37. Wherefore Hidest Thou Thy Face?
Hymns: RHC 7 God Moves in a Mysterious Way; 444 Hold the Fort; 379 O for a Faith That Will Not Shrink
Job 13:22-28
22Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me. 23How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin. 24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? 25Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? 26For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth. 27Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet. 28And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten. (Job 13:22-28 KJV)
Wherefore Hidest Thou Thy Face?
OUTLINE
- Let My Sins Be Revealed (v22-23)
- Let Me Not Be Forsaken (v24-25)
- Judged (v26-28)
INTRODUCTION
In Psalm 13, the psalmist sought His God because his current dire predicament has reached the point of desperation, he felt that he had been forgotten by His God. Job felt the same when he uttered his cry “Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy.” He felt that God was against him and contending with him.
Perhaps it is because of relationship problems, or perhaps it is because of sickness that threatens our life or those of our loved ones. Perhaps it is due to loss of a loved one, or prolonged job loss. Do we feel we are abandoned by God?
This is the psalmist’s testimony in times of depression, the feeling is so real. Does God abandon His children? No! This is the lesson that God wants to teach His children.
Psalm 13 is the prayer of the psalmist as he wrestled with His Lord to understand his predicament. He asked the Lord “How long” four times in Psalm 13:1- 2.
He seemed to have reached the limit of his endurance. Alas, men ought always to pray and not to faint.
The transition from sorrow (v 1-2) to supplication (v 3-4) and then to succour (v 5-6) requires the exercise of patience and faith. God’s children have to learn what it means to trust in the Lord’s mercy.
1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.> How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? 2How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? 3Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; 4Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. 5But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. 6I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. (Ps. 13:1-6 KJV)
The psalmist learned to encourage himself in the Lord (1 Sam 30:6) through his personal experience. This is what every child of God learns – to appropriate help from His Word through prayer.
During the time when Israel returned to the land of Israel after 70 years of captivity, there was great economic depression and life was difficult. They needed to rebuilt their spiritual lives to re-establish worship by the building of the Temple and rebuild their homeland. The Lord sent 8 visions to encourage His people through the prophet Zechariah. He showed them the future glory and in the present sufferings the LORD is with them.
7Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 8I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white. 9Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. 10And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. 11And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. 12Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? 13And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. 14So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 15And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. 16Therefore thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. 17Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. (Zech. 1:7-17 KJV)
The prophet Zechariah saw in Zechariah 1:12 the heavenly scene of great comfort, Jesus (the angel of the LORD) interceding on behalf of Israel with the Father (LORD of hosts) to show mercy to Israel. May we know that Jesus, our great high priest is interceding for us unceasingly in heaven at the right hand of the Father. What a glorious picture of hope for every depressed soul that we are not alone in our affliction. Alone yet never lonely!
Cast my burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain me. Keep my sight straight, Almighty God. Let me see only You in my life. Make me aware of Your presence every day, and never let me turn my eyes from You. Be the vision of my life.
(1) Let My Sins Be Revealed (v22-23)
22Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me. 23How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.
Matthew Henry observed well, “Job enquires after his sins, and begs to have them discovered to him. He looks up to God, and asks him what was the number of them (How many are my iniquities?) and what were the particulars of them: Make me to know my transgressions (v23). His friends were ready enough to tell him how numerous and how heinous they were Job 22:5. “But, Lord,” says he, “let me know them from thee; for thy judgment is according to truth,theirs is not.””
This may be taken either:
1. As a passionate complaint of hard usage, that he was punished for his faults and yet was not told what his faults were.
2. As a prudent appeal to God from the censures of his friends. He desired that all his sins might be brought to light, as knowing they would then appear not so many, nor so mighty, as his friends suspected him to be guilty of.
3. As a pious request, to the same purport with that which Elihu directed him to, Job 34:32. That which I see not, teach thou me.A true penitent is willing to know the worst of himself; and we should all desire to know what our transgressions are, that we may be particular in the confession of them and on our guard against them for the future.
[Matthew Henry]
(2) Let Me Not Be Forsaken (v24-25)
24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? 25Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
His predicament is such that in the midst of his pain, he felt God has forsaken him and held him as an enemy and therefore punishing him.
He felt himself so vulnerable like a leaf fallen of the stem, carried by the wind ready to wither and die.
And like dry straw (stubble) can resist the fury of the wind or fire.
- Judged (v26-28)
26For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
Thou writest,i.e. thou appointest or inflictest. A metaphor from princes or judges, who anciently used to write their sentence or decrees concerning persons or causes brought before them.
Psalm 149:9 To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.
Bitter things,i.e. a terrible sentence, or most grievous punishments.
Makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth;thou dost now at once bring upon me the punishment of all my sins, not excepting those of my youth, which because of the folly and weakness of that age are usually excused or winked at, or at least but gently punished.
Thou encompassest me with thy judgments, that I may have no way or possibility to escape. When thou hast me fast in prison, thou makest a strict and diligent search into all the actions of my life, that thou mayst find matter to condemn me. Thou followest me close at the heels, either to observe my actions, or to pursue me with thy judgments, so that thou dost oft tread upon my heels, and leave the prints of thy footsteps upon them.
He; either:
Man, or Job, supposed to be God’s adversary in this contest. So, he speaks of himself in the third person, as is usual in this and other sacred books. So, the sense is, he, i.e. this poor frail creature, this carcass or body of mine, which possibly he pointed at with his finger,
consumeth or pineth away. So he mentions here the effect of God’s severe proceedings against him, to wit, his consumption and utter destruction, which was making haste towards him. Or,
God, of whom he hitherto spoke in the second person, and now in the third person; such changes of persons being very frequent in poetical writings, such as this is. So he continueth the former discourse; and as before he mentioned God’s severe inquiry into his ways, and sentence against him, so here he describes the consequence and dreadful execution of it upon him; he, i.e. God, consumeth(for the verb is active) me as rottennessconsumeth that in which it is, or as a rotten thing is consumed, and as a moth which eateth a garment. [Matthew Poole]
27Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.
Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, such as was tied to the feet of slaves, to prevent them from running away.
This is still used in the West Indies, among slave-dealers; and is there called the pudding, being a large collar of iron, locked round the ankle of the unfortunate man. Some have had them twenty pounds’ weight; and, having been condemned to carry them for several years, when released could not walk without them!
A case of this kind I knew: The slave had learned to walk well with his pudding, but when taken off, if he attempted to walk, he fell down, and was obliged to resume it occasionally, till practice had taught him the proper center of gravity, which had been so materially altered by wearing so large a weight; the badge at once of his oppression, and of the cruelty of his task-masters! [Clarke]
28And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.
I am like a vessel made of skin; rotten, because of old age, or like a garment corroded by the moth. [Clarke]