JOB'S PRAYER FOR ENLIGHTENMENT. Job now launches forth into a pitiful complaint, addressing God Himself on the great severity with which He was treating him, although He knew that he was innocent of any specific guilt.... [ Continue Reading ]
My soul is weary of my life, filled with disgust and loathing; I WILL LEAVE MY COMPLAINT UPON MYSELF, giving free course to his sorrowful statement; I WILL SPEAK IN THE BITTERNESS OF MY SOUL.... [ Continue Reading ]
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me, letting him die the death of a guilty person against the testimony of his conscience. SHOW ME WHEREFORE THOU CONTENDEST WITH ME, letting him know the definite charge which He preferred against him.... [ Continue Reading ]
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? Surely God would not take pleasure, find joy, in cruelly abusing a creature of His own hands, in treating Job as possessing no value, while favoring, at the... [ Continue Reading ]
Hast Thou eyes of flesh? Would God judge like a man, perceiving the objects only from the outside, judging only by the outward look of things? OR SEEST THOU AS MAN SEETH?... [ Continue Reading ]
Are Thy days as the days of man, of a mortal, changeable creature? ARE THY YEARS AS MAN'S DAYS,... [ Continue Reading ]
that Thou enquirest, seekest, AFTER MINE INIQUITY AND SEARCHEST AFTER MY SIN? Surely God's life was not so short that He was obliged to resort to tortures of this kind, in order to force an unwilling confession of guilt from the mouth of Job. Such a way of dealing could be expected in an earthly rul... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou knowest that I am not wicked, rather, "although Thou knowest that I am not guilty"; AND THERE IS NONE THAT CAN DELIVER OUT OF THINE HAND; although He had all men absolutely in His power, He surely would not act like a tyrant, for they could not escape His justice in any event. Job argued that a... [ Continue Reading ]
Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about, having carefully and elaborately formed and fashioned his intricate organism; YET THOU DOST DESTROY ME! An exclamation of reproachful amazement.... [ Continue Reading ]
Remember, I beseech thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay, as a potter fashions a vessel out of clay; AND WILT THOU BRING ME INTO DUST AGAIN? Out of dust was man originally formed, and to dust he must return.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hast Thou not poured me out as milk and curdled me like cheese? This describes the entire molding of the body before birth, one of God's great mysteries.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews, interweaving them into the pattern of the body in that wonderful process of creation.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou hast granted me life and favor, his life having been preserved by reason of the divine kindness, AND THY VISITATION HATH PRESERVED MY SPIRIT; by the providence of God his life had been spared and the breath kept in his body. Should all these miraculous acts be in vain? All believers should appr... [ Continue Reading ]
And these things hast Thou hid in Thine heart; I know that this is with Thee, that is: In spite of all God's care in the creation and preservation of Job, in spite of all His apparent kindness in the past, His hidden purpose had planned Job's destruction.... [ Continue Reading ]
JOB RENEWS HIS COMPLAINT OF HIS AFFLICTION... [ Continue Reading ]
If I sin, then Thou markest me, that is, If Job should sin, God had intended to watch very carefully and immediately charge it against him, AND THOU WILT NOT ACQUIT ME FROM MINE INIQUITY; He carefully notes down every evidence of wickedness.... [ Continue Reading ]
If I be wicked, woe unto me! He must expect a sudden and violent punishment. AND IF I BE RIGHTEOUS, YET WILL I NOT LIFT UP MY HEAD, even if he were right, he would not dare to look up with freedom and confidence, for this would not be acknowledged. I AM FULL OF CONFUSION, filled with shame; THEREFOR... [ Continue Reading ]
For it increaseth, rather, "and should my head lift itself up," should Job dare to show a cheerful courage, THOU HUNTEST ME AS A FIERCE LION; AND AGAIN THOU SHOWEST THYSELF MARVELOUS UPON ME, God would show His wonderful power in destroying him,... [ Continue Reading ]
Thou renewest Thy witnesses against me, God would cause ever new witnesses to appear against Job, AND INCREASEST THINE INDIGNATION UPON ME, with an ever new amount of displeasure. CHANGES AND WAR ARE AGAINST ME; Job would have to consider ever new troops and a whole army opposed to him, He alone is... [ Continue Reading ]
Wherefore, then, hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb? He renews his complaint, bewailing the fact that he was ever born. OH, THAT I HAD GIVEN UP THE GHOST, AND NO EYE HAD SEEN ME! He would have died, never have seen the light of day, if God had not called him into being.... [ Continue Reading ]
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave, still-born, a corpse, and out of misery.... [ Continue Reading ]
Are not my days few? Was not the time of his life short enough? Could not God take from him some of the burden which was weighting him down? CEASE, THEN, AND LET ME ALONE, turning His attention elsewhere, THAT I MAY TAKE COMFORT A LITTLE, enjoy just a little brightness and cheerfulness,... [ Continue Reading ]
before I go whence I shall not return, or, "go hence and return not," EVEN TO THE LAND OF DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH;... [ Continue Reading ]
a land of darkness, as darkness itself, black as the shades of midnight; AND OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, WITHOUT ANY ORDER, filled with chaotic confusion, AND WHERE THE LIGHT IS AS DARKNESS, literally, "where it is light as midnight," said of the most intense darkness, an utterly sunless gloom. Job here... [ Continue Reading ]