Hurt Response, Part A – Job 6

Inc.com has and article on 7 Warning Signs You’re in a Failing Relationship: Resentment growing in you, disrespect from your friend, dishonesty, distancing by your friend, defensiveness on your friend’s part when you address issues with them, and contempt from them. We are beginning to see this already in Job’s relationship with his friends.

Then Job answered and said:

“Oh that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash. For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder? Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow? My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me.

“Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?

“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away, which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself. When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place. The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish. The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope. They are ashamed because they were confident; they come there and are disappointed. For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid. Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’? Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?

“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray. How forceful are upright words! But what does reproof from you reprove? Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind? You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend.

“But now, be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face. Please turn; let no injustice be done. Turn now; my vindication is at stake. Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity? (Job 6, ESV)

Job expresses the great distress he is in as an explanation for the “rash” things he has said.  His problems seem heavier than all the sand of the sea.  It feels as if God has shot him through with arrows.  Why would you not expect him to speak in unpleasant ways?  You would expect a donkey to bray if it was hungry or an ox to low if it had no food.  In the same way Job is hurting.  Like food that needs seasoning to make it appetizing, his hopeless situation needs “seasoning” to keep it from being entirely loathsome.

Job would prefer that God go ahead and kill him.  He would find more comfort in this because, as yet, he has not denied God and so he would have reason to exult.  He doesn’t have strength left to continue this or withstand the onslaught of temptation to curse God.

Job rebukes his friends because they have failed to show the kindness of friendship to him.  Though he looked to them for encouragement, like a caravan looks to a wadi or stream for relief from perishing, they proved to be unworthy of Job’s confidence.  Job accuses them of being afraid that he would ask something of them that they didn’t want to give (a gift, a bribe [to God?], a deliverance). We may say that they are, indeed, afraid, but we may surmise that their fear is that what has happened to Job could happen to them.

If his friends really can reprove him, go for it.  Job will listen and learn.  But they must know that he is merely expressing his pain and not take advantage of him as they seem willing to do. Can they not see that there is discernment and justice in his words?  Can they not vindicate him, in that his life has not taken a turn from God, that his suffering is undeserved?  Do they not trust him?

Discussion Questions

1. What kinds of things do you like to read?
2. If you were to describe what kind of book Job is, what would you say?
3. What does Job say he is vexed or angry about, who is vexing him?
4. Is Job mistaken that God is the one who has brought all this calamity into his life?
5. What was Job expecting and needing from his friends that they failed to provide?
6. Is there a friend that you could or should minister to?