Job Chapter 10 - Where Is the Land of Darkness

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Transcript

Welcome to the InAllWisdom Podcast,

A Daily Podcast dedicated to wisdom for life.

I am Jim Donnelly, your host.

If you’re wondering about some of the things in Job that seem unrelated to your situation. Take time to pause and consider.  Perhaps they do relate to you; way more that you have ever imagined. 

Stay tuned to this episode about wisdom for life.

I have completed a commentary on

The book of Ecclesiastes, all 222 verses.

My book title is:

Ecclesiastes Amplified: A Collection of Wise Words 

We have set the publication date for 2025.

In the meantime, I am working on 

the book of Job, 

all forty-two chapters, all 1070 verses.

My book title prompts 

a different approach to understanding

the book of Job: 

My book title is: 

Job True Story – Well Written:

Subtitled: A Story About a Mighty God Who Does Not Distance Himself from Human Suffering 

Job is forty-two chapters long. A daily Podcast will allow me to read through the entire book of Job every month. Some days I will read connecting chapters, because they belong together. And a nice surprise is that each day of the month whether the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 16th will represent a chapter in Job. So, on the 25th of any month, you can expect a Podcast on Job chapter 25.  

So, each Podcast will start with a reading from a chapter in the book of Job. I am taking this trek through Job for you and with you. Because most people on planet earth have never heard the true story of Job. 

Reading a chapter a day, will help them. It will also help many of you who know the book of Job but have never read it all. When reading along in the book of Job it is often very hard to figure out who is speaking, and harder still sometimes, to understand what they said.

Lastly, for each month of this Podcast I will choose a different version of the English Bible from which to read. This method will help us all to understand better what has been written for us. 

Today’s Podcast is from Job Chapter 10:21-22 

The title: Where Is the Land of Darkness?

Allow me first to read Job chapter 10. It is 22 verses long. 

Today I am reading from The New Jerusalem Bible. 

The Book of JOB    Chapter ten:

Since I have lost all taste for life, I shall give free rein to my complaining; I shall let my embittered soul speak out. 2 I shall say to God, ‘Do not condemn me, tell me what your case is against me. 3 Is it right for you to attack me, in contempt for what you yourself have made, thus abetting the schemes of the wicked? 4 Are your eyes mere human eyes, do you see as human beings see? 5 Are you mortal like human beings? do your years pass as human days pass? 6 You, who enquire into my faults and investigate my sins, 7 you know very well that I am innocent, and that no one can rescue me from your grasp. 8 Your hands having shaped and created me, now you change your mind and mean to destroy me! 9 Having made me, remember, as though of clay, now you mean to turn me back into dust! 10 Did you not pour me out like milk, and then let me thicken like curds, 11 clothe me with skin and flesh, and weave me of bone and sinew? 12 In your love you gave me life, and in your care watched over my every breath. 13 Yet, all the while, you had a secret plan: I know that you were biding your time 14 to see if I should sin and then not acquit me of my faults. 15 Woe to me, if I am guilty; even if I am upright, I dare not lift my head, so overwhelmed with shame and drunk with pain am I! 16 Proud as a lion, you hunt me down, multiplying your exploits at my expense, 17 attacking me again and again, your fury against me ever increasing, your troops assailing me, wave after wave. 18 Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have perished then, unseen by any eye, 19 a being that had never been, to be carried from womb to grave. 20 The days of my life are few enough: turn your eyes away, leave me a little joy, 21 before I go to the place of no return, to the land of darkness and shadow dark as death, 22 where dimness and disorder hold sway, and light itself is like dead of night. 

The New Jerusalem Bible (Job 9:1-35). (1985). Doubleday.

And now, for today’s Podcast titled:

Where Is the Land of Darkness? Job 10:21-22

Well let’s find out what the author writes, by following the order in which it has been written. 

“Before I go” is the first word of this section. “Before I die” is the first usage in the Hebrew Bible; when Isaac spoke to his older son, the day he chose to bless Esau, (Genesis 27:1-4, NASB). 

The idea of being close to death makes sense here in Job 10:21. “Before I go” well represents what Ecclesiastes teaches: “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.”, (Ecclesiastes 1:4, NASB). So, “Before I go” is equivalent to “Before I die”. Except it can also be translated “Before I will die”. That is what I think it should be.

Moving on. Again, I go with a literal translation: “And I shall not return.” That is simple enough.

Now, if we connect “To the land of darkness and deep shadow.”; we have this translation: “Before I will die; and I shall not return to the land of darkness and deep shadow.” 

Could it be that he thinks of himself as being in the “land of darkness and deep shadow”, while he is yet living?

Does “Before I will die” refer to Job? 

Fortunately, Psalm 23 helps our understanding: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Or, the valley of deep darkness), I fear no evil, for You are with me;” (Psalm 23:4, NASB). Notice that David walks through the valley, of the shadow of death. Knowing this truth I think we need to adjust fire, and realize that “the land of darkness and deep shadow” is a reference to the land that was promised to God’s people.

I am focusing on just two verses, Job 10:21-22. Here is the mosaic: “Darkness 1x; “Deep shadow” 2x; “Gloom as darkness” 1x; “Shine forth as darkness” 1x. This yields a heavy concentration of “Darkness” in the land of the living.

Isaiah, who I am persuaded lived approximately two hundred years after the writing of the book of Job, referred to Job 10:21 as he prophesied:

When they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness. 

9:1 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; 

those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.               You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence 

As with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; 

And the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.” Isaiah 8:19 – 9:7

Next word in the order that Job 10:21-22 was written is: “shines”. We just passed this word in Job 10:3 “And to look favorably (shine) on the schemes of the wicked” This refers to God’s majestic glory. Which glory seems implied by Job 3:

“May that day be darkness; Let not God above care for it, Nor light shine on it.” (Job 3:4, NASB). 

As we tie things together, there remains one more Hebrew word translated “Without order” which is a good translation, for those who lived in the time of Job, David, Solomon and Isaiah. “Without order” only occurs here in Job 10:22 and nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. It refers to “formations, or arrangements”, especially of battle formations.[i] 

So, a good question is, is this part of the foundation of the book of Job. Are there hints of spiritual warfare from chapter one to ten and beyond? That is what I think. I will explain more and more as we get deeper into the book of Job. And as we cover some of the initial chapter again. From month to month my plan is to cover the book of Job every month. Little by little we will learn of the Father, and His Son, and His Spirit as we learn more and more about Job and his family; and ourselves. 

Allow me to wrap things up, with todays’ moon phase: 

“Today, June 10, 2024, the moon is 4 days old and is in the Waxing Crescent phase of its lunar cycle. It is 16% illuminated. Last evening, my wife and I we were at a local park with some friends, enjoying a good concert. The night sky was remarkably clear, and the Cresent moon gave witness that the sun was still shining, even while we could not see the sun. You see, the moon is dark, it has no light of its own. It receives its’ light from the sun. And so, we learned in our discussion today, that Galilee of the gentiles was in deep darkness with no light of its own. And God promised that He would send light, not only to Galilee, but to the world. God’s only begotten Son is the Light of the world, if you trust Him and His work on the Cross of Calvary, you will find that you no longer have to walk in darkness alone, because He is not only your God, He is your light and your salvation if you know Him. One day we will not need the sun or moon for light. That is what we see in Revelation: “And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:23, NASB). 

We have come to the end of today’s InAllWisdom Podcast. 

A Daily Podcast dedicated 

to wisdom for life. Thank you for listening!

Please join with me again for another interesting episode about Wisdom for Life as He works in us for His good pleasure. 

Until He COMES ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory, “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 

The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace. “

[i] [סֵ֫דֶר]…n.[m.] order—… order, formation, arrangement, esp. of battle formations … לֹא סְדָרִים (there is) no order Job 10:22 … seven frontline formations (will be) to one array …” Clines, D. J. A., ed. (1993–2011). In The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew Vol. 6, p. 122). Sheffield Academic Press; Sheffield Phoenix Press.