At the End of One’s Rope – Job 10

Can you see that bulldog, tethered to a stake in the yard, pulling at the end of that rope, desperate to get to that squirrel, but he’s at the end of his rope? This gives rise to our expression. Thefreedictionary.com describes it this way:  Having reached a point of utter exhaustion or exasperation; in a state at which one has no more patience, endurance, or energy left.  That’s where Job is.

“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man’s years, that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand? Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose. If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity. If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction. And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me. You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me.

“Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer before I go—and I shall not return— to the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness.” (Job 10, ESV)

Even though Job says he is too afraid to meet God in court, in the hopelessness of his life he might as well give vent to his complaints.  He will ask God why He has condemned him and oppressed the one whom He so carefully fashioned in the womb.  He will ask Him why He has spent so much energy seeking out Job’s sin when He knows Job is not guilty.

If Job were really guilty then he feels he would deserve what is happening.  But, though he is guiltless, he is in disgrace because of what God has done to him and he cannot give any proof of his innocence.  Job believes God is angry with him and fighting against him.

Job returns to his lament at being born.  Why did God even let him be born?  He begs God to leave him alone for his few short remaining days so he can find a little cheer before he goes to the grave, never to return again.

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever broken a law?
2. How would you defend yourself for breaking a traffic law?
3. Have you ever felt at the end of your rope? If so, why?
4. Why would Job seem to prefer going to the land of deep darkness, the place of death, to staying in his present life?
5. What do you think Job means by God renewing His witnesses against Job?
6. How could you manage not to be a witness against someone going through suffering?