Sunday, October 5, 2014

Job 16:6-22 comments: Job's desolation


6 ¶  Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased? 7  But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company. 8  And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face. 9  He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. 10  They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me. 11  God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. 12  I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. 13  His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. 14  He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant. 15  I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust. 16  My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

    17 ¶  Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure. 18  O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. 19  Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. 20  My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. 21  O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! 22  When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Although in verse 5 Job insists that he would asswage his friends grief his grief has not been asswaged by them. Forbear means is to refrain from doing something. See;

1Kings 22:6b…Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.

…and again;

1Corinthians 9:6  Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?

Job says in verse 6, “though I speak,” and then in the parallel phrase at the end of the verse, “though I forbear.” So, in the context he says, if I speak my grief is not restrained and even if I refrain from speaking what good does it do me? It doesn’t matter whether I vent my feelings or keep my mouth shut I’m still in agony and, to you guys, both my talk and my silence make me guilty of some horrible sin to deserve this that is happening to me. In other words, “I can’t win for losing.”

In verse 7 Job cries that God has made him tired of his life and emptied that life of his family, his wealth, and his health. Desolate’s definition in the Bible is empty;

Genesis 47:19  Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

Exodus 23:29  I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

Notice back in chapter 15 of Job a clear definition;

Job 15:28  And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

Desolate also refers to a woman with no husband as there being no welfare state in those days, a mother would expect to be taken care of by her sons in her old age, such as it was.

Isaiah 54:1  Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

Alluded to by Paul;

Galatians 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

Notice a comparison in verses 8-11 with Christ’s suffering for our sins, for although Job is speaking of God doing these things, we know that God allows the actions of evil men to sometimes accomplish His purpose chapter one. As Jesus became sin for us God turned Him over to the wicked to punish, although, much moreso than Job, He was not guilty.

Psalm 37:12  The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.

Job says in verse 12 that he was doing okay, everything was going good, and then out of nowhere this trouble came, and we can see that as we read. He says that God has set him up for his mark, using again the imagery of being shot at by God’s arrows.

Job 6:4  For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

Verse 14 shows us that giants still existed after the Great Flood. It is important to note that in this verse before the Flood of Noah the words, “and after that.”

Genesis 6:4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

This line of genetic freaks existed even in the days when the Hebrews marched in to take the land of Canaan away from incestuous, bestiality-practicing, temple prostitution worshipping, child-sacrificing Canaanites.

Numbers 13:33  And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Deuteronomy 2:11  Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims…20  (That also was accounted a land of giants: giants dwelt therein in old time; and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims;

Deuteronomy 3:11  For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man. (This measurement could be anywhere from 13.5 feet long to 18 feet long. Just imagine.)

The use of, “horn,” in verse 15 is interesting where Job uses the phrase, “defiled my horn in the dust.” Horn, such as the horn of a Rhinoceros, called a Unicorn in the Bible, is a symbol of strength, and so represents the strength of a man. We’ll get to that in more detail later when God Himself speaks. This is in addition to the common expression of an instrument that makes a sound.

1Samuel 2:10  The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Psalm 18:2  The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Psalm 89:17  For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.

Again in verse 17 Job states that he is innocent and that his prayers are pure. In 18 he pleads with the very earth that he be heard and in 19 that heaven knows the truth of what he is saying. Here in 19 we have an example of how the Bible defines itself as a witness is a record of something that has happened. When you bear witness you bear record.

1John 5:10  He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

A record is also a testimony which can refer, depending on the context, to events that have not yet happened but will.

Revelation 1:1 ¶  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 2  Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

Revelation 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Job’s friends scorn him and he cries out to God.

Psalm 6:1 ¶  « To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. » O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 2  Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. 3  My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long? 4  Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake. 5  For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? 6  I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. 7  Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

In 21 Job pleads for what we have; someone to make intercession for us to God. We have Jesus Christ.

1Timothy 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6  Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Hebrews 7:22  By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. 23  And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: 24  But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 25  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 26  For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27  Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 28  For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

The Lord Jesus Christ is mankind’s only bridge to God being God Himself in the flesh.

Hebrews 1:1 ¶  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God….

Soon, Job laments, all that is left for him is death.

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