Job 19:6-12 | KingComments | STEP | In this chapter we hear Job’s answer to Bildad. The contents of this chapter can be divided into four stanzas: 1. First, the despair of Job about the persistent attacks of the friends who overwhelm him ( ). 2. Then comes his despair about God, Who has left him and, according to his feelings, continues to attack him unjustly ( ). 3. Then comes his despair that God has alienated his loved ones and even his wife from him ( ). 4. But finally he turns in faith to Someone, his Redeemer, Who will redeem him at the end ( ), with the result that he makes a plea to his friends ( ) and gives a warning ( ) to stop with their false accusations. Just like the previous times Job answers to what has been said to him, this time by Bildad ( ). He asks Bildad and in him the other two friends how long they continue to accuse him ( ). They deeply sadden his soul with it. His feelings are deeply hurt and crushed by the words of Bildad and his friends. They completely destroy him inwardly with what they say to him. They have already disgraced him “ten times [an expression that means ‘many times’ ( ; )]” with their unfounded accusations ( ). Each time he has pointed out to them their error and denied their accusations. They have not yet been able to substantiate any of their accusations with evidence. Their assumption is that he suffers because he has sinned. Despite their lack of evidence for their accusations, they are not ashamed to treat him so harshly. Their actions against Job are downright shameless. After all, their coming was meant to sympathize with him and comfort him, wasn’t it ( )? Let alone, Job says, that I have truly erred. Then what have I done to you ( )? After all, I only did it to myself, didn’t I? Then you don’t have to worry so much about that, do you? You have no right to treat me so harshly. But you are taking God’s place now. You exalt yourselves above me with your statements about the sins I am said to have committed ( ). You look down on me and speak to me from high above. You are making yourselves great at my expense. As evidence for your accusations you invoke “my disgrace”. This disgrace would have been brought upon me because of my sins. But I do not have to do with you, I have to do with God ( ). God has pushed me down in defamation and disgrace. If you want to sue someone, do not sue me, but sue God! That is what they should do. Job sees God’s hand in everything. Only he has no explanation for why God’s hand weighs so heavily upon him, while the friends claim that this hand has come down upon him in discipline because of his sins. Job thinks that God is against him for no reason. His friends think God has every reason to be against him. Neither of them are right, for God is for Job. The anger of God kindled against the Lord Jesus on the cross in full force, but not against Job. Job feels surrounded by God’s net of trouble and calamity, from which he cannot free himself. This contrasts with Bildad’s assertions that Job ended up in that net through his own fault ( ). At the same time, there is also the aspect that God draws Job to Himself with His net. Job is not yet ready to hand himself over to God, but he is constantly searching for Him.

‏ Job 19:6-12

Introduction

In this chapter we hear Job’s answer to Bildad. The contents of this chapter can be divided into four stanzas:

1. First, the despair of Job about the persistent attacks of the friends who overwhelm him (Job 19:2-5).

2. Then comes his despair about God, Who has left him and, according to his feelings, continues to attack him unjustly (Job 19:6-12).

3. Then comes his despair that God has alienated his loved ones and even his wife from him (Job 19:13-20).

4. But finally he turns in faith to Someone, his Redeemer, Who will redeem him at the end (Job 19:21-27), with the result that he makes a plea to his friends (Job 19:21) and gives a warning (Job 19:28-29) to stop with their false accusations.

How Long Will the Friends Continue?

Just like the previous times Job answers to what has been said to him, this time by Bildad (Job 19:1). He asks Bildad and in him the other two friends how long they continue to accuse him (Job 19:2). They deeply sadden his soul with it. His feelings are deeply hurt and crushed by the words of Bildad and his friends. They completely destroy him inwardly with what they say to him.

They have already disgraced him “ten times [an expression that means ‘many times’ (Gen 31:7; Num 14:22)]” with their unfounded accusations (Job 19:3). Each time he has pointed out to them their error and denied their accusations. They have not yet been able to substantiate any of their accusations with evidence. Their assumption is that he suffers because he has sinned. Despite their lack of evidence for their accusations, they are not ashamed to treat him so harshly.

Their actions against Job are downright shameless. After all, their coming was meant to sympathize with him and comfort him, wasn’t it (Job 2:11)?

Let alone, Job says, that I have truly erred. Then what have I done to you (Job 19:4)? After all, I only did it to myself, didn’t I? Then you don’t have to worry so much about that, do you? You have no right to treat me so harshly. But you are taking God’s place now. You exalt yourselves above me with your statements about the sins I am said to have committed (Job 19:5). You look down on me and speak to me from high above. You are making yourselves great at my expense. As evidence for your accusations you invoke “my disgrace”. This disgrace would have been brought upon me because of my sins.

But I do not have to do with you, I have to do with God (Job 19:6). God has pushed me down in defamation and disgrace. If you want to sue someone, do not sue me, but sue God! That is what they should do. Job sees God’s hand in everything. Only he has no explanation for why God’s hand weighs so heavily upon him, while the friends claim that this hand has come down upon him in discipline because of his sins.

Job thinks that God is against him for no reason. His friends think God has every reason to be against him. Neither of them are right, for God is for Job. The anger of God kindled against the Lord Jesus on the cross in full force, but not against Job.

Job feels surrounded by God’s net of trouble and calamity, from which he cannot free himself. This contrasts with Bildad’s assertions that Job ended up in that net through his own fault (Job 18:7-8). At the same time, there is also the aspect that God draws Job to Himself with His net. Job is not yet ready to hand himself over to God, but he is constantly searching for Him.

Rejected and Abandoned by God

Job cries that the law is violated in his case (Job 19:7). He says it is God Who does this. Yet Job turns to God for help. His cry for help, however, is not heard by Him. He does not get his right. There is no one who stands up for him, no one who says that the suffering he suffers is unjust and must be taken away from him.

From Job 19:8 onward he directly accuses God of making life impossible for him. His life path is blocked by God and is therefore impassable (Job 19:8). And the paths he has gone have been shrouded by God in darkness, so that he has lost all orientation. He cannot go in any direction. We would say: He sees no light at the end of the tunnel. There is nowhere to find a way out.

Job accuses God of robbing him of his honor and taking the crown from his head (Job 19:9). There is nothing left of the prestige he used to have and the wealth he possessed as a crown and gave him dignity (Pro 14:24). His good name and fame are gone.

Job describes the ruin of his life in pictures. Like a building, he is demolished by God, so that nothing but a mess remains (Job 19:10). He has perished because God has broken him down on all sides: materially, in his family, in his health, in his social contacts and in his friendships. He also compares himself to a tree that has been “uprooted” by a hurricane. As a result, he is now without hope of life.

He considers himself to be the target of God’s anger that has been kindled against him in all fierceness (Job 19:11). This gives him the feeling that God is treating him as if he were His enemy. His desire is for God, yet God brings all this misery upon him. He doesn’t understand anything about this ‘war situation’, why God is so opposed to him. He hasn’t given God any reason to do so, has he?

Job sees the disasters that have come upon him as “His troops” (Job 19:12). It is as if in the disasters God is sending His armies against him. Those armies have built up their way against him, suggesting that they have been stopped by nothing. They have done their utmost to reach the tent, the abode, of Job in order to lay siege to it. It is as if his small, tiny tent is a mighty and hostile fortress with thick walls. What is God doing? It is not a question for Job that God has done this. The question of why God has done this remains a tormenting one for him.

In fact, Job is reasoning exactly like his friends. He also believes that God brings calamity to a man when he sins. The friends conclude from the calamity that struck him that he must have sinned. Job knows that this is not so. This brings him into great conflict with his thinking about God. He knows that he has done nothing to justify this suffering, yet God punishes him. The problem isn’t with him, so … God must be wrong.

God endures Job’s accusations until His time has come to bring him into His holy presence. Anyone who is in endless suffering can wrestle for some time with the question of why God let this happen. As long as we have not been in such suffering, we would do well to suspend our judgment of Job’s accusations until we have heard God speak.

What we should know is that God does not consider us His enemies when suffering enters our lives. We may not always understand God’s way with us, but we may know that to those who love God, He “causes all things to work together for good” (Rom 8:28). In addition, when He disciplines us, He shows His love for us, and proves that He sees us as His sons (Heb 12:6). There is no enmity against us.