Job 6-7

Introduction

Highlights of Eliphaz’s speech:

You are a righteous man that has helped many that have fallen - Now let us help you.

Your children are dead becasue of their own sin

People are not greater than their God - therefore, we sin.

When we sin, we deserve the punishment of God

You need to call upon the Lord to reverse your fortune.

The speech was missing a significant key element - Love God!

Job 6 & 7 are his reply to Eliphaz’s speech and his friends agreement with the speech.

Job’s justification to complain about his calamities

Job 6:1–7 “But Job answered and said, Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, And my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: Therefore my words are swallowed up. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, The poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? Or loweth the ox over his fodder? Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? The things that my soul refused to touch Are as my sorrowful meat.”

He explains his position

v.2-3 - Grief and calamity on 1 side of the scale and the sand of the sea on the other side of the scale. His calamities and grief would outweigh all the sand.

This is why his words in Job 3 were swallowed up in grief.

Rash

v.4 He has been struck by poisonous arrows from the almighty that has destroyed his life.

Remember, Job said the Lord giveth and taketh away.

This had to be painful knowing that his affliction came from the Lord.

v.5 Therefore, he has a reason to complain

The wild donkey does not scream while there is grass.

The cow does not “low” or moo when she is being fed.

Job’s argument is: my life has been turned upside down - I have reasons to scream and moo. Unlike them, I am not satisfied with life currently.

v.6-7 he puts an exclamation point on his pain and suffering

You would not dare eat anything slimy without flavoring.

You would not eat a flavorless egg white without good reason.

I am forced to eat sorrowful food that I otherwise would have rejected.

This could reference Eliphaz’s speech or God’s meal before him.

Job’s longing

Job 6:8–13 “Oh that I might have my request; And that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please God to destroy me; That he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! Then should I yet have comfort; Yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; For I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should hope? And what is mine end, that I should prolong my life? Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass? Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me?”

Job wanted to die.

He wanted God to destroy him and break him in half.

I would harden myself in sorrow.

Let Him not spare me.

I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

“He would have one consolation left before he died – that he had not denied the words of the Holy One, though he emphatically rejected the words of Eliphaz.”

Why does he want death?

What is my strength that I should hope? He had no hope in his strength.

There was no reason to prolong his painful life.

My strength is not like stones that can defend.

My flesh is not like brass that can withstand weight.

There is no help within him

Wisdom - speaks of ability.

Job criticizes his friends

Job 6:16–30 “Which are blackish by reason of the ice, And wherein the snow is hid: What time they wax warm, they vanish: When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. The paths of their way are turned aside; They go to nothing, and perish. The troops of Tema looked, The companies of Sheba waited for them. They were confounded because they had hoped; They came thither, and were ashamed. For now ye are nothing; Ye see my casting down, and are afraid. Did I say, Bring unto me? Or, Give a reward for me of your substance? Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? Or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty? Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: And cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words! But what doth your arguing reprove? Do ye imagine to reprove words, And the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind? Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, And ye dig a pit for your friend. Now therefore be content, look upon me; For it is evident unto you if I lie. Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; Yea, return again, my righteousness is in it. Is there iniquity in my tongue? Cannot my taste discern perverse things?”

You should show pity (kindness).

But you relinquish the fear of God.

His friends are deceitful as a brook v.15-20

The brook will dry up when you need it the most.

In the winter, you want to see the brook swell over with ice, covered by snow. This will turn to water in the spring and summer and provide refreshment to all.

However, the summer will dry the brook up because the ice, snow, water were all an illusion.

“Ashamed” - disappointed, blush, confounded.

His charge against the three friends v.21-:

You are nothing

You are afraid - That is, the basis of Eliphaz’s argument is: if Job did not sin to cause him to lose his wealth and health then God could strike us. Instead of fearing God and reverencing Him and leaning upon His mercy, they claimed Job's serious secret sin was the cause.

He did not ask for their help v.22-23.

Perhaps this is what his friends should have done.

He will give them an opportunity to speak v.24 - 26

Right words are forceful

Painful

Agreeable

Either way, what Job wanted was an honest answer

The problem for Job was:

what were they reproving in him?

Do you imagine reprove words? To correct Job.

The speeches as one that is desperate (Like Job was), which are as the wind?

Job understood Eliphaz’s treating Job’s words like wind.

Wind is often used to express vain words.

You add to peoples calamities:

Overwhelm the fatherless

You dig a pit for your friend

He challenges them v.28-30

He wanted Eliphaz to look at him - Perhaps they did not see him face to face.

Would I lie to your face.

Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity

Yea, return again, my righteousness is in it - He wanted his friends to see that it was not unrighteousness that caused his calamity.

Is there any iniquity in my tongue?

The words “teach me,” “cause me,” “what does your arguing prove,” and “concede” are all demands for evidence and proof. “He turns to Eliphaz and says, ‘You say that I’m suffering because of sin, but you’ve never pointed anything out specifically. Teach me and tell me what my sin is. But until you do, there’s no proof of your argument.’”

Cannot my taste discern perverse things?

Possibly in reference to Eliphaz words of “comfort.”

Job rationalizes his desire to die

Job 7:1–11 “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of an hireling? As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, And as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work: So am I made to possess months of vanity, And wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; My skin is broken, and become loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, And are spent without hope. O remember that my life is wind: Mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: Thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, Neither shall his place know him any more.

His defense for wanting to die

There is an appointed time when everyone will die v.1

Days like an hireling - he words hard service in Job_7:1 are (according to Adam Clarke and others) descriptive of military service. The Latin Vulgate translates, The life of man is a warfare upon earth. The early English Coverdale translation has it, Is not the life of man upon earth a very battle? With this, Job communicated both the struggle of life, together with the idea that he has been drafted unwillingly into this battle.

The only things I have to look forward to are:

Months of vanity v.3

Vanity - desolation

Wearisome nights v.3-4

Wearisome - laboriously

When he sleeps, he tosses to and fro.

His flesh is clothed with v.5:

Worms

Clods of dust

scabs

My days are fast and without hope v.6

Job did not mean this in a positive sense, as in saying, “My, look how fast the time is going by.” As described in the previous verses, in this season of affliction time is dragging by for Job through his sleepless and painful nights. Yet when he looked at his life in totality, it seemed to be a meaningless blur, spent without hope and as a breath.

Hope is a play on words - can also mean thread. Both ideas are probably viewed in the phrase.

My life is like wind v.7 - Fragile

My eyes shall see no more good v.7

No one will see me v.8

When I die, no one will remember me v.9-10

He will not come back up from the grave.

Job 19:25–26 “For I know that my redeemer liveth, And that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, Yet in my flesh shall I see God:” His position changes!

Cries out to God

Job 7:11–16 “Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea, or a whale, That thou settest a watch over me? When I say, My bed shall comfort me, My couch shall ease my complaint; Then thou scarest me with dreams, And terrifiest me through visions: So that my soul chooseth strangling, And death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live alway: Let me alone; for my days are vanity.”

I will not be silent v.11

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Am I going crazy v.12-16

Job’s words here remind us of something remarkable. Though his physical suffering was intense and prolonged, as John Trapp wrote, “His greatest troubles were inward.” Job’s spiritual crisis was deeper than his physical or material crisis.

When I say that I would rather die becasue death is a source of comfort and ease?

Then you scare me with dreams and visions?

Job views God as a tormentor - He would rather die of strangulation than live.

Job appeals to God

Job 7:17–21 “What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, And try him every moment? How long wilt thou not depart from me, Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, So that I am a burden to myself? And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, And take away mine iniquity? For now shall I sleep in the dust; And thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.”

Why do you focus on man - especially me. v.17-18

God’s presence v.19

Job wants God to leave him alone

“Not let me alone till I swallow down my own spittle” - “An Arabic idiom, for one instant; Just as we say ‘The twinkling of an eye’ to express the same idea.” (Bullinger) Job wondered why God could not look away from him for just the smallest moment.

Job’s confession v.20-21

I have sinned

“What shall I do unto thee, O preserver of men?”

Preserver - Guard

Why do not you forgive me of my sin?

“for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.”

Job wished he could escape both life and God by going to the dust (his grave). This is one of his obviously pessimistic passages about the afterlife.

Conclusion

“We like to talk about ‘having the faith to be healed,’ but what about having the faith to be sick?” (Mason)