“DO NOT CONDEMN ME!”

 Job 10                          (ESV)

Job Continues: A Plea to GOD

    “[1] “I loathe my life;

    I will give free utterance to my complaint;

        I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 

    [2] I will say to GOD, “DO NOT CONDEMN ME”;

        let me know why YOU contend against me. 

    [3] Does it seem good to YOU to oppress,

        to despise the work of YOUR hands

        and favor the designs of the wicked? 

    [4] Have YOU eyes of flesh?

        Do YOU see as man sees? 

    [5] Are YOUR days as the days of man,

        or YOUR years as a man’s years, 

    [6] that YOU seek out my iniquity

        and search for my sin, 

    [7] although YOU know that I am not guilty,

        and there is none to deliver out of YOUR hand? 

    [8] YOUR hands fashioned and made me,

        and now YOU have destroyed me altogether. 

    [9] Remember that YOU have made me like clay;

        and will YOU return me to the dust? 

    [10] Did YOU not pour me out like milk

        and curdle me like cheese? 

    [11] YOU clothed me with skin and flesh,

        and knit me together with bones and sinews. 

    [12] YOU have granted me life and steadfast love,

        and YOUR care has preserved my spirit. 

    [13] Yet these things YOU hid in YOUR heart;

        I know that this was YOUR purpose. 

    [14] If I sin, YOU watch me

        and do not acquit me of my iniquity. 

    [15] If I am guilty, woe to me!

        If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head,

    for I am filled with disgrace

        and look on my affliction. 

    [16] And were my head lifted up, YOU would hunt me like a lion

        and again work wonders against me. 

    [17] YOU renew YOUR witnesses against me

        and increase your vexation toward me;

        YOU bring fresh troops against me.

    [18] “Why did YOU bring me out from the womb?

        Would that I had died before any eye had seen me 

    [19] and were as though I had not been,

        carried from the womb to the grave. 

    [20] Are not my days few?

        Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer 

    [21] before I go—and I shall not return—

        to the land of darkness and deep shadow, 

    [22] the land of gloom like thick darkness,

        like deep shadow without any order,

        where light is as thick darkness.”

These thoughts and words were written about Job while he was in the midst of severe angst over the persecutions and temptations of Satan, but only after GOD told Satan in Job 1:12 “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” 

“The enemy” is ONLY allowed to take what THE LORD permits, and ALMIGHTY GOD gave Job TWICE AS MUCH (Job 42:10) as he had previously and Satan was unable to stop GOD’s goodness!!!

Job was in a place where GOD permitted, not from punishment, but because GOD wanted to display HIS Sovereignty over “the enemy”!  “DO NOT CONDEMN ME” was his prayer to GOD at this time, but it was brought about by the trials and tribulations of the unholy one!  “DO NOT CONDEMN ME”, LORD, amidst the attacks from the destroyer!!!