Job 9:1-12

The greatness of God 9:1-12

Job began his response to Bildad by acknowledging that much of what his friends had said was true (Job 9:2). Many of Job’s speeches began with sarcasm or irony. He then turned to a question that Eliphaz had raised earlier (Job 4:17) that seems to have stuck in Job’s mind. How could he, a righteous man, much less the ungodly, stand righteous before God, as Eliphaz had urged him to do (Job 5:8), since God was tormenting him. God appeared to Job to be acting arbitrarily and capriciously. How can anyone be right before such a God?

"This is not a question about salvation (’How may I be justified?’) but about vindication (’How can I be declared innocent?’)." [Note: Ibid., p. 23.]

"Job’s first address to Bildad was a magnificent confession of the sovereignty of God. . . . Yet Job’s recognition of God’s sovereignty is more fatalistic than grounded in the nature of God as a just and righteous One." [Note: Merrill, p. 382.]

Because God is who He is, Job recognized that man cannot go into court against God and win (cf. Job 40:1-5; Job 42:2). It would be useless to try for four reasons.

"1. If I disputed with Him, I could not answer Him, because He is so mighty (Job 9:3-14).

2. If God did respond to my cry, I do not think He would be listening, because He is against me (Job 9:15-19).

3. If I am righteous, He will declare me guilty, because He destroys both the innocent and the wicked (Job 9:20-24).

4. If I try to forget my problems or even confess my sins, He would still consider me guilty (Job 9:25-32)." [Note: Zuck, Job, p. 47.]

"In an ancient court the winner often was the one who argued his position so convincingly and refuted his opponent so persuasively that he reduced him to silence. A second way of deciding a dispute was for the two contestants to engage in a wrestling match. [Note: Cf. Cyrus Gordon, "Belt-Wrestling in the Bible World," Hebrew Union College Annual 23 (1950-51):131-36.] The winner of the match proved the merits of his position and received a settlement to his advantage. While the preponderance of legal language indicates that Job is thinking of a court trial, the references to God’s strength and to his cosmic victory over Rahab’s cohorts in Job 9:13 indicate that the latter type of contest is also in his mind." [Note: Hartley, p. 167.]

Job concluded that God was unjust because He cut off both the guilty and the guiltless. Job’s concept of God was becoming fuzzy because God did not seem to him to be acting in ways that were consistent with Job’s limited understanding of Him. We have the same problem. We need to get our concept of God from Scripture that gives us the fullest, most balanced view of God possible for us now.

The Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades (Job 9:9) are constellations of stars.