Job 21:4 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Job 21:4

Comments

Job feels compelled to unburden himself even though there is risk that in doing so he will only be hurt even more, since those with him are incapable of sympathy and have used everything that he has said in his defence as a weapon against him. What he needs is someone who is truly going to be for him and can weigh up his words without prejudice. However the greatest cause of his grief is not what men do to him, but what God does. In spite of all the bitter and cruel words that the three have spoken; his greatest cause of distress is the way that God is treating him. Why does God treat one who has loved and obeyed him with such harshness and offer no explanation for this?It is remarkable that in the New Testament Job is renowned for his patience or perseverance or constancy (James 5:11), but here he admits his own impatience. He does so because he knew that he had uttered hasty words, words that in better days he would not have uttered. Nevertheless he was patient and he endured in the sense that he continued to trust God and to hope that God could and would give him an explanation for all that he was suffering. He appeals to them to show what he considered an appropriate response to such an extreme trial in their friend. Why didn’t they put their hands over their mouths in token of the fact that they had nothing worth saying in such an extreme situation? Why didn’t they admit that Job’s predicament was more than they could explain. If they could not think of an appropriate response, let them not fabricate one. Let them not pretend to understand what they do not understand. It is a mark of pride when a man faced with mystery, claims to know more about it that he really does. ‘How can you attack me like this when you can see my condition? Doesn’t common sense tell you that I am not up to receiving this?’ Let him have the humility to wait for more light and to admit the limits of his knowledge until then. These men were old, but they still needed to admit that they were out of their depth.

Application

As Job considers his predicament, he can only tremble at the thought of what God is doing to him. Sometimes the friends of God suffer the sharpest trials and most face the most searching questions. This teaches them to resolve all of their own wisdom into the wisdom of God and to submit their minds to him who knows all things and cannot be mistaken.

When depressed we are not able to field assaults on our faith which insist: ‘You are not a believer’. In themselves they are no proof of the judgement of God. We will know if we are really sinning against God, but time after time we are too hasty to believe that all is not well with our own souls.

Questions

The question at the start of verse 4 implies an answer which is not expressed: ‘No, my complaint is not against man but against God.’ What follows assumes that answer, and explains why Job is defending the severity of his situation. He is saying, ‘If my complaint is against God’, or, ‘Since my complaint is against God’, or, ‘If this is what I am having to suffer, then are you surprised that I am deeply troubled?’

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Job 21:4 Commentary and Bible Study