Job Questioned God

Diamond7 said:

Job 10 8 Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?

Looks like a fair question to me. The answer is in Job 11

13As for you, if you direct your heart

and lift up your hands to Him,

14if you put away the iniquity in your hand,

and allow no injustice to dwell in your tents,

15then indeed you will lift up your face without shame;

you will stand firm and unafraid.

Click to expand...

Interestingly, the answer was given by Zophar. He was one of the three friends who was rebuked near the end.
Job 42:7 After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.

Diamond7 said:

Job 10 8 Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?

Looks like a fair question to me. The answer is in Job 11

13As for you, if you direct your heart

and lift up your hands to Him,

14if you put away the iniquity in your hand,

and allow no injustice to dwell in your tents,

15then indeed you will lift up your face without shame;

you will stand firm and unafraid.

Click to expand...

Job had a problem so especially early on I do not trust Job's wisdom.
At the end we see a changed Job:



1 Then Job replied to the LORD :

2 "I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.

3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.

4 "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'

5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.

6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."

The fact Job talks of “repenting”, means he realized he sinned, so what was Job’s sin?

Here seems to be the problem: Job 31: 35 (“Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing. 36 Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown. 37 I would give him an account of my every step; I would present it to him as to a ruler.)—

From this and previous verses Job has lower God to his level like he could argue his case before God and win. Job would not have admitted that deep in his heart early on he saw God as being like some superior human being and not above making any mistakes, so it would take a huge upheaval in Job’s life to get him to realize this weakness in himself.



Job was humbled in the end, but why go through all this would there not be an easier way? If God had spoken directly to Job prior to all this would Job not have listened? I would say, “NO”. Job would have said, I know Lord (when he really didn’t) Job would not have said what he did say in the end and that is what he needed to say. How do you get Job to say what he did without going through what he experienced? If you had asked Job in the beginning, “do you know the Lord”, he would have said, “yes” for he knew the Lord better then anyone else at the time. God does not want you to just be the best, but the best you can be and that is what Job wanted.

Just some thoughts, I really love Job and thank God for this story.

Diamond7 said:

I struggle with this all the time trying to understand what seems to be contradictions. We are told that all things work together for God for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. We are told that God is absolute Justice. Yet people question if God is really good and if God is really just and if all things really do work together for good.

Click to expand...

Right. This world is testing ground for everyone

Diamond7 said:

I struggle with this all the time trying to understand what seems to be contradictions. We are told that all things work together for God for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. We are told that God is absolute Justice. Yet people question if God is really good and if God is really just and if all things really do work together for good.

Click to expand...

All things work together to help those who Love the Lord, but not all people.

tonychanyt said:

Right. This world is testing ground for everyone

Click to expand...

Man is not here to be "tested", but man has an objective.

Diamond7 said:

We are talking about the people that love God and follow His plan and purpose.

Click to expand...

Right.

From another thread about six weeks ago:

Clare73 said:

More Reflections on Job:

Click to expand...

Is God Unfair?

1. Job, a godly man (Job 1:8, 2:3), was sorely afflicted by God (1:21, 2:10) and lost everything (1:13-19) because of a controversy between God and Satan (1:8-12, 2:3-6).

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE: Things happen on earth because of reasons in heaven we know nothing about.

But Job did not sin and charge God with wrongdoing (unfairness) - 1:22.

2. The NT reveals that man charges God with unfairness for two reasons:

• a) he misunderstands the meaning of fairness (Mt 20:8-15)

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE: Fairness does not mean giving everyone the same,
but means giving everyone his due (what he is owed, a just debt to him).

• b) to justify his own sin (Mt 25:24-30) - the wicked lazy servant (v.26) charges his master with unfairness (v.24) to justify his laziness as prudence (v.25).

3. The NT assumes man will question the fairness of God's sovereign choices:

• Ro 9:18-19 - How can he condemn us? Who can resist his will (sovereignty)?
• Paul's answer to man's charge of unfairness against God is
• the same as Jesus gave in the parable (Mt 20:15); i.e.,
• to assert the authority of God (Ro 9:20-21).

4. God's answer to man's charges of unfairness:

Your ways are not my ways,
My ways are higher (better) than your ways (Is 55:8-9).
I do no wrong (Dt 32:4),
All my ways are just (Da 4:37, 9:14; Ps 145:17),
and I do what is right (Da 4:37, cf v.35)

• PERSONAL APPLICATION: When it comes to God's fairness, we must decide who is right, and whom we will believe, man or God.

5. Paul's response to God's sovereign choice not

• to grant faith to Israel, his covenant people (Ro 11:7-8), but to cut them off (Ro 11:17, 19-20, 22) and
• instead grant faith to the Gentiles, who were foreigners to the covenant (Eph 2:11-12) is
• Ro 11:33-36 - "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways beyond finding out!
  Who is wise enough that he should counsel God (Isa 40:13)?
  And who has given to God that God should owe him? (Job 41:11)"

6. Back to Job: While Job did not sin in what he said (Job 2:10), because he did not curse God (1:11, 2:5), he did:

• feel he had a right to an explanation, which God owed him (Job 9:16, 10:2, 13:3, 22-23)--presumption
• complain because God afflicted the righteous but not the wicked (24:12)--discrediting God's justice.

7. God responds to Job:

charges Job with

• ignorance (chps 38-39),
• casting shadows of ignorance over his wisdom (38:2), and
• discrediting his justice (40:8) in order to justify himself to his friends (6:29, 13;12-19), who were using his affliction as proof of his unrighteousness (22:4-30, 34:10-12, 31-37, 35:12-16, 36:8-17)

challenges Job (40:7-8) to match him in

• justice (40:8)
• power (40:9)
• majesty (40:10) and
• dominion (40:11-14).

BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES:

• We do not question God (Ro 9:20), he questions us (Job 38:3, 40:7).
• We do not judge God (Isa 10:15), he judges us (Job 40:2).
• Nor do we call God to the bar of our reason (Ro 9:20; Isa 45:11-12)
  to judge him based on human understanding and human ways (Job 1:22).
• The Bible calls that "turning things upside down as if the potter were thought to be like the clay." (Is 29:16, NIV)

8. Job is

• humbled (42:3), repents (42:6) and embraces the sovereign actions of God (40:2, 5), although
• he is never given an explanation for his affliction (see #1, Biblical Principle).
• Job no longer needed an explanation (42:3), for he had experienced the glory of God (42:5, cf 19:26-27), which far surpasses anything found on earth (Php 3:8-10).

9. Outcome of Job's trial:

• deeper heart knowledge and realized fellowship with God (42:3, 5, 8, cf 19:26-27; Ps 42:1-2, 63:1, 84:1-2).
• double possessions (42:10)--foreshadowing the nature of spiritual possessions (Heb 10:34; 1Pe 1:4-5),
• long life (42:16)--foreshadowing eternal life (Jas 1:12).

10. Parallels between Job and Christ:

• the Righteous One (Ac 7:52, 3:14),
• sorely afflicted by God (Is 53:3-5)
• because of a controversy with Satan (Ge 3:15; Jn 12:31; Mt 12:29; Lk 10:18-19),
• who was emptied and humbled (Php 2:5-8)
• for his greater glory (Heb 12:2; Php 2:9-11; 2Co 4:17), and
• exalted to intercede for his friends (Ac 2:33; Heb 7:25, cf Job 45:7-10).

11. God's answer to man's objections regarding his absolute sovereignty:

I am all wise and all just (Is 40:13-14; Ps 89:14),

I do what is best and what is right (Dt 32:4; Ps 119:68; Da 4:37).

TRUST ME, and lean not on your own understanding (Pr 3:5).

• PERSONAL APPLICATION: The sovereignty of God requires our trust, not our understanding. (Ro 11:33)

NB: Chps 38-41 in Job are unparalleled in beauty, grandeur, majesty and sublimity of the divine wisdom.

Yet here we are still questioning God some just gave give in to some idea or thought .. God does what ever He wants. All I can say is Job said something was it more then once That played apart in all this.

We think we can say anything and it does nothing. Those words we say that mean nothing can give the enemy the right to come on in and do what he wants.