Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
The verse stands inside the poetic portion of Job, which sets out Job's reasonings concerning human suffering. It comes within the debate between Job and his three friends over his afflictions, and toward the close of that debate. In that exchange the friends condemned him for apparent self-righteousness, while he felt himself condemned without just cause. Here he is vindicating himself, conscious that he has committed no open transgressions against God. Job is a real man, and his experience is a lesson in suffering.
The cry is a longing to be as in months past, as in the former days when God watched over and preserved and protected him, a state he yearned to have again. That earlier time was a time of prosperity, when he had enough and to spare and enjoyed the honors men bestow for doing good. Hearing of God and perceiving the reasonableness of His requirements had moved him to deeds of goodness in that prosperity, and he regarded those deeds as proof of his own righteousness and rested content in it. That self-wrought righteousness was only filthy rags, with no salvation in it but death, because it attempted to establish his own righteousness rather than submitting to and receiving God's righteousness, which demands personal acquaintance with God and seeing Him for oneself. The watchful care he remembers is further displayed in the next verse by God's lamp shining upon his head and God's light leading him through darkness, a radiance from the heavenly world that scatters gloom and fills the soul with joy.
The backward look is united with earnest anxiety for God to reveal Himself to him. The verse belongs with Job 28-31 to be read together with Matthew 24. The longing voices the regret of church members who have wandered from Christ and neglected duty, and such honest penitent grief shows that restoration and a new life are possible. The lament warns that Christians who allow holiness to decay may forfeit the comforts of piety and come to the end of life yearning for their former spiritual state. The same longing applies to the desire to regain consecration once possessed and former spiritual well-being.
The verse stands inside the poetic portion of Job, which sets out Job's reasonings concerning human suffering. It comes within the debate between Job and his three friends over his afflictions, and toward the close of that debate. In that exchange the friends condemned him for apparent self-righteousness, while he felt himself condemned without just cause. Here he is vindicating himself, conscious that he has committed no open transgressions against God. Job is a real man, and his experience is a lesson in suffering.
The cry is a longing to be as in months past, as in the former days when God watched over and preserved and protected him, a state he yearned to have again. That earlier time was a time of prosperity, when he had enough and to spare and enjoyed the honors men bestow for doing good. Hearing of God and perceiving the reasonableness of His requirements had moved him to deeds of goodness in that prosperity, and he regarded those deeds as proof of his own righteousness and rested content in it. That self-wrought righteousness was only filthy rags, with no salvation in it but death, because it attempted to establish his own righteousness rather than submitting to and receiving God's righteousness, which demands personal acquaintance with God and seeing Him for oneself. The watchful care he remembers is further displayed in the next verse by God's lamp shining upon his head and God's light leading him through darkness, a radiance from the heavenly world that scatters gloom and fills the soul with joy.
The backward look is united with earnest anxiety for God to reveal Himself to him. The verse belongs with Job 28-31 to be read together with Matthew 24. The longing voices the regret of church members who have wandered from Christ and neglected duty, and such honest penitent grief shows that restoration and a new life are possible. The lament warns that Christians who allow holiness to decay may forfeit the comforts of piety and come to the end of life yearning for their former spiritual state. The same longing applies to the desire to regain consecration once possessed and former spiritual well-being.