WHAT IS GOD’S DESIRE FOR US?

Job 10:1-22 / Keywords 10:8

"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me?

 

 10:1 “I loathe my very life;

    therefore I will give free rein to my complaint

    and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I say to God: Do not declare me guilty,

    but tell me what charges you have against me.

3 Does it please you to oppress me,

    to spurn the work of your hands,

    while you smile on the plans of the wicked?

4 Do you have eyes of flesh?

    Do you see as a mortal sees?

5 Are your days like those of a mortal

    or your years like those of a strong man,

6 that you must search out my faults

    and probe after my sin—

7 though you know that I am not guilty

    and that no one can rescue me from your hand?

8 “Your hands shaped me and made me.

    Will you now turn and destroy me?

9 Remember that you molded me like clay.

    Will you now turn me to dust again?

10 Did you not pour me out like milk

    and curdle me like cheese,

11 clothe me with skin and flesh

    and knit me together with bones and sinews?

12 You gave me life and showed me kindness,

    and in your providence watched over my spirit.

13 “But this is what you concealed in your heart,

    and I know that this was in your mind:

14 If I sinned, you would be watching me

    and would not let my offense go unpunished.

15 If I am guilty—woe to me!

    Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,

for I am full of shame

    and drowned in[a] my affliction.

16 If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion

    and again display your awesome power against me.

17 You bring new witnesses against me

    and increase your anger toward me;

    your forces come against me wave upon wave.

18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?

    I wish I had died before any eye saw me.

19 If only I had never come into being,

    or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!

20 Are not my few days almost over?

    Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy

21 before I go to the place of no return,

    to the land of gloom and utter darkness,

22 to the land of deepest night,

    of utter darkness and disorder,

    where even the light is like darkness.”

Footnotes

a. Job 10:15 Or and aware of

1. Have you ever felt that life could not get any worse? This is how Job felt. He cried out to God in anguish and searched for answers. Why has God done this to him? It appears God was behaving like a mortal and smiling on the plans of the wicked. It simply didn’t make sense to Job. Why would God shape and form him, just to turn around and destroy him? Why would God give him life and show him kindness just to completely crush him? If Job was guilty, he would understand God’s actions. But even if he was innocent, it didn’t matter anymore. Job was already full of shame and affliction. Even if he could somehow raise his head above his circumstances, God would bring him low again.

 

2. In verse 18, Job wishes that he had never been born. If only God would give him a moment’s rest before he died! Even in death, there was no hope for Job. Job describes death as a land of gloom and utter darkness. What Job needed was a hope that penetrated the darkness. He needed a hope that lifted him above his sufferings and gave him peace and joy in the midst of his troubles. He needed a hope that overcomes even the power of death. God did not create us just to crush us. He created us to have eternal life in Christ and dwell in his presence forever. We all need this hope.

 

Prayer Lord Jesus, grant us hope that overcomes.

One Word God shaped us for his glory