Job 7:7 - Meaning and Application

Job, seeing that his friends were growing tired of listening, turns from them and speaks to God. If people will not hear us, God will, and if people cannot help us, he can, because his arm is not shortened and his ear is not dull. Still, we should not go to Job here to learn how to speak to God, because there is a real mix of passion and sin in what he says. But if God is not severe in marking his people’s faults, we should also make the best of Job’s words.

Job is asking God either to ease him or to end his suffering. He presents himself as a dying man, one who is surely and quickly dying. It is good for us, when we are sick, to think and speak about death, because sickness is sent partly to remind us of it. If we keep death in mind, we may, in faith, put God in mind of it too, as Job does here: “Remember that my life is a breath” (Job 7:7). He asks for pity on the grounds that he is weak, fragile, and here only briefly. His stay in this world is short and uncertain, his leaving is sure and near, and his return is impossible and never to be expected. His life is like the lives of all people, noisy perhaps and forceful like the wind, but empty, soon gone, and once gone, never brought back.

God showed compassion on Israel, remembering that they were only flesh, a wind that passes away and does not return (Psalm 78:38-39). We should notice the sober thoughts Job has about life and death. Plain truths like these about life’s shortness, death’s certainty, and death’s finality do us good when we apply them to ourselves. We must soon leave all visible, temporary things behind. The eye of the body will close and no longer see the good things most people long for, the things they ask for when they say, “Who will show us any good?” (Psalm 4:6). If we foolishly set our happiness on things we can see, what will we do when those things disappear from view forever?

We must also move into an unseen world. “The eye of the one who sees me now will see me no more” there. It is an unseen state, Job 7:8. Death removes our loved ones and friends into darkness (Psalm 88:18), and it will soon remove us from their sight too. When we leave this world, we will be seen here no more (Psalm 39:13), but will go to live among the things that are not seen, the things that last forever. God can also end our lives quickly and in a moment, sending us to another world (Job 7:8). “Your eyes are on me, and I am gone” means that God can look a person into eternity and frown him into the grave whenever he wills.

He takes away our breath, and we die. He can even look at the earth and make it tremble (Psalm 104:29-30). We must also remember that once we are taken to the other world, we never come back to this one. People are always passing from this world to the next, but there is no coming back. So Job says, in effect, “Lord, kindly ease me by death, because that will be lasting relief. I will return no more to the troubles of this life.”

When we are dead, we are gone and do not return. This is true, first, of the house under the earth. “He who goes down to the grave shall come up no more” until the general resurrection, and then he will not come back to this world’s place and life again (Job 7:9). Dying is something done only once, so it must be done well, because any mistake there cannot be fixed afterward. Job compares this to a cloud being cleared away. It is used up and disappears, broken into air and never gathers again. Other clouds may form, but the same cloud does not return. In the same way, a new generation of people rises up, but the former generation vanishes completely.

Second, when we die, we do not return to the house above ground. “He shall return no more to his house” means he will not return to its ownership, its daily tasks, or its comforts (Job 7:10). Others will take it over and keep it until they also hand it to another generation. The rich man in hell wanted Lazarus sent to his house, because he knew it was no use asking to go there himself. Glorified believers will never return to the cares, burdens, and sorrows of their house, and damned sinners will never return to the pleasures and joys of theirs. Their place will know them no more, claim them no more, or be under their influence any longer. We must make sure we gain a better place when we die, because this one will no longer own us.

From these truths Job should have drawn a better conclusion than the one he actually draws: “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak; I will complain” (Job 7:11). David, after meditating on human frailty, used the thought in a better way, saying, “I was silent, I did not open my mouth” (Psalm 39:9). But Job, feeling himself close to death, is eager to pour out his complaint, as if he could not die in peace until he had let out all his grief. When we have only a little breath left, we should use it for humble faith and prayer, not for sinful and corrupt speech. It is better to die praying and praising than to die complaining and arguing.

Job also speaks as a man who is deeply troubled in body and mind. In this part of his complaint, he is very cross, as if God were treating him unfairly and putting more on him than he can bear. He asks, “Am I the sea, or a sea monster” (Job 7:12), meaning, “Am I like a raging sea that must be held back, or like a wild sea creature that must be restrained by force? Am I so strong that so much is needed to hold me down? Am I so wild that only all these heavy chains of suffering can keep me in order?” When we are in pain, we are very quick to complain about God’s providence, as if he were restraining us more than he should. Yet we are never burdened without reason, and never more than necessity requires.

Job then says he cannot rest in his bed, Job 7:13-14. A bed is where we expect some comfort after work, pain, or travel: “My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint.”

Sleep usually gives some relief, and it is meant for that purpose. Many times it has refreshed us, and we wake with new strength. When that happens, we have good reason to give thanks. But it was not so for poor Job. His bed did not comfort him, and his couch did not ease his pain, because if he fell asleep, he was disturbed by frightening dreams. When those woke him, he was still haunted by dreadful sights.

This is why the night was so unwelcome and tiring to him, as he said earlier, "When will I get up?" God can, when he chooses, meet us with terror even in the place where we expect rest. He can even make us afraid of ourselves. We often bring guilt on ourselves through a wandering, ungodly imagination, and he can also use that same imagination to give us deep grief, turning what has often been our sin into our punishment.

Job’s dreams may have come partly from his illness. In fever or smallpox, when the body is sore all over, sleep is often restless. Still, we have reason to think Satan had a hand in this, because he delights to frighten those he cannot destroy. Job looked up to God, who allowed Satan to do this, and said, "You scare me." He took Satan’s false images as if they were the terror of God lining up against him.

We should pray that our dreams would neither pollute us nor disturb us. May they not tempt us to sin or torment us with fear. May the one who watches over Israel and never sleeps watch over us while we sleep. Then the devil will not be able to harm us, whether as a sneaking serpent or as a roaring lion. And we should bless God if we lie down and our sleep is sweet, and we are not frightened this way.

Job also longed for the grave, that resting place where there are no restless tossings or frightening dreams (Job 7:15, Job 7:16). He was weary of life and hated the thought of it. He said, in effect, "I have had enough. I would not live forever, not only not in this painful and miserable condition, but not even in the easiest and most successful life, because even then I would still be in danger of being brought low like this. At their best, my days are emptiness. They give no lasting comfort and are open to real sorrow. I would not be bound forever to such uncertainty."

A good man would not, if he could choose, live forever in this world, even if it were pleasant, because this world is full of sin and temptation, and he has a better world ahead. Job also wished for death, and his soul, meaning his judgment as he thought, though really his feelings, chose strangling and death rather than life, any death rather than such a life as this. This was certainly Job’s weakness. A good man will not wish to live forever in this world, and he will choose death rather than sin, as the martyrs did. Yet he will be content to live as long as God wills, because life is the time to honor God and prepare for heaven.