He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head.
Job has lost his wealth, his health and the respect of everyone around him. Now, answering his friend Bildad, he names the hand he believes is behind it all. That raises two hard questions. Was Job right to trace his ruin to God? And why would God strip a man of honour like this?
God's Hand Behind the Ruin
Job's friends kept insisting that God was against him. Job does not deny it. He takes their charge and makes it his own confession, naming loss after loss as God's doing.
William KellyDid they say that God was against Job? He admits it: God has overthrown him. If it was any comfort to them to know it, he confesses that his trouble came from God's hand, and that God has closed His net around him. … It is Job who points out, not they, that everyone has deserted him — his wife, his brothers, his servants, his household.
What the Glory and Crown Were
Job's glory and crown were not vague ideas. One writer reads verses 8 to 10 as a single picture: a man walled in by darkness, broken down, with no way out.
Leslie M. GrantJob felt so hemmed in that he was like a prisoner with no way out, with darkness closing him in (v.8). His prosperity and dignity had been stripped from him, and he says God has broken him down on every side, leaving him no road to hope at all (vv.9-10).
A Charge Laid Against God
Tracing the blow to God is one thing. Accusing God of injustice is another. One writer reads this part of Job's speech as crossing that line, and points out who Job was accusing.
Samuel RidoutWhat follows is a terrible accusation against God. It is good for Job that the One he accuses is infinitely patient, or he might have had a real taste of divine anger. But God bears with it all, waiting for His own time to bring the poor, distressed man into His own holy presence. … He had brought him into darkness, had torn his honour from him, and thrown the crown of dignity from his head. Like an uprooted tree, he lay flat and helpless.
Why the Crown Had to Go
Job mourned a crown taken away. One writer turns that grief into a question for every believer, and then says when the crown does come.
William Kelly"He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head." He felt all this very deeply. What right has any believer to a crown now? What right has any believer to glory now? Doesn't he have an evil nature that needs judging every single day? Does that deserve a crown? … We will be crowned on the day when we have nothing but what is of Christ, with every bit of the old nature gone. That is where Job had much to learn.
Exposed, Not Just Stripped
Job read the stripping as cruelty. One writer sees exposure: the sores showed on the outside what God already saw inside. This complaint marks the low point of a road that ended with Job agreeing with God about himself.
The Christian's FriendSatan was used to bring out the boils that covered Job's body from head to foot. This made his moral condition plain to see. On the outside, in the sight of man, he now looked like what he already was on the inside, in the sight of God. His disappointment was great, and he complained of God's treatment of him — taking away his glory and his crown. But once he accepted God's estimate of himself, he defended himself no longer.
Where Stripping Always Ends
Losing the crown was not the end of Job's story. One writer draws a rule from it for every believer.
A J PollockThis is the only road to true greatness. When Job reached this point, God gave him a double portion, so that the end of his life was more blessed than its beginning. It is always so. As sinners we are stripped of human righteousness; as believers we are stripped of self-satisfaction. Either way the end is blessing. The truly great before God are the truly small in their own eyes.
Summary
- Stripped by God. Job does not blame chance or his enemies. He says plainly that the hand behind his ruin is God's own.
- Stripped of dignity. The glory and crown were his prosperity and his dignity. With them gone, he had no road left to hope.
- Stripped too far, in words. Owning God's hand was faith. Charging God with injustice was not. The One he accused was infinitely patient, and bore with him.
- Stripped of a crown not yet due. No believer wears a crown while the old nature still needs judging every day. The crown comes when nothing but Christ is left.
- Stripped, then doubled. Job accepted God's estimate of himself and stopped defending himself. God then gave him double, and the end of his life was more blessed than its start.