Read Job 13:1–19
Questions from the Scripture text: In what is Job equal to his friends (Job 13:1-2)? With Whom would he rather speak (Job 13:3)? Why (Job 13:4)? What would be the wises thing for them to say (Job 13:5)? Whom should they hear instead (Job 13:6)? What is wrong with their own speech (Job 13:7)? In what way (Job 13:8)? What should they consider (Job 13:9)? What is their status before God (Job 13:10-11)? How useful is their counsel (Job 13:12)? To whom should they listen instead (Job 13:13)? What would following their counsel be like doing (Job 13:14)? What will he do instead (Job 13:15)? Whom does this make to be his salvation (Job 13:16)? What should his friends do (Job 13:17)? So that they, also, might have what outcome (Job 13:18)? To Whom, will he now directly turn his attention (Job 13:19)?
What should legalists do? Job 13:1–19 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these nineteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that legalists should shut their mouths and listen to those whose hope is not in personal performance but in the God of grace.
The counsel of each of Job’s three friends have struck the same chord: repent well enough, and you will be blessed. They have grounded this false idea upon the truth of God’s justice and righteousness—a truth that Job knows just as well as any of them (Job 13:1-2), but a truth which leads him to the opposite conclusion than they.
Job’s only hope is in the God of grace Himself (Job 13:3, Job 13:15-16). The reality of God’s justice and holiness is one that should have terrified the friends for themselves (Job 13:9, Job 13:11). The idea that one could repent well enough to merit blessing from Him is a worthless lie (Job 13:4) that speaks wickedly of God (Job 13:7), as if someone could be good enough for Him (Job 13:8). Legalism makes too little of God’s law and justice, and too much of our ability. With legalism as their “wisdom,” it would have been wiser to say nothing at all (Job 13:5, Job 13:12-13a), and to listen to Job speak instead (Job 13:6, Job 13:13b, Job 13:17).
And what would they hear Job say? That it is folly to wager his life upon his own repentance (Job 13:14). That, regardless of what he might receive from God’s hand, the only defense that he has before God (Job 13:15b) is God Himself (verse 15a). That he refuses to pretend to be good enough for God (Job 13:16b), as his friends purport to be, but that God Himself is his salvation (verse 16a). With God as his hope, Job is confident of being vindicated (Job 13:18), so he hastens now to address God Himself (Job 13:19).
When you consider the eternal outcome of your soul, what is your hope? In what circumstances, where you have been the one talking, would it have been wiser for you to be silent?
Sample prayer: Lord, You are God Almighty, Whose divine nature is on display in the things that You have made. We praise You for Your wisdom, power, justice and holiness! And we thank You have announced to us what we could not have known from the creation: Your gospel of grace. You alone are our trust! You alone are our salvation! So, receive us now, in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And grant unto us to worship You, not from what is from within us, but from that which is in us from Him, by His grace, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH433 “Amazing Grace!”
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