Job 10:6–13

Job had a perfectly good conscience, and so he says, "You know that I am not wicked." That he would say to God, and it was perfectly true. His trouble was not wickedness. It was his own satisfaction in that poor reflection of righteousness which the best of men can have here below in themselves. That is no ground at all to stand on before God. "Your hands fashioned and made me, and now You destroy me" — after all the love You have shown me. "Remember that You have made me like clay." He had not made him an angel. He had not made him someone above this kind of suffering.

God's hand was heavy on Job, and no one could deliver Job from that hand. In fact God's hand was working blessing for Job that he did not then understand. It was good for Job to stay in God's hand, even when that hand felt hard. "Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity" (v.8)… none of us can understand how the eye, the ear, the tongue, the brain and the heart work in such an amazing way. Nor can we understand how they all act in perfect unison. For this is God's work, much beyond our understanding. So we should expect God to do things with us that are higher than we can understand.

Let God be true, and every man a liar. Let me study the circulatory system, plasma, the nervous system, the brain, the eye or any other part of the body … "give me understanding …" Then I will know that God created me. I will know that I am a responsible intelligent human being answerable to Him.

But these spiritual affections in Job did not stop him from turning this sense of integrity into a robe of self-righteousness. That robe hid God from him, and even hid him from himself. He declares himself to be more righteous than God (Job 10:7-8; 16:14-17; 23:11-13; 27:2-6).

We must remember that the book of Job is inspired. Even so, it would be a great mistake to accept that the speeches are inspired… part of the value of the book is that we have the mistakes of the speakers. Every one of the three friends was very much mistaken in what he said, and Job himself also.

Bodily suffering is not what has wrung this bitter cry from him. He has lost, or is in danger of losing, faith in God's goodness… He is weary of life, and might as well pour out all his thoughts against God… he pours out all those thoughts before the eye of God. May not this very unrestrained misery suggest the root of faith in his heart? He will at least tell God to His face that he doubts Him.

Clay is not metal. Its use as a picture in Scripture shows what is human in contrast to what is Divine: see Job 10:9 and Job 33:6. It also lies behind the references to man as clay in the hands of God, who is the Potter.

"Your hands have made me and fashioned me together all around; yet you destroy me" — after all the love you have shown me. "Remember, I beg you, that you have made me as the clay." God had not made him an angel. He had not made him someone above such suffering.

He will ask God why He contends with him in this way. Is it any pleasure to Him to despise the work of His own hands, and let the wicked go unpunished? Does God judge according to what is outward, failing to see the inward parts? Are His days so short that He must punish evil before it appears — worse, when He knows a man is innocent? "Will You pursue a worm to death?"

It is not bodily suffering that has wrung this bitter cry from him. Instead, he has lost, or is in danger of losing, faith in God's goodness. There is hardly a gleam of light in his whole speech. In the closing part (Job 10) he lets himself go in the dark despair that has settled on his soul.

It is as if Job, in his blindness, confesses by his own words that he is in the hands of an all-powerful, merciless being. Not a God of love and justice, but an enemy.

God's hand was heavy on Job, and no one could deliver Job from that hand. Yet God's hand was working blessing for Job that he did not then understand. So it was good for Job to be kept in God's hand, even when he felt that hand to be hard… Job complains that God, who made him so marvellously, is now seeking to destroy him. Did he have to tell God to remember that He had made him like clay? But he felt he was being turned into dust again, the moisture gone out of the clay.

Job says that God has hidden these things in His heart. However, since this was true, God must have a good reason for hiding His plans. Job ought to have realised that God would reveal His mind in His own time.

Unlike God, who is eternal, mortal man is turned to destruction. As children of Adam we lie under the original sentence: "you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19)… Man stands before us a poor, feeble mortal creature; and the point is, that he is this by the express act of God.

"He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." Precious, surely, should that word "remembers" be. An earthly parent may forget it or ignore it; God never will. Those who fear Him can always count on His compassion.

Curdled milk, which in some cases is dried and is solid enough to be cut into slices. 1 Sam. 17:18; 2 Sam. 17:29; Job 10:10.

Will He take the frail being His hands have shaped with such skill — the delicate clots of milk, the "intricately woven" substance of skin and flesh, bones and sinews (see Ps. 139:15-16)? Will He bring it back to the dust it came from?

"Your hands fashioned and made me, and now You have destroyed me altogether" — after all the love You have shown me. "Remember that You have made me like clay." He had not made him as an angel. He had not made him as someone above suffering like this… "Yet these things You hid in Your heart." 'You had that in Your heart before I was born. You meant me to come into this, and I do not know why.'

None of us can understand how the eye, the ear, the tongue, the brain and the heart work in such an amazing way. Nor can we understand how they all act in perfect unison. This is God's work, far beyond our understanding. So we should expect God to do things with us that are also higher than we can understand. If Job would only trust God patiently, God would make things clear to him in time.

God's hand was accomplishing blessing for Job that he did not then understand. So it was good for Job to be kept in God's hand, even when he felt it to be hard.

It is not the suffering in his body that has wrung this bitter cry from him. He has lost, or is in danger of losing, faith in God's goodness… He is weary of life, and might as well pour out all his thoughts against God… May not this very abandonment of misery suggest the root of faith in his heart?

"The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." Job 33:4… This takes us back to the conversation in Eden, when God deliberated over the creation of man… We do not read of any other part of the moral creation that God deliberated over beforehand. Neither do we read of any who were so created that later they could be re-created and become a new creation in Christ.

He will ask God why He contends with him this way — is it any pleasure to Him to despise the work of His own hands, and to let the wicked go unpunished? Does God judge according to the flesh, failing to see the inward parts? … Will He take the frail being His hands shaped with such skill — like the delicate clots of milk, like the "curiously wrought" substance of skin and flesh, bones and sinews (see Ps. 139:15-16) — and bring them back to the dust they came from? God has given him breath and life, and yet has hidden enmity in His heart against His own handiwork!

"Remember, I beg you, that you have made me as the clay." He had not made him as an angel; He had not made him as one who was above this kind of suffering. "Have you not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese? You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and favour, and your care has preserved my spirit. And these things you have hidden in your heart." "You had that in your heart before I was born. You meant me to come into this, and I do not know why."

It was his own satisfaction in that poor reflection of righteousness which the best of men can have here below in himself, but which is no ground at all to stand on before God.

"My soul (psuche) is weary of my life. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul (psuche)." (v. 1.) "Your care has preserved my spirit (pneuma)." (v. 12.) "You have clothed me" (the man Job; that is, both soul and spirit) "with skin and flesh, and have fenced me with bones and sinews." (v. 11.)

The body is the man's house or tent on earth. It is the home of both spirit and soul. So while he is in it, he is said to be "at home in the body." While in the body he is also said to be "clothed." (Job 10:11.) But he leaves the body at death. … The body alone is the part of man that is mortal.

Job … knew himself as one who would exist after death. He speaks of that event, and of the time when the worm will have destroyed this outward visible frame. He says, "yet in my flesh I shall see God." (Job 19:26.) That is: I, the man Job, the whole workmanship of God, "spirit, soul, and body," "in my flesh I shall see God." Death destroys only this outer shell, the dwelling that holds both spirit and soul. And even that destruction, for man, is only for a time.

"Your hands have made me and shaped every part of me; yet You destroy me" — after all the love You have shown me. "Remember, I beg You, that You have made me as the clay." He had not made him as an angel; He had not made him as one who was above this kind of suffering. "Have You not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and favour, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit. And these things You have hidden in Your heart." "You had that in Your heart before I was born. You meant me to come into this, and I do not know why."

In this same translation, one chapter (Job 10) speaks of all three parts that make up man, and it keeps the same distinction between the words. "My soul (psuche) is weary of my life. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul (psuche)" (v. 1). "Your visitation has preserved my spirit (pneuma)" (v. 12). "You have clothed me" — the man Job, that is, both soul and spirit — "with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews" (v. 11).

Job spoke of all three — "spirit, soul, and body" (see Job 10:1, 11, 12). He probably lived long before anyone wrote the book of Genesis, and he knew himself as one who would exist after death. Speaking of that time, when the worm would have destroyed this outward, visible body, he says, "Yet in my flesh I shall see God." (Job 19:26.)

God had shown Himself most kind and considerate of Job in the past. So Job could not understand why God could now be acting so differently from the way He had dealt with him before. "These things You have hidden in Your heart," he says (v.13). However, since this was true, God must have a good reason for hiding His plans, and Job ought to have realised that God would reveal His mind in His own time.

Job could not escape, and yet he was God's own carefully formed creature, kept alive from first to last as if for these very things. He was doomed either way, right or wrong, and afraid to insist on what was right in case it brought worse… But in this bitter protest against God, it has been noticed that Job speaks to God and pleads with Him, even while he is as unjust toward God as he thinks God is unjust toward him.

He is weary of life, and might as well pour out all his thoughts against God. He does not stand staring into the darkness in silent despair, as a poet described. Instead he pours out all those thoughts before the eye of God. Could this very surrender to misery point to a root of faith in his heart? He will at least tell God to His face that he doubts Him: "though He slay me."

"Your hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet You destroy me" — after all the love You have shown me. "Remember, I beg You, that You have made me as the clay." He had not made him an angel. He had not made him someone above such suffering... "You have granted me life and favour, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit. Yet these things You hid in Your heart." "You had that in Your heart before I was born. You meant me to come into this, and I do not know why."

And now the darkest of all. The worst of it is not the physical agony — the boils and running sores that torture him. It is the bitter awareness that he is losing his hold on God. He begins to look on Him no longer as a loving friend, but as a harsh, unmovable tyrant... He charges God that He planned his calamity and destruction (verses 6-13).

No words can describe the misery that would make Job speak like this against God... He pours out all those thoughts before the eye of God. Might this very outpouring of misery point to the root of faith in his heart?

Much of what this book teaches depends on one point. God's estimate of Job and Satan's trial of him were made known only in heaven. The reason for the trial stayed a secret for the time being — a secret not in heaven, but here on earth. Neither Job nor his friends knew anything of what God had said about him.

God had shown Himself most kind and thoughtful toward Job in the past. So Job could not understand why God would now act so differently from the way He had dealt with him before. "Yet these things You hid in Your heart," he says (v.13). But since this was true, God must have a good reason for hiding His plans. Job should have realised that God would show His mind in His own time.

The real secret of all Job's false reasoning is this: he did not understand the character of God, or the purpose of all His dealings. He did not see that God was testing him. God was behind the scenes, using many agents to carry out His wise and gracious ends... God was dealing with Job. He was testing him in order to teach him, to turn him from his own plans, and to keep him from pride. Had Job seized this grand point, it would have saved him a world of strife and contention.

So Elihu does not misrepresent Job, nor snatch at a random expression. Indeed, Job's chief sorrow was that he seemed to be losing the kind Being in whom he once delighted. It will not do to say that Job also admitted God's power and knowledge, and voiced his confidence in Him. How could that be squared with the statements Elihu quotes? Such charges had to be met, and Job convinced that they were false. Otherwise he could never have peace in his own soul, and a dark blot would rest on God's honour.