Job 7:21

nasa, "to lift up," forgive. Exodus 23:21; 1 Samuel 15:25; Job 7:21; Micah 7:18.

He knew he was under God's eye, who could perceive error where he was hardly aware of it. And why did God not grant pardon and remove the weight of his load?

At last Job will speak of his sin, though most briefly. "I have sinned" — but this is not the true acknowledgment of penitence. Instead, it is a hypothetical statement. Granted that I have sinned, what is that to You, O watcher of men? Why do You seek me as a mark for Your weapons instead of pardoning me and restoring me to my former prosperity? … In the writhing of his soul-anguish, Job does not hesitate to accuse God. If he has sinned, why does God punish instead of showing mercy? Truly such challenges cannot be allowed to pass.

So from the start Job admitted some sense of guilt. But a life of devotion and outward correctness propped him up, and he did not yet see how great that guilt was. God was beginning the process which would lead him to see how deep and black it was.

"I have sinned" — or "If I have sinned," which I take to be the real sense of the passage. "What shall I do to You, O You" — not exactly "Preserver" but "Observer"? It is worth noting such errors where they stand out so plainly — "O You Observer!" He was fully aware that God had His eye on him all the time. Still, he was not in God's presence in the way he entered it later. Then he knew himself, and knew God better, as he learned through this.

He had confidence in God. But he could not understand what God somehow had against him — something he was not conscious of in himself. "Oh," he said, "why not pardon it, if there is something I am not aware of?"

Everything was more or less confused, and people saw God as only a righteous God. But God is the God of all grace. Many people confuse God's grace with His goodness. Yet the goodness of God is quite a different thing from His grace. His goodness flows out in every kind of kindness, in patience with us, and in consideration for our weakness. But the grace of God means not merely His love, but His love rising above sin — His love triumphing over all our evil.

If Job had sinned in whatever small measure, why would God not pardon this and take away his iniquity? He knew he had never rebelled against God on purpose. So he could not understand why God would not pardon small offences. Now all he could do was lie down in the dust. He felt so humiliated that God would not even be able to find him — he would "no longer be." Of course Job's words are ill-considered. They are the words of a tortured mind. Yet it is as well that what is in the heart comes out.

How can God say, "Deliver him from going down to the pit"? Is he just? Oh, no! Is he innocent? Oh, no! Does he not deserve to go down to the pit? Oh, yes! Then how can God be just in sparing him? "I have found a ransom" — or, as the margin reads, "atonement." Man is guilty. He has no righteousness. But God has found a ransom.