Job puts God on notice: Job 13

In Job's response, he declares his intentions to take on God, to call God into court, to plead his case against God. "But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue with God... Behold now, I have prepared my case; I know that I will be vindicated." (Job 13:3, 18) Job outlines his case against God:

1. God is punishing Job for his sins without letting Job know what those sins are. (Job 13:23)
2. God is treating Job like an enemy and has turned His face away from him. (Job 13:24)
3. God is pursuing Job when He must have more important things to do. (Job 13:25)
4. God is bringing into judgment Job's youthful sins, even though now he is an upright man. (Job 13:26)
5. God's punishment of Job is unrelenting, even as he waists away from his affliction. (Job 13:27-28)

Job has made a fatal mistake. He has forgotten the greatness of God. He thinks he can take on God and win. He thinks he can stand equal to God and question Him. "Only two things do not do to me, then I will not hide from Your face: remove Your hand from me, and let not the dread of You terrify me. Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, then reply to me." (Job 13:20-22) Job is basically asking that he might stand next to God as one being equal. If God would just stop oppressing him, and remove the fear that God has brought on him, then he can stand equal with God.

We relate to God in many ways. God is our friend: "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15) Jesus is our brother: "For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren," (Hebrews 2:11) God is our father: "I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God." (John 20:17) And He is our Lord and our God: "Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!' " (John 20:28)

While God is our friend, brother, and father, He is also our Lord and our God. Job had lost some of his reverence for God, some of his fear of God. While God wants to know us intimately, He is still to be feared and reverenced. Familiarity with God should never breed contempt. Job was moving from wisdom to folly in his thinking. Solomon said, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10) When we lose our fear of the Lord, we lose our wisdom. Our minds become foolish and we lose site of the wisdom of God.

In the end, Job will get His wish, God will meet with him and speak with him. Then he will realize how foolish he has been. More on that later.

David Robison