Jewels From Job
Job – Chapter #16.
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.” Job 16:1-5 (NKJV)
JOB CONFRONTS HIS COMFORTERS
Job speaks again. Right off the bat he states that he has heard all the arguments before. Then he calls his “friends”, miserable comforters. To paraphrase Job: “Talking about trouble, rather than comforting me in my troubles as a good counselor should, you have increased my trouble despite your claims to the contrary.”
In verse three Job asks if they are ever going to stop. What provokes them to keep talking? Yet they do.
In verse four Job says that he could talk the same talk that they do. Job says that if their places were exchanged he could speak the same things against them. But he says that he would not do that. He says that he would offer words of “comfort” (verse five) to help them deal with their 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. Job 16:6-8 (NKJV)
THE EFFECT OF JOB’S COMFORTERS
To vent our problems many times is a great relief – but this is not the case for Job. “If I speak or if I am silent – I am not eased of the pain that I suffer.” is what Job tells us in verse six. It is nice to have someone to be there for us. Even if all they do is listen.
Verses seven and eight – Job tells them that have worn him out. And even though they are sitting there with him – he feels alone. He has become thin – in his hope. Rather then encourage him they have discouraged him. Rather then saying that they were on his side – or at least walking beside him – they have become his adversary. As Christians we have been called to “encourage one another.” “Encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.” Hebrews 3:13 (HCSB) To encourage is to add courage to. To discourage is to take courage away. Job’s friends were not encouragers. May we all be encouragers rather then discouragers. There is enough bad news in this world – let us be the bearers of the “Good News.”
9 He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me. Job 16:9 (NKJV)
JOB SEES GOD AS HIS ADVERSARY
Job now turns his attention to God. Just as Job’s friends have turned against him – he believes that God has too. In verse nine he sees:
1. God tears me with His anger.
2. God hates me.
3. God grinds me with His teeth.
4. God stares at me.
10 They gape at me with their mouth, They strike me reproachfully on the cheek, They gather together against me. Job 16:10 (NKJV)
PEOPLE ARE JOB’S ADVERSARY
In verse ten Job goes back to talking about what other people are doing to him.
1. People talk about me.
2. People slap me in the face with their words.
3. People have formed a mob 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. Job 16:11-14 (NKJV)
GOD’S TREATMENT OF JOB
Job’s attention now goes back to God in verses eleven thru fourteen. Look at what Job tells us that God has done:
1. God delivered me to the ungodly.
2. God put me in the hands of the wicked.
3. God shattered me and took me out of my ease.
4. God grabbed me by the neck and shook me to pieces.
5. God set me up as a target.
6. God put archers to shot at me.
7. God lets my inner fluids drip to the ground.
8. God pierces my heart and does not show pity.
9. God breaks that which is already broken.
10. God charges 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. Job 16:15-22 (NKJV)
JOB’S INWARD REFLECTION
Job now spends the rest of the chapter looking at himself.
1. Sackcloth is permanent over my skin.
2. I live in the dust.
3. My tears have made a groove in my face.
4. My eyes have dark shadows around them.
When pain comes our way we often feel sorry for our-selves. How could we feel otherwise? But with pain comes tunnel vision. Job can not see clearly. His pain is too much. He is not God and does not see as God sees. He does not know the entire story – neither do any of us. We can only see things from our perspective. It is a limited view. God sees the whole. Most of the time we don’t even see the half.
In verse seventeen Job still claims he is innocent. He tells us that there is no violence in his hands and that his prayers are still pure.
In verse eighteen Job says that he does not want any of the evidence hidden. He wants his voice to be heard and his suffering to be acknowledged. It is a terrible thing to be ignored. Even in our suffering we want people to notice that we exist.
Much of the Believer’s life is a paradox. If we are to be great in God’s kingdom we are to be servants. In Job’s case here is the paradox. It is God who pursues him – yet it is God who delivers him. For the believer God is the judge and jury – yet He is also the defender. Thank God that He is. In verse nineteen Job talks about his witness in heaven. Remember Job continues to claim his innocence. “There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name — My Champion, my Friend, while I’m weeping my eyes out before God. I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor.” Job 16:19-21 (MSG)
Earthy “friends” had turned against Job and falsely accused him. But there is “One” on high who understands and will some day bear witness to Job being innocent.
Job goes from utter despair – to utter confidence in the blink of an eye. Such is the case of many believers. We say that Christians should not doubt – yet how do we become strong in the faith if we do not question – if we do not ask the “What If” questions. I know – yet I wonder. I am reminded of a passage in Mark, “Jesus said, "If? There are no ’ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, "Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!" Mark 9:23-24 (MSG) I know – that I know – that I know – yet I still wonder. It is not a sin to doubt. It is not a sin to wonder. Keep asking questions. Keep searching. Do not get stuck in - non-belief. All need to be seekers. "I believe. Help me with my doubts!"
We have discussed Job’s concept of death throughout this study so I will not go to great lengths here. (For a study on Sheol and the concepts of death in the Old Testament see my sermon titled: “What Really Happened To People Who Died Before The Resurrection Of Jesus?” at www.sermoncentral.com) As Christians our understanding of Heaven and Hell is based on the progressive revelation found in the scriptures. We stand at the point where God’s Word to us is finished. The Bible is complete. For Job it was not so.
Who can doubt that the Bible is progressive revelation? In Genesis chapter three when a prophecy is given of our savior, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." Genesis 3:15 (NKJV) who would consider this a full revelation of our savior Jesus Christ? Yet this passage is a glimpse into what was to come. Job views that there is a place of no return. It is the grave. It is Sheol. No one returned in a resurrected body until the resurrection of Jesus. No wonder Job could say, "Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return. Job 16:22 (MSG)
Matthew Henry says of this chapter:
“Here is a doleful representation of Job’s grievances. He complains:
I. That his family was scattered (v. 7): "He hath made me weary, weary of speaking, weary of forbearing, weary of my friends, weary of life itself; my journey through the world proves so very uncomfortable that I am quite tired with it.’’
II. That his body was worn away with diseases and pains, so that he had become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones, (v. 8). His face was furrowed, not with age, but sickness: “Thou hast filled me with wrinkles.”
III. That his enemy was a terror to him, threatened him, frightened him, looked sternly upon him, and gave all the indications of rage against him (v. 9): He tears me in his wrath. But who is this enemy? (His friends – Satan – or God Himself)
IV. That all about him were abusive to him, (v. 10). They came upon him with open mouth to devour him, as if they would swallow him alive.
V. That God, instead of delivering him out of their hands, as he hoped, delivered him into their hands (v. 11): He hath turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
VI. That God not only delivered him into the hands of the wicked, but took him into his own hands too, into which it is a fearful thing to fall (v. 12).
VII. That he had divested himself of all his honour, and all his comfort, in compliance with the afflicting providences that surrounded him. Some can lessen their own troubles by concealing them, holding their heads as high and putting on as good a face as ever; but Job could not do so: he received the impressions of them, and, as one truly penitent and truly patient, he humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, (v. 15-16).“
