Job 6:11-20 “To Him That Is Afflicted Pity Should Be Shewed From His Friend”

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Job 6:11-20 “To Him That Is Afflicted Pity Should Be Shewed…”

Job 6:11 What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?
Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?
Job 6:13 Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?
Job 6:14 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
Job 6:15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;
Job 6:16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:
Job 6:17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
Job 6:18 The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
Job 6:19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.
Job 6:20 They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

[Conference Call Study Notes Added November 11, 2011 to End of Study Notes]

Introduction

Because Job had no eyes to see his own spiritually carnal self-righteousness, he could not see the need for this work God was performing within his life. Because Job, the type and shadow of each of us, is angry with God he is not asking for deliverance, instead he is entreating God to just take his life and put him out of his misery. Like each of us, Job begrudgingly acknowledges God as the sovereign author of what is taking place in his suffering, but he does not want to “endure to the end”. He wants relief more than he wants to wait for his salvation.

Job 6:8 Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
Job 6:9 Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
Job 6:10 Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

These verses in Luke 21 are the perfect description of how Job feels as his “miserable comforters” are falsely accusing him of sins he has not committed. Neither Job nor any of us, realize that what he ‘deserves’ in reality has nothing to do with the suffering he is enduring. Job is the Old Testament type and shadow of those with whom God is working in this age, to conform them into the image of His Son, and to bless them with the honor of being in that blessed and holy first resurrection as His elect, to ‘judge this world’ and to then even ‘judge angels’.

1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

It is because Job and each of us do not yet see and understand this, that he and we have to be brought, through God’s wrath being poured out upon Job as the type and shadow of the “first man Adam”, to see and to understand that our ‘first Adam’ must be destroyed, and through that destruction, bring about the birth of “the last Adam”.

Neither Job nor his three “miserable comforters” realized that the pouring out of God’s wrath upon the “first man Adam” is simply a vital and expedient part of the “experience of evil” which must be experienced by all men of all time.

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)

God tells us that his wrath is simply the passion within Him which withstands and refuses the ways and thoughts of “the first man Adam”.

Joh 2:17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

It is God’s zeal for His house that “eats up” and destroys “the first man Adam… the man of sin” within us. It all has a purpose and that purpose is “to humble them by it”. So all that is happening to Job, and all that happens to each of us, has nothing to do with what we ‘deserve’ for what we have done. We need to know and to never forget that “all that is done under the heavens… [includes] an experience of evil” which God Himself has ‘written in our book before any of us are ever born’.

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

“My unformed substance” speaks of the “unfinished state” into which all men are born. Those are the very words used by the Apostolic Polyglot to translate that verse.

(ABP) My unfinished state saw Your eyes; and on your scroll all men shall be written. Days were shaped, and no one among them.

If all of our days were written in God’s book “when as yet there was none of them”, then those days must of necessity include all the days we must all spent being wicked men. Is that really what the scriptures teach about wicked men? Are your wicked days and my wicked days really a part of “the days ordained for me, when as yet there was none of them”? Do the scriptures teach that?

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [within us all] for the day of evil [within us all].

It is in our “unfinished state” in these “vessels of clay”, of carnal flesh, that we are all made by God “wicked for the day of evil” which we must all endure and acknowledge, and in the end give an accounting. Yes, we are sinners, but we are not sinners by choice, and it is for that reason that what we ‘deserve’ has nothing to do with God’s wrath being poured out upon us.

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.

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.

If indeed we are operating according to “a law… in our members”, then being ‘deserving’ of either blessing or cursing has nothing at all to do with ‘the counsel of God’s own will’ for our lives. The more we deny that we are in this “unfinished state” and that we are but mere “clay… in the hand of the Potter”, the longer we dwell in His wrath upon our “man of sin” within us all. It appears to us to be a hopeless and helpless situation in which we find ourselves.

Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
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.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Who will deliver us from “the body of this death?” We are born spiritually blind from our mother’s womb, and we simply cannot see the answer to this dilemma into which we are all born.

In the very same way, there are none as stubborn as we are when we think that God has it all wrong; when we think that there simply is no justification for all the sufferings of this life; when we think that instead of suffering, we should be permitted to simply die and be hid in the grave, and then be raised to life with no need to endure the wrath of God upon our unbelieving “first man Adam” (Joh 3:36). That is Job’s mind, and that is his state of mind, and that is also the mind of us all. We actually think, because of our “marred… unfinished” condition, that we would do better than God. We would devise a way that would eliminate the need for suffering. That is certainly not God’s mind, and so Job’s mind and our minds are by nature, “enmity against God”, and it is this mind and this state of mind which must be burned out of every man.

Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God” we all ask “why have you made me thus”? Every man has been given his “appointed set time”, and every man will indeed be remembered by God. But there is no one of any age or at any time who will magically avoid the seven plagues of the seven angels, which fill up the wrath of God upon and which destroys our old “man of sin”.

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.

The unbelieving “old man” “man of sin” within us must die and be destroyed by God’s wrath before the believing “new man” “conformed to the image of His Son” can be birthed within us.

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son [via God’s wrath], that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
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.

Job, and all of us, come to our own “wits’ end”. “Then”, and only then, do we “cry unto the Lord in our trouble”, and “then”, and only “then, are we glad because… He brings [us] to [our] desired haven”. This whole description of how God works begins and ends with this admonition:

Psa 107:21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

It is God’s wrath upon our old man that brings Job and us to our “wits end”. This whole process is described as “His goodness and His wonderful works to the children of men”. So exactly what is it that we are being told is “His goodness and His wonderful works to the children of men? Let’s examine that again:

Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

That is what the mind of God considers to be “His goodness and His wonderful works to the children of men”.

It is the pouring out of God’s wrath upon our “old man”, our “man of sin”; It is the burning up of our “wood, hay, and stubble”, which produces the “smoke from the glory of God”.

But our natural man, does not see any of this as being “wonderful works to the children of men”. Instead, our natural man is typified by Job, who would rather die than to endure to the end of this time of trial. This is common to all people.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Here is what the New Testament has to add to this message concerning this thing the Psalms call “the goodness of God”. Here is the very purpose for the wrath of God and the seven plagues of the seven angels being poured out upon our “old man”.

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
Rom 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Rom 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

The day is coming for all men, when God will bring us to our “desired haven”, but before that day will arrive when we are granted to accept God’s ways and thoughts, we will first be ‘angry, argumentative, contend with, reprove and condemn God’ as Job did.

Job 6:11 What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?
Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?
Job 6:13 Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?

“What is my strength… what is my end, that I should prolong my days?” Job is well aware of his helplessness in the hands of an almighty sovereign God. His point is that the answer is obvious. He does not have the strength of stones, and his flesh is not brass. But instead of longing for and praying for deliverance, Job is tired of waiting on God, and would rather condemn God for pouring out His wrath upon him. We may not even realize it, but he is very angry and argumentative and condemning of his Creator Whose will he knows he cannot resist.

2Ch 20:5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,
2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

We are all like Job. Job finds it so easy to see that his friends are accusing him, but he cannot see that he is doing the very same thing to his own sovereign God. “Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?” Job thinks his help is in himself, and he certainly does not think that wisdom is driven from him at all. What he is telling Eliphaz is that he does not consider his miserable comforters to be of any help or comfort at all. Job actually believes that he himself is his only help. He knows he cannot withstand God, yet he will not even consider that there might be something he is lacking or is missing.

Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

Job 19:11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

Here is one of God’s laws which Job does not yet grasp.

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Neither Job, nor any of us at first, see our flesh as being “corruption”. We deny that it is. We contend that physical things of themselves have no sin in them, and we do so in the face of this Biblical Truth:

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.

The root of the word ‘sin’ in Hebrew means ‘to miss the mark’.

H2398
cha t a’
khaw- taw’
A primitive root; properly to miss; hence (figuratively and generally) to sin; by inference to forfeit, lack, expiate, repent, (causatively) lead astray, condemn: – bear the blame, cleanse, commit [ sin], by fault, harm he hath done, loss, miss, (make) offend (- er), offer for sin, purge, purify (self), make reconciliation, (cause, make) sin (- ful, – ness), trespassive

There it is. That is what Romans 7 acknowledges. That is what Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, could not see. “Sin dwells in me” meaning “in my flesh”. Paul calls this a law (Rom 7:21). He calls it “the law of sin and death”:

What Job, his miserable comforters, and all of us fail to see at first, is that if “it is no more I that do it”, then it must be by the design of the Potter that we are all “marred in the hand of the Potter” (Jer 18:4) with ‘the law of sin and death… in our members’ from conception.

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

Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

When we connect this law of sin within our flesh with the truth of Rev 15:8, then we can begin to understand why we, along with Job and his “miserable comforters”, cannot yet understand why it is that their and our carnal minds consider God’s law to be our enemy. Like the blinded Pharisees, who were completely unaware of their spiritual blindness and the accompanying limits of that blindness, Job, and all of us, do not at first see ourselves as being carnal. We see ourselves as “sanctified in Christ Jesus”, and we think that being “called to be saints”, being “enriched by Him in all utterance, and in all knowledge… com[ing] behind in no gift” is the same as being ‘spiritual’, and beyond any need of enduring the wrath of God upon our old carnal minded man within. In reality, simply being called and sanctified and receiving gifts of the spirit means nothing of the kind, and possessing those things does not make us spiritual in our thinking at all.

Nothing mentioned here in any of these verses includes the one thing that really changes the heart of a man and is precious in God’s spiritual eyes. What is it that is of such great value to God? It is none of the things mentioned here, all of which fail to destroy the carnal man within us. What is truly precious to God is “the trial of our faith… the fiery trial which is to try us… [producing spiritual] gold tried in the fire”. That is what is precious to God. In other words, what is really precious to God is those who have endured the fiery trials of his wrath being poured out upon the kingdom of “the man of sin” within us all.

1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

The only way to become “perfect and entire, wanting nothing” spiritually is to endure “the seven plagues of the seven angels”. We are counseled to “buy of me gold tried in the fire”, and that is exactly what the book of Job reveals to us is produced only by God’s wrath doing its work of destroying our old carnal man and producing a new man who is as precious as “gold tried in the fire”.

Job 19:11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 31:12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

Job’s “increase” is the fruit of his contending with, reproving of and condemning of his Creator. Every vestige of any such thought will indeed be “rooted out”.

What then is the spiritual state of those who are “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints… enriched by Him in all utterance and all knowledge… coming behind in no gift”? The answer to that question is that until the faith of those who are “sanctified in Christ Jesus” is “tried in the fire” of the seven plagues of the seven angels of Revelation chapters 15-16, this is their spiritual state:

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Job is the Old Testament type of God’s elect who must ‘live by every word of God’, and “keep the things written therein”, which includes these “words which are written therein”:

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
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.

Those seven plagues of those seven angels are the fiery dying of the “man of sin” sitting on the throne of God within us, and he is loath to relinquish his position as the king of our lives. He wants to be spared. He does not see the need of his death and the death of anything that breathes in his kingdom.

Deu 20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth
Deu 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
Deu 20:18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

Had Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, or any of us known what was taking place, we would have known that all of this is “common to [all] men”. Only then we can truly use the scriptures to comfort one another.

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Job likens his comforters to streams which are fed by melting ice, which flow filled with earth at a certain season but dry up in the heat of the summer. Job feels he is in the heat of the summer, and his so-called friends and comforters are anything but refreshing to him.
“Pity should be shown from his friend” is what we should all show toward any brother who is suffering. Christ made it clear that suffering is common to all and is never to be used to place ourselves above those who are being afflicted:

Luk 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Job’s words concerning his false accusers are all true of our “first man Adam”. This life in these vessels of clay is nothing more than a vapor which appears for a moment and then vanishes away:

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.

This is true for all flesh, but for Job to tell us “My brethren have dealt deceitfully… they pass away”, and for him to see no personal application to those words is the same thing as thinking that those men on whom the tower of Siloam fell, are somehow “sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem”. Were those men sinners? Of course they were. All men are sinners and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), but when we cannot see our own sins, then we “shall all likewise perish”.

When Job says “But he forsakes the fear of the Almighty”, he is referring to his comforters. Job is complaining to God, and in the process of doing so, he sees only that others have ‘forsaken the fear of the Almighty”. Job is completely unaware that he is himself a sinner. He is unaware that self-righteousness is a sin which has him in its grip, and that he too, is a sinner. Being blinded to the Truth that “all things come alike to all” has Job pointing his finger at his accusers, and as is normally the case, anyone who is pointing a finger has three fingers pointing back at himself.

Rom 2:1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

Job has gone from being accepting of God’s work upon him before his “miserable comforters” began falsely accusing him, to contending with his Creator, as he defends himself against their false accusations. In chapter one Job loses all his physical possessions and all ten of his children. Still we are told that his response was this:

Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Job 1:22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

But now, not understanding why God is treating him as He is, and knowing that the accusations of his so-called friends and comforters just are not true, Job slips into complaining to God about his “miserable comforters”. We all do it in our own appointed time.

Job 6:17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
Job 6:18 The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
Job 6:19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.
Job 6:20 They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

The subject is still Job’s expectations from his comforters versus the torment they are inflicting upon him. He says they are like the streams that the troops of Tema and the companies of Sheba look to for refreshment on their journeys through the desert. They dry up and disappear when the heat of summer comes. It is always easy to see the shortcomings of others. But this is where we will all do well to keep in mind Christ’s words concerning those Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices, and those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell. When we see that our accusers are telling lies about us, and we get upset at such injustices, we, like Job, are not upset with our accusers. What we are really upset with is what God is working in our lives. We can and should be angry at all the injustices, but that anger is to be toward that sin, and not toward what we know to be the work of our Lord upon the “old man” within us. So what are we to do when we see wrongs and injustices perpetrated upon ourselves or others? What is it that Job in us does not do when he sees injustice? Here is God’s Word for us when we suffer at the hands of others and when we witness any injustice:

Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.

So it is possible to “be angry and sin not” if we are granted to understand that our heavenly Father makes us all wicked for our own day of evil, and that He does the same in the lives of all men for our good in the end.

2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Grace works through thanksgiving to the glory of God.

Next week, if the Lord wills we will continue in Job’s, and in our own, complaints against the trials we must all endure.

Job 6:21 For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.
Job 6:22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?
Job 6:23 Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?
Job 6:24 Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
Job 6:25 How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?
Job 6:26 Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?
Job 6:27 Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.
Job 6:28 Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.
Job 6:29 Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.
Job 6:30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

Introduction:

A few points in Mike’s study notes entitled “To Him That Is Afflicted Pity Should Be Shewed From His Friend will be highlighted which is very helpful to understand the personal application of this study in our lives.

  • Like each of us, Job begrudgingly acknowledges God as the sovereign author of what is taking place in his suffering, but he does not want to “endure to the end”. He wants relief more than he wants to wait for his salvation;
  • God tells us that his wrath is simply the passion within Him which withstands and refuses the ways and thoughts of “the first man Adam”…”the man of sin” within us.(Joh 2:17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up);
  • Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.(ASV)”My unformed substance” speaks of the “unfinished state”into which all men are born. Those are the very words used by the Apostolic Polyglot to translate that verse.(ABP) My unfinished state saw Your eyes; and on your scroll all men shall be written. Days were shaped, and no one among them;
  • …there are none as stubborn as we are when we think that God has it all wrong; when we think that there simply is no justification for all the sufferings of this life; when we think that instead of suffering, we should be permitted to simply die and be hid in the grave, and then be raised to life with no need to endure the wrath of God upon our unbelieving “first man Adam”…. We would devise a way that would eliminate the need for suffering;
  • It is only after enduring the seven plagues of the seven angels, that we are granted to accept God’s ways, and we are granted to cry out to be delivered.

VERSES 11-13:

Job 6:11 What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?
Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?Job 6:13 Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?

Job is discovering through a painful experience that his flesh has no strength (ability) to endure this (lengthy) trial. It is only God who gives us the ability to endure (even until ‘the end’). Job, like all of us in our impatient state of mind, wants a solution as quickly as possible. He wants a way out. He admits his helpless state in terms of God, but for the moment he still believes in his own strength and wisdom. But all flesh has nothing good ‘dwelling’ in it from start to finish – nothing!

Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

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.

VERSES 14-16:

Job 6:14 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
Job 6:15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;
Job 6:16 Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:

We can only show ‘pity’/compassion when we can identify with those who are being afflicted – we are the same sinners as others. Job’s comforters could not see this. The elect knows thay are never above those who are suffering because they are going through the same process.

Pro 24:17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;

2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

Luk 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

VERSES 17-20:

Job 6:17 What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
Job 6:18 The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
Job 6:19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.
Job 6:20 They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

‘Tema’ is linked by the Septuagint and the ABP translation to Teman where Eliphaz was from (these translations also link ‘Sheba’ with the Sabeaens). Like Job who thought his (fleshly) friends would bring him comfort, we all can admit as to how our flesh always looks for comfort zones, pity and are always disappointed and left unfulfilled. Flesh will always disappoint and be ‘ashamed’. Teman also is connected to worldly wisdom (Jer 49:7).

‘Sheba’ also relates to the same fleshly expectations and desires which are our ‘own wickedness’ that will ‘correct’/afflict us (the Sabeans from Sheba killed Job’s servants and took his most valuable “beasts”in Job 1:14,15). This reminds us also of Solomon whose fame, physical riches and wisdom (which captured the attention of the queen of Sheba), together with his sinfuldealings with the merchantsof the world, eventuallyled to his destruction (1Ki 10-11):

Mat 13:5-6 Some [the seed of the Word] fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

2Co 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Jer 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

Job 6:19(ABP+) Behold the ways of the Temanites, [the short cuts of the Sabaeans ones seeing clearly].(Brenton’s English Septuagint) Behold the ways of the Thaemanites, ye that mark the paths of the Sabaeans.

1Ki 10:1-2 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

Jer 2:19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

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