my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
Job is deep in his reply to his friends. His mind moves from how frail human life is to God's constant watch over him — a watch he pictures as sins tied in a bag and stitched shut. Is God keeping a record against him, or covering what He sees, and what hope does that leave a suffering man?
The Sealed Bag
Older translations differ here: some read the line as a statement rather than a wish, and put the second half as God sewing the iniquity up. One writer takes the bag as guilt a person cannot shake off:
J Wilson SmithYes, there it lies in a bag, or bundle — a great, heavy bundle too… The smallest bundle of sins is unbearable once you really feel it. Sin's load is like lead! A guilty conscience is a bag of vile filth. It is sealed up, sewn up; you cannot open the mouth of the bag and shake out the evil contents. No one is so miserable as the person who carries the load of unforgiven sins.
Commentators differ on Job's mood here. Another reads him as hoping his sins are out of sight, with God Himself to cover them:
Leslie M. GrantMeanwhile God was numbering Job's steps, but Job did not want Him to watch over his sins. He considered them "sealed up in a bag," out of sight, needing only God Himself to cover them. He did rightly think God could do this.
Nothing Forgotten
Two things stand against a person, not one: what he is by nature, and what he has done. God knows both in full:
J Wilson SmithWe have a nature which, sadly, hates God and could not enjoy His presence. On top of that, we are guilty of sins as well. And He who knows how corrupt our fallen nature is knows also the great number of our sins. We may have forgotten them — He has not!
Job's Mistake
Job reads his suffering as God's anger and asks for the grave as a hiding place until it passes. One writer says he had it wrong:
Leslie M. GrantThough he has said that death is the end of everything, Job pleads with God that he might die. He thought that death might hide him until God's anger had subsided. For he thought his troubles came from the wrath of God. In this he was totally mistaken. His words show the state of confusion he was in, which caused him to often speak inconsistently.
Another writer finds hope here, mixed with a false picture of God. Sheol is the place of the dead:
Samuel RidoutJob next seems to express a hope of a bright hereafter — vague, and spoiled by evil thoughts of God. He wants to hide from God in Sheol until this mighty Being had changed His mind and stopped pursuing His creature. Job would wait patiently till that change came. Then God would regard him; but now He only watched him as an enemy! This is unspeakably sad for a man who knew God. But such is unbelief even in a saint. We can catch the gleam of faith in the desire and the question, and know that one day Job will see clearly and regret these words.
Why God Keeps Watching
The watching Job resents has an aim, and the book will not close until Job sees it:
William KellyHis heart is beginning to get a little courage… But the Lord does not leave Job until he sees this. He was not just a man looking up to God. He was a man knowing God's love — a love that was taking him up and chastening him so that he might be blessed more than he had ever been before. That is the great object of the Book of Job.
The Bag Opened
Job could not untie the bag. At the cross God settled the account and closed it:
J T MawsonIt does not say that God forgets them, it says He remembers them no more, and the difference is important. I might owe a large bill to a shopkeeper, and he might forget all about it and never present it for payment. That does not cancel the debt. But if he presents it and I pay it, it is finished. He does not send it to me again. He remembers it against me no more. The sins were not forgotten; the full account of them was presented for payment at the cross, and the blood of Jesus has wiped out the dreadful record. Justice is satisfied, and the question will never arise again.
Summary
- Sealed — The image is of sin stored and stitched shut, a bundle a person carries and cannot open or empty by himself.
- Seen — Two things stand against us: a nature that hates God, and the sins we have done. We forget them; He does not.
- Suspected — Job treats God's watching as hostility. He wants the grave as a hiding place until the anger cools. He is wrong, though faith still flickers in the wish.
- Sent in love — The watching hand was a chastening hand. It aimed at greater blessing for Job than he had known before, and that is the point of the whole book.
- Settled — At the cross God opened the bag Job could not open. The account came in for payment there, and the blood of Jesus wiped out the record.