Job 17 Job Continues to Defend His Innocence
“My spirit is crushed, and my life is nearly snuffed out. The grave is ready to receive me. I am surrounded by mockers. I watch how bitterly they taunt me. You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me. You have closed their minds to understanding, but do not let them triumph. They betray their friends for their own advantage, so let their children faint with hunger.”
Some false friends are like jackals. Jackals wait until a lion has made a kill, hovering at the edge of the situation until they can move in to clean up the leftovers. But if the lion is injured or sick, watch out! Those same jackals that were hoping for the lion’s leftovers will now attack the lion himself. Job feels that he is surrounded by jackal-type people who will betray their friends for their own advantage.
“God has made a mockery of me among the people; they spit in my face. My eyes are swollen with weeping, and I am but a shadow of my former self. The virtuous are horrified when they see me. The innocent rise up against the ungodly. The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.”
The same people who fawned all over Job as long as he was prosperous and could give them things are now spitting in Job’s face. What has Job ever done to hurt these people? When a harvest failed, or animals died, Job gave liberally to save these people and their families. But the ungrateful have very short memories, and their constant litany is “What have you done for me lately?” Even now, despite all Job’s suffering, he remains convinced that innocent people will rise up against the ungodly and the righteous will become stronger and stronger. Job’s problem is simple: He knows he is righteous and innocent, so why does he see himself growing weaker daily?
“As for all of you, come back with a better argument, though I still won’t find a wise man among you. My days are over. My hopes have disappeared. My heart’s desires are broken. These men say that night is day; they claim that the darkness is light.”
Job finds himself surrounded by manipulative pathologic liars. Pathologic liars are one of the pitfalls in life, for an accomplished pathologic liar can convince you that light is dark and black is white. Few things are more frustrating than becoming the target of such a person, for lies have long legs and juicy scandal is always far more interesting than the plain truth. If a pathologic liar has made you a target, you will soon be amazed to learn all the horrible things you have allegedly done. Sadly, such people can even convince authorities of your wrong-doing, unless the person spreading lies begins lying about them. All you can do with such a person is pray for God to deliver you and continue to behave righteously.
“What if I go to the grave and make my bed in darkness? What if I call the grave my father, and the maggot my mother or my sister? Where then is my hope? Can anyone find it? No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust!”
One of Job’s saving graces is that even though he is thoroughly miserable, he really does not want to die. But Job is scrambling to find reasons to live, and his chief desire is for God to prove His love and to rescue Job from this misery and to restore Job’s hope. What Job needs at this point is hope. Romans 15:13 tells us, “May the God of peace fill you with all hope and joy as you trust in Him, so that you might overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Job is clinging to the last vestige of hope that he has because despite all his trials, Job remains hopeful that God is better than He currently appears.
One of the cruelest things a doctor or nurse can do is to take away the hope of a patient or a family. Millenia ago, the Roman playwright Terence used the phrase “Where there’s life, there’s hope.” Terence was brought to Rome from Carthage, Africa as a slave by the Roman senator Terentius Lucanus, who educated him and, later, impressed by his abilities, freed him. Certainly, anybody who began as a slave and wound up as the ward of an important public figure would be qualified to make such a statement. Terence only lived to the age of 30; however, he wrote six plays that remain classics of Roman literature and that have inspired numerous authors, including Shakespeare.
Even when we must give a patient or a family bad news, we must endeavor to put as positive a spin on it as possible. Recently, we lost a 1100-gram premature infant in our NICU. When breaking the news to the family, we began by recounting the problems the infant had encountered since birth, reminding them of the child’s problems with breathing and failure to tolerate breast milk feedings. We then progressed to describing the events of the final 24 hours of the child’s life. While the family realized that the child was dead, this progressive description allowed them to understand why the child died and to begin to come to grips with the reality of the death.
In an earlier age, someone might describe themselves as being “a shadow of my former self.” That phrase originates in Job 17:7 and is generally understood to mean that the person in question has faced deterioration of some sort. But even as this chapter is finishing, Job is still clinging to hope, although now he believes he and his hope are about to die. Job is complaining, but still holding on to hope.
Perhaps you can sympathize with Job; you feel trapped in a hopeless situation. Take heart! God is still on the throne, and “as long as there’s life, there’s hope.” Psalm 130:7-8 tells us, “O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows. He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin.” Even when we are facing severe trials, we can still hope in the same God who has redeemed Israel, for He does not play favorites and He will equally redeem us.
PRRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, please restore our hope with Your love and Your grace. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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