Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him?
Job has been listening to three friends explain his suffering. Now he turns the charge around. The men defending God are the ones twisting the truth. His question unsettles anyone who speaks about God. Can a man lie in God's name and call it service to God?
The charge: false witnesses for God
Job's friends were not inventing new doctrine. They were taking true things about God and bending them to fit a verdict they had already reached about him.
Samuel RidoutNext, Job boldly charges his friends with being false witnesses for God. They used well-known truths, familiar to everyone, to back up their charge that Job was wicked. What kind of physicians were they, to treat a case like this? They have decided what his disease is, and they misrepresent his symptoms to confirm their diagnosis! And they bring in their theory that God always punishes sin in this life, to prove that Job is a sinner! Job turns from them in disgust. He warns them of how unrighteous their course is. They presume to lie for God!
Taking sides, and calling it loyalty
The next verse asks whether they will show partiality toward God. One writer takes that as favouritism based on appearances, and says the friends were doing it.
William Kelly"Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for Him?" That is what they had been doing. They pretended it was for God… "He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality" — and that is what they were doing. They were showing partiality falsely, going by appearance.
Speaking for God without His backing
Job's confidence rests on something simple: God knew the accusations were false.
Leslie M. GrantThey were speaking wickedly on God's behalf, using deceit in claiming to speak for God. Job knew God was fully aware that his friends' charges were not true. So God was certainly not backing them up. Job knew that God was not deceitful, as his friends were proving to be… Men should deeply fear to misrepresent God, whose glory is so high above the heavens.
The reasoning that produced the lie
Behind their speeches lay a method: judge a man's standing with God by his circumstances. One writer compares it to Gamaliel, a teacher in Acts. Gamaliel advised waiting to see how a movement turned out before judging it. That test fails, and here is why.
Numerical Bible NotesHis judgment by the outcome leaves him a doubter until that outcome arrives. And when, and what, may that outcome be?… Who can pierce the clouds and darkness that are around Him? Who can give a trustworthy account of all His doings? The Psalmist complained about the prosperity of the wicked. He had to follow them beyond death before he found satisfaction. Job's friends argue like Gamaliel here, and the sufferer rebukes them for speaking deceitfully for God (Job 13:7). He too has seen the wicked spend their days in prosperity.
The verdict at the end of the book
Job's warning that God would rebuke them was not empty. When God speaks at the end of the book, the men who had defended Him are the ones in trouble.
Samuel RidoutSo it is no surprise that God turns to Eliphaz and his friends with stern rebuke for their part in the dispute… He addresses Eliphaz, the leader of the three. The Lord declares His wrath against them all, because they had not spoken of Him what is right, as His servant Job had. And yet their whole case had seemed to be for God's righteousness!… Zealous for God's honour! — that had been their one theme.
What Job wanted instead
Job stops trading arguments with men. He asks for a hearing from God Himself, even though God's dealings baffled him.
F. B. HoleHe did not claim to be better than his friends, but at any rate he was not beneath them. Still, he admitted that God's dealings mystified him. They were far above him and out of his sight. So, as verse 3 shows, he wanted to speak to the Almighty and reason with God, instead of spending his time reasoning with his friends.
Summary
- The charge. Job accuses his friends of being false witnesses for God. They used true statements to prop up a false diagnosis of him.
- The motive. They "pretended it was for God," taking sides by appearances, not by fact.
- The error. They judged a man by how his life turns out. Job answers that the wicked also prosper.
- The danger. God knew their charges were untrue, so He was not backing them. Misrepresenting God is a thing to fear, not a service to Him.
- The verdict. Zeal for God's honour was their one theme, yet God rebuked them for not speaking rightly of Him. Job turned from arguing with men to reasoning with God, and God said Job had spoken what is right.