Job 13:24–25

He did not claim to be better than his friends, but he was certainly not below them. Still, he admitted that God's dealings puzzled him, since they were far above him and out of his sight. So, as verse 3 shows, what he wanted was to speak to the Almighty and reason with God, instead of spending his time reasoning with his friends.

"Behold, He finds occasions (or, malicious things) against me, He counts me as His enemy" (Job 33:10)… "Why do You hide Your face and count me as Your enemy?" (Job 13:24; so also Job 19:11). So the insult against divine majesty becomes glaring — Job is pure, but God treats him as impure!

He breaks out in fresh charges against God. His self-righteousness has blinded him so that he asks, "Why do You hide Your face and count me as Your enemy?" He brings terrible charges against his Maker — charges of injustice.

He never said anything of the kind; he never had the presumption to say, "I am clean in Your eyes." No, no, far from it. Sadly, he had rested in being clean in his own eyes, and in other people's eyes. But he had to learn that being clean in God's eyes was a very different thing. He begins to learn that more and more deeply.

God holds him as an enemy. He drives him like a withered leaf before the wind. He accuses him of those almost forgotten sins of youth (ah, Job, it seems that even you must admit there have been sins). He watches him, and makes his imagined robe of righteousness look like a moth-eaten garment. So Job charges his Maker, and does not pause to hear what He will reply.

Will he apologise for the apparent discrepancy in God's ways, and seek to explain it away? No; in one brief sentence he sets aside all human reasoning — "God is greater than man." In other words, God is God. If we are to reason, let it not be from the lesser to the greater, but from the greater to the less. Let us say, How could the Almighty, all-perfect Being commit an unrighteous act? "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" (Gen. 18:25).

But how dare he speak before the One he would instinctively flee from? … How these words, beautiful in their very anguish, cry aloud for the blessed Daysman, the Mediator! Blessed be God, we can "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Job could only grope in darkness.

We must also remember that the saints of earlier days were not in as good a position as we are today. … The blessed God doubtless met them in their needs, but they did not have, as we do, a sympathising high Priest in heaven. … This man, along with David and Hezekiah, shows us the saint in bodily suffering.

Did he say that there was no sin in him? He never said anything of the kind; he was never so bold as to say, "I am clean in Your eyes." No, no, far from it. Sadly, he had rested in being clean in his own eyes and in the eyes of other people. He had to learn that being clean in God's eyes was a very different thing. He begins to learn that more and more deeply. "Why do You hide Your face and count me as Your enemy? Will You frighten a driven leaf?" Was that a person pretending to any strength?

Because God did not respond, Job thought God considered him an enemy (v.24). He compared himself to a leaf or to dry stubble, not worth any attention. Why would God frighten an object so insignificant?

And yet at once he renews his charges against God. He is not yet ready to let go of his imagined righteousness. God holds him as an enemy. God drives him like a withered leaf before the wind. God accuses him of those almost forgotten sins of youth (ah, Job, it seems that even you must admit there have been sins). So Job charges his Maker, and does not pause to hear what He will reply.

He asked only for relief from suffering, and that the dread of Him should not overwhelm him. He wanted to find out all that was wrong in himself. He begged to know why he was driven to and fro like a leaf or dry stubble. He did not yet know the grace that was giving him self-judgment. He sees only a record kept of bitter things, and himself made to inherit his youthful iniquities.

This man, along with David and Hezekiah, shows a believer suffering in his body. "Why do You hide Your face and count me as Your enemy? Will You frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff?" (Job 13:24-25). "O Lord, rebuke me not in Your anger, nor discipline me in Your wrath" (David, Ps. 6:1). For Hezekiah, see Isaiah 38. What good would a prayer book or a written form of prayer have been to men in such circumstances? No one can predict the distresses of the heart.

To be "let alone" by God is the most awful condition in which man can find himself. It is ten thousand times better to be poured from one jar to another, like Job, than to be left to drift down the stream, like Ephraim. It is better to feel the weight of God's hand in discipline — for it is a Father's hand — than to live with the sense that He has turned His face away.