Job 13:13-28 - Though He Slay Me, I Will Hope in Him (Session 18)

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 13:13–28, Reasoning Through the Bible explores one of the most powerful statements of faith in all of Scripture: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” Even after losing his family, health, wealth, and the support of his friends, Job remains loyal to the Lord God and refuses to walk away. 

This session examines Job’s determination to plead his case before God, while also showing the limits of human argument before the majesty of the Creator. It highlights the truth that no one can stand before God on personal merit, and that the only real case we have is through Jesus Christ, our advocate and mediator. The study also draws practical lessons about asking God to reveal hidden sin and approaching Him honestly in seasons of pain. 

The second half of the transcript focuses on Job’s cry that God feels distant. That theme appears throughout Scripture and in the lives of believers today. This episode encourages listeners that God is not absent in suffering, that He does not leave His people, and that even flawed, emotionally raw prayers can still be brought before Him. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 13:13–28 explained 
•  though he slay me, I will hope in him 
•  loyalty to God in suffering 
•  can we argue with God 
•  our only case is Christ 
•  praying for God to reveal sin 
•  when God feels distant 
•  divine hiddenness 
•  hope in deep pain 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Loyalty That Outlasts Loss

SPEAKER_01 0:16

I remember hearing from a man who was a fan of a sports team that had a tradition of being a very, very poor team. It lost a lot and it had a long tradition of losing seasons. Someone asked him, why are you still a fan of this team when it's lost so much for so long? He looked a little funny and said, Well, you have to be loyal to your team. Well, today we're going to meet a man who is loyal, and he's loyal to something much more important than a sports team. He's loyal to the Lord God, even though he thinks he's been losing and losing for a very long time. We're going to be learning more from Job. And the book of Job, of course, has our man Job losing and losing a lot. He has lost his family, he has lost his health, he has lost his money, and he has really lost his friends in the sense that they're not helping him very much. So today we're going to see that even through all of this, Job stays loyal to his God. We're going to be in chapter 13. So if you have your copy of the word of God, turn there. And if you remember, Job has been responding to one of his friends. So let's go ahead and dive in. Steve, could you start at Job 13, 13 and read through verse 23?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Be silent before me so that I may speak, then let come upon me what may. Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hands? Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him. This also will be my salvation, for a godless person cannot come before his presence. Listen carefully to my speech, and let my declaration fill your ears. Behold now, I have prepared my case. I know that I will be vindicated. Who could contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. Only two things I ask that you do not do to me, then I will not hide from your face. Remove your hand from me, and may the dread of you not terrify me. Then call and I will answer. Or let me speak, then reply to me. How many are my guilty deeds and sins? Make known to me my wrongdoing and my sin.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

So in this section, Job says that he will have faith in God no matter what. He's saying that the only place he has left to plead his case is before the Lord God. No matter what happens, he says he will approach God and plead his case there. He says in verse 15, though he slay me, I will hope in him. So the question for all of us, and Steve, I'll go ahead and throw this to you: will you keep your faith in God, even if life is painful and God may take our life? Because that's what Job is looking at. Are we able to say, like Job, though he slay me, I will still trust in God?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

As we've noted many times in our studies, Glenn, whenever life's troubles come upon us, sometimes small, sometimes great, sometimes it seems unbearable. God is the only constant that's through all of that. Whenever you're going through those types of situations, many times you find out that he's the one that stays constantly with you, and that he's the only one that's there when all other people might have left or are not around. God is the constant one that is in all of that. So, yes, I can definitely say from experiences that I've had that though any type of problems or issues come along, I will stay with God. I know that He's there. He has shown himself to me at times of despair that I have gone through. And I have stories that have built my faith up from that. Now, my stories don't compare to many, many other people's stories as far as the immenseness of the tragedy that other people have gone through, but they are ones that have built my faith, and they are ones that I have gotten to a place where Job says, even though I'm going through this now, I'm not going to leave God. I'm going to stick with him.

The Urge To Argue With God

Our Only Case Is Christ

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Job says, Though he slay me, I will hope in him. And that's really the only hope we have is in him. The only hope we have in this life is with the Lord God. Without God, then life is really just this miserable path until we die. Job knows that because God exists, then there is a chance that every right will be wronged and it will be blessing in him. The atheist that walks away and says, God's either irrelevant or non-existent or powerless to solve my problem really is walking away from the only source of hope, walking away from the one answer there is to life, which is that God again will right every wrong and ultimately give us comfort, even in this life. Though he slay me, I will trust in him, because the alternative is just to be slain slowly and painfully. There's nothing left in the end. At the end of verse 15, Job says, quote, Nevertheless, I will argue my ways before him. And he says down in 18, very similarly, I have prepared my case. So he seems to be viewing God here as a glorified man, like an earthly judge. He thinks he can stand before God and argue a case before him as if God were a human judge, that if God were some sort of an arbiter. In reality, God is so powerful, so majestic, that when we are in his presence, we're not going to be able to speak. Job's going to find that out at the end of the book. Boy, is he going to find out. Because here, again, in this chapter, Job keeps saying, Oh, I'm going to plead my case. I have this argument that I just can't wait to give before God. Well, God's going to give him a chance. In fact, that's what God says when he approaches him at the end of the book. Okay, now it's your turn. Here I am. You approach me. And because God was so powerful, so majestic, Job really has nothing to say. Many people today think, oh, if God were down here, I'm going to ask him all these hard questions because he's not running things the way I think he should run things. And when God actually gives them a chance, they really will have nothing to say. It's one thing to stand out in the middle of a field and shake your fist at God. It's something else to be face to face with the creator of the universe, speaking from the whirlwind, from the thunders and lightnings, and really have anything at all to say. That's what's actually going to happen in reality. So the question for us, if we approach God with our own good deeds, if we approach God with our own reason, how are we going to do before him?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Well, ultimately, we don't have a case on our own works in order to declare righteousness before God. However, by placing our faith in Jesus Christ, we are declared righteous. Through that, we have all those wonderful things that are talked about in Paul's epistles of being presented to God as blameless and beyond reproach and as completed and over in Hebrews that we can now go before the throne of God boldly. So if we try and take and build our own case on our own merits, we're going to fail miserably. But if we take and part of our case is that we have an advocate of Jesus Christ with us, then we will be able to be found righteous before God, not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done through his death, burial, and resurrection. He's paid our sin debt. In this section, Job, it's like he realizes the danger of arguing his case before God, yet he still places his hope on God's justice. And I think, Glenn, the short answer to your question is that whatever case that we might plead to God, we have to rest on his justice, that he is going to bring a righteous justice to whatever decision that he might make.

Pray For God To Expose Sin

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Job thinks, oh, I've got this argument. I've reasoned it through. I'm ready. If God were just here, I could can't wait to argue my case. But really, the Bible tells us we really don't have a case. We don't have a logical position to stand upon. We don't have a theological leg to support us. Quote, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. The wages of sin is death, Romans 6.23. There is none righteous. No, not one, Romans 3.10. We are all found wanting. The judge has already decided the case, and we are guilty. We really have no argument before him because we are all found guilty. We don't have a case to argue before God. What we do have, as Steve alluded to, is an advocate in Christ. And the only way we can approach the throne of God is through Christ, who paid our sin debt, and he is our advocate with the Father. That is the only way that we could have a case argued. We can't do it. Like Job says, he's going to fail miserably when God shows up at the end of the book. Verse 22, he's very direct with God. He says, Let me speak, then reply to me. And again, God's going to do that at the end. God says, that was your chance. And when he does give him the chance, God is so overwhelmingly powerful that Job wishes he would just stop talking and tries to hide himself. In verse 23, here in Job 13, Job prays a great prayer to God. He says, Quote, How many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my rebellion and my sin. So here Job is saying, I don't understand what I've done wrong. And he goes to God and pleads with them, please tell me my sin. All of us have the benefit of looking back through the lens of the New Testament, knowing that we are sinners. But I think we can learn from this request. Job here is approaching God, saying, Make known to me my sin. God, please tell me what I've done wrong. So, Steve, is there a benefit to us today praying to God, saying, please show us our sin and our iniquities, reveal them to us, show me where I'm blind to my own sin?

SPEAKER_00 11:24

I think there's an absolute benefit to that because if we do pray that, it's first acknowledging that we have sinned. And second, it's asking God to reveal that to us if we don't know what it might be. So I think there is benefit for it. Now, if we know what the sin is, we need to confess that sin. But I want to tease a little bit more of what I mentioned before of this coming boldly before God, because Job is saying that the very fact that he wants to defend his life before God, it indicates his righteousness because a godless man would not dare approach God. He says that in verse 16, he says, This also will be my salvation, for a godless person cannot come before his presence, meaning God. So going back to Hebrews, Hebrews says, now that we have an advocate, now that we have a high priest, someone that is higher than angels, higher than the Levitical system, everything that we went through when we went through the study of Hebrews, it then says that allows us to be able to approach God boldly and ask for the things that you just got through mentioning. Ask for any type of sins that we might have that we are unaware of, any of that, or go to him and plead our case to him. We can do that now through Jesus Christ. So I think it shows that Job has this concept, at least at this time, even though he doesn't have all the details. He knows that he is innocent. And he's not saying that he is righteous on his own. I don't think that's what he's saying in verse 16. I think that Job is saying that he has been declared righteous by God through his faith in Yahweh, just as Abraham was. It's always been the same way. Faith in God brings about declaration of righteousness by God. So I think that it's interesting that in this section, I think we're seeing a little bit of Job's theological viewpoint in that he says, I'm going to boldly go before God and plead my case because there's no way that a godless man is going to go before God and essentially live. So the fact that I know that I am innocent in whatever's happening to me, I want to go and I want to plead my case before God. So to me, it's a little bit of opening as to some of the beliefs that Job has.

When God Seems Distant

SPEAKER_01 13:53

In the next section, he continues to make his appeal before God. I'm reading in Job 13, 24, why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? Will you scare away a scattered leaf? Or will you pursue the dry chaff? Or you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the guilty deeds of my youth? You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths. You set a limit for the soles of my feet while I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten. So in this, Steve, he seems to be saying that God is distant. Do we ever have that type of a thing? Do we ever struggle with God seeming distant?

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah, I think that we do. I think that we go through different seasons of our life whenever God seems to hide his face. We're seeing that a little bit with Job. While Job knows that he hasn't done anything to observe what he is getting as far as his health at this time, he has got boils and he's been scraping himself. He's going through such great misery. I think that he is again depicting what happens whenever we get to a depth of despair and not knowing exactly what is happening, even though we know that we are in God's hands, and even though that we have our faith trusted in him, we get to that point of, well, where are you, God? Why aren't you with me during this time? Yet God is with us, as we know in the case of Job. The background from chapters one and two, what is actually going on, God is still there with Job. God is not left him. We can take solace in that that God is not going to leave us. And we can also take something away from Job as to just a human event in his life and what he is doing, and crying out to God and wondering, where are you, God, during this particular point in time in my life? But we're going to see in the end that everything's going to be restored to Job. So we're in the midst of Job's suffering. We're in the midst of all his friends giving him advice. But we know because we've read the rest of the story, just like God knows at this particular point in time in Job's life, there's going to be restoration that's going to come. And through that restoration, we then take that into the next experience that we have, and we know how faithful and trustworthy God is. That helps build our faith. That's really what we mean whenever we talk about our faith being built up.

The Problem Of Divine Hiddenness

Are Past Sins Still Punished

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Job here asks, Why do you hide your face? Now, that theme is not asked just here, it occurs in our lives, and it occurs in many of the people in the scriptures. The same type of question is asked several times in the Bible. Psalm 10:1, quote, Why do you stand far away, Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? David cried out to God in Psalm 13:1, quote, Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? Psalm 44, 24, quote, Why do you hide your face and forget our affliction? Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3.44, You have veiled yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. The people of God have often cried out to God and asked him why. Why do you seem distant? The philosophical problem is so pervasive, it's been called the hiddenness of God or divine hiddenness. What makes the hiddenness of God so acute in Christianity is that God tells us that he is good, he tells us that he is in total control of the world, and he tells us that he is transcendent in the sense that he can reach into this world and do things. Well, if that's the case, then God, where are you? I'm hurting here, I'm suffering. Why is God such that it seems like my prayers are bouncing off of the ceiling? The reason we bring this up is because Job is feeling this here, and very often in our lives we ask the same question: God, where are you? The solution to the hiddenness of God, there's actually several very logical solutions. That God is only hidden when we expect him to come on our demand. God is hidden to Job only because Job expects him to come on Job's terms. If Job were to submit to God's terms, then he wouldn't be quite so hidden. The other reason why we find God hidden is because God is infinite and we're finite. His ways will always be higher than ours as far as the heaven is above the earth, Isaiah 55, 8. The old saying is that he may not come when you want him, but he's always right on time. He only seems hidden and distant because we've made up our own timeline, our own expectations for what he should do. He's the divine being. Billy Graham replied, That's funny. I talked to him just this morning. Well, the question is God hidden because we are not reading his word and we are not praying to him, and we are putting demands on him to come on our terms? Well, I submit, my friend, God is not hidden when we have his Bible and pray to him regularly. He speaks to us through his word. He speaks to us on his terms, and his terms are through the word of God, not on my terms. In our passage here, verse 26, Job asks God why he makes me inherit the guilty deeds of my youth. Here, Job should have realized that God would have forgiven Job's sins of when he was young, but Job thinks God is punishing him for the guilt of sins from many years earlier. So, Steve, if we're Christian, will God punish us for our past sins?

Finding Purpose And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 20:19

He will punish us for our past sins and our current sins and the sins that we're going to commit in the future if we haven't placed our trust and faith in Jesus Christ. If we have placed our trust in Jesus Christ, then our sins have been forgiven. Our sin debt has been paid by him, and we will not get punished for them. It's a great opportunity for us to escape that punishment by expressing and devoting our life and belief in Jesus Christ, as I mentioned before, as to what he's done in paying our sin debt. What we're seeing here too, Glenn, is a natural expression by a human being. And that in scripture, we're seeing that believers can voice their confusion and pain to God whenever their perception is incomplete. Job is perceiving that maybe there's something that I've done wrong. Why is God angry with me? We know people that we have talked to that that's some of the things that they go through as they progress through pain and suffering. Is this happening because God is angry with me? Even though it might not be something that's them directly, it's a family member or it's something else that is happening, a son, daughter, husband, spouse. Is this going on because something that I did? If it is, then reveal that to me so that I can repent from it, so that I can change my mind about it, so that I can come back to you. It's those types of depths of despair that brings us close to God. I have one friend who was going through the process of losing his spouse, and he was in the great despair. The most despair of any person that I've ever seen before as he was going through this. One of the things he relayed to me was God, if there's a reason behind this, reveal to me what that reason is because I don't want to miss it. I don't want to have to have gone through all of this pain and suffering. And for my spouse to have gone through this pain and suffering, for me to miss the reason, reveal to me the reason behind this so that I can grasp it and so that I can honor you with it and so that I can move forward. And that's always struck me as a way to converse with God during this time of pain and suffering that's going on, to the point of your saying, look, whatever purpose is in here, I want to make sure that I get that purpose. I don't want to have to go through all of this and then miss it completely. That's always just been something that has impressed my heart.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

The beginning of the book depicted Job as God-fearing and blameless. It does not depict him as perfect, it depicts him as a very regular human being, regular like all of us. And he is reacting like a regular human being does. That's one of the reasons why I would hold this to be the true word of God, is Job is acting like any human would. It's not an idealistic way of how we should act whenever we have pain and suffering and tragedy in our lives. It's depicting a real-world person who is acting in a real-world way. Some of the things that Job says is commendable. He says, Though God slay me, I will trust in him. But he is also doing things that is like a flawed human being would do, saying, Well, if I could just get God down here, I could argue my case. This is the human condition. And that's one of the reasons why the word of God is so true and it rings so true to us. My friends, all of us will go through some sort of tragedy at some point. Spend some time in the book of Job because this will give you comfort. In the end, God comes in and answers his questions. And I find that the Bible as a whole will answer our questions. Probably a good time to stop here because that's the end of chapter 13. Next time we're gonna pick up with more of Job's response, and we're gonna see more things that is very realistic and more things that we can reason through to help us in our everyday circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.