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Job 9:25 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
Job 9:26 They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
Job 9:27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:
Job 9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.
Job 9:29 If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
Job 9:31 Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.
Job 9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.
Job 9:33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.
Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:
Job 9:35 Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

Introduction

In our last study we saw how “the patience of Job” mentioned in Jas 5:11 is the Old Testament type of “the patience and faith of the saints” as it is revealed in Rev 13:1-10 and Rev 14:1-12. It is Christ Himself who tells us that it is ‘in our patience that we possess our souls’.

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

That makes ‘patience’ a very important factor in the possession of our souls. This ‘patience’ is the fruit of ‘the trial of our faith’ which ‘trial’ and ‘patience’ are both accomplished only by being perfected in God’s elect.

Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations [ Greek – peirasmos, G3986 – trials];
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.
1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try [ Greek – peirasmos, G3986] 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.

‘Rejoicing in trials’ is not an attribute that is attained until “the seven vials of the seven angels is fulfilled” and known within our experience. That is what the book of Job is all about.
“Christ’s sufferings” of 1Pe 4:13 led to His death, and it is only through our death that life will come to any of us. The ‘death’ we die is typified by Job’s rebuke by his Maker:

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?

The bulk of this book of Job consists of Job’s self- righteous friends falsely accusing Job and Job’s self- righteous defense of himself, both he and they being totally blind to their own self- righteousness. Self- righteousness is what brings us to ‘kill Christ’s elect thinking we do Him a service’, as per the Pharisees and their arch type, Saul of Tarsus.

Joh 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

As His elect, it is the death of our “old man… the beast… the man of sin” within us all that we are to be seeking every day of our lives.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
Rom 6:9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
Rom 6:10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

The length of this book of Job is a testament to the hold which our flesh has upon us. It is a testament to the claim by our “man of sin” within each of us to the throne of God which is also within us all:

2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Job is the Old Testament type of the Pharisee within us, who looks down upon the publican. It is Job and this Pharisee within us all who typify “that wicked [ one]… sitting in the temple of God” within us who must be revealed and deposed, before Christ can come into His temple and sit on the throne of our hearts where He rightfully belongs.

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 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

It is here in this book of Job that we are shown that it is God who, through Satan, works evil in our lives before He comes to us in the ‘whirlwind’ of His wrath and by His own sovereign will opens our eyes to see that all of our trials, including all of our sins, are worked in our lives and are used by Him as “an occasion against” our flesh to bring His wrath upon us. God always provides Himself with “an occasion” to work His work within us:

Jdg 14:4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

The Philistines were a very religious people within Israel, who knew nothing of coming out of Egypt, being baptized in the Red Sea, being given the knowledge of God while wandering in the wilderness, and who were dwelling in the promised land without the benefit of circumcision.
The Philistines typify the “man of sin” within us all who ‘at this time has dominion over the Israel of God’, “the kingdom of God… within” us all, and God uses that dominion as His “occasion” against our “man of sin” to destroy him within us through being “crucified with Christ” and “dying daily” with Christ.
This “man of sin” does not see himself as being the enemy of God. Even as he “reproves, contends with, and condemns God”, he sees himself as the servant of God and as one who is doing God a service.
Like saying “God is love… sinners will burn in hell”, it is the contradiction of it all that makes this self- righteous “man of sin” so hard for us to detect or to see within ourselves. When we, like Job of old, reprove, contend with, and condemn our own Savior and our own Creator, it is Job and it is we who are ‘opposing and exalting ourselves above God’ and “showing [ ourselves] that [ we] are God”.
It is also here in this story of Job that we are shown that all of this is nothing more or less than God’s “goodness and His wonderful works” in our lives to bring us to repentance as He did with Job. Let’s see Job as the type and shadow of ourselves as we read these verses of Psa 107:

Psa 107:21 Oh that men [ each of us] would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24 These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
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.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Rom 2:1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest [ Job and his accusers; you and I]: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
Rom 2:2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
Rom 2:3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering [“the things which are written” in the books of Revelation and in the book of Job]; not knowing that the goodness of God [Psa 107:21-31] 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; (1Pe 4:17)
Rom 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

Add the Truth of these verses to Psa 107, and we will begin to see what our Lord counts as His “wonderful works to the children of men”.

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

But this book of Job shows us how we are brought to see all of this, and what this book reveals is that it truly requires the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God against our “old man” or “first man Adam” to bring us to repent of the self- righteous Pharisee within us all, the self- righteous Job who we all first are, before we are given to see this “man of sin” sitting on the throne of God within ourselves.
So Job, who once said “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord”; Job who began this chapter acknowledging that God would never “cast away a perfect man” (Job 8:20 and Job 9:1), now continues to complain, reprove, contend with and condemn His own Creator, even as he knows he ought not be doing so. We are Job, and this is us, as God pours out the seven last plagues of His wrath upon the self- righteous man of sin within us.

Job 9:25 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
Job 9:26 They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.

Job is simply repeating his complaint from chapter seven:

Job 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
Job 7:7 O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.
Job 7:8 The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.

He is speaking of his whole life. “Mine eye shall no more see good… they flee away, they see no good” is Job’s blatant false accusation that God has no intention of delivering him, even though neither Job nor any of us has any idea what God has planned for us for tomorrow.

Jas 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
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.
Jas 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Jas 4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

The only thing that is worse than rejoicing in evil, self- righteous boasting of what good fortune our future holds, is our self- righteous complaints, reproofs, and false accusations against our own Creator and what terrible things we think He has in store for us. Job, the type and shadow of each of us, knows as he speaks that he ought to keep his mouth shut, but the “throne of the beast” is at stake, and the beast does not permit us to do what we know we ought to do. So we continue to curse God even as he pours out His wrath upon us.

Job 9:27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:
Job 9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

Here are these same verses in the Revelation of Jesus Christ:

Rev 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

Job, the Old Testament type of God’s elect who must “keep the things which are written” in the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:3) and who must “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4), is blaspheming His own God as he “reproves… contends with… and condemns” his own Maker.
He is carnally minded and is not even aware of this terrible affliction:

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.

We are all born with a “carnal mind” which is “enmity against God”. We do not just naturally take those words very seriously, but God does. Disobedience to God and condemning God is the fruit of a carnal mind which is “enmity against God”, and here is how Strong’s defines that Greek word translated as ‘enmity’.

G2189
εχθρα
echthra
ekh’- thrah
Feminine of G2190; hostility; by implication a reason for opposition: – enmity, hatred.

And this is the primary root of that Greek word ‘echthra’.

G2190
εχθρος
echthros
ekh- thros’
From a primary word εχθω echtho (to hate); hateful (passively odious, or actively hostile); usually as a noun, an adversary (especially Satan): – enemy, foe.

It is this “hateful… actively hostile” carnal mind that dominates our “old man”, our “first man Adam”. And this is what God promises to do to our “first man Adam”.

Deu 7:10 And [ God will] repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

I will repeat the New Testament verses which tell us this same thing concerning our “old man”, our “man of sin”, within us all:

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked [“that man of sin” – vs 3] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Even Job (the type of each of us, as we contend with and reprove our Maker, even as we are sinning against Him) knows he is not above reproach in the eyes of God even as he continues with his reproofs and his contentions against God.

Job 9:29 If I be wicked, why then labour I invain?

“If I be wicked?” ??? Job has already acknowledged that he is indeed a sinner. We all know we are sinners.

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?

“Why then [ indeed] labor I in vain”? Why indeed do we labor to make ourselves appear to be men of great integrity and of great righteousness when we are nothing of ourselves? That is a very worthy question, yet we simply are not yet given to understand that we are “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin”. So we go to God Himself and contend with Him:

Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

This is a true statement by Job. We continue to think of ourselves as righteous even after we confess that we are sinners, until our old man begins to ‘die daily.’ Elihu, who was not included in those for whom Job prayed when his trials had run their course, reproves Job for this self- righteous spirit, the spirit of that “man of sin” within us all which has us all in its grip:

Job 35:2 Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?
Job 35:3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?

That is exactly what Job says right here in this chapter:

Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
Job 9:31 Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.

We may be able to take a physical bath and clean the outside of our bodies, but we will have to repeat the process in very short order simply because we are corruptible flesh. But cleaning the outside of the cup through outward water baptism cleanses nothing within.

Mat 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Mat 23:26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Mat 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

John baptized with water, and the Job persona is the product of water baptism. The outside looked clean, but the inside was “full of dead men’s bones”. What would Christ have us to do? John the baptist tells us this:

Luk 3:16 John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

What is that fire?

Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Christ verifies these words of both John the Baptist and of Jeremiah.

Luk 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
Luk 12:50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

“The earth” is us if we are God’s people.

Jer 22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

Water and rituals involving water passing over the outer surface of our bodies has no affect at all on what is within our hearts and minds. But Christ’s fiery words do “first… cleanse that which is within” and when that is done “the outside [ is] clean also” without the agency of physical rituals and physical water.
It is this outward, physical approach to God and His Word which keeps us from seeing Christ and His Father. We are all first spiritually blind to the things of the spirit, and these are words which have “proceed[ ed] out of the mouth of God”, by which all men must live.

Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Joh 16:16 A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.

We do not ‘see Christ’ until we see Him spiritually.

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 [ after the flesh].
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

We, as Job, know of Christ, but we do not at first know Him in spirit.

Job 9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.
Job 9:33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.

Job, as the type of our natural man, has it all backwards. It is true that Christ had not yet come, but it is not true that Job will not answer to God. Christ is our “daysman” who does “lay His hand upon us both”, meaning He has seen the Father and, as we saw above, He has revealed the Father to those to whom He gives eyes that can see the things of the spirit.

1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
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.

It is the Christ who “teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual”. It is Christ who “emptied himself” of His divinity to take upon himself a body that was the same as the children of Abraham who is now able, because of that example He has set for us, to be a faithful High Priest who can comfort us because He has been tempted in all ways as we have.

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 For 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.

If Christ had never experienced the wrath of God upon His own flesh, then He could hardly say He had been tempted in all ways like as we are”, and as Job had been tried and tempted. But Christ was tried in all ways as we are and as Job was. The words of these following verses refer to Christ, and it is Christ Himself who confirms that His Father had indeed “foresaken” His own flesh and blood as unfit for the kingdom of God:

Isa 54:6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
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.
Isa 54:9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

Yes, we are the wife of Christ, but even so He identifies with us. He too, was “forsaken” of His Father “in a little wrath”.

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

After all just as “the man is the head of the woman” even so “the head of Christ is God”, and just as all men come into this world through the woman, so also did our heavenly Father bring all things into being through Christ.

1Co 11:12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Christ is to His Father what we are to Him. In other words, just as we are both Christ’s sons and daughters and His wife, He too, is both a son and a wife to His Father and the ‘woman by whom all things come into this world, and through Him from this world into His kingdom.

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

All of that being so, Christ is the primary subject of those verses of Isa 54. It is Christ Himself who tells us so:

Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

God’s indignation and wrath are not something to be avoided. Rather, like sin itself, God’s wrath upon our sin is an integral part of the revelation of Jesus Christ within us all. As Job we cannot see any of this and so we say:

Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:
Job 9:35 Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

“It is not so with any man. Instead this must become our mind, as it is the mind of all who will be the temple into which Christ will enter and dwell:

Mic 7:9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

“He will bring me forth to the light”. Job has already acknowledged the truth of this verse of Micah in the previous chapter where Bildad had told him this:

Job 8:19 Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow.
Job 8:20 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:
Job 8:21 Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.
Job 8:22 They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.

In spite of the bad translation of the King James Version, Job is not yet “a perfect man”, and the Job of this part of our study will be cast away” and will be “forsaken” just as the fleshly body of Christ was, which could not inherit the kingdom of God. It took “a little wrath” being poured out upon our Savior, being forsaken of His Father and a resurrection from the dead to perfect even our Lord:

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [ even Christ’s flesh and blood] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

So it is with us all. We are just as He was in this world:

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Job within us does not want to “bear the indignation of the Lord”, but these words are “written therein” (Rev 1:3), and “no man can enter into the temple [ of God] till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled”.

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 are not yet, in type, fulfilled in Job, and next week, if the Lord wills, we will begin our study in Job 10, where poor Job continues in his agony as He continues to proclaim his own righteousness even as he continues to contend with and condemn God for contending with him (Job).

Job 10:1 My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 10:2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Job 10:3 Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Job 10:4 Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
Job 10:5 Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days,
Job 10:6 That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?
Job 10:7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
Job 10:8 Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
Job 10:9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
Job 10:10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

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Review notes of the study on Job 9:25-35. Additions and corrections are welcomed and appreciated.

Title of study: I Know You Will Not Hold Me Innocent

Introduction:

In Mike’s introduction he points out the importance of patience and the trials of our faith, and how these interlink. The purpose of the book of Job is to teach those truths and how the rejoicing in the trails is attained through patience.

Our self- righteous ‘man of sin’ is highlighted throughout the book of Job and how all of us, by God’s perfect design, are blinded by this ‘man of sin’ through God’s strong delusion and its powerful deceptive work in us for a long time.

It is only when we are graced to see the opening of all the seals of the book in the right hand of Him sitting on the throne, hearing all the trumpets and experiencing all the vials written in that book (via the revelation of Jesus), that we can understand the full impact this ‘man of sin’ has within ourselves:

Rev 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

Job 9:25-26 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. 26 They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.

‘my days’ = (Job’s) days in the flesh / all vanity

‘post’ = runner; courier

‘no good’ = the flesh / ‘a bag with holes’

‘swift ships’ = traders/ merchants ‘pass over the sea’ = fleshly desires bring no fulfillment

‘the eagle’ = (negative) unclean bird / pride / lusts for “high” things (eg. for physical riches – Job was ‘the greatest of all the men of the east’):

Mat 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Job 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

Mat 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Isa 23:2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

Eze 27:3 And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.

Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

Lev 11:13 And these ye shall have in abomination among the birds;they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the gier- eagle, and the ospray,

Deu 28:49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth,as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

Pro 23:5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

Dan 4:33 (YLT) ` In that hour the thing hath been fulfilled on Nebuchadnezzar, and from men he is driven, and the herb as oxen he eateth, and by the dew of the heavens his body is wet, till that his hair as eagles’ hath become great, and his nails as birds.’

Hag 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Job 9:27-28  If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:  28  I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.
Flesh always wants comfort and a safe zone. But there is no true comfort in the flesh. Flesh is guilty of sin by default being ‘marred’ in the Potter’s hand. It has only a ‘form of’ knowledge and godliness which brings no inner or lasting comfort / peace, just ‘pains and… sores’. Flesh is like a shadow – ‘full of darkness’ with an outline (‘form’) and no details– empty:

Rev 16:10-11  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,  11  And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

2Ti 3:5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 

Rom 2:19-20 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

Job 9:29  If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
Job could not see that all “his labour” was ‘of Him’ (God) who worked it in him. Only God uses the wicked / the evil for good, and no man should ‘call evil good, and good evil’: 

Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Isa 5:18-21  Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:  19  That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!  20   Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21  Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 

Job 9:30-31  If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;  31  Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.

Cleaning the outside of the cup (eg. through outward water baptism) cleanses nothing within the heart. John baptized with water, and the Job persona is the product of water baptism. It is this outward, physical approach to God and His Word, which prevents us from seeing Christ and His Father. We (as Job) know of Christ, but we do not initially know Him in spirit. 

We need God’s fire to cleanse inside – the heart / heaven. To see the true state of our heart, we must be dipped/ plunged (‘plunge’: Greek: “bapto” = the root word for baptizo/ baptisma = baptism) into ‘a deep ditch’:

Mat 23:25-28  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.  26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.  27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.  28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity

Pro 23:27  For  a harlot is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
Mar 1:4  John  did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
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.

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Job 9:32-33  For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.  33  Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.
‘daysman’ = H3198 ya kach = to be right (that is, correct); to argue; to decide, justify or convict: – appoint, argue, chasten, convince, correct (- ion), daysman, dispute, judge, maintain, plead, reason (together), rebuke, reprove (- r).
Jesus is the only mediator between God and mankind. He alone can ‘show’ the Father. But Job (and us) is designed to strive (contend) with the ‘Maker’ of the clay pot, and that brings the needed correction/ reproving/ chastening ‘to be testified in due time’:

1Ti 2:5-6 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 

Joh 14:8-10  Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.  9  Jesus said to him, Have I been with you such a long time and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. And how do you say, Show us the Father?  10  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The Words that I speak to you I do not speak of Myself, but the Father who dwells in Me, He does the works.

Isa 45:9  Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

Job 9:34-35  Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:  35  Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.
The flesh despises ‘His rod’ because it terrifies – but the good Shepherd always carries His rod. While the true Shepherd wants to take His sheep to the green pastures (which is the spiritual mind of Christ) the carnal mind will naturally resist and complain. But for those who can see beyond the physical/ fleshly veil, the rod and the staff bring great comfort:

Heb 12:5  And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him;
Heb 12:6  for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”

Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Pro 13:24   He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
2Co 1:3 (ESV)  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,  
2Co 1:4  who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2Co 1:5   For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort to o.