JOB LESSON 13


     We will begin this lesson in Job 13:1 "Lo, mine eye hath seen all
[this], mine ear hath heard and understood it."

     We see that Job's patience with his three friends was wearing a
little thin. Everything they had said to him, he already knew from the
experiences of his life. Many of the things they had accused him of,
he had taught against himself. He understood everything they were
saying, but they would not believe that he had not sinned in the ways
they discussed.

     Job 13:2 "What ye know, [the same] do I know also: I [am] not
inferior unto you."

     This is a repetition of a statement made in the last lesson.
His friends had thought they would instruct him on repenting and
reaching the LORD in prayer. He was as well acquainted with the LORD
as they were.

     Job 13:3 "Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to
reason with God."

     Job had no intention of trying to prove his innocence to anyone,
but God. It is not a sin to reason with God. In fact, He invites his
people to come and reason with Him. God is not so unreachable, that he
will not hear our plea to Him.

     Job 13:4 "But ye [are] forgers of lies, ye [are] all physicians
of no value."

     His friends had pretended to come, so they might comfort him and
help him. Instead, they have made him feel worse than he did before
they came.

     Job 13:5 "O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it
should be your wisdom."

     They would have been much wiser to have just sat with him without
saying anything, than to have criticized him and made matters worse.

     Job 13:6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of
my lips.

     The friends of Job might listen to these pleadings, but they were
really addressed to God. He was asking God to hear his reasoning.

     Job 13:7 "Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully
for him?"

     The so-called friends of Job asked the question above. They were
thoroughly convinced that Job had sinned, and that the calamity that
came upon him was a judgement from God. They did not want him to sin
further by reasoning with God.

     Job 13:8 "Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?"

     God did not need Job's friends to take His side. He was perfectly
capable of deciding this for Himself. They were automatically assuming
that God would not listen to Job.

     Job 13:9 "Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man
mocketh another, do ye [so] mock him?"

     Job, now, turned to the friends and asked them of their own
motives. He would like to know if they were examined as closely as he
had been, would they be able to stand?  They were mocking Job, and
perhaps, would have had an even worse time had they been found wanting
in any area.  They should consider their own faults, before they began
to find fault in others.

     Job 13:10 "He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept
persons."

     This was a statement against the friends that they had become his
friends, because of his high standing. He had been a wealthy man, when
they became his friends. He was questioning their motives in becoming
his friends. Had they been his friends because of their great
admiration for his belief in God, or were they his friends because of
his wealth?

     Job 13:11 "Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his
dread fall upon you?"

     His excellency is speaking of God. God is Truth and Purity to the
utmost. He is no respecter of persons. He has no respect for those who
are respecters of persons. These three friends of Job should be afraid
of God judging them for their respect of persons.

     Job 13:12 "Your remembrances [are] like unto ashes, your bodies
to bodies of clay."

     Ashes are easily blown away. They had forgotten the good that Job
had done. They were too earthy for Job. He spoke of them as a clump of
clay without spirit.

     Job 13:13 "Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and
let come on me what [will]."

     Job was asking his friends to leave him alone, so that he could
speak with God. Job explained to them that he would take his chances
with God. Job trusted God completely.

     Job 13:14 "Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my
life in mine hand?"

     Job was saying that the words that come from his mouth might
devour him. He realized, also, that he is taking his very life in his
hands when he spoke to God, but he was willing to take that chance.
Frankly, it could not be worse, for Job, than it already was.

     Job 13:15 "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will
maintain mine own ways before him."

     Job was placing his trust in God. He would not change the ways
that he had been, because he had no guilt of sin in his life. He would
present himself to God the same as he had been all along. His trust in
God was greater than any fear that he might have. He knew that God was
just and fair. He had nothing to fear.

     Job 13:16 "He also [shall be] my salvation: for an hypocrite
shall not come before him."

     Job was absolutely assured that God would save him in due time.
He might die in his misery, but God would save his soul. Job was
saying, "I will not be a hypocrite and try to be something that I am
not". God would not have any time for a hypocrite.

     Job 13:17 "Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with
your ears."

     David cried out to God to hear him so many times.  Every
believer, sometime or other, has cried out to God to hear his prayer.
This was basically the same thing. Job wanted God to listen carefully
to his request.

     Job 13:18 "Behold now, I have ordered [my] cause; I know that I
shall be justified."

     We do not justify ourselves. It is God who justifies.
Justification means just as if we had never sinned. Job had carefully
planned what he would say to God, and would take full responsibility
for what he said.

     Job 13:19 "Who [is] he [that] will plead with me? for now, if I
hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost."

     Job was not absolutely sure whether God, Himself, would hear him,
or whether He would send an angel to hear Job out. Job felt that if he
had to wait any longer, he would die.

     Job 13:20 "Only do not two [things] unto me: then will I not hide
myself from thee."  Job 13:21 "Withdraw thine hand far from me: and
let not thy dread make me afraid."

     We see that Job was asking for a temporary stop of the pain in
his body, while he talked with God. He, also, wanted his great fear of
God to be momentarily removed, so that he could speak without
trembling.  He wanted to be able to boldly come to God with his
statement. He was asking permission, and not demanding it.

     Job 13:22 "Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak,
and answer thou me."

     Whenever the Lord was ready, he could call for Job, and Job would
be ready. If God did not prefer to call Job, Job would speak and God
could answer.

     Job 13:23 "How many [are] mine iniquities and sins? make me to
know my transgression and my sin."

     This was not a statement that he had no sin. This was a true
statement, that if he had sinned he was unaware of what the specific
sins were. Job truly did want to repent of any sin he had committed,
and make it right with God. He just did not know what to change.

     Job 13:24 "Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for
thine enemy?"

     Job had always enjoyed the presence of God. He suddenly had that
taken away from him. It seemed to Job that God was hiding from him. He
did not understand why he seemed to be God's enemy.

     Job 13:25 "Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt
thou pursue the dry stubble?"

     A withered leaf that had fallen from a tree and dry stubble are
some of the most helpless things in the world. A little puff of wind
can blow them away. Job was feeling as helpless as both of them. It
seems, he could not help himself.

     Job 13:26 "For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest
me to possess the iniquities of my youth."

     Job seemed to say to God, that He was drawing up papers full of
accusations against him that he might be tried with. Job had,
possibly, been a sinner in his youth, and the only thing that Job
could think of that God might accuse him of were those past sins.

     Job 13:27 "Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest
narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my
feet."

     God had not actually put him in stocks. The disease that he had,
possibly, kept him as immobile as he would have been, had he been in
stocks. There were marks on Job's feet, and in fact, on every other
part of his body, as well. What Job did not know, was that Satan had
put the marks there.

     Job 13:28 "And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment
that is moth eaten."

     Job was speaking of the disease that was ravishing his body. His
skin was rotting away. Soon his flesh would be like a moth-eaten
garment.
                           Job 13 Questions



1.  Job's patience with his friends was growing a little ______.
2.  Many of the things they accused Job of he had __________ ________.
3.  What did Job tell his friends in verse 2?
4.  Who did Job desire to reason with?
5.  Is it a sin to reason with God?
6.  What did Job call his friends in verse 4?
7.  His friends had pretended to come to ________ him.
8.  What should they have done, instead of what they did?
9.  Who was verse 6 addressed to really?
10. Who was asking the questions in verse 7?
11. What were Job's friends automatically assuming in verse 8?
12. Job asked his friends of their own _________.
13. Did they have a right to mock Job?
14. Why had they become Job's friends in the first place?
15. Who is "his excellency", in verse 11, speaking of?
16. What does the reference to ashes, in verse 12, mean?
17. Why did Job tell his friends to hold their peace?
18. What was Job saying in verse 14?
19. Quote Job chapter 13 verse 15.
20. Job was placing his trust in ________.
21. What was Job absolutely sure that God would do for him?
22. Who was Job speaking to in verse 17?
23. Who justifies us?
24. What does "justification" mean?
25. Job would take full ____________ for what he said to God.
26. Who did Job think God might have to listen to him, rather than
    God, Himself?
27. What two things did Job ask God for immediately?
28. Why did he want those two things?
29. What was verse 23 saying?
30. What did a withered leaf and dry stubble have to do with Job?
31. In verse 28, Job was speaking of what?