There are times in one’s life when one feels like everyone and everything is against him. Nothing goes as planned, all the joy of life is gone. This is where Job was. However, we mustn’t think he had lost hope in God. He claims here: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him!” (Job 13:15). His present prospects in life were shattered, but he believed that ultimately the Lord was his salvation (Job 19:25). Nevertheless, neither should we account that Job understood New Covenant truth revealed in Christ. For example, did he believe that all things work together for good for those who trust in God (Romans 8:28)? Probably not, but something like this understanding would come out of Job’s trial, after the Lord spoke with him.
Presently however, Job was confused (Job 7:17-21) and wanted answers to his questions (Job 10:2). He didn’t believe he was as evil as his friends made him out to be, so he couldn’t understand why the Lord was treating him so unfairly. Therefore, since errors in judgment proved his friends couldn’t be representing the Lord, as his chosen prosecutors, Job asked them to be silent, while he approached God about his calamity. Job’s point was that he was willing to take the responsibility of appearing before the Lord, as a sinner worthy of judgment (cp. Job 6:8-10), because personal clarity over his present circumstance was important to him. Nevertheless, he held out hope that the Lord would vindicate him in the end (Job 13:18; cp. Habakkuk 3:17-18).
Job asks his friends to hold their peace and consider what he has to say, and he’d be satisfied (Job 13:13). Why he would take the responsibility of placing his life in peril, vis-à-vis take my flesh in my teeth, by going before the Lord, unless he expected a favorable outcome (Job 13:14; cp. Judges 12:3; 1Samuel 19:5). Job wasn’t so concerned over his present dilemma that he lost sight of his ultimate fate in the Lord’s grace. Indeed, he was troubled over the calamity that had overtaken him, as many of us are, when we don’t understand what is happening to us and our lives seem to be falling apart. Yet, confusion (cp. Job 10:2) doesn’t necessarily translate to faithlessness: Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him (Job 13:15). Although his friends had repeatedly accused him of evil (Job 4:7-8; 8:6, 20; 11:11, 14, 20), Job maintained his innocence and would persist in doing so before the Lord, because he knew of nothing that he had done that would warrant such judgment that had come upon him. Therefore, his claim of innocence couldn’t be construed as hypocrisy, and he could continue to expect the Lord to act favorably toward him (Job 13:15-16).
Although some scholars believe Job is still addressing his friends in Job 13:17, I believe he has now begun to speak to the Lord. Job begins in the context of appearing in a court of law and asks God to listen to what he has to say, for he as prepared his case and believes he will be justified. In other words, Job has deeply considered his own past and has concluded that, if his calamity is due to wickedness, it is unjustified. Job is innocent of such wickedness that would warrant such judgment.
Therefore, he asks: Who is he who will plead with me? That is, who would be the prosecuting attorney representing Lord? It is obvious that the Lord couldn’t be using Job’s friends as his representatives, because their arguments were so easily refuted. So, let the Lord choose his prosecuting attorney, and, if he can silence Job, convict him of wickedness, he contends that life wouldn’t make any sense. He would lose all hope of a life he considered worth living, and he would simply give up the ghost and expire (Job 13:19).
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