Job 17:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Job 17:3

Comments

Talking not to the three comforters but to the Lord himself, Job asks again for what he regards as essential if he was to have an audience with God: a pledge from God that he will not use his infinite power to overwhelm Job, but will give him an opportunity to express his side of the case. Barnes suggests that the words ‘lay down now’ may refer to a custom associated with making a pledge, which we are now ignorant of. If this is the meaning, it is similar to the request found in 9:32-35, and it is an expansion of the prayer in 16:21. Job is struggling with the thought of God as a harsh judge who is only bent on destroying all sin and is incapable of showing mercy. This severe side of God’s character offers no hope because God will always be able to find unrighteousness in even the best of human beings. Such an agreement was customarily sealed by a handshake, binding two parties to each other, but Job expresses his doubt that anyone would be willing to do such a thing for him. This self-attack, self-demoralisation, dismissing of the possibility of God’s help brings him further into despair. The antidote is to remind ourselves that the Lord knows our need better than we do ourselves. What Job vaguely felt the need for, God has wonderfully provided through Jesus Christ, our Lord (Hebrews 7:22).Certainly no surety such as Job speaks of, will come from among the three comforters because they are devoid of understanding. They present themselves as lovers of truth, who defend the reputation of God and have great experience, but in reality they know nothing of any value. Why are they in this state after a lifetime of study and searching for the truth? Because God himself has hidden understanding from their hearts; he has prevented understanding entering their hearts. No amount of exposure to the truth can bring us into a state of understanding if the Spirit of God does not teach us. God will not exalt them to heaven but they will be shut out of his presence. Job now rejects them as people without understanding. As a result of what they have said, as a result of their response to Job’s suffering, he has come to the conclusion that they lack any true spiritual understanding.

Application

Looking at the chapter as a whole we see just on an orgy of self-destruction. Nobody can be trusted. He feels that no one will deal straight with him. We too can become preoccupied with ourselves. There was a time you could visit Job and he lifted your spirits, but now he is closed in on himself. When despair is upon us, it is as if gloom must descend on all around us. The world out there does not matter. You think the whole world revolves around you as if nothing matters: the cause of Christ, the winning of lost souls, the state of the church. As an unbeliever would say, ‘You seem to think the world should break its heart for you.’ We must take hold of each irrational thought, and not let it go round and round in our heads. Treat them like the gossips that Spurgeon dealt with; don’t let them go on and on but spend an hour or so writing them down and then turn your mind to more encouraging things. The believer has one who is absolutely true to all his promises. Also many men, other believers, will be very honest, true, genuine.

Questions

The KJV renders the verb in the first phrase of verse 5 as ‘speaketh flattery’, but others see a reference to one who betrays his friend to the plunderer. Barnes prefers this because the word means ‘smoothness’ and is used of smooth stones, that is, stones used to cast lots to divide the spoil. He suggests that here it is synonymous with plunder and that Job is saying that the friends acted as those who betrayed the residence of their friend to robbers, that they might share in the plunder. Job is then arguing that in falsely taking God’s side they have betrayed the truth in the interests of defending their own erroneous theology. They know, he implies, that there is more to his case than they are. They have chosen to take the easy way out and to assume that he is guilty of secret sin and that God is therefore angry with him. In doing this, they are like those who betray a friend to get their hands on his goods. Who will sell his friend for money? Job feels his friends have never been straight with him. They were friendly previously, but now he is down they show their true colours.

Does God really judge the children of the wicked for the sins of their parents? Not for their parents’ sins, but for their own sins. However for the sake of the parents, he withholds his restraint on the children and allows them to follow their evil inclinations which inevitably lead them into wickedness which he will then punish, ‘visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me’ (Exodus 20:5).

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Introduction

Job 17:3 Commentary and Bible Study