Job 10:11-22 “I Am Full Of Confusion”

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Job 10:11-22- I Am Full Of Confusion
Job 10:11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
Job 10:12 Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
Job 10:13 And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.
Job 10:14 If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
Job 10:15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;
Job 10:16 For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
Job 10:17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
Job 10:18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
Job 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:20 Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
Job 10:21 Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Job 10:22 A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
Introduction

Last week we saw how Job told us that He considered everything God was doing to him to be God pouring out His wrath upon Job. We saw all the verses which demonstrated that Job endured the very afflictions which are mentioned in all seven of the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God.

Rev 15:1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

We ‘hear about the patience of Job’, and we wonder how anyone could endure such a trial. The fact is that all who know Christ will also have “the patience of Job”, and will have endured the same trials, and will have “endured [ them] to the end”, all in their own way.

Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Jas 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

God’s wrath is not for those who have already endured it, any more than the law is for a righteous man.

1Ti 1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

Why is “the law… not made for a righteous man”? One reason is that the law is “for the ungodly and sinners”, but here is another major scriptural reason:

Rom 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

So God’s wrath rests upon all unbelievers who are in transgression of the law for the lawless and disobedient. Being “lawless and disobedient” is the condition into which all men are born. This is an integral part of the experience of evil which God has ordained for all men of all time.

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Eph 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
Eph 5:4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
Eph 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

Who of all mankind, other than our Lord Himself, is not guilty of these sins? “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God… and no [ man] will enter the temple [ of God] to the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled” (Rom 6:23 and Rev 15:8).
So here are the same trials which Job with patience endured, and here are those who with that same patience have endure that same trial.

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.
Rev 13:10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

It was given to the beast within Job to overcome Job, just as he is granted to “make war with the saints, and to overcome them”. When Job, the type of each of us, is worshiping the beast of his self- righteousness, he is also at that time worshiping his father the devil, the dragon. When he and we “reprove… contend with… and condemn God”, he and we are are blaspheming God.

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Joh 8:44 Ye [ you and I, at our own time in Babylon] are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Only those who are given “ears that hear” will acknowledge that all of this is within their own flesh and that this “experience of evil” is essential to the salvation of those who have been granted “the patience of Job”, which is the Old Testament type and shadow of “the patience and the faith of the saints”.

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

There is no way of escaping this “experience of evil” and its accompanying “wrath of God” upon the works of our ‘old man’.

Eph 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The worship of the beast and the pouring out of God’s wrath are as integral and as expedient to having “the patience and faith of the saints” as first being a sinner is integral and expedient to receiving salvation. That is what we were told in Rev 13, and that is what we are told again in Rev 14.

Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12 Here [ this] is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

“They have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast.” Is that not what Job tells us of his experience?

Job 7:13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
Job 7:14 Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:
Job 7:15 So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.

Here is verse Rev 14:11 in the Concordant Literal Version:

Rev 14:11 And the fumes of their torment are ascending for the eons of the eons. And they are having no rest day and night, those worshiping the wild beast and its image, and if anyone is getting the emblem of its name.”

“The eons of the eons” are those ‘eons’ upon which “the ends of the world are come”.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world [ same Greek word translated ‘eons’ in Rev 14:11] are come.

Here now Isa 1Co 10:11 in the CLV:

1Co 10:11 Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained.”

Again the “eons of the eons” are those “to whom the consummations of the eons have attained”. It is those who have endured with Christ “a little wrath… for a moment”.

Isa 54:7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

According the the scriptures, it is in “the eon of this world” that God is judging His elect in His wrath.

Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course [ Greek, aion, eon] of this world [ cosmos], according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Contrary to what we have been taught, God’s wrath is His judgment:

Job 19:29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

It is only those who are granted to understand that they are “by nature the children of wrath” and that God, as a loving Father, is in the ‘eon of this world’ pouring out the purifying fire of His wrath, who are said to have been granted “the patience and faith of the saints” (Rev 13:10 and Rev 14:12) and who will be “saved so as by fire”.

1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

It is only through the loss of our life of our “old man” that we will be saved:

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

But Job typifies us while we are still worshiping the beast and his image and as we have received his mark in our foreheads and in our hands. As God’s future elect, we are brought to be very confused because we do not yet know about “the patience and faith of the saints” and all that it entails. We know that God has made all things, but we do not know or understand why He has “made us to err” (Isa 63:17), and at this time in our “experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13 CLV), we do not want to “endure to the end”. We just want it all to end.
Here is what is in our “foreheads” at that time. Job expresses his and our Babylonian confusion:

Job 10:11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
Job 10:12 Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

Job knows that God made man in a body of flesh, and he knows that God is keeping him alive through this time of torment and trial. Job knows that the wealth he had amassed was because God had “granted [ him] favor”, but Job does not understand why things have changed, and he doesn’t know that “skin and flesh” are “really nothing more than a sinful “marred” condition.

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Neither does he understand why God would set him up to destroy the marred, sinful “earthen vessel” which God Himself made.

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

He does not understand that it is his earthly composition which necessitates the time of God’s “visitation”, which is the time of the judgment of our sins and our sinful composition. Job, the true type of each of us, does not know that he is sin.

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

The apostle Paul agrees with King David and with Christ concerning all flesh:

Mat 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me [ my flesh] good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Like all of us at this stage of our “experience of evil”, Job knows nothing of the “sin which is in my members”. Job, in his self- righteousness does not believe that flesh is sin or that he was ‘shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin’, and he certainly does not believe that he has committed any sin which would in any way justify the severity of his trials. So he maintains his own righteousness, even as he reproves, contends with and condemns God for the suffering he is enduring.

Job 10:7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

Isa 10:3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
Jer 23:12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

Christ says the same of us:

Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
Luk 19:43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
Luk 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Christ tells us plainly, “They are hid from your eyes”. Job, just like us at this time, knows that there is something God has not yet revealed to him. We know that something is missing, but we do not yet know what that something is. The apostle Peter tells us of the confusing dilemma in which the Old Testament prophets found themselves:

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Did we catch that? Job is ‘testifying beforehand of the sufferings of Christ’. It was not for Job’s own self that his experience of evil ministers, “but unto us [ he] does minister”.
Christ told his apostles this same Truth concerning the righteous men and prophets of the Old Testament:

Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Job knows that God is working in his life, but he senses that God is hiding the real reason for it all He is doing in Job’s life.

Job 10:13 And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.
Job 10:14 If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

If I sin”??? Job and we have admitted to having sinned. But, as we noted, he doesn’t think of himself as a wicked man, and he certainly doesn’t believe he deserves what is being done to him. Job does not realize that what we ‘deserve’ has nothing to do with what God is working in the lives of all men. Neither Job nor we understand that “man [ anthropos – mankind] shall… live by every word… of God”:

Job 7:20 I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

At the same time Job and we tenaciously cling to our own righteousness.

Job 10:7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

Job 33:9 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.

Now let’s put this self- evaluation by our “old man” of himself up against the truth of scripture concerning our “old man”:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

But at this point in our walk we know none of this. At this point we think very well of ourselves, and we believe that we have a free will which contributes something to God which is of great value to Him. As our Old Testament type and shadow, Job and we truly are ‘confused’ at this point in our trial.

Job 10:15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;
Job 10:16 For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
Job 10:17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

Why, we wonder, does God want to hunt down and destroy His own creation, our “old man”? Why does He “afflict” us, and why does he then simply continue to “increase” our affliction and ‘hunt us as a fierce lion’? Job knows he is a marked man. He simply doesn’t know why.

Job 10:8 Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

Christ answers Job’s question and tells us, “But blessed are your eyes for they see” (Mat 13:16). Christ has revealed to us why our old man must be destroyed:

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed [ within God’s temple, vrs 4], whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

So our “first man Adam” is sitting within the temple of God and must be destroyed. That is the message of the book of Job. That is why Job is counted as God’s enemy and is a man who is marked for destruction. It is Job and it is we, “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God”. That is God’s own assessment of how Job and how we treat our own God:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Here again we have God Himself telling us that His wrath He is pouring out on Job is “my judgment”. This ‘man of sin… sitting in the temple of God’ must be destroyed, and that is exactly what God is in the process of doing.

Job 7:20 I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?

Job 10:8 Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
Job 16:12 I was at ease[ sitting in the temple of God], but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

The spiritual concept of the death of our “first man Adam” bringing forth the life of our new man, is completely foreign to us at this time. Life coming forth from death seems as unnecessary and as contradictory as light coming forth out of darkness. It all seems so very contradictory to us when we do not have eyes that see or ears that hear “the things of the spirit”. We must all go through this process of seeing ourselves as having sin “in our members” and first being in “the body of this death” and in darkness. In God’s own time and on His own schedule, all of our family and friends, and in time all of mankind, will come through this same painful progression. But when we are enduring our trials, we see none of this, and we are very confused. We simply do not naturally think as God thinks.

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

“The things of the spirit… are foolishness unto… the natural man” and he “cannot receive them”. So we continue to contend with and reprove and condemn our heavenly Father:

Job 10:18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
Job 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

“I should have been as though I had not been”. This is the same human reasoning Job used on his Creator back in chapter three.

Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
Job 3:16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

As we discussed in our study on chapter three, these words of Job are used by many to justify the deliberate murder of an unborn child. The Truth of “the sum of God’s Word” (Psa 119:160 ASV) on this subject is the exact opposite of such a diabolical doctrine and demonstrates that God places great value on the life of a fetus. If we take “I should have been as though I had not been” to mean that this verse is telling us that the unborn are the same and not even existing, then we will have a hard time explaining why Job says “Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?” It is impossible for a thing which “had not been” to “die” or to “give up the ghost”.
It is also very hard to explain why other verses in “the sum of God’s Word” place such great value on the life of the unborn:

Exo 21:22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

Deliberate premeditated abortion of an unborn child is not even the subject, and yet a penalty is to be paid for even the accidental destruction of an unborn fetus. Deliberate abortion was considered by God to be nothing less than murder, and He makes it clear that those who do not repent of that sin will not be held guiltless:

Amo 1:13 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:

It is because of the destruction of “women with child” that God will punish Ammon. It was not because they simply murdered women. That would have been a great sin, but the Ammonites even “ripped up women with child” compounding their sin.
Here is the value God Himself places on a couple of fetuses in particular, and He places no less value on any fetus:

Gen 25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Gen 25:22 And the c hildren struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
Gen 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

“The children struggled within her”. Those two fetuses were “children… within her”, within the womb of their mother. They were considered by God to be “two nations” even while yet unborn.
While none of this is meant to condemn those who have, in ignorance, had abortions, the scriptures nevertheless make it perfectly clear that the practice of premeditated medical abortions, which many today so calmly accept as a part of modern social norms, demonstrate just how “high above our ways” are the ways and thoughts of God.

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The deliberate murder of a living child is inconceivable in the mind of our heavenly Father, to the degree that there is not so much as any consideration given it in the law of Moses.
Job asks: “Why did you bring me forth out of the womb?” Why does God torment us so? Why does he ‘preserve our spirit’ just to continue to torment us. Why doesn’t He just let us die? The pain of our trial causes us to blaspheme the name of God with such presumptuous questions. That is why King David prayed this prayer:

Psa 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

There is one answer to Job’s question, but we cannot at this time bear it. The fact is that we are predestined to become saviors, and as such we are required to be able to identify with every temptation of those we are saving:

Oba 1:21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.
Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Our sufferings in our bodies are “for His body’s sake, which is the church” just as much as Christ’s own suffering was “for His body’s sake, which is the church”.

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb 2:16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Heb 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18 F or in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

But we are not yet so much as aware of “presumptuous sins”. We may be, and we are “confused”, but we feel completely justified in condemning God for the pain we are enduring.

Job 10:20 Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

Job inquires of God, “Are not my days few?” Job himself answers this question for us in the 14th chapter:

Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

The New Testament also bears witness to this Truth:

Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Again, Job is confused because in this chapter he poses this question:

Job 10:21 Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

Then in the 19th chapter he makes this revealing statement in a rather adamant manner:

Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

“Before I go whence I shall not return”? It is quite clear that Job, in his confusion, is not yet clear about whether there is a resurrection from the dead.
Will Job “after… worms destroy this body, yet in [ his] flesh… see God”?
There are two ways we can answer this question. As the Old Testament type of God’s elect, Job as the type of us, does indeed “see God” after worms [ in type] destroy [ his] body”.

Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

Yet God in His sovereignty grants Job to “see” Him and repent while he is still “in [ his] flesh”.

Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

On the other hand, if we understand “the latter day” to refer to the second resurrection, then we must take the words “in my flesh” to be understood in the same way as we understand a “heart of flesh” as it is used in Ezekiel 36.

Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

“A stony heart” is a parable for a hardened and rebellious heart. In contrast “a heart of flesh” is also a parable for a “a new heart” which must of necessity be “My spirit within you”, and has nothing to do with physical flesh. In this verse, ‘flesh’ being contrasted with ‘stone’ is used as a type of the new spiritual heart which only can be resurrected:

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Either way we look at Job 19:26, if we consider “the sum” of God’s Word, we cannot conclude that resurrected bodies are bodies of flesh, even if, as Christ did, those resurrected bodies are capable of appearing as “flesh and bone”.

Luk 24:36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Luk 24:37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Luk 24:38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Luk 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

Nowhere does Christ deny that he was “raised a spiritual body”. What He does tell them is that He has appeared to them in a body of “flesh and bone”. Christ has miraculously appeared in their midst behind locked doors, and just as miraculously he disappears out of their sight. He can do these thing because He was “raised a spiritual body” which is not capable of appearing in a physical body.
Job of course knows nothing about any of this. So he concludes this speech with these words concerning his concept of what is death:

Job 10:22 A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

The fact that Job does not know the mind of His Maker tells us that He is already in “the shadow of death, without order, and where [ Job’s and our light is as darkness”. That is Christ’s perspective of Job and of all of us before we come to know Him and His Father.

Mat 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

David also calls this life “the valley of the shadow of death”.

Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Job’s trials have brought him to desire death over the life the Lord has given him of the loss of all physical possessions, all his children, all his friends and now the humiliation and false accusations of those who were supposed to comfort him. He is a marked man who the Lord continues to hunt down and torment and destroy. Job just wants it all to come to a merciful end, but there is still a self- righteous beast on the throne in the temple of God, and Job is not yet aware of what God is doing.
Next week, if the Lord wills we will hear the self- righteous accusations of the youngest of Job’s “miserable comforters”, Zophar. Here are Zophar’s words for Job, words which he, just like Job, will in time be forced to eat:

Job 11:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Job 11:2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?
Job 11:3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
Job 11:4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.
Job 11:5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;
Job 11:6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Job 11:7 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
Job 11:8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
Job 11:9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Job 11:10 If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?

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