Bible Study Chat #33

Let's finish the rest of chapter 6 now:

Job 6:8–30 (NIV)

⁸ “Oh, that I might have my request,

that God would grant what I hope for,

⁹ that God would be willing to crush me,

to let loose his hand and cut me off!

¹⁰ Then I would still have this consolation—

my joy in unrelenting pain—

that I had not denied the words of the Holy One. 

Job was asking that God would finish whatever He's started in him.  He was saying that he preferred death to this constant pain and sickness and his grief.  He was not suicidal though. That thought never crossed his mind.  He didn't mind asking God to take his life, but he would never take it himself. He was also saying that if God would kill him now, at least he could be consoled to know that he had not purposely sinned against God by word or deed.  By saying this aloud, and allowing his friends to hear how he was feeling, he was also trying to make them aware both of how horrible his physical and emotional pain was and how certain he was that he had not sinned.. 

¹¹ “What strength do I have, that I should still hope?

What prospects, that I should be patient?

¹² Do I have the strength of stone?

Is my flesh bronze?

¹³ Do I have any power to help myself,

now that success has been driven from me? 

Here he's saying that he isn't strong enough to overcome what God has decreed for him. He was also letting his friends know that they couldn't possibly understand what it was like to wake up each morning in such physical pain, knowing that it wasn't going to go away.  He felt his life was hopeless.  ‎

Because Job had chosen to dwell on these kind of thoughts, he forgot that although he might not have that kind of strength, God does and God will use His strength to help us! Job had been brought to the end of himself, but he still wasn't looking to God to carry him the way God want us to.Instead, Job wanted God to do what he thought was right and best.  He wasn't willing to allow God to be his strength, to carry him through this trial, and be all he needed.

Zech 4:6 —‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. 

1 Cor 1:25 —‎For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 

2 Cor 12:9 —‎But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 

 

¹⁴ “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends,

even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 

 

Job wasn't saying that he no longer feared God, He did still fear Him.  He was only saying that everyone needs a friend regardless of where they stood with God.  He was saying this because his friends were still insisting that Job wasn't right with God because they felt he'd sinned. So in effect he was saying, "even if you were right, which you aren't, I still need friends to help me through my despair.". Our Lord agrees with this, which is why He has placed us in the body of Christ and made each of us members of His family.  He wants us to love each other and bear each others burdens, not make them worse.

¹⁵ But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,

as the streams that overflow

¹⁶ when darkened by thawing ice

and swollen with melting snow,

¹⁷ but that cease to flow in the dry season,

and in the heat vanish from their channels.

¹⁸ Caravans turn aside from their routes;

they go up into the wasteland and perish.

¹⁹ The caravans of Tema look for water,

the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

²⁰ They are distressed, because they had been confident;

they arrive there, only to be disappointed. 

 

Here Job is finding ways to describe how unreliable and unhelpful his friends are to him.  To put it all in terms we would understand better today, he was simply saying, "you guys are no help to me at all; all I wanted was a little sympathy, not some great miracle of deliverance!" He was letting them know that when he needed them the most, they were not only unhelpful, and unreliable, but had actually become abusive.  They'd been great friends when he had lots of money and was healthy, but now they seemed to think they were better then he was.

²¹ Now you too have proved to be of no help;

you see something dreadful and are afraid.  

Job says that his friends look at him and are afraid.  It's possible that his sickness had so disfigured him that it caused his friends to fear, which is one way to look at this.  It's also quite possible though that his friends were afraid that the same thing might happen to them that had happened to Job, which certainly sounds reasonable. Or they might have been afraid that God would punish them the way they thought He was punishing Job, if they sympathized with him.  Lastly, they may have thought that Job wanted them to give him money or help him financially..

²² Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf,

pay a ransom for me from your wealth,

²³ deliver me from the hand of the enemy,

ransom me from the clutches of the ruthless’?

Here he has told them that he's never asked them for anything before, and that he wasn't asking for a handout or a loan now, so they had no reason to fear.  All he wanted was sympathy.

       

²⁴ “Teach me, and I will be quiet;

show me where I have been wrong. 

Now Job challenges his friends to show him where he sinned, to show him where anything he's said is wrong, and show him what he's done to deserve the suffering he's going through..

²⁵ How painful are honest words!

But what do your arguments prove?

²⁶ Do you mean to correct what I say,

When he says that they treat his words like the wind, he's saying that they don't pay attention to anything he says to them.

²⁷ You would even cast lots for the fatherless

and barter away your friend.  

Job isn't saying that his friends have literally done these things, he's suggesting that what they're doing and saying to him is the same thing as if they were doing something like treating an orphan like something to purchase -merchandise.

²⁸ “But now be so kind as to look at me.

Would I lie to your face? 

Now Job asks them to "look at him". He wants them to really look at him and see him as the same person he's always been.  He had never lied to them before, and he wasn't starting to now.  He wanted them to stop thinking of ways to defend their argument, and really look at him and see how distressed he was.

²⁹ Relent, do not be unjust;

reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. 

³⁰ Is there any wickedness on my lips?

Can my mouth not discern malice? 

He's telling them that while he's been open and honest with them, and that should be obvious to anyone, that it's just as obvious that they're being spiteful toward him.  He's saying they are being heartless.

 I think many of us have been in similar situations where we've been misunderstood by people we thought were our friends, just as Job is here.  So we know how much it hurts to have a friend turn on us.  Now, on top of all that Satan has already done to Job, instead of having friends to comfort him, his friends have turned on him, adding to his pain.  

This seems especially true of people who call themselves "Christians". Often when a brother or sister in Christ is going through a very hard time, the people who should be comforting them, turn on them and accuse them of either having some secret sin or of not having enough faith.  Those of us who live with chronic pain or illness, have often had this happen to us.  Part of the reason for it is due to the false teaching of the Word of Faith and other similar groups, but part of it is simply due to people's sin nature. Not only that misery loves company, but the sin nature loves to make us think we're better then someone else.  It's certainly the opposite of how the Lord tells us to act when someone in the body of Christ is hurting, isn't it?