Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?
Job has stopped arguing with his three friends and turned to God Himself. His cry here is the sharpest in the book so far: a hidden face, and a man counted among God's foes. Two questions follow. Is the charge true? And what should a suffering believer do when God seems silent?
From the friends to God
Why is Job speaking to God at all, instead of answering his friends?
F. B. HoleHe 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.
A question that is an accusation
The words sound like a plea, but they carry a charge. Job says God treats an innocent man as guilty. Later in the book, Elihu quotes the complaint back to him.
Samuel Ridout"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!
Gaebelein traces the outburst back to how Job saw himself:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe 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.
What Job still had to learn
Did Job ever claim there was no sin in him?
William KellyHe 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.
The charge, and no waiting for a reply
What comes after the question is a list of what Job thinks God is doing to him.
Samuel RidoutGod 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.
How the book answers him
Later in the book, Elihu answers this charge:
Samuel RidoutWill 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).
The Mediator Job was reaching for
Job wants to speak to God and dreads Him at the same time.
Samuel RidoutBut 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.
Job's place in history matters too:
James McBroomWe 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.
Summary
- Turning. Job stops arguing with his friends and takes his case to God. But he brings his self-defence with him.
- Accusing. The question is a charge in disguise: that God treats a pure man as impure. Elihu later quotes it back as proof.
- Blinded. Job never claimed to be sinless. He rested in being clean in his own eyes. He had yet to learn what it means to be clean in God's.
- Answered. The reply is not an explanation of God's ways but a word about God: "God is greater than man." Reason from the greater down, not the lesser up.
- Provided. Job cried out for a Mediator he could not see. Believers now have a sympathising High Priest, and a throne of grace they can draw near to with confidence.