Job 13:1 ¶ Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.
Job 13:2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.
Job 13:3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
Job 13:4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
Job 13:5 O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
Job 13:6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.
Once again Job states that he has seen and heard the same things his friends had; he knew every bit as a much as they did. He was not their inferior. He again expresses his desire for the opportunity to reason with God.
Job pulls no punches. He tells his friends that they have made false charges against him and are worthless to help him. The wisest thing they could do for him is just stay quiet. He then asked them to please listen to his reasoning.
Job 13:7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
Job 13:8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?
Job 13:9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
Job 13:10 He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.
Job 13:11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
Job 13:12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
Job basically asks his friends if they want to misrepresent God and speak lies on His behalf. He wonders if they can be impartial in defending God’s actions against Job. He wonders how they would stand up against God’s examination, if they thought they could deceive Him as men deceive one another. God would surely rebuke them if they tried to cover for Him, and Job questions their fear of God in doing so in light of His majesty. Job compares their advice to ashes that are worthless and reminds them that they are just made from the dust of the ground.
Summary: You “friends” are accusing me falsely and misrepresenting God. You are made from dust, yet claim to possess the wisdom of God—but you don’t!
Smith re example of those today who misrepresent God: “Now there are some people who are supposedly representing God, but they are falsely representing God. Because if you listen to them, you’ll think that God is broke. And He’s going out of business tomorrow unless you respond immediately today. God is constantly on the verge of bankruptcy. And His program is going to fail, this great plan of God is about to go under, and God can’t take care of Himself and He’s depending on you to bail Him out with your offering of $2500, immediately. Speaking deceitfully for God.”
Job 13:13 ¶ Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
Job 13:14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?
Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
Job 13:16 He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.
Again, Job tells his friends to be quiet and listen to him; and he will accept the consequences for his words. He is going to express himself before God even if it means his death. Still, Job maintains that he has faith in God even as he defends himself before Him. No sinful person would dare choose to declare his innocence before God, and Job takes comfort in that truth because he is not a practicing sinner; he is a man that trusts in God.
Considering the trend of today’s culture, I often pray that I would have the faith of Job and the three young men threatened with death in the fiery furnace. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
David Guzik used a very appropriate quote from one of my favorite books in his commentary: “Writing fictionally in the voice of a senior demon instructing a junior demon in his popular book The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis stated – from a demon’s perspective – this dynamic of trial in the life of the believer: ‘He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.’”
Job 13:17 Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
Job 13:18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.
Job 13:19 Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
Job asks his friends to listen carefully. He has thoughtfully prepared his presentation and knows that he will be justified. He is confident that there is no one that can charge him with sin; if they could, he would utter no more complaint for the rest of his life.
Job 13:20 Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee.
Job 13:21 Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.
Job 13:22 Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.
Job 13:23 ¶ How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.
Job begins his presentation before God. He begins by stating that he is asking God for two things as he makes his case—1) that God remove His hand of judgment against him and 2) that He not fill him with terror so that he can present his case. He then basically asks God if He wants to ask the first question or if he wants Job to go first. Job’s plea: How have I sinned and rebelled against You?
Job 13:24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
Job 13:25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
Job 13:26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.
Job 13:27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.
Job 13:28 And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.
Job continues—God, why have You turned against me; what has made me Your enemy? Why would You frighten me—an insignificant piece of your creation? I assume You have decided to destroy me for the sins of my youth.
Note that Job has never considered himself sinless. He admits to sins of his youth. What he has denied all along is there is currently no sin for which he should be accounted worthy of the judgment he is experiencing.
He continues—You have bound my feet, watched all my steps and taken note of each place I have stepped. Meanwhile, I am wasting away like a coat being eaten by moths.
Job 14:1 ¶ Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
Job 14:2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Job 14:3 And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?
Job continues his presentation before God. He observes that a man’s life is short and full of trouble. His life is like a flower that blossoms and is cut off, like a shadow that soon disappears. In light of that, why have I caught your attention?
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Job 14:5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
Job 14:6 Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
Job asks, Who can make something clean out of something that is unclean (like man is implied)? Answer: No one. I know that You have determined the number of days in a man’s life, so why not leave him alone “till he has put in his time like a hired man. (NIV)”
How blessed we are to know that Jesus can make us clean and righteous before God!
2 Corinthians 5:20–21 “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Job 14:7 ¶ For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 14:8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;
Job 14:9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
When a tree is cut down, there is hope that it will sprout and begin to grow again. Even if the roots have gotten old and the stump looks dead, a little water will cause it to bud and begin to grow once again.
Job 14:10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
Job 14:11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
However, when a man dies, he breathes out his spirit—but to where? Job compares man’s body to water that disappears from a body of water (evaporates) causing it to dry up. That body will not rise again from death until the heavens are no more.
It seems that though Job did know that there was life after death, he didn’t really understand much about it. He just knew that after death man does not get another chance at this life.
Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
Job 14:16 ¶ For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
Job 14:17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.
Job expresses his wish that God would just hide him in the grave and forget about him until His anger had passed; however, He did not want God to forget him forever. He expresses the expectation that he will live again and was looking forward to the time when his life would be renewed. Job seems to understand that a time is coming when God will want to have fellowship with him again, a time when his sins would be remembered no more.
Yet again, we see that Job did not claim to be sinless. We also see his thoughts vacillating about future expectations. Those thoughts turn into a confident expectation of in his own flesh seeing God (chapter 19).
Job 14:18 And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.
Job 14:19 The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
Job 14:20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
Job 14:21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
Job 14:22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.
Job then compares life to a mountain that crumbles, stones that are worn away by the water and soil washed away by a flood. God will surely prevail, and man will know nothing but his own pain and suffering.
At this point, all three of Job’s friends have spoken and he has responded to each. The next chapter begins round two of their debates.