Job 10:14 Commentary and Bible Study

But Job returns to the subject which preoccupies him. All that he has just said about the wonder of God’s workmanship was intended as an argument to put to God. ‘Why,’ he says, ‘if all this is true – and it most surely is true – does God now seem to turn against me, and destroy what he took such trouble to form?’The obvious answer is because Job has sinned, but this he denies in the sense that he insists he is not a hypocrite. God does not show favouritism; he does not show partiality to particular persons and he will not excuse sin on account of who a man is. To do so would be to deny himself, and that he can never do for the sake of sinful individuals. Therefore, although we may ask for mercy from him, we cannot argue that he should relax his strict justice in our particular case. If Job abandons his integrity and hands himself over to wickedness, he can only expect one thing from the |Lord. His past record will do nothing to protect him. God will see him as he is right now. This is about the character of God and his unchanging commitment to righteousness, for no sinner can carry God with him into a path of sin; he is incorruptible. The rebel against God’s standards knows what he should expect.But on the other hand, neither can any man put God in his debt by living righteously. Even though the Lord loves righteousness, his creatures – including the best of them – are far below him in holiness. The holy angels themselves veil their faces before him. If any would come to God and expect to impress him with their righteousness and to force him to reward them with their obedience, they have presumed too much. He is never any man’s debtor, any creature’s debtor. Job knows this.How then is he to behave so as to remove himself from his present troubles? Neither a path of wickedness, nor one of righteousness seems to offer any relief. If God is determined to act toward him as he is doing, then Job feels that he is powerless to alter the situation. This leaves him in a state in which he does not know what to do. By saying this he appears to blame God for his difficulties and this is what so incenses the comforters; they are convinced he is hiding his sin, but they are not truly appreciating Job’s trials.