Job 7

 Job continues to speak in Chapter 7.  However, his focus is not to engage with Eliphaz, but to state his position.  Job cries out to God for an answer.  Nevertheless, Job will not leave his audience without words.  Job has become weary of the pain and is looking for some relief.  Job will ask questions of God, because he does not understand his circumstance.  Through all that is occurring, Job maintains his integrity and does not speak against God in the least bit.

Job 7:1

¹Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

“Appointed time” comes from the Hebrew word saba (6635).  It means organized for war (an army), literally or figuratively hardship.  What Job is experiencing could be equated to the hardships that one would experience if they were in battle.  For Job, this has become a reality.  Unbeknownst to Job, Satan has declared war on him and is doing everything within his power to destroy Job with the exception of killing Job.  This is Satan’s opportunity to inflict the most severe pain and tragedy on the greatest servant of God during this time period.  In this battle, Job is a mere foot soldier unaware of the actual battle plan.

Job 7:2-3

²As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work: ³So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

Job looks at his life and it has lost a lot of the meaning and hope.  We need to be realistic, Job was on top of the world, and has now plummeted to the bottom.  Does this mean he has given up?  No, Job is just at a point where the pain and calamity are wearing on him.  Job finds no rest nor meaning in his present situation.

Any of us, who have experienced a similar event, know that pain and suffering can wear out an individual.  It takes time to regroup and gather strength again.  Many have fallen only to rise again to an even greater height.  Job has a difficult time seeing that he will rise again.

Job 7:4-6

⁴When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. ⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome. ⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

Job sees himself similar to a hireling, a hired laborer who only works to make ends meet.  The hireling works all day long, but never seems to earn enough to improve their situation.  Their days are all the same, the drudgery never ends.  Similarly, Job’s life has become vanity, because there is little hope in his life.  Day after day, it is the same misery, nothing changing, nothing getting better than the day before.  He lays down at night, only to wake up the next day to the same hopelessness.  Job is still at the bottom of his experience.

Job 7:7-10

⁷O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good. ⁸The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. ⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. ¹⁰He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

Job does not place great importance on his life.  He is acknowledging that he will die and it will be as if he never existed.  As it is with all of us, we will come to an end.  Although many may try to prolong the memory of their lives, there comes a time when all they have done will fade away.  Their plans and memorials will no longer exist as they desired.  What is remembered of them is often inaccurate.

Believing that he has little ahead of him, Job cries out to God more fervently in Job 7:11-16.

¹¹Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ¹²Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me? ¹³When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; ¹⁴Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions: ¹⁵So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life. ¹⁶I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

Job is crying out to God for an answer and has none.  Job is having a hard time making sense of what has happened to him.  In his mind, Job has done everything to walk with God.  In Job’s defense, God has stated so.  The question possibly in Job’s mind is, why did this happen.  Along with that, Job does not see himself recovering from his present situation.  As such, Job just wants his suffering to end.  He tells God that it is so bad that he would rather die than live in pain and suffering.

In Job 7:17-18, Job asks God why his situation is such.

¹⁷What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? ¹⁸And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?

Job realizes the smallness of man and that mankind does not deserve God’s love.  Then Job asks God, why are you testing me endlessly?  But it is not just the test, Job has further questions, Job 7:19.

¹⁹How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

Job is stating that God has departed from his life in a real way.  This indicates to the reader that Job had a relationship with God.  Job was not just out there doing his own thing, just deciding what he thought was right and wrong.  Job heard God’s voice as many of the prophets of the Bible heard God’s voice.  Job heard the still small voice of God as Elijah did in 1 Kings 19:9-13.

⁹And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? ¹⁰And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the Children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. ¹¹And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:¹²And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. ¹³And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

God throughout time has spoken to his people through the still small voice within us.  God has lead his people this way.  If we heed that voice and walk in God’s ways, that voice will become more prominent in our lives.  Job, who had heard the voice, now believes that it has departed from him.  Having had access at one time, Job fears that it will not return before death reaches him.

Job 7:20-21

²⁰I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? ²¹And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

Job does not assume he is free of committing sin.  His understanding is that sin must have separated him from God.  He speaks of a mark that is against him, not a literal mark, but an indication to the heavens that he has fallen.

Throughout the book, the assumption by others is that Job was unwilling to repent.  His very words here are a declaration of repentance.  He asks God why He has not forgiven him.  It was never that Job refused to repent, he never fully understood what he had done wrong; therefore, how could he repent?

However, the possibility of repentance for what has happened is questionable.  God told Satan in Job 2 that there was no cause for the calamities that Satan inflicted upon Job.  For Job to repent, he must turn from something.  However, having never committed a sin that caused his situation, repentance is nonexistent.

Job is looking for answers, but not from his friends.  Their answers are trite and without wisdom.  Job is looking for answers from the only one that can answer, God.  Job seems to be nearing the point where he believes he will die with no answer from God.  This is painful for one that has sought after and lived by truth all their life.

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