My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me.
Job has been describing what his life has become. Now he turns inward — to a grief that will not settle, and to the question of why his days bring nothing but affliction.
What the words describe
The picture is of an inward life that has come apart. One writer traces the turmoil through the daylight hours and into the night, where most sufferers get at least a pause:
William KellySo he was completely unnerved, and his soul seemed to dissolve in sorrow, as days of suffering held him fast. Night usually brings even the most wretched some relief, but for Job it made the misery worse. It pierced his bones, as if they were being picked out of him. And the disease gnawing his flesh began its work early, and it never slept.
Hope disappointed
The turmoil follows a disappointment. One writer links Job's darkness to the self-righteousness he was holding on to:
Leslie M. GrantHe looked for good as a result of his apparent goodness, but evil came to him (v.26), and darkness came instead of light. But we can never enjoy the light of God's presence when we maintain our own self-righteousness. No wonder then his heart was in turmoil, unable to rest (v.27), and he had no expectation of anything but "days of affliction."
Boiling inwardly, yet accusing his Maker
There is a way to speak to your own soul in such a state, and Job does not take it. He describes his condition accurately and then lays it at God's door:
Samuel RidoutHis soul is poured out, and days of suffering are his portion. The nights are no better. The gnawing disease does not sleep, and it lays his bones bare out of his very flesh… All this Job ascribes to God… Do we hear him taking counsel with his soul in this time of suffering? — "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God" (Ps. 42:11). No; instead of encouraging himself like this, he accuses his Maker.
Why the gloom is so deep
One writer traces the depth of the gloom back to the brightness of what came before:
William KellyIt is an expression of the deepest gloom. The cause is the bright past he had enjoyed by God's favour, which had taken too much of the place of God Himself before his soul… For all this is self, not God. We must humble ourselves under His mighty hand if we want to be lifted up in due time. Self-defence never wins the blessing, however true it is, and neither does complaining or wounded feeling. What wins it is justifying God and learning his own vileness in His presence.
This danger did not end with Job. Another writer names who is behind it:
The Christian's FriendSatan is always trying to occupy me with myself. That never leads to a true judgment of myself. Moaning over my inconsistencies may look to some like piety and humility… But Satan can get a good man occupied with himself. Job is an example of this, and he expresses it through twenty chapters; but God had to empty him of all that.
The heart behind the affliction
Nothing here tells Job why this is happening. The reason had to do with Job himself:
W. H. WestcottPoor Job. He little knew the tenderness of the heart that was leading him to sound the depths of his own mind. He was to learn himself in his own insignificance, in the smallness of his outlook, in the poverty of his ideas of God.
Job would see that love, but only later:
Samuel RidoutOh, if Job had only known the tender love that would have spared him all this suffering, except that it was for his own good! He does not know that "the Lord is compassionate and merciful." That will come when he sees "the end of the Lord" — the purpose that is in view (James 5:11).
Summary
- Turmoil — Job's soul "seemed to dissolve in sorrow." The day brings no break, and the night brings none either.
- Cause — Job expected his good life to earn him good days. Holding on to that self-righteousness shuts out the light of God's presence.
- Self — the gloom runs deep because the bright past had crowded out God Himself. All of it is "self, not God," and self-defence never wins the blessing.
- Warning — being taken up with yourself can pass for humility. It never gives a true judgment of yourself, and God had to empty Job of it.
- End — behind the affliction was a tenderness Job could not see, teaching him about himself. That love shows at "the end of the Lord," not in the middle of the pain.