Job 16:1-22
Job Reproaches His Pitiless Friends
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I have heard many such things;
Miserable comforters are you all!
3 Shall words of wind have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do,
If your soul were in my soul’s place.
I could heap up words against you,
And shake my head at you;
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.
6 “Though I speak, my grief is not relieved;
And if I remain silent, how am I eased?
7 But now He has worn me out;
You have made desolate all my company.
8 You have shriveled me up,
And it is a witness against me;
My leanness rises up against me
And bears witness to my face.
9 He tears me in His wrath, and hates me;
He gnashes at me with His teeth;
My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.
10 They gape at me with their mouth,
They strike me reproachfully on the cheek,
They gather together against me.
11 God has delivered me to the ungodly,
And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but He has shattered me;
He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces;
He has set me up for His target,
13 His archers surround me.
He pierces my heart and does not pity;
He pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me with wound upon wound;
He runs at me like a warrior.
15 “I have sewn sackcloth over my skin,
And laid my head in the dust.
16 My face is flushed from weeping,
And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17 Although no violence is in my hands,
And my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, do not cover my blood,
And let my cry have no resting place!
19 Surely even now my witness is in heaven,
And my evidence is on high.
20 My friends scorn me;
My eyes pour out tears to God.
21 Oh, that one might plead for a man with God,
As a man pleads for his neighbor!
22 For when a few years are finished,
I shall go the way of no return.
When Job answered his three friends come to comfort him in his suffering and found them to be miserable counselors, he asked them what provoked them to speak without understanding or compassion. He told them straight up that if they had been in his position, he would not do as they had been doing, but instead he would find words to give them strength to endure and comfort in their agony. He would not shake his head in judgment or speak many things against them as they had been doing. Job would have acted as a true friend, like a brother even, with compassion and respect to understand and empathize instead of playing God and telling them their problems that resulted in their circumstances. He told them that whether he remained silent or spoke his mind, he still was grieved in his suffering for unknown reasons and felt all alone in their company due to their approach to him. He then spoke of his adversary, which could have meant them or even an inkling of the heavenly adversary who had been causing this agonizing suffering, but echoes the time Jesus suffered on the cross from the gospel accounts. He spoke of the hatred and gnashing of the teeth (Matthew 26:65) of the adversary and of how they gaped with their mouths (Psalm 22:7, 13, Matthew 27:39) at him, as well as how they gathered together to strike him (Matthew 26:67, 27:30) on the cheek. It seems that Job prophetically pointed to the adversary attacking Christ on the cross, not knowing, but perhaps wondering, that it was the adversary responsible for his own suffering. He saw himself handed over to the ungodly and given into the hands of wicked men, just as Jesus would be. Job further saw himself as a target with God allowing the attacks on his body and soul as he lay in repentant sackcloth and prayed pure prayers with tears in the midst of it all. Above all and through this all, Job stated that he knew his witness was in heaven with God and the evidence sat with Him and not his friends who scorned him or even in himself. He began to glimpse the grace of God to come in the righteousness found in Him alone and not himself or his own righteousness (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:23, 10:3-4, Philippians 3:9) as he poured out his heart to his Maker. Job pleaded with God and asked his friends to do so for him instead of their judgment, knowing he was headed towards death at the rate he was headed in his extreme suffering. We may find good and godly friends who can sympathize with our suffering (Romans 12:15, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15), but even when we do not, we still have the assurance of our witness in heaven and accompanying evidence of the grace of God that our righteousness is in our union with Christ and our hope of vindication made certain by His promises. My witness and evidence of imputed righteousness are in heaven in Christ Jesus, no matter how others judge me!
No comments:
Post a Comment