Job’s First Reply

We return this morning to the book of Job after a few months away. To recap, Job is a remarkable man of faith who, by God’s allowance, undergoes an intense and long-lasting trial. He feels betrayed by the God he loved and served. His friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, attempt to encourage him to repentance, for in their eyes, Job has obviously sinned and sinned in a big way.

Eliphaz is the first to respond to Job after their week of silence (2:13). In his two-chapter long speech, we learned of six ways helping hurts. Now it is time for Job to respond. What will he say? What lessons can we glean from this faithful sufferer? How do these two chapters display the Bible within the Bible?

These are some of the questions we will answer by working our way through three parts of Job’s speech. The first is Job’s warped lament. Lament is biblical, healthy, and necessary in this life. But Job’s lament is warped, misshapen, deformed. Then we will note Job’s worthless friends. They are like rainless clouds in the summer, pointless, but more than that they are harmful, perhaps more like toxic rain. Finally, we will see how Job’s experiences reshaped his view of God, and learn how to avoid such results in our own lives.

Job chapters 6-7 really depict life in a fallen world, the in between the bless of unstained Eden in Genesis chapters 1-2 with the restored and renewed heavens and earth in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. How do believers live in the midst of that fallen world, filled so often with suffering? Let us find out.

I. Job’s Warped Lament- 6:1-13

We begin with Job’s warped lament. Lament is common in the Bible. In fact, many of the psalms are laments. We even have a book of the Bible called Lamentations. The concept of lament may not be familiar to you, though, so I thought it might be helpful to take a moment to discuss it.

A. What is biblical lament?

Mark Vroegop, “Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.”

B. Job’s Warped Lament

Why is Job’s lament warped? Because he complains, he speaks with raw honesty about his sufferings. The problem with Job’s lament is that it is like a plant that grows from a sprout to a seedling, then enters the vegetative state where it grows stronger, then buds with flowers, and then right before the fruit matures, it dies.

Lament that does not lead to trust and hope in God is really not lament, it is bitter complaining. Now, from a human perspective we understand and can sympathize where Job is coming.

In reality, this is the major crux of Job’s problem. He cannot understand, his wisdom, as deep and broad as it is, cannot reconcile his relationship with God and his suffering. But even in the midst of this suffering Job still retains a remarkable faith (breaking but not broken).

“Since Job thinks he had lost the friendship of God, death is the only thing he can look forward to.” Eric Ortlund, Piercing Leviathan: God’s Defeat of Evil in the Book of Job, 29

C. Job’s remarkable faith- 6:9-10

Job has, even in the midst of unimaginable suffering and pain, maintained his integrity (cf. 1:1, 8; 2:3, 10).

II. Job’s Worthless Friends- 6:14-30

“When Eliphaz dismisses Job’s words, why should Job take Eliphaz’s words seriously? Job is experiencing the worst of both worlds: counsel that is painful and pointless.” Eric Ortlund, Piercing Leviathan

We have seen how hurtful Eliphaz was in chapters 4-5, and we will see his and the other two in the subsequent chapters. Briefly, we will consider three aspects of their worthlessness, two in the text and one by implication.

A. His worthless friends brought more sorrow instead of help- 6:14-23

Job uses a practical example to describe how worthless his friends were. Wadis refer to a stream bed. Usually they are dry and arid, destitute of life as pictured here. During the rainy seasons they would hold water, and sometimes a stray shower here and there would bring some water.

The problem is that they were not something you could count on. And what an apt description of his friends. In a poetic way, they were dry beds that provide Job no relief, and instead actually caused him pain. But there is a second reason they were worthless, they could not point out Job’s sin.

B. His worthless friends could not point out Job’s sin- 6:24-30

Eliphaz asked Job, “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent?” You have sinned Job! And if Job asked how, they reply, “You sinned!”

It is almost as if Job is begging them to show how he sinned. It would certainly go a long way in helping explain Job’s experiences (even if it is a bit imbalanced, as we will see in 7:11-21). But they cannot do it. He has maintained his integrity; he has not sinned against God. But there is one more point his friends did, and this is perhaps the most important of them all.

C. His worthless friends forget the Gospel- Romans 8:18, 28-30;

Their insistence on an unqualified application of divine retribution completely ignores the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And because of that, they are “troublesome comforters,” as Job will go on to describe them in 16:2.

“…only the gospel of the cross ultimately makes sense of suffering. A world in which there is no such thing as redemptive suffering, suffering that brings glory to God, is a world in which there will be no comfort for the suffering believer….The sufferings of Job foreshadow the redemptive sufferings of Christ.” Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross, 126-127

They could not imagine innocent suffering. It simply did not enter into their framework. Job’s warped lament leaves us feeling discouraged, perhaps a bit depressed, for this man of great faith appears to be teetering to unbelief. Job’s worthless friends leave us feeling angry, upset that they are so heartless in their comfort and ignorant of innocent suffering, of redemptive suffering. But this all brings us to Job’s wrong view of God.

III. Job’s Wrong View of God- 7

We will move through this chapter quickly, for although the wording of this poem is important, we can capture the big ideas in three groups. First, consider Job’s dim view of life with God.

A. Job’s dim view of life with God- 7:1-10

Job is allowing his experiences to be applied to all without any qualification as God’s dealings with humanity. Remember, in Job chapter 1 he enjoyed many blessings, but all of them were nothing compared to his relationship with God. When his children, servants, and possessions were taken away, he still had his relationship with God.

Then Satan, by God’s allowance, afflicted Job with horrific curses, causing Job (and Job’s friends) to see him as cursed by God. The one thing that kept Job going, God, seemed to be against him. Now his view of life is dim.

We cannot fail to appreciate Job’s honesty as he struggles with his afflictions. He cannot get into a comfortable position, nor can he find release in sleep.

He is like Eeyore from Winnie the Poo, but for good reason. He truly has suffered. But the one thing that Job has difficulty with, and one of the blessings of this book, is that even though a believer is going through a difficult season, God’s love for them does not change.

It did change his view of life, dimming it, making it depressing, if you will.

B. Job’s deliberate accusation of God- 7:11-16

This language is shocking, especially when we consider Job is righteous. Notice the audacity, Job blames God for the suffering he is enduring. What is interesting, and a thought we will develop more as we progress through this book, is his mentioning of the sea monster.

Without going into too much detail, many of the ANE cultures, including Israel and even before Israel, saw the sea monster, or Leviathan, as a cosmic being with incredible strength and power. We would liken it to a deity, not on the same level as God of course, but one of His most powerful creations.

This being is evil, and many of the cultures have their heroes battling and gaining victory of this being. What Job is saying, and we will change it a bit to make it more understandable for us today, is that God is treating Job like He would Satan.

C. Job’s desperate response to God- 7:17-21

“His only recourse is (as it were, unwillingly) to draw some terrifying new conclusions about the God he thought he knew.” Eric Ortlund, Piercing Leviathan

His last few words demonstrate his response to God’s apparent torture. Who am I that you should treat me like this? If I have sinned, why can’t you just forgive me? Or, why don’t you just leave me alone and let me die?

He is desperate. And we would think his desperation was primarily physical. He wanted to escape the pain, and certainly there is some truth to that. But more than that, if Job could not be restored to God, if Job’s very life, God himself, were to continue to curse him, death was all he could hope for.

What I find extremely convicting here is that I would be more concerned about the pain, and I am sure you would be the same. But Job is a truly righteous man, a man who loves God like David does in Psalm 27:4 .

Psalm 27:4 ESV

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

Concluding Applications

1. Learn to biblically lament.

2. Be a committed member who gives and receives encouragement from the Word of God.

3. Avoid judging God by your experiences, and instead judge your experiences by your God.