THE LEGAL METAPHOR

“Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against me?” (13:18-19)

There is a striking similarity between this passage in Job and a portion of one of the “Servant Songs” in Isaiah: “He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me?” (50:8). Apparently Isaiah was here quoting the words of Job, just as Paul cites both Job and Isaiah in an even more familiar passage in Romans: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?” (8:33-34).

Job’s confidence in his innocence and his yearning to have his name cleared take the form, increasingly, of an earnest plea to have his case tried in court—and not just in any court, but before the judgment-seat of God Himself. Just as Paul often employs legal terminology to underscore the objective, factual basis of Christian faith, Job too makes ample use of words such as “case,” “plead,” “defend,” “judge,” “justice,” “summon,” “hearing,” “guilty,” “innocent,” “charges,” “appeal.” (See, for example, 9:15-20; 23:4-7; etc.) This constellation of images in Job is known by commentators as the “legal metaphor,” and it reflects Job’s implicit trust that the God of the universe must ultimately be a God of justice, and that if only Job’s case can be tried before the highest of courts his innocence will be resoundingly affirmed.

In the Gospels we often hear Jesus speak to the Pharisees as though He were giving formal testimony in a court of law. Frequently He prefaced statements with the formal idiom, “I tell you the truth” (or, in the more sonorous phrasing of the King James Version, “Verily, verily, I say unto you”)—just as though He were swearing on a stack of Bibles. This approach unnerved the Pharisees, who would have preferred to keep things on the level of a straightforward theological debate. But Jesus could see what to their eyes was invisible: the heavenly courtroom, with God the Father presiding on the bench. Aware of this other dimension, Christ conducted Himself accordingly and gave bold testimony. The Pharisees tried to discredit this stance, saying, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid” (John 8:13). But Christ persisted, making it clear that whether the Pharisees liked it or not the highest of all courts was already in session, and even now the weightiest of evidence was being heard, evidence that would lead to certain conviction for all who refused to acknowledge the truth.

Job conducts himself similarly. While he has never actually seen the supreme court of God, as Jesus had, nevertheless he assumes its existence and calls upon it to convene. He even addresses himself to it in advance, filing what today we might call a formal deposition. Thus Job prefaces his strong statement at the head of this chapter with the phrase, “Listen carefully to my words” (13:17)—a solemn idiom which, like Jesus’ “Verily, verily,” signals that a most serious and authoritative disclosure of truth is to follow, a declaration whose probity is absolutely beyond question. This is the context in which Job with unshakable conviction asserts, “Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated.”

In a sense, to be a Christian is to spend one’s life preparing one’s case for Judgment Day—carefully and patiently amassing evidence to parade before the Devil whenever he accuses us, and before the Lord when He comes to judge the earth. It behooves us, therefore, to be as certain as we possibly can of the strength of our defense. And the only way to do this is to make very sure that our stand is squarely on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on any merits of our own. Jesus is the divine defense counsel appointed to all who believe, and He does not lose His cases. For those He defends there is really only one question, and that is whether we are prepared to accept and to trust in the divine fiat of our righteousness in Christ. This righteousness is a carte blanche, a final and unap-pealable verdict of Not Guilty which places us once and for all beyond the law. It is a condition entirely uncomplicated by fine print, loopholes, liens, riders, or codicils. “If God is for us,” declares Paul, “who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31). So to be against our own regenerate selves is to be against God.


Mason, M. (2002). The Gospel According to Job: An Honest Look at Pain and Doubt from the Life of One Who Lost Everything. Crossway.