Year 2, Day 101: Job 7

Job’s Continued Focus on His Loss

Job 7 begins with a continuati0n of Job speaking about his life.  Keep in mind that not only has Job’s children died and his possessions have either been consumed or stolen but his skin has broken out into sores in addition to all sorts of other serious health problems.  With all this taken into account, I don’t think that Job is over exaggerating in these opening verses.  If his health problems continue to exist, Job will have long nights that should be filled with sleeping but will in reality be filled with pain.  He will forever feel as though his skin is filled with dirt, puss, and infectious parasites.  He will have months of emptiness.  Granted, Job cannot know how long the affliction will last.  But let’s face it.  As I’ve said in the past, human beings tend to assume good things will fade quickly and bad times will last forever.

I find nothing inappropriate with Job’s words in these opening 6 verses.  He is faced with a dark future unless something unforeseeable happens.  He isn’t accusing God at this point; he is simply reciting what he believes to be his future.  It may be a little short-sighted since we do know what is going on behind the scenes.  But Job would have no way of knowing either the future restoration or the present reason for his condition.  The most for which we can blame Job is having a little too much despair and perhaps not enough faith.  But given the circumstance, I bet I’d be right there with him.  Maybe it’s a lesson for me to learn just how fickle faith can be.

Lie: Better to Die Than Live In Pain

Job’s perspective on death in verses 7-11 do need a little mitigating.  When Job says that a person who goes down to Sheol (the place of the dead) doesn’t come back again, he isn’t contradicting the plan of God or the resurrection that Christians believe in as evidenced by Jesus Christ.  Rather, he is stating what he knows for the time that he lived.  For Job, when a person died, they went to the place of the dead.  They didn’t come back to life in this world.  Thus, what Job is talking about is that if his life is going to be nothing until he dies, then when he dies he has nothing to look forward to.  He knows that nobody will remember a poor man who lost everything and suffered from horrible diseases. 

Interestingly enough, however, millions of people actually still remember Job!  We remember Job not because he was perfect but because God is perfect.  We remember Job because although he stumbles here and there, he does not lose faith.

Lie: Bad Things Come Only as a Consequence of Sinfulness

As we reach the end of Job’s speech, we do see a place where Job pushes too far in his complaint.  Because Job does not see with the perspective of God, Job falls back to the wisdom of Eliphaz.  Job himself begins to assume that his life is as it is because he has done something against God.  Job assumes that he has become a burden to God.  Job assumes that God refuses to take away his iniquity.  However, as I have said in earlier blogs, Job is actually in this predicament because of his faithfulness. 

It is really easy to see pain and suffering as a badge of dishonor; it is far more difficult to see the pain and suffering as a badge of honor.  When we put Job’s story next to the story of Jesus Christ, it makes far more sense.  God did not spare his own Son.  In fact, Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient into death – even death on a cross. (See Philippians 2:8)  If we are to follow God – and follow Christ – we must open up our perspective to the possibility that suffering can sometimes be a badge of honor rather than a badge of dishonor.

We must not be quick to take this thought to the opposite extreme, either.  Just as not all suffering is a badge of dishonor, not all suffering is a badge of honor, either.  Some people do bring suffering upon themselves out of their sinfulness.  Sometimes we do need to repent when our sinfulness brings about suffering.  The trick is learning how to determine which suffering is pointing us to repentance and which suffering is a badge of honor.  This is in many respects one of the underlying themes of the book of Job.

Summary of the Chapter

In the end, we can’t really fault Job too much.  Sure, he makes an error in judgment and he draws the wrong conclusion.  However, given his predicament I can’t say that I wouldn’t have drawn the same conclusions.  Who doesn’t think that when they are in despair that it is because they’ve done something wrong? 

We can, however, learn from his mistakes.  We can learn that when suffering and trials come our way we should ask if they are to our honor or dishonor before immediately assuming that we are in the predicament because of our error.

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