Job 13:16

Would God desert him? No! God would be his salvation. He was sure of this. It is true that appearances did not persuade his friends. If a man turned away from God by sinning, he would not have such confidence in God as Job had, "for a hypocrite could not come before Him" (v.16). So Job urges his friends (or critics) to listen closely to what he says. He had not been careless in preparing his case for judgment. He was certain his case deserved careful consideration, for he says, "I know I shall be vindicated" (v.18).

Look, He will slay me, yet will I trust Him; but my ways to His face I will argue. This also will be my salvation, that no polluted one shall come before Him... Look now, I have ordered my case, I know that I shall be justified.

There was a far deeper faith in Job than in all the other three, or in any of them. He did not mean, "though I am lost." Oh no, he had no idea of that. "Though He slay me" — he knew that the best thing was not life on the earth; he is learning that; the best thing is the life to come. There it would be all according to God; but here it is in confusion, and in every kind of moral anomaly. "He also shall be my salvation" — he has no doubt about that — "for a hypocrite shall not come before him." He was very far from that.

On the one hand, there was a remarkable spirit of faith, which led him to take all that had happened from His hand... He had wanted to die. If God should answer that wish and slay him, he would not lose confidence but would still trust in Him. This was excellent. But at the same time Job revealed his very weak spot: he was determined to "maintain," or "defend" his own ways before Him. So we see that in a true saint very real faith in God may exist, and yet a very determined measure of self-esteem may spoil it.

Job was upright, but he began to make this his righteousness. That clearly proves that he had never really been in the presence of God. The result was this. He reasoned better than his friends, and he showed a heart that felt far more than they did what God is. Yet he charged God with injustice, and with a desire to harass him without cause (see Job 19; 23:3, 13; 13:15-18; 16:12)... God was bringing him to say, "Now my eye sees You, and I abhor myself."

So the frail creature takes his life in his hand and stands before his Maker. God can only strike dead a man who has no hope, but Job must speak out and defend his ways as upright before God. This is the thought that seems to fit best with what goes before. On the other hand, many, perhaps most, prefer the reading of our Authorized Version: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Read that way, it is a gleam of light in the middle of awful darkness, and it seems to agree with what follows. Sure of his own uprightness, Job seems to think there may be hope. At any rate, he must speak.