Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then Job replied:
“How long will you torment me
    and crush me with words?
Ten times now you have reproached me;
    shamelessly you attack me.
If it is true that I have gone astray,
    my error remains my concern alone.
If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
    and use my humiliation against me,
then know that God has wronged me
    and drawn his net around me.
“Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;
    though I call for help, there is no justice.
He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
    he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
He has stripped me of my honor
    and removed the crown from my head.
He tears me down on every side till I am gone;
    he uproots my hope like a tree.
His anger burns against me;
    he counts me among his enemies.
His troops advance in force;
    they build a siege ramp against me
    and encamp around my tent.
“He has alienated my family from me;
    my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
My relatives have gone away;
    my closest friends have forgotten me.
My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;
    they look on me as on a stranger.
I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
    though I beg him with my own mouth.
My breath is offensive to my wife;
    I am loathsome to my own family.
Even the little boys scorn me;
    when I appear, they ridicule me.
All my intimate friends detest me;
    those I love have turned against me.
I am nothing but skin and bones;
    I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
“Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
    for the hand of God has struck me.
Why do you pursue me as God does?
    Will you never get enough of my flesh?
“Oh, that my words were recorded,
    that they were written on a scroll,
that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
    or engraved in rock forever!
I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
    with my own eyes—I, and not another.
    How my heart yearns within me!
“If you say, ‘How we will hound him,
    since the root of the trouble lies in him,’
you should fear the sword yourselves;
    for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,
    and then you will know that there is judgment.”

• Job 19:1-29

Job 19:17  ”The loss of those most dear. In light of the fact that all Job’s children were dead (Job 1:18–19), this reference could be to his own siblings or could be part of the general stereotypical language. The loathsome nature of the diseases afflicting Job had driven away those nearest and dearest to him. The emphasis is on the isolation felt by Job. Rejection from a wife would be the ultimate human tragedy.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Constance N. Wieler, Poetry contributor)

The Message

Job says that his “friends” have already attacked him 10 times, and even if he had a sin that needed to be confessed, it was of no concern to them.  It was a matter between Job and God alone.

God seems to have backed Job into a corner.  He cannot progress and he has nowhere to turn.

Verses 13-20 speak of total abandonment.  Job says that his wife hates his bad breath.  It speaks of little children not wanting to be around him and “relatives.”  His children have all died, but this could be others in the family and their children.  The NIV does not say “his children.”

Job is attributing his suffering to God doing it.  But he is more hurt that his “friends” are all piling on, adding to his suffering.

Then Job wishes that his words were being inscribed.  He knows that when he is gone, he will see God.  He knows his Redeemer lives.

Then, Job turns the narrative onto his friends.  If he will be punished by the sword, the sword will be turned on his friends, for they have accused him falsely.

And now let us sing.

The following song is Stand Firm.  This is from Scriptural Thinking.  This one is a bit different.

 

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Lord, we suffer.  And we also suffer from false accusations.  We are not perfect, but sometimes we are simply going through a test of faith as Job was enduring.  And here Job laments that extended family and friends have all turned against him.  I remember when I had lost my job and friends would turn around in the grocery aisle and walk the other way to avoid saying hello.  C.S. Lewis talks about when men suffer there is a second suffering, the shadow that the suffering gives us, the second suffering simply because we suffer.  But You see our pain.  You will vindicate us in the end.  You will set things right.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.