Job

Job 10: Job pleads with his Maker

Begin in prayer

Before we hear Job plead with the God who made him, let us seek His help. Ask Him to teach our family to remember His care and bring our unanswered questions to Christ.

Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

Genesis 31:42

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Help us remember Your care when suffering leaves us confused. Help us see Jesus. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Job continues his complaint directly to God, asking Him not to condemn him and to explain why He contends with him. Job cannot understand why his Maker would despise His own work while favoring the wicked. Remembering his body’s formation, Job says God gave him life, loving kindness and preserving care. Yet he imagines God watching for sin, hunting him like a lion and renewing accusations against him. He wishes he had never lived to be seen. His plea ends with a request for a little comfort before entering the darkness of death.

As you read Job 10, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God formed Job and preserved his life, though Job cannot understand why that care now feels hidden.

Job appeals to the hands that made him because he cannot reconcile that care with his present pain. Clay, milk, clothing and knitting picture a body carefully brought into being. Clay can break, and skin clothes the body, so Job pleads as a frail creature whom God has carefully made. Job remembers life and loving kindness as gifts, so his questions come from a relationship he cannot understand losing. He imagines God hunting him like a lion and bringing fresh witnesses against him. Those accusations show his distress and do not make cruelty part of God’s character. His request for a little comfort before death remains unanswered within this speech. Please let the remembered care carry its full meaning while keeping the darkness of Job’s present experience.

How does Job 10 show us that God formed Job and preserved his life, though Job cannot understand why that care now feels hidden?

God’s care began before Job could care for himself.

Job describes God forming his body with skin, flesh, bones and sinews. Job remembers life and loving kindness as gifts. His existence has depended on care he did not provide.

Job asks why the Maker seems to destroy His work.

He knows God sees more than mortal people see. Yet his suffering makes that knowledge feel like God marking every sin. The question shows his pain, and does not prove that God despises His work.

Job’s complaint ends without the comfort he seeks.

He wishes he had died before anyone saw him. The grave appears as darkness without order. We hear how desperate he has become, without making death his proper escape from pain.

Memorise

You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

Job 10:12

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, how can I bring my confusion and guilt to Jesus?

Job remembers, “You have granted me life and loving kindness.” The God whose hands formed him now seems hard to understand. Pain has not erased the care Job once knew, but he cannot explain how these things belong together.

The Son took the flesh and blood of the people He came to save. Hebrews 2 verses 14 to 18 teach that He became a merciful and faithful Priest through real human suffering. He bore the punishment due to His people’s sins and gave His life to reconcile them to God. His atoning work is finished and fully enough. Raised from the dead, He lives to help those who seek Him.

Turn from your sins and put your trust in Jesus. He receives repentant people with forgiveness. His mercy gives His people grounds to approach God when their questions are still unanswered. Their Maker has given them a Savior who knows human weakness and has overcome death.

Parent's note

Tell your children that Job remembers real care from his Maker, even while his painful accusations need God’s correction. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God for the life and care He gives, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;

2 Corinthians 4:7-9

Lord God, thank You for giving life and caring for the people You made. Help each of us turn from sin and trust Jesus. Please receive our questions, correct our wrong thoughts about You, and help us remember Your mercy through this week. Amen.