NOTES for Job 13:1-28

Job's words can hardly please his accusers, but they cannot be answered on the merits, since any accuser can be advised to look at himself and see whether he has the same sins, or even more serious ones, in which he is eager to accuse another.

Job wants to speak with God, and in this desire itself there is nothing excessive or proud. A human being, even poor and sick, despised by everyone and rotting on a trash heap, remains the crown of creation, made in the image and likeness of God.

Sin distorted human nature, and the human being perverted the original possibility of communion with God, replacing it with blasphemy and rebellion against God. But even the fall did not cancel the highest vocation given to humanity by God, for the fulfillment of which God became Man and went to the Cross.

All reasonable people in every age understood that in one way or another they would have to answer for their words. If not before people, then certainly before God. Unreasonable people understood this too, but usually when it was already too late. But those who consider themselves God's defenders usually think least about their responsibility. Those who defend, for example, His right to judge the sinner. Often such people even outrun God: every misfortune, every failure of a person they explain by sins committed by that person, even if they know nothing concrete about them. And if they do know, the admonitions usually have no end.

It would seem that formally, at least, the accusers are right: the sin is evident, which means the sinner's failures and misfortunes may well be the consequences of his sin. If not for one "but": the right to accuse a sinner presupposes readiness to bear responsibility for one's own sins. Meanwhile it often turns out that accusers, consciously or not, accuse another first of all in order to distract the attention of God and people from their own sins.

Of course, God is not a human being, but perhaps He will take the accuser's position into account? After all, the accuser supported Him with all his strength. True, this accuser did not first trouble himself to ask God whether He needed such support. And if he had asked, he would have learned that He does not need it. Not even because He sees and knows everything perfectly without human help, and in a way no human being can see or know another soul, but because He does not set accusation as His goal at all. He already knows perfectly well that all people are sinful. But He wants not to punish them for sin, but to deliver them from this sin and save them.

Yes, of course, deliverance from sin may prove painful for the sinner. But such pain cannot be considered punishment: it is only the pain of a necessary but painful medical procedure. If anyone punishes a person for sin, it is only the person himself, first by sinning and then by reaping the consequences of his own sin, which the sinner often does not want to renounce no matter what. Human accusations usually do not help in this case.

They usually do not help at all because accusers are not trying to help: they are sure that God wants to punish the sinner, not save him. Yet such accusations of another's sin, with a desire that the sinner receive as severe a punishment as possible, are themselves sin. If only because none of us is anyone's judge. An evaluation of another person's deed is possible and permissible for us; an evaluation of the person and his sinfulness is not. Nor is the determination of the measure of punishment for sin that a person deserves. It is better to leave this to God. And He will know how to save everyone who can be saved.

No one, Job least of all, doubts that God is stronger than man. But the issue is not power, but truth. If God is only power and nothing more, then He is no longer God, but a tyrant on a cosmic scale. Job cannot believe in such a thing. And he asks God a direct question: what am I guilty of before You? Job is sure that if the trial were honest, he would win it, because he is a righteous man.

Job does not doubt his righteousness. For him, righteousness is still limited by traditional religious boundaries, and within those boundaries he really has nothing with which to reproach himself. For that reason he is ready to go to court even with God, if such a thing were possible, because the truth is on his side. This is precisely what Job demands from God: if not a trial, then at least an explanation. Up to now God has only silently struck him blow after blow, explaining nothing and bringing no charges. But that is how a tyrant may act; a just king does not punish his subjects without guilt and without trial.

So Job demands from God exactly a trial, not punishment without judgment. He says to God: if You are truly a just Judge, then let us examine my case. I am not running away from You like the wicked. I am ready to stand before You. Incidentally, Job says the same thing in his own defense to his friends: if I were a sinner, would I seek God's judgment? Job is truly confident in his righteousness. And he wants God to confirm that righteousness.

It is not so important to him how long he lives on earth. What matters to him is that his righteousness not be lost before God. And if he is not righteous after all, but a sinner, and his friends are right, then let God confirm that too. Human words alone are not enough for Job. Then let God Himself show Job where he is wrong and how he has sinned. Then everything will fall into place, and Job will know what to do next. He wants only one thing: clarity and certainty. And not human clarity, but God's.