The Book of Job

Word Study

"condemn," Hebrew tarshi'eni (תַּרְשִׁיעֵנִי) from rasha, to declare guilty, treat as wicked. Job frames his cry as a prayer directed to God: "I will say unto God, Do not condemn me." The verb asks God not to pronounce him guilty, not to treat him as a wicked man. And notice that Job is still speaking to God, not merely about Him. However dark his thoughts, he brings them to the throne.

"contendest," tariv (תָּרִיב) from riv, to bring a legal suit, dispute, plead against. "Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me." The verb is the language of the courtroom, of one party bringing suit against another, and it shows how Job now reads his affliction. He assumes, wrongly, that his suffering means God has taken him to court as a guilty man, and he begs to know the charge. Note also that his plea is not simply "let me off" but "shew me", he longs to understand. Herein lies the poignancy of the whole book: Job cannot see what the reader has seen in chapters 1 and 2, that God is not condemning him at all, that the affliction is not a verdict of guilt but the arena of a test he will pass. Job asks God to show him the reason, and God, in His wisdom, does not, not in this life, not in words. Instead God will finally give Job something better than an explanation: Himself. But here Job stands in honest bewilderment, pleading to understand, and there is no sin in the asking. The believer, too, may bring his "why" to God, so long as he brings it as Job does, to God, in prayer, and not away from Him in bitterness.

Explanation

Job turns his complaint into prayer, speaking directly to God: "Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me." He wrongly assumes his suffering is God's guilty verdict against him, and begs to know the charge. But the reader knows what Job cannot see, that this is not condemnation but a test he will pass. Job wants an explanation; God will finally give him something better, Himself. There is no sin in asking why, so long as, like Job, we bring the question to God in prayer rather than turning from Him in bitterness.

Gospel Focus

"Do not condemn me", Job's plea rises to a certainty for everyone in Christ: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). Job feared he was being condemned when he was not; the believer is assured he never will be, because Christ was condemned in his place. "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again" (Romans 8:34). Job could not yet see why God contended with him, and often we cannot see the reason for our trials either. But the cross gives us what Job lacked: the settled knowledge that whatever our suffering means, it is not the wrath of a Judge determined to destroy us. "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:9). We may still cry "shew me wherefore", and God may not tell us the reason, but He has told us the greater thing: in Christ we are not condemned, and He works "all things... together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28). When we cannot trace His hand, we can trust His heart, revealed once for all at Calvary, where the only condemnation we deserved fell upon the Son, that we might stand uncondemned for ever.

Word Study

"made me," Hebrew itztzevuni (עִצְּבוּנִי) from atsav, to shape, form, fashion as a craftsman. Job now argues with God on the very ground of creation: "Thine hands have made me... yet thou dost destroy me." The verb is a craftsman's word, the shaping of a thing by skilled hands, and Job develops the image at length, "thou hast made me as the clay" (v9), "hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?" (v10). It is one of Scripture's tender descriptions of God's craftsmanship in forming a human life, echoing "thou hast covered me in my mother's womb... I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:13-14).

"fashioned me together," vaya'asuni (וַיַּעֲשׂוּנִי), and made me, with the picture of careful, all-round workmanship. The second verb adds the sense of a work finished on every side, "fashioned me together round about," and Job spells out what that means for a body: "Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews" (v11). Nothing about him was left to chance; he was put together with care from the inside out. Job's argument is essentially a plea: You are my Maker; will You now unmake me? Would a craftsman lovingly shape a work only to crush it? There is real faith buried in this complaint, for Job appeals to God as the God who formed him with care, and reasons that such a Maker surely has not abandoned His own handiwork. Job cannot reconcile the tender Maker with his present pain, but he clings, even in confusion, to the truth that he is the work of God's own hands. That truth, that we are fashioned by God and belong to Him, is a resting place even when His dealings are dark.

Explanation

Job appeals to God as his Maker: "Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about." He dwells on God's craftsmanship, forming him from clay, clothing him with skin and flesh, fencing him with bones and sinews, echoing Psalm 139. His argument is a plea: You shaped me with such care; will You now destroy Your own handiwork? There is real faith in the complaint, for Job reasons that the God who formed him has not abandoned him. He cannot reconcile the tender Maker with his present pain, but he clings to the truth that he belongs to God, who made him.

Gospel Focus

"Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about", the God who formed us is the God who has redeemed us, and He does not abandon the work of His hands. "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (Ephesians 2:10), and "being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). Job feared his Maker would destroy him; the Gospel shows a God who not only made us but came in flesh to remake us. The same hands that fashioned Adam from the dust were nailed to a cross to refashion fallen man into new creatures: "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our bodies may return to the dust as Job feared, but the God who made us has promised to raise them: "this corruptible must put on incorruption" (1 Corinthians 15:53). We are His by creation and doubly His by redemption, "ye are not your own... for ye are bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The truth Job clung to in the dark is our sure comfort in the light: the hands that made us hold us still, and will never let their handiwork be lost. "My Father... is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:29).

Word Study

"favour," Hebrew chesed (חֶסֶד), steadfast love, loyal kindness, covenant mercy. In the midst of his complaint, Job pauses to remember God's past goodness: "Thou hast granted me life and favour." The word for "favour" is chesed, the great Bible word for God's steadfast, loyal love. This is the anchor beneath Job's storm: the memory of grace. He does not understand his present darkness, but he remembers that the same God once poured out chesed upon him. It is a mark of true faith to hold on to the remembered kindness of God when present circumstances seem to contradict it, "I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old" (Psalm 77:11). And this loyal love is the settled disposition of God toward His people, most fully revealed in the Gospel.

"visitation," pequddah (פְּקֻדָּה), oversight, attentive care, watchful providence. "And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit." The word does not mean a passing call but sustained oversight, the watchful care of one charged with looking after another. Even now, wrestling with why God seems against him, Job cannot deny that God had granted him life, surrounded him with loyal love, and kept his spirit alive by faithful oversight.

"preserved," shamerah (שָׁמְרָה) from shamar, to keep, guard, watch over. This is what that oversight actually accomplished: it guarded Job's very breath. The verb is the one used for keeping and standing guard, and Job confesses that his spirit had been kept alive not by his own strength but under God's watch. The God who granted life and favour and kept Job's spirit has not changed, though Job cannot yet feel it.

Explanation

Even amid complaint, Job remembers God's past kindness: "Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit." The word for favour is chesed, God's loyal, steadfast love, and "visitation" is His watchful care that had guarded Job's very breath. Wrestling with present darkness, Job still cannot deny that God once gave him life and surrounded him with faithful love. This memory of grace is the anchor beneath his storm. It is the mark of true faith to hold to God's remembered kindness when present circumstances seem to deny it.

Gospel Focus

"Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit", the chesed, the steadfast love, that Job remembered is the very love God has poured out fully in Jesus Christ. That word "visitation" points forward gloriously, for God did not merely watch over His people from afar; He came to them. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people" (Luke 1:68); the day dawned when "the dayspring from on high hath visited us" (Luke 1:78). The watchful care that preserved Job's spirit found its fullest expression when God Himself, in the person of Jesus, visited us in flesh to save us. And His chesed is everlasting: "The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3). When our present pain seems to deny God's love, we do what Job did, but with far greater light: we remember. We remember not only life and daily mercies, but the cross, where God's steadfast love was proved beyond all doubt, "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). The God who granted Job life and favour has visited us in Christ and preserved our souls with an everlasting love that no darkness can undo.