Job 13:24 Commentary and Bible Study

He is judging God’s attitude towards him almost entirely on the basis of his circumstances, what he can see. He suffers and all things come from the hand of God, therefore this suffering comes from the hand of God, therefore God is angry with him and is against him. Was it reasonable of him to think in this way? How was he expected to believe that God loved him when to all appearances the opposite was true? The believer is always under obligation to exercise faith, and only faith can make sense of the perplexing paths down which we have to walk. Faith looks ahead to when God will have untangled all the perplexities of life and made all things clear. Faith remembers what God has done for our souls and does not allow that token of his love to be stolen from it. It looks on the promise that it possesses, and sees whose name is attached to that promise. It knows that God cannot contradict himself and pits his promise against frowning providences and finds peace even though surrounded by the storm. It says, God is my heavenly Father and he loves me, therefore this terrible event is not to be understood as a sign of his hatred of my soul, but is given to me to test faith and to increase my patience, and I will be victorious over the doubts that Satan puts in my head, and trust God.In the next few verses he uses expressions which show his own feebleness and fecklessness as a mortal man. His argument is, how can it be of any interest to God, how can there be any gain for God to harry him so much, when it is obvious that he is not an opponent of any consequence to God, indeed he is utterly helpless and powerless. What man would take any trouble to pursue something so insignificant as a driven leaf, when the wind made it flutter this way and that? Job is also insignificant to God and yet his sense is that God will not give up, but even after he is stripped of all power and all respect and has lost everything, God seems to continue to pursue him relentlessly. Why? The stubble that is picked up by the wind after the corn is harvested is not a thing of any value; it is of no consequence to the farmer. Why should he race around pursuing it when it is already consigned to oblivion? He was certainly willing to adopt humble language in speaking of himself in this way, and this is a right way to approach the Lord. Our natural frailty is an argument that we can bring to him to obtain his help. And yet God does not view his children as they are in themselves, but as they are in Christ. For the Son’s sake he loves his children and values them very highly. Job had lost sight of this and to this extent his faith had failed. The truth was very different. He could not see how God could so act towards his child, and still love that child, and yet this was the truth. He was greatly loved by God and in reality this treatment was not incompatible with that love, but there was a purpose too deep for him to see at the moment. He would come forth from this trial tried like gold in the fire and would be sanctified and purified in a way that no other experience could have achieved.