them on the head and get rid of them.” (Spurgeon)

Job 10:9-12 LSB - [9] 'Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again? [10] 'Did You not pour me out like milk And curdle me like cheese, [11] Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews? [12] 'You have made alongside me life and lovingkindness; And Your care has kept my spirit.

Zophar Asks, Can You Find the Depths of God?

Job 11:16 LSB - [16] "For you would forget [your] trouble, As waters that pass by, so you would remember [it].

ii. “We seem to lie all broken in pieces, with our thoughts like a case of knives cutting into our spirit; and we say to ourselves, ‘We never shall forget this terrible experience.’ And yet, by-and-by, God turns towards us the palm of his hand, and we see that it is full of mercy, we are restored to health, or uplifted from depression of spirit, and we wonder that we ever made so much of our former suffering or depression.” (Spurgeon)

iii. “We remember it no more, except as a thing that has passed and gone, to be recollected with gratitude that we have been delivered from it, but not to be remembered so as to leave any scar upon our spirit, or to cause us any painful reflection whatsoever. ‘Thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away.’” (Spurgeon)

 

Job Answers

Job 12:4 LSB - [4] "I am a laughingstock to my friends, The one who called on God and He answered him; The righteous [and] blameless [man] is a laughingstock.

Job 12:7-10 LSB - [7] "But now ask the beasts, and let them instruct you; And the birds of the sky, and let them tell you. [8] "Or muse to the earth, and let it instruct you; And let the fish of the sea recount [it] to you. [9] "Who among all these does not know That the hand of Yahweh has done this, [10] In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all the flesh of man?

Job Speaks of God’s Strength

Job 12:13 LSB - [13] "With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and discernment.

Job 12:24-25 LSB - [24] "He removes the heart [of wisdom] from the heads of the earth's people And makes them wander in a pathless waste. [25] "They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them wander about like a drunken man.