Have you ever watched a scene which turns out to be the opposite of what it appears to be? When Jesus the prisoner stands before Pontius Pilate the judge, it looks as if Jesus is in danger and Pilate has power. At one level, that is exactly what is happening: Pilate has the power to condemn Jesus to crucifixion. Yet, in a deeper reality, it is Jesus who will sit in judgment and Pilate who will stand condemned.

In a similar way, we see in Job 27 an ironic reversal of roles. Again and again, the ″friends″ of Job have described the judgment of God on the wicked in ways that echo the sufferings of Job. They leave Job to draw the conclusion that he must be a wicked man who needs to repent. Now, we shall listen as Job turns the tables.

The words, ″Job continued his discourse″ (Job 27:1), introduce each of Job's summing-up speeches (first in chapters 27-28, then in chapters 29-31). In chapter 27, he speaks to all three of his friends (notice the ″you . . . all . . .″ in verse 12).

Job begins by insisting that he is in the right with God (vv. 2-6). Even though God has–for a reason Job cannot understand–″denied″ him ″justice″ (v. 2), he will not accept that his friends were right to accuse him of wickedness; rather, he will rather insist on his ″integrity″ and ″innocence″, for he has a clear ″conscience″ (vv. 5-6).

When Job's friends accuse him repeatedly of sins he has not committed, they make themselves his enemies. And because they set themselves against Job, they make themselves enemies of God. This is the logic of verses 7-10. Any adversary of Job is an enemy of God, because Job belongs to God. In a similar way, centuries later, just as it was dangerous to oppose Jesus (whom Job foreshadows), so it is dangerous to harm the people of Jesus, because they, too, belong to God.

In verses 11-23, Job describes ″the fate God allots to the wicked″ (v. 13). It is a terrifying description, not unlike the pictures his friends have painted (for example, by Bildad in 18:5-21). But the tables are turned here. Job's friends described the wicked because they wanted to show that he was wicked. Here, Job describes the wicked because they are being wicked when they oppose him; they are therefore in great danger.