Reflections on Job 16

 Job 16 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Job said:
2. I have often heard this, and it offers no comfort.
3. So why don't you keep quiet? What's bothering you?
4. If I were in your place, it would be easy to criticize or to give advice.
5. But I would offer hope and comfort instead.
6. If I speak, or if I don't, I hurt all the same. My torment continues.
7. God has worn me down and destroyed my family;
8. my shriveled up skin proves that I am his prisoner.
9. God is my hateful enemy, glaring at me and attacking with his sharp teeth.
10. Everyone is against me; they sneer and slap my face.
11. And God is the one who handed me over to this merciless mob.
12. Everything was going well, until God grabbed my neck and shook me to pieces. God set me up as the target
13. for his arrows, and without showing mercy, he slashed my stomach open, spilling out my insides.
14. God never stops attacking,
15. and so, in my sorrow I dress in sackcloth and sit in the dust.
16. My face is red with tears, and dark shadows circle my eyes,
17. though I am not violent, and my prayers are sincere.
18. If I should die, I beg the earth not to cover my cry for justice.
19. Even now, God in heaven is both my witness and my protector.
20. My friends have rejected me, but God is the one I beg
21. to show that I am right, just as a friend should.
22. Because in only a few years, I will be dead and gone.

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As Job spoke again he accused his friends of being miserable comforters. Why is it we think we are comforting when we offer empty platitudes or attempt to solve the circumstance of the one suffering without understanding their situation instead of simply offering companionship and a listening ear? Job's friends sounded like they were provoked with him instead of like friends who sympathized at his suffering. If Job were in their place he could easily "string words together" as they had done - but he wouldn't do that. Instead, he would use his mouth to encourage them rather than accuse and he would offer consolation. And if Job's friends were astute, they would recognize that this was what Job wished to receive from them.

After lashing out at his accusers Job turned to lashing out at God for he felt that God was responsible for his circumstances, and in this he was at least partially correct. However, in verses 7-14 Job accused God of striking out at him in anger and harassing him, and in this he was incorrect. We have to wonder why God brought Job to Satan's attention as if enticing him to attack Job, but otherwise God was not Job's antagonist. This was Satan's role. God was pleased with Job's faithfulness and certain that he would not waver regardless of what Satan did to him. Therefore, God withdrew the protective hedge He had around Job and allowed Satan to attack. Of this, God was guilty, but He did not bring on Job the suffering he was experiencing.

Then, in verses 18-21, Job spoke of his need of a heavenly advocate. Man, he felt, was inadequate to arbitrate between a man and God, but a heavenly being might be able and he was confident that such a witness on his behalf was present in heaven. Is this a prophetic reference to Jesus? If not, it is certainly the role Jesus plays on our behalf. Such an advocate in heaven was Job's only hope for his friends only scoffed at him. He had no one on earth on whom he could depend, and his time on earth was running out.