Job 19:22

If no one else will have pity on Job, he at least feels that his friends should show some pity rather than accusation. They had come to comfort him. So he pleads with them and says, "the hand of God has struck me." Should they add to his suffering? Did they think that was right because God had made him suffer? He felt God was persecuting him. That was not true. But it was true that his friends were persecuting him, not satisfied that his flesh had suffered enough.

The plea for pity and sympathy might well move hearts of stone, but Job's words seem to fall on ears that will not listen. It was their claim that God's hand had been upon him — for his sin. Job asks whether they will persecute him as God was doing. It is a terrible charge. Will they feed madly on his flesh with a desire nothing satisfies? Such injustice drives him almost frantic.

But he does not spare protest or rebuke. "Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?" It was distress enough that he was suffering in this way. Were they justified in destroying his confidence in God? The drift of what they were doing was to make him doubt the sincerity of his own faith, which is clearly the devil's work. The Spirit of God never leads to a doubt.

Just let them change places, if that were possible. Let those three friends stand in Job's position. Let them lose not only their possessions but their families, completely swept away by destruction, in a way that looked like the effect of God's displeasure… I cannot help thinking his answer here is a most touching appeal, above all when he goes on, "But I would strengthen you with my mouth." There he has the clear advantage in grace over them. "I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should ease your grief." Not a word had come from them with such a character or purpose.

They failed to understand how such a perfect and upright man as Job could be tried so severely… They did not grasp the ways of God with His own at all. By their false and unworthy suggestions they made Job feel that they could not help him at all. So they threw him back on God Himself. So that in the end he said, "I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you" (Job 42:5).

Here Job longs to have his words written down for ever (vv.23-24), for he was sure he spoke the truth. In fact, what he said stands in the Word of God for eternity. That lasts longer than words engraved in rock with an iron pen and lead set into the letters. Yet Job will not hold all those words to be true for ever. After this he learned that God was not a persecutor at all. He was One who in everything sought the greatest good of His servant.