Job 7:12 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Job 7:12

Comments

Job protests to God: ‘Why do you use such force against me? Am I like a sea that threatens to break out and must be opposed with walls and beams to restrain it? Or am I like a huge sea monster that is impossible to tame and must be hunted down by great troops of men armed with heavy weapons? Do I need to be restrained? Do people need to guard against me? Am I source of danger? Am I in need of being fenced in? Job cannot understand why the God he has loved and obeyed should now start treating him in this violent way. He cannot think what he has done nothing to warrant this.If he thinks that the end of the day will bring some relief and he can find rest on his couch, not only does he face the sleeplessness due to the breakdown of his skin which he has already spoken of, but also his mind is disturbed with fearful dreams, and terrifying visions. He sees these as having come from God – ‘Thou scarest me …, and terrifiest me’. They send shock waves through his whole being, he is inclined to interpret them as indications of God’s anger towards him. Is it any wonder, he asks, that I prefer death to life and would rather my life was ended, even ended violently by strangling? He knows he should be grateful for the gift of life, but to express his inner pain, he throws that gift back in God’s face and asks to be left alone. He insists on the most gloomy evaluation of his life. He will not hold back his complaints because he wants to compel God to give him an answer.

Application

Job complains he is allowed no comfort at all. The present age spoils us. Sometimes it does us good when reading biography to look at the lot of human beings in another age, the harshness of life in former times. How would we fair if transported into another time and place? In spite of our comparative ease, we find our lot intolerable. Sometimes it doesn’t even require a spiritual cure; we just need to adjust our expectations.

The believer must ultimately interpret all that happens to him as coming from the Lord. He believes that God has no equal, and therefore nothing can happen to his child which he does not allow to happen. He believes that God knows all things, and therefore no one can harm his children without him knowing about it. But do we think that we can understand all that takes place in our lives, and do we think we can know why God allows these things? He does not explain himself to us, and we must continue to hold on to his goodness without understanding all that he does. The Lord is under no obligation to explain his acts towards us, and therefore faith has work to do in the midst of trials, in holding onto the goodness of God, come what may.

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Job 7:12 Commentary and Bible Study