Read Job 7
Questions from the Scripture text: As Job turns his attention to God, what does he ask about man’s life (Job 7:1)? How does he describe the hopefulness with which he has lived (Job 7:2)? But what has he experienced instead (Job 7:3)? For how long? What have the nights, particularly, been like (Job 7:4)? What does he point out about his condition (Job 7:5)? How speedily is his life spent (Job 7:6-7)? But without what? What does he not think that he will see again in this world (Job 7:7b)? For Whose eyes has he lived, but what is about to happen (Job 7:8-10)? What can’t he wait for it to pass, before praying to God (Job 7:11)? From what creatures does he expect to be treated differently (Job 7:12)? What experiences make him feel like he is no better/different (Job 7:13-14)? If that is truly the case, then what would be better than the life that he now has (Job 7:15-16)? But Who has expectations of him that cannot be met from within himself (Job 7:17-19)? What does he admit to having, and request as his only hope (Job 7:20-21)? In the current conditions, what will be the outcome of God’s desire to see good from him (Job 7:21d–e, cf. Job 7:8)?
What should we do, when we do not feel like God cares? Job 7 prepares us for the opening part of public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-one verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that, even (and especially) when we feel like God does not care, we should pray to Him out of the conviction that He does!
The troubling thing about Job’s experience of providence is that God doesn’t seem to care.
But consider his prayer here. It assumes that God cares about his months of loneliness (Job 7:3); long, agonizing nights (Job 7:4); and excruciating physical condition (Job 7:5). We see him operating not according to how his experience feels, but according to what he knows about God. He knows that God cares, and so he will pray under that assumption—even as he is crying out that the experience itself seems to be telling a different story.
Behind this prayer is a desire to live in a way that pleases God—to live for the eye of God. God has given Job good to see, but Job fears that he has seen his last glimpse of it (Job 7:7). And, Job has lived in the hope that God would graciously produce good in Job, for God Himself to see (Job 7:8, cf. Job 7:21d–e).
The great irony is that what Job is describing is exactly what God sees in him (cf. Job 1:8, Job 2:3, Job 42:7)! But Job doesn’t know this. By his trial, he has also lost his sense of assurance. Like the hired man, he lived in hope of this outcome (Job 7:2), but now it seems to him that God has not been pleased after all. And time is running out (Job 7:6)!
So, he can’t afford to wait to pray until he is in a better condition to compose his thoughts. Maybe you have found yourself in a similar situation, dear reader. Maybe your agony has been such that you thought you had better wait to open your mouth to God until you could trust yourself to say something better. Eliphaz sure wished that Job had done this. But Job cannot afford to wait (Job 7:11). And neither can you. Knowing that He cares, regardless of whether it feels like He cares, don’t wait for the anguish and bitterness to dissipate first. Come to Him now, and lay it before Him!
Job finds himself quite unimpressive by comparison to other creatures (Job 7:12). In himself (i.e., apart from grace), there is no reason that he should be expected to produce anything worthy of God’s observation or pleasure (Job 7:17-18). Indeed, Job knows what comes from within himself—transgression and iniquity (Job 7:21). He does not claim that God is mistreating him, as Eliphaz has asserted. Rather, he is alarmed that the forgiving and sanctifying grace, in the hope of which he has lived, might not really be his after all.
Forgive me, and make me holy, so that I may please you in this world before I vanish from it!
That is the gist of Job’s prayer here, presented in all of the raw agony of his circumstances. And let that be your prayer, too, however comfortable or painful your circumstances may be.
Who is always watching you? What do you hope for Him to see? What is your only hope for this? What are your circumstances like? Why can’t you afford to wait for them to change, before you cry out to God?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for giving to us to be able to come to You, in whatever circumstances in which we find ourselves. Please, give us the conviction of Job, that we would not act based upon what we feel, but that we would come to You because what we know about Your compassion and love toward us, even when we cannot feel it.
It is true that our lives are very short, and our opportunity for pleasing You in this life is vanishing. But it is also true that we cannot please You at all unless You pardon our transgression, take away our iniquity, and sustain us in holy living before You. It would be better to be dead than to live a life without Your grace, but it is better still to live before You by grace, for the brief opportunity that we have here.
So, sustain us by Your grace to worship You in the times of worship, and sustain us by Your grace to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to You, which is our logical response to Your mercies, as a life of worship. Give us this grace, by Your Spirit, in Your Son, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP23B “The Lord’s My Shepherd” or TPH231 “Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right”
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