Devotional Job 13:3

Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:

Job 13:3: “Surely I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to reason with God.”

“He lived by the sewer and by the sewer he died, the coroner didn’t know what to call it so he called it sewer side.  He lived by a home and by a home he died, the coroner didn’t know what to call it so he called it home aside.”  Traditional Song

I really can’t blame Job for wanting to reason with God.  After all, God can be so unreasonable at times.  I would like to just sit down with Him and explain my circumstances.  Surely once I explain everything He will come around, see the error of His way and reverse the situation I find myself in.

Poor Job is being afflicted by the opinions of his friends and their reasoning as to why he is suffering. If he is going to reason with someone it might as well be with God.  Why not go to the source.   Perhaps he can take this up with God and convince Him to reverse his circumstances.

The issue I have here is the word “reason.”   Can we really go to God, reason with Him and persuade Him to change His mind?   No doubt our intercessory prayers will change God’s direction, but that is a matter of submitting our wills to Him.  The Hebrew word for “reason” is something different.  This word is “yakah” which means to argue, plead, contend, reason; all with the purpose of showing how someone is wrong in their thinking and should change their mind.  Can we really argue with God and show Him that He is being unreasonable or that He has not completely thought out a matter?

When it came to lexicographers finding an English word to use for “yakah” they “didn’t know what to call it so they called it” argue, reason or plead.  Esoteric rabbis, however, take a different approach to define a Hebrew word.  They do not always depend upon a lexicographer’s opinion, often they will look at the letters of the Hebrew word to help them define the word.  Yakah is spelled Yod, Kaf, Hei.   The Yod represents a clarification of God’s priorities, the Kaf shows the development of a strong kavanah or direction of the heart and the Hei pictures the listening for the still small voice of God.  So when Job said that he wanted to reason or argue with God  what he was saying is that he wanted to clarify God’s priorities (Yod) and once he understood what God’s priorities were he would be able to set the direction of his heart (Kaf) and listen to the still small voice of God  (Hei).

In Job 23:2 we find that Job’s friends,  who were sitting around giving their advice and opinions, were so oppressing Job that he could not mediate nor lift his hand  in worship.  Job’s friends were operating on an entirely different level than Job.  Job’s friends were trying to point out the reason for Job’s suffering and how he could bring it to an end. Job, however, wanted to know what God’s priorities were.  Obviously God had a priority over Job’s own comfort level and Job was fine with that, he just wanted to know what that priority was so he could set his heart in the right direction and hear God’s voice.  Job’s friends had just one purpose, figure out why one is suffering and find a way out.  Job, the one who was suffering, was more interested in knowing God’s priorities so he could have a heart that was right and open to hear God’s voice.  If suffering he must endure, then suffering he would endure so long as his heart was right and he could hear God’s voice.

My study partner pointed out that the pronoun “I” or “’ani” in Hebrew did not have to be a pronoun, it could be a noun and thus it’s root word would be “anah” which means to moan, suffer or have sorrow.   Hence we could render this verse as “Surely, my sufferings will speak to the Almighty and my sufferings desire to know God’s priority so my heart will follow the right direction and hear God’s still small voice.”

Job’s sufferings appealed to God, not  to be delivered from the suffering but to understand it and submit to the Divine purpose and priorities of God.  To Job God’s purpose and priorities were more important to him than his own gizzard.  The first thing our sufferings want to do is to appeal to God, which is fine, so long as that appeal is to know God’s priorities.