JOB speaks next but he does not directly answer Eliphaz, whose reasonings he knew had quite missed the mark. He says, “Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea.” Theirs was a one-sided judgment, for they judged only from what they saw on the surface, and he longed for a just judgment of his case. He desires that God would grant to him the thing he longed for — death, which-would have meant the end of his sufferings. He did not have then the comfort of the hope revealed to us now in the New Testament that for the believer “to die is gain.” Phil. 1:2121For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21). We know now that death is but a door into the presence of the Saviour who loved and gave Himself for us. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5). He could say to the dying thief on the cross, “To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43).
Job speaks of the arrows of the Almighty being within him, and the terrors of God being arrayed against him. All this shows that while he had been a God-fearing and a righteous man, he had not really been one who continually brought God into his circumstances. He was not like Enoch who habitually walked with God. Much less was he like that perfect One who when in this world suffered without a murmur and who always bowed submissively to His Father’s will. He could say, “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight;” again, “not My will, but Thine be done.” Job could not see why his friends could not understand his case. They understood less of God’s ways than Job did, yet at the same time they felt capable of pointing out what was wrong in Job’s life that would bring about such a condition of things.
Job says that his brethren had dealt deceitfully as a brook, which had water in it in the winter time, but when the troops of Tema and Sheba sought for it in summer, the waters had vanished. Time was when he would have got comfort from his friends, but now there was nothing but a lurking suspicion which had no real foundation at all. They were, he says, only digging a pit for their friend.
It is interesting to see how in the Old Testament Scriptures the different ways in which “man” is spelled in the original writings. It was not possible to show all these distinctions in English. Sometimes it refers to man as a race, sometimes as a strong man, at other times as mortal man, etc. We will try to point out some of these differences as we go through the book of Job. In chapter 7:1 Job says, “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?” There it is mortal man—he has death before him.
Then he says he is as an hireling watching for the shadows of evening to see when his day was done. But when Job compared his days with his long nights of suffering, they were like a weaver’s shuttle, moving swiftly back and forth.
From verse 11 to the end of the chapter Job seems to be addressing God. He had confidence in God but he could not understand what God somehow or other had against him. He says “Thou scarest me with dreams and terrifiest me with visions.” ‘O Thou [Observer] of men? why hast Thou set me as a mark against Thee,... And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity?” When we think of the sufferings, the exercises and sorrows of those of old, how thankful we should be that now we can rejoice in the work of Christ, “Who was delivered for our offenses and was raid for our justification.” Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25).
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