Job 10:1 My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
3 Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
4 Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
In chapter 10 Job was directed by God to write about his complaint with God. Bildad had spewed out his wrong theology and Job had responded somewhat to that in chapter 9. Part of that chapter was also directed to God. Now in this chapter Job is continuing to make his case before God. God continued to show us how we respond to troubles when we are not well grounded in Him. God loved Job. God had blessed Job with many good things. God was not the problem here. God is not the problem in our world either. It is evil that is the problem. God offers the only solution there is to man’s problems. God’s solution is not a stop-gap. God’s solution is the right answer to man’s need.
In verse 1, Job expressed his further despair with life. He was tired of living. He did not understand what was going on and he was tired of the pain of his body but also the anguish of his soul. He was deeply troubled and did not know where to turn. His two friends that had spoken thus far, had not helped him at all. They were deceived and they were seeking to deceive him. Job did not believe he had access to God at this time. He is making his plea to God, but as we see, he does not really believe that God is listening.
In verse 2 Job was pleading for mercy. He believed he was being condemned by God, but he did not know why. He was asking God to show him what the sin was. In verse 3 he asked God if He thought it was just to oppress him. Job tried to put God on a guilt trip. How could God despise His creation. Job acknowledged that God made him. Yet now he assumed that God was accepting the counsel of the wicked. It is possible that he was referring back to the attack of the Sabeans and Chaldeans who had destroyed his property and family earlier. Job did not understand what was going on and in his despair he was reaching at straws to try to find some humanistic justification for what was going on.
In verse 4 Job wished that God would have eyes as man has. He wished that God could understand what man faces and that He would show some pity upon man’s troubles. God made man. He knows all about man. He cares deeply about man. He does not take any pleasure in the sufferings of man. God is not the cause of the sufferings of man.
God shows us His plan in Genesis 2. He created a beautiful Garden for man to live in. He provided all that man needed in that Garden. Genesis 3 shows us what happened. Man chose to reject God’s wisdom and chose to believe the lie of the devil. That is what changed everything. Adam tried to blame God for his sin, but he had no grounds to do so. The fall of man has changed everything. God has provided the way for man to be forgiven and blessed, however this earth is under God’s curse. The hope of man is not in a restored earth, it is in heaven.
The book of Job reveals to us how true saints can forget things we know and we can be influenced by the devil. God shows us often why we need the fellowship of other saints. God did not create man to be alone. He tells us that in Genesis 2. He created man to build families and communities. God’s design is for families and communities to be built in Him. In the New Testament God shows us that the spiritual family is of greater significance than the physical family. The true local church is the physical and spiritual lifeline for the child of God. The true local church is built upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God is THE central part of the true local church.
When we choose to isolate ourselves from a true local church, we rob ourselves of God’s blessings. The damage we do to ourselves may not seem obvious to us immediately. Over time, that damage becomes more obvious and unless the person submits to God’s will, they will assume their false choice of forsaking the assembling together of the saints, is good and the right choice.
We can see from Job’s life, that we can convince ourselves that wrong thinking is right. We need God to straighten us out. We need someone outside of our mind to show us where we have gone wrong with our thinking and how we can get it right. Job’s friends could not help him. God confronted Job directly. Job did not argue with God from that point on. God tells us how we can know Him and walk with Him faithfully.
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
We can see from the book of Job that we need God’s counsel in our lives on a daily, moment by moment basis. He alone can keep us moving in the right direction, if we know Him and follow Him faithfully. We need to submit ourselves to His way and trust Him to provide the means for us to be able to be perfected in Him.
Pastor Bartel
