Job 19:1

This was the worst of the speeches so far. So God's hand leads Job far out of and beyond himself. It may be slowly, and only for a little. Still, after this comes a bright glimpse of Him who is coming — the Seed of the woman, for whom saints had waited from the first. "How long," answered Job, "will you vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?" — for he felt that in their reproaches there was no weight, nothing but words.

Bildad's cruel language may have pained him deeply. Still, Job's reply shows not the slightest sense of the guilt laid at his door... And yet it is wonderful to see the poor crushed spirit rise from the dust. It rises in those words of faith and hope: "I know that my Redeemer lives." His appeal to the friends for pity is most touching, though useless... (1) Reproach (Job 19:1-6). (2) God's hand (vv. 7-11). (3) The scorn of man (vv. 12-20). (4) The plea for pity (vv. 21-24). (5) The triumph of faith (vv. 25-27). (6) The close (vv. 28, 29).

We must take Job's words as literally true: the speeches of Bildad and the others crushed him by their cruel severity. "Ten times" — a complete number — they had heaped reproaches on him. Their unjust charges astonished him, and they made them without shame. What proof had they of sins in his past? If he had really erred, the secret lay in his own heart, where they had no right to intrude.

It is remarkable that when Job's three friends come — Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar — we hear no more of Satan. And what better weapons can Satan use than the words of mistaken friends? To be misjudged and misunderstood by those we love — surely this is bitterness.

Friends may charge you with deserving hopeless misery. Fighting off such charges is painful, cruel work for the spirit. Job knew he had done nothing to deserve it. What he had to learn was that he had a claim to nothing. His friends knew this no better than he did; they stood on righteousness alone.

He says: "Even if I have erred, my error remains with myself." He felt they had done nothing to correct it. "If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach, know now that God has overthrown me." They were too quick to seize on his deep and piled-up afflictions. How boldly he speaks out! As far as it goes, this could only come from real faith. Yet it fell far below the meek submission of our blessed Lord.

He had to pass through the deepest trouble. But the man famous for his patience broke out in total impatience. Even a godly man failed completely... to think that a man so noted for his patience should fail under trial! Ah, in Christ there is the contrast. That is where people are so wrong to make this man a type of Christ. No, he is a sample of failure, a man born of God failing. We want Christ, and cannot do without Christ. That is the true moral of the book of Job.