Job 13:20-28 | KingComments | STEP | Job now addresses a question to God. All he wants is that God will not do two things to him ( ). If God does, Job will no longer deal with God in an attitude of fear. He will then no longer feel an obstacle to go to God and can then speak to Him on an equal footing. Then he will no longer be overwhelmed by God’s greatness and highness. He wishes to be free to plead his case with God without the obstacles resulting from a deeply weary and painful illness. He now feels weakened by sickness and unable to devote himself to defending his cause as he did in the days of his prosperity. Job asks two things ( ). The first is that God removes his oppressive hand from him, and the second is that the dread of God no longer terrifies him. Job feels the misery and suffering as the oppressive hand of God – not of satan. If only God would remove that hand far away, he would be able to take an enlightened breath and prepare to speak to God as a worthy party. But Job also wants to free himself from the dread that emanates from God for him. He sees God as his unapproachable adversary, Who, if he does the slightest wrong, will plunge him back into misery. If God does not change this, he cannot yet calmly present his case to Him. Then the dread will remain in the background that he will always have to lose out to God, Who is so much greater and higher than he is. Elihu later elaborates on these arguments in his argument ( ). In he proposes God compellingly to call him to account so that he can answer. Now he does not see God as a Judge, but as a Party at issue. If God does not respond to his demand, let him speak, and then let God answer him. In Job’s imagination, it is a lawsuit. But God will not participate in it. That is why Job resumes his complaint in . Job does not know it here yet, but God will certainly speak to him one day, but then Job will not know how to answer ( ). God speaks, but in His time and not in the time that Job determines. In Job opens the lawsuit. He challenges God to list his iniquities and sins. With this Job demands of God that He justifies Himself for the great disasters He has brought upon him. If these disasters are really the result of his iniquities and sins – as the friends claim – then God must be able to list a whole list. Let Him come forward with it. What Job is saying here is not the question of a conscience that wants to be convinced and come to confession. Job challenges God from an attitude that he can’t be accused of anything.

‏ Job 13:20-28

Job Asks God to Change His Attitude

Job now addresses a question to God. All he wants is that God will not do two things to him (Job 13:20). If God does, Job will no longer deal with God in an attitude of fear. He will then no longer feel an obstacle to go to God and can then speak to Him on an equal footing. Then he will no longer be overwhelmed by God’s greatness and highness. He wishes to be free to plead his case with God without the obstacles resulting from a deeply weary and painful illness. He now feels weakened by sickness and unable to devote himself to defending his cause as he did in the days of his prosperity.

Job asks two things (Job 13:21). The first is that God removes his oppressive hand from him, and the second is that the dread of God no longer terrifies him. Job feels the misery and suffering as the oppressive hand of God – not of satan. If only God would remove that hand far away, he would be able to take an enlightened breath and prepare to speak to God as a worthy party. But Job also wants to free himself from the dread that emanates from God for him. He sees God as his unapproachable adversary, Who, if he does the slightest wrong, will plunge him back into misery. If God does not change this, he cannot yet calmly present his case to Him. Then the dread will remain in the background that he will always have to lose out to God, Who is so much greater and higher than he is. Elihu later elaborates on these arguments in his argument (Job 33:7).

In Job 13:22 he proposes God compellingly to call him to account so that he can answer. Now he does not see God as a Judge, but as a Party at issue. If God does not respond to his demand, let him speak, and then let God answer him. In Job’s imagination, it is a lawsuit. But God will not participate in it. That is why Job resumes his complaint in Job 13:24. Job does not know it here yet, but God will certainly speak to him one day, but then Job will not know how to answer (Job 40:1-5). God speaks, but in His time and not in the time that Job determines.

In Job 13:23 Job opens the lawsuit. He challenges God to list his iniquities and sins. With this Job demands of God that He justifies Himself for the great disasters He has brought upon him. If these disasters are really the result of his iniquities and sins – as the friends claim – then God must be able to list a whole list. Let Him come forward with it. What Job is saying here is not the question of a conscience that wants to be convinced and come to confession. Job challenges God from an attitude that he can’t be accused of anything.

Job Resumes His Complaint

Because there is no answer from God to his questions in the previous verses, Job resumes his complaint. There is no answer because he is not yet ready to be stripped of his own righteousness. He sees God as One Who does not look at him, but hides His face from him in wrath (Psa 104:29) and acts as the unapproachable God against him (Job 13:24). Job experiences God as his adversary. God has overloaded him with misery, although he has always served Him so faithfully.

Why does God persecute such a ‘nobody’ like him? He feels completely at the mercy of God, just as a dead leaf can do nothing against the wind and dry chaff is blown in all directions by the wind (Job 13:25). Why does He concern Himself with someone who is nothing more than a dead leaf?

Job may experience this negatively, but we can see in this the care of God for Job. To God, Job is not a ‘nobody’, but rather ‘a someone’ to whom all His interest is directed. In His dealings with Job, it is precisely His concern for him that is evident.

God’s care still completely eludes Job. To him, God is Someone Who rages against him and writes bitter things against him (Job 13:26). It seems as if God has issued a warrant for the arrest of a villain who has a lot to answer. That is very bitter. His guilt is certain in advance. Then according to Job it must be youth sins (cf. Psa 25:7), because he is not aware of any sins lately. Isn’t God digging up old skeletons that He is still accusing him of forgotten sins?

He feels like a prisoner of God, who has put his feet in the stocks, so that he is hindered in his movements (Job 13:27; Jer 20:2). In doing so, God also keeps a close eye on him and watches over all his paths, that he does not attempt to escape. God has also set a limit for the soles of his feet, literally, set a carve for his feet. If he should escape anyway, his footsteps are easy to recognize and he can be picked up again easily. Job describes how God makes it impossible for him to make any attempt to escape from his misery. He is in it and is condemned to remain in it.

How is it possible to God to do this to someone like him, Job wonders in despair. Surely God can see that his sickened body is decaying and rots, can’t He (Job 13:28)? His body, which is covered with maggots (Job 7:5 ; Job 21:26), is like a garment that the moths eat (cf. Isa 50:9b). Moths do their destructive work slowly, but also thoroughly (cf. Hos 5:12). Thus, Job’s body slowly crumbles and dies little by little. What is the point of God letting more misery come over it?