He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
Job's friends have pressed him hard about his suffering. He answers by admitting that his ruin is real. But he traces it to God's own hand. He pictures himself as a man walled in on a road he cannot walk, with the light put out on every path he might take.
The Hand Behind the Wall
Job names God as the one who has blocked him. He piles the charges up without softening them.
William KellyIt was He who had hurled him down, and wrapped him in snares he could not escape. It was He who refused to listen to his cry, and gave no ear to his appeals. It was God who had hedged up his way so that he could not get out. He covered his path with darkness, stripped him of honour, and took the crown off his head. He crushed him on every side, so that he was slipping away, and uprooted even his hope.
Boldness That Is Still Faith
The words sound like an accusation. Yet tracing it all back to God takes real faith, even though it falls far below the Lord's own meek submission.
William KellyHow boldly he speaks out. And this, as far as it goes, could not have been without real faith, though it was far below the meek submission of our blessed Lord. Did they say that God was against Job? "God has overthrown me," he acknowledges. If it was any comfort for them to know, he confesses that his trouble came from His hand.
A Prisoner With No Exit
He is not just slowed down. He is boxed in, with every way closed and no light to see by.
Leslie M. GrantGod does not deal with man on a legal basis, as men generally think; so Job speaks of crying out about wrong and being ignored by God. Where was the justice in this? (v.7). Job felt so hemmed in that he was like a prisoner unable to find any way out, with darkness hedging him in (v.8).
The Same God, The Opposite Experience
Memory sharpens Job's agony. The God who now fences him in is the God who blessed him without a break before. Job cannot square the two.
William KellyWhatever the means used, it was God. It was the same God who had hedged him in and blessed him without a break until now. He did not know how to fit the present together with the past. For that he had to wait. The answer came at last, when patience had its perfect work.
Wrong About God's Heart
Job read the closed road as hostility. But he had it backwards. The wall was not the work of an enemy.
James BoydJob thought God was against him; but he has to learn that God was the only One who was truly for him. Satan, Sabeans, the winds and the fire of heaven, his wife and his three friends — all were against him, and set on destroying or condemning him. And last of all he has to learn that he was against himself. There was only One in the universe who was his Friend, and He was the One Job counted as his enemy. And all God's dealings with him were for his good.
Light Inside the Dark Path
The darkness Job describes here is not the last word of the speech. Within the same reply, something entirely different breaks through.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinBut what a change! Suddenly light breaks in. He is not speaking on his own. The Spirit of God enlightens his soul and gives him words that stand in striking contrast with all his earlier wailing.
Summary
- Hedge — The picture cuts both ways. The same God who hedged Job about in blessing now hedges up his road. Job cannot square the present with the past. He has to wait for the answer, and it comes when patience has finished its work.
- Darkness — Job is not just delayed. He is boxed in — a prisoner with no way out, crying about wrong and hearing nothing back. He is honest about how it feels rather than pretending it is bearable.
- Hand — He refuses to explain his ruin away by blaming people or circumstances. He names God as the one who has hurled him down, closed his path, and uprooted his hope. That blunt honesty is itself a kind of faith.
- Friend — His reading of the wall was wrong. Everything else in his world was against him. The one Person he counted an enemy was his only true Friend, and every dealing was for his good.
- Light — The dark path is not the end of the speech. Within the same speech, the Spirit of God lights up his soul. Words break out that stand in striking contrast to all his earlier wailing.