Job 10:17

And now the darkest of all. The worst of it is not the physical agony, the boils and running sores torturing him. It is the bitter awareness that he is losing his hold on God. He is starting to see Him no longer as a loving friend, but as a harsh, unmovable tyrant. It is a death struggle he is passing through. His soul is weary of his life, and so he tells out the bitterness of his heart. What accusations are here! This is bold language for a creature of dust, and for such an afflicted creature: "I will say to God — show me why You contend with me." He charges God with planning his calamity and destruction.

Also God had arrayed witnesses against him in the persons of his three friends, thus increasing His indignation against Job (v.17). He felt himself continually changing from one evil to another, as though his own soul was the area of warfare.

If he sins, God would note it, and woe to him! If he is innocent he dare not lift his head. God would quickly hunt him like a fierce lion seeking prey. God would display His wonderful power, and bring up witnesses against him like a countless host of invaders. In other words, Job declares he is at the mercy of an almighty, arbitrary enemy!

This is clear in the next words Elihu quotes: "Behold, He finds occasions (or, malicious things) against me, He counts me as His enemy" (Job 33:10). So Job had declared, "These things You have hidden in Your heart… You humble me as a fierce lion… changes and war are against me" (Job 10:13-17). "Why do You hide Your face, and hold me for Your enemy?" (Job 13:24; also Job 19:11). So the insult against divine majesty becomes glaring — Job is pure, but God treats him as impure!

We must remember this carefully. The book of Job is inspired, but it would be a great mistake to grant that the speeches are inspired. Satan's words were certainly not inspired, yet they are recorded there. Part of the profit of the book is that we have the mistakes of the speakers. Every one of the three friends was very much mistaken in what he said, and Job himself also. Only when we come to Elihu do we get the mind of God, as far as a man is inspired. Then we have Jehovah's own word clearing up all the difficulty.

But notice this in his grievous protest against God: Job still speaks to God and pleads with Him. He does so even while he is as unjust toward God as he thinks God is unjust toward him. He had yet to learn the pity and tender mercy of God, which stands above Satan's malice, in spite of it. The day had not yet come for the Only-begotten Son, in the bosom of the Father, to declare the God whom no one has seen. Nor had the day come for Him, as the Son of Man, to glorify God, even in the matter of sin, on the cross, where He also bore the sins of us who believe. How little we appreciate the value of the true light that now shines!