Job 19:7–11

There follows now a fearful accusation against God. It is good for Job that he is accusing infinite patience, or he might have had a real taste of divine anger. But God bears with it all, waiting His own time to bring the poor distracted man into His own holy presence. Job cries out for judgment and help, but no answer is given.

Job protests against the constant suspicion that follows him, in spite of his solemn claims of innocence. If it really were punishment for evil, that was his own business. But he would meet their thought, and openly acknowledge that his trouble did come from God. It was He who had hurled him down, and surrounded him with tangles he could not escape. It was He who refused to listen to his cry, and gave no ear to his appeals. It was He who had hedged up his way so that he could not escape. He covered his path with darkness, stripped him of honour, and took the crown from his head.

What proof did they have of sin in his past? If he had really sinned, the secret lay in his own heart, where they had no right to intrude. They goad him on to declaring, as he had already done, that the wrong was not his but God's! This root of suspicion against the Almighty is the thing that must be dug out. These men's false charges will never do it.

God does not deal with man on a legal basis, as most people think. So Job speaks of crying out about wrong, and of being ignored by God. Where was the justice in this? (v.7).

Of course God heard him, but God answers only at the right time and in the right way. Had God become cruel to him? He thought so, but it was the love of God that delayed an answer. What he considered God's hand strong against him was really the strength of God's love for him.

Thus, he considers he is the subject of God's bitter anger and that God counts him as His enemy (v.11). How totally wrong Job was in all this. But when one is bound up in "self" he will always think of God in this accusatory way. Yet in all the trouble Job was experiencing, God was acting toward him in genuine love and compassion.

Human love would have rushed to help at once. But letting death come in first brought, in the raising of Lazarus, what nothing else could: glory to God, and glory to Christ Himself. How then it should still our hearts in the presence of God when He seems to delay to answer our cries! Urgent need or pressing danger is usually persistent and impatient. "Has not God said," we repeat at such times, "that He will hear our prayers?" How then is it that we have cried in vain? No! We never cry to Him in vain. "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer." (1 Peter 3:12.) If the Lord waits, He waits only for His own glory, and our fuller blessing.

It was He who had hurled him down, and wrapped him in snares he could not escape. It was He who refused to listen to his cry, and gave no ear to his appeals. It was God who had hedged up his way so that he could not get out. He covered his path with darkness, stripped him of honour, and took the crown off his head. He crushed him on every side, so that he was slipping away, and uprooted even his hope.

How boldly he speaks out. And this, as far as it goes, could not have been without real faith, though it was far below the meek submission of our blessed Lord. Did they say that God was against Job? "God has overthrown me," he acknowledges. If it was any comfort for them to know, he confesses that his trouble came from His hand.

God does not deal with man on a legal basis, as men generally think; so Job speaks of crying out about wrong and being ignored by God. Where was the justice in this? (v.7). Job felt so hemmed in that he was like a prisoner unable to find any way out, with darkness hedging him in (v.8).

Whatever the means used, it was God. It was the same God who had hedged him in and blessed him without a break until now. He did not know how to fit the present together with the past. For that he had to wait. The answer came at last, when patience had its perfect work.

Job thought God was against him; but he has to learn that God was the only One who was truly for him. Satan, Sabeans, the winds and the fire of heaven, his wife and his three friends — all were against him, and set on destroying or condemning him. And last of all he has to learn that he was against himself. There was only One in the universe who was his Friend, and He was the One Job counted as his enemy. And all God's dealings with him were for his good.

But what a change! Suddenly light breaks in. He is not speaking on his own. The Spirit of God enlightens his soul and gives him words that stand in striking contrast with all his earlier wailing.

Did they say that God was against Job? He admits it: God has overthrown him. If it was any comfort to them to know it, he confesses that his trouble came from God's hand, and that God has closed His net around him. … It is Job who points out, not they, that everyone has deserted him — his wife, his brothers, his servants, his household.

Job felt so hemmed in that he was like a prisoner with no way out, with darkness closing him in (v.8). His prosperity and dignity had been stripped from him, and he says God has broken him down on every side, leaving him no road to hope at all (vv.9-10).

What follows is a terrible accusation against God. It is good for Job that the One he accuses is infinitely patient, or he might have had a real taste of divine anger. But God bears with it all, waiting for His own time to bring the poor, distressed man into His own holy presence. … He had brought him into darkness, had torn his honour from him, and thrown the crown of dignity from his head. Like an uprooted tree, he lay flat and helpless.

"He has stripped from me my glory and taken the crown from my head." He felt all this very deeply. What right has any believer to a crown now? What right has any believer to glory now? Doesn't he have an evil nature that needs judging every single day? Does that deserve a crown? … We will be crowned on the day when we have nothing but what is of Christ, with every bit of the old nature gone. That is where Job had much to learn.

Satan was used to bring out the boils that covered Job's body from head to foot. This made his moral condition plain to see. On the outside, in the sight of man, he now looked like what he already was on the inside, in the sight of God. His disappointment was great, and he complained of God's treatment of him — taking away his glory and his crown. But once he accepted God's estimate of himself, he defended himself no longer.

This is the only road to true greatness. When Job reached this point, God gave him a double portion, so that the end of his life was more blessed than its beginning. It is always so. As sinners we are stripped of human righteousness; as believers we are stripped of self-satisfaction. Either way the end is blessing. The truly great before God are the truly small in their own eyes.

Job felt so hemmed in that he was like a prisoner with no way out, with darkness closing round him (v.8). His prosperity and dignity had been stripped away. He says God has broken him down on every side, leaving him not even a path of hope (vv.9-10).

"Know now that God has overthrown me." How boldly he speaks out. And this, as far as it goes, could not have come without real faith. Yet it fell far below the meek submission of our blessed Lord. Did they say that God was against Job? "God has overthrown me," he acknowledges.

A plant is different. You may cut it right down until nothing shows, and yet it may shoot up again, especially if there is water to help it.

Like an uprooted tree, he lay flat and helpless under the fierce wrath of God.

So he thinks he is the subject of God's bitter anger, and that God counts him as His enemy (v.11). How completely wrong Job was in all this. But when one is bound up in "self" he will always think of God in this accusatory way. Yet in all the trouble Job was experiencing, God was acting toward him in genuine love and compassion. At the moment Job could not see this, as later he would.

Every prop must be removed and every joy on earth taken away, and still Job will hold to the God he has trusted, even if his trust is dim. And on the other side, through the very trials he must pass through, Job will learn the lesson of all lessons, for all eternity: that God is all in all. As a step toward that knowledge, he will see that he is nothing.

God saw that His servant needed to learn a lesson. He also saw that there was no other way, no other means, to teach it than to put him through an ordeal whose bare record fills the mind with solemn awe. God will teach His children, even if it means stripping them of all that the heart clings to in this world.

And then, in the middle of all this mourning, he speaks those magnificent words of faith: "I know that my Redeemer lives." But this was the very God he had just been charging with injustice! How good it is to see Job's faith in all this turmoil, turning to the very One he was speaking against!

He would meet their thought, and frankly acknowledge that his trouble did come from God. It was He who had hurled him down, and hemmed him in with inescapable snares. It was He who refused to listen to his cry... It was He who had blocked his way so that he could not escape. He covered his path with darkness, stripped him of honour, and took the crown from his head. He crushed him on every side, so that he was gone, and uprooted even his hope. It was He whose anger burned against him, and who counted him as one of His foes. He massed His troops, raised up mounds against him, and camped all around.

It is perfectly true it must have been God allowing all this. "He has kindled His wrath against me" — there he was wrong — "and counts me as His adversary."

So he considers he is the object of God's bitter anger and that God counts him as His enemy (v.11). How totally wrong Job was in all this. But when someone is bound up in "self" he will always think of God in this accusing way. Yet in all the trouble Job was going through, God was acting toward him in genuine love and compassion. At the moment Job could not see this, as later he would.

This root of suspicion against the Almighty must be searched out, and these men's false charges will never do it. There follows now a terrible accusation against God. It is well for Job that he is accusing infinite patience, or he might have had a real taste of divine anger. But God bears with it all, waiting for His own time to bring the poor distracted man into His own holy presence.

Job thought God was against him; but he has to learn that God was the only One who was truly for him. Satan, Sabeans, the winds and the fire of heaven, his wife and his three friends — all were against him, and set on his destruction or condemnation. And last of all he has to learn that he was against himself. There was only One in the universe who was his Friend, and He was the One Job regarded as his enemy... They would have destroyed Job body and soul if God had let them. But God sets a limit to their power. Like the lance in a skilled surgeon's hand, it can only touch what is destructive to life, and separate the precious from the worthless.

Now God acts in these trials as a father. He chastises us. They come perhaps, as in the case of Job, from the enemy, but the hand and the wisdom of God are in them. He chastises those whom He loves. We must therefore neither despise the chastisement nor be discouraged by it. We must not despise it, for He does not chastise without a motive or a cause — and besides, it is God who does it. Nor must we be discouraged, for He does it in love.