Bible Commentary - Job 13

In this chapter, Job rebukes his friends and then petitions God to explain his suffering.

In broad terms I would divide this chapter into two sections.  The first part is verses 1-13, and the second is 14-28.

In the first part, Job is rebuking his friends.  The overall theme is very close to what we saw in the previous chapter.  Job’s main emphasis is that he has the same knowledge and understanding as his friends, and they are not superior to him in wisdom.

Job also accuses his friends of showing “partiality” towards God.  Strange as it may sound, it’s as if Job’s friends are judging between Job and God, and Job thinks that they are being unfair.  What’s even stranger about this is that Job thinks God will judge his friends harshly if they “secretly show partiality” (v. 10) towards God himself.  If they are unfair or biased in favor of God, that God will “terrify” them for it (v. 11).

Job ultimately pleads for his friends to remain silent (v. 13) and for silence to “become your wisdom” (v. 5).  In spite of Job’s request, I can promise you his friends will not remain silent, and we will be hearing from them again many times throughout this book.

The second part is Job’s petition to God.  This is much closer to the heart of the book, because Job is now directly addressing the Lord and sharing his grief.

He begins in v. 15 by making a remarkable declaration of trust and faith in God.  “Though he slays me, I will hope in him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before him”.  Even in the midst of his pain, even when he feels like God is destroying his life, he will nonetheless place his hope in God.  This is such a pivotal thought because many people, when faced with suffering, “curse God and die,” like Job’s wife told him to.  To put it less dramatically, periods of suffering cause many people to abandon their faith and choose to live without God.  Usually this is because of offense towards God, believing that God is responsible for their suffering.  Sometimes it’s also because people believe that God was not able to stop their suffering even if he didn’t cause it.  Other people simply question God’s existence or goodness.  It’s a pretty common formula to say that God’s omnipotence, God’s goodness, and suffering cannot all exist in the world.  If God were both good and all-powerful (the reasoning goes) then he would never have permitted suffering.  The manifest reality of suffering “disproves” either God’s goodness or his power.

Job, however, declares a continued faith and trust in God, in spite of his suffering and perhaps even more importantly, in spite of his confusion.  Job does not understand why he is suffering; that much is clear from his repeated declarations of innocence.  Job doesn’t know why he is suffering and he thinks God is responsible; “though he slays me”.  Yet, he chooses to continue trusting God.  I came up with a similar refrain when going through a difficult season a few years ago: “I don’t understand, but I do trust you”.  God is confusing, his ways are confusing, because they are so different from how people think or act.

This leaves us with a conundrum.  On the one hand, we have a firm knowledge of God’s goodness and favor towards us.  For many people this comes from prior experience; I certainly have seen God’s goodness in my life, and it’s not something I will ever forget.  Standing against this knowledge of God’s goodness, is personal suffering, by which our own soul accuses God of not caring about us.

Someday we will understand, and will know why we suffered and what God was doing in that time and in those situations.  But during this period of confusion, we have to make a decision; will we trust God, or will we let our suffering and grief dictate our beliefs about God?  This is not an easy decision, and if not easy or fun even if you make the right choice (trusting in God).  Job continues to trust in God, and at least during this part of the book, he continues to suffer.  Trust does not mean that God swoops in and makes the suffering go away; if he did then trust wouldn’t mean anything.  Trust means that we believe in God’s goodness in spite of the circumstances, and know that whether or brings us out of it or not that God remains good.

After declaring his continued faith, Job nevertheless desires to “argue my ways before him” (v. 15).  In many ways this is just as important as placing our faith in him.  Job trusts God, but in the midst of suffering Job does not become passive.  In the midst of suffering, rather than turning away from God, Job turns towards God, knowing that God is in control of all things.  While “arguing my ways before him” sounds adversarial, and in previous chapters we saw Job essentially plead for some external third party to come in and judge the dispute between him and God.  However, if Job truly did not trust or respect God, he would not be seeking to argue his ways before God because it would seem pointless to him.  The fact that he continues to turn to God shows that he continues to believe God can (and perhaps will) bring him relief from his suffering.

These are the two sides to faith.  The first side is that Job continues to trust God, even in the midst of tremendous suffering.  This is believing in the goodness of God without seeing it (in the moment).  The second side is that Job continues to actively seek God in intercession, trying to win relief by arguing his case.  It seems adversarial but it’s actually a manifestation of faith because simply put, Job does not give up.  Faith does not give up, and Job lives out that faith in the midst of hardship.

With all that said, the heart of his petition is verses 23-24; Job wants to know what is his sin, such that God has chosen to punish him in this way.  Job still considers himself an innocent and righteous man, and he wants God to address what sin he has committed because he simply doesn’t know what he’s done wrong.  In verse 26 he hypothesizes that God may be punishing him for the “iniquities of my youth”, like if God dug up some sin from 25 years ago and is only now punishing him by killing his family and cursing him with sickness.

Job is not accusing God of wrongdoing, he just doesn’t know why God is punishing him and he wants to understand.  In my opinion, this is the reaction of a righteous person towards suffering.  He does not curse God, but he wants to understand and he is confused.  Ultimately his confusion is not because he has some hidden or forgotten sin, it’s because he has bad theology and he thinks that God is punishing him.  Of course, acknowledging that God isn’t punishing Job isn’t really an explanation and many questions remain.  It is only natural that we would desire to answer those questions and to understand the true nature and purpose of suffering in the world.  A righteous person like Job seeks understanding, but does not blame God for it, does not curse God and does not get angry at God.  A righteous person remains confident and steadfast in the knowledge of God’s goodness.  It’s not easy, but it’s right.

In the next chapter, Job concludes his petition.