There is so much I do not know about the Book of Job.

I am almost overwhelmed by its scope.

And among the most puzzling verses in the whole Corpus are these words of Job: “Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.” Job 40:3-5

Then: “Wherefore I (Job) abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:6

What had Job done so wrong?

He clearly was a righteous man.

Here’s God’s testimony concerning Job, given to the Devil nonetheless! “And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” Job 1:8

Wow!

Next puzzling to me is God’s initial response to the (suffering) agonizing Job: “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Job 38:1-2

Had Job been talking about things “beyond” his purview? Somehow he had spoken “words without knowledge!” The Almighty just declared that to be a fact!

This too, a little later God asked Job: “Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.” Job 40:1-2

What’s happening here?

The verb “contendeth” is “riyb,” translated these ways in the King James Bible; “plead” (27 times), “strive” (13 times), “contend” (13 times), “chide” (6 times), and “debate” (2 times). It is the ancient Hebrew word for a “lawsuit!” Has Job been suing God, seeking an “answer” to his dilemma?

And (perhaps more significantly) the verb “reproveth” is “yakach,” translated “rebuke” 12 times! And “correct” 3 times! But get this, “chasten” 2 times. Then in Job’s favor, “reason” 2 times.

God sure has Job in training, at least here. Apparently one never gets to the place of not needing a little further “correction” from God above!

By the way, I just checked a Hebrew concordance and have noticed the times Job uses “riyb” (the lawsuit verb) in reference to God.

Like here: “If he (a man) will contend (“riyb” = plead, strive, chide, debate) with Him (God), he (that man) cannot answer Him (God) one of a thousand.” You will “lose” 999 times out of every 1,000 attempts! The verse is Job 9:3.

And in Job 10:2 the Patriarch clearly feels that God is “suing” him, in some court of law! Maybe that’s sort of what the Lord and the Satan were doing. “I (Job) will say unto God, Do not condemn me; Shew me wherefore Thou contendest (“riyb” = plead, strive, chide, debate) with me.”

Again in Job 31:35 our little Hero (Job) calls God his “Adversary!” He thinks God is “against” him. In a lawsuit! “Oh that one would hear me! Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary (“riyb”) had written a book.”

There is legal language all the way though the Book of Job, I am learning!

Yet I have found this, in Job chapter 23. Job groaning in misery: “Oh that I knew where I might find him (God)! That I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments.” Job 23:3-4, where “arguments” comes close to a confrontation. It (“tokechah”) means “rebuke” 7 times in the Bible!

Job really believes that if he could confront God … he might win the argument! The argument that God had treated him wrongly! Job NOT knowing about the battle ensuing between God and Satan … a contention over Job himself!

Further in the same Chapter, at God’s Throne (seat) where Job would like to appear: “There the righteous might dispute with Him; so should I be delivered for ever from my Judge.” Job 23:7

If I could “dispute” with God … “yakach” … translated “rebuke” 12 times in the Bible … HERE JOB MAY HAVE GONE TOO FAR! This may be why God asks so blatantly: “Shall he (Job in view) that contendeth (“riyb”) with the Almighty instruct Him? He that reproveth (“yakach”) God, let him answer it.” Job 40:2, already quoted above.

Job crossed no (major) lines of sin or rebellion. And he certainly never “cursed” God (like the Devil said he would do).  But he (in his sea of extreme suffering) did use some pretty strong language in the “What in the world is God going to me” area!

For this he stands corrected, after God comes out of that whirlwind!

That’s why we read the words: “Wherefore I (Job) abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 40:6

Wow!

What a Book!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

The Lord willing, more tomorrow.