Job 13:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 13:14

Comments

Why do I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hands, by daring to enter into dispute with the Lord? Job is well aware that it is a rash thing to do to question the Lord’s providence. It is foolhardy to find fault with God concerning the treatment that he is receiving at his hands, but he feels compelled to do so. The proverb describes someone who puts himself in extreme danger. He takes his flesh, his precious life, in his teeth, where he would normally put only what he intends to devour. That is no way to treat his own life which deserves such careful nurturing. Similarly, for a man to take his life in his hands is to expose himself to extreme danger. The life is too precious to be placed in the hands of someone fallible who might drop it or break it; it needs to be kept in a safer place than this. Nevertheless, Job admits, by disputing with the Lord he had done this very thing, for no one can question his government, without inviting his wrath. Who has ever proven his case against the Lord? Who has ever contested with the Lord and got the better of him?Job’s state of mind is severely agitated but he has not abandoned faith. On the one hand, he insists that his faith is so strong that he will go on trusting God, even though the Lord slays him. In all the confusion of the situation, he trusts God and ultimately throws himself on the mercy of God. He will still believe that God is good, only he longs to know how his suffering is consistent with God’s goodness. He longs for answers. But on the other hand, he will not cease defending his own integrity and resisting the conclusion – urged on him by the three ‘comforters’, by Satan, and by self-accusation – that he is a hypocrite. He doesn’t understand what God is doing to him, and he craves an explanation that is consistent with the goodness of God, but he knows that he is acting rashly. Therefore, although it is a rash thing to do, he will defend his ways before God.

Application

Calvin says, ‘It is true that not all men are tried as Job is tried, that is, with such rigour, and yet we must come to the touchstone, which will show us to have nothing but vain speculations. If God does not at times summon us, so that we see what our sins are, and what endless death is, and understand that, with respect to ourselves, we are destitute of salvation and shut out of all hope; if he does not do this, we will never know how to treat God rightly, or have one iota of heart affection for him’ (Calvin – English updated). The apostle Paul said, ‘Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men’ (2 Corinthians 5:11). He had felt that terror deep within him – the possibility of facing God’s wrath, and he had not forgotten it. Though he was now in a state of grace and delivered from terror, he still remembered what it was, and it strongly motivated him to want to reach others with the gospel.

‘Death is horrible to us, because it is contrary to our nature. That is what dismays men. But on the other hand we see that we are held here, as those who are in prison. While we are in the body, we are in bondage to sin, so that we are compelled to sigh and sorrow and to long for eternity which God promises us after we are taken out of the world (for as we are drawn towards death, we approach it, and death is the very gateway to life). We assure ourselves that since Christ has passed the same way, we need not be afraid that death has any power over us, for it is a blunted sword whose point is broken off so that it cannot hurt us, and although it draws some blood from us, yet it will serve simply to rid us of all diseases. These things – fear of death and hope of eternity – seem to be opposites and indeed they are, but God so arranges our affairs that the things we conceive naturally we put under foot, because faith gets the upper hand … For we see that the faithful are fully resolved to put their trust in God and hope for salvation from his hand, however the world goes … When we trust in God and call upon him, that does not mean that there is no conflict within us, but faith must get the upper hand, and peace must win the victory, that is, we must get mastery of our hearts’ (Calvin – English updated). We are to read our own hearts, and when troubling thoughts arise we must oppose them with faith in God, and not give them freedom to roam about at will in our souls.

Questions

This has nothing to do with where Job thinks his soul is safe. He is not saying, I have transferred my soul to my own care, because I can look after it myself. H explicitly says the opposite in the next verse. It is only about the rash course he is taking, supposedly because he is compelled to behave in this way.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Job 13:14 Commentary and Bible Study