Job 9:22 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Job 9:22

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Job gives way to his complaints again. It is for sentiments like these that Elihu rebukes him – ‘I have heard the voice of thy words, saying, I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.¹⁰ Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy,¹¹ He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my paths’ (Job 33:9-11), and again, ‘For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment. ⁶ Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression.⁷ What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water? ⁸ Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity, and walketh with wicked men. ⁹ For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God’ (Job 34:5-9). It is also these he will repent of when God finally speaks to him (Job 42:1-6).‘He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge [of war or pestilence] slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.’ He seriously errs in this outburst. If this were true, what love could God have for his children? How could they turn to him in their trials with any confidence that he would look on them with pity as a loving heavenly Father? Job has apparently come to this conclusion because he has not yet found an answer to his prayer for relief? But we know from Scripture, that although God’s love towards his children is constant, this does not mean that he always answers their prayers straightaway, nor does he always answer according to our terms. Abraham prayed for a son for many years before his request was granted. The situation was allowed to deteriorate to the point where, when the answer came, it was without doubt the intervention of God. David had many trials before he was delivered from Saul’s persecution. Martha and Mary pleaded for their brother Lazarus, but the Lord waited till he had died before coming. Christ prayed in Gethsemane that if it was possible, the cup should be removed from him, but it was not possible and it was not removed. The apostle Paul petitioned the Lord about his thorn in the flesh, and this, as far as we know, was never taken away. And yet God heard every prayer and took account of all of them. There are more wicked people than decent people. The wicked bribe the judges, and God allows it to happen; Job complains that there is no justice on earth whatsoever. This is not true. God restrains lawlessness through rulers and governments which he has ordained, though not perfectly. These are often in the hands of fallen men, and the Lord exposes their weaknesses and failings – the long history of Israel’s fallible kings demonstrates this. Nevertheless they prevent the world breaking down into complete anarchy, and it would be far worse without them.

Application

All the doctrinal knowledge available will not benefit you if you don’t reflect on it, rejoice in it. There are some gloomy believers in the kingdom. They might do well in a theology exam, but personal trials make them collapse quickly.

Questions

Does God’s government of the world show a distinction between the righteous and the wicked? Job concludes that God does not deal any differently with the godly and the ungodly. That is true in a way. All mankind is under the curse, both believer and unbeliever, and Christians have to face many trials just because we are in a fallen world. Most obviously, all are subject to death. But Job’s conclusion is terrible: that God deals with him as if he was an unregenerate man. No! Though it may appear this way, God has a very different view of his people. Although we endure common afflictions with unbelievers, our destinies are completely different. There are times even in this world when the unbeliever concludes correctly that righteousness is being rewarded by God. The Philistines said to Isaac, ‘We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; ²⁹ That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD’ (Genesis 26:28-29). They also know when wickedness is being punished: ‘And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.²⁶ Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land’ (2 Kings 17:25-26). But there is no clear pattern in God’s government of the world that sets the righteous on one side and the wicked on the other.

Does this mean that the righteous never receive a reward in this life which they can be sure comes from God and which results from his love towards them? No, because this very book, at the end, is careful to tell us that Job was restored and blessed in material terms, and this is seen as a mark of God’s favour (Job 42:10, 12). Like Abraham, Job lived in an age when God’s blessing was delivered in the physical realm, and God’s favour could be seen even by those without faith.

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Job 9:22 Commentary and Bible Study