1 ¶
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers
I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. 2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their
hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? 3 For want and famine they were solitary;
fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. 4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper
roots for their meat. 5 They were driven
forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) 6 To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in
caves of the earth, and in the rocks. 7
Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered
together. 8 They were children of fools,
yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. 9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their
byword. 10 They abhor me, they flee far
from me, and spare not to spit in my face. 11
Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let
loose the bridle before me. 12 Upon my
right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me
the ways of their destruction. 13 They
mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. 14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of
waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
Here is Job’s
counter to Eliphaz’s remark;
Job 15:10
With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy
father.
Comparing these
two verses we get the implication that there were other witnesses to what was
happening to Job than just the ones involved in speaking. This would make sense
based on Job’s importance to his community. Perhaps what Eliphaz was referring
to were the elders over whom Job ruled and who were in awe of his wisdom but
were in agreement with Job’s friends, as a community, that in order for this to
have happened to Job he must have been guilty of something terrible.
Have you
noticed how people tend to turn on a celebrity figure based on multiple
accusations without court evidence or the chance of the accused’s attorney to
question them. We may read or hear of many similar accusations and assume that
they are true because they are many but consider this, that people who may,
“come out of the woodwork,” may be part of a conspiracy to bring a powerful
person down. Even minor, seemingly petty, accusations, when added to some
heinous sins, make the whole situation seem worse. Of course, the person may be
very guilty, but consider Job’s friends and the crowd of, “grayheaded and very
aged men,” who are accusing Job of what they do not even know.
Job insults his
friends, who are younger than him, by saying that his father would not have put
them with the dogs that watched over his sheep. Shepherding is said to have
been a lowly occupation and not held in very high esteem which is one reason
why the angels appearing to the shepherds at Christ’s birth is a remarkable
statement in Luke 2. That was a pretty blatant insult Job laid out, wouldn’t
you say?
He continues
the derogatory comments berating his friends as being the scum of the earth and
yet they have the nerve to insult him, to spit in his face in a manner of
speaking. They take advantage of his affliction and assault him in a despicable
manner. Job is isolated emotionally now, feeling himself treated as an enemy of
God, and alienated from his friends and peers. He looks around him and sees no
one on his side. He is truly alone, in his own mind at least.
15 ¶ Terrors are turned upon me:
they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.
16 And now my soul is poured out upon
me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. 17 My bones are pierced in me in the night
season: and my sinews take no rest. 18
By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me
about as the collar of my coat. 19 He
hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. 20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I
stand up, and thou regardest me not. 21
Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself
against me. 22 Thou liftest me up to the
wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. 23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death,
and to the house appointed for all living. 24
Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry
in his destruction. 25 Did not I weep
for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? 26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto
me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. 27 My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of
affliction prevented me. 28 I went
mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. 29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to
owls. 30 My skin is black upon me, and
my bones are burned with heat. 31 My
harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
Job states that
Terrors are after him, pursuing his soul, and his welfare is blown away like a
cloud.
Leviticus 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even
appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume
the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for
your enemies shall eat it.
Welfare as
well-being rather than suffering is shown in the following verse.
Jeremiah 38:4 Therefore the princes said unto the king, We
beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of
the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking
such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but
the hurt.
His health is
destroyed, God has thrown him in the mud and slime, and Job says that he has
become like, another simile, “dust and ashes.” Job cries to God and God doesn’t hear him and,
in fact, is ignoring him.
Job insists
that he has shown compassion for the person in trouble and for the poor, with
one implication being that Job considers himself, at this point, with more of a
heart for the suffering than his Creator. Mankind often looks at the course of
history and, condemning God, thinks of himself as more humane, kind, and
compassionate than his Creator. Humankind says, “I would not have let 20
million die of the Spanish flu during World War One,” or, “I would not let
countless children in the third world starve to death.” It’s not only atheists
and liberals who think this way. Every time you say, “God, how could you let
this happen to me?” you are accusing God of sleeping on the job or not doing
the duty you have assigned to Him.
Again, the
issue is the sovereignty of God and His rights over all creation. Does the God
of the Bible have the absolute right to dispose of your life, or your child’s
life, or your spouse’s life, or your parent’s life as He sees fit and is all
that is good based on His standard? Or, must the god you have created in your
own mind, whom your preachers, ministers, and philosophers have invented bend
to your will and do you set the standard for Him?
This is the
essence of the struggle between the humanism of liberal Christianity that does
not regard the written word of God as of primary or any importance or of the fundamentalist
who regards God as a card-carrying Republican whose values are that of a 1950’s
television sit-com or a Victorian era etiquette manual, versus a Bible-believer
who wishes to submit to God’s will and accepts the standards and commands for
his life set down in the Bible as his final authority in all matters of faith,
practice, AND doctrine.
The answer is,
and get this straight fundamentalists and liberals, there is a God and you
aren’t Him, and neither is your government, your clergy, or your doctor, or your
political party.
In verse 26 Job
said he expected good and disaster came. Is not God also the author of
disaster? Did not Job admit that early on?
Job 2:10
But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women
speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not
receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Isaiah 45:7
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I
the LORD do all these things.
Job used a
similar comparison for verse 29 back in 17:14.
Job 17:14
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my
mother, and my sister.
There are comparisons
in prophetic interpretation between fowls of the air and Satan and the devils
and there are many connections to be made but that is a different study. See
Psalm 102:6; Isaiah 13:21, 22, and compare with the Parable of the Sower in
Mark 4. However, I’m not writing this to tickle your fancy for clever twists of
prophecy or speaking this to tickle your ears. I’m trying to help you
understand why God had the Book of Job placed in the Bible.
When Job talks
about his skin turning black he is referring to the change that occurs in a
famine caused by a siege, where the helpless citizen of a city starves to
death.
Lamentations 5:10 Our skin was black like an oven because of
the terrible famine.
Job’s metaphor
of musical instruments has them compared to what his life has become, turning
from playing a joyful noise to a funeral dirge.
Psalm 98:6
With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD,
the King.
This is also
interesting because of the early Baptist (the 1600’s or 17th century
and throughout the next) conflict over singing and the use of musical instruments
in worship. Baptists were initially opposed to them but eventually pastors
convinced their congregations and other pastors that there was a Biblical
warrant for men singing, then musical instrument accompaniment.(33) Influential
Baptist pastors like Dan Taylor wrote books defending the use of music in
praising God and, since women often sang beautifully and were part of the
congregation, the participation of women in the worship service was a
collateral consequence. I refer you to Dan Taylor’s A Dissertation on Singing in the Worship of God published in 1786
and the sequel which followed the next year.
(33) Macbeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of
Baptist Witness, Kindle edition, ch. 2.
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