13:1-2 Job had his own relationship with God, is own understanding of the word of God. He did not need others to interpret it for him, especially when their motivations and ability to do so were so off-course. It is so important to have your own grasp on the word of God, your own intimate relationship with Him. So many people and ideas and institutions will try to define God and everything else for us. Like Job, we cannot let them; we must be able to discern God's word and communicate with Him ourselves.
13:4-12 Job pointed out to his friends that they would be wiser to stay quiet. Their advice was wrong. When we do not know the right answers, we should not speak anyway. We should meditate on the word of God, we should listen for His quiet voice. In fact, Job reminded his friends that it was dangerous to speak false claims in God's name.
13:13-19 Even though he did not understand the harsh circumstances of his life, Job chose to trust God. Job had no false illusions about his reality: he still believed it was unfair and wrong. He did not pretend everything was okay but he did cling to God. He held onto the truth that God would be his salvation. The quality of our state of mind, status of soul, is dependent on our ability to trust God. Job was confident in God's ultimate justice, confident in God's promise to protect and defend His innocent and faithful children.
13:20-21 Job made two specific pleas to God: [do not] withdraw Your hand from me, and let not the dread of You make me afraid. Job did not want to lose God or his relationship with God. He wanted the open communication he had grown used to, and learned to rely upon. The only prospect for his life worse than his dreadful situation was to also lose God. Job held tightly to God because ultimately, God was the one thing he absolutely could not survive without.
13:22 He promised to answer God, to be present, vocal and contentious in the relationship. He asked the same of God. Even though there was so much he wanted to beg for from God, Job remained himself. He made an honest supplication to God. Job remembered the promises of God and proclaimed that he had adhered to the commandments of God. He was eligible for God's promises to be fulfilled in his life.
God fully planned and prepared to fulfill those promises.
13:23-28 Job was right to trust God's future plan but wrong to think that God was absent from his present. God does not poke and prod at people. Satan, the force of corruption in the world is the one that pokes and prods. It benefits our lives greatly to remember that.
