Unlike his friends, Job is no longer afraid to ask God uncomfortable questions. A religious person usually confines communion with God within certain ritual...
Unlike his friends, Job is no longer afraid to ask God uncomfortable questions. A religious person usually confines communion with God within certain ritual frameworks that clearly define what one may ask God about and what one may ask Him for. Job has no time now for religious conventions. He had been religious too long, had trusted too long in a God whom, as it turns out, he never truly knew.
It would have been better, of course, to become better acquainted with Him under other circumstances, but these are the circumstances that exist. In any case, Job knows one thing for certain: from a religious point of view he has nothing with which to reproach himself. He has done everything he could, and even more. What is happening now does not fit into religious frameworks - and so down with those frameworks; let us speak plainly, without conventions and rituals.
Job asks God a direct question: what do You want from me? My death? Well then, if that is so, I am ready; no one lives forever on earth. But why did You give me the life I am living now? What meaning does it have? What am I supposed to see, to understand? You are before me, Job says to God, and I can neither live nor die, because You give me neither one nor the other. The most terrible thing for Job is precisely this meaninglessness: it turns out that he did not know his God at all.
And now, face to face with Him, Job understands nothing at all; the meeting with God has become for him a theater of absurdity. A nightmarish absurdity from which there is no exit. If God is like this, then what can one expect from Him? What can one expect from life at all? Perhaps then all of life is only absurdity and nightmare? Job's friends cannot help him in any way: for them, even putting the question this way sounds blasphemous. No wonder: they have not been in that theater of nightmarish absurdity where Job has been and where he continues to remain.
The issue here is not the illness as such, but precisely the complete illogic and meaninglessness of what is happening, at least from Job's point of view. One can understand and accept punishment for sin, but how can one understand and accept punishment for nothing? And if it is not punishment, then why is everything happening this way at all? Why to him, to Job? There is no answer, and this is the most terrible thing. Job needs an answer, but he will have to seek it himself: his friends, bound by religious fear, have turned out to be poor helpers.
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.