Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?
In his darkest speech Job stops arguing with his friends and turns on God. He uses God's own workmanship as evidence against Him. He asks his Maker to remember the material He used. Then he asks whether that same Maker means to crush him back to powder.
What "clay" carries in Scripture
Clay carries a settled meaning in Scripture.
F. B. HoleClay 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.
The force of Job's plea
Job asks God to take account of the material He used.
William Kelly"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.
Arguing from God's own workmanship
Job presses God with questions about the work of His own hands.
Samuel RidoutHe 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?"
Where the bitterness came from
Commentators find the real wound below the level of Job's body.
Samuel RidoutIt 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.
Job's words then paint God as something He is not.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinIt 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.
The hand Job could not read
The hand pressing him down was the very hand he should have wanted to be under.
Leslie M. GrantGod'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's complaint carries its own answer.
Leslie M. GrantJob 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.
Returning to dust
Job's dread of dust is not his alone. It rests on the whole human race, and it comes from God Himself.
F. B. HoleUnlike 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.
Job asks God to remember what he is made of. Scripture answers that He does.
C. E. Stuart"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.
Summary
- Clay means creature. In Scripture clay stands for what is human as opposed to what is divine — man in the hands of God, who is the Potter.
- Made, not made an angel. Job's plea is that God would take his frailty into account: he was not formed to be above this kind of suffering.
- The argument turned inward. Job turns God's skill in making him into evidence against God. In doing so he slips from trusting God's goodness to treating Him as an enemy.
- The heavy hand was the helping hand. The same hand was working blessing Job could not yet see. God hid His plans for good reason, and would reveal them in His own time.
- Remembered dust. Job begs God to remember he is dust. Scripture answers that God never forgets: He knows our frame, and His compassion rests on that.