job 9 and 10

Read Job 9 and 10 at Bible Gateway.

Job 9:1-10:22 {s} Division at the end of each numbered line; with these {n} divisions within lines:

Job 9:24a The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. {n}
Job 10:15a If I am wicked, woe to me; Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head. {n}

There is a structure to Job’s speech in chapters 9 and 10, but it is intricate. This much I have found so far:

1a) Job 9:1-20, Even the righteous are not righteous before God;

Job 9:1-3, How can a man be righteous before God, or contend with Him;

central axis) Job 9:4-13, God, the Creator of all:

4 God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?
5 He removes the mountains, and they do not know When He overturns them in His anger;
6 He shakes the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble;
7 He commands the sun, and it does not rise; He seals off the stars;
8 He alone spreads out the heavens, And treads on the waves of the sea;
9 He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south;
10 He does great things past finding out, Yes, wonders without number.
11 If He goes by me, I do not see Him; If He moves past, I do not perceive Him;
12 If He takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’
13 God will not withdraw His anger, The allies of the proud lie prostrate beneath Him.

Job 9:14-20, Though I were righteous, I could not answer Him;

2a) Job 10:1-22, Though I am righteous, I cannot lift my head before You;

Job 10:1-7, Though you know I am not wicked, there is none to deliver from Your hand;

central axis) Job 10:8-12, God, Job’s Creator:

8 ‘Your hands have made me and fashioned me, An intricate unity; Yet You would destroy me.
9 Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again?
10 Did You not pour me out like milk, And curdle me like cheese,
11 Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews?
12 You have granted me life and favor, And Your care has preserved my spirit.

Job 10:13-22, Even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.

Job comes right to the heart of man’s problem. Even the most righteous of men cannot stand on his righteousness before God. I suspect the central axis of Job’s speech will prove to be:

Job 9:32 “For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together.
Job 9:33 Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.

This is a back door prophecy of Messiah, for God indeed became a Man as we are, in the Lord Jesus Christ, who then is our Mediator between God and man. Through Jesus Christ, God extends right-standing as a free gift of grace, since even the most righteous of men cannot stand on his righteousness before God.

This the heart of Job’s struggle: he has evidence of God’s care for him (Job 10:12) and knows that He does not laugh at the calamity of the innocent, and yet how to explain what has happened to him?

The answer is, which eluded Job because the Mediator had not yet come: God is just and cannot be accused of injustice in His dealings with men. He has extended mercy, He did put on flesh, He provided for Himself a Mediator. He triumphed over all the power of the enemy, and the troubles of this life are temporary, having been overcome. There is an end in sight!