Job 10: Peaceful, Happy Prayer People Need not Apply

Stained glass prayers = not realistic

WARNING: If you are a person who always prays the "right" prayer, who has never been angry at God, who has never asked the Lord what in the world he was doing, and who always maintains a nice level of decorum in your interactions with the Almighty, then you probably won't like this blog. You have been warned. Feel free to skip this blog and come back when we're discussing something more pleasant, like puppies. However, you may have cried out like David, Jesus, etc: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", "Why are you so far from the words of my groaning?", "Awake, why are you sleeping, O Lord?", "Will you forget me forever!?" (Ps. 22, 44, 13). If so, you're welcome to continue to reading this blog, because we're going to talk about Job and his prayers. Let me just tell you, Job's prayers are raw, emotional, and heartfelt, so buckle up.

Job was a righteous guy who suffered immensely and thereby raised some of the questions we all face about life with God. Today we're looking at chapter's 10. In the last blog Job had to respond to one of his idiot friends who told him (1) he was a sinner, (2) God was justly punishing him, and (3) he should therefore repent. The problem was Job was a righteous man and knew he hadn't sinned against God. Job's response started in chapter 9 and continues here in chapter 10. Please read along in your Bible or intellectual phone.

(1-3) The Bitterness of Job's Spirit
"I LOATHE my life; I will give free utterance to my COMPLAINT; I will speak in the BITTERNESS of my soul." (1). How many of you start your prayers this way? No? You don't? You mean to tell me your prayers usually sound pleasant and spiritual, even when you feel angry and bitter towards God? Interesting. "Let me know why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, and favor the designs of the wicked?" (2-3). Job's asking 'Why God?' 'Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper?' 'Why do you despise me God?' Have any of you ever asked those questions of God, even if you didn't say them out loud? Are we getting any closer to home here?

How Job sees God.

(8-17) God Appears to Delight in Job's Suffering
Do you remember when you were a kid and you played with blocks? If you were a boy then you enjoyed building up a big tower and knocking it down. If you were a girl, then you hated the boys who would destroy the big beautiful towers you just built. Well that's exactly how God appears to Job. He seems to be someone who intentionally builds up Job, only to wipe him out. "Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?" (8-12, selected verses). God seems to be a contradiction to Job, because he showed such care in making and building up Job, (his life, wealth, family, etc), and now he appears to delight in destroying him. To Job, God's intentions all along were his destruction. "Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know this was your purpose...You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me," (13, 17). Like a prosecutor in a courtroom or an army conquering a country, God's purposes all along, (at least according to Job), seem to be to torment and pursue Job. Ouch.

What about you? Have you ever felt like God was making no sense in your life? Have you ever thought God must have lost his mind or was not paying attention to everything that was happening to you? Well Job did too.

*Let me just say here that Job is making a lot of statements about God and his character. It's important that we, as the readers, see these statements as expressions of Job's feelings and not necessarily accurate reflections about the character of God.

(18-22) Why Questions and a Request for Death
Now Job comes to it. He cries out in his pain and confusion. He just wants it to end. "Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me...Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer before I go...to the land of darkness and deep shadow," (18-21, selected). Job wants to know why God gave him life if he was just going to destroy him. Now Job just asks God to leave him alone so he can die in peace. Poor Job. The man's lost everything. His family, his health, and his prosperity. However, Job doesn't ask for his health, for his family, for his possessions, or any material provision from God. More than anything else in this book, Job wants God to explain himself. Good quote here from the NetBible Commentary on Job 10:

"It is a remarkable fact...very revealing of Job's mind, that in none of his petitions does he make the obvious request for his sickness to be cured. (As if everything will be all right when he is well again!) That would not answer the question which is more urgent than every other concern: 'Why?'" (Anderson, p. 152). 

Jesus in Gethsemane, much more realistic.

What do we learn from Job 10? 
(1) We see here a man broken with questions about God, his rule of the universe, and his apparent injustice. We see a man who cries out in bitterness and anger towards God. He questions the plan, purposes, and ways of the almighty. He continually asks God "WHY?!" And yet somehow he is not immediately consumed by fire from heaven. God allows this man to spout out in anger, bitterness, rage, and confusion. God does not drop an elephant on Job for his lack of control and politeness in his prayers to God. Isn't that amazing? I propose that honest and heartfelt prayer like this is Biblical. I wouldn't encourage you to "curse God and die", like Job's wife did, but I believe honesty and open-heartedness before God is okay, even encouraged. Ask me why? Why Travis?

I'm glad you asked. Let's look at the Psalms, the prayer and worship book of the Bible. The psalms contain great songs of praise and thanksgiving, but they also contain questions of "Why God?" "Where are you God?" "What are you doing God?" "How could you do this to me God?" "When will you answer me God?" You don't have to read long in the Psalms to encounter such language. To which some might say, "Well that's true, but all of the Psalms end with the author trusting or thanking God." Usually that's true, but not always. Read Psalm 88, an entire psalm of brokenness, questioning, and darkness with no clear resolution at the end. I say if David , Job, the sons of Korah, Moses, Jeremiah, and even Jesus, could pray such prayers, then so can we. God welcomes our heart, even if it's broken. Plus he already knows what's going on in there anyway. We might as well come to him honestly and openly. We are encouraged to come to him, however we are. If that's how salvation works, why should prayer be any different?

"Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come." - Charlotte Elliott.

(2) We are not the only ones who have asked God "Why?" In the days of Abraham, before Moses, before David, before Jesus and his disciples, there was a man who asked God why and questioned the divine will. He did not see how God could apparently act so unjustly in his life. He saw God acting in ways that didn't make any sense at all. He saw sickness, death, murder, and wickedness and failed to see God do anything about it. He didn't understand what the Almighty was doing. He saw evil prosper and good men suffer and he couldn't make any sense of it. He cried out to God for answers.

Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer. Probably how Job feels.

Maybe you've been there too. Maybe you've experienced the loss of a job when you were a model employee. Maybe you've lost a family member to an accident or to cancer. Maybe you've been horribly wronged and no one seemed to care about justice. Maybe your circumstances don't change for the better, no matter how long you pray, fast, and cry to God. Maybe you've lost everything and heaven seems to be silent. Maybe you can relate quite well to Job. I think that's one of the reasons Job is in the Bible, because God knew we would all wrestle with these tough questions and tough issues. God knew we would all ask "why" at some point in our lives. We would all struggle with the sovereignty and love of God and the problem of living in a sinful and broken world.

There is some comfort in knowing God placed this book in the Bible to address these tough questions. There is some comfort in knowing the Lord used the lives of Job, Joseph, Moses, Jesus, David, etc in the Bible to address this tough subject. In this I see the compassion and wisdom of the Lord to give us some answers to these tough questions. They may not necessarily be the answers we would like, but God has not left us alone to wander about in our pain and bitterness. He has given us the Bible.

This is a tough book, a hurtful book, that opens up the deep wounds and deep questions of our soul. Will God answer? Will there be a resolution? Will God have mercy? Will He explain everything to Job? You have to keep reading to find out. Next time we get to meet another one of Job's stupid friends. I'm sure his comments will be full of wisdom and compassion...NOT!