Court Anxiety – Job 9

According to Law and Order Record Retrieval: Subpoenas are legal documents that summon a witness or other important party to attend a court proceeding…you will need to find an appropriate process server…Your server will need to deliver the subpoena in one of the four legally approved methods. These include by hand and in person; via email to the last known email address; certified or registered mail via the United States Postal Service; or read aloud in person.

Could you serve a subpoena to God?

Then Job answered and said:

“Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?— he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea; who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number. Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him. Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

“God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab. How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice. For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause; he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life. It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?

“My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good. They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey. If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’ I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent. I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself. (Job 9, ESV)

Job agrees with Bildad that going to God for mercy and restoration is the right path but worries that it is impossible to stand up to God and defend one’s righteousness.  Surely no one has ever successfully answered God.  His power is too great, His knowledge too extensive, and His presence too indiscernable.  No one can accuse Him of wrongdoing.

Job cannot believe that God will reverse His determination to visit suffering or anger upon Job.  Even though Job is right (and so, by implication, God is wrong) he cannot change God’s judgment in God’s court.  God is already wounding him without cause.  Why would He listen to Job in court.  He has so filled Job with bitterness that Job cannot catch his breath to even make a defense.  You can’t summon God to court (where would you deliver the subpoena?).  And even if you could, how are you going to prove God wrong in court.  God would never allow that.

Job affirms his blamelessness and the hopelessness of his situation and is ready to pack it in.  From his perspective God brings judgment on both the blameless and the wicked, and takes perverse delight in the suffering of the innocent.  God keeps earthly judges from seeing the wrongs done to the righteous and allows the wicked to hold sway. Whew, Job is really judging God!

Job sees his days swiftly coming to an end.  Should he just put on a happy face as if nothing is wrong?  He can’t because he dreads the fact that God will judge him guilty.  No matter how hard Job tries to live a good life, keeping himself clean, God will cast him into the pit.

God is not approachable in court.  There is no one who can mediate between Him and Job and so allow Job the freedom from the terror of punishment to speak fearlessly in his own defense.

Discussion Questions

1. If you could change places with a Bible character, whom would you choose? Why?
2. Why wouldn’t you change places with Job? Where is he emotionally?
3. Would you be scared to make a case before God for your own innocence?
4. What do you think of Job’s assessment of God?
5. Do you feel the same way Job does, or if not, how would you describe God if you were in Job’s situation?
6. How do you think God is thinking about Job at this moment?