Commentary on the Book of Job part thirty four

                                 Job 19:1-29

In Job 19:1-5, Job complained again that his putative friends were not helping him; they were actually condemning him and persecuting him. Job's implied message to them was that true friends comfort and help each other in times of crisis. Job's friends only wanted to condemn him for being wicked. In verse four, Job wondered why his friends were so concerned about his errors; that is his sins, when he alone would have to bear them and take responsibility for them. In verse five, Job rebuked his friends for their self-righteous attitude towards him. While Job's friends condemned his sins, they magnified themselves because they pretended they had no sins.

In Job 19:6-22, Job began to doubt that he had some special relationship with God, and he wondered if his friends were not right in their assessment of his situation. After all, if he were so special with God, then why had God trapped him in such a terrible state of suffering. Job cried out to God, but He gave him no judgment about why He had so afflicted him. God blocked Job's escape and gave him only darkness for an answer. God had taken absolutely everything from Job but his life which seemed to Job to equal absolute nothingness. Job felt that God had destroyed him, taken away all his hope, directed His wrath towards him, and even treated him like one of His demonic enemies. Job felt that God had gone to war with him, and He had alienated him from his family, friends, and even his servants. Even children hated him. His wife would not talk to him even about their children. Job felt like his body had been reduced to starvation, and he barely clung to life "with the skin of his teeth."

Job began to beg for at least some pity from someone, anyone. Job would have welcomed any faint feelings for him of any kind, but there was absolutely nothing for him. Everyone seemed to become God to Job but only with a desire to persecute him. Everyone seemed to Job to desire that even the little glimmer of life that he had left should die and bother them no more. Job had reached the absolute depth of his despair and hopelessness. But in his utter devastation, Job had forgotten that he still retained the faith that God had given him when God had him say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him..." Job 13:15.