Priest Daniel Sysoev - Job 9

1Then Job answered:

2“Yes, I know that it is so,

but how can a mortal be righteous before God? 

Trying to build a world on wickedness is useless. We see that all civilizations are built on lies, they have collapsed, sooner or later it will be decided. But Job poses a more serious question: Yes, earthly affairs stand - collapse, but there are more important things than civilization. See, Job always digs deeper than friends. Friends say that the main thing is needed here, in fact. Job wants to communicate with God, he wants to face to face. Job is deeper than friends, and therefore they do not understand him. But how can a person be justified before God? Such is the question before Job! How can a person be justified?

3If one wished to contend with God,a

he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

4God is wise in heart and mighty in strength.

Who has resisted Him and prospered?

5He moves mountains without their knowledge

and overturns them in His anger.

6He shakes the earth from its place,

so that its foundations tremble.

7He commands the sun not to shine;b

He seals off the stars.

8He alone stretches out the heavens

and treads on the waves of the sea.

9He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,

of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

10He does great things beyond searching out,

and wonders without number.

11Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him;

were He to move, I would not recognize Him.

12If He takes away,c who can stop Him?

Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’

13God does not restrain His anger;

the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him.

14How then can I answer Him

or choose my arguments against Him?

The question here is: Is God truly extraordinarily powerful? To be justified before God. Not in the sense of being named before him, but being really righteous. Do you feel the difference? This is what Job dreams of: how to do it, advise? Little time has passed since the Flood, he remembers the time when the mountains collapsed. 5 He moves mountains, and I do not recognize them: He turns them in His anger; 6 it moves the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; His power is so great that it can move the earth and change the calendar. It is not difficult for God to change the universe.

The sun will say, and will not rise. It was so? When did the sun stop? Such things happened before in the time of the Exodus, and even earlier in the time of the Flood. There have been such disasters. Are you sure there will be sunrise tomorrow? We are confident in God, but God can say, “I don’t want to!” And there will be no sunrise. 7 He will tell the sun, and he will not rise, and will put a seal on the stars. The arrangement of the stars can change, God will tell them “Become differently”, they will instantly become. 8He alone stretches out the heavens and walks in the heights of the sea; What does spread mean? Extends means to stretch. Maybe when they talk about the expansion of the universe. Spreads, when some fabric is pulled on the bases, as a tent is set up, then the fabric is spread over the poles. He stretches the heavens to serve for the life of people, and walks the heights of the sea, He rules the sea. 9 created As, Kecil and Khima * and the secret places of the south; He created various constellations: Ursa Major, Eleon and the Pleiades. The Pleiades are fixed stars, and Eleon are the spreading stars. All constellations are known to God, they are controlled by His hands. He puts them in their places, and they shine on Him. 10 does great, unsearchable and wonderful without number! It is impossible to catch it, it is impossible to compete with it. Job also has a thirst to see God, His face. 12 He will take it, and who will forbid Him? who will say to him: what are you doing?

It is impossible to demand an account from God. 13 God will not turn away his anger; before Him the champions of pride will fall. In the Slavic text, he says: 13 Himself, because he turns away anger, the whale of heaven will bend under it. What does he mean? These are demons, huge whales that fly under the heavens. These spirits, they bend before the face of God.

15For even if I were right, I could not answer.

I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

I am not cocky, I do not want to quarrel with Him, as atheists do. On the contrary, I want to know the truth.

16If I summoned Him and He answered me,

I do not believe He would listen to my voice.

17For He would crush me with a tempest

and multiply my wounds without cause.

18He does not let me catch my breath,

but overwhelms me with bitterness.

19If it is a matter of strength,

He is indeed mighty!

If it is a matter of justice,

who can summon Himd?

20Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me;

if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.e

21Though I am blameless, I have no concern for myself;

I despise my own life.

22It is all the same, and so I say,

‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

23When the scourge brings sudden death,

He mocks the despair of the innocent.

24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

He blindfolds its judges.

        If it is not He, then who is it? 

Question: why in the world, how much anger and impurity? It is impossible to resist him. However, the faces of the judges are covered up and the judges do evil. They turn a blind eye to justice. The innocent and the culprit dies at the same time. Why is this happening? What's the answer? I cannot contact God, he does not answer, He is too powerful. At the same time, I see that everything is not happening here. Job says further:

25My days are swifter than a runner;

they flee without seeing good.

26They sweep by like boats of papyrus,

like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

27If I were to say, ‘I will forget my complaint

and change my expression and smile,’

28I would still dread all my sufferings;

I know that You will not acquit me.

29Since I am already found guilty,

why should I labor in vain?

30If I should wash myself with snowf

and cleanse my hands with lye,

31then You would plunge me into the pit,

and even my own clothes would despise me.

32For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him,

that we can take each other to court.

33Nor is there a mediator between us,

to lay his hand upon us both.

34Let Him remove His rod from me,

so that His terror will no longer frighten me.

35Then I would speak without fear of Him.

But as it is, I am on my own.

Job wants to see the one who brought man and God together, he wants a meeting, the greatest one, so that man can learn from God the answers, not just the answers, but the answers of life. This is the more important thing! It is interesting when God answers, He accepts the challenge, God accepts these conditions: He wants a person to seek Him, to seek His plan, to recognize His will, to be a co-worker with Him. And Job says “I want to find a way out, I want God not to crush me, but to give me the opportunity to be more correct, not to justify myself”. We have such an expression "If I am justifying myself, then I am guilty." A very correct expression, in our sense, is justified by who? Anyone who wants to deceive us!