Job 16

Job 16:1-22

JOB’S FOURTH ANSWERJob 16, 17.IF one had a sense of the ludicrous he would not only listen to this ardent debate, but he would be compelled to laugh in the very midst of it. Perhaps no more serious debate ever engaged the tongues of men, and no more difficult problem was ever discussed than the problem of human pain. It is the problem of the centuries, of the millenniums, and to this day remains unsolved. It is doubtful indeed if it ever had as intelligent a discussion as is recorded in the Book of Job. That is why the Book of Job lives.In the nature of the case there can be no claim of inspiration on the part of these comforters, and it is not even essential that one claim inerrancy in the arguments of Job. The Bible nowhere maintains that everything found in it is true to fact.

The intelligent advocates of verbal inspiration maintain rather that the record given is absolutely true, and even inerrant, but that true record may involve the report of misconceptions, false arguments, fallacious reasonings; yea, even with infidelity and atheism, but the report is true.Now, the fun here is akin at least to the pleasure that brutal men derive from prize fights, and all men, even regenerate men, have more or less of the natural left over and left in them. The fun here is the fun of seeing the sick man rally and return to the attack every time, and in spite of his weakness, affliction and indescribable suffering, parry every blow and send his antagonists reeling against the ropes, so that instead of taking the count as in the prize fight ring, they rest and seek mental recuperation, while their good seconds sally forth to confront the intellectual Samson.In these chapters Job himself shows heat.

The dear man has taken so many blows that they have roused him, and instead of putting him out of commission they have strengthened his good right arm, and he strikes more snappily and effectively than ever.JOB HIS He properly names them “miserable comforters”.“Then Job answered and said,“I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.“Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest”? (Job 16:1-3).He contrasts his humane character with their cruel conduct.“I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.“But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips would asswage your grief” (Job 16:4-5).He replies to their possible sympathy by a grief unassuaged.“Though I speak, my grief is not as swaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased”? (Job 16:6).JOB GOD IS BACK OF HIS He mistakes Satan’s work for God’s will.“But now He hath made me weary: Thou hast made desolate all my company.“And Thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.“He teareth me in His wrath, who hateth me: He gnasheth upon me with His teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.“They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.“God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.“I was at ease, but He hath broken me asunder: He hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for His mark.“His archers compass me round about, He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare: he poureth out my gall upon the ground.“He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant” (Job 16:7-14).Here let us remark in passing, this is the most common of all misconceptions. Nine-tenths of our Christian people, owing to poor Biblical instruction, believe that sickness, suffering, sorrow and bereavement are all from God. The Book of Job was evidently written to show the fallacy of that philosophy. Smiting is God’s strange work in which He seldom indulges. It is Satan’s daily delight.It was Satan, not God, who sent the Sabeans to rob this rich man, and slay his servants with the sword. It was Satan who burned up the sheep and the servants by a lightning flash from Heaven, since he is the “prince of the power of the air”.

It was Satan who put it into the heart of the Chaldeans to carry them away and slay their defenders. It was Satan who put it into the hearts of sons and daughters to eat and drink, and who in the midst of their bacchanalian feast, smote the four corners of the house with a cyclone and crushed and killed, and it was Satan who “went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown”.With what injustice men treat a compassionate God when they assign all manner of sorrow and afflictions and griefs to Him, who is love.Job vainly defends his own character against charges.“I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.“My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;“Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure” (Job 16:15-17).It is this approach to self-exaltation; it is this near declaration of Pharisaism that constantly irritates his comforters, and with fair occasion.

There is no man among us who is well balanced in intellect, well instructed in Scripture, and is in vital contact with the Holy Spirit, who can enjoy, or even endure from his fellow-men, or dare exercise himself in, the speech of braggartism.We know too well that even when sackcloth is upon us and we are humbled to the dust, and our faces are foul with weeping, and on our eyelids is the shadow of death, we are still incapable of saying truthfully, “There is no injustice in my hands, and my prayer is pure”.He yearns for a successful intercessor.“O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.“Also now, behold, my witness is in Heaven, and my record is on high.“My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.“O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!“When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return” (Job 16:18-22).The very character of this debate produces in Job’s life apparently contradictory statements and sentiments. Any man under attack from his fellows whom he knows to be sinners is tempted to self-defense, for unwittingly he institutes and maintains a comparison between them and himself, and he need not suffer by the comparison. However, the moment he turns from such a comparison to look at God, humiliation and shame smite him, and like Job, he feels the necessity of an intercessor, of one that could plead for him with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbor, of one who could be more effective before the Father than the favorable record of conduct, or even the tears of contrition.JOB BEGS FOR SOME RELIEF Chapter 17.First, he appeals to the grave for rest.“My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.“Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?“Lay down now, put me in a surety with Thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?“For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt Thou not exalt them” (Job 17:1-4).Then he appeals to his enemies for commiseration.“He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.“He hath made me also a by word of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.“Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.“Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.“The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.“But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you” (Job 17:5-10).And finally even calls upon corruption to assist him.“My days are past, my purposes are broken off., even the thoughts of my heart.“They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.“If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.“I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.“And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?“They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust” (Job 17:11-16).