Job 10--Job Continues: A Plea to God

Job Continues: A Plea to God
10 “I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
    I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
    let me know why you contend against me.
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
    to despise the work of your hands
    and favor the designs of the wicked?
4 Have you eyes of flesh?
    Do you see as man sees?
5 Are your days as the days of man,
    or your years as a man's years,
6 that you seek out my iniquity
    and search for my sin,
7 although you know that I am not guilty,
    and there is none to deliver out of your hand?
8 Your hands fashioned and made me,
    and now you have destroyed me altogether.
9 Remember that you have made me like clay;
    and will you return me to the dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
    and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
    and your care has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart;
    I know that this was your purpose.
14 If I sin, you watch me
    and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I am guilty, woe to me!
    If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
    and look on my affliction.
16 And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion
    and again work wonders against me.
17 You renew your witnesses against me
    and increase your vexation toward me;
    you bring fresh troops against me.

18 “Why did you bring me out from the womb?
    Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19 and were as though I had not been,
    carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few?
    Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
21 before I go—and I shall not return--
    to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,
    like deep shadow without any order,
    where light is as thick darkness.”

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We see again that Job has a relationship with God that though he has a reverence for God and knows his position before God, He is not afraid of God in the same way that his friends are.  He seems to know how to "boldly approach the throne of grace" (see Hebrews 4:15-16, your phrasing may be slightly different in your version).

Job wants to at least know the crime he's committed and have the charges against him read so that he can respond to them.  He wants a fair hearing because he thinks he's innocent, but knows God to be a righteous Judge that will judge impartially.  At this time, Job can't understand why God would make something only to seemingly destroy it  That's a good question and one that seems to be repeated by the apostle Paul in Romans 9.  Notice the "what if" statements Paul makes as hypotheticals in this passage because it is more a question than a statement.  They could be seen more as "even if," so "even if" God did this, it would not change His nature or character--that seems to be the very lesson Job is learning.  This is an even harder question than Job was seeming to ask though, because Job is asking if God can make and then destroy the natural man and still let the soul go to heaven.  Paul seems to be asking why God would create any man who He knew would rebel against Him and was destined for eternal damnation.  That's a really hard question that even some Christians struggle to answer, but Paul's answer seems to be this:  God is still sovereign.


First let me quote the small passage of Romans that I want you to focus on, then the broader passage for context with the part I want you to focus on emphasized.


Romans 9:19-23
English Standard Version

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.



Romans 9:1-29
English Standard VersionGod's Sovereign Choice9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit-- 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad--in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls-- 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
    and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
    we would have been like Sodom
    and become like Gomorrah.”
I want to spend some time unpacking Romans 9 here since it's so difficult before returning to the book of Job.  Paul uses several illustrations of God's sovereignty in election.  How God can make this choice and yet man is still responsible for their choice is a conundrum and something seemingly paradoxical for many Christians, especially those who have a strong belief in what is called "free will"--we must freely choose Christ out of no compulsion or the response is not truly one of love.  They are usually Western thinkers who think of arranged marriages as simply oppressive and a form of slavery that is backwards-thinking, but if you talk to those who have been in an arranged marriage, they would say that their parents knew their family and the other family so well that they understood their like-minded worldviews and that the son would have good nature and character because of his parents and what values they would instill and likewise with the groom's family seeking a bride and that the parents make good and wise choices for their children and those marriages seem to grow and flourish and they do love one another, but there is no other choice for them.  They aren't searching the sea for the "right one," they are spending their lives learning to love their one-and-only.  That is how it is for us as Christians.  God has made the choice for us already if we belong to Christ and are part of the Bride of Christ, and He will only make good choices for His Son and for us (since we are his children by adoption through Christ).  So, this is a very arranged marriage, and God knows not to just choose anybody and everybody because some choices are not good, but then Paul questions why God can't just make everyone a good choice, and he posits that the ability for God to choose shows something of His nature and sovereignty and that this was His plan (the plan of redemption) all along.  However, we are all responsible for how we respond to His choice.  No one will be saved who is not chosen by God--some because God chose to chose a nation Israel out of the nations of the world for Himself, but not all truly belong to the "true Israel" in this passage, and others because He has chosen to adopt Gentiles into His family to be co-heirs with Israel (who was called God's "first-born son," so that Israel was a picture of Jesus God's "only begotten Son.")  We are all part of one Church, one Vine, and one Flock--the true Israel and the converted Gentile believers that make up the Church.  God is sovereign!  Even if God in making this choice predestined some for wrath and destruction (hypothetically), that does not change God's goodness or His sovereignty.  I really think we needed to camp out there for a bit because ultimately that's the question at the heart of Job--it's a little veiled and hidden, but Job wonders if God seems to be "unfair" in this present life if He will really be fair in the eternal judgment of his soul.

​We see some wonderful language of God believing that he was "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14)


Psalm 139:13-14
English Standard Version13 For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
Job says he understands that God is Ruler and Sustainer and Sovereign over all creation because He made it all, but Job still has a problem understand why God appears to be pouring out His wrath (unjustly) on Job.  Then comes the question of why I wanted to point to Romans 9.  Job again repeats, “Why did you bring me out from the womb?"  Job wonders if God has that much control and is that sovereign, why wouldn't He use His sovereignty to prevent wickedness and injustice.  Is God not powerful enough?  Is God not good enough?  Is God not loving enough?  There are questions philosophers and theologians today struggle with.  How do we believe in a benevolent God and see so much pain and suffering.  If it is an issue of sin (rebellion) in the word, why didn't God prevent the rebellion or simply kill the rebels?  People don't seem to understand the logical end to that question though--we are all condemned under that model as we are all rebels and we would all perish, but God wants to "have mercy on those whom He will have mercy" and "save a remnant for Himself" just like He did with Noah in the Flood.  He could have destroyed all of creation in the Flood, but He chose to save all those who were in the Ark--He predestined that they would be in the Ark and told them to enter, and He invited everyone else to join them in the Ark, but knew that no one else would join, and He sealed the door to the Ark so that they were safe and so that none could enter after the judgment began, and God safely let the Ark to its destination and had made preparations for everyone and everything in the Ark.  Why do I keep capitalizing Ark?  Because it is a picture of Christ and all who are in Him and the salvation to God has chosen to provide to all those who are predestined to be in Him.

Does that mean that God doesn't love the people that were left outside of the Ark?  No, He loves the whole world and gave His Son for them too (John 3:16) and wishes that none should perish but that all should come to eternal life, but God knows their nature and knows that some will love the darkness rather than that light.  Lastly, we understand that without darkness, we have no way in which to understand the glory and majesty of light.  What if everything emitted light and there was no darkness?  (we are told in the new creation that there will be no sun or stars because Jesus will be the Light of that city and there will never be any night).  It would be beautiful, but we wouldn't understand how beautiful unless we see stars against the vast black void of the night sky.  In the same way, each of us are called to be "little lights" like those stars in a dark world that shows part of God's plan and glory and as the Church we are called to be like the moon and reflect the glory of God so that people know the Sun is there even when they can't see it.  But one day there will be no more need for the contrast or to teach people about God or call them to repentance.  All decisions will have been made and there will be nothing left but the glory of God alone.  Oh what a day that will be!  Oh, glorious day!