In this chapter accuses his friends of lying about God and that God does not need their lies. He wishes to speak to God directly about his plight.
First he intends to correct their unfitting process of reasoning, for since they had posited that rewards and punishments of good and evil works are repaid in this present life, it was necessary for them to use lies in defending the justice of God. Because it is evident that some innocent and just men are oppressed by adversities in this life, it was therefore necessary to impute crimes to the just to defend the justice of God. So they charged Job with impiety because they saw him afflicted. But one who defends the truth by lies uses unfitting means, so he says, “Do you think that God needs your lie?” as if to say: Is it necessary to use lies to defend divine justice? In fact, what cannot be defended except by lies cannot possibly be true. However when someone strives to lie against the clear truth, he is compelled to invent some crafty and fraudulent means to color his lie with fraud. So when these men too tried to lie against the justice of Job which was clear to all, they used some deceptions, namely, they pointed to the human frailty which falls easily into sin and compared it to divine excellence, so that one might think it was more likely that Job was evil than that God was unjust. So he then says, “so that you might speak deception for him?” because they were speaking with deceit in God’s behalf when they tried deceitfully to charge Job with impiety to defend God’s justice.
They could respond, however, that they did not say anything deceitfully against Job, but only what they thought. Job therefore shows that if this were true, they would fall into another vice although they had been excused from deceit, namely, the respect of persons which excludes the justice of a judge. Respect of persons consists in someone condemning or denying the justice of another which is apparent because of the greatness the other person, although he does not know his justice. If, therefore, the friends of Job judged him to be evil, though they saw justice clearly in him and did so only in the consideration of the divine greatness, although they could not understand according to their own dogmas how Job might be punished by God justly, it is as if they were respecting the person of God in the judgment with which they condemned Job. So he then says, “Do you take God’s part and try to judge for God?” He clearly says this because someone strives to judge for another, who does not know his justice, and yet tries to invent any means he can to show that his cause is just.
Sometimes one person in fraudulently defending another’s cause pleases him despite the fact that he is a just man. This can happen in two ways: in one way because he is ignorant that his cause is unjust, and so he is pleased that he is defended by someone, and this he excludes from God saying, “Or will it please him (God),” that you strive to judge unjustly in his behald e cannot be ignorant of the case and so he says, “from whom nothing can be concealed?” This can happen in another way when the man whose case is defended by fraud is deceived by the frauds of the one defending him, so that he thinks his defense is just. He excludes this from God saying, “Or is he deceived like a man by your fraudulent practices?” Therefore it is clear that God does not need a lie to defend his goodness and justice because truth can be defended without a lie. So then, it is also evident if when their dogmas are accepted, the unfitting conclusion follows that the justice of God needs a lie for its defense, then it becomes clear that their proposed teachings are false.
One must also carefully consider that he who uses a lie to show the justice and the goodness of God not only does a thing which God does not need, but also offends God in this very act. For since God is truth, and every lie is contrary to the truth, whoever uses a lie to show the magnificence of God acts against God by this very act. The Apostle Paul says this very clearly, “We are found to be false witnesses of God, because we have given testimony against God that He raised Christ to life who has not been raised if the dead are not raised.” (1 Cor. 15:15) To say then that God raised the dead, if this is not true, is against God although it may seem to show divine power, because it is against the truth of God. So those who use a lie to defend God not only do not receive a reward as though they were pleasing to Him, but they also merit punishment as though acting against God, and so he continues, “He Himself blames you because you took His part secretly.” He says, “secretly” because although they seem exteriorly to take the part of God, as if knowing the justice of God, yet in their consciences they did not know by what justice Job had been punished, and thus in the hidden part of hearts they respected God’s person in trying to defend his justice falsely.
Go here to read the rest. Job is confident that if he could bring his case directly before God that he would be vindicated by God.
