Beloved, I am pleased to share with you today the above theme from Job 9:1-2 and following. Indeed, Bildad emphasized God’s inflexible justice. Job cannot help but agree with him. But then he raises the big question: “How will man be righteous before God? (v. 2). It has tormented many sages and thinkers since the origins of the world! The answer is not in the reasoning of philosophers and moralists. It is not even in the powerful works of the Creator, of which Job gives some examples here. It is in the word of God that we find it! After establishing that “there is no righteous, not even one”, she announces the good news: we are “freely justified by his grace, by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…”. And at the same time: “Man is justified by faith…” (Rom. 3:9-28 – see also Titus 3:3-8; 1 Cor. 6.9-11; Gal. 3.22-26). From v. 15 Job expresses his total helplessness. Between God and Him, the struggle is unequal. He feels crushed by a ruthless judge who, without cause, multiplies his wounds (vs. 15, 17). Sad thought for a believer! We have a tender Father in Jesus. May no circumstance, however painful, make us forget it!
In Job 7:5-6 Job had compared the flight of his days to the weaver’s shuttle. Here he uses the image of a runner, then that of light boats carried away by a river, finally that of an eagle that melts on its prey (see also Jacq. 4.14-16 and Ps. 39.5-7). Young we hardly realize it, on the other hand the testimony of all the old men is unanimous: life is actually quickly passed. And we only have one to live. No, it is not possible to hold them back, these days that escape without return. On the other hand, the way we fill them can give them eternal value. Used for the world, time dissipates into vanities if they are used for the Lord, the short moments during which we are on the lie. But earth can bear fruit that remains (John 15:14-17). We address a very special exhortation to those of our readers who do not yet belong to the Lord: This rapid flight of days encourages many people to enjoy life. “From the fleeting hour, let us hasten, let us enjoy; Man has no port, time has no shore…” – said a poet. That’s a lie! There is a bank (Mark 4:35-41), there is a port (Ps. 107.23-32). Get ready to approach it safely! In his response, Job rejects Bildad’s insinuations and still maintains that God’s very majesty made him, a poor and weak creature, unable to withstand his blows. This is the main point of his speech. He demonstrates that, even if he wanted to, he could not, albeit justly, assert his righteousness before God, for his eyes of infinite holiness were to see in him only misery and imperfection. So his only desire was that there should be an Arbiter between them who could establish a just balance between God and man. Moreover, in the feeling of his helplessness to resist the overwhelming force that had crushed him, he again expresses his desire to die. This seems to be the general thought of Job’s response to Bildad.
Now Job’s friends insist on the doctrine that God’s earthly government is now a full manifestation and measure of his righteousness and of the justice of man that should have corresponded to it; a doctrine that demonstrated a total ignorance of what God’s righteousness is, of what His ways are, as well as the absence of any true knowledge of what God is, or what man is as a sinner. Nor do we see in them a heart moved, in its feelings, by communion with God. Their arguments are a false and cold appreciation of the exact justice of his government, as an adequate manifestation of his relations with man, although they employ several commonplaces that even the Spirit of God admits as righteous. Even though, in Job’s appreciation of himself, he is not before God, he judges all this correctly. He shows that although God does not approve of the wicked, the circumstances in which they are often found overturn the reasoning of his friends.
We see in him a heart which, while being rebellious to God, counts on God and would like to find him and which, as soon as he can, in a few words, get rid of his friends who, he feels it well, do not understand anything either in his case or in the ways of God, turns to God (although he does not find it, and that he complains that his hand is resting on him). That is, we see a man who has tasted that the Lord is good (1 Pier. 2:3), whose heart, crumpled no doubt and rebellious, claims for God, because he knows him, qualities that the cold reasoning of his friends did not know how to attribute to Him; a heart that complains bitterly about God, but feels that, once with Him, it would find It as it represented it and not as represented by its friends, or as they were themselves – if it could find it, it would not be like them, God would put words in its mouth; a heart that indignantly rejected the accusation of hypocrisy, for Job felt that he was looking to God, that he had known Him and had acted in relation to Him, though God found it good to remind him of his sin.
It’s with an infinitely sad reformulation of what God made appear to him through Bildad’s speech that Job begins his response. Yes, that is the case. How can man be righteous before such a God? You tell me that my children are burdened with destruction for their sins. You tell me that I, who am not quite dead yet, can have a new prosperity if I put myself in a right relationship with God. But how can this be? There is no righteousness, no duty, no pious obedience, no sacrifice that satisfies him. I did my best; yet God has condemned me. And if He is what you say, His condemnation is without reply. He has such wisdom in conceiving accusations and maintaining them against the weak man, that he hopes that there can be no accusations for any human being. Answering one of the thousand accusations that God can make, if he fights man, is impossible. Earthquakes are signs of his indignation, removing mountains, shaking the earth from his place.
It’s able to turn off the light of the sun and moon and seal the stars. What is the man next to the omnipotence of the One who alone has extended the heavens, whose walk is on the immense waves of the ocean, who is the Creator of the constellations, the Bear, the Giant, the Pleiades, and the chambers or spaces ofthe southern sky? It is the game of irresistible power that Job traces around him, and the spirit or divine will is impenetrable. Step by step, thought advances here in this appalling imagination of God’s injustice that must lead to revolt or despair. Job, turning against the bitter logic of tradition, seems for the moment to plunge into impiety. A sincere and serious thinker that he is, he falls into a tension that we are almost forced to call false and blasphemous. Bildad and Eliphaz seem to be saints, Job a rebel against God.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
Job’s reply: Could man argue with God?
- Discussing with God, it is foolish to
Jb 9:33 There is no referee between us, Who puts His hand on both of us. Jb 33:13 Do you want to argue with him, because he gives no account for his actions? Isa 45:9 Woe to those who dispute with its creator! -Vase among earthen vessels! -Does clay say to the one who shapes it: What are you doing? And your work: He has no hands? Rom 9:20 O man, you rather, who are you to challenge with God? Will the clay vase say to the one who formed it: Why did you do this to me?
- Self-justification, impossible
Jb 9.2 I am well aware that this is so; How would man be righteous before God? Ps 143:2 Do not enter into judgment with your servant! For no living person is right in front of you. Ez 14:14 and if there were in his midst these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, they would save their souls by their righteousness, said the Lord, the Lord. Rom 3:20 For no one shall be justified before him by the works of the law, since it is by the law that the knowledge of sin comes.
- Wrath of God
Ex 4:14 The Lord will fight for you; and you will remain silent. Jos 7:1 The children of Israel committed infidelity about things devoted by forbidden. Acan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerach, of the tribe of Judah, took devoted things. And the wrath of Jehovah ignited against the children of Israel. Jg 2:14 Jehovah’s wrath was ignited against Israel. He delivered them into the hands of looters who plundered them, he sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies, and they could no longer resist their enemies. Ps 7:12 God is a just judge, God is irritated at all times.
- Correction stick
Ps 89:33 I will punish with the rod their transgressions, and with blows their iniquities; Pr 13:24 He who spares his penis hates his son, but he who loves him seeks to correct him. Pr 29:15 The rod and the correction give wisdom, but the child left to himself shames his mother. Lm 3:1 I am the man who saw misery under the rod of his fury.
From all of the above, we note that the Almighty is like a lion that grabs the prey and cannot be prevented from devouring it. He is an angry tyrant under whom Rahab’s assistants, those powers that, according to a myth of nature, support the sea dragon in its conflict with the sky, bend down and give in. Will Job try to answer him? It is in vain. He can’t. Choosing words in such a controversy would be useless. Even a single right in his cause would be dominated by the tyrannical omnipotence. He would have no other resource than to ask for mercy as a detected malefactor. Once Job thought that a call to justice would be heard, that his confidence in justice was well founded. He is moving away from that belief now. This Being whose despotic power has been placed in his views has no sense of human right. He doesn’t care about man. No one can hold God to account. The disposition of the Almighty appears to Job as man must renounce all controversy. In his heart, Job is still convinced that he has done no harm. But he won’t say it. He will anticipate the voluntary condemnation of the Almighty. God would attack his life. Job responds with fierce revolt: “What does it matter after all? For I dare say it, He destroys the perfect and the wicked” (Job 9:22). Now, do we have to explain this language? Otherwise, how will we defend the writer who put it in the mouth of a hero still in the book, always appearing as a friend of God? For many today, as in the past, religion is so dull and lifeless, their desire for God’s friendship so lukewarm, that the passion for Job’s words is incomprehensible to them. His courage of despair belongs to a range of feelings that they never penetrated, never dreamed of entering. The calculating world is their home, and in its icy atmosphere, there is no possibility of this ardent effort for the spiritual life that fills the soul like fire. For those who deny sin and anxiety about the soul, the book may well appear as an old-world dream, a Hebrew allegory rather than a man’s story. But Job’s language is not an explosion of anarchy; rather, it springs from deep and serious reflection. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom as I walk in your ways.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and for centuries of ages. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow, “God, why are you lashing out at me? (Jb 10)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.