February 13 / Job 13

Job 13

Job continues his reply to Zophar. Let’s look at the first several verses.

• Job 13:1 – Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.
  • That is, he has observed all those things he mentioned in Job 12, so unlike his friends Job is therefore taking into account real-life experience that runs counter to their worldview.
• Job 13:2 – What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.
  • Pretty self-explanatory. Job is no fool and certainly does not need his friends to regurgitate what he already knows.
• Job 13:3 – But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.
  • I think of this a bit like a phone call to some support line where you aren’t getting anywhere with the person on the other end so you say, “Let me speak to your supervisor…”
  • That is, Job wants to cut out the intermediaries and talk with the One in charge, the One Who really knows the truth, and Who has the power to remedy the situation.
• Job 13:4 – As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.
  • Job perceives the inadequacies of his friends’ arguments and how his own experience — along with observed reality all around — contradicts their worldview, but rather than dealing with those realities, they “whitewash” over them, effectively lying “on God’s behalf”.
  • At best, his friends are quacks.
• Job 13:5 – Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom!
  • Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt!
  • This hearkens back to Job 2 when Job’s friends sat in silence, which was indeed the best comfort they ever gave him.
• Job 13:6 – Hear now my argument and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
  • One thing Job’s friends clearly have never really done is to truly listen to Job, to empathize in any meaningful way.
  • Sometimes the one thing we really need more than anything else is for someone to listen.
  • Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger… (James 1:19)
• Job 13:7 – Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for Him?
  • This, I think, goes to the heart of Job’s frustration with his friends (and to God’s rebuke of them in Job 42:7), as he recognizes that in their “whitewashing” of reality, they are in fact speaking falsely for God.
• Job 13:8 – Will you show partiality toward Him? Will you plead the case for God?
  • Job wants a fair trial. In his view, he is already “up against” an unbeatable Foe, Who does not need deceptive lawyers pleading His case.
• Job 13:9 – Will it be well with you when He searches you out? Or can you deceive Him, as one deceives a man?
  • Hey, Zophar! Look in the mirror! When God comes and searches you out, what might He find? Do you really think you should be faring better than I? Or do you think you can somehow pull the wool over His eyes?

I’ll leave it there except for one more verse further down, Job 13:23: How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. At the core of Job’s frustration is that he is unaware of any big sin in his life and so is undeserving of such horrendous treatment. Here he prays that God would reveal any such sin to him that might explain the problem. It could be argued that Job is offering this prayer somewhat rhetorically, that he doesn’t expect God (or anyone else) to be able to point to anything. But I rather think that he is honestly asking. And it is an excellent prayer for all of us. We should all ask God to convict us of any sin in order that we might repent of it and turn to Him to remove it from us — but not just to escape punishment; rather, that we might have fellowship with Him.