Job 6:8 - Meaning and Application

Ungoverned passion often becomes more violent when it meets with rebuke. The rough sea rages hardest when it strikes a rock. Job had been longing for death, hoping it would end his misery, and Eliphaz had sharply corrected him for that. But instead of taking back what he said, Job repeats it here with even more force. It is one of the saddest things he says, and it is recorded to warn us, not to copy him.

He is still deeply eager to die, as if he could never see good days again in this life. He cannot imagine that grace, worship, and patient faith might make even hard days useful and good. He sees no end to his trouble except death, and he has no patience to wait for God’s appointed time. He has a request, something he longs for (Job 6:8), and it is not that God would restore him, but that God would destroy him (Job 6:9). As God once let his hand go out against him in poverty and sickness, Job asks that he would now finish the work and end his life.

Job once feared destruction from the Almighty (Job 31:23), but now he courts death, hoping the body would be destroyed while the soul is saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Notice that Job is very eager for death, yet he does not try to kill himself. He only asks God to take his life. The pagan teaching that praised self-murder as a lawful way out of suffering was not then known, and it should never be welcomed by anyone who respects the law of God and nature. No matter how painful life in the body may be, the soul must not break prison, but wait for God’s release.

Job turns this desire into a prayer, asking God to grant what he wants. It was sinful for him to want death so badly, and making that wish into a prayer did not improve it. In fact, it made it worse. We should ask only for what we can ask in faith, and we can ask in faith only for what agrees with God’s will. Passionate prayers are the worst kind of passionate speech, because we should lift holy hands without anger.

He then imagines that death would bring him relief from every burden (Job 6:10). Then, he says, he would have comfort, which he does not have now and does not expect before then. This shows how uncertain human life is. Life is such a fragile good that people often find it their heaviest burden, and the only thing they want is to be free from it. Grace should make us willing to part with life whenever God calls, since even our natural feelings may sometimes make us wish for that before he calls. It also shows the hope the righteous have in death. If Job had not had a good conscience, he could not have spoken so confidently about comfort beyond death, where the tables are turned between the rich man and Lazarus. Now one is comforted, and the other is tormented.

Job then challenges death to do its worst. If he must pass through bitter pains, agonies, and convulsions before dying, he says he can endure that too. He would harden himself in sorrow, open his chest to death’s arrows, and not draw back. Let death not spare him, because he wants no lessening of the pain that will finally end all his pain. He would rather die with full suffering than not die at all. These are hasty, painful words, and they would have been better left unsaid. We should soften ourselves in sorrow so that it can leave a good effect on us. But if we harden ourselves, we provoke God to continue his case against us, for when he judges, he will overcome. It is bold presumption to challenge the Almighty and say, Let him not spare, for are we stronger than he? (1 Corinthians 10:22). We owe much to God’s sparing mercy, and it is a bad sign when we are tired of it. We should rather pray with David, Spare me a little.

Job also tries to support his comfort by pointing to his conscience. He says he has not hidden the words of the Holy One. That means he had been faithful to the truth God had revealed and had used it well in his life. At that time, God’s people were blessed with divine revelation. Job’s comfort was that he had not hidden that truth from himself or from others. He had not shut it away from his own heart, but had let it work on him and guide his life. He had not suppressed conviction, trapped the truth in wrongdoing, or resisted the healing effect of God’s word. We should never hide God’s word from ourselves, but always receive it in the light of it. He also had not kept it to himself. He was ready, whenever the chance came, to share what he knew for the good of others. He was not ashamed or afraid to say that God’s word was his rule, and he worked to bring others to know it too. Only those who are good and do good while they live may hope for comfort in death.

Job next tries to justify his intense wish for death by pointing to how miserable his condition is (Job 6:11, Job 6:12). Eliphaz had ended his speech by suggesting that Job might still see a good outcome from his troubles. But Job pushes those comforting words away. He refuses comfort and gives in to despair, arguing cleverly, though wrongly, against the encouragement offered to him. When people are crushed in spirit, they can reason strangely against their own hope. In answer to Eliphaz’s pleasant picture, Job says he has no reason to expect such a thing. What strength does he have left, he asks, that he should hope? He is weak and brought low. He cannot fight off his sickness, so what reason has he to think he will outlast it and see better days? Is his strength like stones? Are his muscles bronze and his sinews steel? No, they are not. He cannot keep standing forever under such pain and misery, and so he must sink under the weight. If he had the strength to wrestle with his disease, he might hope to get through it, but he does not.

“The weakening of my strength as I go on will surely shorten my days” (Psalm 102:23). When we look at life honestly, we have no real reason to count on living a long time in this world. What is our strength? It is borrowed strength. We have only the strength God gives us, because in him we live and move. It is also fading strength. We use up our supply little by little, until it runs out. And it is not enough for the troubles we may face. What is our strength when two or three days of sickness can leave us weak as water? Instead of expecting a long life, we should wonder that we have lived this long, and realize that we are moving quickly toward the end.

He also had no reason to want such a long life. “What is my end, that I should want to go on living?” What comfort could he expect from life that could compare with the comfort he expected in death? Those who, by God’s grace, are ready for the next world do not find much here that makes them want to stay. If it is God’s will, we may wish for a longer life so we can serve him better and become more ready for heaven. But apart from that, what reason do we have for wanting to remain here? The longer life lasts, the heavier its burdens become (Ecclesiastes 12:1), and its pleasures grow less sweet with time (2 Samuel 19:34-35). We have already seen the best this world has to offer, but we do not know whether we have yet seen the worst.

He also clears away the suspicion that he is out of his mind (Job 6:13). “Is not my help in me?” That is, “Do I not still have my reason? With that, thank God, I can help myself, even if you do not help me. Do you think wisdom has left me completely, and that I have lost my mind? No, I am not mad, most noble Eliphaz, but I speak words that are true and sensible.” Those who have God’s grace in them, and who can see it and use it, have wisdom within them, and that wisdom will help them in their worst times. They have light within.