Job 6:1-13
Then Job answered and said: “Oh that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore, my words have been rash. For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder? Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow? My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me. “Oh, that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?
One must not forget God’s word to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.” Do not forget Satan’s reply in verses 9-11, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Job becomes the pawn in a superhuman struggle.
His three friends show up and we have Job’s reply to Eliphaz, the first to speak after Job. Over all his words are kind and yet he is doing what many do when they have no understanding of the vastness of the pain and suffering.
In Job’s answer one comes to understand the massiveness of Job’s pain and loss, Job compares it to the sand of the sea and tells the reader it would be heaver than that. Job has no doubt that he is the object of God’s attack. He refers to God as a mighty warrior that has shot his arrows and the poison has made his words rash. He goes on to talk about the animals and how they do not complain when they are well fed. Job is telling his friend his council is like contaminated food.
Job’s understanding of what Eliphaz has shared is to not put his hope in his piety, or God’s disciplinary action, but in death. Job tells us that would be sweet and that he has not denied the words of the Holy One.
When one loses hope it’s not a good thing, verses 11,12,13 tell us Job is at such a point. He has no strength left, his future looks very dark, and he cannot fix this mess he has been brought into, because he has no real understanding of the why.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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