Job 10:16 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Job 10:16

Comments

Calvin explains the words ‘and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me’ as referring to God’s secret providence. God comes upon him as a fierce lion who hunts down his prey. Job is powerless to resist such skill and superior strength. It is an unfair contest, he complains. It is marvellous in the sense that it is beyond his understanding. He says, ‘God’s secrets are as a bottomless pit to us. God chooses whom he will lift up to salvation, and abandons the rest. He considers us all alike, so that no one can vaunt himself as better than his neighbour … God chooses some to make them inheritors of his kingdom, and leaves others to make them go to destruction. What is the cause of this except his will? … There is good reason this should be marvellous to us, for if not, we would always have our minds entangled in many questions, and we would spue out blasphemies as we see the complainers do, who are always arguing and making their fanciful speeches, and are ready to condemn God because he does not work in the way they would like … But the faithful do not lash out rashly and judge God’s secrets according to their own fancy. When they reason about God’s election they do it soberly and modestly. and they cry out with Saint Paul “O how wonderful are thy judgments.” They are ravished by them, and don’t ask insolent questions about this and that, but they consider carefully that now we know God’s acts only in part, but the day will come when all will be revealed in full’ (Calvin – English updated).

Application

The battle seems to Job to be getting ever hotter. It is a battle within and without, in his flesh and in his soul, and the worst part of it is in the soul. The worst of it is the attack of God on his mind and on his conscience, to accuse him and condemn him. How can he resist such an attack? If I pray to God, he implies, and I felt his presence, I couldn’t believe that was God, because he still sends these trials and it wouldn’t add up. I will believe God is hearing me when he removes all my trials and answers me the way I want here and now. But we cannot judge God like this. We must say, I trust him and whether he answers my prayer tomorrow in the way I want or not, I will still trust him. We should not have our spirits soaring and falling according to whether our prayers are answered here and now. That is wrong.

‘For the true remedy to comfort all our miseries is to feel how bountiful God is to us, and what riches of his goodness he pours out upon us … If we know this throughly, it is enough to remedy all temptations, so that we are able to take courage to call upon him, even when we are, as it were, in hell. Job knew these things well, but this affliction was so great and terrible, that it overwhelmed him. Therefore let us think carefully, and realise that God will punish us for our unthankfulness, if we do not take account of the benefits which he daily bestows on us, and it will take no great tribulation to overthrow us, but we will be dispatched out of hand as soon as we feel any little adversity’ (Calvin – English updated).

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Job 10:16 Commentary and Bible Study