Job to God: the progress of the third controversy: 1. The pathetic wail of a crushed heart.
I. SOBBING IN THE EAR OF GOD.
1. The moan of a desponding heart. "My soul is weary of [literally, 'loathes'] my life" (verse 1). That which had rendered existence a disgust to Job was partly his intense bodily affliction, but chiefly the overwhelming strangeness of the Divine conduct towards him. If only he had been able to realize that, notwithstanding all contrary appearances, he was still an object of God's compassionate regard, he would have doubtless been able to endure with continued patience and exemplary submission the appalling calamities which had overtaken him. But the heavenward outlook of Job's spirit was obscured by gloomy clouds of doubt and fear. The conviction was beginning to force itself inward upon his soul that God was indeed turned to be his Adversary; and if that were really so, Job felt that life would not be worth living. So David estimated God's favour as life, and God's loving-kindness as better than life (Psalms 30:5; Psalms 63:3; cf. homiletics on Job 6:1-13).
2. The utterance of a fainting spirit. "I will leave my complaint upon myself" (verse 1); i.e. I will give it free scope, yield myself up to it, and permit it to take full possession of me. Job's complaint was that God was treating him as guilty while he was inwardly conscious of being innocent. Had this been really so, Job would have had reason on his side. But as yet the Divine antagonism to which he alluded was only an inference from his great sufferings. Hence the attitude assumed by Job was indefensible. Much more was it inexcusable to give way to a spirit of railing against God. If angry feelings rose within him, it was his paramount duty to repress them. The absence of gospel light, however, may serve in part to extenuate Job's offence. The Divine philosophy of affliction, as expounded by Christianity, was not understood by him. If, then, fainting under tribulation was wrong in the old Arabian patriarch, much more is it indefensible in a New Testament believer.
3. The resolve of an embittered soul. "I will speak in the bitterness of my soul" (verse 1). Job was at this time intensely miserable. Life was a burden. God was (or seemed to be) against him. His own spirit was stung with a keen sense of injustice. The result was that wild indignation against the Almighty was beginning to steal like a poison through his veins. His soul was fast getting set on fire of hell. In circumstances such as these, it was extremely unwise in Job to resolve to speak. Safety would have been better secured by silence. The only favourable feature in the case was that Job meant not to fling abroad his impassioned outcries on the wild winds, but to breathe them into the ear of God. If a saint or sinner should feel aggrieved with God, it is infinitely wiser to go direct with his complaint to God himself than to either brood over it in secret or tell it to the world.
II. PLEADING BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD.
1. Deprecating condemnation. "I will say unto God, Do not condemn me [literally, 'do not fasten guilt upon me']" (verse 2). The words may be regarded either as the cry of a saint who is conscious of his own inward moral and spiritual integrity, but who, through bodily affliction or Satanic temptation, or both combined, has become suddenly apprehensive of having forfeited or lost the Divine favour; or as the prayer of a sinful soul awakened for the first time to a conviction of its guiltiness before God, which, in an agony of fear, it implores God not to fasten on it, but to cancel and forgive. In the first of these two senses it was used by Job, and by saints similarly situated it may still be employed. No greater consternation can seize upon the mind of a child of God than that produced by the fear that God intends to condemn him. But such a fear is groundless. Whom God justifies, them he also glorifies (Romans 8:30). "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Romans 11:29). There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). God,nay sometimes hide his face from a saint (Isaiah 54:8), but he never finally turns his back upon him (Hebrews 13:5). In the second sense it is a prayer appropriate to all awakened sinners. And, thanks to Divine mercy, God never fastens guilt upon a soul that fastens it upon itself, never condemns those who sincerely condemn themselves (Isaiah 1:16; Isaiah 43:25; 1 John 1:9).
2. Desiring illumination. "Show me wherefore thou contendest with me." God contends with men when in his providence he afflicts, and by his Spirit convicts, them. He contends with sinners on account of their unbelief (John 16:8, John 16:9) and wickedness generally; he may contend with his people on account of their backsliding (Micah 6:2; Revelation 2:4, Revelation 2:5), their formality (Revelation 3:1), their spiritual indifference (Revelation 3:15, Revelation 3:16), or simply to advance their individual improvement (Genesis 32:24). Yet when God does so contend with a saint the reason is not always patent (Job 37:21). Hence the prayer to be divinely instructed as to the grounds of God's controversy with the soul is not only not sinful, but highly proper and advantageous. Only it should be presented with reverence, with humility, with docility.
III. APPEALING TO THE HEART OF GOD. Job remonstrates with God against the treatment accorded to him on two main grounds.
1. It is derogatory to the Divine character. "Is it good unto thee [literally, 'is it becoming'] that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?" (verse 3). Three considerations, according to Job, ought to have prevented God from inflicting upon him such tremendous calamities.
2. It is inconsistent with the Divine perfectione.
LESSONS.
1. The best thing for burdened souls to do is to cast themselves and their burdens into God's lap; not angrily, but humbly; not complainingly, but confidingly.
2. There is a wide difference between God's contending with his people, and God's condemning them; this he never, that he often, does.
3. When God's character and God's conduct appear in conflict, it becomes us to question our interpretations of the latter rather than renounce our trust in the former.