Lamenting his lot, Job addresses God with piercing words about what human life is really like...
Lamenting his lot, Job addresses God with piercing words about what human life is really like. Chapter seven begins with Job's lament over a life poisoned throughout by the death that lies ahead. Are not a person's days, Job asks, like those of a hired labourer? Just as the labourer's work has a set term and he waits for it to end, so a person spends the whole of conscious life awaiting its end. And just as a slave grits his teeth and strives to finish his crushing forced labour, so Job drags out his days, awaiting relief. This is a very precise comparison: human perception is such that the cessation of suffering is the only positive thing we find in death. And when life is filled to the brim with suffering, death really does become a release.
It is important to compare Job's lament at the beginning of chapter seven with Eliphaz's ‘comforting’ speech, which sought to explain Job's suffering as God's way of correcting his sins. Job lives the present to the fullest possible extent, even though his present contains nothing but torment. The theory Eliphaz advances, by contrast, takes a person's spirit and thoughts away from the present: the theoretical sin for which the hand of the Most High punishes a person lies in the irreparable past; the correction towards which God leads that person lies in a distant future that seems unreal. In the present, the theory of punishment and correction leaves nothing but suffering. In theory, relief from that suffering is supposed to come from diverting one's thoughts from the present moment to the past and future. Yet the point is that human life takes place only ‘here and now’, in the present. Job is deeply aware of this, and he cries out for the truth and clarity he needs precisely ‘here and now’.
There are three things in human life that cannot be experienced in the past or the future, but only in the present: love, suffering and prayer. That is why Job does not reason about causes and consequences: he prays. His prayer is full of profound truth; such prayer is possible only in the wondrous closeness of the Invisible One. Job asks God to remember the brevity of his days. He appeals to God to stoop to his littleness, accepting that littleness without murmuring. Job's strong and truthful spirit, unbroken even by immeasurable suffering, accepts human smallness before God as a given. In general, this is characteristic of biblical faith, but not at all of human psychology as a whole. We strive too hard for greatness, too hard to ‘leave our mark’ on earth, to accept humbly the unsurpassed greatness of the Creator. Job is free of this desire to leave his tracks everywhere; his grief over life's fleeting nature finds expression not in a quest for earthly greatness, but in prayer: ‘I will not restrain my mouth...’
Job laments, but does not murmur against God; even when its form resembles murmuring, his prayer is infinitely far from it. He pours out his grief before God, even though, for Job—as also in the book's plot—his misfortune has come upon him precisely by the Creator's will. But God is one, and so there is simply no one else to whom human pain can be poured out. Most people in such a situation turn away from God; Job's faithfulness is expressed in his seeking justice from God himself.
‘Am I the sea... that you set a guard over me?’ Job exclaims. Is a person's torment proportionate to their own smallness? There is no strength left to live, because overcoming suffering is beyond human strength. What am I, that you value me so highly? If, as Eliphaz says, you really are punishing me and wish to correct me, am I worth such attention? Leave me alone! Job senses the unbearable difference in scale between humanity and God. In the same way Isaiah exclaims, ‘Woe is me, for I am lost!.. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ In the same way Peter begs, ‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.’ The words ‘Leave me alone’ are not a request that God go away: they express an acknowledgement of God's greatness and human smallness.
Job's prayer makes plain how far the theory of punishment and correction falls short of a real person's standing before the real God. ‘What can I do to you, O watcher of men!’ What grief can a powerless human being bring to the Almighty? In these words, so outrageous to his pious friends, Job touches upon a great truth of faith. A mysterious answer to them may be found in the Lord's words through the prophet Micah: ‘O my people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me’ (Mic. 6:3). Betrayal of the Creator's love is indeed the cause of the suffering on the Cross that humanity inflicts on God. But Job is not guilty of this: he is faithful to God in well-being and in sorrow alike.
The authenticity of Job's faith and spiritual experience is confirmed by his finding a breach in the theory of punishment and correction. The real, living God is not as Eliphaz imagines him; the capacity to forgive is characteristic of the real God. And so Job prays to him, ‘Why not forgive my sin...’ Why not forgive me, when I am about to disappear!
7 Job bemoans himself to his friends, Job 7:1-6.
To God, Job 7:7-16.
Begs for pardon and death, Job 7:17-21.
7:1 Is there not - Job is here excusing what he cannot justify, his passionate longing for death. A time - Is there not a time limited by God, wherein man shall live in this sinful, and miserable world?And is it a crime in me, to desire that God would bring me to that joyful period? Our time on earth is limited and short, according to the narrow bounds of this earth. But heaven cannot be measured, nor the days of heaven numbered. Hireling - Whose time is short, being but a few years, or days, whose condition is full of toil and hardship.
7:2 Shadow - That is, the sun - set, the time allotted for his rest.
7:3 So - This so respects not so much the desire of an hired servant, as the ground of it, his hard toil and service. Possess - God, hath given me this as my lot and inheritance. Months - So he calls them rather than days, to note the tediousness of his affliction.Vanity - Empty and unsatisfying. Nights - He mentions nights, because that is the saddest time for sick and miserable persons; the darkness and solitude of the night being of themselves uncomfortable, and giving them more opportunity for solemn and sorrowful reflections.
7:5 Worms - Which were bred out of Job's corrupted flesh and sores.Dust - The dust of the earth upon which he lay. Broken - By ulcers in all parts of it.
7:6 Swifter - The time of my life hastens to a period.Shuttle - Which passes in a moment from one end of the web to the other.Hope - Of enjoying any good day here.
7:7 O - He turns his speech to God. Perhaps observing, that his friends grew weary of hearing it. If men will not hear us, God will: if men cannot help us, he can: for his arm is not shortened, neither is his ear heavy.
7:8 No more - In this mortal state: I shall never return to this life again. Am not - If thou cast one angry look upon me, I am not; thou canst look me into eternity.
7:9 No more - Never until the general resurrection. When we see a cloud which looked great, as if it would eclipse the sun, of a sudden dispersed and disappearing, say, Just such a thing is the life of man, a vapour that appears for a while and then vanisheth away.
7:10 Any more - He shall no more be seen and known in his former habitation. It concerns us to secure a better place when we die: for this will own us no more.
7:11 Therefore - Since my life is so vain and short, and when once lost, without all hopes of recovery. I will plead with God for pity before I die; I will not smother my anguish within my breast, but will ease myself by pouring out my complaints.
7:12 A sea - Am I as fierce and unruly as the sea, which, if thou didst not set bounds to it, would overwhelm the earth? Or, am I a vast and ungovernable sea - monster? Which thou must restrain by thy powerful providence. That, etc - That thou shouldest guard and restrain me with such heavy and unexampled miseries? We are apt in affliction to complain of God, as if he laid more upon us than there is occasion for: whereas we are never in heaviness, but when there is need, nor more than there is need.
7:17 What, etc - What is there in that poor, mean, creature called man, miserable man, as this word signifies, which can induce thee to take any notice of him, or to make such account of him? Man is not worthy of thy favour, and he is below thy anger; that thou shouldest concern thyself so much about him, as one near and dear to thee?
7:18 And try, etc - What is man that vain, foolish creature, that thou shouldest magnify or regard, or visit him, (with thy mercy and blessings, that thou shouldest so far honour and regard him, as by thy visitation to preserve his spirit, or hold his soul in life) and try him, which God doth not only by afflictions, but also by prosperity and both inward and outward blessings? That thou shouldst observe his motions every moment, as in care for him, and jealous over him?
7:19 How long - How long will it be ere thou withdraw thy afflicting hand? Swallow - That I may have a breathing time: a proverbial expression.
7:20 Sinned - Although I am free from those crying sins, for which my friends suppose thou hast sent this judgment upon me, yet, I freely confess I am a sinner, and therefore obnoxious to thy justice. What, etc - To satisfy thy justice, or regain thy favour? Who dost know and diligently observe all mens inward motions, and outward actions; and therefore, if thou shalt be severe to mark mine iniquities, I have not what to say or do unto thee. My case is singular, none is shot at as I am.
7:21 Pardon - Seeing thou art so gracious to others, why may not I hope for the same favour from thee? Dust - If thou dost not speedily help me, it will be too late. But I shall not be - It will be to late to shew me favour.