Job Chapter 13
Please read: Job 13 –
Job was right in that he said that his friends thought themselves to be superior to him. In their minds they were much better men because Job was sitting with much calamity brought on his life and they were not. They were not suffering like Job. Their conclusion had been that Job must have sinned some great sin for all this to have happened to him. To them it was black and white. Job sinned and God was punishing him for it. And as his friends, they thought it was their duty to call Job out on it. And because Job was arguing with them saying he had not sinned, they thought themselves to be wiser than Job.
Job stood up for himself and said that he was not inferior to his friends. In fact, he said he would rather they be silent. They seemed to fancy themselves to be as lawyers who could argue a judgement case for God against Job. Or they thought themselves to be physicians that had the right remedy. But Job does not want to speak with them or listen to them anymore. He only wishes to speak directly with God, to argue his defense with God Himself.
Let's Reflect
1. According to verse 7 what did Job call the conclusions that his friends had drawn about Job?
2. Then in verse 9 Job asks a question that makes the reader smile. A question that says that you are so smug, but what will you do if you are put to the test. What is the question Job asks?
3. They may have tried to interrupt Job because he says what in verse 13?
4. The last half of verse 13 and the first half of verse 15 show us that Job’s loyalty is still with whom?
5. In verse 18 Job believing that he is going to die soon is prepared to stand before God. What has he prepared? It is somewhat mind stretching to think on Old Testament saints because their faith in God, had to be much greater than believers of the New Covenant who rest their faith on the knowledge that our Messiah has already come. Job understood that his sins separated him from a close relationship with God. And because of that he practiced asking God to forgive him whenever he sinned. Yet now God seemed far away, and he wants him to be close again, to draw near to him even though he believes that God has brought this testing to him.
6. In verses 20 through the end of the chapter Job speaks directly to God. Job knows that the God makes us aware of our sins and through that awareness we can then confess our sins to Him. Job begins to wonder if God is bringing this testing upon him for his sins during a certain season of his life. What season was that?
7. Job laments the state of all humans because of sin. What does Job compare our life to?
The chapter break seems awkward here because it is. Job continues speaking in the next chapter. The lesson I think we can learn from this speech of Job is that it is important that we learn to have a healthy fear of God knowing that our sins break God’s heart. We must continually examine our heart to see if there is sin that is keeping us from a close relationship with Him, and if so, we must confess our sins.
