Job 16:7-14
“Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, what have I lost? Surely He[ has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family. You have shriveled me up—it has become a witness; My frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face. His anger tears at me, and He harasses me. He gnashes His teeth at me. My enemy pierces me with His eyes. They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join themselves together against me. God hands me over to unjust men; He throws me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as His target; His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground. He breaks through my defenses again and again; He charges at me like a warrior.”
Job has come to this conclusion, whether he complains or keeps quiet his suffering is the same, so why not grumble? He is going to speak about his suffering and hope that God takes mercy on him. It seems Job is switching from third to the second person, my study Bible states that’s not uncommon in Hebrew poetry. For those, who like me learned very little from my English teacher, let me share this definition of the first, second, and third person. “If the first person is someone telling you his or her story, and the second person is you being told how you should do something, then a third person is more like a camera recording events. That's not to say it's necessarily an objective point of view. A third-person narrator can be highly subjective.”
In verses 7-8, it seems as if Job has moved from the third person to the second person. It seems to me that Job is telling his 3 buddies that he is defenseless against what God has allowed to take place in his life, and in his family. Job wonders, has God become my enemy, does he not see my pain?
What happens when a man of integrity fails in business, do we not see those who despised him come out of the woodwork? Job also is encountering such men. It is hard for anyone to be mocked, and especially a man who has great power and wealth as Job. That is what is happening, those who always had contempt for Job are now being bold in words and actions. When our Vice President said he needed to pray and seek God’s direction on the Coronavirus, those evil ones in both the democrat party and the press mocked him, that is a great example of what was taking place in Job’s life. Job expresses to his so-called friends that God had given him up to the unjust and the wicked.
Job tells his friends that God is like a leader that sends a vast army against him and they have shot their arrows and his vital organ has been hit. He compares himself to a city under siege. Job who has lost his children, his wealth, and his dignity does not understand what is taking place in heaven and God’s protection of his life. When we allow feelings and human logic to rule in our lives it’s easy to lose focus on how much we are loved by God, and that Satan has no authority over a child of God unless the Lord allows him to sift us like wheat.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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