The Book of Job

Word Study

"wickedly," Hebrew avlah (עַוְלָה), injustice, unrighteousness, wrong. Job exposes a subtle and dangerous sin in his friends: in their zeal to defend God, they have been willing to twist the truth. "Will ye speak wickedly for God?" The word is the word for injustice and wrong, and it is aimed not at their private conduct but at their advocacy. This is a striking rebuke, for it reveals that one can sin greatly while defending God, if one defends Him with falsehood. To bend the truth, to crush a suffering saint, to force reality into a tidy formula, all in the name of upholding God, is not piety but "speaking wickedly for God."

"deceitfully," remiyyah (רְמִיָּה), treachery, deceit, slackness. "And talk deceitfully for him?" They have taken God's side, as they think, by accusing Job of hidden sin, but to do so they have lied about Job and misrepresented how God works. God does not need our lies. Zeal for God is no excuse for untruth; the God of truth is not honored by deceit spoken in His name.

"accept his person" (v8), panav tissa'un, show partiality, be a respecter of persons. The friends imagine they are taking God's part, showing Him favour as one might curry favour with a great man in court. Job warns them sharply that God will not be flattered by it: "Is it good that he should search you out?... He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons" (v9-10). The friends thought they were God's advocates; in fact they misrepresented Him, and God would later say to Eliphaz, "ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath" (Job 42:7).

Explanation

Job exposes a subtle sin in his friends: in their zeal to defend God, they have twisted the truth, accusing Job falsely and misrepresenting how God works. "Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?" He warns that God will reprove them for their partiality. The rebuke is striking: one can sin greatly while claiming to defend God, if one defends Him with falsehood. God needs no lies. Bending truth to crush a sufferer in God's name is not piety, and God would later confirm Job was right: the friends had not spoken of Him what was right.

Gospel Focus

"Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?", the God of truth is never served by falsehood, and this points us to the One who is Himself "the truth" (John 14:6), in whose mouth was found no guile, for He "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). Jesus never bent the truth, never crushed the bruised reed or quenched the smoking flax (Matthew 12:20), never spoke a cruel word to a broken sinner in the name of righteousness. He is the perfect Advocate, who pleads for us not with lies but with His own blood: "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). How different from Job's friends! They accused; He intercedes. They spoke deceitfully for God against a sufferer; He, the true and faithful Witness (Revelation 3:14), speaks the truth in love and lays down His life for us. And His example warns all who would defend the faith: we must be "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15), never twisting Scripture or wounding the weak to win an argument. The cause of the God of truth can only be served by truth spoken in the spirit of Christ, who was full of "grace and truth" (John 1:14). To defend God rightly is to be like Jesus: truthful, tender, and merciful to the broken.

Word Study

"slay me," Hebrew yiqteleni (יִקְטְלֵנִי) from qatal, to kill. Here is the mountain-peak of the whole book, and one of the greatest utterances of faith in all Scripture: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Job has been battered by loss, disease, and the accusations of his friends; he believes it is God's own hand that has brought this crushing weight; and he names the worst that hand could do, using the plain verb for killing. He concedes the possibility outright and then refuses to let it change his answer.

"trust," ayachel (אֲיַחֵל) from yachal, to wait, hope, trust. In the very teeth of death Job says he will still hope in God. The verb carries the sense of waiting and hoping, of holding on for one who has not yet come; he will not let go, though God should slay him. This is faith stripped of every prop, faith that clings to God not for what God gives but for God Himself, even when everything visible says God has become the enemy. It is the very thing the accuser said Job would never do: Satan swore that if God took away Job's blessings, Job would curse God to His face (Job 1:11; 2:5). Here Job proves the accuser a liar. This is not the trust of a man who understands, but of a man who does not understand and trusts anyway. It is the highest faith: to hope in God in the dark, with a hope that even death cannot break.

"maintain," okiach (אוֹכִיחַ), to argue, defend, prove. And notice the balance: "but I will maintain mine own ways before him." The verb is a courtroom word, to argue and prove a case. Job does not grovel with false confessions of sins he did not commit; he holds both his trust in God and his integrity, insisting he will bring his case honestly before God, confident God is not against truth.

Explanation

This is the summit of the book: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Battered by loss, disease, and false accusation, believing it is God's own hand crushing him, Job still says he will hope in God even if God kills him. This is faith stripped of every prop, clinging to God not for His gifts but for Himself, when everything visible says God has turned enemy. It is exactly what Satan swore Job would never do, and here Job proves the accuser a liar. He holds both his trust and his integrity, refusing false confession. This is the highest faith: to hope in God in the dark.

Gospel Focus

"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him", Job's cry finds its perfect fulfilment in Jesus Christ, who was in fact slain, and who trusted His Father through it all. On the cross, in the deepest darkness, forsaken and dying, the Lord Jesus committed Himself entirely into His Father's hands: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). He "trusted in God" (Matthew 27:43) even as He was slain, and His trust was vindicated in resurrection. Job's faith in the dark was a shadow; Christ's is the substance. And because Jesus was truly slain and truly rose, our own "though he slay me" is transformed. For the believer, even death cannot separate us from God: "neither death, nor life... shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:38-39). We can say with Job, and with far greater light, "though he slay me, yet will I trust in him", for we know the One in whom we trust has already passed through death and out the other side, and holds the keys of death itself (Revelation 1:18). Job added, "he also shall be my salvation" (v16), and so He is: the LORD Jesus is our salvation, in whom we may trust even unto death, certain that beyond the grave He is waiting. To trust God though He slay us is possible only because, in Christ, death is not the end but the door.

Word Study

"hidest thy face," Hebrew panekha tastir (פָּנֶיךָ תַסְתִּיר), from sathar, to conceal, hide. Immediately after the summit of trust comes the depth of anguish: "Wherefore hidest thou thy face?" This shows that Job's great faith of verse 15 was not the absence of pain but faith within pain. He trusts God, and yet he feels God's face turned away. The "hiding of God's face" is a recurring biblical description of the felt withdrawal of God's presence and favor, "how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?" (Psalm 13:1); "hide not thy face far from me" (Psalm 27:9). It is one of the hardest of all sufferings, worse than the loss of things, to feel that God Himself has turned away. And here Job's experience becomes a shadow of something far greater. There was One who was not God's enemy in any sense, the sinless Son, who nonetheless endured the true hiding of the Father's face, so that we who deserved that hiding might never suffer it. Job felt the hidden face and trusted still; Christ endured the hidden face in full, that God's face might shine on us for ever.

"holdest me for thine enemy," tachsheveni le'oyev lakh (תַּחְשְׁבֵנִי לְאוֹיֵב לָךְ), reckon me as a foe to you. The second half of Job's question is sharper still: "and holdest me for thine enemy?" The verb is one of reckoning, of entering a man on the books under a certain heading, and Job cannot understand why he has been entered as a foe. He does not understand why; he knows he has not made himself God's enemy, yet he is treated as one.

Explanation

Right after the summit of trust comes deep anguish: "Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?" This shows Job's great faith was not the absence of pain but faith within pain. He trusts God and yet feels God's face turned away, feels treated as a foe. The "hiding of God's face" is the felt withdrawal of God's presence (Psalm 13:1; 27:9), one of the hardest of all sufferings. Job cannot understand it, for he has not made himself God's enemy. His anguish foreshadows the One who, though never God's enemy, endured the true hiding of the Father's face for us.

Gospel Focus

"Wherefore hidest thou thy face?", Job felt the hiding of God's face though he was no enemy of God; and there was One who endured that hiding in its fullness, though He was the beloved Son. On the cross, Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). The Father's face was truly hidden from the Son, not because Christ had become God's enemy, but because He bore the sin of God's enemies, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Romans 5:10). He was made "sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21), and in that hour endured the real, not merely felt, turning away of God, the very thing our sins deserved. Because Christ endured the hidden face for us, God's face will never be finally hidden from those who are His. The dark experience Job could not explain, the sense of God treating him as an enemy, was carried in full by Jesus, so that God can now say to us, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5), and lift upon us the blessing, "The LORD make his face shine upon thee... The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace" (Numbers 6:25-26). Even when, like Job, we feel God's face is hidden, the cross assures us it is not turned away in wrath; the wrath fell on Christ, and for us there remains only the shining face of a reconciled God.