November 3, 2025 - Job 10:1 - "Christ in the Anguish of Job"

Job 10

"My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked? Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days, That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin? Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand. Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me. Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again? Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee. If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction; For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me. Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness."

In these words the Spirit teaches us that all Scripture speaks of Christ, and here Job stands as a shadow of the Suffering Savior (Luke 24:27). The anguish of Job typifies the anguish of Christ. The bitterness of Job’s soul foreshadows the bitterness of the sin-Bearer Who entered into the full darkness of sorrow, as the God/Man, the "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3), on behalf of those sinners chosen by His Father that He should come and bear their sin debt. Job’s cry opens the mystery of redemption: the innocent suffering in the place of the guilty.

Job’s weary soul mirrors the hour of Gethsemane, where Jesus said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38). The bitterness of soul is the bitterness of the Passover herbs—symbols of affliction fulfilled in Christ. In the garden He drank the cup that none but He could drink, the cup of God's just wrath, and in that cup was all the wormwood and gall of sin. Job’s despair shows the depth of what Christ would bear when He became the Offering for sin. He was without sin, yet made sin for us—not personally sinful, but made a sin offering (2 Corinthians 5:21).

When Job pleads, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me,” (Job 10:2), it echoes the cry of the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46). Job’s bewilderment foreshadows the holy forsakenness of the Redeemer, but not abandoned by the Father. Job felt condemned, but Christ was truly condemned that His people might never be condemned again (Romans 8:1). The eye of the Father was ever on His Son, even as it was ever on Job, and therefore was not abandoned, but rather ordained to remain on the cross to fully accomplish God the Father's law and justice before laying down His life, because He had to answer the exacting holiness of God the Father for those for whom He hung on the cursed tree and died. Therefore, Job, the sufferer of Uz, points forward to the Sufferer of Calvary, where the Righteous was delivered into the hands of the wicked by the determinate counsel of God (Acts 2:23).

“Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together… yet thou dost destroy me” (Job 10:8). Here we behold the mystery of God's absolute sovereignty. Job cannot understand how the same God Who formed him now breaks him. This is but a shadow, however, of how in Christ the wonder grows deeper: the Creator Himself became the creature, fashioned in the womb to be broken on the cross (Philippians 2:9-11). The Hands that shaped the universe were stretched upon the tree. The wounds of those Hands remain the only scars in heaven, eternal witnesses of His redeeming everlasting love.

“These things hast thou hid in thine heart” (Job 10:13). Job perceives the secret purpose of God’s unfolding decree is hidden, but never unjust. Christ “foreordained before the foundation of the world” to be the Lamb without blemish and without spot, (1 Peter 1:19). The suffering of the Son was not an accident of history but the revelation of God's eternal purpose: the holiness of God satisfied, the horror of sin unveiled, and the Grace of Salvation revealed in the saving of sinners of God's choosing by His suffering unto death.

When Job speaks of descending into “the land of darkness" (Job 10:22), he contrasts his uncertainty with the sure triumph of Christ. Before the cross, the Old Testament believers went down into the land of darkness, or 'sheol,' the place of the dead, waiting for their redemption when Christ would come and pay their sin debt (Job 19:27-29). But when Christ entered death, He went into the depths of greatest darkness to bring His people out into the light. “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” said the prophecy (Psalm 16; Acts 2). Death’s land is now conquered ground for the elect of God. Now, to die is to be with Christ, which is far better (Philippians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 5:8).

By way of contrast, Job’s lament ends in silence, but Christ’s anguish ends in victory. Job asks, “Why?” Christ answers, “It is finished.” Job sits in the ashes; Christ sits at the Right Hand of God, (Hebrews 1:3). The bitterness of Job becomes the sweetness of redemption. The darkness of one man’s complaint becomes the dawn of everlasting life for all who are His. Therefore, we are exhorted to behold the Man of Sorrows. In every weary soul, in every night of affliction, He has gone before us, as the Forerunner, (Hebrews 6:20). All our chastening is without wrath, because He bore it all. Job’s cry rises into the voice of our Redeemer: weary, wounded, forsaken—yet victorious. Out of the bitterness of His soul has come Eternal Peace for each elect sinner for whom He paid the debt.