When we speak of God, we envision One who is impossible to know completely. One cannot define God and expect to be able to put one’s conclusion on paper. It is simply impossible to do such a thing. Think about it! Could anyone know everything there is to know about the whole universe? Add to that the knowledge it would take to reveal all there is to know about all the living therein, the plants, the insects, the animals and the people. Could one possibly understand all that, and, if one could, would it be possible to write it all down on paper for everyone to read and benefit from such research? If that was impossible, and it is, indeed, impossible, how much more difficult would it be to unveil all there is to know about the One who created it all, envisioned it, planned all the details, and did it? Surely, the Creator is much more complex than the creation! Therefore, the creature couldn’t possibly know everything about his Creator, and much of what he does know must come through revelation (God unveiling himself to man), rather than investigation, vis-à-vis man finding God through research.
Recall, if you will, that the Lord said from the beginning that he didn’t treat Job according to his sins. In other words, Job didn’t deserve what the Lord had done to him (Job 1:8; 2:3). Yet, the Lord had caused five things to happen directly to Job’s person (Job 19:8-12). First, God had fenced up Job’s way (Job 19:8). In other words, all Job’s plans had come to naught. His goals, what he hoped to accomplish, all these things fell to the ground (cp. Lamentations 3:7-9) in favor of what the Lord planned for him (see Job 1 & 2). So, we come to understand through Job’s experience that the plans of men can be set aside in favor of the plan of God.
Secondly, Job was stripped of his glory and his crown, all those things such as wealth, property, children etc. (Psalm 49:16; Proverbs 14:21; 17:6). Everything that contributed to his honor and respectability in the community was taken from him (Job 19:9), and by the Lord’s own admission it was done without a cause (Job 2:3).
Next, Job claimed that the Lord had destroyed him, leaving his life in ruins. The boils, the flaking skin, open sores (Job 2:7-8) and the constant pain throughout his body (Job 7:19) had removed all hope of life from him (Job 19:10). Fourth: although Job maintained his integrity before God and man and looked to the Lord for his vindication, he was distraught in the fact that the Lord treated him as his enemy (Job 19:11). God hid his face from him (Job 13:24) and God, like a lion, saw Job as his prey and tore him in his wrath (cp. 16:9; Hosea 5:14).
Finally, the Lord had raised up his troops against Job (or permitted Job’s enemy/satan to do so), and they encamped round about him (Job 19:12). Like bands of marauders, or like soldiers united in one cause, they besieged and attacked him as they would a city in an effort to utterly destroy all that made him who he was, and these troops, whom the Lord raised up were Job’s friends. The question is why? How could God, whom both the friends and Job maintain is just, do such a thing?
Not only had the Lord directly assaulted Job in five personal areas of his life, but he also destroyed the relationships he had with others in five major areas (Job 19:13-19). First, Job tells us that his own brethren, probably meaning friends of the same rank, upon whom he relied during difficult times, had all abandoned him and treated him as a stranger (Job 19:13). Even his kinsfolk, neighbors and near relatives neglected him and acted as though they didn’t even know him (Job 19:14). Thirdly, his own servants who lived in his house had withdrawn from him. He called to them by name, but there was no reply (Job 19:15-16).
Even the tenderness he had once enjoyed with his wife has now become estranged in that Job’s breath was so corrupt (Job 17:1) that his wife found his presence unbearable (Job 19:17). Finally, his children, that is, his disciples, his intimate friends, those whom he loves had turned against him. They despised and abhorred him due to his present condition (Job 19:18-19). In fact, the only thing in Job’s life that seemed to be untouched by the Lord was his mouth, the skin of his teeth (Job 19:20; cp. 7:5), probably so that Job could speak freely for or against the Lord (cp. Job 1:11; 2:5)!
As a conclusion to this part of the study, Job appeals to his friends to take pity on him and stop persecuting him with words. The Lord had touched him and destroyed his life and even his body. He asks them to be satisfied with that (Job 19:21-22)! Why would they wish to heap trouble upon trouble? Yet, the Lord had sent them as his troops (Job 19:12) to besiege and attack him as an army would a city. Why? Why would a just God do (or permit) such a thing (cp. Job 2:3)? The answer to that question has not so much to do with morality as it does sovereignty. The Lord created man in his own image (Genesis 1:27). He is the Potter and we are the clay, and he has the sovereign right to form us, any of us, into whatever part of that image of him that he pleases (Jeremiah 18:1-4), and in that way, the unknowable God unveils himself a little more to his creation.
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