Job 19
McGeeCHAPTER 19THEME: Job’s answer to BildadAs you can see, the mistake Job is beginning to make is this: he knows they are wrong, but their being wrong does not make him right. His attitude is wrong also. He has a wrong conception of God at this time, although light breaks in from time to time.
Job 19:1
If this had been a physical combat like a football game, the coach would have said, “The opposition tore down our defense.” Job’s so-called friends have been breaking down his defense.
Job 19:3
The more they talked, the more alienated from Job they became. They were not right, but neither was Job. Job thought that because they were wrong, he would be right. If Job’s conscience and his life had been open in the presence of God, what position should he have taken? Let me make a suggestion: I think that he should not have replied to his friends at all. Unfortunately, most of us think we must defend ourselves. I thank God for giving me the gift of preaching and teaching, but I will be very frank with you and say that it is a dangerous gift to have, because it puts you up where you can be shot at and where you can be criticized. People have asked me from time to time, “Why don’t you defend yourself? Why don’t you write a little book to defend yourself?” The answer is that I don’t need to. As someone has stated it, your friends who know you don’t need an explanation, and your enemies wouldn’t believe you anyway. I have learned that in time things pretty much answer themselves. I don’t think a person needs to defend himself in these cases. My suggestion would be that Job should not have answered these friends at all. He should have simply bowed in sweet submission. I think he should have listened to what they had to say, then told them good-bye and shown them the front gate of the city. But Job was determined to vindicate himself. I can think of some men whom time has vindicated. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was accused very cruelly. He sought to defend himself, but he needn’t have done so. Time has shown the truth of the matter. The later Dr. M. R. DeHaan was severely attacked when he was pastor of a church. There were those who sought to defend him, but he really didn’t need any defense. Time has justified his actions and revealed the fact that those charges made against him were false indeed. I personally think that Job should have taken the position of silence and that he should not have come out with this defense of himself. He has become alienated from them. If he had kept silent, he would not have had ten reproaches from them. Apparently he doesn’t see that.
Job 19:4
“No one knows any error in me but myself.” His friends are not able to point it out, and the implication is that he isn’t aware of any error himself. Someone has said that the Lord did not make us perfect, but He made us blind to our errors. Although I don’t think the Lord is responsible for that, I think the statement is probably true. We are not perfect, but most of us are blind to our faults. Job is a man who is blind to a great many of his faults.
Job 19:5
Bildad has said that Job had walked into a net, but Job maintains that God has done this and that God hasn’t given an explanation for it. Couldn’t it be that God has done this for some reason that He has not explained to Job? Of course, but the friends are determined that their explanation is the right one. Now he pleaeds with his friends.
Job 19:7
He says that God is treating him very harshly and that there must be an explanation for it. The purpose of God must be different from the explanation that his friends give to him, but Job confesses he doesn’t know what that purpose is. He goes on to tell how his brethren have forsaken him, his acquaintances are estranged from him, his friends have forgotten him, the maids that live in his house count him as a stranger, his servants will not answer his call, and his wife is a stranger to him. Even the young children have despised him. He is so thin that his skin cleaves to his bones, and he says, “… I am escaped with the skin of my teeth” (Job_19:20). He asks his friends for their pity.
Job 19:23
Job wishes that his words were written out and put in a book. He would be willing for his worst enemy to write them. He would like them engraven in the rock so he could say, “Look, this is what my enemy says about me, and he has to praise me.” Would you want your worst enemy to write your biography? I’m not sure that I’d want even my best friend to write mine. I am satisfied to let my biography stand on God’s books where it will be accurate, which is the important thing. Now Job will express his great faith. His friends have been attempting to break him down, which is actually the Devil’s subtle attempt. The Devil, through his friends, has been able to bring Job to the place where he is not humble but is still trying to vindicate himself before God. However, Job has not hit rock bottom yet. These friends have not broken him down completely. He has a living, real faith in God, and here he utters one of the great statements in the Bible. It is not only that the statement is great, but it is great because the man who said it is a sick man who is ready to expire. He has lost everything; he is under the discipline of Almighty God, and he feels the lash upon his back. Still he is able to say:
Job 19:25
When Job became ill and was in the shock of all his troubles, he said he wanted to die. He was not speaking of annihilation. He was speaking of the death which would get him away from his troubles. I think that is obvious. He knew he would be raised again. He knew that in his flesh he would see God. He knew that even if the worms destroyed his body after death, yet in his flesh he would see God. He believed in the resurrection of the dead. Friends, these bodies of ours are going to return to the dust. The bodies of the dead in Christ will be put to sleep, but the spirit will go to be with Christ immediately. How wonderful this is! Job again cries out to his friends, having made this great statement.
Job 19:28
“Don’t you fear the judgment of God for the things you have been saying to Me?” In spite of all their accusations, Job has kept his faith. He believes the Redeemer is coming and that he himself is numbered with the redeemed.