Job 9:1 Commentary and Bible Study

In chapter 9 we find Job declaring his belief in God’s wisdom, his creating, sustaining and overruling power, his invisible being and his great justice. He utters a tremendous amount of truth about the character of God. He has it all right. Happily he recovers for the first part of chapter 9, and particularly his own sense of mission: that he is supposed to be a witness. His words are at first beautiful.We have seen Bildad’s speech is full of error and superficial judgements, and is undergirded by the belief that man is able to please God. Job answers that many wicked people prosper and so the comforters’ theories do not conform to reality. God does not instantly punish the wicked; it is not possible to describe his government of the world in such simplistic terms. Later in the chapter (verse 22) he returns to his argument that suffering cannot be a punishment for sin, nor prosperity the reward of righteousness, for both the righteous and the wicked suffer, and certainly many wicked know great prosperity. And all too soon his tone becomes full of self-pity and he complains bitterly of the unreasonableness of God in allowing his condition. These complaints spoil his testimony. So he continues through chapter 10, which closes with further evidence of his lack of light about a glorious heavenly eternity for true believers.