Chapters 4—11
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Scripture Reading: Job 6; Job 7
After Eliphaz's rebuking and correcting, Job vindicated himself. Chapters six and seven are devoted to Job's vindication.
First, in 6:1-7 Job stated his grievances. He said, "Oh that my vexation were weighed indeed,/And that my ruin were lifted onto the scales together with it!/For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas;/Therefore my words have been rash" (vv. 2-3). Then he went on to say that the arrows of the Almighty were with him and were the poison of which his spirit drank up and that the terrors of God were arrayed like an army against him (v. 4).
Job continued by challenging God concerning how much God would require of him (vv. 8-13). Job said, "Oh that I might have my request,/And that God would grant me what I long for;/That God would be willing to crush me;/That He would release His hand and cut me off!" (vv. 8-9). In his speaking Job surely was different from Paul, who rejoiced triumphantly when he was about to be martyred.
"What is my strength, that I should wait?/And what is my end, that I should be patient?/Is my strength the strength of stones?/Or is my flesh bronze?/Is there any help for me at all within me,/And has all wisdom been driven away from me?" (vv. 11-13). Here Job was challenging God, asking Him how much He would require of him. It seemed to Job that God was treating him as if he was stone or bronze. Job's word regarding wisdom indicates that he had been exhausted in every way and had become empty.
Job blamed his friends for not showing kindness to him, who was fainting under the striking of God (vv. 14-23). Job said to them, "To him who is fainting there should be kindness from his friend,/Else he will forsake the fear of the Almighty. / My brothers have dealt as treacherously as a desert brook,/As the rivulets of the desert brooks that pass away,/Which are turbid because of the ice,/And into which the snow hides itself./When they are scorched, they are completely consumed;/When it is hot, they are dried up from their place" (vv. 14-17). Here Job compared his friends to water brooks that did not have much water. He also compared them to brooks that were turbid, dark, because of ice and snow and that were eventually scorched by the sun and became dry. Job was saying that his friends did not have any "water" with which to supply him as he was fainting.
Job justified himself by saying that he was not wrong in anything (vv. 24-30). "Teach me and I will be silent;/Cause me to understand how I have erred./How forceful are upright words!/But what does this reproving from you reprove?/Do you think you can reprove words?/But the words of a desperate man are for the wind" (vv. 24-26). Here Job was saying that Eliphaz's words were not upright but crooked and biased. If they had been upright, Job would have been helped by them.
In verse 27 Job went on to say, "You would even cast lots over the orphan/And bargain over your friend." Job told his friends that they treated him not as a friend but as merchandise over which people bargain regarding the price.
In verses 28 through 30 Job continued, "Now then be pleased to look upon me,/For surely I will not lie to your face./Turn now; let there be no injustice./Indeed turn; my righteousness is still here./Is there any injustice on my tongue?/Can my palate not discern calamities?" Here Job strongly declared that his righteousness was still there (v. 29b). He vindicated himself by insisting that he was not wrong in anything.
In his vindication of himself, Job expressed that he had the common knowledge of the struggle, the vanity, the trouble, the suffering, and the end of human life (7:1-10). Although Job knew these things, he did not know God in reality, and he did not know anything concerning God's economy.
Job loathed life and complained by asking why God would not forgive him and let him die (vv. 11-21). He said that he would speak in the distress of his spirit and complain in the bitterness of his soul (v. 11b). He loathed life and would not live forever (v. 16a). He concluded by saying to God, "If I have sinned, what have I done to You,/O Watcher of man? /Why have You made me Your target so that I have become a burden to myself?/And why do You not forgive my transgression/And take away my iniquity?/For now I may lie down in the dust;/And You will seek me out, and I will not be" (vv. 20-21). This was Job's complaint as he vindicated himself to God.
Job, like his friends, was halted in the knowledge of right and wrong, not knowing God's economy, not realizing in an adequate way the purpose of God's creating of man. He and his friends were devoid of the divine revelation and of the experience of the divine life. He had no idea that God had no intention to increase his perfection, uprightness, righteousness, and integrity. Rather, God's intention was to strip all these human virtues which he had as his contentment, that he could seek and gain only God Himself. Neither his friends nor he were in the line of the tree of life as God ordained man to be.
God put the book of Job into the Bible as a black background. The speaking of Job and his friends indicated that although they apparently were godly men, they were short of God, and they did not express God. Job and his friends came together to debate, not to fellowship. They had nothing of God to fellowship with one another.
We need to consider our speaking today in the church meetings. As we are practicing the New Testament way, we desire to nourish, to feed, all the saints that they may be perfected, equipped, to speak for God. What we want to hear is nothing other than God in Christ with the church. We speak what we are, we speak what we have, we speak what we enjoy, and we speak what we love and appreciate. If we love Christ and appreciate God in Christ, that is what we will speak. Then our prophesying in the church meetings will be rich in God with Christ and with the church. However, many have been members of the Body of Christ for years, but still they cannot speak even a short word for Christ. We may talk about Christ, but we may not live Christ or have the practice of appreciating Christ or exalting Christ. If this is our situation, how can we minister Christ to others by speaking Him for the divine dispensing? I hope that from now on our church life will be full of Christ, with Christ in our praying, praising, and prophesying.
The Bible is a consistent book. It begins with God, and it ends with God. It begins with the tree of life, and it ends with the tree of life. It begins with the river of living water, and it ends with the river of living water. This shows us the consistency of the Bible.
In this consistent book, the subject is God's economy, God's eternal plan, God's arrangement, to have man to contain Christ — to have Christ as man's life, as man's nature, and even as man's person. Our having Christ as our life, our nature, and our person means that we are constituted with Christ. As a result of being constituted with Christ, we become a Christ-man, a Christian. Then we express Christ by living Him, by magnifying Him, and by exalting Him. When we come together, whatever we do — our singing, praying, speaking, prophesying — will be an expression of Christ.
Paul's speaking in Ephesians is very different from the speaking in the book of Job. In Ephesians 1 Paul spoke of the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies: God's choosing, God's predestinating, Christ's redeeming, and the Spirit's sealing. Through such blessings the Triune God becomes one with all His beneficiaries, making them the church, the Body of the One who fills all in all. Then in chapter three Paul said that he bowed his knees to the Father and asked Him to strengthen the believers with power through His Spirit into their inner man, that Christ may make His home in their hearts, that they may be filled unto all the fullness of God to become God's fullness, His expression.
God could not speak such things to Job and his friends because their kind of spiritual culture was very primitive. Therefore, when they spoke to one another, they could only rebuke and vindicate, uttering words of vanity and emptiness. In Job 11:12 Zophar called Job "an empty-headed man."
We should not appreciate the speaking of Job and his friends in a positive way but only in a negative way, as a black background for the bright revelation in the New Testament. I hope that through this study of the book of Job we all will be brought into a further step of our divine culture in order that we may be filled with the dispensing of God in Christ as our life, our life supply, and our everything.
