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collision

Job 9:1-35 (JDV)

Job 9:1 Then Job answered:
Job 9:2 Yes, I know what you’ve said is true, but how can a mortal settle his case before God?
Job 9:3 If one wanted to take him to court, he could not answer God once in a thousand times.
Job 9:4 God’s heart is wise and his strength omnipotent. Who has stubbornly resisted him and come out intact?
Job 9:5 He removes mountains while they know nothing, flipping them over in his anger.
Job 9:6 He shakes the land from its place and its pillars tremble.
Job 9:7 He commands the sun not to shine and conceals the stars.
Job 9:8 He alone spreads out the sky and marches on the waves of the sea.
Job 9:9 He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.
Job 9:10 He does great and unsearchable things, miracles without number.
Job 9:11 Note: If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.
Job 9:12 Note: If he snatches something, who can stop him? Who dares ask him, “What are you doing?”
Job 9:13 God does not hold back his anger; Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him!
Job 9:14 How then can I answer him or select my arguments against him?
Job 9:15 Even if I were in the right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
Job 9:16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.
Job 9:17 He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause.
Job 9:18 He doesn’t let me catch my breath but fills me with bitter experiences.
Job 9:19 If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
Job 9:20 Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
Job 9:21 Though I am blameless, I no longer care about my throat; I renounce my life.
Job 9:22 It is all the same. Therefore, I say, “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”
Job 9:23 When catastrophe brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.
Job 9:24 The land is handed over to the wicked; he blindfolds its judges. If it isn’t he, then who is it?
Job 9:25 My days fly by faster than a runner; they flee without seeing any good.
Job 9:26 They sweep by like boats made of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
Job 9:27 If I said, “I will forget my complaint, change my expression, and smile,”
Job 9:28 I would still live in terror of all my pains. I know you will not acquit me.
Job 9:29 Since I will be found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?
Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
Job 9:31 then you dip me in a pit of mud, and my own clothes hate me!
Job 9:32 Because he is not a man like me, that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court.
Job 9:33 There is no mediator between us, to lay his hand on both of us.
Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me so his terror will no longer frighten me.
Job 9:35 Then I would speak and not fear him. But that is not so; I am on with myself.

collision

Job affirms that Bildad is right in saying that God is just. But he is also convinced that he has a right relationship with God, so nothing he had done brought this calamity upon him. Truth collides with truth. God is both the problem and the solution, yet Job realizes that there is no arbiter. Whatever happens, God is going to have to do it. In Job’s day – as well as today – many spend their lives looking for ways to manipulate things to their advantage. Some choose science, others demonic magic, others religion, but they are all trying to do the same thing. Job realizes that it cannot be done. Fate cannot be changed on this side of the human/divine divide. Even if Job were able to convince his friends that he is innocent, that would not change things. He is helpless before an omnipotent God.

LORD, we rely upon you. Rescue us from the lie that we can handle things.